 34. Personality and Subjective Well‑Being 725
focused on identifying the external life cir -
cumstances that reliably correlate with SWB 
(Wilson, 1967). It was thought that these 
correlations could reveal basic human needs 
and that by understanding these needs, psy -
chologists could identify pathways to greater 
well-being. These efforts have continued over 
the years, and some progress has been made 
in identifying interventions that can lead to 
lasting changes in happiness (Sin & Lyu -
bomirsky, 2009; Sheldon & Lucas, 2014). 
In fact, psychologists and economists have 
increasingly advocated for the implementa -
tion of large-scale surveys of well-being, so 
that population levels can be tracked over 
time (Diener & Seligman, 2004; Kahne -
man, Krueger, Schkade, Schwartz, & Stone, 
2003). Indeed, governments throughout the 
world have begun to incorporate well-being 
into policy decisions, and some (e.g., Bhu -
tan) even have “happiness ministries” to en -
sure that this goal remains a focus (see, e.g., 
Helliwell, Layard, & Sachs, 2019). Again, 
the principle that underlies this suggestion 
is that by identifying macro-level character -
istics that reliably affect well-being, policy 
decisions could be optimized to increase 
well-being for all.
If happiness is conceptualized as an out -
come that reflects the conditions in a per -
son’s life, it may seem counterintuitive and 
even somewhat distressing when research 
suggests that happiness is stable over time 
and not strongly affected by changes in life 
circumstances. It is this outcome-  focused 
aspect of well-being research and theory 
that makes strong personality effects seem 
so surprising. Yet when SWB is thought of 
not as an outcome but as an integral part 
of an ongoing process, the strong effects of 
personality and the relatively weak effects of 
situations should come as no surprise. For 
at the heart of well-being judgments lie af -
fective reactions (Lucas & Diener, 2008), 
and these emotions and moods likely play a 
functional role in people’s lives (Fredrickson, 
1998; Gross, 1999). Negative affect does 
not simply relay the news that something in 
one’s life is not going well. Instead, it pro -
vides the motivation and perhaps even the 
tools that allow for corrections. Similarly, 
pleasant feelings are not simply a reward for 
a job well done; these feelings are function -
al. Thus, negative emotions should not cease when a person’s life circumstances become 
ideal, nor should pleasure endure forever, 
when all important goals are achieved. In 
fact, the pleasure that one experiences after 
the achievement of a goal may actually pro -
mote the desire to seek new goals (Carver, 
2003; Fredrickson, 1998). If there are indi -
vidual differences in these underlying affec -
tive processes, then SWB will also exhibit 
the characteristics of a personality trait. 
Thus, well-being should play an important 
role in personality research. In this chapter, 
we first discuss general issues regarding the 
nature of SWB, then address concerns about 
the measurement of well-being. Finally, we 
review the evidence linking personality and 
well-being constructs.
Defining  SWB
Although researchers sometimes discuss 
SWB as if it reflects a unitary construct, 
there is no single judgment that captures 
the entirety of SWB. Instead, researchers 
divide the domain into narrower classes of 
constructs that tap distinct ways in which 
one’s life may be evaluated (see Diener, 
Lucas, Schimmack, & Helliwell, 2009, for 
a more detailed review). For instance, SWB 
researchers often distinguish between cogni -
tive judgments of well-being and affective 
experience (Busseri & Sadava, 2011; Diener, 
1984). The cognitive component reflects an 
individual’s judgment that his or her life 
or the circumstances of that life are going 
well. To assess this component, researchers 
often administer measures of life satisfac -
tion or domain satisfaction—  measures that 
ask people to consciously evaluate the condi -
tions in their lives.
This type of reflective judgment can be 
contrasted with the emotions and moods 
that individuals actually experience as they 
live their lives. Experience sampling stud -
ies, which assess experience repeatedly over 
time, indicate that very few moments are 
affectively neutral: People report some af -
fective feeling almost all the time (Diener, 
Sandvik, & Pavot, 1991). Furthermore, one 
of the most basic features of these feelings is 
that people can tell whether they are pleas -
ant or unpleasant (Kahneman, 1999). Thus, 
a life might be considered to be a good one 