Sex differences in positive well-being: A consideration of emotional style and marital status.

Abstract

This article reviews all published studies reporting tests for sex differences in well-being. Women were found to report greater happiness and life satisfaction than men. This sex difference was explained in terms of men's and women's social roles: The female (vs. male) gender role specifies greater emotional responsiveness. Furthermore, past role-related experiences provide women with appropriate skills and attitudes. Women's (vs. men's) greater well-being was also found to hold for married but not unmarried Ss: For both sexes the married state (vs. unmarried) was associated with favorable well-being, but the favorable outcomes proved stronger for women than men. Given that most Ss were married, the overall sex difference in well-being can be attributed to Ss' marital status. These findings were discussed in the context of prior research on sex differences in negative well-being. Research on subjective social indicators has demonstrated that one's objective life circumstances do not necessarily correspond to one's personal experience of well-being. The fact, then, that men and women in our society differ in terms of a variety of biological, personality, and situational factors may or may not result in sex differences in subjective quality of life. This article examines whether men and women do differ in evaluations of their life as a whole. The inquiry is limited to consideration of data on positive welbbeing and excludes findings on negative affect and psychological symptomatology. This is because positive and negative affect appem; under some circumstances, to be uncorrelated (Diener, Larson, Levine, & Emmons, 1985; Wart, Barter, & Brownbridge, 1983). I Reports of positive wen-being are best interpreted as indicators of positive domains of experience, separate from negative aspects of one's life circumstances. Prior research on sex differences in subjective life quality has focused almost exclusively on negative affect and psychological symptomatology. Consequently, most theories in this area are tailored to explain the occurrence of men's and women's poor well-being. This work, and the data on which it is based, is presented as a frame of reference for interpreting sex differences in positive well-being. First, we consider what is represented by judgments of wellbeing. Philosophers and psychologists have debated this question at length (see, e.g., Diener's, 1984, impressive review of the