Effects of hedonic orientation and experience on self-controll and affective well-being

Hedonic goals primarily consist of the pursuit of pleasure, positive affect, recovery, or the avoidance of negative affect (Huta, 2015). Classic conceptions of self-control assume that long term goals can come into conflict with short-term, hedonic goals. That is, the temptation of short-term positive affect may interfere with the pursuit of long-term goals. Successful self-control therefore enables individuals to resist short-term, tempting goals or to reduce the occurrence of goal conflicts. Additionally, it is assumed that high self-control is associated with high well-being (Milyavskaya et al., 2021; de Ridder, 2024; Hofmann et al., 2014). There are two widely recognized components of well-being: affective well-being and life satisfaction (cognitive well-being). Affective well-being refers to the frequency of positive affect relative to negative affect. Cognitive well-being describes satisfaction with central aspects of one’s life (Hofmann et al., 2014). Based on the definition of self-control, as well as hedonic and eudaimonic goals, it seems reasonable to conclude that individuals with high self-control would have higher cognitive well-being but lower affective well-being. However, this assumption has not been empirically supported. Instead, several studies have found a positive association between high self-control and both components of well-being (Nielsen et al., 2019; de Ridder, 2024; Hofmann et al., 2014). But self-control is not the only predictor of well-being. Hedonic experiences and the successful pursuit of such experiences may also predict well-being (Becker & Bernecker, 2023; Bernecker & Becker, 2021). Moreover, hedonic experiences may influence the attainment of long-term goals positively (Becker & Bernecker, 2023; Cornil & Chandon, 2016). And interestingly, there is evidence that exhibiting self-control can elicit negative affect as well, which in turn leads to higher need for prohedonic emotional regulation, increasing likelihood of self-control failure (Wenzel et al., 2024). Overall, these results suggest that people may be more successful in achieving their long term goals, if they do so pleasurably. However, hedonic or pleasurable experience does not describe the extent to which individuals are hedonically oriented. That is, whether they tend to strive strongly for hedonic experiences or are goal oriented towards them at all. (Huta, 2015). Hedonic experience only describes the extent to which such experiences occur (Bernecker & Becker, 2021). On the one hand, hedonic experiences may not arise exclusively from a hedonic orientation. On the other hand, it is unclear whether individuals with a strong hedonic orientation are successful in achieving their hedonic pursuits. Therefore, it is of interest whether hedonic orientation is positively associated with hedonic experience. If such an effect exists, hedonic orientation could, via its positive association with hedonic experience, also be positively related to self-control, even though classical definitions of self-control describe hedonic needs as the triggering factors for the goal conflicts that make self-control necessary. Therefore, it is of interest whether a strong hedonic orientation is positively associated with self-control and whether this relationship is mediated by hedonic experience. And because self-control has, as previously mentioned, repeatedly been shown to be connected to both facets of well-being, hedonic orientation should be positively associated with affective well-being as well. Therefore, the proposed study aims to investigate the relationship between hedonic orientation, hedonic experience and self-control as well as affective well-being using two mediation models. 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