University of Twente Student Theses
Do people with different educational backgrounds differ in their description of the aspects belonging to a good life? : a qualitative study
Eckhardt, T. (2017) Do people with different educational backgrounds differ in their description of the aspects belonging to a good life? : a qualitative study.
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| Abstract: | There are many different ways to define well-being, and this study deals with one way to define a higher state of well-being namely flourishing. The PERMA-Model, developed by Seligman in 2011 is one possibility to measure well-being. The model consists of the aspects of positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. To evaluate the model of Seligman the questions of this study were: “Do the aspects mentioned in the PERMA-Model belong according to German people to a good life?” and “Do people with different educational backgrounds differ in their description of the aspects belonging to a good life?” To answer these questions, interviews with 24 people with different educational backgrounds (highly-educated and mid-educated) were conducted. The interviews then were analysed qualitatively by the three researchers of this study. They explored, if the aspects of the PERMA-Model belong according to German people to the good life and if the two groups with different levels of education differed in their descriptions of a good life. The results showed that the interviewees rated nearly all the aspects mentioned in the PERMA-Model as important, but the two groups differed in their descriptions of the good life. Differences in the descriptions of the good life were especially found when it came to the codes of engagement and the codes attitude towards life, material things and activities, which do not belong to the aspects mentioned in the PERMA-Model. The aspect attitude towards life was only mentioned by highly-educated people while activities were mentioned by both groups but were more often mentioned by highly-educated people. Material things were more often mentioned by mid-educated people and people from both groups understood the term ‘engagement’ in a different way than it was actually described in the PERMA-Model. Future studies should further explore these differences between the educational levels to be able to further develop the PERMA-Model so that it includes all aspects that belong to the good life according to different people. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/73263 |
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