Resources, personal strivings, and subjective well-being: A nomothetic and idiographic approach.

Abstract

The covariation of resources such as money, family support, social skills, and intelligence with subjective well-being (SWB) was assessed in 195 college students. Informant ratings provided an index of resources. Self-reports, daily experience sampling, and informant reports were used to measure SWB. The authors concluded that resources taken together are moderately strong predictors of SWB. This conclusion, however, was qualified by the fact that life satisfaction was more closely related to resources than was affective well-being and that social and personal resources were in general more strongly related to SWB than were material resources. The findings also supported the hypothesis that resources correlate more strongly with SWB when they are relevant to an individual's idiographic personal strivings. A tendency was found for people to choose personal strivings for which they have relevant resources, and the degree of congruence of individuals' goals with resources was predictive of SWB.

Cites (8)

1. The satisfaction with life scale
   Diener, Ed, Emmons, Robert A., Larsen, Randy J., Griffin, Sharon · 1985 · Journal of Personality Assessment
2. Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation.
   Markus, Hazel R., Kitayama, Shinobu · 1991 · Psychological Review
3. Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health
   Taylor, Shelley E., Brown, Jonathon D. · 1988 · Psychological Bulletin
4. The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts.
   Triandis, Harry C. · 1989 · Psychological Review
5. Assessing Subjective Well-Being: Progress and Opportunities
   Diener, Ed · 1994 · Social Indicators Research
6. Is happiness relative?
   Veenhoven, Ruut · 1991 · Social Indicators Research
7. The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute?
   Diener, Ed, Sandvik, Ed, Seidlitz, Larry, Diener, Marissa · 1993 · Social Indicators Research
8. Personality and susceptibility to positive and negative emotional states.
   Larsen, Randy J., Ketelaar, Timothy · 1991 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Show all 8 references

Cited by (42)

1. The Job Demands‐Resources model: state of the art
   Bakker, Arnold B., Demerouti, Evangelia · 2007 · Journal of Managerial Psychology
2. Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress.
   Diener, Ed, Suh, Eunkook M., Lucas, Richard E., Smith, Heidi L. · 1999 · Psychological Bulletin
3. The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?
   Lyubomirsky, Sonja, King, Laura, Diener, Ed · 2005 · Psychological Bulletin
4. The Influence of Culture, Community, and the Nested‐Self in the Stress Process: Advancing Conservation of Resources Theory
   Hobfoll, Stevan E. · 2001 · Applied Psychology
5. Subjective well-being. The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index
   Diener, Ed · 2000 · American Psychologist

See all 791