EVENTS AND SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING - ONLY RECENT EVENTS MATTER

The effect of life events on subjective well-being (SWB) was explored in a 2-year longitudinal study of 115 participants. It was found that only life events during the previous 3 months influenced life satisfac tion and positive and negative affect. Although recent life events inf luenced SWB even when personality at Time 1 was controlled, distal lif e events did not correlate with SWB. SWB and life events both showed a substantial degree of temporal stability. It was also found that good and bad life events tend to covary, both between individuals and acro ss periods of the lives of individuals. Also, when events of the oppos ite valence were controlled, events correlated more strongly with SWB. The counterintuitive finding that good and bad events co-occur sugges ts an exciting avenue for explorations of the structure of life events .