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Satisfaction With Life: PSYC305

Life satisfaction refers to an individual's overall evaluation and feelings about their life, rather than being based on specific moments in time. Happiness is fleeting and momentary, while life satisfaction is more stable and broader in scope, based on one's own judgments rather than external criteria. Theories explain that life satisfaction comes from both satisfaction in individual life domains combining for overall satisfaction, and one's overall satisfaction influencing satisfaction in domains. Contributing factors include life chances, the course of events in one's life, experiences, and an evaluation comparing one's life to their ideal.

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62 views5 pages

Satisfaction With Life: PSYC305

Life satisfaction refers to an individual's overall evaluation and feelings about their life, rather than being based on specific moments in time. Happiness is fleeting and momentary, while life satisfaction is more stable and broader in scope, based on one's own judgments rather than external criteria. Theories explain that life satisfaction comes from both satisfaction in individual life domains combining for overall satisfaction, and one's overall satisfaction influencing satisfaction in domains. Contributing factors include life chances, the course of events in one's life, experiences, and an evaluation comparing one's life to their ideal.

Uploaded by

Chinar Sodhani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Satisfaction with Life

PSYC305
Definition

life satisfaction refers to an individual’s overall feelings about his or her life. In other words, life
satisfaction is a global evaluation rather than one that is grounded at any specific point in time or
in any specific domain.
Difference between Happiness and Life
Satisfaction
Happiness is an immediate, in-the-moment experience; although enjoyable, it is ultimately
fleeting. A healthy life certainly includes moments of happiness, but happiness alone usually does
not make for a fulfilling and satisfying life.

Life satisfaction is not only more stable and long-lived than happiness, it is also broader in scope.
It is our general feeling about our life and how pleased we are with how it’s going.

Another difference between happiness and life satisfaction is that the latter is not based on
criterion that researchers deem to be important, but instead on your own cognitive judgments of
the factors that you consider to be most valuable.
Life Satisfaction Theories

Bottom-up theories hold that we experience satisfaction in many domains of life, like work,
relationships, family and friends, personal development, and health and fitness. Our satisfaction
with our lives in these areas combines to create our overall life satisfaction.

top-down theories state that our overall life satisfaction influences (or even determines) our life
satisfaction in the many different domains. This debate is ongoing, but for most people it is
enough to know that overall life satisfaction and satisfaction in the multiple domains of life are
closely related.
Contributing Factors

Life chances: societal resources like economic welfare, social equality, political freedom, culture,
and moral order; personal resources like social position, material property, political influence,
social prestige, and family bonds; and individual abilities like physical fitness, psychic fortitude,
social capability, and intellectual skill.

Course of events: events can involve factors like need or affluence, attack or protection, solitude
or company, humiliation or honor, routine or challenge, and ugliness or beauty.

Flow of experience: experiences like yearning or satiation, anxiety or safety, loneliness or love,


rejection or respect, dullness or excitement, and repulsion or rapture

Evaluation of life (Veenhoven, 1996): appraisal of the average effect of all of these interactions.
It involves comparing our own life with our idea of the “good life,” and how the good and the
bad in our life balances out.

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