Subjective Well-Being
This chapter describes the literature on subjective well-being, or a person’s cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life as a whole. Researchers have developed reliable and valid self-report measures of subjective well-being. They have also shown that various personality traits are associated with subjective well-being. Significant life events do affect one’s subjective well-being; there are, however, individual variations in the speed with which people adapt to life events. Furthermore, predictors of subjective well-being vary across nations. Several interventions studies have been conducted. Although there are many effective interventions on subjective well-being, it is not yet known whether these interventions last for an extended period of time and work well for most people. Important future directions include the development of reliable and valid non-self-report measures, the effects of life events and societal conditions, and the development of interventions that last for an extended period of time.