Examining the Good Life: Implications of Neuroticism and Well-being

Page: 505-511
Irene Khosla (Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi)

Neuroticism is best understood as emotional over-reactivity and one’s predisposition to dwell on negative thoughts and feelings. Emotionally unstable, impulsive, self-conscious and irrational thinkers are terms commonly used to describe individuals with neurotic tendencies. The consequences of this tendency are often detrimental, such as poor mental health, anxiety, low self-esteem and inadequate coping mechanisms, inhibiting the growth and development of an individual. Greatly impacted by neuroticism is psychological well-being, which is based on the eudemonic model focusing on the attainment of one’s peak potential and optimal functioning. Keeping in mind the individual differences in emotional reactivity and its consequences, the present study explores the age and gender differences in neuroticism, and in addition examines the relationship between neuroticism and psychological well-being. The study followed a cross sectional, factorial design. Data was collected from 120 participants belonging to two age groups young adults (age ranging from 18-24 years) and elderly/old adults (age ranging from 60-65 years), each group divided into 30 men and 30 women. The PGI Health Questionnaire by Verma et al. (1985) was used for measuring neuroticism along with Ryff’s Psychological well-being Scale by Ryff (1989) for assessing well-being. Neuroticism was found to be stable across age and gender. However, a significant negative correlation was observed between neuroticism and psychological well-being. The current study has implications for enhancing wellbeing and developing intervention strategies in the clinical settings.