Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
6-2000
Abstract
The present study investigated how reports of satisfaction with specific versus global domains can be used to assess a disposition towards positivity in subjective well-being reports. College students from 41 societies (N = 7167) completed measures of life satisfaction and ratings of global and specific aspects of their lives. For example, participants rated satisfaction with their education (global) and satisfaction with their professors, textbooks, and lectures (specific). It was hypothesized that global measures would more strongly reflect individual differences in dispositional positivity, that is, a propensity to evaluate aspects of life in general as good. At both the individual and national levels, positivity predicted life satisfaction beyond objective measures. Also, positivity was associated with norms about ideal life satisfaction such that countries and individuals who highly valued positive emotions were more likely to display positivity. The difference between more global versus more concrete measures of satisfaction can be used as an indirect and subtle measure of positivity.
Keywords
life satisfaction, positivity, happiness, subjective well-being, culture, positive affect, norms
Discipline
Multicultural Psychology | Psychology | Social Psychology
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
Journal of Happiness Studies
Volume
1
Issue
2
First Page
159
Last Page
176
ISSN
1389-4978
Identifier
10.1023/A:1010031813405
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Citation
DIENER, Ed, SCOLLON, Christie N., OISHI, Shigehiro, Dzokoto, Vivian, & SUH, Mark Eunkook.(2000). Positivity and the Construction of Life Satisfaction Judgments: Global Happiness Is Not the Sum of Its Parts. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1(2), 159-176.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/930
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010031813405