Abstract
In our survey-based study, we gathered evaluative and experiential measures of well-being and examined their correlates with different life domains variables used as predictors for each well-being measure. Subjects were a representative sample of Croatian citizens (N = 1,129). Subjects reported life satisfaction and rated how often they felt happy, satisfied, sad, angry, depressive, and stressed over the past month. Predictors variables included measures representing various domains such as physical (health), social (seeing friends, family support, receiving help, trust, fairness), psychological (learning, respect, recognition, spirituality), and job-related variables (job satisfaction, commuting). Hierarchical regression analyses were used with age, gender, and income as covariates. Distinctive predictors of positive emotions were learning and seeing friends, while predictors of negative emotions were trust, fairness, and recognition.
This research was conducted as a part of a project “Development of National Indicators of Quality of Life” funded by the grant from the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport of the Republic of Croatia.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The income was calculated in Euro based on currency rate of November 2007 (1 Euro = 7.32 Croatian Kuna).
- 2.
In the experience sampling studies, it was shown that positive emotions are highly intercorrelated, while the correlations among the negative emotions, still positive, are lower; thus we used more negative than positive emotions (Kahneman & Krueger, 2006).
References
Böhnke, P. (2008). Does society matter? Life satisfaction in the enlarged Europe. Social Indicators Research, 87, 189–210.
Bonini, A. (2008). Cross-national variation in individual life satisfaction: Effects of national wealth, human development, and environmental conditions. Social Indicators Research, 87, 223–236.
Cohen, S., Gottlieb, B., & Underwood, L. (2001). Social relationships and health: Challenges for measurement and intervention. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 17, 129–141.
Deaton, A. (2008). Income, health, and well-being around the world: Evidence from the Gallup world poll. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22, 53–72.
Deci, E., & Ryan, R. (2008). Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: An introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies, 9, 1–11.
Diener, E. (2006). Guidelines for national indicators of subjective well-being and ill-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 397–404.
Diener, E., Kesebir, P., & Lucas, R. (2008). Benefits of accounts of well-being— for societies and for psychological science. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 57, 37–53.
Diener, E., Ng, W., Harter, J., & Arora, R. (2010). Wealth and happiness across the world: Material prosperity predicts life evaluation, whereas psychosocial prosperity predicts positive feeling. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(1), 52–61.
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. (2004). Beyond money: Toward an economy of well-being. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5, 1–31.
Diener, E., Suh, E., Lucas, R., & Smith, H. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302.
Dolan, P., Peasgood, T., & White, M. (2008). Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29, 94–122.
Harter, J. K., Arora, R., & Neftzger, A. (2008). More Americans struggling than six months ago, those struggling outnumber those thriving for fourth consecutive month. The Gallup Organization. Retrieved from www.gallup.com/poll/109501/More-Americans-Struggling-Than-Six-Months-Ago.aspx
Harter, J. K., & Gurley, V. F. (2008). Measuring well-being in the United States. Observer, 21, 17–20.
Helliwell, J. (2006). Well-being, social capital and public policy: What’s new? The Economic Journal, 116, 34–45.
Hobcraft, J. (2006). The ABC of demographic behaviour: How the interplays of alleles, brains, and contexts over the life course should shape research aimed at understanding population processes. Population Studies, 60, 153–187.
Huppert, F., & Whittington, J. (2003). Evidence for the independence of positive and negative well-being: Implications for quality of life assessment. British Journal of Health Psychology, 8, 107–122.
Kahneman, D., & Krueger, A. (2006). Developments in the measurement of subjective well-being. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, 3–24.
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A., Schkade, D., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. (2004). Toward national well-being accounts. The American Economic Review, 94, 429–434.
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A., Schkade, D., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. (2006). Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion. Science, 312, 1908–1910.
Kaliterna Lipovčan, L., & Prizmić-Larsen, Z. (2006a). What makes Croats happy? Predictors of happiness in representative sample. In A. Delle Fave (Ed.), Dimensions of well-being: Research and intervention (pp. 53–59). Milano: Franco Angeli.
Kaliterna Lipovčan, L., & Prizmić-Larsen, Z. (2006b). Quality of life, life satisfaction and happiness in Croatia in comparison to European countries. In K. Otti (Ed.), Croatia’s accession to the European Union: The challenges of Participation (pp. 189–208). Zagreb, Croatia: Institute for Public Finances.
Kaliterna Lipovčan, L., & Prizmić-Larsen, Z. (2007). Importance and satisfaction with life domains in Croatia: Representative sample. In R. J. Estes (Ed.), Advancing quality of life in a turbulent world (pp. 41–51). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
Keyes, C., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. (2002). Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 1007–1022.
Kuppens, P., Realo, A., & Diener, E. (2008). The role of positive and negative emotions in life satisfaction judgment across nations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 66–75.
Lelkes, O. (2006). Knowing what is good for you: Empirical analysis of personal preferences and the ‘objective good’. Journal of Socio-Economics, 35, 285–307.
Lucas, R., Diener, E., & Suh, E. (1996). Discriminant validity of well-being measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 616–628.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.
Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2006). The etiology of gender differences in depression. In C. M. Mazure & G. P. Keita (Eds.), Understanding depression in women: Applying empirical research to practice and policy (pp. 9–43). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Oishi, S., Diener, E., Lucas, R., & Suh, E. (1999). Cross-cultural variations in predictors of life satisfaction: Perspectives from needs and values. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 980–990.
Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. (2004). Strengths of character and well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 603–619.
Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141–166.
Selim, S. (2008). Life satisfaction and happiness in Turkey. Social Indicators Research, 88, 531–562.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix: Zero-Order Correlations Between Predictors’ Variables
Appendix: Zero-Order Correlations Between Predictors’ Variables
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1.Age | – | |||||||||||
2.Gender | −.03 | – | ||||||||||
3.Income | −.22** | −.07* | – | |||||||||
4.Health | −.52** | .02 | .27** | – | ||||||||
5.Seeing friends | −.26** | −.02 | .09** | .25** | – | |||||||
6.Receiving help | −.01 | −.04 | −.05 | .07* | .13** | – | ||||||
7.Family support | −.17** | .05 | .10** | .15** | .25** | .14** | – | |||||
8.Trust | −.08* | −.03 | .14** | .14** | .17** | .24** | .17** | – | ||||
9.Fairness | −.05 | .01 | .12** | .15** | .07* | .20** | .09** | .57** | – | |||
10.Learning | −.31** | −.02 | .28** | .32** | .22** | .23** | .25** | .13** | .12** | – | ||
11.Respect | .23** | .07 | .07 | .11** | .09** | .33** | .20** | .15** | .15** | .20** | – | |
12.Recognition | .04 | −.05 | .10** | .09** | .11** | .36** | .15** | .21** | .19** | .23** | .51** | – |
13.Spirituality | .06* | .13** | −.16** | .01 | .02 | .03 | .05 | .04 | .04 | −.05 | .05 | .05 |
*p < .05; **p < .01
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prizmić-Larsen, Z., Lipovčan, L.K., Brkljačić, T. (2011). Affect Specificity as Indicators of National Well-Being: Representative Sample of Croatia. In: Brdar, I. (eds) The Human Pursuit of Well-Being. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1375-8_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1375-8_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-1374-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1375-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)