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Core self-evaluations are associated with judgments of satisfaction with life via positive but not negative affect
Personality and Individual Differences 130 (2018) 112–116
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Core self-evaluations are associated with judgments of satisfaction with life via positive but not negative affect
T
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Natalio Extremera , Lourdes Rey University of Málaga, Spain
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Core self-evaluations Affectivity Positive affect Negative affect Life satisfaction
Core self-evaluations (CSE) are associated with a range of indicators of positive personal and job outcomes. Current research suggests that CSE may be a precursor of judgment of life satisfaction but little is known about the factors that mediate the relationship. Affect is a potential mediator of the relationship and so we investigated whether positive and negative affect mediated the relationship between CSE and life satisfaction in two independent Spanish samples. Three hundred and fifty-two university students (Sample 1) and 520 adults (Sample 2) completed self-report measures of core self-evaluation, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. In both samples, the association between CSE and life satisfaction was mediated by positive, but not negative affect. If replicated in longitudinal research, these results would provide evidence that CSE is associated with greater positive affect, which might influence life satisfaction judgments. These findings also highlight the importance of CSE and affect components that could take into consideration in positive psychology interventions aimed at increasing well-being.
1. Introduction
CSE construct might serve as a useful variable in identifying individual differences in coping processes and in cognitive appraisals of life events. It is therefore important to establish the mechanisms underlying associations between CSE and positive outcomes. It is consistent with this view to suggest that CSE may be related to evaluation of life satisfaction on the grounds that a high CSE may modify how one interprets and reacts to stressful events. High-CSE individuals are more likely to be generally satisfied with their lives than their low-CSE counterparts (Judge, Locke, Durham, & Kluger, 1998). Most earlier research looked at the incremental value of CSE in the domain of organisational psychology (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2011), but there is increasing evidence of empirical links between CSE and personal outcomes. In particular, most studies have found that CSE is positively associated with well-being indicators including life satisfaction, happiness and positive affect (Hsieh & Huang, 2017; Piccolo, Judge, Takahashi, Watanabe, & Locke, 2005; Rey & Extremera, 2015). Likewise, people with a positive CSE tend to be satisfied with their lives (Judge et al., 1998). A meta-analytic review of CSE and its four underlying components concluded that they are strongly positively associated with life satisfaction (ρ = 0.54) (Chang et al., 2012). There has been little research, however, into the ways in which high CSE could promote increased well-being or the mechanisms that might underlie the association between CSE and life satisfaction. These include predispositions to positive and negative affect. Theoretically, components of
In the last two decades the core self-evaluations (CSE) construct has received considerable attention from theorists and practitioners. This may be due to the possibility that it has an influence on important personal and organisational outcomes, such as work performance, job satisfaction and life satisfaction, amongst others (Chang, Ferris, Johnson, Rosen, & Tan, 2012; Judge & Hurst, 2007). CSE has been conceptualised as a higher order framework representing people's fundamental evaluations of their worth, competence, capabilities and functioning in their environment. According to Judge, Locke, and Durham (1997), CSE is a latent, broad, high-order construct consisting of four well-established lower-order traits: self-esteem, locus of control, emotional stability (as opposed to neuroticism) and generalised selfefficacy. Individuals with a high CSE appraise themselves in a consistently positive manner across situations; they evaluate themselves as capable and in control of their lives, and tend to feel more able to exert control over their work environment than their low-CSE counterparts (Judge, Van Vianen, & De Pater, 2004). Individuals with a high CSE are also more likely to respond to difficult situations with positive emotions and expectations, because they tend to focus on the bright side of a situation, approach the world with confidence and self-assurance and feel in control of their jobs and lives (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). Kammeyer-Mueller, Judge, and Scott (2009) suggested that the
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Corresponding author at: Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Malaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, Málaga 29071, Malaga, Spain. E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Extremera).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.03.054 Received 31 August 2017; Received in revised form 20 March 2018; Accepted 30 March 2018 0191-8869/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Personality and Individual Differences 130 (2018) 112–116
N. Extremera, L. Rey
2. Method
CSE such as self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control are dynamic beliefs that people construct about themselves and their interactions with their social environment; hence, they may influence mood in everyday life. Although there is evidence CSE is an important predictor of life satisfaction (Chang et al., 2012), CSE does not account fully for variance in life satisfaction, which suggests that there are multiple factors underlying the relationship between both variables. The presence of individual differences in the tendency toward positive and negative affect could account for the observed variability in the CSE-life satisfaction link. Past theoretical and empirical work has examined the associations between affect and life satisfaction (Schimmack, 2008). Research in several nations has demonstrated that positive and negative affect are causally related to life satisfaction, with positive emotions being more strongly related to life satisfaction than the absence of negative emotions (Kuppens, Realo, & Diener, 2008). Positive and negative affect are thought to influence life satisfaction either through the influence of current mood on satisfaction judgments (Jayawickreme, Tsukayama, & Kashdan, 2017a, 2017b) or as a result of predispositions to positive and negative affect (Schimmack, 2008). Similarly, since CSE is an evaluation of one's fundamental worth, competence, and capability it may influence well-being outcomes by influencing the cognition and appraisals related to everyday life events (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2009). It is in line with these empirical findings to suggest that self-worth might modify appraisals and reactions to life events (Judge et al., 1997), which in turn might alter one's affective balance, leading to a change in life satisfaction (Diener, 1984). Two previous studies of people with disabilities found that while positive affect mediated the association between CSE and life satisfaction (Smedema et al., 2015), negative affect did not (Rey & Extremera, 2016). These results suggest that positive affect may play a fundamental role in the association between CSE and life satisfaction. However, these studies had some limitations to be noted. First, both investigations were conducted on physical and mental disability populations, it thus may be inappropriate to generalise from a narrow database of nondisabled population. For example, results who have compared those with disabilities and the general population have shown that individuals with disabilities report poorer quality of life and well-being (Sheppard-Jones, Prout, & Kleinert, 2005). Second, both studies were conducted on relatively very small samples (Smedema et al., 2015; N = 97; Rey & Extremera, 2016; N = 134); thus the results cannot be generalised. Third, affectivity includes positive and negative affect (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), however, Smedema et al. (2015) did not consider the specific mediating effects of negative affect in explaining the influence of CSE on life satisfaction. Yet, it is not known how CSE relates to affect and life satisfaction in the general population or whether any associations that exist are similar or different between disabled and non-disabled persons. Clarifying this issue may be useful for understanding potential variations in which variables may contribute to greater life satisfaction in general compared with disabled populations and what the underlying mechanisms may be. Consistent with theory (Chang et al., 2012) and previous research (Judge et al., 1998; Judge et al., 2005) documenting the role of CSE on life satisfaction, there is also some reason to consider a mediation model in which CSE is associated with life satisfaction through affect. First, CSE has showed a causal relationship with both life satisfaction (Judge et al., 2005) and affect (Piccolo et al., 2005). Second, research has provided support for the notion that CSE might may have considerable influence on the development of positive and negative affect (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2009; Piccolo et al., 2005). Third, there is some evidence to suggest that individuals use their mood as an indicator of their life satisfaction (Kuppens et al., 2008). Therefore, we hypothesised that (a) direct relationships would exist between CSE and affectivity and between CSE and life satisfaction, and (b) affect would operate as a mediator of the association between CSE and affect. To confirm our findings and enhance their generalisability we subjected data from two independent groups (university students and adults) to the same planned analyses.
2.1. Participants and procedure Two groups of participants were used. The first group (Sample 1) comprised 352 college students (114 men, 238 women; mean age = 20.96 years, SD = 2.49) attending a public university in southern Spain who participated in return for course credit. They were told that the study was about personality and well-being. The second group (Sample 2) comprised 502 adults (226 men, 276 women; mean age = 30.22 years, SD = 10.47) working in a wide range of sectors who participated on a voluntary basis. This group was recruited using the snowball technique, a non-probability sampling technique; undergraduate students recruited friends and family members who were in employment. Most participants in this group worked full-time (69.3%). Given that sampling bias is a possible drawback of the snowball technique (Hendricks & Blanken, 1992) each participant was given written and precise instructions. Thus, participants were assured that their involvement would be anonymous, and that their data would remain confidential. Missing data were assumed to be random in both samples and were handled by multiple imputation in SPSS 22 (Cheema, 2014). 2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES; Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2003) The CSES is a 12-item scale developed to measure the underlying self-evaluative factor that is reflected in four more specific traits: selfesteem, generalised self-efficacy, neuroticism and locus of control. The CSE has demonstrated good reliability and validity in Spanish populations under study (Judge et al., 2004; Rey, Extremera, & PeláezFernández, 2016). 2.2.2. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988) Positive and negative affect were measured using the PANAS, a 20item self-report measure consisting of ten items assessing positive affect and ten items assessing negative affect. Separate positive and negative affect scores are calculated. Respondents were asked to rate how they feel in the last month for each item across a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (very slightly) to 5 (extremely). The PANAS has demonstrated good reliability and validity in Spanish samples (Sandin et al., 1999). 2.2.3. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) This scale comprises five self-referenced statements about global life satisfaction. Participants completed the Spanish version of the SWLS (Atienza, Balaguer, and García-Merita, 2003). There is evidence that both the English and Spanish versions have discriminant validity and adequate internal consistency (Atienza, Balaguer, & García-Merita, 2003; Diener et al., 1985). 3. Results 3.1. Descriptive analyses Means, standard deviations and reliability of the various scales are presented in Table 1. As Table 2 shows, CSE was positively associated with positive affect and life satisfaction and negatively associated with negative affect. Positive and negative affect were, respectively, positively and negatively associated with life satisfaction. It is worth noting that in both samples the correlations between positive affect and life satisfaction (Sample 1: r = 0.30; Sample 2: r = 0.36) were stronger than those between negative affect and life satisfaction (Sample 1: r = −0.14; Sample 2: r = −0.20) (for Sample 1, z = 5.95; p < 0.001; for Sample 2, z = 9.15; p < 0.001). 113
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Table 1 Means and standard deviations of core self-evaluations, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. Sample 1 (N = 352) M Core self-evaluations Positive affect Negative affect Life satisfaction
SD
3.41 3.44 2.19 5.06
0.55 0.60 0.80 0.98
.45** .55**
0.77 0.80 0.88 0.75
M
Cronbach's α
SD
3.52 3.42 2.10 5.00
0.60 0.67 0.74 1.08
Core SelfEvaluations
0.82 0.85 0.84 0.85
Core self-evaluations Positive affect Negative affect Life satisfaction
– 0.51⁎⁎ −0.45⁎⁎ 0.42⁎⁎
.33**
R2=.15** R2=.21**
2
3 ⁎⁎
-.56**
0.41 – −0.20⁎⁎ 0.36⁎⁎
−0.48 −0.13⁎ – −0.20⁎⁎
.02
Negative Affect
-.03
Fig. 1. Path model showing positive and negative affect mediating the relationship between core self-evaluations and life satisfaction. Note: ⁎⁎p < 0.01. Numbers in the model are standardised regression coefficients. Coefficients on the top are from sample 1 and those coefficients on the bottom are from Study 2. Coefficients in parentheses represent direct effect of CSE on life satisfaction after controlling for positive and negative affect in the two samples. Age and gender effect were covaried but not presented in the final model for simplicity.
4 ⁎⁎
Life Satisfaction
.59** (.46**) .75** (.54**) -.71**
Table 2 Intercorrelations amongst core self-evaluations, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction.
1. 2. 3. 4.
.31**
Sample 2 (N = 502)
Cronbach's α
1
Positive Affect
0.32⁎⁎ 0.30⁎⁎ −0.14⁎⁎ –
mediators and the covariates, accounted for 21% of the variance in life satisfaction (R2 = 0.21, F (5, 495) = 26.092; p < 0.001). As shown in Table 3, positive affect was a mediator of the CSE-life satisfaction association in both samples (indirect effects = 0.13; 95% CI = 0.06, 0.24, for sample 1; indirect effects = 0.20; 95% CI = 0.10, 0.27; for sample 2) but not negative affect (indirect effects = −0.02; 95% CI = −0.13, 0.08, for Sample 1; indirect effects = 0.03; 95% CI = −0.06, 0.09; for Sample 2). As can be seen from Fig. 1, these findings support the hypothesis that the link between CSE and life satisfaction would be partly mediated by positive affect, but do not support the hypothesis that negative affect would also mediate the CSE-life satisfaction relationship.
Note: Coefficients above the diagonal are for sample 1 (N = 352), those below the diagonal are for sample 2 (N = 502). ⁎ p < 0.05. ⁎⁎ p < 0.01.
3.2. Multiple mediator analysis We used Preacher and Hayes' SPSS PROCESS macro (model 4), resampling 5000 times for the bootstrap estimates (Hayes, 2013) to examine mediation of the CSE-life satisfaction association by positive and negative affect. Gender and age were included in the analyses as covariates. We calculated mean direct and indirect effects and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). The CIs were used to determine the significance of effects: effects are considered significant at the p < 0.05 level if the 95% CI does not contain zero. Table 3 summarises the results of the multiple mediator analysis, giving path coefficients and confidence intervals of all effects in both samples. Of the covariates, only gender showed a significant effect in the first group; any other effect associated with the covariates was significant. Bootstrap estimation showed that total effect of CSE on life satisfaction was significant in both groups (c = 0.59; p > 0.01; c = 0.75; p > 0.01; for the first and second group, respectively). The direct effect of CSE on life satisfaction was reduced but still significant when variance associated with the mediators was controlled (c′ = 0.46; p < 0.01; c′ = 0.54; p < 0.01), suggesting a partial mediating effect by the hypothesised variables. In the case of Sample 1 the final model, including CSE, the mediators and the covariates, accounted for 15% of the variance in life satisfaction (R2 = 0.15, F (5, 346) = 12.748; p < 0.001). In the case of Sample 2, the final model, including CSE, the
4. Discussion This study investigated affectivity as a mediator of the association between CSE and life satisfaction. The results of analysis of two different samples provide converging evidence that CSE is positively associated with life satisfaction and that this link is partially mediated by positive affect. In line with earlier research we found the expected positive relationship between CSE and life satisfaction in both samples (Piccolo et al., 2005; Rey & Extremera, 2016). Several theorists have already pointed out individuals' self-evaluations and evaluations of their functioning in the world influence their judgments of their life satisfaction and happiness (Judge et al., 1998; Piccolo et al., 2005). Our findings corroborate previous findings that CSE plays an important role in the formation of life attitudes and generalise these results to undergraduate students and adults.
Table 3 Path coefficients and confidence intervals of mediational analyses, controlling for age and gender. Independent variable (IV)
Mediating variable (M)
Dependent variable (DV)
Effect of IV on M
Effect of M/covariates on DV
Direct effect
Indirect effect
95% CI for indirect effect
Total effect
Sample 1 CSE
PA NA Age Gender PA NA Age Gender
Life satisfaction
0.45⁎⁎ −0.71⁎⁎
0.46⁎⁎
0.13 −0.02
0.06 to 0.24 −0.13 to 0.08
0.59⁎⁎
Life satisfaction
0.55⁎⁎ −0.56⁎⁎
0.31⁎⁎ 0.02 −0.00 0.30⁎⁎ 0.33⁎⁎ −0.03 0.00 0.00
0.54⁎⁎
0.20 0.03
0.10 to 0.27 −0.06 to 0.09
0.75⁎⁎
Covariates Sample 2 CSE Covariates
Note: Estimated using bias corrected and accelerated bootstrapping, with 5000 samples. CI = confidence interval. CSE = core self-evaluations; PA = positive affect; NA = negative affect. ⁎⁎ p < 0.01. 114
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interventions have been shown to be effective in developing personal strength and people's specific positive self-views (Wood & Johnson, 2016), interventions designed to increase life satisfaction may benefit from the inclusion of activities designed to increase the frequency of participants' positive experiences and promote sustained pleasant mood. Our findings represent a step toward understanding how the nomological net of CSE and affectivity is involved in appraisals of overall life satisfaction. It has consistently been shown that interventions designed to enhance self-efficacy beliefs and self-esteem—key components of CSE—are effective in alleviating psychopathological symptoms (Maddux & Kleiman, 2016; Mann, Hosman, Schaalma, & de Vries, 2004). Pending replication in clinical samples, we hope our findings can be used to help build theoretical models that will assist in the design of empirically-validated positive interventions to promote subjective well-being, based on CSE theory and its components.
As expected, positive affect was positively associated with life satisfaction in both samples, and there was a smaller negative correlation between negative affect and life satisfaction. This suggests that, while both are important, positive affect is more related to life satisfaction. In addition, the correlations between positive and negative affect and life satisfaction were similar in magnitude in both samples. The finding that affectivity was associated with life satisfaction is consistent with previous empirical research (Kuppens et al., 2008) and suggests that when deciding how satisfied they are with life, individuals take into consideration the frequency of their positive and negative affective experiences. Consistent with the proposed mediational model, in both groups we found empirical evidence that a positive affect might underlie the link between CSE and life satisfaction. In short, a plausible explanation for the association between CSE and life satisfaction is that people with high CSE experience positive emotions more frequently; this is in line with earlier findings based on groups of adults with disabilities (Rey & Extremera, 2016; Smedema et al., 2015). Our results are consistent with the theoretical proposal that people's appraisals of their fundamental self-worth and capabilities (i.e. their CSEs) constitute personal resources that might influence the developing of positive moods (Chang et al., 2012). In other words, individuals with high CSEs might be satisfied with their lives because they frequently experience pleasant or positive emotions. However, we did not find support for the hypothesis that negative affect mediates the CSE-life satisfaction relationship in this study. This is consistent with earlier research in several countries in that the association between life satisfaction and positive affect was been reported to be twice as strong as the association between life satisfaction and negative affect (Kuppens et al., 2008). It is plausible that when both positive and negative affect variables are included in a multiple mediators model, the stronger component (positive affect) acts as a mediator of the CSE-life satisfaction link (with the effect of negative affect not being significant). Accordingly, previous studies using specific disability samples have found that positive affect mediates the link between CSE and life satisfaction (Rey & Extremera, 2016; Smedema et al., 2015). Expanding these previous findings in non-disabled population, it is possible that positive and negative affect might play independent and distinct roles in explaining life satisfaction, as prior research have found with negative psychological outcomes (Diener & Emmons, 1985; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). This implies that negative affect might have no effect or a weak influence on life satisfaction and hence not interfere with the benefits of positive emotion on life satisfaction (Cohn, Fredrickson, Brown, Mikels, & Conway, 2009). Our finding is thus consistent with the principles of positive psychology, which emphasise that positive experience is one of the most important routes to greater life satisfaction (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). Several limitations of our study should be noted. First, our design was cross-sectional, which precludes causal inferences. However, our mediation model was based on previous empirical data showing that CSE influences judgment of subjective well-being (Chang et al., 2012), and that there is a cross-national causal relationship between affectivity and life satisfaction (Kuppens et al., 2008). Future research should aim to replicate our findings using longitudinal and prospective designs. As we only measured a hedonic component of well-being (life satisfaction) it is also important to compare how CSE is related to aspects of eudaimonic well-being. Turning to the practical implications of our research, although CSE represents an individual's fundamental evaluation of him or herself, we have provided evidence that CSE and positive affect may be related to life satisfaction, which suggests that if individuals think that they are valuable and experience positive emotions, they are more likely to be satisfied with their lives. Indeed, some scholars have found that changing the balance of affective experiences from negative to positive is one way of promoting well-being and happiness (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Since positive clinical
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s15327043hup1703_4. Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., Judge, T. A., & Scott, B. A. (2009). The role of core self-evaluations in the coping process: Testing an integrative model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 177–195. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013214. Kuppens, P., Realo, A., & Diener, E. (2008). The role of positive and negative emotions in life satisfaction judgment across nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 66–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.66. Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855. http://dx.doi. org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803. Maddux, J. E., & Kleiman, E. (2016). Self-efficacy: A foundational concept for positive clinical psychology. In A. Wood, & J. Johnson (Eds.). Handbook of positive clinical psychology. New York: Wiley. Mann, M., Hosman, C. M. H., Schaalma, H. P., & de Vries, N. (2004). Self-esteem in a broad-spectrum approach for mental health promotion. Health Education Research, 19, 357–372. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/her/cyg041. Piccolo, R. F., Judge, T. A., Takahashi, K., Watanabe, N., & Locke, E. A. (2005). Core selfevaluations in Japan: Relative effects on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and happiness. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 965–984. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ job.358. Rey, L., & Extremera, N. (2015). Core self-evaluations, perceived stress and life satisfaction in Spanish young and middle-aged adults: An examination of mediation and moderation effects. Social Indicators Research, 120, 515–524. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1007/s11205-014-0601-2. Rey, L., & Extremera, N. (2016). Efecto mediacional del afecto entre las autoevaluaciones centrales y la satisfacción vital en discapacidad intelectual [Mediating effects of affect between core self-evaluations and life satisfaction in intellectual disabilities]. Escritos de Psicología, 9, 45–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.5231/psy.writ.2016.1312.
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Core self-evaluations are associated with judgments of satisfaction with life via positive but not negative affect
T
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Natalio Extremera , Lourdes Rey University of Málaga, Spain
A R T I C LE I N FO
A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Core self-evaluations Affectivity Positive affect Negative affect Life satisfaction
Core self-evaluations (CSE) are associated with a range of indicators of positive personal and job outcomes. Current research suggests that CSE may be a precursor of judgment of life satisfaction but little is known about the factors that mediate the relationship. Affect is a potential mediator of the relationship and so we investigated whether positive and negative affect mediated the relationship between CSE and life satisfaction in two independent Spanish samples. Three hundred and fifty-two university students (Sample 1) and 520 adults (Sample 2) completed self-report measures of core self-evaluation, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. In both samples, the association between CSE and life satisfaction was mediated by positive, but not negative affect. If replicated in longitudinal research, these results would provide evidence that CSE is associated with greater positive affect, which might influence life satisfaction judgments. These findings also highlight the importance of CSE and affect components that could take into consideration in positive psychology interventions aimed at increasing well-being.
1. Introduction
CSE construct might serve as a useful variable in identifying individual differences in coping processes and in cognitive appraisals of life events. It is therefore important to establish the mechanisms underlying associations between CSE and positive outcomes. It is consistent with this view to suggest that CSE may be related to evaluation of life satisfaction on the grounds that a high CSE may modify how one interprets and reacts to stressful events. High-CSE individuals are more likely to be generally satisfied with their lives than their low-CSE counterparts (Judge, Locke, Durham, & Kluger, 1998). Most earlier research looked at the incremental value of CSE in the domain of organisational psychology (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2011), but there is increasing evidence of empirical links between CSE and personal outcomes. In particular, most studies have found that CSE is positively associated with well-being indicators including life satisfaction, happiness and positive affect (Hsieh & Huang, 2017; Piccolo, Judge, Takahashi, Watanabe, & Locke, 2005; Rey & Extremera, 2015). Likewise, people with a positive CSE tend to be satisfied with their lives (Judge et al., 1998). A meta-analytic review of CSE and its four underlying components concluded that they are strongly positively associated with life satisfaction (ρ = 0.54) (Chang et al., 2012). There has been little research, however, into the ways in which high CSE could promote increased well-being or the mechanisms that might underlie the association between CSE and life satisfaction. These include predispositions to positive and negative affect. Theoretically, components of
In the last two decades the core self-evaluations (CSE) construct has received considerable attention from theorists and practitioners. This may be due to the possibility that it has an influence on important personal and organisational outcomes, such as work performance, job satisfaction and life satisfaction, amongst others (Chang, Ferris, Johnson, Rosen, & Tan, 2012; Judge & Hurst, 2007). CSE has been conceptualised as a higher order framework representing people's fundamental evaluations of their worth, competence, capabilities and functioning in their environment. According to Judge, Locke, and Durham (1997), CSE is a latent, broad, high-order construct consisting of four well-established lower-order traits: self-esteem, locus of control, emotional stability (as opposed to neuroticism) and generalised selfefficacy. Individuals with a high CSE appraise themselves in a consistently positive manner across situations; they evaluate themselves as capable and in control of their lives, and tend to feel more able to exert control over their work environment than their low-CSE counterparts (Judge, Van Vianen, & De Pater, 2004). Individuals with a high CSE are also more likely to respond to difficult situations with positive emotions and expectations, because they tend to focus on the bright side of a situation, approach the world with confidence and self-assurance and feel in control of their jobs and lives (Judge, Bono, Erez, & Locke, 2005). Kammeyer-Mueller, Judge, and Scott (2009) suggested that the
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Corresponding author at: Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Malaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, Málaga 29071, Malaga, Spain. E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Extremera).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.03.054 Received 31 August 2017; Received in revised form 20 March 2018; Accepted 30 March 2018 0191-8869/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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2. Method
CSE such as self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control are dynamic beliefs that people construct about themselves and their interactions with their social environment; hence, they may influence mood in everyday life. Although there is evidence CSE is an important predictor of life satisfaction (Chang et al., 2012), CSE does not account fully for variance in life satisfaction, which suggests that there are multiple factors underlying the relationship between both variables. The presence of individual differences in the tendency toward positive and negative affect could account for the observed variability in the CSE-life satisfaction link. Past theoretical and empirical work has examined the associations between affect and life satisfaction (Schimmack, 2008). Research in several nations has demonstrated that positive and negative affect are causally related to life satisfaction, with positive emotions being more strongly related to life satisfaction than the absence of negative emotions (Kuppens, Realo, & Diener, 2008). Positive and negative affect are thought to influence life satisfaction either through the influence of current mood on satisfaction judgments (Jayawickreme, Tsukayama, & Kashdan, 2017a, 2017b) or as a result of predispositions to positive and negative affect (Schimmack, 2008). Similarly, since CSE is an evaluation of one's fundamental worth, competence, and capability it may influence well-being outcomes by influencing the cognition and appraisals related to everyday life events (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2009). It is in line with these empirical findings to suggest that self-worth might modify appraisals and reactions to life events (Judge et al., 1997), which in turn might alter one's affective balance, leading to a change in life satisfaction (Diener, 1984). Two previous studies of people with disabilities found that while positive affect mediated the association between CSE and life satisfaction (Smedema et al., 2015), negative affect did not (Rey & Extremera, 2016). These results suggest that positive affect may play a fundamental role in the association between CSE and life satisfaction. However, these studies had some limitations to be noted. First, both investigations were conducted on physical and mental disability populations, it thus may be inappropriate to generalise from a narrow database of nondisabled population. For example, results who have compared those with disabilities and the general population have shown that individuals with disabilities report poorer quality of life and well-being (Sheppard-Jones, Prout, & Kleinert, 2005). Second, both studies were conducted on relatively very small samples (Smedema et al., 2015; N = 97; Rey & Extremera, 2016; N = 134); thus the results cannot be generalised. Third, affectivity includes positive and negative affect (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), however, Smedema et al. (2015) did not consider the specific mediating effects of negative affect in explaining the influence of CSE on life satisfaction. Yet, it is not known how CSE relates to affect and life satisfaction in the general population or whether any associations that exist are similar or different between disabled and non-disabled persons. Clarifying this issue may be useful for understanding potential variations in which variables may contribute to greater life satisfaction in general compared with disabled populations and what the underlying mechanisms may be. Consistent with theory (Chang et al., 2012) and previous research (Judge et al., 1998; Judge et al., 2005) documenting the role of CSE on life satisfaction, there is also some reason to consider a mediation model in which CSE is associated with life satisfaction through affect. First, CSE has showed a causal relationship with both life satisfaction (Judge et al., 2005) and affect (Piccolo et al., 2005). Second, research has provided support for the notion that CSE might may have considerable influence on the development of positive and negative affect (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2009; Piccolo et al., 2005). Third, there is some evidence to suggest that individuals use their mood as an indicator of their life satisfaction (Kuppens et al., 2008). Therefore, we hypothesised that (a) direct relationships would exist between CSE and affectivity and between CSE and life satisfaction, and (b) affect would operate as a mediator of the association between CSE and affect. To confirm our findings and enhance their generalisability we subjected data from two independent groups (university students and adults) to the same planned analyses.
2.1. Participants and procedure Two groups of participants were used. The first group (Sample 1) comprised 352 college students (114 men, 238 women; mean age = 20.96 years, SD = 2.49) attending a public university in southern Spain who participated in return for course credit. They were told that the study was about personality and well-being. The second group (Sample 2) comprised 502 adults (226 men, 276 women; mean age = 30.22 years, SD = 10.47) working in a wide range of sectors who participated on a voluntary basis. This group was recruited using the snowball technique, a non-probability sampling technique; undergraduate students recruited friends and family members who were in employment. Most participants in this group worked full-time (69.3%). Given that sampling bias is a possible drawback of the snowball technique (Hendricks & Blanken, 1992) each participant was given written and precise instructions. Thus, participants were assured that their involvement would be anonymous, and that their data would remain confidential. Missing data were assumed to be random in both samples and were handled by multiple imputation in SPSS 22 (Cheema, 2014). 2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Core Self-Evaluations Scale (CSES; Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2003) The CSES is a 12-item scale developed to measure the underlying self-evaluative factor that is reflected in four more specific traits: selfesteem, generalised self-efficacy, neuroticism and locus of control. The CSE has demonstrated good reliability and validity in Spanish populations under study (Judge et al., 2004; Rey, Extremera, & PeláezFernández, 2016). 2.2.2. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988) Positive and negative affect were measured using the PANAS, a 20item self-report measure consisting of ten items assessing positive affect and ten items assessing negative affect. Separate positive and negative affect scores are calculated. Respondents were asked to rate how they feel in the last month for each item across a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (very slightly) to 5 (extremely). The PANAS has demonstrated good reliability and validity in Spanish samples (Sandin et al., 1999). 2.2.3. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) This scale comprises five self-referenced statements about global life satisfaction. Participants completed the Spanish version of the SWLS (Atienza, Balaguer, and García-Merita, 2003). There is evidence that both the English and Spanish versions have discriminant validity and adequate internal consistency (Atienza, Balaguer, & García-Merita, 2003; Diener et al., 1985). 3. Results 3.1. Descriptive analyses Means, standard deviations and reliability of the various scales are presented in Table 1. As Table 2 shows, CSE was positively associated with positive affect and life satisfaction and negatively associated with negative affect. Positive and negative affect were, respectively, positively and negatively associated with life satisfaction. It is worth noting that in both samples the correlations between positive affect and life satisfaction (Sample 1: r = 0.30; Sample 2: r = 0.36) were stronger than those between negative affect and life satisfaction (Sample 1: r = −0.14; Sample 2: r = −0.20) (for Sample 1, z = 5.95; p < 0.001; for Sample 2, z = 9.15; p < 0.001). 113
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Table 1 Means and standard deviations of core self-evaluations, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction. Sample 1 (N = 352) M Core self-evaluations Positive affect Negative affect Life satisfaction
SD
3.41 3.44 2.19 5.06
0.55 0.60 0.80 0.98
.45** .55**
0.77 0.80 0.88 0.75
M
Cronbach's α
SD
3.52 3.42 2.10 5.00
0.60 0.67 0.74 1.08
Core SelfEvaluations
0.82 0.85 0.84 0.85
Core self-evaluations Positive affect Negative affect Life satisfaction
– 0.51⁎⁎ −0.45⁎⁎ 0.42⁎⁎
.33**
R2=.15** R2=.21**
2
3 ⁎⁎
-.56**
0.41 – −0.20⁎⁎ 0.36⁎⁎
−0.48 −0.13⁎ – −0.20⁎⁎
.02
Negative Affect
-.03
Fig. 1. Path model showing positive and negative affect mediating the relationship between core self-evaluations and life satisfaction. Note: ⁎⁎p < 0.01. Numbers in the model are standardised regression coefficients. Coefficients on the top are from sample 1 and those coefficients on the bottom are from Study 2. Coefficients in parentheses represent direct effect of CSE on life satisfaction after controlling for positive and negative affect in the two samples. Age and gender effect were covaried but not presented in the final model for simplicity.
4 ⁎⁎
Life Satisfaction
.59** (.46**) .75** (.54**) -.71**
Table 2 Intercorrelations amongst core self-evaluations, positive and negative affect and life satisfaction.
1. 2. 3. 4.
.31**
Sample 2 (N = 502)
Cronbach's α
1
Positive Affect
0.32⁎⁎ 0.30⁎⁎ −0.14⁎⁎ –
mediators and the covariates, accounted for 21% of the variance in life satisfaction (R2 = 0.21, F (5, 495) = 26.092; p < 0.001). As shown in Table 3, positive affect was a mediator of the CSE-life satisfaction association in both samples (indirect effects = 0.13; 95% CI = 0.06, 0.24, for sample 1; indirect effects = 0.20; 95% CI = 0.10, 0.27; for sample 2) but not negative affect (indirect effects = −0.02; 95% CI = −0.13, 0.08, for Sample 1; indirect effects = 0.03; 95% CI = −0.06, 0.09; for Sample 2). As can be seen from Fig. 1, these findings support the hypothesis that the link between CSE and life satisfaction would be partly mediated by positive affect, but do not support the hypothesis that negative affect would also mediate the CSE-life satisfaction relationship.
Note: Coefficients above the diagonal are for sample 1 (N = 352), those below the diagonal are for sample 2 (N = 502). ⁎ p < 0.05. ⁎⁎ p < 0.01.
3.2. Multiple mediator analysis We used Preacher and Hayes' SPSS PROCESS macro (model 4), resampling 5000 times for the bootstrap estimates (Hayes, 2013) to examine mediation of the CSE-life satisfaction association by positive and negative affect. Gender and age were included in the analyses as covariates. We calculated mean direct and indirect effects and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). The CIs were used to determine the significance of effects: effects are considered significant at the p < 0.05 level if the 95% CI does not contain zero. Table 3 summarises the results of the multiple mediator analysis, giving path coefficients and confidence intervals of all effects in both samples. Of the covariates, only gender showed a significant effect in the first group; any other effect associated with the covariates was significant. Bootstrap estimation showed that total effect of CSE on life satisfaction was significant in both groups (c = 0.59; p > 0.01; c = 0.75; p > 0.01; for the first and second group, respectively). The direct effect of CSE on life satisfaction was reduced but still significant when variance associated with the mediators was controlled (c′ = 0.46; p < 0.01; c′ = 0.54; p < 0.01), suggesting a partial mediating effect by the hypothesised variables. In the case of Sample 1 the final model, including CSE, the mediators and the covariates, accounted for 15% of the variance in life satisfaction (R2 = 0.15, F (5, 346) = 12.748; p < 0.001). In the case of Sample 2, the final model, including CSE, the
4. Discussion This study investigated affectivity as a mediator of the association between CSE and life satisfaction. The results of analysis of two different samples provide converging evidence that CSE is positively associated with life satisfaction and that this link is partially mediated by positive affect. In line with earlier research we found the expected positive relationship between CSE and life satisfaction in both samples (Piccolo et al., 2005; Rey & Extremera, 2016). Several theorists have already pointed out individuals' self-evaluations and evaluations of their functioning in the world influence their judgments of their life satisfaction and happiness (Judge et al., 1998; Piccolo et al., 2005). Our findings corroborate previous findings that CSE plays an important role in the formation of life attitudes and generalise these results to undergraduate students and adults.
Table 3 Path coefficients and confidence intervals of mediational analyses, controlling for age and gender. Independent variable (IV)
Mediating variable (M)
Dependent variable (DV)
Effect of IV on M
Effect of M/covariates on DV
Direct effect
Indirect effect
95% CI for indirect effect
Total effect
Sample 1 CSE
PA NA Age Gender PA NA Age Gender
Life satisfaction
0.45⁎⁎ −0.71⁎⁎
0.46⁎⁎
0.13 −0.02
0.06 to 0.24 −0.13 to 0.08
0.59⁎⁎
Life satisfaction
0.55⁎⁎ −0.56⁎⁎
0.31⁎⁎ 0.02 −0.00 0.30⁎⁎ 0.33⁎⁎ −0.03 0.00 0.00
0.54⁎⁎
0.20 0.03
0.10 to 0.27 −0.06 to 0.09
0.75⁎⁎
Covariates Sample 2 CSE Covariates
Note: Estimated using bias corrected and accelerated bootstrapping, with 5000 samples. CI = confidence interval. CSE = core self-evaluations; PA = positive affect; NA = negative affect. ⁎⁎ p < 0.01. 114
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interventions have been shown to be effective in developing personal strength and people's specific positive self-views (Wood & Johnson, 2016), interventions designed to increase life satisfaction may benefit from the inclusion of activities designed to increase the frequency of participants' positive experiences and promote sustained pleasant mood. Our findings represent a step toward understanding how the nomological net of CSE and affectivity is involved in appraisals of overall life satisfaction. It has consistently been shown that interventions designed to enhance self-efficacy beliefs and self-esteem—key components of CSE—are effective in alleviating psychopathological symptoms (Maddux & Kleiman, 2016; Mann, Hosman, Schaalma, & de Vries, 2004). Pending replication in clinical samples, we hope our findings can be used to help build theoretical models that will assist in the design of empirically-validated positive interventions to promote subjective well-being, based on CSE theory and its components.
As expected, positive affect was positively associated with life satisfaction in both samples, and there was a smaller negative correlation between negative affect and life satisfaction. This suggests that, while both are important, positive affect is more related to life satisfaction. In addition, the correlations between positive and negative affect and life satisfaction were similar in magnitude in both samples. The finding that affectivity was associated with life satisfaction is consistent with previous empirical research (Kuppens et al., 2008) and suggests that when deciding how satisfied they are with life, individuals take into consideration the frequency of their positive and negative affective experiences. Consistent with the proposed mediational model, in both groups we found empirical evidence that a positive affect might underlie the link between CSE and life satisfaction. In short, a plausible explanation for the association between CSE and life satisfaction is that people with high CSE experience positive emotions more frequently; this is in line with earlier findings based on groups of adults with disabilities (Rey & Extremera, 2016; Smedema et al., 2015). Our results are consistent with the theoretical proposal that people's appraisals of their fundamental self-worth and capabilities (i.e. their CSEs) constitute personal resources that might influence the developing of positive moods (Chang et al., 2012). In other words, individuals with high CSEs might be satisfied with their lives because they frequently experience pleasant or positive emotions. However, we did not find support for the hypothesis that negative affect mediates the CSE-life satisfaction relationship in this study. This is consistent with earlier research in several countries in that the association between life satisfaction and positive affect was been reported to be twice as strong as the association between life satisfaction and negative affect (Kuppens et al., 2008). It is plausible that when both positive and negative affect variables are included in a multiple mediators model, the stronger component (positive affect) acts as a mediator of the CSE-life satisfaction link (with the effect of negative affect not being significant). Accordingly, previous studies using specific disability samples have found that positive affect mediates the link between CSE and life satisfaction (Rey & Extremera, 2016; Smedema et al., 2015). Expanding these previous findings in non-disabled population, it is possible that positive and negative affect might play independent and distinct roles in explaining life satisfaction, as prior research have found with negative psychological outcomes (Diener & Emmons, 1985; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). This implies that negative affect might have no effect or a weak influence on life satisfaction and hence not interfere with the benefits of positive emotion on life satisfaction (Cohn, Fredrickson, Brown, Mikels, & Conway, 2009). Our finding is thus consistent with the principles of positive psychology, which emphasise that positive experience is one of the most important routes to greater life satisfaction (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). Several limitations of our study should be noted. First, our design was cross-sectional, which precludes causal inferences. However, our mediation model was based on previous empirical data showing that CSE influences judgment of subjective well-being (Chang et al., 2012), and that there is a cross-national causal relationship between affectivity and life satisfaction (Kuppens et al., 2008). Future research should aim to replicate our findings using longitudinal and prospective designs. As we only measured a hedonic component of well-being (life satisfaction) it is also important to compare how CSE is related to aspects of eudaimonic well-being. Turning to the practical implications of our research, although CSE represents an individual's fundamental evaluation of him or herself, we have provided evidence that CSE and positive affect may be related to life satisfaction, which suggests that if individuals think that they are valuable and experience positive emotions, they are more likely to be satisfied with their lives. Indeed, some scholars have found that changing the balance of affective experiences from negative to positive is one way of promoting well-being and happiness (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Since positive clinical
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