Value Orientation and Well-Being: Testing the Serial Mediation by Cognitive Flexibility and Humor Styles

Research on values–well-being link revealed inconsistent and small effect sizes. This led researchers to develop more complex formulations taking potential moderators and mediators into account. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between human values and well-being from a process perspective, which takes mediational mechanisms into account. Since previous research indicated cognitive flexibility and adaptive humor styles as correlates of well-being, and by arguing that they are value-expressive individual differences which might shape the way people perceive, evaluate, and act upon the environment, they were identified as potential mediators. Self-report measures were used to collect cross-sectional data from a Turkish university sample, and the analyses were conducted on 367 participants. Testing the hypotheses of the study indicated that all variables of the study were positively correlated. In addition, mediation analyses revealed that cognitive flexibility mediated the relationship between value orientation and well-being both alone and through an adaptive humor orientation. The results were interpreted as humor orientation being a specific manifestation of cognitive flexibility, and that the latter variable was demonstrated for the first time to mediate the values–well-being link. Findings of the study contributed to the literature by providing further support for specific individual differences as serial mediators along with emotions and traits. Limitations pertaining to design issues and cultural specifics were noted.