Life satisfaction

Life satisfaction (LS) is the way in which people show their emotions, feelings (moods) and how they feel about their directions and options for the future. It is a measure of well-being assessed in terms of mood, satisfaction with relationships, achieved goals, self-concepts, and self-perceived ability to cope with one's daily life. Life satisfaction involves a favorable attitude towards one's life rather than an assessment of current feelings. Life satisfaction has been measured in relation to economic standing, degree of education, experiences, residence, among many other topics. Life satisfaction (LS) is the way in which people show their emotions, feelings (moods) and how they feel about their directions and options for the future. It is a measure of well-being assessed in terms of mood, satisfaction with relationships, achieved goals, self-concepts, and self-perceived ability to cope with one's daily life. Life satisfaction involves a favorable attitude towards one's life rather than an assessment of current feelings. Life satisfaction has been measured in relation to economic standing, degree of education, experiences, residence, among many other topics. Life satisfaction is a key part of subjective wellbeing. One of the primary concepts of personality is the Big Five factor model. This model illustrates what some researchers believe to be the building blocks of every individual's personality. This model considers the dimensions of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. In a study carried out by Deneve and Cooper in 1998, multiple studies were analyzed with certain personality questionnaires that linked subjective well-being and personality measures. They found that neuroticism was the strongest predictor of life satisfaction. Neuroticism is also linked to people who have difficulty making up their mind, and is common in people who suffer from mental illness. The personality factor 'openness to experience' is positively correlated with life satisfaction. Apart from the personality dimensions studied in the Big Five model, the trait chronotype has been related to life satisfaction; morning-oriented people ('larks') showed higher life satisfaction than evening-oriented individuals ('owls'). More frequent socialization can also contribute to overall well-being. Social support via others has been shown to affect the well-being of adults and the overall health of those individuals. Therefore, people who tend to communicate, and who are considered to be more open to others would have a higher-level of life satisfaction. Heritability has been shown to have an effect on how one is ranked in terms of life satisfaction. Heritability plays a role in both personality and individual experiences. Research suggests that heritability can influence life satisfaction to some degree. This study found that there were no individual differences between males and females in terms of the heritability of life-satisfaction, however the personality elements that were affected by heritability did seem to have an effect on their overall life-satisfaction. It has been further suggested that being able to independently deal with negative emotions can influence long-term life-satisfaction. Having a personality capable of properly dealing with emotions like anger, angst, or hate can be beneficial when dealing with similar things later in life. People who are more easy-going tend to deal with their negative emotions differently than someone who is up-tight. These individual differences can influence the way people deal with problems in the present and how they deal with similar situations in the future. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a single scale that is used by UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Veenhoven Database, the Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer, and the UNHDR to measure how one views their self-esteem, well-being and overall happiness with life. Previous modeling showed that positive views and life satisfaction were completely mediated by the concept of self-esteem, together with the different ways in which ideas and events are perceived by people. Several studies found that self-esteem plays a definite role in influencing life satisfaction. When a person knows himself and his worth, he is driven to think in a positive way. There is also a homeostatic model that supports these findings. A person's mood and outlook on life can also influence their perception of their own life satisfaction. There are two kinds of emotions that may influence how people perceive their lives. Hope and optimism both consist of cognitive processes that are usually oriented towards the reaching of goals and the perception of those goals. Additionally, optimism is linked to higher life satisfaction, whereas pessimism is related to symptoms in depression. According to Seligman, the happier people are, the less they focus on the negative aspects of their lives. Happier people also have a greater tendency to like other people, which promotes a happier environment. This correlates to a higher level of the person's satisfaction with their life, due to the notion that constructiveness with others can positively influence life satisfaction. However, others have found that life satisfaction is compatible with profoundly negative emotional states like depression.