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The Relationship Between Domain Satisfaction and Domain Importance: The Moderating Role of Depression

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Abstract

A study involving a large-scale social survey was administered to a representative German sample provided evidence demonstrating three information processing principles associated with life satisfaction judgments: (1) judgments of domain satisfaction tend to influence judgments of domain importance; (2) the effect of domain satisfaction on domain importance tends to be moderated by depressive realism; and (3) depression tends to influence domain satisfaction judgments. Specifically, depression mitigates the influence of domain satisfaction on domain importance. Nondepressed individuals tend to use compensation (an ego-enhancing strategy) to inflate the importance of domains they experience high satisfaction as well as deflate the importance of those domains they experience low satisfaction. As such, the effect of domain satisfaction on domain importance is accentuated for the nondepressed compared to the depressed.

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Notes

  1. Wave BA, CA, DA, and EA was conducted in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively.

  2. This item was reverse coded.

  3. This item was reverse coded.

  4. Item 8 produced a factor loading of .01 in Wave BA.

  5. PROCESS uses ordinary least squares (OLS), which is a type of linear least squares method for estimating unknown parameters in a linear regression model. Based on a set of conceptual and statistical diagrams defined by a model number, the user chooses a model preprogrammed into PROCESS corresponding to the model he or she wants to estimate. Reported estimates include all the path coefficients, standard errors, t- and p-values, confidence intervals, and various other statistics based on observed variables. Inference about these statistics is based on bootstrapping methods, given that many of these statistics have irregular sampling distributions. In addition, whereas structural equation modeling (SEM) solves the entire system of equations simultaneously through iteration, typically using maximum likelihood (ML), PROCESS estimates the parameters of each equation independently (Hayes et al. 2017).

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Sirgy, M.J., Kim, M.Y., Joshanloo, M. et al. The Relationship Between Domain Satisfaction and Domain Importance: The Moderating Role of Depression. J Happiness Stud 21, 2007–2030 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00168-w

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