nach oben

Journal of Happiness Studies

Erschienen in:

01.03.2009 | Research Paper

Life Satisfaction is not a Balanced Estimator of the Good Life: Evidence from Reaction Time Measures and Self-Reported Emotions

verfasst von: Joar Vittersø, Hella I. Oelmann, Anita L. Wang

Erschienen in: Journal of Happiness Studies | Ausgabe 1/2009

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config

KI-gestützte Suche

Aus

Abstract

A widespread belief in happiness research is that measures of life satisfaction capture the variety of an individual’s experiences along a single favorable—unfavorable dimension. The current article points to a possible violation of this assumption. With a combination of data and theory it argues that life satisfaction is not a balanced reflection of subjective experiences because the evaluation that drives judgments of life satisfaction is tilted towards pleasure and away from engagement. We postulate that feelings of pleasure are overrated in statements of life satisfaction, whereas feelings of engagement are underrepresented. Feelings of engagement and interest are further supposed to be indicators of personal growth. Measures of personal growth and life satisfaction should thus be unrelated. Empirical evidence for our model is provided by self-report and reaction time data from a Norwegian convenience sample (N = 30). Detection latencies for pleasant stimuli correlated significantly with life satisfaction but not with measures of personal growth. Life satisfaction correlated significantly with pleasant experiences, but not with engagement. Personal growth correlated significantly with feelings of engagement. Life satisfaction and personal growth were uncorrelated.

Nächster Artikel How individualism–collectivism orientations predict happiness in a collectivistic context

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

In emotion research, the common parlour would be Interest rather than Engagement. We have chosen to use the term Engagement to be consistent with the jargon of current positive psychology.

Amabile, T. M., Hill, K. G., Hennessey, B. A., & Tighe, E. M. (1994). The work preference inventory: Assessing intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 950–967.CrossRef

Ariely, D., & Carmon, Z. (2003). Summary assessment of experiences: The whole is different from the sum of its parts. In G. Loewenstein, D. Read & R. Baumeister (Eds.), Time and decision. Economic and psychological perspectives on intertemporal choice (pp. 323–349).New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Aristotle (1985). Nicomachean ethics. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.

Berlyne, D. E. (1960). Conflict, arousal, and curiosity. London: McGraw-Hill.

Berlyne, D. E. (1970). Novelty, complexity, and hedonic value. Perception & Psychophysics, 8, 279–286.

Berridge, K. C. (2004). Pleasure, unfelt affect, and irrational desire. In A. S. R. Manstead, N. Fijda & A. Fischer (Eds.), Feelings and emotion. The Amsterdam symposium (pp. 243–262).Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Carver, C. S., & Scheier M. F. (Eds.) (1992). Perspectives on personality. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Cohen, S., Doyle, W. J., Turner, R. B., Alper, C. M., & Skoner, D. P. (2003). Emotional style and susceptibility to the common cold. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 652–657.CrossRef

Compton, W. C., Smith, M. L., Cornish, K. A., & Qualls, D. L. (1996). Factor structure of mental health measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 406–413.CrossRef

Davidson, R. J. (2005). Well-being and affective style: Neural substrates and biobehavioral correlates. In F. Huppert, N. Baylis & B. Keverne (Eds.), The science of well-being (pp. 107–139). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Derryberry, D., & Reed, M. (1994). Temperament and attention: Orienting towards and away from positive and negative signals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 1128–1139.CrossRef

Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 542–575.CrossRef

Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Beyond money. Toward an economy of well-being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5, 1–31.CrossRef

Ginsburg, H., & Opper, S. (1969). Piaget’s theory of intellectual development. An introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Grape, K., & Vittersø, J. (2003, November). The good life: Pleasantness is not enough. Poster presented at The 5th Conference on Social & Community Psychology. Norway: Trondheim.

Hansen, C. H., & Hansen R. D. (1988). Finding the face in the crowd: An anger superiority effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 917–924.CrossRef

IPIP (2002). International personality item pool. A scientific collaboration for the development of advanced measurement of personality traits and other individual differences. Available from http://ipip.ori.org/.

Isen, A. M. (2003). Positive affect as a source of human strength. In L. G. Aspinwall & U. M. Staudinger (Eds.), A psychology of human strengths. Fundamental questions and directions for a positive psychology (pp. 179–195). Washington, DC: American Psychologcal Association.CrossRef

Kafka, G. J., & Kozma, A. (2002). The construct validity of Ryff’s scales of psychological well-being (spwb) and their relationship to measures of subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 57, 171–190.CrossRef

Kahneman, D. (1999). Objective happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 3–25). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Kahneman, D., & Riis, J. (2005). Living, and thinking about it: Two perspectives on life. In F. Huppert, N. Baylis & B. Keverne (Eds.), The science of well-being (pp. 285–304). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Kashdan, T. B. (2004). The assessment of subjective well-being (issues raised by the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire). Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 1225–1232.CrossRef

Krosnick, J. A., Judd, S. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2005). The measurement of attitudes. In D. Albarracín, B. T. Johnson & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The handbook of attitudes (pp. 21–76). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Linley, P. A., Joseph, S., Harrington, S., & Wood, A. M. (2006). Positive psychology: Past, present and (possible) future. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 3–16.CrossRef

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.CrossRef

McFadden, D. (2005). The new science of pleasure. Consumer behavior and the measurement of well-being. London: The Frisch Lecture, Econometric Society World Congress, October 5, 2005.

McGill, V. J. (1967). The idea of happiness. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.

McGregor, I., & Little, B. (1998). Personal projects, happiness, and meaning: On doing well and being yourself. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 494–512.CrossRef

McMahon, D. (2006). The pursuit of happiness. A history from the Greeks to the present. London: Allen Lane.

Mellers, B. A. (2000). Choice and the relative pleasure of consequences. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 910–924.CrossRef

Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state, and utopia. New York: Basic Books.

Öhman, A., & Birbaumer, N. (1993). Psychophysiological and cognitive-clinical perspectives on emotion: Introduction and overview. In N. Birbaumer & A. Öhman (Eds.), The structure of emotion. Psychophysiological, cognitive and clinical aspects (pp. 3–17). Seattle: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.

Öhman, A., Flykt, A., & Lundquist, D. (2000). Unconscious emotions: Evolutionary perspectives, psychophysiological data and neuropsychological mechanisms. In R. D. Lane & L. Nadel (Eds.), Cognitive neuroscience of emotion (pp. 296–327). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience. The foundations of human and animal emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the satisfaction with life scale. Psychological Assessment, 5, 164–172.CrossRef

Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction: The full life versus the empty life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 25–41.CrossRef

Piaget, J. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: International Universities Press.

Posner, M. I., & Petersen, S. E. (1990). The attention system of the human brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 13, 25–42.CrossRef

Robinson, M. D., Solberg, E. C., Vargas, P. T., & Tamir, M. (2003). Trait as default: Extraversion, subjective well-being, and the distinction between neutral and positive events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 517–527.CrossRef

Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069–1081.CrossRef

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic happiness. Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for deep fulfillment. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Seligman, M. E. P., Parks, A. C., & Steen, T. A. (2005). A balanced psychology and a full life. In F. Huppert, N. Baylis & B. Keverne (Eds.), The science of well-being (pp. 276–283). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Selnes, M., Marthinsen, K., & Vittersø, J. (2004). Hedonisme og eudaimonia: To separate dimensjoner av livskvalitet?. Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening, 41, 179–187.

Sen, A. (1993). Capability and well-being. In M. C. Nussbaum & A. Sen (Eds.), The quality of life (pp. 30–53). Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRef

Silvia, P. J. (2006). Exploring the psychology of interest. New York: Oxford University Press.

Smith, T. (1979). Happiness, time trends, seasonal variations, intersurvey differences and other mysteries. Social Psychology Quarterly, 42, 18–30.CrossRef

Staudinger, U. M., Kunzmann, U. (2005). Positive adult personality development. Adjustment and/or growth? European Psychologist, 10, 320–329.CrossRef

Staudinger, U. M., & Lindenberger, U. (Eds.) (2003). Understanding human development. Dialogues with lifespan psychology. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Sumner, L. W. (1996). Welfare, happiness, and ethics. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.

Tomkins, S. S., & Izard, C. (Eds.) (1965). Affect, cognition, and personality. New York: Springer Publishing.

Urry, H. L., Nitschke, J. B., Dolski, I., Jackson, D. C., Dalton, K. M., Mueller, K. J., Rosenkranz, M. A., Ryff, C. D., Singer, B. H., Davidson, R. J. (2004). Making a life worth living. Neutral correlates of well-being. Psychological Science, 15, 367–372.CrossRef

Vittersø, J. (2005). Qualities of life: Separating goal-orientation and process-orientation in a multimodal model of well-being. Unpublished manuscript.

Vittersø, J., Dyrdal, G. M., & Røysamb, E. (2005, June). Utilities and capabilities: A psychological account of the two concepts and their relation to the idea of a good life. Paper presented at the 2nd Workshop on Capabilities and Happiness, Milan, Italy. Available from: http://uit.no/psykologi/ansatte/21.

Vittersø, J., Dyrdal, G. M., & Røysamb, E. (2006, July). Why we can’t measure engagement with life satisfaction scales. Paper presented at The 3th European Conference on Positive Psychology, Braga, Portugal.

Vittersø, J., Hetland, A., & Søholt, Y. (2006, July). Satisfaction, engagement, and outdoor recreation. Results from a day reconstruction study in Norway. Paper presented at The 7th Conference of the international Society for Quality of Life Studies (ISQOLS), Grahamstown, South Africa.

Vittersø, J., Hveem, K., & Ruud, K. (2007, April). Don’t Struggle, Be Happy: Strategies for Enhancing and Maintaining Pleasant Mood. Paper presented at the 1st Applied Positive Psychology Conference, Warwick, UK.

Waterman, A. S. (1984). The psychology of individualism. New York: Praeger.

Waterman, A. S. (1993). Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 678–691.CrossRef

Watson, D., Clark, L.A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.CrossRef

Wundt, W. (1896). Outline of psychology. Engelmann, Leipzig.

Titel: Life Satisfaction is not a Balanced Estimator of the Good Life: Evidence from Reaction Time Measures and Self-Reported Emotions
verfasst von: Joar Vittersø
Hella I. Oelmann
Anita L. Wang
Publikationsdatum: 01.03.2009
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in: Journal of Happiness Studies / Ausgabe 1/2009
Print ISSN: 1389-4978
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-7780
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9058-1

Springer Professional

Abstract

Bitte loggen Sie sich ein, um Zugang zu Ihrer Lizenz zu erhalten.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Weitere Artikel der Ausgabe 1/2009

Enhancing quality of life by shifting importance perception among life domains

Development as Happiness: The Subjective Perception of Happiness and UNDP’s Analysis of Poverty, Wealth and Development

Spirituality and Subjective Well-Being: Evidences for a New Domain in the Personal Well-Being Index

How individualism–collectivism orientations predict happiness in a collectivistic context

Well-being, Happiness and Why Relationships Matter: Evidence from Bangladesh