726 vII. APPLICATIONS  AND  IMPLICATIONS
if there are more pleasant experiences than 
unpleasant ones over an extended period of 
time. Thus, reflective judgments  and affec -
tive experiences  provide two distinct ways 
in which a person’s life may be evaluated 
(Kahneman & Riis, 2005).
In addition, affective experiences them -
selves can be further divided into narrower 
categories. The study of these more precise 
affect variables often reveals unique infor -
mation about the quality of a person’s life 
and the processes that underlie the evalua -
tion of that life. For instance, although it is 
tempting to conceptualize affective experi -
ence simply as the ratio of positive to nega -
tive, much information is lost when such an 
index is constructed. Two individuals who 
have equal amounts of positive and nega -
tive experience may have very different lives, 
depending on the intensity of their experi -
ences. In addition, because positive and 
negative feelings are not polar opposites, it 
may be inappropriate to combine them in 
a single index. As early as 1969, Bradburn 
recognized that pleasant and unpleasant af -
fect were empirically separable (Bradburn, 
1969). Following up on this work, Watson, 
Clark, and Tellegen suggested that positive 
and negative affect are distinct and orthog -
onal factors (Clark & Watson, Chapter 6, 
this volume; Watson & Tellegen, 1985). Fur -
thermore, these distinct factors often cor -
relate with unique sets of predictors (Steel, 
Schmidt, & Shultz, 2008). To be sure, the 
independence view is not without its critics 
(see Schimmack, 2008, for a review), but 
SWB researchers often recommend assessing 
positive and negative affect separately.
Although it is easy to understand the con -
ceptual distinctions among the various facets 
of well-being, it is still important to ask how 
the various components interrelate, both 
at theoretical and empirical levels. First, it 
is clear that the various components are, in 
fact, separable. For instance, multimethod 
studies show that when different methods 
of assessment are used to measure distinct 
well-being components, different measures 
of the same construct tend to correlate more 
strongly than do different constructs as -
sessed by similar methods (Lucas, Diener, 
& Suh, 1996). This means that at a mea -
surement level, the various components are 
distinct. However, at a theoretical level, it is necessary to explain the associations among 
the various constructs and to develop theo -
ries about factors that will influence each 
(Busseri & Sadava, 2011). As shown by the 
evidence from discriminant validity studies, 
life satisfaction judgments are not equivalent 
to measures of one’s affective experiences 
over time (Lucas et al., 1996). Instead, these 
cognitive judgments and affective measures 
provide different information about the 
quality of people’s lives as a whole. It ap -
pears that affective experience may provide 
one source of information individuals can 
use to judge the overall quality of their lives. 
However, they may also consider additional 
factors, including the objective conditions in 
their lives or their satisfaction with narrower 
domains (Schimmack, 2008).
Furthermore, the role that these affec -
tive experiences play in the construction 
of global judgments may vary across indi -
viduals. For instance, positive and negative 
affect predict life satisfaction to different 
degrees in different cultures (Suh, Diener, 
Oishi, & Triandis, 1998). Among partici -
pants from individualist cultures, affective 
experience was strongly correlated with life 
satisfaction, whereas among participants 
from collectivist cultures, the associations 
were somewhat weaker. Because people liv -
ing in individualist cultures tend to view the 
self as an autonomous, self-  sufficient entity 
(Markus & Kitayama, 1991), feelings and 
emotions weigh heavily as determinants 
of behavior. Collectivist cultures, on the 
other hand, stress harmony with family and 
friends rather than one’s autonomy from 
these people. Feelings about the self (includ -
ing emotional reactions) weigh less heavily 
in these cultures. Thus, people appear to rely 
on their emotions when making satisfaction 
judgments, but the exact role that these ex -
periences play may vary depending on the 
value that individuals place on these experi -
ences.
In summary, SWB can be defined as an 
individual’s subjective belief or feeling that 
his or her life is going well. There is no single 
judgment that can capture the diverse ways 
that life can be evaluated. Instead, a vari -
ety of cognitive and affective components 
are needed to provide a relatively complete 
picture of one’s life as a whole. It is impor -
tant to stress that each component may be 