The 糖心TV Wellbeing, Culture, and Personality Research Group
The research group is committed to exploring the relationships between personality traits, cultural influences, and overall wellbeing. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative methodologies, we investigate various dimensions of wellbeing, including life satisfaction, resilience, and psychological flourishing. By examining how personality traits and different cultural contexts foster or hinder wellbeing, we aim to uncover strategies for promoting mental health and resilience across diverse populations and organisational settings.
Our group employs a range of methodologies, from large-scale surveys and longitudinal studies to qualitative studies and experimental designs. By incorporating insights from psychology, genetics, sociology, and other disciplines, we aim to develop a comprehensive understanding of how culture, personality, and well-being relate to one another.
Meet the Team:
Professor Anu Realo (Research Group Leader)
Research interests:
Personality, subjective well-being, social capital, cross-cultural differences
(PhD Student)
Research interests:
Leadership behaviour, employee well-being, organisational-based self-esteem), workplace AI usage and AI perceptions
Supervisors: Anu Realo, Luke Hodson, Emmanouil Konstantinidis
(PhD Student)
Research interests:
Well-being, positive psychology, gratitude, mental health interventions
Supervisors: Luke Hodson and Anu Realo
Dr Luke Hodson (Assistant Professor, Research Group Co-leader)
Research interests:
Well-being, positive psychology, optimal functioning, character strengths, intervention development and application
(PhD Student)
Research interests:
Personality, well-being, self-control, sleep, mental health, family environment
Supervisors: Anu Realo and Sakari Lemola
Ruihan Bai (PhD student at Tallinn University)
Research interests:
Personal responsibility, agency and trust in the context of sustainability
Supervisors: Anu Realo and Grete Arro (Tallinn University)
Zilan Zou (PhD Student)
Research interests:
Hope, emotional bias regulation, executive function, cognitive-neural mechanisms of anxiety intervention
Supervisors: Luke Hodson, Gemma Gray, and Friederike Schlaghecken
Former Members:
- Dr Xiujun Li, Visiting Research Fellow, Shanghai Normal University, Feb 2024 - Feb 2025
- Dr Anita Lenneis, PhD student, October 2016 - April 2021, supervisors Anu Realo and Sakari Lemola
- James Moindrot, Master's student, MSc in Psychological Research, Term 1 2024/2025, supervisor Anu Realo
- Dr Arij Yehya, PhD student, October 2019 - July 2025, supervisors Anu Realo and Robin Goodwin
Some Recent Publications:
Deveci, S., & Realo, A. (2025). Assessing work-related employee well-being in multinational corporations using a multifaceted approach. Psychological Test Adaptation and Development, 6, 119鈥�128.
EL-Awad, U., Eves, R., Hachenberger, J., Entringer, T. M., Goodwin, R., Realo, A., Lemola, S. (2025).Mapping life satisfaction over the first years of cohabitation among former singles living alone in UK and Germany. Journal of Personality. Advance online publication,
Hachenberger, J., Li, Y.-M., Realo, A., & Lemola, S. (2025). The association of caffeine consumption with positive affect but not with negative affect changes across the day. Scientific Reports,15, 28536.
Yehya, A., Ausmees, L., Gosling, S. D., Potter, J., & Realo, A. (2025). Age as a moderator of gender/sex differences in personality traits across countries.PsyArXivpreprint,
Mei, K., Zhang, F., Zhang, J., Ming, H., Jiang, Y., & Huang, S. (2024). Perceived social support buffers the associations of household chaos and physical and mental health in rural early adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 96,112-123.
M玫ttus, R., Realo, A., Allik, J., Ausmees, L., Henry, S., McCrae, R. R., & Vainik, U. (2024). Most people鈥檚 life satisfaction matches their personality traits: True correlations in multi-trait, multi-rater, multi-sample data. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 126,676-693.
Liu, Y., Realo, A., Mendon莽a, M., Baumann, N., Bartmann, P., R盲ikk枚nen, K., Heinonen, K., Robinson, R., Marlow, N., Johnson, S., Ni, Y., Kajantie, E., Hovi, P., Tikanm盲ki, M., & Wolke, D. (2024). The effect of very preterm birth on the Five-Factor Model of personality traits: A meta-analysis of individual participant data. European Journal of Personality, Advance online publication.
Lenneis, A., Das-Friebel, A., Tang, N. K. Y., Sanborn, A. N., Lemola, S., Singmann, H., Wolke, D., von M眉hlenen, A., & Realo, A. (2023). The influence of sleep on subjective well-being: An experience sampling study. Emotion, 24, 451-464.
Yehya, A., Khaled, S. M., Sommer, I. E. C. et al. (2023). The Arabic questionnaire for psychotic experiences in patients with psychotic disorders: A clinical validation. BMC Psychiatry, 23, 141.
Hodson, L., MacCallum, F., Watson, D., & Blagrove, E. (2021). Dear diary: Evaluating a goal-oriented intervention linked with increased hope and cognitive flexibility. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, 110383.