Know Thyself! Predicting Subjective Well-Being from personality estimation discrepancy and self-insight

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Vol. 42; no. 28; pp. 24302 - 24311
• Main Authors: Nilsson, August Håkan, Friedrichs, Kira, Kajonius, Petri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Big five; Health aspects; Personality; Personality estimation discrepancy; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology); Psykologi; Psykologi (exklusive tillämpad psykologi); Quality of life; Samhällsvetenskap; Self-discrepancy; Self-insight; Self-perception; Social aspects; Social Sciences; Subjective well-being; Sweden; Subjective well-being; Self-discrepancy; Big five; Personality estimation discrepancy; Self-insight
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03396-1

Discrepancies in views of the Self are suggested to be negatively related to well-being (Higgins, 1987 ). In the present study, we used a novel concept, Personality Estimation Discrepancy (PED), to test this classic idea. PED is defined as the computed difference between how one view oneself (Self-Perceived Personality) and a standard Big Five test (IPIP-NEO-30). In a pre-registered ( osf.io ) UK online study ( N  = 297; M age = 37, SD = 14) we analyzed: (1) whether PED would predict Subjective Well-Being (SWB; Harmony in Life, Satisfaction with Life, Positive affect, Negative Affect) and Self-Insight, and (2) whether Self-Insight would mediate the relationship between PED and SWB. The results showed that underestimation of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability indeed is associated with both high SWB and high Self-Insight. However, these effects mostly disappeared when controlling for the Big Five test scores. Furthermore, Self-Insight largely (42.9%) mediated the relationship between the mis-estimation and SWB. We interpret these finding such that the relationship of mis-estimating one’s personality with SWB and Self-Insight are mostly explained by the Big Five factors, yet the discrepancy is a dependent feature of scoring particularly high or low on certain personality traits.