Positive event diversity: Relationship with personality and well-being

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Well-being Research
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Previous studies linked personality traits to the frequency of daily positive events.
• This research introduces positive event diversity, measuring the spread of positive experiences across life domains.
• It investigates the correlates of positive event diversity with personality and well-being.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the relationship between personality traits and positive event diversity.
• To explore the association between positive event diversity and affective well-being.
• To understand how positive event frequency influences the link between diversity and well-being.

Main Methods:

• Utilized three daily diary datasets with large sample sizes (N=1919, 744, 1392).
• Assessed daily positive events and affective well-being through evening surveys.
• Measured the Big Five personality traits via baseline surveys.

Main Results:

• Positive event diversity correlated with higher daily positive affect, but not negative affect.
• Higher extraversion, agreeableness, openness, and lower neuroticism were linked to greater positive event diversity.
• These personality associations became non-significant when controlling for positive event frequency.

Conclusions:

• Found no consistent evidence for personality moderating the positive event diversity-well-being relationship.
• The well-being effects of positive event diversity are better understood in conjunction with positive event frequency.
• Future research should consider both diversity and frequency for a comprehensive view of well-being.