Life events, predisposing cognitive strategies and well-being

✍ Scribed by Sanna Eronen; Jari-Erik Nurmi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 175 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0890-2070
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0984(199903/04)13:2<129::aid-per323>3.0.co;2-9

✦ Synopsis

To investigate the extent to which the cognitive strategies people apply in various situations, and their subjective well-being, predispose them to certain life events, 210 students ®lled in questionnaires measuring their strategy use, self-esteem, and depression at the beginning of their studies. Self-esteem and depression were also measured four and ®ve years later. The participants also ®lled in a life-event questionnaire yearly between the ®rst and last measurements. Four groups were identi®ed based on the patterns of positive and negative life events. Moreover, the cognitive strategies young adults reported at the beginning of their studies, and their well-being, were found to predict group membership. Those who had experienced many positive and only few negative life events showed high well-being and adaptive strategies, whereas those who had faced many negative but only few positive events reported low well-being and self-protective strategies. Groups that experienced many positive and many negative, or only few positive and few negative events, were in between these two extremes. Life event patterning was also found to in¯uence later well-being.