Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology
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ISSN : 1229-0653
How can introverts become happier? The importance of holding a relation-centered theory of happiness
Abstract
Individuals differ in their beliefs about happiness. Research has shown that those who endorse a more socially-oriented view of happiness tend to report greater well-being. In this study, we examined whether this pattern is moderated by one's level of extraversion. Across two studies, we led participants to write down three words that come to their mind when thinking of “happiness,” and counted the number of socially related words, such as friend and love (range, 0-3). Higher frequency of social words are considered to reflect a tendency of viewing happiness in a social manner. Results showed that the benefits of holding a relation-centered theory of happiness were found only among introverts. Specifically, among individuals high in trait extraversion, there was no relationship between the number of social words and life satisfaction. When it comes to introverts, however, those who mentioned more social words were likely to experience greater life satisfaction (Study 1) and recall more positive events of the day (Study 2). Although extraversion is a significant determinant of happiness, our results imply that low extraversion can partially be compensated by building a personal theory of happiness centered on relationships.
- keywords
- 행복관, 사회적 관계, 삶의 만족도, 외향성, 단어 연상, Lay beliefs about happiness, social relationship, life satisfaction, extraversion, word association
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