The Big Five, Mindfulness, and Psychological Well-being

Abstract

How do personality variables and mindfulness relate to psychological well-being? Research relates personality variables and psychological well-being and distress (as in depression, anxiety and stress); and mindfulness and psychological well-being - especially since mindfulness became a fashionable area to study from the 2000s.  However, few studies have linked personality (the Big Five), mindfulness and psychological well-being though they would appear to be related. We examined the relationships in our study which used a community sample of 286 participants who completed biographical details, Ryff’s Psychological Well-being scale, the International Personality Item Pool- Big Five Scale, an adaptation of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form, and a Social Desirability Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression indicated that both mindfulness and personality predicted psychological well-being and that both together contributed significantly increased levels of variance to psychological well-being. This pilot study appears to be one of the first to show that mindfulness significantly adds to personality in predicting psychological well-being and supports attention to developing programs in mindfulness to help increase psychological well-being.