Who worries and who is happy? Explaining individual differences in worries and satisfaction by personality

Based on a German representative sample of 21,105 respondents, correlations between personality and ten domains of worries and twelve domains of satisfaction were investigated. Worries could be reduced to the three dimensions materialistic worries, post-materialistic worries, and individual worries; the twelve domains of satisfaction were all highly intercorrelated and formed one single satisfaction dimension. On the side of personality, a short version of the BFI assessing the Big Five, internal and external Locus of Control, and Optimism was assessed. Results clearly showed that satisfaction and individual worries are highly related to personality, while the more external, society-oriented worries are only moderately explained by personality. Regression models for satisfaction and individual worries were highly similar. Not only the degree of explained variance but also the most powerful predictors were nearly identical. Results can be interpreted as a further and enlarged evidence for Diener’s (1984) hypothesis of a global, personality triggered tendency to experience life in a positive or negative manner.