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The Impacts of Individualism/Collectivism, Self-Esteem, and Feeling of Mastery on Life Satisfaction among the Turkish University Students and Academicians

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Abstract

This study had two goals. The first one was todetermine whether the predictors ofindividualism/collectivism, self-esteem, andfeeling of mastery in a specific socio-culturalenvironment in which individuals from differentcultural backgrounds interact with each otherexplain life satisfaction. The second goal wasto illuminate the contradiction between crosscultural and local findings about ongoingTurkish cultural experience within the relatedvariables and the frame of the socio culturalenvironment. Research participants numbered696, 388 students and 308 academicians ofMersin University. Students were enrolled inthe Faculty of Art and Science, the Faculty ofEngineering and the Faculty of AdministrativeSciences and Economics. Fifty percent of themwere females and the fifty percent were males.The academic sample consisted of the academicpersonnel (instructors, assistants, lecturers,and professors) in the above-mentionedfaculties. The sample made up of academicianswas also half female and half male. Theparticipants responded to the Turkish versionof the short form of Individualism/CollectivismScale (INDCOL), the Rosenberg Self-EsteemScale, the Mastery Scale and the Satisfactionwith Life Scale. Among these scales, the shortform of INDCOL showed a high level of constructvalidity and the Mastery Scale showed amoderate level of construct validity in therelated samples. Others have showed high levelsof validities and reliabilities in the previousTurkish studies conducted. The findings of thisstudy revealed that individualism predictedhigh life satisfaction and collectivismpredicted low life satisfaction. Self-esteemand mastery also predicted high lifesatisfaction. It was observed in this studythat university life contributed to maleuniversity students being autonomous andindependent.

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  1. Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey

    Unsal Yetim

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Yetim, U. The Impacts of Individualism/Collectivism, Self-Esteem, and Feeling of Mastery on Life Satisfaction among the Turkish University Students and Academicians. Social Indicators Research 61, 297–317 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021911504113

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