Definition
Bottom-up theories of life satisfaction (or subjective well-being, SWB) are based on the idea that overall life satisfaction is the sum of its parts. That is, self-reports of life satisfaction represent a weighted average of satisfaction with different aspects (domains) of life. By contrast, top-down theories rest on the premise that satisfaction with domains of life is mainly a consequence of overall life satisfaction, which itself primarily depends on personality traits and other fixed genetic effects.
Description
The distinction between bottom-up and top-down theories of life satisfaction was originally made by Diener (1984). He pointed out that, at time of writing, most researchers tended to assume that life satisfaction is a weighted average of satisfaction with different domains of life (working life, family life, etc.). However, the opposite view was also tenable. That is, satisfaction with different domains of life might be a consequence of fixed (e.g., genetic) or...
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Headey, B. (2014). Bottom-Up Versus Top-Down Theories of Life Satisfaction. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_228
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_228
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