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Thinking About One’s Subjective Well-Being: Average Trends and Individual Differences

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Abstract

In two studies, participants reported what they had been thinking about while completing measures of subjective well-being (SWB). These thought reports were analyzed with respect to life domain, valence, and how strongly they were related to actual levels of SWB. Most people focused on their life circumstances (e.g., career) rather than on dispositional predictors (e.g., personality) of SWB. The domains mentioned most frequently (career, family, romantic life) were also the ones that were most strongly related to actual SWB, indicating that most of people think about things that actually contribute to their SWB. Some domains are predominantly mentioned in positive contexts (e.g., family) whereas others are predominantly mentioned in negative contexts (e.g., money). On average, people thought more about positive than about negative things, a result that is magnified for respondents high in extraversion or emotional stability. In sum, these findings provide insight into what people think contributes to their SWB; beliefs that may guide them as they make important decisions.

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Notes

  1. A total of 417 persons participated. Two participants were excluded because of random data patterns and implausible responses. One participant was excluded because he/she did not report any sources.

  2. The interrater agreement coefficients for the other domains were κ = .69 for housing, κ = .72 for health, κ = .75 for friends, κ = .76 for family, κ = .87 for romantic life, and κ = .89 for money.

  3. The interrater agreement coefficients for the other domains were κ = .84 for friends, κ = .89 for leisure, κ = .92 for family, κ = .92 for housing, κ = .94 for housing, and κ = .95 for career.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (R01-AG036433, R01-AG033590, and R01-AG034052) and by the Department of the Army, Defense Medical Research and Development Program (Award #W81XWH-11-2-0114).We thank Angela McCoy, Shannon Ehlert, and Sarah Short for their assistance in coding the open responses and Elizabeth Necka for feedback on an earlier draft.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1007 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Maike Luhmann

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 940 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Louise C. Hawkley & John T. Cacioppo

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  1. Maike Luhmann
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  2. Louise C. Hawkley
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Correspondence to Maike Luhmann.

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Luhmann, M., Hawkley, L.C. & Cacioppo, J.T. Thinking About One’s Subjective Well-Being: Average Trends and Individual Differences. J Happiness Stud 15, 757–781 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9448-5

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