Does Fear of Happiness Exist? Exploring Fear of Happiness Through the Five Factors Dimensions of Personality

Oct 15, 2026

This study investigates the relationship between fear of happiness among university students and personality types using five-factor personality dimensions. Participants were 252 students from Balıkesir Necatibey Faculty of Education (2020–2021 spring term), with 160 females and 62 males, selected through random sampling. Data were collected with the Big Five 50 Personality Questionnaire, Fear of Happiness Scale, and a Personal Information Form. Analyses included t-tests, correlation, multiple regression, and MANOVA. Findings showed low negative associations between fear of happiness and extraversion and neuroticism, while other traits were nonsignificant, and gender effects varied by dimension.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Positive psychology and avoidance of positive emotions

Fear of happiness: definitions and triggers

Role of personality and five-factor model

Does Fear of Happiness Exist? Exploring Fear of Happiness Through the Five Factors Dimensions of Personality İsa Yücel İŞGÖR1 Hatay Mustafa Kemal University Abstract In this research, the relationship between fear of happiness among university students and their types of personality was investigated through analyzing various factors, such as relationships, gender, perceived parental attitudes and locations of upbringing. The subjects of study in this research consisted of the students at Balıkesir Necatibey Faculty of Education in Balıkesir city center in the spring term of the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample of the research included 252 students, selected with the random sampling method from the population, 160 of whom were female (63.5%) and 62 male (36.5%). For the data collection tools, the Big Five 50 Personality Questionnaire, Fear of Happiness Scale, and Personal Information Form were used. The independent samples t-test, correlation, multiple regression analysis and one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were applied in the analysis of the applied data. According to the findings gathered from the research, a negative low level of relationship exists between the students' fear of happiness levels and extraversion and neuroticism, which are specific personality traits. No significant relationship was found between fear of happiness and other traits. It was observed that personality traits predicted the students’ fear of happiness levels significantly, explaining 8% of the change in the scores of the fear of happiness. While there was a significant result in favor of females in the dimensions of conscientiousness and agreeableness, a significant result was determined in favor of males in the dimension of neuroticism. Finally, it was noticed that there was no significant difference between the students' fear of happiness and their personality traits in terms of the perceived parental attitude. Keywords: Fear of Happiness, Personality, Five Factor Personality. DOI: 10.29329/epasr.2022.478.6 Submitted: 05 June 2022 Accepted: 09 October 2022 Published: 05 December 2022 1Assoc. Prof. Dr., Faculty of Education, Hatay Mustafa Kemal University, Hatay, Turkey. ORCID:0000-0002-3110-6081 Correspondence: [isayucel.isgor@mku.edu.tr](isayucel.isgor@mku.edu.tr) Introduction Positive psychology is essentially defined by its focus on increasing positive emotion when dealing with psychological issues. The primary aim of most human behaviors is to increase positive emotions and thoughts and suppress emotions and thoughts that induce negativity. However, recent studies have shown that people are not only escaping from negative feelings such as sadness, and fear, but they are also working to avoid positive emotions such as happiness, kindness, compassion and joy. This situation causes psychological problems in individuals and prevents individuals experiencing psychological problems from getting rid of their problems (Gilbert et al., 2012) . While happiness is defined by emotions like joy and humor, some people avoid it because of the thoughts it produces. This is known as "fear of happiness" . Fear of happiness, in general, entails staying away from happiness and the pursuit of happiness for many reasons. In another definition, fear of happiness is defined as a status in which the individual rejects the desire to seek pleasure, which is one of the main sources of motivation, and a fear of experiencing pleasure, a condition called chemophobia (Sheldon et al., 2010) . There are many personal and social reasons that trigger this fear. Positive and negative sensations, a culture which does not value happiness, the belief that evil will follow happiness, the belief that happiness will lead people to be evil and the belief that desiring happiness will make the individual insensitive, and selfishness are among the factors that may lead toa fear of happiness (Joshanloo and Weijers, 2014) . Those experiencing fe

FAQs

How was fear of happiness measured in the study?

Fear of happiness was assessed using the Fear of Happiness Scale, alongside the Big Five 50 Personality Questionnaire and a Personal Information Form.

What personality traits were linked to fear of happiness?

The results showed a negative low-level relationship between fear of happiness and the traits of extraversion and neuroticism, while no significant relationship appeared with other traits.

Did perceived parental attitudes relate to fear of happiness?

No significant difference was found between students’ fear of happiness and their personality traits when considering perceived parental attitude.

Oct 15, 2026

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