Petra Anić

I am interested in the relationship between freely chosen activities and well-being (affect and satisfaction), pursuing life goals, and satisfying basic psychological needs. My research focuses on questions of how engagement in different activities affect our general and specific satisfaction (with life and ourselves), our affective experiences, satisfaction of needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence, as well as long-term life goals and meaning.

Free-time (leisure) activities

Time after work or school is often the only part of the day in which we can freely pursue our desires, goals, and needs. I am interested in different ways in which we can spend our free time and reasons for choosing a specific activity instead of some other. In addition I research the relationship between chosen leisure activities and different components of our well-being (e.g. meaning, emotional well-being, satisfaction).

Momentary and global measures of affect and satisfaction

When forming judgments about our lives, we rely on different sources of information. Some of these are continuously available, others are only temporarily present. My research focuses on studying the momentary judgments as a source of information for global judgments.

Since 2019

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Rijeka, Croatia

2012 – 2019

Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychology, University of Rijeka, Croatia

2005 – 2012

PhD in Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

1998 – 2004

MA in Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Rijeka, Croatia

I have supervised 5 Masters students. Currently I am supervising 5 Masters students and co-supervising 2 PhD students.

• 2013: National Award for the Promotion of Science, Republic of Croatia