Linking Positive Affect and Positive Self-beliefs in Daily Life

This study investigated the reciprocal relations between positive self-beliefs (POS) and positive affect (PA) using week-long diaries kept by 268 undergraduate Italian psychology students. An autoregressive latent trajectory analysis was found to be the best statistical model explaining the links between POS and PA. POS and PA levels remained stable over 7 days and they were positively correlated suggesting positive associations between stability in PA and POS across the 7 days. Interestingly, the analysis of cross-lagged paths revealed that the state-like deviations in POS levels significantly predicted later levels of PA, whereas the state-like deviations in PA levels did not predict later levels of POS at all time points. Theoretical and practical implications of these results were discussed.