Personality and happiness: Is mental health a mediator?

Lu, Luo; Shih, Jian Bin

doi:10.1016/s0191-8869(96)00187-0

Cited by 111 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Diener and Seligman (2002) reported that their happiest group of people had few symptoms of psychopathology, such as depression, hypochondriasis, or schizophrenia (see also Chang & Farrehi, 2001;Lu & Shih, 1997;Phillips, 1967). As the absence of positive affect has been argued to be a distinguishing characteristic of depression (L. A.…”

Section: Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?

Lyubomirsky¹,

King²,

Diener³

2005

Psychological Bulletin

5,424

166

3,606

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Numerous studies show that happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including marriage, friendship, income, work performance, and health. The authors suggest a conceptual model to account for these findings, arguing that the happiness-success link exists not only because success makes people happy, but also because positive affect engenders success. Three classes of evidence-crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental-are documented to test their model. Relevant studies are described and their effect sizes combined meta-analytically. The results reveal that happiness is associated with and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that positive affect-the hallmark of well-being-may be the cause of many of the desirable characteristics, resources, and successes correlated with happiness. Limitations, empirical issues, and important future research questions are discussed.

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Section: Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?

Lyubomirsky¹,

King²,

Diener³

2005

Psychological Bulletin

5,424

166

3,606

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Extant research has demonstrated that increased emotional stability results in decreased temperamental sensitivity to negative information (4). Moreover, it is widely demonstrated that emotional stability is one of the most reliable personality variables for predicting lifesatisfaction (7), self-esteem (46), happiness (4), and susceptibility to episodic depression (47). Fitting with this hypothesis, the right PFC may be overactive during manic episodes in patients with bipolar disorder (48) but decreased during episodes of depression (49).…”

Section: Figmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality predicts activity in reward and emotional regions associated with humor

Mobbs

Hagan

Azim

et al. 2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

127

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Previous research and theory suggest that two stable personality dimensions, extroversion and neuroticism, differentially influence emotional reactivity to a variety of pleasurable phenomena. Here, we use event-related functional MRI to address the putative neural and behavioral associations between humor appreciation and the personality dimensions of introversion-extroversion and emotional stability-neuroticism. Our analysis showed extroversion to positively correlate with humor-driven blood oxygenation leveldependent signal in discrete regions of the right orbital frontal cortex, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and bilateral temporal cortices. Introversion correlated with increased activation in several regions, most prominently the bilateral amygdala. Although neuroticism did not positively correlate with any whole-brain activation, emotional stability (i.e., the inverse of neuroticism) correlated with increased activation in the mesocortical-mesolimbic reward circuitry encompassing the right orbital frontal cortex, caudate, and nucleus accumbens. Our findings tie together existing neurobiological studies of humor appreciation and are compatible with the notion that personality style plays a fundamental role in the neurobiological systems subserving humor appreciation.S ince Eysenck and Jung (1-3) described their pioneering and highly influential views of personality, it has been widely acknowledged that laughter and merriment are common characteristics of the extroverted individual. Both empirical and anecdotal observations point to extroverts as having a higher frequency of laughter, smiling, feelings of subjective well-being, and an increased propensity to tell jokes (4, 5). The opposite is thought to be true of neurotics, who are epitomized by decreased feelings of subjective well-being, expressive laughter, smiling, and increased negative emotionality (4,(6)(7)(8). Although these stable individual differences in personality are posited to be deeply rooted in the brain's functional (9-11) and structural architecture (12), little is known of how they are associated with the underlying neurobiological systems responsible for the emotive and hedonic regulation associated with humor appreciation.Historically, a considerable body of clinicopathological literature, most famously Harlow's (13-16) lucid depiction of Phineas Gage, point to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) as a pivotal player in the maintenance of personality. With the recent emergence of functional MRI (fMRI), coupled with well validated measures of personality (17), the neuroscience community has witnessed a rekindled interest in the neural systems mediated by personality (11). For example, two recent fMRI studies by Canli and colleagues (9, 10) showed that extroversion positively correlates with phasic blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity in the PFC and amygdala during the presentation of positively valanced faces, whereas neuroticism increases in association with middle temporal and frontal cortical activation during the presentation o...

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“…More generally, as reviewed earlier, individuals high in IM enjoy enhanced personal well-being, they are less prone to feeling anxious, distressed, or depressed, and they typically show brain activity patterns indicative of reduced risk for psychopathology. In self-reports, IM was positively associated with scales of mental health (e.g., Lu & Shih, 1997;Sabourin et al, 1989;D. Watson & Clark, 1984).…”

Section: Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Social Desirability Scales

Uziel

2010

Perspect Psychol Sci

279

135

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Social desirability (specifically, impression management) scales are widely used by researchers and practitioners to screen individuals who bias self-reports in a self-favoring manner. These scales also serve to identify individuals at risk for psychological and health problems. The present review explores the evidence with regard to the ability of these scales to achieve these objectives. In the first part of the review, I present six criteria to evaluate impression management scales and conclude that they are unsatisfactory as measures of response style. Next, I explore what individual differences in impression management scores actually do measure. I compare two approaches: a defensiveness approach, which argues that these scales measure defensiveness that stems from vulnerable self-esteem, and an adjustment approach, which suggests that impression management is associated with personal well-being and interpersonal adjustment. Data from a wide variety of fields including social behavior, affect and wellbeing, health, and job performance tend to favor the adjustment approach. Finally, I argue that scales measuring impression management should be redefined as measures of interpersonally oriented self-control that identify individuals who demonstrate high levels of self-control, especially in social contexts.

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Personality and happiness: Is mental health a mediator?

Cited by 111 publications

References 27 publications

The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?

The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?

Personality predicts activity in reward and emotional regions associated with humor

Rethinking Social Desirability Scales

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