Abstract
The present study examines lay conceptions ofwell-being in a representative sample ofGermans in the second half of life. Respondentsfilled out a sentence completion questionnaireas well as the Satisfaction With Life Scale(SWLS). In their sentence completions,respondents gave spontaneous descriptions oftheir lives as a whole in terms ofsatisfaction, quality (good/bad), achievement,retrospection, and other global dimensions.They also referred to the intrapersonal andinterpersonal domain, health and functioning,and other specific life domains in thesesentence completions. Systematic differenceswere found in the dimensions referred to inpositive and negative judgments and across agegroups. Hardly any of the negative judgmentswere couched in terms of life satisfaction. Thesentence completions and the SWLS resulted insimilar evaluations, but the personallymeaningful dimensions of judgment which emergedfrom the sentence completions were only partlycovered by the dimensions inherent in the SWLSitems. These findings are discussed in relationto existing studies on subjective well-beingand successful aging, which appear to focus toonarrowly on life satisfaction at the expense ofother personally meaningful dimensions of lifejudgments.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Baltes, M.M. and L.L. Carstensen: 1996,' The process of successful aging', Ageing and Society 15, pp. 397–422.
Baumeister, R.F.: 1991, Meanings of Life (Guilford Press, New York).
Bode, C., G.J. Westerhof and F. Dittmann-Kohli: in press, 'Selbstvorstellungen über Individualität und Verbundenheit in der zweiten Lebenshälfte', Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie.
Brandstädter, J. and W. Greve: 1994, 'The aging self: Stabilizing and adaptive processes', Developmental Review 14, pp. 52–80.
Bruner, J.: 1990, Acts of Meaning (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
Campbell, A., P.E. Converse and W.L. Rodgers: 1976, The Quality of American Life: Perceptions, Evaluations and Satisfactions (Russell Sage, New York).
Chamberlain, K.: 1988, 'On the structure of subjective well-being', Social Indicators Research 20, pp. 581–604.
Chiasson, N., L. Dubé and J.P. Blondin: 1996, 'A look into the folk psychology of four cultural groups', Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology 27, pp. 673–691.
Dann, H.D.: 1991, 'subjektive Theorien zum Wohlbefinden', in A. Abele and P. Becker (eds.),Wohlbefinden: Theorie, Empirie, Diagnostik (Juventa, München, pp. 97–119).
Diener, E.: 1984, 'Subjective well-being', Psychological Bulletin 95, pp. 542–575.
Diener, E.: 1994, 'Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities', Social Indicators Research 31, pp. 103–157.
Diener, E. and E.M. Suh: 1998, 'Subjective well-being and age: An international analysis', Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics 17, pp. 304–324.
Diener, E., E.M. Suh, R. Lucas and H.L. Smith: 1999, 'Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress', Psychological Bulletin 125, pp. 276–302.
Dittmann-Kohli, F.: 1995, Das persönliche Sinnsystem. Ein Vergleich zwischen frühem und spätem Erwachsenenalter (Hogrefe, Göttingen).
Dittmann-Kohli, F., C. Bode and G.J. Westerhof (eds.): 2001, Die zweite Lebenshälfte: Psychologische Perspektiven — Ergebnisse des Alters-Survey (Kohlhammer, Stuttgart).
Dittmann-Kohli, F. and G.J. Westerhof: 1997, 'The SELE-sentence completion questionnaire: A new instrument for the assessment of personal meaning in research on aging', Anuario de Psicologia 73, pp. 7–18.
Fiske, S. and S. Taylor: 1991, Social Cognition (2nd ed, McGraw-Hill, New York).
Garfein, A.J. and A.R. Herzog: 1995, 'Robust aging among the young-old, old-old, and oldest old', Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 50B, pp. S77–S87.
Hazelrigg, L.E. and M.A. Hardy: 2000, 'Scaling the semantics of satisfaction',Social Indicators Research 49, pp. 147–180.
Heckhausen, J. and R. Schulz: 1995, 'A life-span theory of control', Psychological Review 102, pp. 284–304.
Kercher, K.: 1992, 'Assessing subjective well-being in the old-old', Research on Aging 14, pp. 131–168.
Kohli, M. and H. Künemund (eds.): 2000, Die zweite Lebenshälfte: Gesellschaftliche Lage und Partizipation im Spiegel des Alters-Survey (Leske und Budrich, Opladen).
Larsen, R.J. and E. Diener: 1992, 'Promises and problems with the circumplex model of emotion', Review of Personality and Social Psychology 13, pp. 25–59.
Lawton, M.P., M.H. Kleban and J. Dean: 1993, 'Affect and age: Cross-sectional comparisons of structure and prevalence', Psychology and Aging 8, pp. 165–175.
Markus, H.R. and S. Kitayama: 1991, 'Culture and self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation', Psychological Review 98, pp. 224–253.
Markus, H.R. and E. Wurf: 1987, 'The dynamic self-concept: A social psychological perspective', Annual Review of Psychology 38, pp. 299–337.
Mishler, E.G.: 1986, Research Interviewing: Context and Narrative (Harvard University Press, Cambridge).
Neisser, U. and R. Fivush (eds.): 1994, The Remembering Self: Construction and Accuracy in the Self-narrative (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Neugarten, B.L., R.J. Havighurst and S.S. Tobin: 1961, 'The measurement of life satisfaction', Journal of Gerontology 16, pp. 134–143.
Park, C.L. and S. Folkman: 1997, 'Meaning in the context of stress and coping', Review of General Psychology 1, pp. 115–144.
Paulus, P.: 1994, Selbstverwirklichung und psychische Gesundheit: Konzeptionelle Analysen und ein Neuentwurf (Hogrefe, Göttingen).
Pavot, W. and E. Diener: 1993, 'Review of the satisfaction with life scale', Psychological Assessment 5, pp. 164–172.
Pinquart, M. and S. Sörensen: 2000, 'Influences of socioeconomic status, social network, and competence on subjective well-being in later life: A metaanalysis', Psychology and Aging 15, pp. 187–224.
Reker, G.T. and P.T.P. Wong: 1988, 'Aging as an individual process: Toward a theory of personal meaning' in J.E. Birren and V.L. Bengtson (eds.), Emergent Theories of Aging (Springer, New York, pp. 214–246).
Rowe, J.W. and R.L. Kahn: 1997, 'Successful aging', Gerontologist 37, pp. 433–440.
Ryff, C.D.: 1989, 'In the eye of the beholder: Views of psychological well-being among middle-aged and older adults', Psychology and Aging 6, pp. 286–295.
Ryff, C.D. and M.J. Essex: 1991, 'Psychological well-being in adulthood and old age: Descriptive markers and explanatory processes', Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics 10, pp. 144–171.
Sampson, E.E.: 1988, 'The debate on individualism: Indigenous psychologies of the individual and their role in personal and societal functioning', American Psychologist 43, pp. 15–22.
Sastre, M.T.M.: 1999, 'Lay conceptions of well-being and rules used in wellbeing judgments among young, middle-aged, and elderly adults', Social Indicators Research 47, pp. 203–231.
Shweder, R.A. and M.A. Sullivan: 1990, 'The semiotic subject of cultural psychology', in L.A. Pervin (ed.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (Guilford, New York, pp. 399–419).
Staudinger, U.: 2000, 'Viele Gründe sprechen dagegen, und trotzdem geht es vielen Menschen gut: Das Paradox des subjektiven Wohlbefindens', Psychologische Rundschau 51, pp. 185–197.
Steverink, N., S. Lindenberg and J. Ormel: 1998, 'Towards understanding successful ageing: patterned change in resources and goals', Ageing and Society 18, pp. 441–467.
Stones, M.J., A. Kozma and T.E. Hannah: 1990, 'The measurement of individual differences in aging: The distinction between usual and successful aging', in M.L. Howe, M.J. Stones and C.J. B rainerd (eds.), Cognitive and Behavioral Performance Factors in Atypical Aging (Springer, New York, pp. 181–218).
Thomas, L.E. and K.O. Chambers: 1989, 'Phenomenology of life satisfaction among elderly men: Quantitative and qualitative views', Psychology and Aging 4, pp. 284–289.
Van Selm, M. and F. Dittmann-Kohli: 1998, 'Meaninglessness in the second half of life: The development of a construct', International Journal of Aging and Human Development 47, pp. 81–104.
Watson, D. and A. Tellegen: 1985, 'Towards a consensual structure of mood', Psychological Bulletin 98, pp. 219–235.
Westerhof, G.J.: 1994, Statements and Stories: Towards a New Methodology of Attitude Research (Thesis, Amsterdam).
Westerhof, G.J.: 2001, 'Wohlbefinden in der zweiten Lebenshälfte', in F. Dittmann-Kohli, C. Bode and G.J. Westerhof (eds.), Die zweite Lebenshälfte: Psychologische Perspektiven-Ergebnisse des Alters-Survey (Kohlhammer, Bonn, pp. 67–125).
Westerhof, G.J., F. Dittmann-Kohli and M.W. Katzko: 2000, 'Individualism and collectivism in the personal meaning system of elderly adults: USA and Zaire as an example', Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 31, pp. 649–676.
Westerhof, G.J., Y. Kuin and F. Dittmann-Kohli: 1998, Gesundheit als Lebensthema. Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie 27, pp. 136–142.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Westerhof, G.J., Dittmann-Kohli, F. & Thissen, T. Beyond Life Satisfaction: Lay Conceptions of Well-Being among Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults. Social Indicators Research 56, 179–203 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012455124295
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012455124295