Transactional model of subjective well-being

Anna Zalewska

Abstract

  The paper presents assumptions and limitations of two - “bottom-up” and “top-down” - theories in research on subjective well-being (SWB). It offers a synthesis of them in the Transactional Model of Subjective Well-Being. Research has been conducted to examine whether at a given type of situations (at a new workplace) causal pathways between emotional and cognitive evaluations of life, job and health depend on reactivity. 97 workers at their new workplace were investigated with: Pavlovian Temperament Survey (reactivity), Time Sampling Diary (emotional evaluations of life, job and health), Work Description Inventory (satisfaction with life, job and job facets), Somatic Symptoms Checklist (cognitive evaluation of health). Results of structural equation modeling (SEM) are consistent with the theoretical assumptions and provide evidence that causalities between evaluations (the structures of SWB) are different in groups with high and low reactivity. Key words: theories of SWB, components and structure of SWB, reactivity.