Paper Title
The Effects of Personality Traits and Leisure Time Behaviours on Life Satisfaction: A Study of Turkish and Australian Students
Abstract
This study focuses on howchoice of leisure activity and personal traits affects the students’ levels of life
satisfaction. How an individual chooses to spend their leisure time reflects that individuals interests, talents and personality and
yet although these activities are freely chosen by the individual with the intent of providing of some level of relaxation and
enjoyment, all leisure activities do not equally contribute to the perception of life satisfaction. Choice of leisure activity can be
broadly categorized according to the big five personality traits which in turn, affect leisure choice and subsequent level of life
satisfaction. The study examines how these broad personality types influence an individual’s choice of leisure activities and
how that choice affects one’s sense of accomplishment and the perception of satisfaction with life.This study focuses on
students both in the Australia and Turkey and seeks to establish a link between personality type, leisure behaviour and
consequent sense of well-being. It is our intention to show that certain types of leisure activity promote increased levels of
accomplishment and well-being and since leisure activity is dependent on personality type, some personalities are more
predisposed toward higher levels of life satisfaction than others.
Keywords—Personality traits, life satisfaction, leisure