Bottom-up or top-down? Examining global and domain-specific evaluations of how one's life is unfolding over time.

Abstract

We employed bottom-up and top-down perspectives to evaluate the link between how individuals view their lives as unfolding over time overall and in multiple life domains. Participants from an American adult lifespan sample (n=1,003, mean age=54.39years, 49% female, 94% Caucasian) evaluated their recollected past, current, and anticipated future satisfaction in seven life domains (health, work, finances, contribution to others, relationships with one's children, close relationships, sex life) and for their lives overall (life satisfaction) at two time points separated by 9 years. Mean-level trends varied by life domain and age. In cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, domain-specific beliefs about changes in one's life explained substantial amounts of variance in perceived changes in overall life satisfaction, and multiple domains had unique predictive effects. Domain-specific beliefs also substantially mediated the predictive effect of age on perceived change in life satisfaction. Findings provide consistent support for the bottom-up perspective and limited support for the top-down model. Accordingly, individuals seem to derive beliefs concerning how their lives overall are unfolding over time based on perceived changes across multiple life domains.