As policy makers search for indices to complement existing population-based economic markers, interest has revived in ways to assess how people think and feel about their life circumstances. In this context, researchers are reconsidering the information gained from traditional global (or evaluative) measures of well-being such as life and domain satisfaction and are creating new measures to capture hedonic experience in daily life. Kahneman and colleagues (2004), for example, developed a Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) that integrates the assessment of affective experience with a detailed time diary of yesterday's activities. The DRM provides on-line information about experience that is distinct from global reports of well-being. Our studies will address several practical and conceptual barriers to the inclusion of a DRM-like measure in large surveys of older adults. One practical barrier is the 40-75 minute length of the DRM. Pilot work on brief 10-15 minute measures that retain a limited set of DRM-features has begun in studies associated with the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). The target length of a survey measure, however, is 3-5 minutes. We currently don't know the minimum features necessary for a short reliable and valid survey index of experienced well-being. Furthermore, we lack information about the impact of cognitive aging on the measurement of experienced well- being and we do not know if evaluative and experienced well-being have distinctive associations with health in later life. We use a multipronged approach. To begin, we compare HRS findings with DRM data collected in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the American Time Use Survey's (ATUS) new well-being module, and the American Life Panel's (ALP) DRM. These secondary analyses will answer questions about: 1) the quality and comparability of responses to the fine-grained versus brief DRM measures;2) unique correlative and predictive associations of evaluated and experienced well-being with health;and 3) differences related to life period (midlife, young old, oldest old), retirement status, and individual characteristics such as non- pathological cognitive decline and personality. We supplement these analyses with a series of focus group and experimental studies to examine the implications of age differences in episodic memory and preferences for emotional experience. Two studies will investigate measurement features expected to support or interfere with on-line (episodic) memory of recent experiences. We will compare the effects of instructions to reconstruct yesterday by time versus activities and reactivity to repeated questioning about feelings. Other studies will examine age differences in the recall accuracy of activities and time from one day to the next and memory for hedonic and non-hedonic feelings. We will also collect middle-aged and older adults'ratings of the valence, effort, and affect associated with daily activities. Our overall objective is to establish criteria for parsimonious- but-comprehensive survey measures of subjective well-being. The information obtained will advance assessment of well-being in large surveys of older adults and our understanding of life quality in late life.

Public Health Relevance

Using data from the Health and Retirement Study and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, nationally representative longitudinal studies of the population over 50 in addition to other survey panels and a series of targeted experiments, this project will examine issues related to measuring evaluated and experience well- being in large surveys of older adults. We expect that the different components of well-being are uniquely linked to disability, immune functioning, cardiovascular illness, brain functioning, and longevity. We will develop an optimized, parsimonious measure of experienced well-being suitable for large multidisciplinary surveys so that population trends in well-being and subgroups at risk can be studied.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AG040635-02
Application #
8326065
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAG1-ZIJ-1 (M1))
Program Officer
Nielsen, Lisbeth
Project Start
2011-09-01
Project End
2016-06-30
Budget Start
2012-07-01
Budget End
2013-06-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$411,240
Indirect Cost
$140,863
Name
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
Department
Biostatistics & Other Math Sci
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
073133571
City
Ann Arbor
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48109
Newton, Nicky J; Pladevall-Guyer, Jana; Gonzalez, Richard et al. (2018) Activity Engagement and Activity-Related Experiences: The Role of Personality. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 73:1480-1490
Mejía, Shannon T; Ryan, Lindsay H; Gonzalez, Richard et al. (2017) Successful Aging as the Intersection of Individual Resources, Age, Environment, and Experiences of Well-being in Daily Activities. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 72:279-289
Ryan, Lindsay H; Newton, Nicky J; Chauhan, Preet K et al. (2017) Effects of Pre-Retirement Personality, Health and Job Lock on Post-Retirement Subjective Well-being. Transl Issues Psychol Sci 3:378-387
Mejía, Shannon T; Hooker, Karen (2017) Mixed Emotions Within the Context of Goal Pursuit. Curr Opin Behav Sci 15:46-50
Sun, Jennifer K; Smith, Jacqui (2017) Self-Perceptions of Aging and Perceived Barriers to Care: Reasons for Health Care Delay. Gerontologist 57:S216-S226
Mejía, Shannon T; Gonzalez, Richard (2017) Couples' Shared Beliefs About Aging and Implications for Future Functional Limitations. Gerontologist 57:S149-S159
Giasson, Hannah L; Queen, Tara L; Larkina, Marina et al. (2017) Age Group Differences in Perceived Age Discrimination: Associations With Self-Perceptions of Aging. Gerontologist 57:S160-S168
Chopik, William J; Giasson, Hannah L (2017) Age Differences in Explicit and Implicit Age Attitudes Across the Life Span. Gerontologist 57:S169-S177
Gonzalez, Richard; Smith, Jacqui; Nielsen, Lisbeth (2017) Editorial overview: Theories, methods, and applications of mixed emotions. Curr Opin Behav Sci 15:iv-vi
Sun, Jennifer K; Kim, Eric S; Smith, Jacqui (2017) Positive Self-Perceptions of Aging and Lower Rate of Overnight Hospitalization in the US Population Over Age 50. Psychosom Med 79:81-90

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