The Dynamic Process of Life Satisfaction

ABSTRACT Drawing from the Cognitive Affective Personality System (Mischel & Shoda, 1995, 1998), we argue for a need to examine within‐individual variation in life satisfaction. Thus, employing a diary study of 76 fully employed, married adults we examined the magnitude, antecedents, and conseque...

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Published inJournal of personality Vol. 74; no. 5; pp. 1421 - 1450
Main Authors Heller, Daniel, Watson, David, Ilies, Remus
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.10.2006
Blackwell
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects
Activities of Daily Living
Behavior. Attitude
Biological and medical sciences
Diary
Emotions
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Happiness
Humans
Job Satisfaction
Life satisfaction
Male
Marital satisfaction
Mood
Neuroses
Personal Satisfaction
Personality
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Quality of Life
Regression Analysis
Self-esteem
Social psychology
Human
Attitude
Marital satisfaction
Satisfaction
Self esteem
Job satisfaction
Psychological well being
Quality of life
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Summary:ABSTRACT Drawing from the Cognitive Affective Personality System (Mischel & Shoda, 1995, 1998), we argue for a need to examine within‐individual variation in life satisfaction. Thus, employing a diary study of 76 fully employed, married adults we examined the magnitude, antecedents, and consequences of intra‐individual variation in life satisfaction. Our findings establish a substantial amount of intra‐individual variation, comparable to other personal evaluations assessed with a state approach (e.g., self‐esteem), but less than that observed with major mood dimensions. In addition, concurrent changes in life satisfaction were systematically related to fluctuations in job and marital satisfaction; however, contrary to prediction, our results did not support a cross‐level moderating role of Neuroticism in these associations. Our findings also lend support for the lagged influence of life satisfaction on next‐day domain satisfaction ratings. Taken together, our findings demonstrate the systematic nature and importance of within‐subject variation in life satisfaction.
Bibliography:ArticleID:JOPY415
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This article was part of the first author's dissertation under the supervision of the second. The research was supported by NIMH Grant # 1‐R01‐MH61804‐01 to Diane Berry. We would like to thank Eshkol Rafaeli and Jeanette O'Hara Hines for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.
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ISSN:0022-3506
1467-6494
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6494.2006.00415.x