Affect and satisfaction time dependency: An experience sampling study

Abstract

The aim of this study was to test the time dependency between affect and satisfaction on a momentary level. Ninety‐eight students participated in the study, using the experience sampling method. Affect and satisfaction scales were administered five times a day for 7 days via handheld devices, sampling the whole awake period with ratings approximately 3–4 h apart. The aim of this study was to examine the cross‐correlation between affect and satisfaction at the intra‐individual level and to test their temporal consistency via lagged cross‐correlations. On average, satisfaction was robustly associated with positive affect (PA; mean correlation 0.50) and negative affect (NA; mean correlation −0.38). The correlation of satisfaction with affect factors showed a consistent temporal dependency. Lag (i.e., the shift of one time series with respect to another) significantly affected the magnitude of the correlation coefficients of satisfaction with PA and NA (explaining almost half of the correlation variance). A significant affect–satisfaction cross‐correlation can be found when no lag is present. The introduction of a lag reduces the affect–satisfaction cross‐correlation to virtually zero. Research suggests that affect and satisfaction overlap at the momentary level, and the results of this study imply that they are also time‐dependent. These findings corroborate the idea that momentary satisfaction judgments are partially based on available emotional information, both in terms of intensity and temporal consistency.