Synonyms

Satisfaction with life as a whole

Definition

Life satisfaction is an endorsement of or positive attitude toward one’s life overall.

Description

The concept of life satisfaction is employed in philosophical and psychological accounts of happiness and well-being. “Life satisfaction” is regularly used as a synonym for “happiness” and is often either identified with or seen as a significant component of well-being. However, there are two distinct senses of “satisfaction” at use in these various accounts: in some accounts, “satisfaction” refers to the perceived fulfillment of expectations or standards; in other accounts, “satisfaction” refers to a feeling of being pleased with something. Because of these different senses of the term “satisfaction,” there are broadly two different conceptions of life satisfaction at use in life satisfaction accounts.

Accounts using “satisfaction” in the first sense (the standard-fulfillment sense) are “cognitive” accounts of life satisfaction. In these accounts, to say that someone is satisfied with her life is to say that she judges, or is disposed to judge (Benditt, 1974), that her life meets her standards; her life is at least adequate or satisfactory given what she expects or wants out of life. This conception of life satisfaction is cognitive in that “satisfaction” here refers to the bare judgment or assessment that one’s life is satisfactory; such a judgment could be made without any sort of positive feeling, mood, or emotion accompanying it. Cognitive accounts of life satisfaction can be found in Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985), Pavot and Diener (1993), and Alexandrova (2008).

Accounts using “satisfaction” to refer to feeling pleased with something can be seen as “mixed” accounts of life satisfaction, because they contain both cognitive and affective elements. According to this conception of life satisfaction, to say that someone is satisfied with her life is to say that she feels satisfied (or is disposed to feel satisfied) with her life. What matters with regard to life satisfaction, according to the mixed conception, is that people enjoy, are pleased by, like, or otherwise feel content with their lives, in addition to judging that their lives meet their standards. Mixed accounts of life satisfaction can be found in Thomas (1968), Benditt (1974), Telfer (1980), Brandt (1989), Sumner (1996), and Tiberius and Plakias (2010).

Both conceptions of life satisfaction take “life satisfaction” to refer to a person’s positive appraisal, judgment, or endorsement of her life overall, as opposed to her appraisal of particular domains of life (such as her health, job, or friendships). While some research indicates that domain satisfaction can be predictive of life satisfaction (see, for instance, Multiple Discrepancies Theory, described in Michalos (1980)), life satisfaction is conceptually distinct from domain satisfaction in that judgments or attitudes of life satisfaction are holistic and global (Haybron, 2007; Pavot & Diener, 1993). Life satisfaction is also often seen to have a motivational aspect; someone who is satisfied with her life wants her life to go on largely as it is, or is at least disinclined to seek out change (Haybron, 2007; Kekes, 1982; Telfer, 1980; Thomas, 1968).

It is important to distinguish cognitive conceptions of life satisfaction from mixed conceptions, as each has different implications when employed as a measure of, or treated as equivalent to, happiness or well-being. For instance, a person could be satisfied with her life in the cognitive sense while also being depressed, anxious, bored, or experiencing other negative emotions. Whether or not a person is satisfied with her life in this sense depends on which perspective she takes on it, and as Haybron (2007) argues, the choice of perspective may depend in large part on values unrelated to happiness or the achievement of important goals. Even if people tend to be more satisfied with their lives when they are happier or their lives are going well in other ways, life satisfaction in the cognitive sense is conceptually distinct from both happiness and well-being. For instance, it is possible to wish for someone’s happiness or well-being while also wishing that she did not judge her life to be satisfactory. This might happen if we think that a person’s low standards are causing her to be satisfied with a life that contains a good deal of boredom, anxiety, or even depression; if she were not satisfied with her life, she might strive to make changes that would ultimately make her happier. Because of this, neither happiness nor well-being should be identified with life satisfaction in the cognitive sense. Instead, researchers employing a cognitive conception of life satisfaction often identify it as only one component of well-being (see, for instance, Diener et al. (1985) and Pavot and Diener (1993)).

Since it is possible for a person to be satisfied in the cognitive sense while living a life that otherwise seems to be lacking in much to recommend it, most authors who identify well-being or happiness with life satisfaction (rather than just stating that life satisfaction is one component of well-being) employ a mixed account of life satisfaction. Those using a mixed account in this way often enumerate certain idealizing constraints or conditions for when a person’s life satisfaction “counts” as happiness or well-being (Sumner, 1996; Tiberius & Plakias, 2010).

Both the cognitive and mixed conceptions of life satisfaction are important to well-being research. The cognitive conception matters because a person’s perspective on her life is a significant component of her experience of her life, and a person’s judgment that her life is not going well is a cause for concern. Even though a person may be satisfied with her life in the cognitive sense for what we may think of as the wrong reasons, how she sees her life is arguably still an important factor in how her life is going for her – irrespective of how this judgment gets made (see Kennedy, Northcott, and Kinzel (1978), Haybron (2007), and Feldman (2008) for some of the problems that may affect life satisfaction judgments; see Veenhoven (1996) and Alexandrova (2008) for discussions of how judgments of life satisfaction are formed). Perhaps in part because it is easier to measure, the cognitive conception of life satisfaction is often the one employed in empirical research. Given the shortcomings of cognitive life satisfaction noted here, however, we should be careful not to interpret findings about life satisfaction as necessarily equivalent to findings about happiness or well-being. This is especially true if such research is then used in policy discussions about how to assess and compare national progress or where to concentrate resources for human development. We should not assume, for instance, that because two countries show similar levels of (cognitive) life satisfaction, their citizens are doing equally well.

The mixed conception, on the other hand, is meaningful because we often care about more than whether our lives meet our standards in some “checklist” sense. We also want to feel good about our lives. This is not merely to say that we want both to judge that our lives are going well and to experience some sort of positive affect in our lives. A person could judge her life to be satisfactory and also regularly experience positive affect in her life while still not being satisfied with her life in the mixed sense. (For instance, a person could frequently be in a good mood due to her personality and judge her life to be satisfactory because of her belief that anyone with a job, a roof over her head, and enough food to eat has no reason to be dissatisfied, and still not feel particularly pleased with her life in the sense that is relevant here.) In mixed accounts of life satisfaction, the feelings in question are distinguished from other positive emotions or moods in that they are causally related to a person’s assessment or perception of how her life is going. To say that a person feels satisfied is to say that she is happy or content with her life; this is a feeling that arises from the contemplation of her life, in contrast to feelings that arise for some other reason, or for no clear reason at all (Benditt, 1974). This feeling of being happy or pleased with one’s life is a particularly important affective response to pay attention to.

Here, then, are three separate targets for measurement: a person’s judgment about whether her life meets her standards, the feelings a person has that result from this judgment, and the more general affective responses a person experiences throughout her life. Each of these should be recognized as a distinct area of concern for research on happiness and well-being.

Cross-References

Happiness

Life Satisfaction Judgments

Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT)

Quality of Life (QOL)

Satisfaction With Life as a Whole

Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), an Overview

Subjective Well-Being

Subjective Well-Being (SWB)

Well-Being of Nations

Well-Being, Philosophical Theories of