engleski

Lay definitions of happiness in Croatia

The pursuit and achievement of a good life is one of the themes receiving increased interest in the last few decades. Researchers approach this problem from two distinct perspectives – hedonic and eudaimonic, which are more recently being questioned, resulting in more integrated research frameworks. In this research we used a mixed method approach, trying to explore qualitative aspects and quantitative ratings of happiness combining both perspectives, hedonic and eudaimonic. Participants were 245 adult participants (128 females and 117 males), aged from 30 to 60 years, with a mean age of 43.76. The qualitative part of the study was based on the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation (EHHI ; DelleFave et al., 2011, 2016) questionnaire, where participants answered open ended questions about their definition of happiness, and rated their happiness in 10 specific domains (e.g. family, work) on a 7-point Likert scale. The quantitative part was conducted using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1995), short form of Positive and Negative Affective Schedule (Watson, Clark, &Tellegen, 1988) and short form of Mental Health Continuum (Keyes, 2005). The results indicate that the majority of happiness’ definitions include several components. Most frequently reported categories were Personal life (27.45%), Family (19.76%) and Interpersonal relations (15.34%). Regression analyses showed that happiness with specific domains accounts for 35.8% of the life satisfaction variance and 30% of the hedonic balance variance. Finally, happiness with domains explains 27.2% of the emotional well-being variance, 20.9% of the social well-being variance and 25.6% of the psychological well-being variance. At the methodological and theoretical levels, findings emphasize the importance of combining qualitative and quantitative methods, in order to obtain a better picture of the studied phenomena, and to enable comparison of lay conceptualizations people have with theories developed by researchers.

Happiness; lay definitions; conceptions

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