Testing Set-Point Theory in a Swiss National Sample: Reaction and Adaptation to Major Life Events

Abstract

Set-point theory posits that individuals react to the experience of major life events, but quickly adapt back to pre-event baseline levels of subjective well-being in the years following the event. A large, nationally representative panel study of Swiss households was used to examine set-point theory by investigating the extent of adaptation following the experience of marriage, childbirth, widowhood, unemployment, and disability. Our results demonstrate that major life events are associated with marked change in life satisfaction and, for some events (e.g., marriage, disability), these changes are relatively long lasting even when accounting for normative, age related change.

Keywords: Swiss Household Panel; adaptation; happiness; life events; subjective well-being.

Figure 1

Examples of the traditional nonlinear model (left panel) and the model that includes a comparison group and models normative changes of life satisfaction over time (right panel). All within-person model parameters are shown. Solid black lines represent predicted life satisfaction trajectories for people who experienced a life event; the dashed black line shows the trajectory of the comparison group. The solid gray line shows what the trajectory of people who experienced an event would be if they had not experienced the event but had the same initial life satisfaction. Year 0 is the year in which the event occurred.

Figure 2

Top panel: Estimated life satisfaction trajectories from the traditional models, for people who experienced a major life event during the study. Dots show mean life satisfaction in the data. Year 0 is the year of marriage. Bottom panel: Estimated life satisfaction trajectories for the event groups (solid black lines) and the comparison groups (dashed black lines). Gray lines represent what the predicted life satisfaction trajectories would be for people who experienced a life event if they did not experience that event but had same initial level of life satisfaction and experienced normative life satisfaction change over time. Year 0 is the year in which the event occurred. The lines are not straight because year of event varies across people. Dots show mean life satisfaction of the married group in the data. Exes show mean life satisfaction of the comparison group in the data. Comparison group data were plotted by matching each year of participation in the study (in the comparison group) with the average number of years from marriage for that year of participation (in the marriage group).