An Application of Information Integration Theory on the Contribution of Life domains in Ratings of Subjective Well-Being with Anamnestic Comparative Self- Assessment and the Conventional Quality of Life Question

Subjective Well-Being (SWB) consists of a subjective evaluation and integration of happiness about specific life domains to the extent that one thinks well of and feels good about these domains. Three functional measurement experiments investigate how information on life domains is integrated into a global rating of well-being measured by either the Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA) or the Conventional Question (CQ). It is found that when people judge ones well-being, information about the one domain can compensate information about some other domain. Although the findings from these experiments indicate that the same model prevails for combinations of 3 life domains, many other combinations of the same domains still need to be studied, in order to rule out that other than an averaging model with equal weights may apply to specific combinations of domains. Further research is needed to see if our findings can be reproduced and generalize to other combinations of life domains to different perspectives (own versus others SWB).