Extraversion And Happiness

Are those who are happier also more likely to be more extraverted?

Introduction

Are those who are happier also more likely to be more extraverted? Extraversion is operationally defined by The Big 5 Personality measure as having high levels of activity, assertiveness and cheerfulness. Those who are considered to have this personality trait tend to be more friendly, excitement-seeking and enjoy being in social situations. There have been large amounts of research which has been carried out in order to attempt to explain the causes of happiness, and a considerable amount has shown that extraversion is closely related (McCrae and Costa, 1980, Tamir, 2009). This report aims to look at The Five-Factor Model as a part of the Big 5 personality test,

The significance of this paper to the report is that is has used both the Big 5 Personality Measure and the Oxford Happiness Inventory, there has not been much research that uses both these measures to look at the association of extraversion and happiness, and most use students or small samples. Further research is needed with a larger and more diverse sample of participants in order for these results to be backed, this is what the following study aims to do.

Overall this essay aims to explore the relationship between extraversion and happiness. The hypothesis of this study is: ‘Those who are more extroverted are more likely to be happy’. As previous research has shown there is a supposed link between social interaction and positive effect although most of the studies, including the ones above, include multiple variables as a factor for increasing happiness, this study will only be looking at extraversion and happiness as defined by the Big 5 Personality Measure and The Oxford Happiness

The independent variable was happiness and this was operationally defined by the Oxford Happiness Scale, participants were allocated one of two groups (happy or less happy) before having to complete a Big 5 Personality test which was used to look at the levels of extraversion; the dependent variable. Materials:

The materials that were used consisted of one happiness questionnaire given to each participant followed up by a big 5 personality questionnaire, each carried out in an empty classroom. Afterwards each participant was given a chocolate bar for taking part in the study.

Procedure

Participants were selected from volunteers from a school, college and university in Bristol. All participants gave their informed consent and those who were under 18 obtained parental consent. Participants were tested in empty classrooms and an effort was made to keep participants separated so they couldn’t see each other’s answers. No talking was allowed throughout and a researcher was present during the whole study to keep an eye on participants. Initially the participants are asked to carry out the Oxford Happiness Scale, the results were interpreted by researchers and from this were assigned into one of two groups, happy or less happy. After a 2 hour break both groups were given the Big 5 Personality questionnaire under the same conditions, again researchers interpreted the results