Life satisfaction
[1] It is assessed in terms of mood, relationship satisfaction, achieved goals, self-concepts, and the self-perceived ability to cope with life.
The test they used was designed to measure participants' ability to recall a specific memory in response to a cue word while being timed.
Thirty cue words, including five words classified as 'positive' (e.g., funny, lucky, passionate, happy, hopeful), five as 'negative' (unsuccessful, unhappy, sad, abandoned, gloomy), and five as 'neutral' (work, city, home, shoes, family), were presented orally in a fixed, alternating order to each member of a focus group.
The raters were not informed regarding the hypotheses of the study, the experimental (control) group's membership, nor the content of the pretest or post-test.
[26] Other scholars have found that there is no general age trend in life satisfaction, arguing that Blanchflower and Oswald's work is misguided for including inappropriate control variables (which cannot affect how old someone is).
In the book Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, Harvard lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar argues that happiness should be one's ultimate goal and the primary factor in evaluating alternative choices.
As the subtitle implies, Happier recommends the pursuit of an immediate joyful experience in ways that contributes to more long-term, meaningful satisfaction.
Ben-Shahar further argues that pursuing genuine self-motivated goals, rather than just instant pleasure or selflessness in service of long-delayed enjoyment, results in an optimal combination of short- and long-term happiness.
Someone who tends to see the world in a more negative light may have a completely different level of satisfaction than someone who is constantly admiring the beauty of their surroundings.
[32] Recent research in the hospitality industry has found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly exacerbated mental health problems among hotel employees, leading to increased absenteeism and decreased life satisfaction.
This study highlights the profound impact that global health crises can have on individuals' mental well-being and overall life satisfaction, particularly in high-stress work environments like hotels.
Seasonal affective disorder is hypothesized to be caused by diminishing exposure to environmental light, which can lead to changes in levels of the neurotransmitter chemical serotonin.
Research has found that the onset of SAD typically occurs between the ages of 20 and 30 years, but most affected people do not seek medical help.
People who take pride in themselves by staying mentally and physically fit have higher levels of life satisfaction purely due to the content of their day.
Culture directs the attention to different sources of information for making life satisfaction judgments, thus affecting subjective well-being appraisal.
An individualistic approach can lead to loneliness, while those in a collectivist culture may be prone to having a fear of rejection (see also social control for more).
[45] In a research study by Pollmann-Schult (2014) on 13,093 Germans, it was found that when finances and time costs are held constant, parents are happier and show increased life satisfaction than non-parents.
There is evidence to suggest that happier individuals are more likely to marry, which means that part of the reason for the positive correlation is that people select into marriage.
In a longitudinal study completed at the Department of Psychology and Sports Science at Universitaet Erlangen-Neurnberg, they followed 1200 individuals who graduated with master's degrees at different German Universities.
From an evolutionary perspective, such inclination most likely stems from a strong innate drive of culture-learning, whereby evolution has denoted trusting and relying on community information over personal experience.
[61] While the ‘addiction to culture’ is shown to be an evolutionarily successful strategy,[62] pursuing social narratives has mixed results in achieving happiness and life satisfaction in modern society.
[63] Overall, focusing too much on reaching social narratives may deviate people from engaging in what actually elevates their life satisfaction level.
Therefore, despite having a strong preference for longer periods of happiness, there are systematic errors that divert people from engaging in coherent and consistent behavior, and in reflecting on their life-satisfaction level.
For example, research had found that income has a greater impact on life satisfaction for those who see the high-financial status as essential than those who do not.
[73] Incorporated under the umbrella term “Affective forecasting”, it is argued that having attention problems such as mistaken beliefs and projections, whereby one can make systematic errors in perceiving the reality and predicting the future's influence, creates the fundamental vulnerability to falling into narrative traps.
[74] In terms of mistaken projection, apart from 1) peak-end effect, and 2) focusing illusion, there are other types: 3) distinction bias (focus on dissimilarities of two choices yet fell to take into consideration of the experience after the decision is made); 4) Impact bias (the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future feeling states).
[75] Fulfilling the social narratives is regarded as having a key influence on happiness, defined by Paul Dolan as ‘a flow of pleasure and purpose over time’.
[71] This implies that rather than allowing the natural tendency where the “Remembering self” to makes the most of a happiness decision, by recognizing and accepting social narrative traps relevant to self, people are better able to regulate our attention, thereby improving satisfaction at “Experiencing self” as well.
[76] Three major narrative traps are identified: 1) reaching (more happiness is achieved with greater income, a marker of success and intellectual validation), 2) related (people ought to have a monogamous marriage and have kids), and 3) responsible (to act altruistically with a pure selfless motive; to prioritize good health and to act with free will to be held accountable).
[77] This implies that the contribution of more traditionally researched factors of life satisfaction (i.e. Income, employment, education, relationships) could be mediated by the extent of social narrative fulfillment.
