Relations among Autonomy, Attribution Style, and Happiness in College Students.

Research suggests that a personal sense of autonomy supports individuals' success in a variety of domains, but information regarding these processes remains unclear. This paper attempts to establish a link between personal autonomy and cognitive processes, in the form of attributions for success and failure, in establishing a sense of subjective well-being, or happiness. One hundred and forty-one, primarily white (57%), college students (69% female) ranging in age from 17-27 (M = 18.8) responded to a series of questionnaires. Using bootstrapping analysis, autonomy was revealed to mediate attribution styles related to happiness, CI = .05-.31; the reverse was also true, CI = .14-.86, suggesting that these two processes are bidirectional. It may be that happiness relies, at least in part, on both a sense of control and a positive explanatory style for events in one's life. Keywords: autonomy, happiness, subjective well-being, attribution style, emerging adulthood. ********** Happiness, or subjective well-being (SWB), has become a hot topic of research in recent years, particularly since the emergence of positive psychology. Two major schools of thought coexist: those who either believe happiness to be primarily affectively based (hedonic, e.g., I feel happy) and those who believe it to be primarily cognitively based (e.g., I am happy with my life; Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). A third school, based in part on Headey and Wearing's (1989) dynamic equilibrium model, focuses on the interplay of cognitive processes regarding life events and affect in determining one's SWB. While no definitive definition exists, there is a general consensus that happiness is a balance of positive and negative affect, positive judgment about one's life satisfaction, and a sense of harmony (Chekola, 2007; Fave, Brdar, Freire, Vella-Brodrick, & Wissing, 2011; Headey & Wearing, 1989; Linley, Maltby, Wood, Osborn, & Hurling, 2009). Many studies have attempted to better understand the relations between positive events and happiness (Lyubomirsky, 2001; Lyubomirsky, et al., 2005; Myers & Diener, 1995). The term relations intentionally highlights a misleading trend in the research, which is to use the term effect, implying that happiness is a direct result of positive events or circumstances, such as financial stability or personal success. Rather, Lyubomirsky and colleagues found that while successful people do have a tendency to happy, it may in fact be characterological happiness which produces the behaviors and cognitions necessary to be successful. Thus, the relationship between happiness and positive outcomes should be seen as bidirectional, both emerging out of positive events but also aiding in leading to them. Lyubomirsky and her colleagues (2005) also found that happiness is related to a myriad of positive outcomes, aside from and in addition to success. Relationally, happier individuals have more fulfilling marriages and friendships, and are more involved in their communities. They are more likely to have higher incomes, greater work productivity, and better mental and physical health. Chronically happy people tend to be more sociable, optimistic, energetic, original, and altruistic (Norrish & Vella-Brodrick, 2008). Because of these benefits, Cummins, Mellor, and Stokes (2009) propose that, when people are happy, society as a whole benefits and functions better. Despite the typical focus on success and happiness, it has been found that, as long as one's basic needs are met, financial status and material wealth do not account for individuals' perceptions of happiness (Lyubomirsky, 2001; Norrish & Vella-Brodrick, 2008). So what does account for one's happiness? The construal theory of happiness provides a way to understand the weak links between life events and happiness. According to this theory, specific cognitive processes influence the impact of life circumstances on happiness, rather than a non-existent objective reality (Lyubomirsky, 2001). …