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

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 h..