Overall Hedonic Evaluations and Evaluation of Specific Moments from Past Relationships and High School Days

Two studies were conducted in which student participants gave overall hedonic evaluations of past relationships or their high school days, and, additionally, gave similar evaluations of the best, most memorable, worst, initial, and final moments from them. They also evaluated a typical moment and the percentages of good and bad times in these experiences. Such results from some individuals were given to other participants, who were also asked to make overall evaluations. Overall, the overall evaluations of the original participant related weakly rather than strongly to the evaluations of the specific moments. Generally, the other participants’ overall evaluations converged on those of the original recalling participants, but their overall evaluations of the past relationships were more positive than either their own initial evaluations or those of the original, recalling respondents. In sum, overall evaluations of these long, diverse experiences were not well predicted from valuations of the specific moments we investigated. Hedonic evaluations of past experiences may be influenced by appraisals of their success.