Detecting Population Heterogeneity in Stability and Change in Subjective Well-Being by Mixture Distribution Models

Abstract

Abstract The state-trait distinction has a long tradition in psychology. Particularly in emotion psychology, it is common to distinguish between an emotional state that characterizes the emotion felt at any given moment in time and an emotional trait that describes the disposition of an individual to the repeated experience of a specific emotional state (e.g., Lazarus, 1991; Spielberger, 1977). In positive psychology, it is also common to distinguish, for example, between the momentary well-being of an individual and a general well-being set point that characterizes an individual across situations and time (e.g., Csikszentmihalyi & Wong, 1991; Eid & Diener, 2004). The state-trait distinction enables positive psychologists to simultaneously analyze the effect of stable personality traits as well as fluctuating situational influences on the experience of subjective well-being.