CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO THE AFFECTIVE EXAMINATION OF WELL-BEING

Text topic: METHODOLOGY OF MODERN SOCIAL RESEARCH – PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES

Text author: Владимир Ментус и Татјана Ментус Кандић

In this paper, the issues of examining affective well-being in contemporary social research are presented. Affective well-being maybe defined as a balance between experienced positive and negative affects. In the first part of the paper, findings on the nature of affects,their mutual association and some cognitive biases related to self assessment of affective experience are presented. Then, the most commonly used measurement methods are chronologically presented and the advantages and disadvantages of each are highlighted. These include measurement instruments containing only one or more items,instruments for measuring the intensity as well as the frequency and the duration of affective experience, instruments based on self-assessments as well as assessments of other people, and subjective as well as some objective measuring instruments. Also, some cases are presented of extensive international researches involving affective well-being measurements on nationally representative samples. In the final part,some recommendations for further research as well as concluding considerations are derived.