The dynamic process of life satisfaction.
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.
Heller
Daniel
D
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. dheller@uwaterloo.ca
Watson
David
D
Ilies
Remus
R
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010551:Personality; D011788:Quality of Life; D012044:Regression Analysis