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The effect of personality on the relationship

between self-employment and happiness.

Maarten Kaufmann

Maarten Kaufmann

m.j.kaufmann@student.vu.nl VU Student ID: 2566180 UvA Student ID: 10854746 MSc. Entrepreneurship

VU University Amsterdam & University of Amsterdam Faculty of Economics and Business

Master thesis supervisor: Msc. S.F.W. (Fleur) Meddens Second reader:

Prof. dr. P.D. (Philipp) Koellinger

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ABSTRACT

The research conducted in this paper was based on the question: What is the influence of the Big Five

personality traits on the relationship between self-employment and the level of happiness?

There is a great ambiguity in the literature about the influence of self-employment on happiness. With this research, by including interactions between self-employment and personality in the analysis, an answer was found on whether being self-employed or employed is affected by personality with regard to happiness.

This quantitative research was conducted on respondents of the LISS (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social sciences) panel administered by CentERdata (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) who filled out questionnaires about their personality, employment status, background and level of happiness. The different variables were used to research whether or not personality traits, in this research the Big Five traits, have an influence on the relationship of self-employment and happiness. By constructing interactions of self-employment and each of the Big Five personality traits, a hierarchical regression model was conducted. Also, a correlation model was constructed to derive well substantiated conclusion about the relationships shown in the regression analysis.

There is no significant predictive value found in self-employment as predictor of happiness. But, the interaction between self-employment and neuroticism do have a significant negative predictive value on happiness. For the remaining, the interactions between the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience) and self-employment applies that they are not a significant predictor for happiness. Some of the personality traits by themselves do predict a certain level of happiness.

Key words:

Self-employment, happiness, Big Five, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience.

Research theme:

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Table of contents

ABSTRACT ... 3

1. INTRODUCTION ... 5

2. LITERATURE OVERVIEW ... 6

RESEARCH QUESTION ... ERROR!BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED. 3. METHODS ... 12 SAMPLE ... 12 STUDY MATERIALS ... 13 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS ... 16 4. RESULTS ... 17 DESCRIPTIVES ... 17 CORRELATIONS ... 18 REGRESSION ... 21 5. DISCUSSION ... 23 6. CONCLUSION... 29

LIMITATIONS & FUTURE RESEARCH ... 29

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... 30

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1. INTRODUCTION

Whether self-employment increases personal happiness or not has been a controversial topic of research. Prottas and Thompson (2006) consider self-employment as a ‘double-edged sword’ because, on the other end of having a lot of autonomy there is the pressure that arises when people are their own employer, which can be a considerable source of stress. Carter (2011) articulates it differently and states that the financial uncertainty and stress of being self-employed is compensated by factors like autonomy and satisfaction. Benz and Frey (2008) state that self-employment derives a state of happiness, because of the freedom compared to people who work in ‘dependent ‘employment. On the other hand, El Harbi and Grolleau (2012) conclude that self-employment has an overall negative direct effect on happiness.

Not only in the above-mentioned papers is the question raised whether self-employment makes people happy or not. The ‘double-edged sword’, as Prottas and Thompson (2006) argue, is the subject of a considerable amount of research on self-employment. Even though, much literature goes profounder into the characteristics of self-employment, it does not take the characteristics of the person itself into consideration. They talk negatively about stress and uncertainty (e.g. Carter, 2011) and the main reason for positivity is most often because of the autonomy factor (e.g. Benz & Frey, 2008). So, for example, what is the influence of someone’s character on how they experience employment and self-employment? This paper is based on the effect of personality on the relationship between happiness and self-employed people. This question is of relevance since the search for happiness is the ‘quest of life’, for many people (Kamman, 1979). Personality could be a decisive factor that predicts which person’s happiness is affected positively by being self-employed and whose happiness is affected negatively by being self-employed. On the other hand, personality can be a confounder that influences the choice of people becoming self-employed or employed. In this research these reasoning’s will be tested. Researching characteristics and setting up interactions to help in this search can develop the view on self-employed people, as well as employed people. Also, it gives inside on how someone’s personality in relation to his or her employment status influences his or her happiness. In this research the relationship between self-employment and happiness will be magnified, with the important addition of personality characteristics in the form of the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to change). These personality traits will be tested as an interaction with self-employment and its influence on happiness. In the next section the literature is described of happiness and self-employment, as well as the personal characteristics that will be taken into consideration in this research.

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2. LITERATURE OVERVIEW

Happiness

Before researching whether self-employed people are more likely to be happy and what the effect of personality is on that relationship, it is necessary to first distinguish what happiness means. Being happy or unhappy is a very important aspect of life (Kamman, 1979). Diener (1984) explains being happy as possessing positive feelings over negative feelings when evaluating one’s life situation. DeNeve and Cooper (1998) explains happiness more as ‘life satisfaction’, where it is an evaluation of the quality of one’s experiences during his or her lifetime. In contrast to happiness, life satisfaction is more of an overall evaluation than a feeling in the moment (Peterson, Ruch, Beermann, Park & Seligman, 2007). Whether happiness and life satisfaction are the same or not, is not unambiguously answered in the literature and therefore often used to explain one and the same (Peterson, Park & Seligman, 2005). However, it seems logical that a person can look back at his life and think ‘I would have done some things different’, but still be very happy in that exact moment.For that reason, the focus in this research is on ‘happiness’. ‘Life-satisfaction’ is left for possible future research.

Bauhmeister, Vohs, Aaker and Garbinsky (2013) state that happiness is the subjective wellbeing where someone experiences more positive than negative effect at that moment. With that they believe that happiness is a perception of a feeling. Bauhmeister et al. (2013) do not define happiness as a result of an evaluation, but conclude that happiness is a state of subjective wellbeing in any moment in life. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) define happiness many years earlier as the ‘responding in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner’ to a given situation. Freedman (1978) discusses that happiness is something people rate when they are comparing themselves with others. On the other hand King and Napa (1998) found that the desire for happiness is not bound to the situation or background of their respondents, which encourages the will to research for the effects of personality characteristics.

Self-employment

Whether self-employed people are happier and which personal traits would influence that happiness, depends also on the characteristics of self-employment. Prottas and Thompson (2006) did a study on whether self-employed people have a higher life-satisfaction. Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, analyzing over 3.500 people, they found a significant positive relationship to accept this statement. However, they also identified negative influences. The ‘double-edged’ sword as Prottas and Thompson (2006) define it, can be found in many different studies. For example, Patzelt and Shepherd (2011), who used a nation-wide survey of more than 2.700 US citizens to research the emotional effect of being self-employed. They found that, although there is much literature that links self-employment to happiness, self-employment also contains high levels of

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risks, such as income, job uncertainty, autonomy and responsibility, which can lead to considerable negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, loneliness and mental illness and therefore influences happiness negatively. On the other hand, self-employed people are more willing to accept the negative consequences of their career choice and because of that, do not feel less happy. Besides that, the environment in which a self-employed person acts, often gives this person the tools to cope with these negative emotions in a more effective way than the employed environment (Patzelt & Shepherd, 2011). So, Patzelt and Shepher (2011) did find positive effects of self-employment on happiness, as well as negative ones. But since self-employed people often make a choice to become self-employed, the negative effect has less influence on the degree of happiness. Therefore happiness is overall positively influenced by self-employment.

Thompson, Kopelman and Schriesheim (1992) conducted a study in the United States among 177 self-employed and employed persons. They found that the self-employed feel a higher job satisfaction than employed people, although this is different than happiness, it gives an indication of the direction of the influence. Andersson (2008) goes a bit further and does not only find that self-employment results in a high job satisfaction, but also in a higher degree of happiness in general in comparison to wage earners. For his research he used data from the Swedish Level-of-Living Survey (SLLS) to study self-employed people and wage earners in Sweden. Andersson (2008) also found in his research that people who are self-employed experience less uncertainty. In times of recession an employed person can be afraid of his or her job, a self-employed person knows exactly what is going on in the company. However, a clear distinction must be made between job satisfaction and happiness. A high job satisfaction does not equal happiness since it can lead to neglecting other important aspects in life (Binder & Coad, 2013).

Blanchflower (2004) also finds a positive result and states that people in general have an extraordinary positive view on being self-employed, rather than have a secured job. However, this is the view of a group that includes employed people. So, this could just be the view about something they do not have experienced but are only longing for. That could explain why Blanchflower (2004) finds that this view changes and that when it comes to really being self-employed, these people do not necessarily rate a high happiness level mostly because of the high stress level.

The different literature agrees on the fact the there is a relationship with the employment status (whether someone is employed or self-employed) and happiness. Most of the studies find a positive relation with happiness and being self-employed. Or at least they find a positive charisma around the phenomenon of self-employment. Negativities are found, but are defined as characteristics for which self-employed people are well prepared. Or, it is the fact that the decision is made by the person itself that makes the negative consequences less harmful.

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Big Five

For this research, personality is an important factor. Personality and happiness are well-studied combinations, as well as the combination of self-employment and happiness. However, the influence of personality on the relationship between self-employment and happiness is a neglected subject. This could be found rather striking, since we now how much personality affects happiness. So, the characteristics of being self-employed or employed could influence people in a different way. Of course, people with certain characteristics choose to be self-employed where others choose to be employed. That is why in this research, personality is a key element in the difference between employed and employed people’s happiness. In order to look at the interactions of self-employment and personality traits and their influence on happiness, it is needed to find a constructed model in order to analyze personality. One important model has been developed over the past years. According to Goldberg (1990) one of the most influential scientists on constructing personality models was Raymond Cattell. He began with ordering personality by English lexical descriptive terms. Allport and Odbert (1936) later on categorized 18,000 of these terms into four lists. On his turn, Cattell (1943) used these lists of traits develop 171 scales and further on constructed a set of 35 bipolar clusters of related traits. Norman (1963) analyzed the different traits and found that five of them proved to be reliable. The Five Factor Model or the so called ‘Big Five was named by Norman (1963). According to Norman (1963) much of the variance in personality can be accounted for by five factors: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience. These factors do not account for all variability in personality, but provide an organizing framework for thinking about alternative measures. To the extent that the Five Factor Model captures the basic dimensions of normal personality, it is useful in describing the structural relationship between personality and wellbeing (Grant, Langan-Fox & Anglim, 2009). Ozer and Benet-Martinez (2006), who did a literature review on mostly psychological researches, state that happiness is mainly predicted by personality traits that are ‘largely a function of temperament’ such as extraversion and neuroticism, and can be less predicted by traits as conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience.

Extraversion is typically seen as the ability to be social. However, this construct consists of much more (Judge, Higgins, Thoresen & Barrick, 1999). Watson and Clark (1997) describe extraverts as more active and less introspective than introverts. Extravert people, according to Watson and Clark (1997), are positive people who get impulses from achieving their goals and interpersonal relationships. They achieve high positive energy from external situations (Laney, 2002). DeNeve and Cooper (1998), in a literature review on personality and subjective wellbeing, find that extraversion predisposes individuals to a high level of happiness. In their study, they found that this positive feeling could be found at people with a high extraversion. Also Diener and Lucas (1999) mention that persons who rate high in extraversion also often rate high on happiness.

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In contrast to extraversion, which captures primarily the quantity and intensity of relationships, agreeableness focuses on specific behaviors undertaken during interpersonal interactions, such as cooperating and talking with others. Agreeableness is different from extraversion. Agreeableness is the Big Five trait that is most associated with interpersonal conflict and the outcomes of it (Jensen‐Campbell & Graziano, 2001). Graziano and Tobin (2009) describe agreeableness as being likeable, nice to others and harmonious in relations. According to DeNeve and Cooper (1998) a high level of happiness is predicted by agreeableness. Rothmann and Coetzer (2003) state that people with a high level of agreeableness have a positive view on human nature and therefore have the tendency to feel happy.

Conscientiousness primarily describes task behavior and socially accepted impulse control. Costa, McCrae and Dye (1991) state that this trait ones had the name ‘Direction’, because it implies movement and focus. According to Costa et al. (1991) conscientiousness has a strong proactive touch to it. This can be seen in the need for achievement and commitment to work. On the one hand, conscientious individuals are achievement oriented; on the other hand they can be described as hard workers, efficient and dutiful. Also, conscientiousness is seen as cautiousness. Key words reflecting this trait are competence, order, dutifulness and self-discipline (Costa et al., 1991). Conscientious people attach great importance to getting along with other (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). According to DeNeve and Cooper (1998) conscientiousness is not strongly and consistently associated with life satisfaction.

According to Grant, Langan-Fox and Anglim (2009) in general, neuroticism is negatively related to life satisfaction while extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness are positively related to happiness. The neuroticism factor identifies aspects related to adjustment or lack of adjustment. Also, Costa and McCrae (1980) found that extraversion has a positive effect and neuroticism has a negative effect on happiness. Costa and McCrae (1980) found that where extraversion with its social character leans towards a positive affect, neuroticism is characterized by general emotionality, impulsivity, fear, and anger and has an overall negative affect.People who score high on neuroticism often see things in a negative way (Diener & Lucas, 1999). Diener and Lucas (1999) find that people low in neuroticism tend to see situations in a positive way and therefore feel happier. In addition to that, according to Grant, Langan-Fox and Anglim (2009) in general, neuroticism is negatively related to happiness. Aldridge (1997) found that in comparison with ‘general’ population, self-employed score lower on neuroticism. This would mean personality has a confounding role in self-employment, since some types of persons become self-employed and others do not.

Openness to experience contains components of intelligence, culture, creativity, broad interests, and cognitive complexity (DeNeve & Cooper, 1998). McCrae and Sutin (2009) explain Openness to experience as the less attached to the other traits of the Big Five. Openness may suggest a passive attitude. However, the contrary is true. People who score high on openness to experience

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actively seek experience and are known for their positive attitude towards new ideas and opportunities. They actively seek out new and varied experiences. Openness involves motivation, needs for variety and understanding. (McCrae & Costa, 1997)

Brebner (1997) states that happiness is mostly trait-related and not generated only by situational effects. In his research with 7000 students in 41 countries, who completed a questionnaire of several self-report measures, he confirms that despite different situations, nations and cultures and people differ on feeling happiness consistent to their personality characteristics.

Self-employment & personality

An interesting question is what personality characteristics distinguish self-employed from wageworkers and what the relationship is with happiness. Prior to this paper, no research has been done on the relationship between the personality of self-employed persons and happiness. However, there is much literature that has done research on which effect the personality traits have on the self-employed person and success. Also studies have been done on what characteristics generally poses and what kind of persons generally choose to become self-employed. Since this can relate to the happiness of the self-employed person it can be a herald on what will be found in this research.Singh and DeNoble (2003) have conducted an exploratory study on self-employment and personality. In the research they used data from 342 students from the United States and monitored their career choice and career path after graduation. They find that self-employment, and with that whether someone choses to become self-employed, as well as the chance of success, is influenced by personality. Also, they conclude that people with higher neuroticism tend to be less successful in their self-employed business life. On the other hand, people with a high openness to experience are more able to cope with characteristics of being self-employed. Schmitt-Rodermund (2004) divides two major factors, the chance of success as employed and the choice of becoming employed. In this research a self-employed personality was characterized by high in extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience, and a low neuroticism and agreeableness. Zhao, Seibert and Lumpkin (2010) found in there study evidence that four of the big five personality traits are related to both the intentions becoming of as the performance of being self-employed. They found that openness to experience and conscientiousness are the traits that are most strongly related. Those with extraversion are positively related to becoming self-employed and doing it successful. Neuroticism proves to be negatively related. Agreeableness, according to their research, has no significant relationship. The self-employed persons conscientiousness is positively related to long-term venture survival (Ciavarella, Buchholtz, Riordan, Gatewood & Stokes, 2004). Also, Ciavarella et al. (2004), who did a survey among almost 6000 young self-employed people, found a negative relationship between the person’s openness to experience and long-term venture survival. Although the literature mostly states this has a minimal effect on happiness, it can influence the happiness of the self-employed person since it affects its

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business. Extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness were unrelated to long-term venture survival according to Ciavarella et al. (2004).

Control Variables

In this research control variables are used to obtain a better insight in the phenomenon of self-employment, happiness and personality traits. Although, gender, age, income, education and marital status are not the core factors in this study, it is of importance to understand them to draw thought-out conclusions.

An important control variable is gender. Alesina, Di Tella and MacCulloch (2004) state that women in general feel happier that men, where Louis and Zhao (2002) found no significant gender differences with regard to happiness.

Age is another important control variable for this research. Studies, like the one of Blanchflower and Oswald (2004) find a consistent negative correlation with happiness and age.

Also a variable that has to be controlled for is income. Hamilton (2000) analyzed the 1984 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to find the differences in the self-employment and paid self-employment earnings. He concludes that self-employed people in general earn less than employed people in terms of financial benefits. This is a conclusion that Aronson (1991) shares with him. However, Hamilton (2000) also corrects this outcome with non-financial benefits for self-employed people, like being your own boss. Hamilton (2000) explains the lower income as a ‘sacrifice’ for being your own boss, which a lot of people are willing to accept. According to Clark, Frijters and Shiels (2007) income has a large mostly positive correlation on happiness. Dolan, Peasgood and White (2008) think that this can partially be explained by reverse causation, since they state that happiness could lead to a higher income. A person who is happy works harder is the philosophy behind that.

Education can also be of influence on happiness as well as the choice of being self-emlpoyed. That’s why it also is a control variable in this research. Positive relations of a higher educational level and happiness are found in the study of Blanchflower and Oswald (2004). More studies find a positive relationship between each additional level of education and happiness (e.g. Blanchflower & Oswald, 2004), while others find that middle level education is related to the highest life satisfaction (Stutzer, 2004).

Marital status is the last control variable in this study. Blanchflower and Oswald (2004) concluded that in general, not being married has a negative effect on happiness. Being in a loving relationship has a positive effect on happiness. Being divorced is related with a low level of happiness even lower than being divorced and being married is related to a high level of happiness (Helliwell, 2003).

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Reverse Causality

By looking at the effect that self-employment has on happiness, it could be possible that happy people get self-employed. So, if there is a reverse causality in the effect that is researched in this thesis, existing literature does not elaborate on this causality. All the research that has been done on the relationship between self-employment and happiness states that happiness is the dependent variable in the relationship between self-employment and happiness. Binder and Coad (2013) tested for causal effect in their research, by using a control group. They found that, indeed, self-employment was the causal effect for a higher life-satisfaction. What other researches explain, are the positive consequences that can arise when someone is happy. In a study by Isen, Daubman and Nowicki (1987), in which 65 student were exposed to happy impulses, a positive feeling let to the stimulation of creative problem solving. This is a characteristic often associated with self-employed people. However, this effect on stimulation of creative problem solving, many might use and need in an employed job as well. Grawitch, Munz, Elliott and Mathis (2003) have done a similar research with the main purpose to see whether or not positive feelings increase the creation of original ideas. They do not find a direct effect of these positive impulses and more importantly, they do not conclude that autonomy leads to a more creative way of problem solving. According to Graham, Eggers and Sukhtankar (2004) the main effect is that the people who describe themselves as happy, have a higher income, now or in the future. Certainly, it does not point out whether happy people get more often self-employed. Especially, since most of the time self-employed people earn less. For this research we assume the relation more dominant as stated in the literature, namely self-employment affects happiness.

In this paper, personality factors are researched as moderators on the relationship between being self-employment and the level of happiness. The following research question will be answered:

What is the influence of the Big Five personality traits on the relationship between self-employment and the level of happiness?

3. METHODS

Sample

For this research outcomes of the LISS (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social sciences) panel administered by CentERdata (Tilburg University, The Netherlands) were used. The LISS panel is a representative sample of Dutch individuals. The respondent participated in a monthly Internet survey. It consists of consists of 5,000 households, comprising 8,000 individuals which are aged 16 years and older. The panel is based on a true probability sample of households drawn from the population register. Households that could not otherwise participate are provided with a computer and Internet

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connection. A longitudinal survey is fielded in the panel every year, covering a large variety of domains including work, education, income, housing, time use, political views, values and personality. More information about the LISS panel can be found at www.lissdata.nl.

For the purpose of this study the following data sets were used: Background Variables (Wave 1, June 2008), Economic Situation: Income
 Social (Wave 1, June 2008), Work and Schooling (Wave 1, June 2008) and Personality (Wave 1, June 2008). In this research there is chosen for the use of Wave 1 since this is the most complete dataset. Out of 8,722 (100%) household members, non-response was: 1,914 (21.9%). These were families who originality signed up to be part of the panel, but never responded to any questionnaire. The different data sets were merged into one dataset and filtered of un-useful variables for this research, about which more information can be found in the next paragraph. This merged dataset consisted of 6,808 individuals. The sample used in this research excludes people younger than 18 and older than 65 since they officially do not consist of the ‘working age’ population. For the individuals younger than 18 years old this was an amount of 1,655 and for the individuals over 65 years old his was an amount of 544. This left a dataset of 4,609 individuals. Unemployed people were excluded from the analysis as well, since they could have a whole different perspective on happiness as well as on self-employment, because of the place they are in their lives at the moment. Also, and this research is about the distinction between self-employed and employed people. There were 216 persons unemployed. Furthermore, there were 113 individuals who did not fill in the questionnaire about personality. Persons with zero income as well as respondents who didn’t want to fill in their income or didn’t know their incomes were also excluded from the analysis. In total these were 2,728 persons. At last, some persons did not fill in the question about education. These were 70 people. The individuals who left a question unanswered were completely taken out of the sample because of the limitations of the multiple regression model. In this model only people who filled in all the questions are taken into account. Therefore, the correlation model and the descriptives all give information about the individuals the filled in the complete list of questions. This way well thought conclusions could be drawn from the regression model. So, the accurate and complete sample used in this research consists of 1,482 (N=1,482). For data analysis, SPSS 23 was used.

Study Materials

Self-Employment

Self-employment was measured with the question: ‘Are you an employee in permanent or

temporary employment, an on-call employee or temp-staffer, or are you a self-employed/freelance worker, or an independent professional?’ The answers were recoded into two items, namely

Employed and Self-employed. Self-employed consists of self-employed/freelance workers, independent professionals and majority shareholder directors. Only employed or self-employed people

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were asked to answer this question. Unemployed people were excluded from the analyses and did not have to answer this question in the questionnaire.

Big Five personality Traits

Each of the Big Five personality traits is measured with a set of ten items, where some of them were reversed. Examples of different statements that had to be scored on a 5-point Likert scale from ‘very inaccurate’ to ‘very accurate’ are given below:

Extraversion: ‘I am the life at the party’; ‘I don’t talk a lot’.

Agreeableness: ‘I feel little concern for others’, ‘I am interested in people’ Conscientiousness: ‘I am always prepared’, ‘I leave my belongings around’ Neuroticism: ‘I get stressed out easily, ‘I am relaxed most of the time’

Openness to experience: ‘I have a rich vocabulary’, ‘I have a vivid imagination’

The variables were coded by computing mean scores of each trait. This way, when one individual left a single question blank, the score would still be comparable to the others.

Happiness

Kamman, Christie, Irwin and Dixon (1979) explain happiness is often assumed to be indefinable and it means different things to different people. Every student of happiness and well-being has had to tackle the problem of how to measure levels of individual happiness. Because no appropriate happiness “thermometer” exists (Lyubomirsky, 1997) Gurin, Veroff, and Feld (1960) adopted the most straight forward and intuitive method of assessing happiness: They asked subjects if they were "very happy," "pretty happy," or "not too happy." In this research happiness is measured by one question on a 10-point Likert scale. Only the question: ‘On the whole, how happy would you say you are?’ is used. The 10-point Likert scale was used to indicate the degree of happiness the respondent felt at the moment, ranging from ‘totally unhappy’ to ‘totally happy”. Although, we could include measurement of life satisfaction, since they overlap quite a bit with happiness, it is decided in this research to measure strictly happiness and not life satisfaction With this variable the interest is in how happy someone feels at that moment and it is not preferred that respondents think over their lives and the choices they have made. It can be discussed if happiness can be measured in an objective way. This concern will be addressed in the limitations section.

Control Variables

Several control variables are included in the analysis. These are used to test whether the outcomes of the analysis might be different for each group. The first one is the gender of the respondent. In the dataset of this research, male is coded ‘1’ and female is coded ‘2’.

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The second control variable is age. Studies, like the one of Blanchflower and Oswald (2004) find a consistent negative correlation with happiness and age. Age is coded as a continuous variable. So, it is not divided into different categories. People under the age of 18 years and over 65 years old are left out of the research.

The third control variable is income. Due to the likelihood of the correlation between income and happiness, this is an important variable to control for. Income is coded as a continuous variable. Respondents give their exact yearly taxable income. Some people answered with 0 or answered they did not know. People could also answer they did not want to tell what their income is. All of these three answers were coded as missing values and these are excluded from the analysis.

The fourth control variable is education. In the questionnaire people could choose from 27 different education levels. The question is: What is the highest level of education that you have

completed with diploma or certificate? Answers are possible from ‘did not complete any education’

and ‘primary school’ till ‘HBO (higher professional education), institutes of higher education, new style’ and ‘doctor’s degree (Ph.D, including doctoral research program to obtain Ph.D)’. Education is coded into two categories, namely 0: ‘lower education’ and 1: ‘higher education’. Higher education consists of the HBO and higher, lower education consists of MBO and lower.

The fifth control variable is marital status. Here, respondents are asked whether they are married, separated, divorced, widowed or have never been married. This variable is recoded into two items, namely 0: not married or 1: married.

Data analysis

In the analyses ‘happiness’ is the dependent variable. Self-employment and the five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience) are the independent variables. The other variables are the control variables (age, gender, income, education and marital status).

Constructing interactions between self-employment and the five personality traits tests the research question. The data is analyzed with a hierarchical multiple regression. This was done to asses whether different variables other than personality could have an effect on happiness. In the first step, employment is added. This is done to understand the relationship and the predictive value of self-employment and happiness. Secondly, the control variables are added in the second step. These are added here to be able to control for the interactions later on. The main effects (personality traits) are added in the third step and the interaction terms are added in the fourth step. The reason for this order is the get a clear inside of the different variables and their predictive value on happiness. To be able the see what effect the interactions have on the model, it is important to first do these three steps in order to exclude other conclusion, when talking about the interactions of personality traits and self-employment and the effect on happiness.

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In conclusion, the multiple regressions analyze the prediction of happiness for the self-employed with different levels of personal traits. Table 1 shows a summary of the used variables.

Statistical Analysis

First, the calculated descriptives show all the variables and their means, medians, standard deviations and minimum and maximum scores. Then, the means of all the variables will be compared between self-employed and employed people. After that, a correlation matrix will show how all the variables are correlated. All independent variables and control variables are tested in a regression for each dependent variable. The models of the regression analysis will look like this:

Dependent variable: Happiness

Step 1

Happiness = β + β × selfemployment

Step 2

Happiness = β + β1 × selfemployment + β2 × age + β3 × gender + β4 × income + β5 × education + β6 × marital status

Step 3

Happiness = β + β1 × selfemployment + β2 × age + β3 × gender + β4 × income + β5 × education + β6 × marital status + β7 × extraversion + β8 × agreeableness + β9 × conscientiousnous + β10 × neuroticism + β11 × openness to experience

Step 4

Happiness = β + β1 × selfemployment + β2 × age + β3 × gender + β4 × income + β5 × education + β6 × marital status + β7 × extraversion + β8 × agreeableness + β9 × conscientiousnous + β10 × neuroticism + β11 × openness to experience + β12 ×

selfemployemtn × extraversion + β13 × selfemployment × agreeableness + β14 × selfemployment × conscientiousnous + β15 selfemployment × neuroticism + β16 × selfemployment × openness to experience

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4. RESULTS

Descriptives

The total sample consists of 1482 panel members (N=1482) between the age of 18 and 65 years old from which 773 are male and 709 are female. The majority of the respondents is employed (89,2%) and 10,8% is self-employed. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS) this number is representative for the Netherlands.

Table 1 shows to different descriptives of the variables. As can be seen, all the variables about personality which all are coded from ten different questions have been tested for internal consistency. All variables have an alpha > .70.

Table 1. Summary of Variable Descriptives

N Mean Median SD Min. Max. Cronbach’s

alpha Happiness 1482 7.66 8 1.322 0.00 10.00 Extraversion 1482 3.30 3.4 .63 1.10 5.00 0.86 Agreeableness 1482 3.92 4.0 0.48 1.70 5.00 0.80 Conscientiousness 1482 3.73 3.8 0.54 1.50 5.00 0.78 Neuroticism 1482 2.58 2.8 0.68 1.00 4.90 0.88 Openness to experience 1482 3.51 3.3 0.49 1.60 5.00 0.76 Age 1482 42.08 43 12.94 18 65 Income 1482 30193.79 26,318 27963.48 1 561940 N Percentages Self-employment 1482 Empl.: 89.2% S-Empl.: 10.8% Gender 1482 Male: 52.2% Female: 47.8% Education 1482 Low: 71.1% High: 28.9%

Marital Status 1482 Not Married:

53.8%

Married:

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Table 2 shows the comparison of the means with regard to the difference between employed and self-employed people.

Table 2. Mean table Employment vs. Self-Employment

Note. N = 1482 Employee Self-Employed Happiness 7.67 7.61 Age 42.37 41.34 Income 30289.09 29406.33 Extraversion 3.30 3.26 Agreeableness 3.93 3.89 Conscientiousness 3.72 3.71 Neuroticism 2.57 2.62 Openness to Experience 3.51 3.47 Correlations

The correlation matrix (table 3) shows the correlations between the dependent variable (happiness), independent variables (Self-Employment and Big Five personality traits) and the control variables (age, gender, income, education and marital status). Looking at the correlations, several preliminary conclusions can be drawn.

First of all, looking at the control variables, there are no real worth mentioning results. The correlation which are significant all have a effect smaller than .01. education has no significant correlation with happiness. (r = -.026 p > 0.05). Also, Age, Gender, Income and Marital Status have no significant correlation with happiness. Self-employment is slightly negatively correlated with marital status (r = -.052 p < 0.05). The rest of the control variables (age, gender, income and education) have no correlation with self-employment. Reciprocally, within the control variables themselves, no significant correlation has been found. Also, marital status has a small significant positive correlation with income (r= -.056 p < 0.05). The correlation matrix shows that agreeableness has a negative correlation with education (r = -.056 p < 0.05). The other independent and control variables have no

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significant correlation with each other. This means that any increase or decrease in the independent variables is not related to any increase or decrease in the control variables, and vice versa.

When we look at the dependent variable (happiness) and self-employment in this research, no significant correlation between happiness and self-employment has been found. Self-employment has no correlation with the other variables except for marital status, as mentioned above.

Calculating the correlation of personality (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to experience), the model shows that extraversion has a strong positive correlation with agreeableness (r = .267 p < .01) and openness to experience (r = .313 p < .01). This means that people who are very extravert tend to be more agreeable to other people and are more openness to experiences than people who are more introverts. Neuroticism is negative correlated with extraversion (r = -.313, p < .01). In this sample, people with a high level of conscientiousness are also more agreeable. Agreeableness and conscientiousness have a strong positive correlation (r = .304 p < .01). Agreeableness also has a strong positive correlation with openness to experience (r = .226, p < .05). Agreeableness and neuroticism have a small significant negative correlation (r = -.082, p < .01). Conscientiousness is negatively correlated with neuroticism (r = -.207 p < .01) and positively correlated with openness to experience (r = .133 p < .01). The model shows that neuroticism and openness to experience are significant negatively correlated (r = -.176 p < .01). People with high neuroticism experience rather negative emotions and so it is not strange to say that their imagination, appreciation for new experiences might often be low.

The correlations between happiness and the Big Five personality traits are mostly significantly positive. Extraversion has the strongest positive relation with happiness (r = .280 p < .01). Also, agreeableness has a positive relationship with happiness (r = .120 p < .01) as well as conscientiousness (r = .131 p < .01). Openness to experience has a bit smaller significant correlation with happiness (r = .067 p < .05). Neuroticism has a strong negative correlation (r = -.421, p < .01).

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Table 3 Correlations Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1. Happiness 1 2. Self-Employment -.013 1 3. Extraversion .280** -.021 1 4. Agreeableness .120** -.024 .267** 1 5. Conscientiousness .131** -.011 .039 .304** 1 6. Neuroticism -.421** .020 -.326** -.082** -.207** 1 7. Openness to Experience .067* -.027 .313** .226** .133** -.176** 1 8. Age .012 -.020 .004 .000 -.028 -.023 .002 1 9. Gender .000 .006 .023 .013 .010 -.040 -.029 .040 1 10. Income .019 -.010 -.004 -.044 .019 -.011 .002 -.018 -.026 1 11. Education -.026 .009 .012 -.056* .014 .029 .055* -.027 -.023 .032 1 12. Marital Status -.031 -.052* -.010 -.011 -.015 .042 -.020 .006 .033 -.056* -.005 1

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Regression

Table 4 shows the results of the performed multiple linear regression analysis. In the first step of the model only the constant variable and Employment are included. Here, it can be seen that Self-Employment is not a significant predictor of Happiness.

In the second step of the regression model the control variables (Gender, Age, Income, Education and Civil Status) have been added. It can be seen that none of the control variables are of predictive value for happiness.

When adding the personality traits in step 3, the model improves significantly (ΔR2 = .204, p < .001). This means that the variance of the dependent variable (Happiness), which is explained by the model, significantly improves. The model shows that extraversion has significant predictive positive value (β = .168 p < .001). Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are no significant predictors for happiness. Neuroticism has a significant negative predictive value (β = -.365 p <.05). Openness to Experience has a slighter smaller predictive value (β = -.067 p < .01).

Including interactions between Self-Employment and the five personality traits in Step 4, the model slightly improves again, but this change is not significant (ΔR2= .002, p = .565). From the interactions only the interaction between Self-Employment and the moderator Neuroticism shows that it is a significant predictor for Happiness. This relationship is negative (β = -.278 p < .05).

Table 4. Results of the multiple linear regression analysis (dependent: Happiness)

Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001 B (SE) β ΔR2 Step 1 .000 Constant 7.666 (.036) Self-Employment -.054 (.111) -.013 Step 2 .003 Constant 7.650 (.163) Self-Employment -.058 (.111) -.014 Gender .000 (.069) .000 Age .001 (.003) .012 Income 8.503E-7 (.00) .018 Education -.076 (.076) -.026 Marital Status -.083 (.069) -.031 Step 3 .204*** Constant 8.127 (.433) Self-Employment -.010 (.099) -.002

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Gender -.057 (.062) -.022 Age .001 (002) .005 Income 7.604E-7 (.00) .016 Education -.036 (.068) -.012 Marital Status -.035 (.062) -.013 Extraversion .351 (.055) .168*** Agreeableness .132 (.071) .048 Conscientiousness .106 (.062) .043 Neuroticism -.713 (.049) -.365*** Openness to Experience -.179 (.067) -.067** Step 4 .003 Constant 8.071 (.455) Self-Employment .734 (1.309) .172 Gender -.058 (.062) -.022 Age .000 (.002) .003 Income 6.830E-7 (.00) .014 Education -.032 (.068) -.011 Marital Status -.039 (.062) -.015 Extraversion .588 (.201) .282** Agreeableness -.139 (.267) -.050 Conscientiousness .044 (.235) .018 Neuroticism -.353 (.185) -.180 Openness to Experience -.070 (.256) -.026 Self-Employment x Extraversion -.212 (.173) -.199 Self-Employment x Agreeableness .237 (.234) .236 Self-Employment x Conscientiousness .058(.206) .057 Self-Employment x Neuroticism -.325 (.161) -.278*

Self-Employment x Openness to experience -.098 (.226) -0.090

Because of the significant predictive value of self-employment and neuroticism with regard to happiness, figure 1 shows a graphical view of the comparison between self-employed individuals and employed individuals and their level of happiness and neuroticism.

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Figure 1. Plot of level of neuroticism and happiness (divided into self-employed and employed)

5. DISCUSSION

Research about self-employment and the effect on happiness is quite divergent. However, almost all of the literature states that there is a relationship between these variables. As well, many studies elaborate about how self-employment makes people either happy or unhappy, because of the characteristics of self-employment. The ability to be your own boss and the inherent autonomy against the lower income and the uncertainties and stress are examples of opposite outcomes of self-employment. This means that happiness as a result of self-employment can lean both ways. This large ambiguity around this subject has been the motivation on doing research on the self-employed person and their characteristics. In this research the main question is: ‘What is the influence of the Big Five personality traits on the relationship between self-employment and the level of happiness?’ The purpose of this research is to explore the influence of personality on the relationship between self-employment and happiness. In this research, the characteristics of personality are considered and with that, by constructing interaction variables, the influence of these Big Five personality traits (extraversion,

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conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism and openness to experience) on self-employment and happiness is measured. The core of this research is about what effect personality has on the ‘double-edged sword’ (Prottas & Thompson, 2006). Interactions of self-employment and the five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experience) are constructed to see whether these personality traits have any influence on self-employed people rather than on employed people. To answer the research question of this paper several tests are conducted. First, a comparison is made between self-employed and employed people and their mean values. After that, a correlation analysis is done in order to provide a more closely look at the relation between all the different variables. Lastly and most importantly, a regression analysis with four different steps shows the predictive value of the independent variables and control variables on happiness.

Neuroticism & Self-employment

Firstly, because this is the core of the research question, the results of the regression analysis will be looked at. The most important step of this regression model is step 4. Here, the interactions are added to the model. By looking at the interactions, the most noticeable fact is that the interactions between selfemployment and neuroticism have a significant negative influence on happiness (β = -.278 p < .05). This means that self-employed people are more affected by neuroticism with regard to their level of happiness than employed people.As mentioned in the literature overview, Bauhmeister, Vohs, Aaker and Garbinsky (2013) explain happiness as the wellbeing in which someone experiences positive effects over negative affects. In other words: people who score high on neuroticism tend to experience negatives effects over the positive ones (Jeronimus, Riese, Sanderman & Ormel, 2014). So, in general neuroticism has a negative influence on happiness, since part of being neurotic is feeling less happy. The results of the regression model suggest that there are specific characteristics of being employed that make people who score high on neuroticism feel less happy. The happiness of self-employed people is stronger negatively influenced by neuroticism than the happiness of self-employed people, Patzelt and Shepherd (2011) state that self-employed people tend to feel less negative emotions because of the fact that self-employed environment gives a person the needed tools to cope with the emotions. Diener and Lucas (1999) find that people low in neuroticism tend to see situations in a positive way and therefore feel happier. The combination of these two factors is the interaction shown in the regression model. In addition to that, in general, neuroticism is negatively related to happiness (Grant, Langan-Fox & Anglim, 2009). Blanchflower (2004) also relates self-employed to a higher level of stress. People who score high on neuroticism experience stress more negatively and therefore this neuroticism has a greater negative influence on happiness with the self-employed rather than with employed people. People who are handed the tools to cope with negative emotions, but are not able to see or handle these tools (people who score high on neuroticism), will feel less happy in a self-employed environment. Also, Singh and DeNoble found that self-employment persons with a higher level of neuroticism tend to have less success in their business life. Of course, being less

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successful can be a clear predictor for being less happy. Consequentially, people with a higher neuroticism who do not posses or accept these tools to cope with the negative impulses, experience the lack of success even more intense than people who score lower on neuroticism. This means that they could end up in a self-fulfilling prophecy where the absence of success makes the anxiety even larger whereby the change of success gets lower and lower.

Other interactions

The other interactions, namely extraversion and employment, conscientiousness and self-employment, agreeableness and self-self-employment, and openness to experience and self-self-employment, are not found to be of significant predictive value on happiness. This could be explained by the fact that the quantity of self-employed people in this research is quit low. From the total respondents of 1482 people, only 160 are self-employed. Although this number is representative for the Netherlands, it is possible a more balance dividing of the employed versus self-employed would give a more significant outcome. Also, 71,1% of the sample was low educated. This means, from this group the highest successful finish study was MBO. Other than that, they only or did not finish elementary or high school. This is a large number, which could have influenced the results of the regression model.

As said, the interaction between self-employment and extraversion is not a significant predictor for happiness. Although, this is not significant, looking at the possible influences could be interesting, as well as looking at the correlation between the different variables. DeNeve and Cooper (1998) state that extraversion has a positive relation with happiness. Extravert people, according to Watson and Clark (1997) are positive people who get impulses from achieving their goals and interpersonal relationships. They achieve high positive energy from external situations (Laney, 2002). Looking at the regression model it can be seen that extraversion is a significant predictor of happiness (β = .282 p < .01). The correlation model in this paper shows us as well that extraversion has a positive correlation with happiness (r = .275, p < .001). The literature mostly explains that self-employment has a positive effect on happiness. And, as can be derived from the results, extraversion has a positive relation with happiness. Although, this might suggest that the interaction between self-employment and extraversion would be a positive predictor of happiness, there are arguments why this would not be the case. One could say that working in an employed environment gives an extravert person more interpersonal relationships, from which they get positive impulses, like Watson and Clark (1997) explain. Also, goals are more clear for people being employed and can be easily compared to each other. It could also be explained by the fact that extravert people like to talk much and most of all assert themselves (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). This means that in self-employed jobs there are some advantages, like achieving goals and being able to meet people outside your working area. However, an employee more often works in a group, where social interactions and proving one self are more in the order of the day. By looking at table 2, it can be derived that there is no significant difference in means of employed and self-employed people regarding extraversion. A correlation between

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extraversion and self-employment has not been found. Extraversion as a predictor for happiness gives a significant positive relationship (β = .168 p < .001). This is in line with what DeNeve and Cooper (1998) state. As stated in the literature it is quite likely that people who are full of energy and enjoy interacting with people have a positive view on the world and therefore feel happy. Being employed should encourage these features of employment even more. Being extravert and self-employed would lead to higher happiness under self-self-employed people, because of the free character of being self-employed. These are arguments made in order to to show why this could be the opposite. By looking at the results at the regression table, it can be derived that extraversion has a large positively predicting value on happiness but when looking at the interacting with self-employment, no significance can be found. So, it cannot be concluded that possessing a high amount of extraversion makes self-employed people happier than employed people.

The interaction between self-employment and agreeableness is not a significant predictor for happiness (β = .236 p >.05) in this research either. According to DeNeve and Cooper (1998) a high level of happiness is predicted by agreeableness. Rothmann and Coetzer (2003) state that people with a high level of agreeableness have a positive view on human nature and therefore have the tendency to feel happy. In general people with a high score on agreeableness have an optimistically view on the world. So, as the correlation table shows, agreeableness has a positive relation with happiness. People who score high on agreeableness are kind and willing to compromise. By looking at the interaction with self-employment there can be expected that there is a negative relation. Agreeableness is considered a social trait (Rohmann & Coetzer, 2003). Agreeableness has the tendency to positively correlate with the quality of relationships. People with a high amount of agreeableness are likely to be more comfortable in an employed environment than self-employed people are. Self-employed persons sometimes have to choose for themselves in order to grow and get further. Agreeable individuals rather get along with someone than to be in a conflict with that person. In the regression model can be seen, that although is it not significant, agreeableness tends to have a negative influence on happiness. By looking at the interaction between self-employment and agreeableness it seems to be an even more negative influence. Agreeableness is the Big Five trait that is mostly associated with interpersonal conflict and the outcomes of it (Jensen‐Campbell & Graziano, 2001). Graziano and Tobin (2009) describe agreeableness as being likeable, nice to others and harmonious in relations. Although literature is convinced agreeableness on its own, has positive effect happiness. The regression models shows that there is no significant predictive value and no difference between employed and self-employed people with regard to the effect of agreeableness on their happiness.

Hayes and Joseph (2003) found in their research that conscientiousness is an even better

predictor for happiness than extraversion. Conscientiousness means aiming for achievement and

having the tendency to have a lot of self-discipline. People with a high conscientiousness should feel confortable in the role of employee where they can compare themselves with colleagues and strive for being the best. The relationship with happiness is a positive one, but on itself conscientiousness is not

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a predictor for happiness. When we look at the interaction of self-employment with conscientiousness and its predictive power on happiness, it has found no significance in this research (β = .057 p >.05). Costa, McCrae and Dye (1991) state that conscientiousness implies movement and focus. According to Costa et al. (1991) conscientiousness has a strong proactive touch to it. This can be seen in the need for achievement and commitment to work. Also, conscientiousness is seen as cautiousness. This factor may be an important one. One can say being cautiousness is not associated with being self-employed, which is known about the uncertainty. Of course, successful self-employed people are famous for taking risks. This is why the interaction between self-employment and conscientiousness is not likely to be positive. It would be more likely that people who score high on conscientiousness feel happier in an employed environment. Key words reflecting this trait are: competence, order, dutifulness and self-discipline (Costa et al., 1991). Besides that, just like Agreeableness, Conscientiousness people find it important to get along with one and other (Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003). According to DeNeve and Cooper (1998) conscientiousness is not strongly and consistently associated with life satisfaction. The correlation table shows that conscientiousness is significantly positively related with happiness (r = .131, p < .01). This is in line with the theory of Hayes and Joseph (2003).

Openness to experience, according to the regression model, is not a characteristic that is significantly associated with happiness. There is no difference in the way self-employed and employed individuals are affected by the level of openness to experience with regard to their level of happiness The correlation is a positive one (r = .067 p < .05). This may be explained by the fact that happy people are open to new experiences because of their optimistic view of the world, so the correlation is slightly positive. DeNeve and Cooper (1998) explain openness to experience containing components of intelligence, culture, creativity, broad interests and cognitive complexity. These characteristics would not per se be more addressed when being self-employed or employed. People who score high on openness to experience actively seek experience and are known for their positive attitude towards new ideas and opportunities. Openness to experiences involves motivation, needs for variety and understanding. (McCrae & Costa, 1997). By looking at this theory, a positive affect of openness to experience on happiness would be suggested. For being self-employed, it brings forward a lot of new experiences and continuing to motivate one self is important here as well. The interaction between employment and openness to experience would expect to have a larger positive affect on self-employed individuals than on self-employed individuals. However, as can be seen in regression model, there is no difference in effect of self-employed or employed people. Taking into consideration the predictive value of openness to experience on happiness the model shows a really small negligible negative value.

As said, self-employment is no significant predictor for happiness and when looking at the interactions, it can be seen that when neuroticism comes into play, there suddenly is a significant predictive value (β = -.278 p < .05). It was expected that there is a significant relation between

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neuroticism and happiness since many questions about neuroticism involve a sort of happiness. Since we can say this is a negative personality characteristic, it is logical to think that people with high neuroticism are less happy. It is remarkable to see that, as said before, being self-employed is not of predictive value to happiness. Not in a positive and not in a negative way. However, the characteristics of self-employment affect people with a high level of neuroticism that much, that as an interaction it becomes a predictor. Which is quite remarkable besides the fact that the model significantly improves when adding the Big Five traits in step 3. The model is not significant when only self-employment and the control variables are added. By including personality the regression model improves the model considerably (ΔR2 = .204, p < .001).

Although, the research question is mainly tested by the interaction variables of self-employment and personality, in this next part some other remarkable findings will be set out.

In the first step of the regression model the independent variable self-employment was included as a possible predictor for happiness, which is the dependent variable. However, much literature (Prottas & Thompson, 2006; El Harbi & Grolleau, 2012; Andersson, 2008) states that being self-employed has a large influence on the level of happiness, leaving the direction of the influence out of this equation. Surprisingly, the regression analysis states that there is no significant predictive value of self-employment on happiness (β = -.013 p > .05). By looking at table 2 it can be seen that the there is a quite small difference in means of self-employed and employed people, when considering happiness. However, this difference is rather small (employed: 𝜇 = 7.67, self-employed: 𝜇 = 7.61).

In the second step the control variables were included into the regression model. These variables were chosen to be included into this research due to the fact that different literature highlights these variables as influences on happiness. It is important to control these variables to make sure other variables can be interpreted correctly. The first control variable included in this research is age. Blanchflower and Oswald (2004) find a consistent negative correlation with happiness and age. However, in this research no significant predictive value of age on happiness has been found (β = .012 p > 0.05). Also, no correlation between age and happiness has been found. The second control variable included in the regression analysis is gender. Alesina, Di Tella, and MacCulloch (2004) state that women tend to be happier than men. In this research, gender is no significant predictor for happiness. (β = .002 p > 0.05). Here as well, no correlation with self-employment has been found. When testing for the other control variables there is no correlation found between these variables and happiness either. Besides that, these are of no significant influence on happiness. Age, education, gender and marital status are no predictors for happiness. Men or woman, young or old, not educated or high educated, married or single, these factors do not have influence on whether someone is happy.

In this research, the income of employed people is higher than the average income of self-employed people, but, as can be seen in table 2, there is no significant difference. This is in line with what former research states. As stated in the literature, income has a positive relationship with

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