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4 Reports of Subjective Well-Being: Judgmental Processes and Their Methodological Implications Norbert Schwarz and Fritz Strack The cognitive and communicative processes underlying individuals' reports ofhappiness and satisfaction with their lives as a whole are reviewed in this chapter. Reports of subjective IVell-being (SWB) do not reflect a stable inner state of IVell-being. Rather, they are judgments that individuals form on the spot, based on information that is chronically or temporarily accessible at that point in time, resulting in pronounced context effects. The way in IVhich accessible information about an individual 's life influences the judgment depends on holV it is used. Information that is used in forming a mental representation ofthe individual's life as a IVhole or ofsome extended episode results in assimilation effects, such as higher reports ofSWB when a happy rather than sad event comes to mind. Information that is used in forming a standard ofcomparison results in contrast effects. In this case, the individual's life looks bland by comparison to a happy event. The variables that determine assimilation or contrast effects are identified. Given that the same event can increase or decrease an individual 's judgment ofSWB, depending on its use in the construal of the individual's life or of a standard, the relationship betJveen objective events and mbjective evaluations is necessarily weak. Hence, SWB cannot be predicted on the basis of objective circumstances , unless one takes the construal processes into account. In addition to information about his or her own past, present, or future, the individual may use information about others' lives in assessing the quality of his or her life. Although people often feel better when they compare themselves to others IVho are less IVe/! off, the specific outcome again depends on the specific nature of the mental construal . Individuals may simplifY the complexities of evaluating their lives by draIVing on their feelings at the time of judgment as a source of information . Hence, they report higher SWB IVhen in a good rather than bad mood (and finding a dime is sufficient to increase temporarily one's life satisfaction ). Moods are more likely to affict judgments ofgeneral SWB than judgments ofspecific life domains . As a result, a particularly happy event in domain X may increase an individual's satisfaction IVith his or her life as a whole but decrease satisfaction with the specific domain by IVay of contrast . Such divergent influences decrease the relationship betJveenglobal SWB and domain satisfaction . Public reports of SWB are often inflated oIVing to self-presentation concerns. Methodological implications are discussed. MUCH OF WHAT we know about individuals' subjective well-being (SWB) is based on self-reports of happiness and life satisfaction. Since the groundbreaking studies of Bradburn (1969), Andrews and Whithey (1976), and Campbell, Converse , and Rodgers (1976), hundreds of thousands of survey respondents around the world have been asked questions like, "Taking all things together, how would you say things are these days-would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?" or, "How satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days? Are you very satisfied, satisfied, not very satisfied, not at all satisfied?" Questions of this type are intended to assess the subjective quality of life in an attempt to monitor the subjective side of social change. These subjective social indicators supplement measures of the objective standard of living, which have long dominated welfare research in the social sciences. As Angus Campbell (1981) noted, the "use of these measures is based on the assumption that all the countless experiences people go through from day to day add to ... global feelings ofwell-being, that these feelings remain relatively constant over extended periods, and that people can describe them with candor and accuracy" (23). These assumptions have increasingly been drawn into question, however, as the empirical work has progressed . First, the relationship between individuals ' experiences and objective conditions of life 62 Well-Being and their subjective sense of well-being is often weak and sometimes counterintuitive. Most objective life circumstances account for less than 5 percent of the variance in measures of SWB, and the combination of the circumstances in a dozen domains of life does not account for more than 10 percent (Andrews and Whithey 1976; Kammann 1982; for a review, see Argyle, this volume). Second , measures of SWB have low test-retest reliabilities , usually hovering around .40, and not exceeding .60 when the same question is asked twice during the same one-hour interview...

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