The relative contributions of extraversion, neuroticism, and personal strivings to happiness

According to Ryan and Deci (2001), research into well-being has focused on pleasure and pain (hedonic well-being) or meaning and self-actualization (eudaimonic well-being); little research has combined the two perspectives. Using a sample of 271 college students, we found that extraversion and neuroticism, hedonic factors, were strongly related to happiness, but personal strivings, eudaimonic factors, were unrelated, thus providing support for the hedonic view. Future research should study hedonic and eudaimonic well-being simultaneously.