Lucas Richard E, Clark Andrew E, Georgellis Yannis, Diener Ed
Michigan State University, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2004 Jan;15(1):8-13. doi: 10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.01501002.x.
According to set-point theories of subjective well-being, people react to events but then return to baseline levels of happiness and satisfaction over time. We tested this idea by examining reaction and adaptation to unemployment in a 15-year longitudinal study of more than 24,000 individuals living in Germany. In accordance with set-point theories, individuals reacted strongly to unemployment and then shifted back toward their baseline levels of life satisfaction. However, on average, individuals did not completely return to their former levels of satisfaction, even after they became reemployed. Furthermore, contrary to expectations from adaptation theories, people who had experienced unemployment in the past did not react any less negatively to a new bout of unemployment than did people who had not been previously unemployed. These results suggest that although life satisfaction is moderately stable over time, life events can have a strong influence on long-term levels of subjective well-being.
根据主观幸福感的设定点理论，人们对事件会做出反应，但随着时间推移会回到幸福和满意度的基线水平。我们通过对24000多名生活在德国的个体进行为期15年的纵向研究，来检验这一观点，该研究考察了对失业的反应和适应情况。与设定点理论一致，个体对失业反应强烈，然后又回到其生活满意度的基线水平。然而，平均而言，即使个体再次就业后，也没有完全恢复到以前的满意度水平。此外，与适应理论的预期相反，过去经历过失业的人对新一轮失业的负面反应并不比从未失业过的人少。这些结果表明，尽管生活满意度随时间有一定程度的稳定性，但生活事件会对主观幸福感的长期水平产生强烈影响。
