An investigation of the construct validity of the Big Five construct of emotional stability in relation to job performance, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction

The present study examined the Big Five dimension of Emotional Stability and explored its relationship to work outcomes. Six archival data sets were used. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated between the Big Five dimensions of personality and job performance, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction. Results demonstrated that all Big Five personality dimensions were significantly, positively related to job performance, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction. Additionally, part correlations between Emotional Stability and job performance, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction were calculated controlling for the other Big Five dimensions of Extraversion, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness. Emotional Stability demonstrated unique variance, continuing to have a significant, positive correlation with all criteria. In order to examine how Emotional Stability is related to job performance, job satisfaction, and career satisfaction in jobs with varying stress levels, data sets were sorted by job categories and Spearman Rank Order Correlations were calculated between job stress measures and Emotional Stability-Criteria correlations. No significant results were found. Emotional Stability mean scores were also compared for job categories using one-way ANOVA and independent groups t-tests. Individuals in jobs that were considered "high stress" had higher mean scores on Emotional Stability. In addition to supporting previous research findings, this study contributed unique information by demonstrating that Emotional Stability contributes unique information to the prediction of job outcomes.