Personal And Social Factors Predicting Happiness

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Date
2015-04
Authors
ABDUL RASHID, MUHAMMAD FARIS
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Abstract
This thesis results from a study that was conducted on 682 Malaysian university students aged between 19 – 25 years old from a public university in Malaysia (convenient sampling). The objective of the study was to assess the level of happiness among Malaysian university students. This study also examined how personal and social factors of Malaysian university students are associated with their level of happiness. In this study, personal factors include demographics, personality traits and self-esteem whereas social factors comprise of relationships with family, friends and romantic partner and important activities. The 29-item Oxford Happiness Inventory Questionnaire was used to measure happiness. To measure personal factors, a structured questionnaire covering questions on demographics (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity and marital status), the 44-item Big Five Inventory Questionnaire on personality and the 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale on self-esteem were used. To assess relationship, 15-item from Family, Friends, and Self Form was used to measure family relationship, the 25-item Friendship Quality Questionnaire was used to measure friendship, and the 26-item Perceived Relationship Quality Component Questionnaire was used to measure romantic relationship. For activity, participants were given a list of activities and were requested to indicate the most important and most frequent engaged activity for them. For this sample, ethnicity (F(3,678) = 12.942), religion (F(4,677) = 10.577), wealth (F(6,673) = 2.310), personality type and self-esteem (r = .438, N = 682, p <0.0005, two-tailed) were personal factors that related to happiness. Family relationship (r = .364, N = 682, p < .0005, two-tailed), friendship (r = .429, N = 682, p < .0005, two-tailed) and romantic relationship (r = .305, N = 276, p < .0005, two-tailed) were social factors related to happiness. Students of certain ethnicity and religious groups, wealthier, with certain personality type, have higher level of self-esteem and have better social relationships reported higher level of happiness. The findings have both theoretical and applied implications. This study contributes to theoretical understanding about how happiness operates as a construct and being experienced in the life of university students in Malaysia. Besides, it also helped to unpack factors related to Malaysian university students’ happiness and may also lead to other similar studies that can be conducted on other samples or populations such as high school teenagers in Malaysia .Findings from this research can also be very useful in increasing young adults’ happiness. For example, more campaigns or motivational talk can be conducted to promote and encourage high self-esteem and positive personality such as extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness among young adults. Effort to build positive relationships among young adults should also be given more attention.
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Keywords
Personal And Social Factors , Predicting Happiness
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