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Adaptation and the Set-Point Model of Subjective Well-Being - Does Happiness Change After Major Life Events?

Long-Term Disability Is Associated With Lasting Changes in Subjective Well-Being: Evidence From Two Nationally Representative Longitudinal Studies

Personality and Subjective Well-Being

Using the german socio-economic panel study to assess age-related changes in life satisfaction

Do People Really Adapt to Marriage?

Reexamining Adaptation and the Set Point Model of Happiness: Reactions to Changes in Marital Status

According to adaptation theory, individuals react to events but quickly adapt back to baseline levels of subjective well-being. To test this idea, the authors used data from a 15-year longitudinal study of over 24,000 individuals to examine the effects of marital transitions on life satisfaction. On average, individuals reacted to events and then adapted back toward baseline levels. However, there ...

Unemployment Alters the Set-Point of Life Satisfaction

According to set-point theories of subjective well-being, people react to events but then return to baseline levels of happiness and satisfaction over time. We tested this idea by examining reaction and adaptation to unemployment in a 15-year longitudinal study of more than 24,000 individuals living in Germany. In accordance with set-point theories, individuals reacted strongly to unemployment and ...

How stable is happiness? Using the STARTS model to estimate the stability of life satisfaction

A common interpretation of existing subjective well-being research is that long-term levels of well-being are almost completely stable. However, few studies have estimated stability and change using appropriate statistical models that can precisely address this question. The STARTS model (Kenny & Zautra, 2001) was used to analyze life satisfaction data from two nationally representative panel studies. ...

Personality Development Across the Life Span: Longitudinal Analyses With a National Sample From Germany

Longitudinal data from a national sample of Germans (N = 20,434) were used to evaluate stability and change in the Big Five personality traits. Participants completed a brief measure of personality twice, 4 years apart. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to establish measurement invariance over time and across age groups. Substantive questions about differential (or rank-order) and mean-level ...

Estimating the Reliability of Single-Item Life Satisfaction Measures: Results from Four National Panel Studies

Life satisfaction is often assessed using single-item measures. However, estimating the reliability of these measures can be difficult because internal consistency coefficients cannot be calculated. Existing approaches use longitudinal data to isolate occasion-specific variance from variance that is either completely stable or variance that changes systematically over time. In these approaches, reliable ...