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Diener (1984) introduced the concept of “subjective well‐being” (SWB) as comprising three primary components: life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA). Busseri and Sadava (2011) identified multiple competing conceptualizations of the tripartite structure of SWB and delineated problems with this ambiguity with respect to defining, operationalizing, analyzing, and synthesizing information concerning SWB. The present work provides an empirical evaluation of four competing structural approaches in which SWB is conceptualized variously as three separate components (Model 1), a hierarchical construct (Model 2), a causal system (Model 3), and a composite (Model 4). Data from a longitudinal study of middle‐aged Americans (N = 3,707; 20–75 years old, 55% female, 94% Caucasian) were used to examine the relatedness versus independence of the three SWB components within and …