Hussain Dilwar
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, India.
Eur J Psychol. 2017 Nov 30;13(4):733-748. doi: 10.5964/ejop.v13i4.1394. eCollection 2017 Nov.
One of the ongoing debates in social indicator and subjective well-being research is concerned with the weak relationship between objective (such as income) and subjective indicators of well-being (such as life satisfaction). Empirical studies show that the relationship between subjective and the traditional objective well-being indicators is weak. This relationship is found to be very complex and far from clear. The present study tries to shed lights behind the complexity of the relationship between income and subjective well-being (SWB) by bringing into the analysis some alternative factors such as heterogeneity in the human perception and purpose of life (conceptual referent theory) and personality traits. Conceptual referent theory of happiness proposes that people differ in their conceptual referent for a happy life and this referent plays a significant role in their judgment about happiness and life satisfaction. Results of this cross-sectional survey based on 500 individuals residing in rural and urban areas indicate that the relationship between income and life satisfaction is not very strong. Furthermore, the relationship between income and life satisfaction is contingent on a person's conceptual referent for happiness. This study suggests that income seems to have a significant influence on life satisfaction for some people (especially with outer oriented referents) and insignificant influence for other people (especially holding inner oriented referents). Additionally, neuroticism personality trait was able to further explain the relationship between income and life satisfaction. It was observed that the individuals with higher level of neuroticism tend to get a lower level of satisfaction from income rise as compared to individuals with lower level of neuroticism.
社会指标与主观幸福感研究中持续存在的争论之一，涉及客观指标（如收入）与主观幸福感指标（如生活满意度）之间的微弱关系。实证研究表明，主观幸福感指标与传统客观幸福感指标之间的关系很微弱。人们发现这种关系非常复杂且远不清晰。本研究试图通过将一些替代因素纳入分析，如人类认知和生活目的的异质性（概念参照理论）以及人格特质，来揭示收入与主观幸福感（SWB）之间关系的复杂性。幸福的概念参照理论提出，人们对幸福生活的概念参照各不相同，且这种参照在他们对幸福和生活满意度的判断中起着重要作用。这项基于500名城乡居民的横断面调查结果表明，收入与生活满意度之间的关系不是很强。此外，收入与生活满意度之间的关系取决于一个人对幸福的概念参照。本研究表明，收入似乎对某些人（特别是具有外向型参照的人）的生活满意度有显著影响，而对另一些人（特别是具有内向型参照的人）影响不大。此外，神经质人格特质能够进一步解释收入与生活满意度之间的关系。据观察，与神经质水平较低的个体相比，神经质水平较高的个体从收入增加中获得的满意度往往较低。
