The affective and cognitive context of self-reported measures of subjective well-being

Researchers attempting to understand the experience of subjective well-being have relied heavily on self-report measurement methodology. Recent research focused on such methodology has demonstrated that a number of factors, such as the current mood of the respondent and the cognitive and social context surrounding the response, can significantly influence responses to items inquiring about global subjective well-being or satisfaction with life. In the present study, several measurement strategies (e.g., single-item measures, multiple-item scales, and memory search tasks) were compared with regard to their susceptibility to such transient influences. Although some evidence for effects due to item-placement and transient mood were found, all of the global measures of subjective well-being and life satisfaction had significant convergence with external criteria, and the single-item measures showed good temporal reliability across a one-month interval. The data provide evidence for the stable nature of subjective-well being and life satisfaction. Further work focused on the cognitive basis of judgments of life satisfaction and subjective well-being is suggested as a topic for future research.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio