I love when the Fourth of July falls on a Friday; you have three full days to celebrate our nation’s independence and spend time with friends and family. Unfortunately, everyone else has the same idea, which means when Sunday afternoon rolls around highways back to the city are always bumper to bumper. From my experience as a driver and a passenger, I believe there are two main ways drivers react to traffic; 1) take advantage of the opportunity to bond with one’s passengers or 2) become increasingly frustrated until you as the passenger would not be surprised to see literal steam escaping from the driver’s ears. I think we can all agree we prefer the former, but why do we see this difference? Sometimes it depends on the person driving. My father always remains a calm demeanor in front of the wheel whether it takes us 5 minutes or 50 minutes to reach the next exit on the highway. Sometimes it depends on the situation. My brother is usually a pleasant driver, but if he is late for an important meeting, anything as harmless as a red light can lead to cursing under his breath.
Emotional Stability is a key facet of one’s personality characterized by the ability to control one’s emotions and respond calmly in stressful situations, not being bothered by stress and setbacks, and maintaining awareness of one’s emotions and what causes them. Emotional Stability explains why some people are often calm (or often stressed) regardless of the situation. Everyone varies in how well one can control his or her emotions, but those individuals with higher emotional stability have a much easier time. Beyond controlling frustration while driving in traffic, high emotional stability can be an important predictor of job performance and person-job fit. For example, customer service jobs require a high level of emotional stability, so those lower in emotional stability will not perform as well nor enjoy their job as much as their colleagues with high emotional stability. To learn more about the power of personality check out our website and our personality assessments!
