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Investment in self: development of the construct

M.A. / The quest for a healthy mind and body has received increasing attention in recent years and the focus it seems, is not only on attaining optimal physical and psychological health, but also the maintenance and enhancement thereof. In light of this, the aim of this study was to understand the contributing factors in reaching optimal physical and psychological health or what is referred to in this study as an Optimal State of Being. To this end, the Investment in Self construct was developed to explain the aspirations towards optimal physical and psychological health. In view of this, the criteria thought to be a part of an Optimal State of Being are outlined in this study and one of the main tenants of this study is that Investment in Self will play a role in reaching an Optimal State of Being. Since there is no comprehensive construct that conceptualises the essence of Investment in Self, there is consequently no objective method of measuring it. This study, in addition to developing the Investment in Self construct, developed an instrument to measure Investment in Self called the Investment in Self Questionnaire. The Investment in Self construct was correlated with Sense of Coherence, Satisfaction with Life and Optimism using the self-constructed Investment in Self Questionnaire, Sense of Coherence – Short Form, Satisfaction with Life Scale and Life Orientation Test respectively, in order to establish its relationship to optimal well-being. The questionnaires were administered to 256 volunteer participants from the general population and the results of the study showed that Investment in Self is significantly related to psychological well-being.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:13985
Date03 November 2008
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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