Integrating bottom-up and top-down theories of subjective well-being: The case of health.

Abstract

Part of the series International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life pp 239-268 The first presents a theoretical view of subjective wellbeing (SWB), which sets. Amazon.com: Handbook on Well-Being of Working Women (International Her research areas include quality of work life, subjective well-being, gender.

Cognitive, affective and contextual predictors of subjective wellbeing

“…As expected, the contextual factors were not the best predictors of SWB. The results support the top down theoretical models of SWB (Brief et al, 1993). However, the results also showed that the contextual variables significantly predicted SWB, particularly its cognitive dimension.…”

“…material conditions; life events; sociopolitical contexts) on the subjective experience of individuals. According to this perspective, adverse circumstances affect SWB (Brief, Butcher, George, & Link, 1993;Feist, Bodner, Jacobs, Miles, & Tan, 1995). However, one of the main findings of this phase was that contextual factors are not the most powerful in explaining the variability of SWB.…”

“…A top down perspective influenced the studies of SWB in this stage. Studies tested the hypothesis that the intrapersonal (affective & cognitive) characteristics of individuals determine their SWB (Brief et al, 1993;Feist et al, 1995). Theories postulated that two persons in the same circumstances can evaluate their SWB in different ways.…”

Using Single-Item Measures to Examine the Relationships between Work, Personality, and Well-Being in the Workplace

“…Top-down theories of SWB such as the dynamic equilibrium model (Headey & Wearing, 1989) suggest that personality is a critical factor, potentially as a tendency to experience situations in a positive or negative way (Diener, 1984), or to return SWB to an equilibrium after life events have disturbed the balance (DeNeve & Cooper, 1998). These top-down approaches to SWB suggest that personality may influence the relationships between circumstances and outcomes, as well as having direct effects themselves (Brief, Butcher, George, & Link, 1993). In the case of organisational well-being, interaction theories could be interpreted to suggest that as well as having a direct effect, personality factors may influence the extent to which demands, effort, control, or reward have their effects on well-being.…”

Serious Leisure, Health Perception, Dispositional Optimism, and Life Satisfaction Among Senior Games Participants

“…Health perceptions refer to subjective evaluations of how people are feeling, and it is an important aspect of life satisfaction because life satisfaction may have a stronger correlation with health perception than with objective measures of health (Brief, Butcher, George, & Link, 1993). Research studies demonstrate that poor perceptions of health are significantly associated with diminished perceptions of life satisfaction for older adults (Jones, Rapport, Hanks, Lichtenberg, & Telmet, 2003;Leung, Moneta, & McBrideChang, 2005).…”