Happy Temperament? Four Types of Stimulation Control Linked to Four Types of Subjective Well-Being

Agnieszka Bojanowska () and Anna M. Zalewska
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Agnieszka Bojanowska: University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Poznan
Anna M. Zalewska: University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty in Poznan

Journal of Happiness Studies, 2017, vol. 18, issue 5, No 8, 1403-1423

Abstract: Abstract In this person-oriented study 722 adolescents and adults filled out formal characteristics of behaviour—temperament inventory, satisfaction with life scale and positive and negative affect schedule. Using k-means clustering we assigned them to four subjective well-being (SWB) types: (1) achievers—high satisfaction, positive affective balance; (2) aspirers—low satisfaction, positive affective balance; (3) resigners—high satisfaction, negative affective balance; (4) frustrated—low satisfaction, negative affective balance; and to four temperament types denoting patterns of stimulation control (1) sanguine: high stimulation processing capacity (SPC) and high stimulation supply (StS); (2) melancholic: low SPC, low StS; (3) phlegmatic: high SPC, low StS; (4) choleric: low SPC, high StS. We compared stimulation control dimensions between SWB types and compared counts of SWB types across four profiles of temperament. SPC and StS were highest among achievers and lowest among the Frustrated, with aspirers and resigners in between. We found a clear correspondence between well-being structures and temperament types (a) the most common temperament among achievers was the sanguine, suggesting that this is the ‘happy temperament’, (b) among the Frustrated it was the melancholic (the ‘unhappy temperament’), (c) among resigners it was the choleric, suggesting that this ‘overstimulated temperament’ results in high satisfaction at the cost of lower affective balance, (d) among aspirers it was the Phlegmatic, suggesting that ‘understimulated temperament’, results in a good affective balance but lower satisfaction. Configurations of temperament dimensions within individuals affect the whole structure of SWB and can explain incongruence between cognitive and affective components of SWB.

Keywords: Quality of life; Well-being types; Temperament; Individual differences; Stimulation processing capacity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1007/s10902-016-9777-2

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