Happy Days: Resolving the Structure of Daily Subjective Well-Being, Between and Within Individuals

Abstract

We address the long-standing confusion concerning the conceptualization and structure of subjective well-being (SWB) by examining daily variation in life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA). A total of 911 participants provided daily ratings of LS, PA, and NA over 14 days. Between- and within-individual variations in daily SWB were simultaneously modeled using dynamic structural equation modeling and random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling. Parameter estimates were highly consistent across approaches. Strong loadings from LS, PA, and NA were observed on latent SWB factors, both between and within individuals; cross-lagged predictive effects among SWB components were small and inconsistent across adjacent days within individuals. Findings provide compelling new evidence supporting a hierarchical conceptualization of SWB as an underlying (latent) sense of well-being reflected in daily experiences of LS, PA, and NA. Implications for studying stable (trait-like) and dynamic (time-varying) aspects of other multidimensional constructs in social and personality psychology are discussed.