Life Satisfaction and the Self: Structure, Content, and Function

Seventy-nine participants rated their involvement and satisfaction with time spent in each of 14 roles (e.g., me as a student), as well as overall life satisfaction. They also described themselves in each of these roles, as well as five general self-conceptions (e.g., ideal self), by repeatedly selecting from a list of traits. Each participant’s set of self descriptions was idiographically modeled using hierarchical classes analysis, from which three indices were coded: trait overlap between actual, usual, ideal, ought, and future selves (self-ideal congruence), trait overlap between each of the 14 roles and actual and usual selves (self-role congruence), and dispersion of negative traits across self-aspects (negative elaboration). Within-person correlations were computed as a measure of satisfaction with time spent in self-congruent roles (TSR). Self-ideal congruence, negative elaboration, and TSR each independently accounted for variance in life satisfaction. For all 14 roles, self-role congruence was correlated with involvement in the target role. Self-ideal congruence and negative elaboration were not highly correlated with role involvement, and self-role congruence was not a robust predictor of life satisfaction. Role-based self-aspects might contribute to life satisfaction to the extent they are enacted according to one’s wishes and are congruent with the more general, actual self. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2013