Effects of Momentary Affect on Satisfaction Judgments

This study aims to examine the effect of affect on satisfaction, both at the between- and the within-person level for momentary assessments. Affect is regarded as an important source of information for life satisfaction judgments. This affective effect on satisfaction is well established at the dispositional level, while at the within-person level it is heavily under-researched. This is true especially for momentary assessments. In this experience sampling study both mood and satisfaction scales were administered five times a day for 7 days via hand-held devices (N = 74 with 2,122 assessments). Several hierarchical linear models were fitted to the data. Even though the amount of between-person variance was relatively low, both positive and negative affect had substantial effects on momentary satisfaction on the between- and the within-person level as well. The within-person effects of affect on satisfaction appear to be more pronounced than the between-person ones. At the momentary level, the amount of between-person variance is lower than in studies with longer time-frames. The affect-related effects on satisfaction possibly have a curvilinear relationship with the time-frame used, increasing in intensity up to a point and then decreasing again. Such a relationship suggests that, at the momentary level, satisfaction might behave in a more stochastic manner, allowing for transient events/data which are not necessarily affect-related to affect it.