The dynamics of daily life: Responses to positive and negative events, life-task activity, mood, and well-being.

Abstract

Considerable study has investigated the effects of negative life events upon subsequent measures of mood and well being. This report focuses on positive life events and how people use them in two major areas: effects of positive events upon activity choice in various life-task domains and the moderating effects of responses people make to extend and amplify the benefits of positive events. Self-esteem and social constraint are considered as possible dispositional moderators of these effects. A metaphor of a system of cognitive accounting is proposed as a way to capture the dynamics of activity and mood in everyday life. Daily-diary and experience-sampling techniques were used to collect the data from 54 female undergraduates. Positive and negative events had differential impacts upon life-task activity across life-task domains. Responses to positive events that "marked" them were found to increase their benefits to positive mood. The results are discussed in terms of the social intelligence approach to personality and social behavior.