THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS AND LIFE SATISFACTION OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Baranovská Andrea, Doktorová Dominika, Eva Smetanová

Abstract:

The paper tries to find out mutual relationships between personality traits and life satisfaction of teachers of English. The research sample consists of 120 respondents aged 25 – 35 years old, comprising 64 women and 56 men. The research proves that life satisfaction is determined by certain personality features, such as emotional stability, dominance and self-discipline.

Key words: life satisfaction, personality, personality traits, teachers 

The research was aimed at English language teachers whom are often underrated. The goal was to find out whether life satisfaction relates to the teacher´s personality. Some previous findings indicate that the features such as emotional stability, unstableness, extraversion and introversion may be a reliable determinant of life satisfaction (Costa, McCrae, Zonderman, 1987; Heady, Wearing, 1989; Sush, Diener, Fujita, 1996; in Blatný et al, 2010). DeNeve and Cooper (1998) found out a positive relationship between life contentment and conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness towards new experience (DeNeve, Cooper, 1998 in Blatný et al, 2010). Schimmack et al (2004) identified most stable determinants of life satisfaction: extraversion, neuroticism, and their subordinate features. Fogle et al (2002) found out positive correlation between life satisfaction and extraversion and a very similar result was found by Fagley (2012), who recognised positive relationships between life satisfaction and not only extraversion but also conscientiousness; the negative ones were connected to neuroticism. Positive relationship between life satisfaction and extraversion was also proved by Ho, Cheung and Cheung (2008) and Garcia (2011) – their results show that life satisfaction is in a negative relation with neuroticism. 

Our H1 hypothesis says that life satisfaction is related to personality traits. Based on Pearson correlation analysis, the research findings show that the variables such as Warmth, Emotional Stability, Dominance, Conformity, Imagination, Self-Sufficiency, and Self-Discipline are in a positive relation with life satisfaction. That means that the higher level of these features the teacher has, the more satisfied s/he is with his/her life. However, two traits show their negative relation with life satisfaction: impulsivity and uncertainty – i.e. the more impulsive and uncertain the person is, the less satisfied he or she is with his/her life. These results indicate that we agree with the findings of Schimmack et al (2004), Fogle et al (2012), Ho, Cheung and Cheung (2008) and Garcia (2011) who confirmed a negative relation between life satisfaction and neuroticism – as a higher level of impulsivity and uncertainty represent signs of neuroticism.

H2 hypothesis deals with personality traits which are to predict or determine the level of life satisfaction of English language teachers. We applied a multiple regressive analysis in which life satisfaction was a dependent variable and personality traits were an independent variable. After employment of stepwise regression, some non-significant personality traits were excluded from the model, e.g. : Warmth, Intelligence, Impulsivity, Conformity, Arrogance, Sensitivity, Suspiciousness, Imagination, Cunning, Uncertainty, Radicalism, Sovereignty, and Tension. Based on our results we may say that emotional stability, self-discipline and dominance determine life satisfaction and explain 79.2% of its variance. Among these three factors, the strongest determinant was emotional stability. The results indicate that the people who are emotionally stable, dominant and self-disciplined are satisfied with their lives. Our results equal to the description of the personality train of emotional stability (Nociar and Poledňová, 1998) when the people whose emotional stability is high also signify general satisfaction with the way they live their lives and have no difficulties in reaching their life goals. We thus may say that the emotionally stable and balanced person is much more satisfied with his/her life than the one who is emotionally unstable. Therefore our findings correspond with the findings by Blatný and Osecký (1998) who state that life satisfaction relates to a high level of dominance. In other words, an assertive person who does not depend on others, and is enterprising is also satisfied with the way his/her life runs overall. The fact that self-discipline also determines the level of life satisfaction may be explained the following way: self-discipline itself together with strong will is a convenient and suitable tool to reach life goals. A persistent and sustained person who does not give up may reach his/her goals easier that someone who does not possess self-discipline. Consequently we may state that self-discipline which either one has or not leads towards life satisfaction or dissatisfaction.      

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