The paper presents the results of theoretical and empirical study of psychological well-being from a cognitive point of view, as a mental representation, including the experience of responding to the diverse dynamic challenges of a social situation. We suggested that psychological well-being is a mental schema. We presented the results of the empirical study performed on a sample (N = 111, aged from 18 to 40 years old), divided into two age groups: 18-25 years old (n = 55) and 26-40 years old (n = 56), using adapted questionnaire by R. A. Steffenhagen and J. D. Burns, the diagnosing technique for subjective well-being of a person by R. M. Shamionov, T. V. Beskova, descriptive statistics, comparison of mean values (Student t-test) and regression analysis. The following research results are described in the paper: situational, spiritual, social formats of self-esteem are associated with various parameters of psychological well-being: they form a structural unity, interpreted 41 Изв. Сарат. ун-та. Нов. сер. Сер.