<p>Vilka faktorer som påverkar vår upplevelse av välbefinnande och lycka väcker stort intresse hos människor. Upplevt välbefinnande (subjective well-being) kan definieras som en individs subjektiva uppfattning om sin livstillfredställelse. Grunden för denna uppfattning bygger på hur den enskilda individen skattar och utvärderar sitt liv. Stabilitet i upplevt välbefinnande påverkas av såväl situationsbundna faktorer som personlighet och affekt. Syftet med denna kvantitativa rapport var att utifrån data från forskningsprogrammet IDA undersöka sambandsstrukturen mellan de olika delarna i begreppet upplevt välbefinnande: områdesspecifikt välbefinnande å ena sidan och generellt välbefinnande med allmän livstillfredställelse, positiv affekt och negativ affekt å andra sidan. Samt att hitta eventuella könsskillnader i dessa samband. Resultatet visade på starka samband mellan generellt och områdesspecifikt välbefinnande. Det allra starkaste sambandet konstaterades mellan tillfredställelse med familjeliv och allmän livstillfredställelse. Sambandet mellan yttre villkor för arbetstillfredställelse och generellt välbefinnande var starkare för män än för kvinnor, medan partialsambandet mellan tillfredställelse med partnerrelation och allmän livstillfredställelse var starkare för kvinnor. Diskussion förs kring resultatens överensstämmelse med tidigare forskning.</p>

<p>The present thesis concerns middle-aged women’s subjective well-being (SWB). The interest is focused on the importance of childhood factors, social circumstances, and personality for middle-aged women’s general SWB. Data were taken from the longitudinal research program Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA, Magnusson & Bergman, 2000) and concerned a sample of about 300 women. The main analyses were made on data collected at age 43, but data collected at age 13 and age 49 were also used to elucidate the purposes of this thesis. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) In a Swedish sample of middle-aged women, social circumstances had only a moderate effect on general SWB variables. The strongest relationship was found between marital status and global life satisfaction. When personality factors were controlled for, they wiped out nearly all relationships between the social circumstances variables and SWB, except for those between global life satisfaction and marital status or unemployment; 2) The level of general SWB was found to be considerably higher for Swedish employed women as compared to their counterparts in Lithuania and different socio-demographic variables predicted SWB in those two countries. For the Swedish sample, family-oriented variables were the strongest predictors of SWB, while for the Lithuanian sample income and educational level were more important; 3) Results from applying longitudinal structural equation modeling suggested that optimism in adolescence influenced optimism in middle age, which in its turn had both a direct influence on global life satisfaction and an indirect influence via the negative affect dimension. In relation to a number of different adjustment factors measured in adolescence it was found that optimism was the only factor that was constantly related to SWB 30 years later; 4) Typical patterns of general SWB were identified. Cluster analyses at age 43 and age 49 separately resulted in similar well-functioning six cluster solutions at both ages, indicating structural stability across six years. In addition to the typical high/low/average SWB clusters that could be to some degree expected from variable-oriented results, a cluster with intense affect and one with very low GLS emerged. All clusters except the latter one showed individual stability across six years.</p>

Individualūs poreikiai ir asmeninė patirtis užima vis svarbesnę vietą sveikatos priežiūros sistemoje, plinta sveiko gyvenimo būdo idėjos. Subjektyviems poreikiams patenkinti šalia biomedicininio sveikatos gerinimo modelio atsiranda daugybė alternatyvių technikų bei sveikatos specialistų, siūlančių skirtingas sveikos gyvensenos strategijas. Šio darbo problema yra šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje atsirandantis sveikos gyvensenos strategijų pliuralizmas, siejamas su vartotojiškos kultūros, socialinės refleksijos ir pomaterialistinių vertybių atsiradimu. Biomedicina sveiką gyvenseną traktuoja kaip sveikatos gerinimo strategiją. Tačiau sveikos gyvensenos pasirinkimai susiję ne tik su sveikata, bet taip pat su tam tikro gyvenimo stiliaus pasirinkimu. Jei medicininės praktikos yra orientuotos į konkrečios problemos sprendimą, tai sveika gyvensena tampa kur kas platesniu reiškiniu. Todėl šiuo darbu siekiama atskleisti sveikos gyvensenos strategijų pasirinkimo motyvus, bei gyvenimo stiliaus raišką. Atlikus empirinių duomenų analizę paaiškėja, kad sveika gyvensena suvokiama kaip savirealizacijos, egzistencinio saugumo poreikio patenkinimo, subjektyvaus gerbūvio kūrimo priemonė. Sveikatos samprata peržengia vien biologinio poreikio ribas ir tampa saviraiškos piemone, sveikos gyvensenos vertybėmis grįstu savitu gyvenimo stiliumi. Sveikos gyvensenos praktikos ne tik stiprina sveikatą, bet subalansuojančiu ir kitas žmogaus gyvenimo sritis. / Individual needs and personal experience is gaining more importance in people’s health care system, and the patterns of healthy lifestyle are being spread along. To meet subjective needs of the people a number of alternative techniques and various health care specialists offering different lifestyle strategies appear next to the biomedical model of health promotion. The core question of the present paper is the plurality of healthy lifestyle strategies associated with the appearance of consumer culture, social reflection and post-materialistic values in today’s society. In biomedicine healthy lifestyle is seen as a strategy of health improvement. However, the patterns of healthy lifestyle are not only associated with health but also with certain choices of a living of life. If medical practice focuses on a specific problem, a healthy lifestyle then becomes a much broader phenomenon. Therefore this paper aims at revealing the motif choice of strategy of healthy lifestyle and the expression of lifestyle. The empirical analysis of the data showed that healthy lifestyle was perceived as a mean of self-realization, the satisfaction of the need of existential security and the development of subjective well-being. The concept of health goes beyond the limits of biological need becoming a mean of self-realization, a way of living based on values of healthy lifestyle. The practice of healthy lifestyle not only enhances one’s health but also becomes a much broader phenomenon equally... [to full text]

The present research aims at examining the interaction between transition from centrally planned economies to market based economies and its subsequent effects on populations’ happiness and life satisfaction in Algeria, Egypt and Morocco. It also aims at advising policy makers on how economic policies may affect population’s subjective well-being. It is widely accepted that economic reforms affect individuals’ lives. In contrast, the populations’ values, attitudes and perceptions may also play a major role in the success of these reforms. The first study examines the determinants of happiness and life satisfaction by gender in Algeria and their attitudes and perceptions towards economic policies’ reforms. The survey reports that the female population in Algeria is happier and more satisfied with life than its male counterpart. It has been found that healthier individuals and those in the medium level of income are most likely to be happier and satisfied with their lives. Also, happiness is inversely “U-shaped” in age for the female population contradicting previous studies. Although, both genders believe that rapid market reforms do not have a negative impact on national stability, and are confident with the major companies, privatisation is found to be most likely having a negative effect on the life satisfaction among the male population. The second study examines the changes in the levels of life satisfaction in Egypt and Morocco over the first decade of the present century. It has been found that Egyptian women’ satisfaction with life is “U-shaped” in age, whereas in income that applies only to those at the medium, upper-medium and high levels of income. By contrast, Egyptian men are satisfied at all income levels. In Morocco, unemployed men and women are found to be satisfied with their lives in the beginning of the decade contradicting previous findings. While in the late 2000s, among the employed populations, females and males at the medium and the upper medium levels of income are satisfied, along with the lower level for women and the higher level for men. The third study examines the effect of relative income on individuals’ self-reported life satisfaction, assuming that the individual’s subjective judgement of his or her life satisfaction depends on both absolute and relative incomes. Absolute refers to the individual’s income, relative is the income of others around him or her called a reference group. The findings are that Algerians and Moroccans feel ambitious when self-reporting their levels of life satisfaction and referring their income to others’ income, but Egyptians feel jealous.

This thesis comprises four chapters, in two parts. The first part examines the result of a Swedish payroll tax reduction; first from the perspective of the worker, then from that of the employer. The second half of the thesis concerns subjective well-being, both from an individual and from an aggregate viewpoint. Payroll Taxes and Youth Labor Demand. In 2007, the Swedish payroll tax was reduced substantially for young workers. This paper examines whether targeted payroll tax reductions are effective in raising youth employment. We estimate a small impact, both on employment and on wages. However, the effect differs markedly across ages, with 4–5 times higher impact on 22–23 year-olds compared to 25-year-olds. Additionally, the employment effects are strongly procyclical, approaching zero in the deep recession. We calculate that the estimated cost per created job is more than four times that of directly hiring workers at the average wage. Payroll Taxes and Firm Performance. The Swedish payroll tax reform of 2007 had the effect that firms' average social fees came to depend on the age structure of their employees. This makes it possible to estimate how firms respond to shocks in labor costs. We find a significant, but very small effect on gross investments, and a negative, but not statistically significant, impact on labor productivity. There are no effects on exit rates or profitability. Beyond Income: The Importance for Life Satisfaction of Having Access to a Cash Margin. We study how life satisfaction among adult Swedes is influenced by having access to a cash margin, i.e. a moderate amount of money that could be acquired on short notice either through own savings, by loan from family or friends, or by other means. We find that cash margin is a strong and robust predictor of life satisfaction, also when controlling for individual fixed-effects and socio-economic conditions, including income. This suggests that cash margin captures something beyond wealth. On Aggregating Subjective Well-Being. This paper discusses the assumptions underlying the aggregation of individually measured well-being. Any aggregation method is associated with measurability assumptions regarding the underlying well-being measure, as well as moral philosophical assumptions with respect to how individual well-being is weighted into a composite metric. I compare welfare across a set of countries, under alternative aggregation methods, and find that countries often can be ranked under comparatively weak measurement assumptions, and, equally important, that aggregation methods can be chosen so as to refrain from strong ethical preconceptions.

Magistro darbas: „Dirbančių suaugusiųjų subjektyvios gerovės, asmenybės bruožų ir savęs vertinimo sąsajos“. Darbo tikslas: ištirti sąsajas tarp dirbančiųjų subjektyvios gerovės, asmenybės bruožų ir savęs vertinimo. Pradžioje keliama hipotezė, kad dirbančiųjų subjektyvi gerovė, asmenybės bruožai ir savęs vertinimas yra susiję. Tikslui pasiekti buvo iškelti šie uždaviniai: įvertinti tiriamųjų subjektyvios gerovės, asmenybės bruožų ir savęs vertinimo ypatumus; palyginti tiriamųjų subjektyvios gerovės įverčius pagal: lyties, amžiaus, išsilavinimo, šeimyninės padėties, vaikų turėjimo, gaunamų pajamų, darbo pobūdžio aspektus; nustatyti sąsajas tarp tiriamųjų subjektyvios gerovės ir asmenybės bruožų; nustatyti sąsajas tarp tiriamųjų subjektyvios gerovės ir savęs vertinimo; nustatyti sąsajas tarp tiriamųjų asmenybės bruožų ir savęs vertinimo. Tyrimo rezultatai atskleidė, kad tyrimo grupės (dirbančiųjų) subjektyvi gerovė yra vidutinio lygio; daugumos respondentų vyraujanti asmenybės ypatybė yra sąmoningumas (kiti asmenybės bruožai: ekstraversija, sutariamumas, neurotiškumas ir atvirumas patyrimui); didžiajai tiriamųjų daugumai būdingas teigiamas savęs vertinimas. Buvo nustatyta, kad dirbančiųjų subjektyvi gerovė yra susijusi su gaunamomis pajamomis, bet nesusijusi su kitais sociodemografiniais veiksniais: lytimi, amžiumi, išsilavinimu, šeimine padėtimi, vaikų turėjimu, darbo pobūdžiu. Taip pat nustatyta, kad dirbančiųjų subjektyvi gerovė teigiamai siejosi su tokiais asmenybės bruožais... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The aim of this work is examine the connections between workers subjective well-being, personality traits and self-evaluation. In the beginning of the research was raised a hipothesis that workers’ subjective well-being, personality traits and self-evaluation are connected. To reach the aim was raised these objectives: to evaluate investigatives’ subjective well-being, personality traits and self-evaluation features; to compare investigatives’ grades of subjective well-being according to these social-demographic aspects: gender, age, education, family state, having offsprings, getting incomes, job position; to set the connections between investigatives’ subjective well-being and personality traits; to set the connections between investigatives’ subjective well-being and self-evaluation; to set the connections between investigatives’ personality traits self-evaluation. As demonstrate the results of research, investigatives’ subjective well-being is on the middle level; the majority of investigatives’ personality trait is Conscientiousness (other traits: Extraversion, Agreebleness, Neuroticism and Openess to Experience); for the vast majority of the investigatives is typical possitive self-evaluation. It was estimated, that workers‘ subjective well-being is connected with incomes, but does not connected with others social-demographic factors. It was also estimated, that investigatives’ subjective well-being was positively connected with such personality traits as Extraversion... [to full text]

Thesis advisor: Ce Shen / Civic engagement, involving people in public processes to achieve common goals, has received increased attention in the past several decades. This renewed interest was triggered by the seeming decline in civic engagement, particularly in the context of Western societies including the U.S. In addition, its potentially positive effects, such as psychological well-being at the individual level, have recently received much attention. Low-income people in developing countries suffer from double discrimination: first, the lack of opportunities to participate in civic matters due to their low socio-economic status (SES) and second, the lack of civil society culture in developing countries. However, less attention has been paid to civic engagement in the context of developing countries and low-income people, in spite of the importance of civic engagement to them. Given the significance of civic engagement for low-income populations in developing countries, this dissertation intends to fill the gaps left by previous scholarship. The following are specific objectives for the study: 1) Paper 1 aims to investigate the construct validity of an instrument to measure civic engagement among low-income populations in developing countries; 2) Paper 2 aims to examine the associations between country-level political and economic determinants and civic engagement among low-income people in developing countries; and 3) Paper 3 aims to examine the effect of civic engagement on subjective well-being through the mediating effect of sense of agency. Using the cross-national data set, the World Values Survey Wave 6 (2010-2014), this study first found that civic engagement among low-income individuals in low- and middle-income countries is defined in three dimensions: electoral behaviors, membership in civic organizations, and cognitive engagement. This result contributes to measurement development of civic engagement, especially among the low-income individuals in the context of developing countries, who have been neglected in policy-making processes. In Paper 2, I found that civic engagement increases in economically disadvantaged environments (low GNI per capita and high Gini coefficient). This finding may reveal the strength that low-income populations have. Lastly, the results of Paper 3 showed that electoral engagement and membership in civic organizations were directly related to well-being, but cognitive engagement had an indirect effect on well-being through a sense of agency. Also, the result of a non-recursive model showed that engagement in electoral behaviors leads to a sense of well-being, not in the reverse direction. The results from Paper 3 may demonstrate the mechanism by which civic engagement is related to well-being. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

O bem-estar subjetivo, ou felicidade, consiste na maneira como as pessoas avaliam suas próprias vidas, tanto de forma afetiva como cognitiva. Este juízo terá grande importância nas diversas esferas da vida, influenciando o desempenho social e profissional da pessoa. De forma agregada, níveis maiores, ou menores, de bem-estar subjetivo possuem impactos tanto no sistema político quanto na economia. Este estudo aplicou três diferentes questionários de mensuração de bem-estar subjetivo: o Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, com 29 itens; a Escala Geral de Felicidade, com 4 itens e uma escala única em uma amostra de 498 pessoas que trabalham no comércio de Ribeirão Preto e duas cidades vizinhas, e conduziu as análises destes instrumentos. Além destas análises, foram estudadas as diferenças entre os diversos indivíduos que compõem a amostra, no intuito de investigar se idade, sexo, etnia, estado civil, escolaridade, número de filhos, atividade profissional (comerciantes / comerciários), emprego efetivo / temporário, renda, religião, atividade sócio política e saúde poderiam influenciar o nível de bem-estar subjetivo. Algumas destas características mostraram-se significativas. / The subjective well-being, or happiness, consists on the way people see their own lives, in affective or cognitive way. This judgment is very important in the different ambits of life, influencing the social and professional aspects of people. In different levels, the subjective well-being has impact on political and economical systems. This study used three different questionaries to measure the subjective well-being: Oxford Happiness Questionnaire with 29 items; Subjective Happiness Scale, with 4 items, and a single scale with 498 subjects who work in Ribeirão Preto commerce including two other cities. Structural analyses of Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and Subjective Happiness Scale were done. Besides these analyses, we assessed the difference among several subjects from the study group, aiming to investigate if age, gender, ethics, civil status, educational level, number of children, professional activity (salespeople), temporary job or regular job, income, religion, political participation, and health, could influence their level of subjective well-being. Some of these characteristics are significant.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:19:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LIDIANE FERREIRA DA SILVA.pdf: 774767 bytes, checksum: df8bb602705efeaa7b1b718207ca6e7e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-01-30 / Unemployment is the situation of involuntary idleness of the people who make up the workforce of a nation. Unemployment in Brazil has evolved according to the historical, social and economic development that the country passed and passes today. In Goiás, some tax incentive programs for industries and businesses has contributed to unemployment decreased, giving the unemployed a greater chance of finding a job and facing unemployment. Coping strategies, or coping are used before a stressful event, for example, the situation of being unemployed and refers to how people face life's demands in order to solve them. The coping is characterized in two ways according to Moos (1993), as approximation and avoidance strategies. The subjective well-being has been named such as happiness, satisfaction, morale, positive affection, and is also considered by some authors as a subjective assessment of life quality. Studies on subjective well-being seek to understand what people do of their lives. The present study considered these three themes as the main focus of the research. It was then carried out a survey of unemployed workers in the city of Goiânia and its metropolitan area; in order to examine coping strategies used by the unemployed, as well as correlate these coping strategies with the reports of positive affect and negative of these individuals. The study included 254 participants. Data were collected in the SINE employment agencies, staffing firms and the School for Young Adults. The results point to greater use of approach coping strategies and, when using these strategies individuals reported more positive emotions than negative and the reverse was found with the individuals who use avoidant strategies, which reported more negative affection. The study objective was achieved, but is necessary to realize more studies on this subject in order to contribute to the reduction of psychological distress that unemployment entails. / Desemprego corresponde à situação de ociosidade involuntária em que se encontram pessoas que compõem a força de trabalho de uma nação. O desemprego evoluiu no Brasil de acordo com o contexto histórico, social e econômico pelo qual o país passou e passa ainda hoje. Em Goiás, alguns programas de incentivos fiscais para indústrias e empresas contribuíram para que o desemprego diminuísse, proporcionando ao desempregado maior possibilidade de encontrar um emprego e enfrentar o desemprego. As estratégias de enfretamento, ou seja, coping são utilizadas diante de um evento estressor, por exemplo, a situação de desemprego e refere-se ao modo como as pessoas enfrentam exigências da vida com o objetivo de resolvê-las. O coping é caracterizado de duas formas distintas, de acordo com Moos (1993), como sendo estratégias de aproximação e de evitação. O bem estar subjetivo tem tido as mais diversas nomeações, tais como felicidade, satisfação, estado de espírito, afeto positivo, sendo também considerado por alguns autores uma avaliação subjetiva da qualidade de vida. Os estudos sobre bem estar subjetivo buscam compreender a avaliação que as pessoas fazem de suas vidas. O presente estudo considerou estas três temáticas como foco principal da pesquisa. A partir daí foi realizada uma pesquisa com trabalhadores em situação de desemprego na cidade de Goiânia e sua região metropolitana, com o intuito de analisar as estratégias de enfretamento utilizadas pelos desempregados, bem como, correlacionar estas estratégias de coping com os relatos de afetos positivos e negativos desses indivíduos. O estudo contou com 254 participantes. Os dados foram coletados nas agências de emprego do SINE, empresas de recursos humanos e na Escola para Jovens Adultos. Os resultados apontaram para maior uso de estratégias de enfrentamento de aproximação e, ao fazerem uso destas estratégias, os indivíduos relataram mais afetos positivos do que negativo e o inverso foi detectado com os indivíduos que fizeram uso de estratégias evitativas, os quais relataram mais afetos negativos. O objetivo do estudo foi atingido, porém se faz necessário que estudos sejam realizados sobre a temática, de forma que contribuam para a diminuição do sofrimento psíquico que o desemprego acarreta.

Partindo de acontecimentos recentes que evidenciam o aparecimento do tema da felicidade em pronunciamentos governamentais, em eventos de organizações internacionais, na assinatura de declarações, entre outros, esta pesquisa procura rastrear atuações que teriam contribuído para essa ascensão política da temática referida. Realizando uma reconstituição histórica relativa à produção de pesquisas sobre bem-estar subjetivo, constatou-se o papel decisivo exercido pela Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE) no sentido de promover maneiras de conceber e mensurar o progresso que vão além da consideração do PIB (Produto Interno Bruto). Examinando os Fóruns Mundiais realizados pela OCDE nos últimos anos, foi possível identificar ocasiões decisivas para de incentivo à utilização de dados de pesquisas sobre bem-estar subjetivo por parte dos governos. A partir da perspectiva oferecida pela literatura sobre comunidades epistêmicas, a presente dissertação traz elementos para a compreensão da valorização do discurso científico no cenário político contemporâneo. / Considering the recent emergence of the theme of happiness, highlighted in governmental discourse, in congresses organized by international organizations, or in recently signed statements, among similar events, this research tries to track the actions that may have contributed to the political rise of the subject mentioned. Undertaking a historical reconstitution of the production of research on subjective well-being, we found that the decisive role was played by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who tried to promote alternative ways of conceiving and measuring progress beyond the sole consideration of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). By analyzing the Global Forums organized by the OECD in recent years, it was possible to identify crucial occasions on which the use of research data on subjective well-being by governments was enhanced. From the perspective offered by the literature about epistemic communities, this thesis brings elements which help understanding the value of scientific discourse in the contemporary political scenario.