Emotional well-being, like physical health, can be judged on a variety of dimensions. Yet, in both realms, it is difficult to say which of these dimensions are essential for overall well-being. Can I say that I am in good physical shape because I am free of disease, or must I also have an abundance of energy and a great deal of strength? Do I have emotional well-being if I am free from depression, or must I have a positive opinion of my self and my life? Myers and Diener (1995) found that psychologists overwhelmingly focus on the negative aspects of individuals' lives -- the number of psychological articles published on negative states exceeds those published on positive states by a ratio of 17 to 1. In response to this unbalanced treatment of psychological well-being, researchers have in past decades begun to examine the positive side of the emotional well-being spectrum. The field of "subjective well-being" (SWB), which examines such topics as happiness, life satisfaction and morale, has flourished. (see Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1997; Kahneman, Diener, Schwarz, in press; Myers & Diener, 1995; and Strack, Argyle, & Schwarz, 1991).

As its name implies, SWB consists of people's own evaluations of their lives. Although measures such as crime statistics, health indices, and indicators of wealth surely are surely related to quality of life, these external indicators cannot capture what it means to be happy. An activist for society's downtrodden, for example, might thrive in a high crime, low-income neighborhood. The sense of meaning and personal satisfaction this individual gains from helping others will not be reflected in any of the traditional social indicators. People evaluate conditions differently depending on their expectations, values, and previous experiences. Subjective well-being researchers assign importance to this subjective element and assess individuals' thoughts and feelings about their lives.

To capture this subjective element, SWB researchers examine individuals' evaluations of their lives. These evaluations can be either cognitive (e.g., life satisfaction or satisfaction with one's job) or affective (the presence of joy) (Andrews & Withey, 1976). Although these components are separable (see, e.g., Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996), they often interrelate, suggesting the existence of a higher order construct of subjective well-being (Kozma, 1996). Methodologies used to assess SWB include national surveys, daily experience sampling, longitudinal studies, and controlled experiments.

It should be noted from the outset that the majority of people report positive affect most of the time (Diener & Diener, C., 1996). In a national U.S. survey, Andrews (1991) found that people from all age groups, socioeconomic groups, and ethnic groups reported satisfaction scores well above neutral. Positive reports of SWB are also found among citizens of most nations (e.g., Diener & Diener, M, 1993; Veenhoven, 1993). Therefore, when we discuss the correlates and possible causes for emotional well-being, we are mainly discussing factors that make some people more happy than others.

We must caution, however, that single reports of global well-being may not measure exactly the same construct as the aggregation of multiple moment or daily reports of well-being. Kahneman (in press), for example, reviews evidence that people weigh certain emotional information more heavily than others do when making global judgments. In a study of patients undergoing colonoscopy, Redelmeier and Kahneman (1996) found that people weigh the peak experience and the end experience most heavily. Therefore, when the colonoscopy was extended with an unnecessary and mildly painful procedure, patients rated the overall procedure as less painful than if the colonoscopy had been stopped earlier but after a more painful part. Even though the patients were in pain for a longer period of time, they rated the overall experience as less painful when it ended with a mildly painful experience. Similarly, Thomas and Diener (1990) found that people’s memories for emotional experiences are somewhat innacurate. Thus, researchers must be careful not to assume that global reports reflect an accurate aggregation of individual situations.

Frequent versus intense emotions. If positive emotions tend to influence one's overall emotional well-being, it is useful to ask what types of emotional experience lead to the greatest overall well-being. Do individuals consider the frequency of their positive emotional experiences when judging their happiness, or is the intensity of these experiences weighted most heavily? Lucas and Diener (1998) reported that judgments of well-being are based primarily on the frequency of pleasant affect, and less so on the intensity of affect. They argued that intense positive emotions are less important to the experience of long-term emotional well-being because such intense emotions are so rare, and also because they are often counterbalanced by costs. And although our analysis showed no correlation between intensity of positive and negative affect, others (e.g., Diener, Larsen, Levine, & Emmons, 1985; Larsen & Diener, 1987; Schimmack & Diener, 1997) found that individuals who experience pleasant emotions intensely also have a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions intensely as well. Diener, Colvin, Pavot, and Allman (1991) showed that intense pleasant emotions often occur because of the same processes that cause intense unpleasant emotions. Life histories of persons who had intense "highs" often reveal that they had intense "lows" as well. Zautra (1991) found that persons who experience many positive events are also more likely to experience more negative events. This finding was replicated by Magnus, Diener, Fujita, and Pavot (1993). Thus, individuals appear to weigh frequency of positive emotional experiences most heavily in determining overall well-being. Although there is evidence that intensity of pleasant emotions plays less of a role because those who experience them often experience intense negative emotions as well, it is not clear whether this can explain the smaller effect of intensity in overall well-being judgments.

Independence of pleasant and unpleasant moods. A fourth structural concern is whether or not pleasant affect and unpleasant affect are independent dimensions or opposite poles of a single dimension. In 1969, Bradburn reported that pleasant affect and unpleasant affect were not polar opposites and that each correlated with a distinct set of personality traits. In 1980, Costa and McCrae replicated this finding, showing that pleasant affect correlates moderately with extraversion but not neuroticism, whereas negative affect correlates moderately with neuroticism, but not extraversion. Watson and his colleagues (e.g., Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988; Watson & Tellegen, 1985) also argue that pleasant and unpleasant affect are two distinct and orthogonal factors. Furthermore, some researchers have found different physiological correlates with pleasant and unpleasant affect (e.g., Davidson, 1993; Gray, 1987). The two-factor structure has often been replicated (Diener & Emmons, 1985; Warr, Barter, & Brownbridge, 1983; Zevon & Tellegen, 1982.

Theorists on the other side of this debate suggest that pleasant and unpleasant affect are really two poles along a single dimension. Green, Goldman, and Salovey (1993), for example, found that when measurement error was controlled using structural equation modeling, the correlation between pleasant and unpleasant affect was -.85. Similarly, Russell (1980) proposed a circumplex model of affect in which emotions can be described in terms of their pleasantness-unpleasantness, and in terms of their level of arousal. According to this model, if arousal is held constant, pleasant and unpleasant affect will exhibit strong negative correlations. The debate between these two camps continues and no resolution of the opposing interpretations is acceptable to all. Researchers should be aware that the structure of emotions depends on the content and intensity of the emotions sampled (Diener, & Iran-Nejad, 1985; Diener et al.; 1985; Watson, 1988).

Summary. There appears to be some long-term stability in the amounts of pleasant and unpleasant emotions that people experience. People experience some level of affect, with its concomitant hedonic tone, virtually all of their waking moments, but rarely experience intense emotions. It is perhaps for this reason that the amount of time people experience pleasant versus unpleasant affect is weighted heavily when people report their happiness.

Measuring Emotional Well-Being

Emotional well-being has often been measured by means of simple one-time self-reports. These self-reports may consist of single-item or multiple-item scales that ask respondents to reflect on how happy they are. The evidence to date indicates that self-reports of happiness are valid: most instruments show impressive internal consistency, temporal stability, and convergence with non-self-report measures of well-being. Headey and Wearing (1989), for example, reported reliabilities between .5 and .6 for a 6-year interval. These values tend to be lower for single-item measures and for affective components of SWB, whereas multiple-item scales and measures of the cognitive components (e.g., life satisfaction) tend to exhibit higher reliabilities (Larsen, Diener, & Emmons, 1985). In a study examining the convergent validity of well-being measures, Sandvik, Diener, and Seidlitz (1993) found strong convergence between self-reports of emotional well-being and interview ratings, peer reports, the average daily ratio of pleasant to unpleasant moods, and memory for pleasant minus unpleasant events. Measures of well-being also show structural invariance across time and across cultural groups (Andrews, 1991; Balatsky & Diener, 1993; MacKinnon & Keating, 1989; Lawrence & Liang, 1988). Andrews and Withey (1976) suggested that about 65% of the variance in self-reports of well-being is valid variance; and Sandvik et al. (1993) estimated this number to be between 50% and 66%.

Measures of subjective emotional well-being are also responsive to changing life circumstances. In a 6-year longitudinal study, Headey & Wearing (1991) found that positive and negative life events led to concomitant increases and decreases in emotional well-being. Suh, Diener, and Fujita (1996) replicated this finding and demonstrated that although SWB scales are sensitive to the influence of life events, the effects of these events are relatively short-lived. Similar results have been found in national surveys: reports from nations in turmoil show low well-being (e.g., Europe after World War II, Eastern Europe in 1991) suggesting that the measures are sensitive to external conditions in theoretically meaningful ways (Veenhoven, 1994).

Diener, Sandvik, Pavot, and Gallagher (1991) found that self-reports of subjective emotional well-being often are not contaminated by social desirability. However, a number of other biases and artifacts can potentially influence reports of emotional well-being. Schwarz, Strack and their colleagues found that the type of response scale that is used, the response options, and the order and presentation of questions can all influence the levels of subjective emotional well-being that individuals report (see Schwarz & Strack, 1991). Furthermore, momentary mood can influence reports of global emotional well-being (e.g., Schwarz and Clore, 1983); but Pavot and Diener (1993) found that the influence of current mood on global well-being reports is small.

Diener (1994) recommends that multimethod batteries be used to assess emotional well-being. A major limitation of self-report is that it relies exclusively on person's cognitive labels of their emotions. But emotion is recognized to be a multichannel phenomenon that includes physiological, facial, nonverbal, cognitive, behavioral, and experiential components. In order to obtain a complete picture of a person’s subjective emotional well-being, it is desirable to include peer reports, coding of nonverbal behavior, and so forth, in order to assess the full range of emotional responses. In addition, one cannot completely rule out the effects of self-presentation or other artifacts when one compares the self-reported subjective well-being of various groups. Thus, the use of additional methods of measurement is imperative. When the measures converge, one will obtain greater confidence in the results. When the measures diverge, one will gain more complex knowledge of the emotional well-being of the groups being compared.

In 1967, Wilson reviewed the limited empirical evidence regarding the "correlates of avowed happiness." He concluded that the happy person is a "young, healthy, well-educated, well-paid, extroverted, optimistic, worry-free, religious, married person with high self-esteem, job morale, modest aspirations, of either sex, and of a wide range of intelligence" (p. 294). In the thirty years since Wilson's review, thousands of studies have been conducted and we now know much more about the correlates of subjective emotional well-being (see Diener et al., 1997, for a more detailed review).

A number of Wilson's conclusions have stood the test of time. Most significantly, Wilson was correct about (and probably underestimated the importance of) personality. Researchers consistently find that the personality traits of extraversion, neuroticism, optimism, and self-esteem correlate with measures of emotional well-being (Diener & Lucas, in press). However, we must caution that the pattern of relations may vary across cultures. Diener and Diener, M. (1995) found that the size of the correlation between self-esteem and life satisfaction was greater in individualistic nations than in collectivistic nations, perhaps because the former place greater emphasis on autonomy and internal feelings. Lucas, Diener, Grob, Suh, and Shao (1998) found that extraversion was correlated less strongly with pleasant affect in collectivistic nations than in individualistic nations (though the correlation was strong in both). Oishi, Diener, Suh, and Lucas (in press) suggested that values and goals might mediate the relations among personality traits and well-being constructs. Although the exact cause for the relations between personality and emotional well-being is unclear, the relation itself is robust.

Wilson was also correct that income plays a role in emotional well-being, though this relation is more complex than Wilson could have known. Studies of personal wealth, income change, national wealth (i.e., Gross National Product), and studies of the very wealthy find significant correlations between wealth and emotional well-being (Diener et al, 1997). The relation is often larger among those at the lowest levels of income, though greater income has a small effect even beyond the subsistence level (Diener et al., 1993).

Although Wilson's description of the happy individual was accurate in a number of respects, a few of Wilson's conclusions have been overturned by subsequent research. Most significantly, subjective well-being researchers now question the popular notion that people become more unhappy as they age. In a study that examined national probability samples from 40 nations, Diener and Suh (1998) found that although pleasant affect tended to decline with age, there were no significant trends in life satisfaction and unpleasant affect. Furthermore, decreases in positive affect may be due to the fact that most studies measure aroused types of pleasant emotions. If less-aroused emotions such as "contentment" and "affection" are examined, age declines may not be found (Diener et al., 1997).

Recent research also suggests that Wilson overemphasized the relation between health and emotional well-being. Although health is positively related to well-being, this relation holds only for self-reported health measures (e.g., George & Landerman, 1984; Larson, 1978; Okun, Stock, Haring, & Witter, 1984). When objective health (e.g., physician's ratings) is examined, the correlation weakens considerably, or even disappears (e.g., Watten, Vassend, Myhrer, & Syversen, 1997). Self reports of health reflect one's level of emotional adjustment as well as one's objective physical condition (Hooker & Siegler, 1992; Watson & Pennebaker, 1989), and the relation between health and emotional well-being is artificially inflated by this emotional component. This problem of Pollyana effects in emotional well-being appears in other domains (e.g., job morale) and provides further evidence regarding the need for non-self-report measures.

Much of the research summarized above answers the question: "What external conditions are necessary for happiness to ensue?" Do I need to have a lot of money to be happy, or can I have a modest income. Do I need to be married, or can I be single? These questions reflect an underlying theoretical assumption in which people have universal needs, and the degree to which these needs are met by external circumstances and personal resources determines happiness (Wilson, 1967). Unfortunately, the effects of these variables are often small, leading some researchers to complain of a lack of theoretical progress in the field (e.g., Ryff, 1989; Wilson, 1967). Fortunately, researchers have shifted their emphasis from studies of external factors and demographics to psychological variables that moderate the effects of external variables. People’s needs and the resources they have to meet these must be examined in the context of individual lives, goals, values, and personalities. Although no complete theoretical formulation is available, Diener et al. (1997) recently suggested the components that such a theory must include.

Situational Influences

Situational Influences clearly have an effect on emotional well-being (see Argyle, in press, for a review); but even resources that many would consider to be most important for happiness have only a small effect. Resources such as income (Diener, Sandvik, Seidlitz, & Diener, M., 1992; Veenhoven, 1991), health (Okun & George, 1984), physical attractiveness (Diener, Wolsic, & Fujita, 1995), and intelligence (Diener, 1984; Emmons & Diener, 1985), have little effect on happiness. Furthermore, only small percentages of variance in happiness can be explained by the demographics of the individuals studied. In a national probability sample, for example, Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers (1976) found that all the demographic factors they measured (e.g., age, sex, income, race, education, marital status) accounted for less than 20 percent of the variance in SWB. In a similar study, Andrews and Withey (1976) could only account for 8 percent of the variance. More recently, Argyle (in press) estimated the explained variance to be about 15 percent.

Clearly, a theory of emotional well-being must include more than an inventory of resources and external factors that lead to happiness. Diener and Diener, M. (1995), for example, found that the relation

Social Comparison.

It has been hypothesizeded that a person's level of subjective well-being is in part determined by comparisons he or she makes with standards (Michalos, 1985). Often people's standards come from observing people around them or remembering what they, themselves, were like in the past. It is hypothesized that if people exceed these standards, they will be happy and satisfied, but if they fall short of their standards, they will experience low levels of emotional well-being (e.g., Michalos, 1985). In recent years, social comparison research has begun to acknowledge that the process of making social comparisons is more subtle than originally believed (Diener & Fujita, 1997). People do not simply look around and judge their happiness by their distance above or below their friends and neighbors on relevant domains. Instead, people choose their targets for comparison, the information to which they attend, and the way they use this information in complex ways.

Adaptation, Adjustment, and Coping

Just as certain events may affect people differently depending on their goals and personalities, reactions to events are markedly different depending on the amount of time that has progressed since the event occurred. The processes that can account for these differences are an important part of theories of emotional well-being.

1. When people evaluate their well-being, the ratio of their pleasant to unpleasant emotions over time plays a pivotal role. Emotions are central to subjective well-being for several reasons. First, people seem to feel some affect during virtually all of their waking moments, and all affect seems to have a hedonic valence (either pleasant or unpleasant). Thus affect carries a large weight in evaluating well-being because it contributes pleasantness or unpleasantness on a continual basis to personal experience. Second, affect is related to a person's evaluation of life because emotion arises from the evaluations the person makes of events as those events transpire. Thus, a person who interprets his or her life as comprised of desirable events will experience more pleasant than unpleasant emotions over time.

2. The emotion system is reactive to immediate events and the current physiological state of the person. Thus a person's emotions fluctuate over time. Nevertheless, there are processes that influence the intermediate- and long-term average pleasantness or unpleasantness of a person's emotional life. For example, people seem to be predisposed by their genetic temperament to experience certain emotions. In addition, personality factors may contribute to the creation of life circumstances that foster pleasant or unpleasant emotional experiences (McCrae & Costa, 1991; Magnus et al., 1993). Thus, there are longer-term factors that produce coherent patterns of affect, and these are subjects for legitimate scientifc inquiry.

3. Instense affect, the stock in trade of most psychologists who study emotion, is rare in the natural daily lives of most adult humans. Most emotions are felt at mild levels (Diener & Iran-Nejad, 1986; Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 1991). Because people feel some level of mild emotion virtually all the time, the frequency and duration of pleasant and unpleasant emotions weigh heavily when a person evaluates his or her emotions and life satisfaction. Although intense emotional experiences are undoubtedly important, their rarity seems to often diminish their long-term impact on well-being.

4. Factors such as income, physical attractiveness, and health have only modest influence on long-term levels of emotion. Furthermore, people adapt or habituate to events. The findings suggest that the emotion system to some extent adjusts to current circumstances, but the limits of adaptation are not known.

5. Most people report being somewhat happy. Although some theories (e.g., Brickman & Campbell, 1971; Frijda, 1988) suggest that people should be affectively neutral or unhappy most of the time, existing subjective well-being data strongly contradict this prediction (Diener & Diener, C., 1996). Most people report experiencing mild pleasant affect most of the time. Thus despite a degree of adaptation to long-term circumstances, people are able to derive pleasant emotions from daily living.

6. Theories of well-being must acknowledge that events and circumstances must be understood in the context of the lives in which they are experienced. Personality, goals, culture, and other contextual factors change the meaning of events for different people. Future theoretical advances must clarify the relations and influences among these factors.

By including the positivep end of the emotional well-being spectrum in research programs, we not only increase our understanding of the good life and happiness, we also broaden our knowledge of the processes underlying emotions more generally.

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Direct all correspondence to:
Ed Diener
Psychology Department
University of Illinois
603 East Daniel Street
Champaign, IL 61820

email: ediener@s.psych.uiuc.edu

This manuscript is based on work supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship for Richard E. Lucas.

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