Not restricted by their personality: Balanced Time Perspective moderates well-established relationships between personality traits and well-being

• Balanced Time Perspective (BTP) predicted well-being (WB) after controlling for personality traits
• BTP moderated relationships between WB and both extraversion and neuroticism
• Personality-WB relationships were much weaker in high-BTP individuals
• BTP may result in independence from personality-based pre-determination of WB

Links between two major personality traits – extraversion and neuroticism – and subjective well-being (SWB) are well-confirmed. Prior research has also shown that SWB is significantly related to the likelihood of adopting a Balanced Time Perspective (BTP). The present paper aims to determine whether BTP moderates relationships between personality and SWB. Results of the study show that 1) BTP predicts SWB after controlling for personality traits, and 2) the personality-SWB relationships are weaker in individuals who report higher levels of time perspective balance, whereas personality is a particularly strong predictor of SWB within those reporting low levels of time perspective balance. It seems that high levels of temporal balance may result in becoming more or less independent from the personality-based pre-determination of well-being. The results are briefly discussed in the light of Time Perspective Theory, taking into account their potential practical applications.