Exploring the Relations Between Personality, Implicit Theories, and Subjective Well-Being Among High-Ability Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Personality plays a powerful role in predicting how individuals react to life events and evaluate their overall well-being. Similarly, implicit beliefs of ability determine the ways individuals react to experiences of success and failure. The present article reports the findings from two studies on the relationships between personality, implicit theories of ability, and subjective well-being among high-ability university students. Study 1 employed a variable-centered approach to examine well-being in relation to individual differences in Big Five personality traits and implicit theories. Study 2 moved beyond a variable-oriented focus to explore personality profiles among another (but similar) sample of high-ability adolescents through a person-centered analytic approach and identify associations of the emerging profiles with well-being and implicit theories. Findings were discussed in light of replicable personality prototypes and in relationship to previous research with high-ability students.