Skip to main content
Log in

Perceived Change in Life Satisfaction and Daily Negative Affect: The Moderating Role of Purpose in Life

Journal of Happiness Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Perceiving changes in life satisfaction has been linked to diminished health and well-being. Purpose in life is theorized to promote well-being by providing a sense of personal consistency, which may buffer the negative consequences of perceived change. Using data from the Midlife in the United States study, a cluster analysis was performed to explore profiles of adults’ (N = 1,746) ratings of life satisfaction for their past, present, and future. The analysis yielded three distinct profiles: continuous high, incremental, and decremental. Relative to the other profiles, decremental adults reported greater levels and variability of negative affect in everyday life. However, purpose moderated these effects such that no between-profile differences in negative affect level or variability were detected for adults reporting greater levels of purpose. Purpose is discussed as an asset for promoting positive adjustment in adulthood.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Because age and income were significantly associated with cluster membership, we also tested these demographic variables as separate moderators of the relationship between cluster membership and daily NA. However, in neither analysis did the interaction term reach statistical significance, yet main effects for cluster membership remained significant. Therefore, the differential effects noted for perceiving change in LS do not appear to be contoured by individual differences in age or level of income.

References

  • Albert, S. (1977). Temporal comparison theory. Psychological Review, 84, 485–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aldenderfer, M. S., & Blashfield, R. K. (1984). Cluster analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Almeida, D. M., Wethington, E., & Kessler, R. C. (2002). The daily inventory of stressful experiences (DISE): An interview-based approach for measuring daily stressors. Assessment, 9, 41–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baird, B. M., Lucas, R. E., & Donnellan, M. B. (2010). Life satisfaction across the lifespan: Findings from two nationally representative panel studies. Social Indicators Research, 99, 183–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2002). The pursuit of meaningfulness in life. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 608–618). New York: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boehm, J. K., Peterson, C., Kivimaki, M., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2011). Heart health when life is satisfying: Evidence from the Whitehall II cohort study. European Heart Journal, 32, 2672–2677.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonanno, G. A., Papa, A., Lalande, K., Zhang, N., & Noll, J. G. (2005). Grief processing and deliberate grief avoidance: A prospective comparison of bereaved spouses and parents in the United States and the people’s republic of china. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 86–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burrow, A. L., & Hill, P. L. (2011). Purpose as a form of identity capital for positive youth adjustment. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1196–1206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Busseri, M. A., Choma, B. L., & Sadava, S. W. (2009). Functional or fantasy? Examining the implications of subjective temporal perspective “trajectories” for life satisfaction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, 295–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carstensen, L. L., Fung, H., & Charles, S. (2003). Socioemotional selectivity theory and the regulation of emotion in the second half of life. Motivation and Emotion, 27, 103–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charles, S. T., & Pasupathi, M. (2003). Age-related patterns of variability in self descriptions: Implications for everyday affective experience. Psychology and Aging, 18, 524–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chida, Y., & Steptoe, A. (2008). Positive psychological well-being and mortality: A quantitative review of prospective observational studies. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70, 741–756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohn, M. A., Fredrickson, B. L., Brown, S. L., Mikels, J. A., & Conway, A. M. (2009). Happiness unpacked: Positive emotions increase life satisfaction by building resilience. Emotion, 9, 361–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., & Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 653–663.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Fujita, F., Tay, L., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2012). Purpose, mood, and pleasure in prediction satisfaction judgements. Social Indicators Research, 105, 333–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (1998). Subjective well-being and age: An international analysis. In K. W. Schaie & M. P. Lawton (Eds.), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics (Vol. 17, pp. 304–324)., Focus on emotion and adult development New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Suh, M., Lucas, E., & Smith, H. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hair, J. F., & Black, W. C. (2000). Cluster analysis. In L. G. Grimm & P. R. Yarnold (Eds.), Reading and understanding more multivariate statistics (pp. 147–205). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., & McKnight, P. E. (2009). Origins of purpose in life: Refining our understanding of a life well lived. Psychological Topics, 18, 303–316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, C. L. M. (2000). Subjective change and its consequences for emotional well-being. Motivation and Emotion, 24, 67–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, C. L. M. (2011). Authentic purpose: The spiritual infrastructure of life. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 8, 281–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keyes, C. L. M., & Ryff, C. D. (2000). Subjective change and mental health: A self-concept theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 264–279.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lucas, R. E., Clark, A. E., Georgellis, Y., & Diener, E. (2003). Re-examining adaptation and the setpoint model of happiness: Reactions to changes in marital status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 527–539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mather, M., & Knight, M. R. (2005). Goal-directed memory: The role of cognitive control in older adults’ emotional memory. Psychology and Aging, 20, 554–570.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKnight, P. E., & Kashdan, T. B. (2009). Purpose in life as a system that creates and sustains health and well-being: An integrative, testable theory. Review of General Psychology, 13, 242–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mroczek, D. K., & Almeida, D. M. (2004). The effect of daily stress, personality, and age on daily negative affect. Journal of Personality, 72, 355–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mroczek, D. K., & Spiro, A. (2005). Change in life satisfaction over 20 years during adulthood: Findings from the VA normative aging study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 189–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raudenbush, S. W., Bryk, A. A., & Congdon, P. (2008). HLM: Hierarchical linear and non-linear modeling (version 6.34g) [computer software]. Lincoln, IL: Scientific Software International.

  • Röcke, C., & Lachmann, M. E. (2008). Perceived trajectories of life satisfaction: Profiles and correlates of subjective change in young, middle-aged, and older adults. Psychology and Aging, 23, 833–847.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069–1081.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D., & Singer, B. H. (2006). Best news yet on the six-factor model of well-being. Social Science Research, 35, 1103–1119.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anthony L. Burrow.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Burrow, A.L., Sumner, R. & Ong, A.D. Perceived Change in Life Satisfaction and Daily Negative Affect: The Moderating Role of Purpose in Life. J Happiness Stud 15, 579–592 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9436-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9436-9

Keywords

Navigation