Comedians: Both amateurs and professionals showed higher openness-to-experience, extraversion, & lower conscientiousness; professionals also evidenced greater neuroticism

Comedians’ Mean Level and Stage Personalities: Evidence for Goal-Directed Personality Adaptation. Paul Irwing et al. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, August 13, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219867963

Abstract: Recent findings have shown that both mean levels of personality and situational variability in its expression are of importance. So here, the Big Five personality traits of 77 professional and 125 amateur stand-up comedians were compared with two large matched samples (N > 100,000). The comedians were also observed while performing, which enabled a comparison of their stage personalities with situational requirements on 10 selected NEO-PIR facets. Both amateurs and professionals showed higher openness-to-experience, extraversion, and lower conscientiousness than their norm samples, while professionals also evidenced greater neuroticism. Irrespective of trait standing, with regard to most NEO-PIR facets, professionals expressed the appropriate on-stage persona and were better able to regulate their personality to conform to situational requirements than amateurs. This is consistent with research showing that individuals regulate their personality to conform to situational and goal requirements, and adds the finding that successful comedians demonstrate enhanced adaptability compared with amateurs.

Keywords: organizational behavior, personality, whole trait theory, comedians, invariance

Being in a romantic relationship, interacting & investing time with one’s partner predicted greater well-being; low-quality & not-so-great romantic relationships yield lower well-being than being unpartnered

The Highs and Lows of Love: Romantic Relationship Quality Moderates Whether Spending Time With One’s Partner Predicts Gains or Losses in Well-Being. Nathan W. Hudson, Richard E. Lucas, M. Brent Donnellan. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, August 13, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167219867960

Abstract: Previous research suggests both relationship status and relationship quality correlate with well-being. The present study extended these findings in three ways. First, we benchmarked individuals with various-quality relationships against uncoupled people to determine whether even low-quality relationships are associated with greater well-being than being unpartnered. Second, research suggests global well-being (e.g., life satisfaction) and experiential well-being (e.g., momentary affect) oftentimes have different predictors. Thus, we tested whether individuals report greater experiential well-being while with their partners. Finally, we examined whether daily time invested into one’s relationship predicted well-being. Results indicated that being in a romantic relationship, interacting with one’s partner, and investing greater time into the relationship all predicted greater well-being. However, these effects were moderated by relationship quality, such that being in even relatively neutral relationships and interacting therein were associated with lower well-being than being unpartnered.

Keywords: subjective well-being, life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, close relationships, romantic relationships, relationship quality, day reconstruction method