Which aspects of interpersonal experience count in judgments of well-being?

Past research has shown that domain-specific situational information may shape one’s global affective judgment. Which specific dimensions of a domain, however, are used for making these judgments? To address this question in the interpersonal domain, the present research employed a seven-wave, longitudinal design, measuring the average and total amount of an individual’s positive and negative experiences arising from their most frequent social contacts across the prior week. Multilevel analyses showed that neither the average nor the total amount of interpersonal experiences influenced their global affective judgments. However, extraversion and neuroticism did increase the influence of the average amount (not the total amount) of interpersonal experiences on affective judgments. The implications of these moderating effects of personality on valenced interpersonal experiences were discussed.