National means were obtained for equivalent age respondents (n = 14 000) in a large sample of countries (n = 53) with respect to personality variables (psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism), socio-economic factors (inflation, gross domestic product (GDP), economic growth, labor force, human development index (HDI), cost of living, divorce rate, family size), and work-related attitudes (work ethic, mastery, achievement motivation, competitiveness, achievement/conformity, money beliefs, and attitudes towards savings). In addition, the subjective well-being measure (SWB) from Diener and colleagues (1995) was included. European countries emerged as showing a lower economic growth, but higher GDP, higher cost of living standards, a higher human development index, as well as smaller family sizes compared to non-European countries. Among European countries, GDP correlated negatively with competitiveness. Participants from nations characterized by high subjective well-being scores were less competitive, and attached less importance to money. Well-being was further associated with a greater need for mastery over problems and events, and achievement through conformity. Moreover, while personality variables were unrelated to economic factors, they were predictably associated with several work attitude scales. More specifically, extraversion was significantly positively correlated with achievement motivation, mastery, and savings, while psychoticism was negatively correlated with work ethic, achievement motivation, and mastery. The implications of the findings are discussed.
On the Relationship Among Subjective Well-being: Self-esteem and Achievement Motivation of Underprivileged College Students in Engineering Majors
