Development and empirical validation of a motivational model of life-satisfaction regulation

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In the past years, multiple studies have shown that high life satisfaction is associated with positive outcomes in many areas in life, including social relationships, achievement, and health. However, the mechanisms that account for these effects are largely unclear. One possible explanation is that life satisfaction leads to these positive outcomes through its motivational effects on goal selection and goal pursuit. This hypothesis is the core of the motivational model of life-satisfaction regulation that shall be developed and validated in this project. Life satisfaction is the cognitive component of the more general construct of subjective well-being. Cognitive well-being reflects people_s evaluations of their lives overall and can be distinguished from affective well-being which reflects the frequency of positive and negative affect. Cognitive and affective well-being are structurally and functionally distinct constructs that differ in their causes and consequences. One central distinction is that people think about their life circumstances when they rate their life satisfaction and they think about their recent activities when they rate their affective well-being. From this finding follows the central proposition of the proposed model: When people try to change their level of life satisfaction, they change those things that they perceive to be the sources of their life satisfaction, that is, their life circumstances, not their personality or their activities. Thus, the main hypothesis is that life satisfaction (but not affective well-being) is negatively related to the desire to change one_s life circumstances. Furthermore, it is proposed that this desire for change translates into actual goals associated with changing one_s life circumstances if the level of perceived control over a particular life domain is high (assimilation). If, in contrast, perceived control is low, people are more likely to adjust their aspirations (accommodation). This hypothesis will be tested within and across specific life domains, using a variety of methodological approaches including correlational, experimental, and existing longitudinal studies. In addition, I examine whether the effect of the desire for change on specific goals is moderated perceived control. Moreover, age differences in the relationships among the central variables in the model will be explored. Finally, using archival longitudinal data, the effect of successful and unsuccessful goal attainment on life satisfaction will be examined. Together, these studies will lead to a refined and validated model of life-satisfaction regulation that may explain why life satisfaction can lead to positive outcomes in life.