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One of the most consistent and robust findings in the field of subjective well-being (SWB) is that the components of SWB are moderately related to personality. Like personality traits, SWB is consistent across situations and is stable across the life span, even af. ter the occurrence of intervening life events. There appear to be biological influences on SWB characteristic emotional responses appear early in life, and there are substantial heritability coefficients for the components of SWB. The personality traits that are most consistently and strongly related to SWB are ex-traversion and neuroticism. Extraversion is moder-ately correlated with pleasant affect; neuroticism is strongly correlated with unpleasant affect. Other traits (such as optimism and self-esteem) correlate with SWB, but the direction of causality in these relations has not been determined. Temperament models of the personality-SWB relation posit that individuals have biological set-points of emotional experience; individuals have biologically determined emotional reactions to stimuli; or individuals with certain temperaments are able to wrest more rewards from the environment, leading to greater happiness. Congruence models suggest that greater SWB results from the degree to which our personalities fit with our environment. Cognitive theorists believe that the way we process information about rewards and punishments, rather than our biological sensitivities to these stimuli, determines our well-being. Goal theorists posit that our SWB is influenced by our goals, the way we approach our goals, and our success or failure at attaining them. Emotion socialization models suggest that …