Self-reports of well-being: Are they valid even if we can’t remember everything that happens to us?

Publication Type

Invited Academic Talk/Lecture

Publication Date

8-2014

Abstract

People can complete self-report measures of happiness and satisfaction fairly quickly. This suggests that they are not recalling every event they have experienced during a specific period of time. Previous researchers have thus argued that well-being judgments are made-up on the spot from whichever events happen to be on the person’s mind. I report the results of two studies that measured people’s experiences over a period of three-weeks (Study 1) or two months (Study 2). I evaluate the extent to which our conscious recollection of specific events trumps our actual experiences and conclude that people may be able to (1) summarize their experiences fairly comprehensively; (2) these summaries are based on their actual experiences and are distinct from their conscious memory of specific events; and (3) self-reported well-being is more strongly predicted by summarized experiences than conscious recollection of a few events.

Discipline

Social Psychology

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Behavioral Sciences Institute Seminar Series

Publisher

Singapore Management University

City or Country

Singapore

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS