Lay beliefs and projections of trait happiness
Journal Title: The Journal of Happiness and Well-Being - Year 2015, Vol 3, Issue 2
Abstract
To achieve high levels of Subjective Well Being, it is argued that one must experience frequent positive affect, low levels of negative affect, and high satisfaction with life. However, researchers have not investigated whether the lay theories of happiness also include these dimensions. Using a 2 (negative, positive affectivity) x 2 (low, high life satisfaction) factorial design, this experiment explored whether 256 university students believed that positive affect and high satisfaction with life were necessary precursors for happiness. Additionally, the study explored whether participant’s own trait affectivity, life satisfaction, and happiness projected onto their social judgments of a hypothetical other’s happiness. Overall, participants believed that both positive affect and life satisfaction are necessary for high levels of happiness, and that these two factors provided an additive effect in their social judgments. Correlational analyses demonstrated that, contrary to past findings, there were no significant associations between one’s judgments of another’s happiness, and their own affectivity, life satisfaction, or happiness. Altogether, our study suggests that when given sufficient information, participants are capable of formulating multidimensional judgments of happiness that are not influenced by their own trait happiness.
Authors and Affiliations
Nicholas A. Coles| University of Central Florida, USA. E-mail: ncoles@knights.ucf.edu, Valerie K. Sims| University of Central Florida, USA. E-mail: ncoles@knights.ucf.edu, Matthew G. Chin| University of Central Florida, USA. E-mail: ncoles@knights.ucf.edu
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP15936
- DOI -
- Views 392
- Downloads 16
The Revised Short Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Test (S-GRAT): Adaptation for Turkish college students
The three studies presented below conducted with a total of 974 participants to determine the psychometric properties of the Revised Short Gratitude, Resentment, and Appreciation Test (S-GRAT) for Turkish college stude...
Psychometric properties of Turkish form of the Personal Well-Being Index-Adult
The purpose of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Personal Wellbeing Index-Adult (PWI-A) that was developed by The International Wellbeing Group (2006) and one of the most commonly used scales...
Psychometric properties of a newly established flow state questionnaire
In the last decades several measuring methods have been established for studying flow experience. The starting point for the establishment of the Flow State Questionnaire (PPL-FSQ: Flow State Questionnaire of the Posit...
The role of perceived social support in predicting subjective wellbeing in Lebanese college students
The purpose of this study was to determine the role of perceived social support (PSS) on subjective well-being (SWB) in Lebanese college students. All students were undergraduate students and followed the American educ...
Empowerment (character, motivation, and regulatory mode), positive affect, and resilience
ositive affectivity plays an important role in the endowment of resilience, which in turn is an important factor for individuals’ adaptation to adversities in the changing environment. Based on hope theory and the Sci...