Personality and flourishing among young adults from Central Europe an...

Background: Flourishing connotes the subjective perception of one’s life going well. Recently, flourishing is a gaining currency as indicator of wellbeing. Studies have examined flourishing in different European countries, but research focusing on flourishing across different cultures are still very rare.

Aim: The present study aims at scrutinizing differences in personality traits and flourishing among both countries. Especially, we want to know which personality dimensions predict flourishing in the different cultures of Central Europe and South India.

Method: A sample of 205 (Males=96, Females=109) young adults from India and 209 (Males=37, Females=172) from Austria participated in this cross-cultural study. Personality was measured in terms of HEXACO dimensions [1]. Self-report measures of flourishing [2], happiness [3] and self-regulation [4] were also used. ANOVA was carried out to examine the differences between the two countries on personality and flourishing. Additionally, multiple regressions were used to identify the predictors of flourishing in the two different countries.

Results: Participants from Austria scored significantly higher on flourishing, conscientiousness and extraversion compared to those from India. Females scored higher than males on flourishing. The samples from the two countries did not differ on Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness and Openness to experience. Being female, extraverted and conscientious predicted flourishing in Indian sample, while personality and gender did not significantly predict flourishing in the Austrian sample. Finally, when controlled for gender, flourishing was positively correlated with self-regulation but not happiness in both Indian and Austrian sample.

Conclusions: We conclude that there appears to be significant cross-country differences in personality, flourishing and their associations. Further, we recommend mixed methods designs and experience sampling studies to examine the unique predictors of flourishing in different cultures.