Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Peggy Gallaher

Abstract

In 2012, the Chinese 18th Party Congress identified individual well-being and well-being of the nation as 2 of the most important goals for China. Well-being, the maintenance of a happy and meaningful life, is one of the major psychological health benchmarks in an individual's life. Empirical research on lay conceptions and experiences of well-being has been almost exclusively conducted in Western cultures. Understanding Chinese lay people's conceptions of well-being and the relationship of those conceptions to experienced well-being is important for optimizing individual and social well-being, and for providing a basis for positive social change in China. The primary objective of this correlational study was to investigate the potential relationship among 4 dimensions of well-being and 5 indicators of experienced well-being. A secondary objective was to explore whether the relationship between eudaimonic (meaning in life) aspects of well-being was statistically stronger than the hedonic (happiness) conceptions of well-being. Data were collected from a sample of 548 participants from a medium-sized university in China using a paper-and-pencil survey. The analysis included descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. The overall results indicated that eudaimonic and hedonic aspects of well-being are highly associated with experience of well-being, but the relationship between eudaimonic aspects of well-being was not statistically stronger than the hedonic aspects. Policymakers can use the findings of this study to help focus policy development and improvement at the organizational level for Chinese society.

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