RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN

Abstract: The present study was conducted through Google forms and a sample of 500 university students (250 males; 250 females) in the age range of 18-24 years participated by filling up Sociodemographic measure, the International Personality Item Pool- Big Five Scale and the Ryff’s Psychological Well-being scale. Pearson’s product correlations and t-test were performed to determine the relationship between Personality dimensions and Psychological well-being of the research participants. Data was analyzed statistically at the level of p < 0.05. Students high on Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience traits are at increased risk of poor Psychological well-being during the Lockdown period. Prospective longitudinal studies are needed to address the limited research on personality change during the Lockdown period. The results from the study showed that there was a statistically significant relationship between Personality dimensions and Psychological well-being, with Extraversion, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism traits having a negative correlation with Psychological well-being. However, the results also indicated that Agreeableness and Conscientiousness traits have a statistically significant positive relationship with psychological well-being. Therefore, results indicated that the Big Five Factors explained an important percentage of the variance of Psychological well-being among university students during the Lockdown period.

Keywords: Personality Dimensions; Psychological Well-being; University Students; COVID-19.

Introduction: Personality as a terminology could be defined as a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by an individual that uniquely influences his or her cognitions, emotions, interpersonal and social orientation, motivations, and behaviors in various aspects of situations. Personality can be defined as the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment. (G.W. Allport). The field of personality addresses three issues – human universal, individual differences, and individual uniqueness. The Big Five personality dimensions were derived from the analysis of natural-language terms used by people to describe themselves (John & Srivastava, 1999). These were traditionally labeled as Surgency (Extraversion), Agreeableness, Conscientiousness (Dependability), Emotional Stability (vs. Neuroticism) and Culture, Intellect, or Openness. Consistency across a wide variety of studies regarding trait-descriptive terms is found, with empirical evidence for the “Big-Five” representation with various reviews (Goldberg, 1992). The usefulness of the structural model in predicting important outcomes in people’s lives has been observed in school performance, internalizing disorders, job performance, leadership, and so on. Although the personality traits are stable, individuals can change their pattern of thought, feelings, and behavior, indicating the links between the Big Five and important life outcomes, which one can target for personal development and 11 change (John & Srivastava, 1999). Further, Psychological well-being can be defined as an important index of quality of life at the individual and collective level (Siegrist, 2003). Marks and Shah (2004) argued that Psychological well-being (PWB) is more than just happiness or satisfaction – PWB referring to being able to develop as a person and to being fulfilled and happy, and as contributing to the community. Psychological well-being has been defined as a dynamic state characterized by a reasonable amount of harmony between an individual’s abilities, needs and expectations, and environmental demands and opportunities (Levi, 1987). Identifying the traits that are related to Psychological well-being is important in securing a complete understanding of well-being as a construct. Psychological well-being is based on a broader approach which includes identity, meaning, and relatedness (Ryff & Singer, 1996). Psychological well-being is about actualizing human potential and living well; “It is not so much an outcome or end state as it is a process of fulfilling or realizing one’s daimon or true nature” (Deci & Ryan, 2006, p.2).

Research on the good life has increased in recent years through the positive psychology movement. Every individual strives for well-being in terms of Physical, Emotional, and Psychological aspects. Today, in the Pandemic crisis were a complete Lockdown has occurred across the nation, the perceptions of university students regarding the external world in dealing with day to day problems have been affected. With an increase in the Lockdown extension period, the pressure and challenges confronting the individual are extremely high; therefore it is difficult to maintain this sense of well-being in the present scenario. University students are particularly demanding because conflicts relating to quest for identity, concerns for academic success, career, and uncertainty about the future all magnify the problems manifold. At this juncture, several mental health disorders have been observed to appear in the majority of university students that would, later on, affect their adjustment in society after the lockdown period is over. Intellectual capacities increase and emotions intensify. Since Personality is a core factor that determines the reactions and adjustments, Psychological-well-being during such a stressed phase among university students should be studied within its perspective.

The present research study aims to study the relationship between Personality dimensions and Psychological well-being amongst university students during pandemic COVID-19 Lockdown. The specific objectives of the study were to find out the relationship between Personality domains (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Consciousness) that probe into a better understanding of the Personality dimensions and Psychological well-being of young university-age male and female students in the present crisis lockdown period. Every morning, with the sunrise, new hopes and many experiences occur that can make subjective perceptions of the impact of Lockdown experiences by capturing the extent to which they felt at several times during their daily life in this crisis situation. Material and Methods The present explorative and cross-sectional study was conducted and a sample of 500 university students (250 males; 250 females) in the age range of 18-24 years filled up the google forms questionnaire. The data was collected through the administration of standardized tools, the ‘International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) scale’ consisting of 50 items involving Big-five domains; and the ‘Ryff Psychological well-being scale’ consisting of 42 items. The obtained data were statistically analyzed at the level of p < 0.05. The present study attempted to investigate the relationship of the Big Five personality factors on Psychological well-being among university students.

By:

Kavita Gupta and B.S. Parimal

Assistant Professors, Department of Psychology, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara (Gujarat) India

Email: 16kavitagupta@gmail.com, drbsparimal@gmail.com