Neuroticism has long been associated with the propensity to feel sadness, while Extraversion has been linked with the tendency to feel happiness. Though empirically supported, neglecting the other Five-Factor traits and their facets in exploring the personality correlates of these two emotions may contribute to confirmation bias in the literature. Most research supporting widely held personality-emotion linkages also utilizes retrospective self-report instruments to measure global happiness and sadness. However, current feelings, identity-based beliefs about emotions, and other cognitive biases potently influence people’s recollection of past affective experiences, compromising the validity of retrospective methods to accurately reflect how emotions manifest in the moment. In light of these issues, the present study contributes ecologically valid data that provides greater insight into individual differences underlying people’s day-to-day happiness and sadness. Using signal-contingent experience sampling methodology, 109 Filipino university students reported the frequency, intensity, and duration of their happiness and sadness five times a day for 10 days. The International Personality Item Pool Representation of the NEO PI-R (IPIP-NEO; Goldberg, 1990) was administered in counterbalanced order before and after the experience-sampling period. Contrary to expectations, not all facets of Extraversion and Neuroticism consistently correlated with the three components of happiness and sadness. More surprisingly, Trust–a facet of Agreeableness- emerged as significant correlates of happiness frequency, intensity, and duration. Meanwhile, Liberalism–a facet of Openness–correlated consistently with all components of sadness. Practical implications of the results shall be discussed.

Authors:
Christie Sio, University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines
Grazianne-Geneve Mendoza, University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines

About the Presenter(s)
Ms. Grazianne-Geneve Mendoza is currently taking her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

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