RESEARCH OF LIFE SATISFACTION ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE POPULATION OF THE VOLOGDA REGION

Smoleva Elena Olegovna
Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories RAS
Researcher

annotation
The article presents the results of a sociological study of life satisfaction using the example of the population of the Vologda region. Most of the population of the Vologda region are satisfied with their lives (61%), dissatisfaction was noted by 17% of respondents. The factors of life activity with which respondents are most and least satisfied are identified. The analysis of differentiation of satisfaction by social groups was carried out. Gender and age differences in life satisfaction, differences in satisfaction with various spheres of life of urban and rural residents, and representatives of various professions have been identified.

THE STUDY OF LIFE SATISFACTIONTHE EXAMPLE OF THE VOLOGDA REGION

Smoleva Elena Olegovna
Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of Russian Academy of Science
researcher

Abstract
The article presents the results of the survey of life satisfaction on the example of the Vo-logda region. Most of the population of the Vologda region are satisfied with their lives (61%), dissatisfaction noted by 17% of respondents. The article presents the factors of life that are the most and least satisfied respondents. The author has revealed differentiation in the level of the life satisfaction of different social groups. The author has revealed gender and age differences in satisfaction with life, differences of urban and rural residents, representatives of various professions.

Satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life determines a person’s behavior in various spheres of life. Life satisfaction “...reflects a person’s assessment of his life, where there is no gap between the existing situation and what seems to him to be an ideal situation, or one that he deserves.”

Life satisfaction is important indicator“the internal stability of society, the level of public support for the activities of the authorities and government institutions in general.”

Significant factors for life satisfaction in general are the following factors: the presence of close social connections, job satisfaction, health, free time for leisure activities, personal qualities (self-esteem, extraversion, meaningfulness of life), positive emotions ( good mood). Less significant is material support.

The objectives of the study were to determine the level and factors of life satisfaction of the population of the Vologda region.

The methodological basis of the study is a sociological survey of the population of the Vologda region. Sample size – 1500 respondents over the age of 18; The sampling error does not exceed 5%.

According to the study, the majority of the population of the Vologda region are satisfied with their lives (61%), while 12% of respondents are completely satisfied with their lives, and another 49% are somewhat satisfied. 17% noted dissatisfaction, of which only 3% expressed complete dissatisfaction with their lives.

Respondents are least satisfied with the situation in the country (44% of respondents are satisfied) and their financial situation (52%). “Favorable factors” (the satisfaction index of which exceeds 50%) include family, interpersonal relationships, and position in society.

The greatest importance for the population is financial situation (importance index 76%), family well-being (74%), the situation in the country (69%), social status (68%) and work (67%). Among all the factors smallest value the population attaches importance to “lifestyle” (importance index 56%).

Satisfaction with life in general is at the same level for men and women. Men and women are equally satisfied with the sphere of family and interpersonal relationships, various aspects of their professional activity: the content of your work as a whole, the ability to choose a place of work, relationships with work colleagues, the conditions of your professional activity (study).

Men are more satisfied with their lifestyle in general, their position in society, and their financial situation, but less satisfied with their education (Fig. 1). Among women there are very low level satisfaction with the situation in the state.

Women also demonstrate lower satisfaction in the areas of life support and leisure: they are less satisfied with the services sector, household and medical care, everyday recreation, leisure, and the opportunity to go on vacation (Fig. 2).

Young people under 30 years of age are little satisfied with their position in society, their financial situation, the possibilities of choosing a place of work, spending vacations and leisure time, their education, and the current situation in society (Fig. 3).

At the same time, it is necessary to note the decrease in the importance of various life spheres with age. As we age, the proportion that attach importance to interpersonal communication (relationships with friends are important for 92% of young people surveyed and 85% of people over 55 (60) years old) and the sphere of professional activity decreases.

The differences in satisfaction with various spheres of life of urban and rural residents of the Vologda region are significant (64% of respondents in the city versus 53% in the countryside). This can be explained by the different socio-economic status of the city and the village. Rural residents are more dissatisfied with their living conditions and professional activities (Fig. 4).

An analysis of the differentiation of life satisfaction among representatives of various professional groups revealed differences due to their status and material and financial support. More high percent satisfied with life in general among managers of state enterprises and government employees (88% of respondents), military personnel (76%), entrepreneurs (75%) and office workers (75%). Among the working population, the fewest people who are satisfied with life are among workers in agriculture (55%), trade and service workers (58%), and representatives of blue-collar professions (59%).

Among persons not classified as workers (students, pensioners, disabled people and the unemployed), the number of people expressing satisfaction with life is even lower: 55% among pensioners, 41% among the unemployed, 8% among the disabled. The low numbers are due to dissatisfaction with the situation in professional activities and material security. For representatives of these categories, choosing a place of work is problematic - from 8% (among disabled people) to 36% (among students) are satisfied with the possibility of choice.

The conducted research confirms the relevance of the problem being studied, since the study of the factors that determine life satisfaction makes it possible to identify “risk groups”, which include people who need help aimed at increasing their subjective well-being.

The monograph presents the results of a sociological study of the quality of life of the population of the Vologda region according to the main subjective indicators - a sense of happiness and satisfaction with life. Particular attention is paid to the study of the value-need sphere and life plans of the population of the Vologda region, their influence on the subjective quality of life. An analysis of the factors of life satisfaction was carried out; based on its results, differentiated data by social groups were presented. The influence of subjective well-being on the perception of the socio-economic and political situation is assessed. The book is intended for researchers, teachers of higher educational institutions, students, as well as a wide range of readers interested in problems of quality of life. The research materials can be used by local governments for information and management purposes.

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The given introductory fragment of the book Life satisfaction and level of happiness: the view of a sociologist (E. O. Smoleva, 2016) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

Chapter 1. Theoretical and methodological aspects of subjective assessment of quality of life

§ 1.1. About the quality of life and its subjective assessment

The transition to a post-industrial society in the 60s of the 20th century was marked by two interconnected processes: a decrease in the severity of the problems of physical survival, satisfaction of basic life needs and increased attention to the non-material aspects of life. From this point on, human satisfaction and happiness are put forward as goals for the development of society and positive social transformation. The “standard of living” criterion, which primarily reflected people’s material capabilities, is supplemented by assessments of other aspects of existence. The category “quality of life” is introduced into scientific circulation, which is initially broader than the characteristic of material security. But until now, questions about the content of this construct are debatable.

Analysis of existing definitions of “quality of life” allows us to conclude that this category reflects both the objective conditions of existence of the individual and society as a whole, and subjective assessments of these conditions. Thus, by quality of life we ​​mean a concept that includes a certain set of necessary parameters and living conditions of an individual and an assessment or degree of satisfaction with their real state among individuals and society, or denoting the quantitative level and variety of those material and spiritual needs that a person is able to satisfy under certain conditions. society

Thus, most researchers define quality of life as an individual or aggregate assessment of the satisfaction of a person’s material, cultural and spiritual needs. But in general, on the issue of the content and structure of the “quality of life” category, representatives of various fields of science did not come to a consensus. Some interpret it based on the concepts of level or lifestyle, defining quality of life as a socio-economic category that represents a generalization of the concept of “standard of living” and includes not only the level of consumption material goods and services, but also the satisfaction of spiritual needs, health, life expectancy, environmental conditions, surrounding a person, moral and psychological climate, mental comfort. Others contrast quality of life and standard of living as mutually exclusive concepts (i.e., the higher the standard of living, the more intense the rhythm of life becomes, the lower the quality of life).

The most complete, from our point of view, is the definition of L.A. Belyaeva. It means by quality of life “... a comprehensive description of the living conditions of the population, which is expressed in objective indicators and subjective assessments of the satisfaction of material, social and cultural needs and is associated with people’s perception of their situation depending on cultural characteristics, value systems and social standards existing in society ".

Along with the substantive approach to determining the quality of life, the operational approach has become most widespread among researchers. If the first reveals the very meaning of the concept based on various philosophical, economic, sociological concepts, then the second specifies the method of assessing the quality of life, that is, the procedure for comparing the actual level of satisfaction of needs with the basic one using a certain set of indicators. The basis for comparison is external objective assessments and subjective self-esteem.

Initially, the category of quality of life in the works of scientists included the following indicators: provision of jobs, the relative amount of income guaranteeing a certain level of well-being, the quality of social services (medical care, education, etc.). In further studies, it received a broader interpretation, which entailed the addition of indicators reflecting environmental problems, issues physical health and the psychological well-being of people, various factors of social life (the opportunity for all members of society to be socially active, to participate in making vital decisions and to use social, economic and political freedoms and other social issues).

Currently, the most common approach is in which the quality of life is considered through the parameters of objective living conditions. Within the framework of the objective paradigm, we can distinguish various options definitions of quality of life indicators: the Human Development Index developed by the United Nations Development Program staff; indicators of the UNESCO Commission on Population and Quality of Life. Integrated indicators of quality of life developed by Russian scientists include a wide range of indicators in several groups: financial and economic indicators; medical and environmental indicators; indicators of material well-being; indicators of spiritual well-being; accessibility and quality of education; state of the social environment; demographic and safety indicators; welfare; development of sports and physical culture; transforming the quality of working life; environmental quality natural environment(ecology). In the method of S.A. Ayvazyan’s integral indicator of quality of life covers the main criteria reflecting the conditions for the processes of satisfying human biological and social needs.

But “by its nature, quality of life is an objective-subjective characteristic of the conditions of human existence, which depends on the development of the needs of the person himself and his subjective ideas and assessments of his life.” Therefore, along with the “objective” approach to defining this category, based on the use of statistical indicators, a “subjective” approach has become widespread, emphasizing subjective well-being, life satisfaction, the importance of certain areas of life for a person, as well as subjective feelings of happiness or unhappiness . The reason for expanding the boundaries of using a subjective approach was the fact that official statistics do not give a complete picture of the development of society. “For example, numerous studies prove that macroeconomic indicators do not always fully reflect the real picture of a state’s development, a high level of income does not always guarantee life satisfaction, and growing wealth is not always accompanied by signs of increasing happiness.” This is a worldwide practice. “In Russia, and especially at the present stage social development, the role of the “subjective factor” and, accordingly, sociological knowledge, reflecting its essence, increases many times over.” It is the subjective attitude of an individual to life, its collisions and changes that determines mental and moral satisfaction with one’s own life, even in cases where objective characteristics indicate the opposite.

Subjective well-being is understood as “a broad category of phenomena consisting of emotional reaction people, their satisfaction with individual areas of life, as well as in their judgments about the quality of life in general."

According to P.M. Shamionov, subjective well-being is a concept that expresses “a person’s own attitude towards his personality, life and processes that are important for the individual from the point of view of acquired normative ideas about the external and internal environment and is characterized by a feeling of satisfaction.”

This estimated value can reflect both direct judgments about the perception of life, and the personal ratio of positive and negative in the perception of things in general (which is the basis for dividing people into pessimists and optimists). In general, subjective well-being differs from indicators such as “mood” or “ emotional condition", its relative stability over time. In the early stages of studying the affective component of subjective well-being, special attention was paid to problematic emotional states, in particular depression and anxiety. In further research, the emphasis shifted to people's positive states.

The main theoretical approaches to the study of the cognitive component of subjective well-being are associated with the value-normative and motivational-need spheres of the individual. At the same time, the focus of researchers is on needs and values, awareness of them, one’s behavior and the result of activities to satisfy them, causing a certain state (satisfaction, happiness, positive emotions). According to supporters of the value approach, the basis of subjective well-being is the possibility of realizing a certain value attitude towards various aspects of life. The goal approach links subjective well-being to goal orientation. Multiple discrepancy theory is based on the idea that a person's subjective well-being depends on the gap between what he wants and what he has. The author of the adaptation theory, A. Campbell, suggests that people evaluate their well-being relative to the standard of living to which they are accustomed: if the standard of living becomes higher than before, then the person experiences an increase in the level of satisfaction. As you get used to the new standard of living, the experience of satisfaction with your current life situation decreases.

Psychological concepts of subjective well-being are based on the correspondence of actual (actualized) needs to a person’s subjective capabilities for their satisfaction. It is assumed that with a high level of needs (claims), but a low level of ability to satisfy the need, subjective ill-being occurs. In this case, it is not an external assessment of the opportunity that is given, but a self-assessment.

Thus, the level of well-being will correspond to the satisfaction of needs different levels:

– vital (biological) needs;

– social needs (the desire to belong to a social group (community) and occupy a certain place in this group, to enjoy the affection and attention of others, to be the object of their respect and love);

– ideal needs (knowledge of the world around us and our place in it, the meaning of life).

In studies of representatives various industries sciences - psychologists, sociologists, philosophers - usually distinguish three components of subjective well-being: physical (good physical well-being, bodily comfort, feeling of health, etc.), social (satisfaction with social status, the state of the society to which the individual belongs, interpersonal connections and etc.), spiritual (the opportunity to join the riches of spiritual culture, awareness and experience of the meaning of one’s life, the presence of faith, etc.). Firstly, the three levels of needs discussed earlier correspond to three components of subjective well-being. This type of division is consistent with psychological theories of personality, which distinguish in its structure “I-physical”, “I-social” and “I-spiritual”. In some cases, researchers expand the list of types of subjective well-being. In the concept of L.V. Kulikov, in addition to those mentioned above, considers psychological well-being (coherence of mental processes and functions, personal harmony, a sense of integrity and internal balance) and material well-being (satisfaction with the material side of one’s existence, stability of material wealth). At the same time, in the study of subjective well-being it is impossible to separate various components"I".

Secondly, the concept of “subjective well-being” is a complex construct. According to Andrews and Withey, it contains three components: life satisfaction, positive emotions and negative emotions. Subjective well-being is higher the more positive emotions a person has, the fewer negative emotions and the greater the satisfaction with one’s own life, which is not a purely emotional assessment, but includes a moment of cognitive judgment.

The views of Russian and American scientists on this issue coincide. According to L.V. Kulikov, subjective well-being consists of two main components - cognitive (evaluation of various aspects of life) and emotional (dominant emotional coloring of the attitude towards these aspects). I.A. Dzhidaryan and E.V. Antonov distinguishes in the concept of “well-being” a reflexive core, which consists of cognitive, evaluative processes, thoughts and judgments of people about their own lives, and an emotional background.

Based on the theoretical analysis of G.L. Puchkova identified the following structural components subjective well-being: cognitive, including ideas about subjective well-being and the future; emotional-evaluative (optimism, satisfaction with the present and past, hopes for the future, positive attitude towards others, independence, self-acceptance and authenticity, positive self-esteem of health); motivational and behavioral, which includes control over circumstances, having a goal in life, personal growth.

How do objective conditions and subjective well-being relate to each other? Empirical studies reflect their very complex and sometimes contradictory dependence on each other. For example, money and feelings of well-being are not actually as clearly linked as people think. At a certain level, income growth does not have a significant impact on life satisfaction; the rich are no happier than those whose incomes do not exceed the average level. The least happy are those who are most concerned about money issues. Even though people are currently Western countries became 4 times more prosperous than 40 years ago, their level of subjective well-being has remained virtually unchanged, and 37% of very rich Americans have happiness levels even below average. This weak relationship is explained by the fact that satisfaction and other aspects of subjective well-being depend not only on objective state world, but also from human expectations and various cognitive processes.

In those countries where an individualistic attitude is expressed (such as the UK and the USA), the population’s satisfaction with their situation depends to a greater extent on the perception of their own successes; in collectivist cultures - both on the state of the person himself and on the state of other members of society.

Often in scientific literature, when we're talking about About “well-being” in general as a certain level or meaning, without highlighting each individual layer of elements, the terms “life satisfaction” and “happiness” appear. If by subjective quality of life we ​​understand the correspondence of its real parameters and conditions to a person’s expectations, then the concept closest in meaning to it is the concept of “life satisfaction”.

In foreign psychology, the concept developed by E. Diener and his colleagues in line with research into the subjective well-being of an individual has received wide recognition, according to which life satisfaction is considered as a cognitive component of subjective well-being, not mixed with affective components. Satisfaction is defined as a global assessment of real life through the prism of subjective standards of a “good life”, which are constructed independently or acquired ready-made from the social environment. The overall level of satisfaction at any given time indicates the degree of discrepancy between the reality of life and personal standards of a “good life.”

G.V. Osipov defines satisfaction as the degree of gap between a person’s expectations and his actual situation. The formation of a feeling of satisfaction is influenced by objective characteristics social status, subjective characteristics of the perception of this position and evaluative characteristics. According to A. Campbell, the assessment is based on the level of aspirations (what a person strives to achieve), the level of expectations (the position that a person hopes to achieve in the near future), the level of equality (the position that a person considers himself worthy), the level of reference group (with which he identifies himself), personal needs (expected amount of remuneration).

A person is satisfied when there is almost no gap between the existing situation and what seems to him to be an ideal situation or one that he deserves. Dissatisfaction, in turn, is the result of a significant gap between the given and the ideal, and can also stem from comparing oneself with other people.

Therefore, according to social comparison theory, average satisfaction should tend toward the mean. However, further research has shown that in practice the situation is different - in almost all developed industrial countries the proportion of people satisfied with life significantly exceeds the proportion of dissatisfied people (about three to one), and in the USA it is 85%. Moreover, it has been proven that people with similar characteristics living in different environments - more successful, wealthy, or, conversely, less wealthy - differ little in their level of life satisfaction, which would happen if the theory of social comparisons were true. Empirical evidence rather suggests the validity of the model of constant change of objects for social comparisons: people deliberately choose those with whom they compare themselves, and do not always compare themselves with the same group.

In the early 1980s, scientists proposed achievement goal theory to explain differences in subjective well-being among people. Its essence can be described in the following way: Life satisfaction is determined by how far or close a person is to achieving his or her goals. Moreover, subjective well-being is achieved when these goals are achieved. D. Brunstein showed using longitudinal data that progress in achieving goals leads to positive changes in the level of subjective life satisfaction, and vice versa.

Enough wide application received an approach that defines “life satisfaction” as “the degree of satisfaction of human needs.” A person’s needs as part of his motivational-need sphere are considered in psychology as one of the main components of personality (A. Maslow, K. Levin, A.N. Leontiev, etc.). A. Maslow believed that what makes people’s lives meaningful and significant is setting personal goals, which are a reflection of current needs, organized into a hierarchical system of dominance. Only the satisfaction of needs located at the bottom of the hierarchy (physiological needs; needs for safety and protection; needs for belonging and love) makes it possible to realize the needs located higher (needs for self-esteem; needs for self-actualization). Due to the infinity of movement from one need to the satisfaction of the next, we can assume the fundamental impossibility of subjective well-being. Answering this question, R.M. Shamionov notes: “Since well-being to a greater extent relates not to a private behavioral act, but to a generalized assessment of “life in general”, to the satisfaction of those needs that are given special meaning in connection with the same values ​​and attitudes, then achieving well-being is possible.”

Another indicator of quality of life is happiness (M. Argyle, E. Diener, R.A. Emmons, I.A. Dzhidarian). In turn, it is interconnected with the concept of “life satisfaction”. Thus, M. Argyll believed that happiness is determined by the state of satisfaction with everyday life, a general assessment of satisfaction with the past and present, the frequency and duration of positive emotions. According to I.A. Dzhidarian, in the ordinary consciousness of people, happiness is associated with constant, complete and justified satisfaction with one’s life, its conditions, and the development of human potential. People's ideas about happiness are based on personal values ​​that are formed in the process of internalizing the values ​​of society. People build their entire life strategy according to their value system and understanding of happiness. Achieving precisely personally significant goals has the most noticeable effect on the emergence of a feeling of happiness.

A common basic definition of happiness in social and economic research is given by the Dutch scientist Ruut Veenhoven, head of the World Database of Happiness, founder of the Journal of Happiness Studies. He describes this phenomenon as “the degree to which an individual evaluates the general state of his life as positive.”

The concepts of happiness, with all their differences, are based on one basis: satisfaction of needs or assessment of the possibility of achieving a goal is chosen as a criterion for happiness/unhappiness.

The paradigm of achieving happiness through maintaining a balance of pain and pleasure in a person’s life is based on the assumption that any individual need is caused by a lack of something. Accordingly, the higher the general dissatisfaction with life, the more compensatory happiness the satisfaction of needs brings. Within another approach, activity theory, happiness is defined as a state that accompanies human activity. At the same time, M. Csikszentmihalyi notes that satisfaction from activity is achieved only if individual abilities correspond to the abilities necessary to perform this activity. The feeling of happiness arises precisely when the business that a person is doing is not too difficult and not too simple for him, when he finds it fascinating and interesting.

According to the concept of relativity, a person's level of happiness depends not on objective well-being, but on comparative subjective position in relation to other people. As R. Veenhoven notes, despite the fact that at the individual level each of us improves our life situation In order to become happier, on a generalized, collective level, people still need the presence of the state and expect from it guarantees of legal and social security, economic well-being, in order to maximize their own comfort and make their own lives more satisfactory.

From the above it follows that within the framework of this approach, the assessment of the level of happiness consists of two components: directly the level of subjective feeling of well-being/satisfaction with life and the relationship between oneself and various parameters and accepted assessments of success, prosperity and wealth. The affective component (hedonic level of happiness) is a person’s positive experience - everything that brings him pleasure; as a cognitive one - the feeling of how his achievements and accomplishments are assessed by others, how he himself considers them, how they are ranked in the society around him.

How do the concepts of subjective well-being, happiness and life satisfaction relate to each other? Some scientists believe that the term “happiness” is directly equivalent to the term “subjective well-being.” In other words, happiness characterizes a person’s attitude towards his own life, its subjective perception.

Another fundamental approach that distinguishes happiness from subjective well-being is presented in the work of D. Haybron “The pursuit of unhappiness: The elusive psychology of well-being.” The author notes that happiness cannot be associated with pleasure, since the latter is too illusory and vague in its psychological effects. Life satisfaction also does not fully correspond to the concept of happiness, since it refers to the assessment of life as a whole. In addition, happiness is, of course, a long-term state, and people evaluate their lives most often at this particular moment, and these evaluations are extremely susceptible to the influence of situational factors. Happiness, according to D. Haybron, is determined by the general emotional state of a person over a certain period of life. On the one hand, a high level of happiness seems to be a fairly reliable indicator of a person’s prosperous life; on the other hand, the true value of happiness is manifested in its significant contribution to the self-fulfillment of the emotional part of human life. However, it can act as a form of fulfillment of life only if it does not depend on the values ​​​​instilled in a person during third-party manipulations, false beliefs and affective states; otherwise, it does not reflect the real essence of a person, his aspirations and feelings, although brings a certain pleasure.

Another serious attempt to make a conceptual distinction between the concepts of “happiness” and “well-being” is made in one of the works of Jason Rabley. The author focuses on dividing happiness into episodic and attributive. Episodic happiness can be recorded physiologically - at the level of measuring hormonal and neurological indicators. This is what is discussed in the theory of “objective happiness” by Kahneman, the works of Davis, Sumner and others. This type of happiness is extremely dependent on time and event fluctuations. Attributable happiness is more stable and much less amenable to operationalization and measurement.

D. Rabbley notes that regarding the concept of subjective well-being, philosophers are much more uniform in their point of view: a high level of subjective well-being is observed precisely when life is going well in a certain way for a particular person. At the same time, there is a fundamental difference between assessing life from the point of view of its well-being and its emotional assessment. The latter is necessary because, no matter how highly a person’s quality of life is assessed from the outside, such a life may be unbearable for him.

For a long time, researchers have wondered whether life satisfaction and people's assessment of how happy they are are essentially the same thing, or whether they measure different aspects of people's attitudes toward life. Both indicators have been used quite often in large trend-based multi-country comparative studies. Their results revealed that the correlation coefficient between life satisfaction and happiness level does not exceed 0.5-0.6. As data from a large longitudinal study RUSSET, conducted in Russia in the 90s of the last century, show, the correlation between these indicators is quite far from 1 (0.64). This suggests that life satisfaction and happiness, although closely related to each other, are not identical concepts. The hypothesis that the happiness indicator measures mainly feelings, while satisfaction measures a cognitive assessment of events in life, was also not confirmed.

Based on the above, we can draw the following conclusion: subjective well-being contains three components - cognitive, emotional, connotative (behavioral) - and is characterized by subjectivity, positivity and global dimension. The understanding of subjective well-being varies significantly among individuals with different aspirations and self-esteem. Obviously, the higher the level of aspirations and the fewer opportunities for their implementation, the lower the index of subjective well-being, and on the contrary, the more opportunities for their implementation, the higher the index of well-being. The phenomenon of subjective well-being is primarily associated not so much with needs and their implementation, but with subjective attitude personality to the possibility of their satisfaction, life events and oneself.

Research on subjective well-being has shown that it depends little on demographic and economic factors; it is necessary to look for deeper and more complex explanations for the differences between people in assessing their lives. Positive and negative emotions are partly independent of each other, so distress, negative emotions, depression or anxiety (more precisely, the absence of all these indicators) are better considered as one component of subjective well-being.

Life satisfaction is the cognitive side of subjective well-being, complemented by the affective side - the positive and negative emotions experienced by a person at a certain period of time.

Happiness reflects appreciation social side people’s lives (this indicator of happiness is most closely related to family life, social connections, etc.), and life satisfaction is an integral indicator of assessing the external aspects of people’s lives (position in the social structure, financial situation, other factors of achievement). Based on this approach, it is life satisfaction that most depends on societal conditions and changes in the political, economic and social spheres of a country’s life. For Russia in recent decades, one of the highest priority tasks is to assess the impact of these changes on people's lives. Therefore, we selected both indicators—happiness and life satisfaction—for further analysis.

§ 1.2. Methodological and methodological aspects of assessing subjective well-being

In applied research on subjective well-being, scientists face a number of methodological problems.

First of all, a logical question arises about the possibilities of objective measurements of happiness and life satisfaction using questionnaires. The difference between the methods of empirical research used in the social sciences and the methods of natural sciences is due to the fact that the real perception of life is only partly reflected in human social behavior. For example, observation in in this case is not a reliable measurement method, since externally fixed attributes of happiness (joyful appearance) are found in both happy and unhappy people.

The main method in studies of subjective well-being is the respondent’s self-assessment of the level of personal happiness or life satisfaction, expressed in various types of answers to questions - both direct and indirect - during an anonymous survey or personal interview.

But do respondents actually have an idea of ​​a certain level of satisfaction with their own lives, and are their answers to the question an adequate reflection of this idea? N. Panina notes a significant amount of subjectivity in the results obtained. By studying the quality of life based on self-report data, the scientist is actually studying not life, but the respondent himself, his self-awareness, the system of significant relationships of the individual, including self-attitude. In other words, such a construct as “individuals’ perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live, in accordance with their goals, expectations, standards and concerns” reflects not so much the quality of life as a certain quality of state or properties personality in real life conditions. There is a fairly common stereotype that people imagine themselves happier than they actually are, but it is not confirmed in practice.

An important methodological and methodological problem in the sociological approach to studying the quality of life using subjective indicators of the level of happiness and life satisfaction is the uncertainty of the subject of assessment. Answers to the question “what exactly satisfies or does not satisfy a person?” ambiguous. They depend on how the integral assessment of one’s life is constructed, which influences different people to a greater extent (external circumstances or one’s own achievements and prospects, one or another area of ​​life).

If we choose the feeling of happiness as the main indicator of people’s subjective well-being, it is necessary to take into account a number of important conditions.

The basic assumption for the validity of self-report data is that respondents share the same perception of happiness. No matter how absurd this assumption may seem from the point of view of the average person, the results of research by psychologists confirm its validity.

End of introductory fragment.

INTRODUCTION

Aging is an inevitable process accompanied by certain age-related changes.

In the modern world, there is an increase in average life expectancy, which leads to an increased role of elderly and senile people in all spheres of society, which determines relevance of this study.

The research of I.I. is devoted to the problem of psychosocial development of elderly people. Mechnikova, P.A. Bogomolets, V.V. Boltenko, A.G. Nagorny, E. Erickson, G. Craig, V.D. Shapiro.

However, this area of ​​problems in developmental psychology and developmental psychology has not been sufficiently studied, which requires a more in-depth analysis of the essential characteristics, especially during the transition period.

The methodological basis of the study is the philosophical position on the role of social conditions in the formation of social status and its change.

Scientific novelty of the research is to determine the conditions for life satisfaction in old age.

Practical significance lies in the ability to apply research material in independent activities.

Object of study– life satisfaction in old age as a psychosocial phenomenon.

Subject of study– conditions for life satisfaction in old age.

Purpose of the study– to study the characteristics of life satisfaction of elderly people.

Research objectives :

1. Study theoretical sources on the research problem.

2. Reveal the essence of the conditions for life satisfaction in late adulthood.

Research methods:

1. Literature analysis.

2. Questionnaire “Are you satisfied with life?”

3. Quantitative and qualitative interpretation of results.

Work structure: introduction, main part (3 chapters), psychological recommendations, conclusion, applications, list of references.

Volume course work– pages.

1. Personality and aging in the modern world

The period of late adulthood is often called gerontogenesis or the period of aging and old age, which is associated with a whole complex of biological, socio-economic, and psychological reasons, therefore this age is studied by various disciplines - biology, neurophysiology, demography, psychology, etc. Most researchers divide people who have reached this age into three groups: old age (for men - 60-74 years, for women - 55-74 years), old age (75-90 years) and centenarians (90 years and older). However, this classification is not the only one. For example, Burnside and co-authors divided this age into four periods: presenile (60–69 years), senile (70–79 years), late senile (80–89 years), frailty (90–99 years).

There is an increase in average life expectancy around the world. This means that old age is turning into an independent and long period of life with its own social and psychological characteristics. General aging of the population is a modern demographic phenomenon: the proportion of groups of people over 60-65 years old is 1/6 or 1/8 of the entire world population.

These demographic trends lead to an increased role of elderly and senile people in all spheres of society, and require an analysis of the essential characteristics of human development during this period of life.

1.1 Feeling satisfied with life

A feeling of satisfaction with life in old age is an important indicator of a person’s psychological health, which is manifested in his interest in life and the need to live on.

As psychological studies have shown, a person’s satisfaction with life in old age and the success of adaptation to it depend on many factors. These include: health, economic and marital status, positive functioning, level of communication with others, and even the ability to use vehicles (see Appendix 1).

Among all the factors influencing a person’s satisfaction with life and the success of adaptation to it, the most important is considered health .

A huge number of elderly people, regardless of own desire, leave work due to health problems. A sudden deterioration in health does not allow a person to realize his plans and forces him to limit the scope of his activities. This often leads an elderly person to a feeling of helplessness and futility in future life, especially if health problems turn out to be global and lead to disability. In this case, a person experiences a sharp weakening in the strength of needs, a lack of desire not only to do anything, but also to live on.

According to the results of psychological studies, satisfaction with one’s own health depends very little on age. At both 60 and 80 years old, older people can experience satisfaction simply from the fact that their body continues to function properly. The desire to maintain good health for as long as possible is a powerful incentive that encourages an elderly person to lead a healthy lifestyle (engage in physical exercise, nutritional culture, get involved in various theories of nutrition, etc.).

Another important factor influencing the degree of satisfaction of a pensioner with his life is economic situation .

The economic situation is understood as a satisfactory financial condition (a sufficient amount of money to satisfy a person’s basic needs), the presence of social and housing conditions that are prepared by the person in advance. An elderly person expects attention and care from the state. Possibility of preferential use of vehicles, payment of social benefits, assistance in social services etc. – all these factors create a certain atmosphere in society that allows people to feel needed and continue to function positively.

Positive functioning in late adulthood determines a person's satisfaction with their life from the point of view that old people largely divide their lives between the time before and after retirement. Using the mechanism of social comparison, old people compare their situation in these two periods, as well as with how pensioners lived when the person was still working, or with what he expected when preparing to retire. The degree of satisfaction depends on the result of this comparison.

A negative comparative result reflects the inability to fully satisfy the needs of older people. The resulting dissonance prompts a person to eliminate it by changing his own behavior, revising his needs, modifying his goals, comparing his situation with the situation of other older people (there will always be that person who lives or feels worse).

Psychological research shows that such a psychological defense mechanism as social comparison of one’s situation with the situation of other older people allows a person to remain optimistic about the future and better adapt to illness. Moreover, social comparison in combination with social integration (maintaining significant roles, social reference points and reference groups) mitigates the negative effects of poor physical health and has a positive impact on life satisfaction, reducing psychological suffering associated with aging and facilitating the achievement of future development goals .

1.2 Stability, change and life stages in old age

Most modern scientists believe that personality development continues throughout life, and therefore view adaptation to aging as the development of earlier life styles. Supporters of stage development believe that at this age new structures or formations appear, which are based on the structures and formations of previous stages.

Levinson considers the onset of old age by analogy with the onset of early adulthood and middle age, since in this case there is a period from 60 to 65 years, which connects the structure of previous life (in middle adulthood) with the initial stage of the organization of life in late adulthood [, p. ].

E. Erikson considers the period of personality aging in the context of its holistic life path, at which a sequence of stages of personality development is built, characterized by a special new formation. Each of them is formed in the process of a person’s resolution of a psychosocial conflict between two opposing tendencies (ego integrity versus despair), one of which promotes the progressive development of the personality, the other slows it down. These tendencies in a certain form include both a personality trait and a person’s relationship to the world, to his life, to himself.

For a person who successfully resolves normative crises, the balance is upset towards positive qualities. With an unfavorable outcome of crises, a person has an overweight of negative properties.

E. Erickson calls the epigenetic formations of each stage Hope, Will, Intention, Competence, Loyalty, Love, Caring and Wisdom. Each of them includes two opposing qualities. The opposites of quality in the structure of the “I” indicate the characteristics of the ideal and real “I” (see Appendix 2).

As noted by L.I. Antsiferov, the task of the integrative stage of wisdom is for a person to find the meaning of his life, to integrate all the stages he has passed through and to gain the integrity of his “I”. The solution to this problem should be based on a person’s ability to be competent in building his own life, in developing feasible life programs, organizing his future time, adequately assessing social reality, etc. The core of wisdom is a person’s spiritual and moral attitude towards the world and life.

SOCIAL DIAGNOSTICS

N.V. Andreenkova

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LIFE SATISFACTION AND DETERMINANTS

ITS FACTORS

ANDREENKOVA Nina Vladimirovna - candidate of philosophical sciences, employee of the Institute of Comparative social research(CESSI). Email: [email protected]

The article examines such a phenomenon as life satisfaction. The author, based on ESS materials, analyzes the factors that determine life satisfaction, highlighting internal factors characterizing the person himself and his place in social relations (socio-psychological, socio-demographic), and external factors characterizing the environment in which a person lives (social environment and social connections, institutional, economic, environmental factors). The analysis is carried out at two levels, involving comparison of countries and comparison of people (aggregate and individual analysis).

Keywords: life satisfaction, aggregate and individual analysis, cross-country comparisons, internal factors, external factors

In sociology and social psychology, life satisfaction is considered part of the broader concept of subjective well-being, which, in turn, is defined as “a broad category of phenomena consisting of people’s emotional reactions, their satisfaction with certain areas of life, as well as their judgments about the quality of life in general.” "31. Life satisfaction is usually considered the cognitive side of subjective well-being, which is complemented by the affective side - the positive and negative emotions that a person experiences at some point in time. In the early stages of study

31 Diener E., Suh E.M., Lucas R., Smith H. Subjective well-being: three decades of progress // Psychological bulletin. - 1999. Vol. 125, No. 2. - P. 276-302.

Subjective well-being within social psychology has focused on problematic emotional states such as depression or anxiety. However, studying the positive state of people turned out to be no less significant. Subjective well-being in general and life satisfaction in particular differs from such indicators as “mood” or “emotional state” in its relative stability over time.

For a long time, researchers have wondered whether life satisfaction and people's assessment of how happy they are are essentially the same thing or whether they measure different aspects of people's attitudes toward life. Both indicators have been used quite often in large trend-based multi-country comparative studies. Based on data from such surveys, it was shown that the correlation coefficient between life satisfaction and happiness level does not exceed 0.532 (in some cases 0.6). In Russia in the 90s of the last century, according to the large longitudinal study RUSSET, the correlation between these issues is quite far from 1 (0.64). These data suggest that life satisfaction and happiness, although closely related to each other, are not identical33. The hypothesis that the happiness indicator measures mainly feelings, while satisfaction measures a cognitive assessment of events in life, was also not confirmed. Rather, happiness reflects an assessment of the social side of people’s lives (the indicator of happiness is most closely related to satisfaction with family life, social connections, etc.), and life satisfaction is an integral indicator of assessing the external side of people’s lives (satisfaction with the situation in social structure, financial situation, other factors of achievement). Based on this approach, it is life satisfaction that most depends on societal conditions and changes in the political, economic and social spheres of life in the country, and the analysis of life satisfaction helps assess the impact of these changes on people’s lives, which for Russia in recent decades has been one of the most priority tasks. This is why we chose life satisfaction for further analysis.

32 Campbell, A., Converse P.E., Rodgers W.L.. The quality of American Life. - New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1976. - P. 213-229.

33 RUSSET (Russian socio-economic panel) - a panel study of subjective and objective indicators of quality and life satisfaction in the 90s (1993-1999) by CESSI and the University of Amsterdam (www.cessi.ru).

Factors that determine the level of life satisfaction

In addition, it is very important to know to what extent residents of different countries, individual social groups within each country are satisfied with their lives, it is equally important to understand what are the reasons for people’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their lives.

Over the past decades of studying this problem, several theories have been put forward with the help of which researchers try to explain why people are satisfied or dissatisfied with their lives. The first studies of subjective well-being showed that it depended little on demographic and economic factors, and it was necessary to look for deeper and more complex explanations for the differences between people in assessing their lives.

Adaptation theory has been put forward, which suggests that satisfaction is determined by each person by comparing the present state with his own past. Immediately after some important event in life, your assessment of your life (satisfaction) can change quite a lot, but over time it usually returns to its previous level. That is, life events have a fairly strong, but short-term impact on the level of subjective well-being, and then adaptation occurs and a return to the previous level. B. Heady and A. Wearing, who showed this phenomenon using longitudinal data as an example, i.e. studying the same people over a long period of time, called this state “dynamic equilibrium of subjective well-being”34.

The first comparative studies that included an indicator of subjective well-being showed that developed industrial countries differ little from each other in terms of life satisfaction. To explain these similarities between countries, Richard Easterlin proposed in 1974 that countries do not differ in their level of subjective well-being because people measure their subjective well-being by comparing it with the average within their own society. Therefore, within each society, differences in life satisfaction between people are quite significant, and the average level in different countries differs only slightly. This theory is called social comparison theory and suggests that satisfaction is determined by

34 Heady B., Wearing A. Personality, life events, and subjective well-being: toward a dynamic equilibrium model // Journal of personality and social psychology. - 1989. No. 57. - P. 731-739.

35 Easterlin R. Does economic growth improve the human lot? / Nations and households in economic growth: essays in honor of Moses Abramovtz / P.A. David, M.W. Reder (eds.). - New York: Academic Press. 1974. - P. 98-125.

comparison with other social groups. Subsequently, additional hypotheses were put forward that the object of comparison could be a variety of significant social groups, including “ideal” ones, and not necessarily the national average.

However, if, according to social comparison theory, the average satisfaction score should tend to the average value, further research has shown that in practice this is not entirely true - most people in developed countries are above average on the satisfaction scale (for example, in the USA, 85% of the population are satisfied with their lives)36. In almost all developed industrial countries, the proportion of those who are satisfied with their lives significantly exceeds the proportion of those who are dissatisfied (about three to one). Moreover, it has been shown that people with similar characteristics living in different environments - for example, more successful, wealthy, or, conversely, less wealthy - differ little in their level of life satisfaction, which would be the case if social comparison theory were true. Empirical evidence rather suggests the validity of the model of constant change of objects for social comparisons, that is, that people deliberately choose those with whom they compare themselves, and do not always compare themselves with the same group37.

In the early 1980s, another theory was put forward to explain differences in subjective well-being among people: achievement goal theory. This theory says that life satisfaction is determined by how far or close a person is from the goals he has set for himself and their achievement. Moreover, subjective well-being is achieved when these goals are achieved38. D. Brunstein showed using longitudinal data that progress in achieving goals leads to positive changes in subjective life satisfaction, and vice versa39.

In all of these theories, life satisfaction (or subjective well-being in general) depends on various factors that vary over time and space and is not some kind of biological constant. Although theories have also been put forward that life satisfaction is either a genetically inherent characteristic or is determined

36Diener E., Diener C. Most people are happy // Psychological Science. - 1996. Vol. 7.No. 3. - P. 181-185.

37 Taylor S.E., Wood J.V., Lichtman R.R.. It could be worse: selective evaluation as a response to victimization // Journal of social issues. - 1983. Vol. 39, No. 2. - P. 19-40.

38 Diener E. Subjective well-being // Psychological Bulletin. - 1984. No. 95. - P. 542-575.

39 Brunstein J.C. Personal goals and subjective well-being // Journal of Personality and social psychology. - 1993. No. 65. - P. 1061-1070.

“national character”, i.e. fixed by the cultural and behavioral characteristics of the entire people, or part of the personality structure formed during early socialization. Such theories began to be put forward after a fairly high level of stability in the level of life satisfaction was recorded between countries. Over the years, the average level of life satisfaction, which has been systematically measured in advanced industrial countries, has remained fairly stable, despite changes in social relations, structure, economic and political environments. If this were so, the study of life satisfaction, especially in a cross-national context, would be a scientific curiosity or just amusing journalistic notes about the characteristics of nations, but these studies would not have serious social significance, since they would not be subject to any social influence, could not be changed.

With the expansion of geography and time of observation, we can state that even the average level of life satisfaction in individual countries changes if societal changes occur quickly enough and are significant enough. We will show this using the example of Russia. Therefore, it is unlikely that genetic predisposition or national character are factors determining the level of satisfaction with life in a country, although socio-psychological characteristics of the individual may have a certain influence on people’s assessment of their lives in general.

In the vast literature on the factors influencing people's life satisfaction, one can find dozens of different assumptions, some of which have been tested using empirical data, and some have not yet. We will conditionally divide all these factors into two large groups - internal and external factors, each of which will consist of a number of subgroups, for which we will conduct further analysis:

A) internal factors characterizing the person himself and his place in social relations. Among them:

Social and psychological - character, personality traits. Most often, empirical studies have studied the relationship between life satisfaction and such personality characteristics,

such as neuroticism and extrovertism40, genetic factors41, level of optimism, openness, etc.

Socio-demographic - gender, age, socio-economic (labor status, experience of unemployment, level of education), and contextual, situational, life circumstances (health status, marital status, etc.)

B) external factors characterizing the environment in which a person lives:

Social environment, social connections

Institutional - forms of democracy42, ideological diversity in government43, political and private freedoms44

Economic - the level of life satisfaction can be influenced by the level of unemployment ( direct influence on those who themselves had experience of unemployment and indirectly on everyone else45), the level of inflation, the general state of the country’s economy. Scientists are still arguing about the role of GDP or GDP growth on the level of subjective well-being. In this regard, one cannot fail to mention the well-known “Easterlin paradox”, which consists in the fact that, according to empirical data, within individual countries rich people are more satisfied with life than poor people, but at the cross-country level there is no such connection (we are talking about developed industrial countries). Moreover, increases in per capita income over time have not

40 Hayes N., Stephen J. Big 5 correlates of three measures of subjective well-being // Personality and Individual differences. - 2003. No. 34 (3). - P. 723-727.

41 The article describes a study of identical and fraternal twins reared together and separately and the impact of this on life satisfaction: Tellegen A., Lykken D., Bouchard T.J., Wilcox K.J., Segal N.J., Rich S.. Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together // Journal of personality and social psychology. - 1988. No. 54. - P. 1031-1039.

42 Frey B.S., Stutzer A. Happiness, economy and institutions // Economic Journal. - 2000. No. 110. - P. 918-938.

43 Radcliff B. Politics, markets and life satisfaction: the political economy of human happiness // American Political Science Review. - 2001. No. 95 (4). - P. 939-952.

44 Veenhoven R. Freedom and Happiness: a comparative study in 46 nations in the early 90's / Culture and subjective well-being / Diener E., Suh E.M. (eds.). - Cambridge: MIT press. 2000. - P. 257-288.

45 Clark A.E., Oswald A.J. Unhappiness and unemployment // Economic journal. - 1994. No. 104. - P. 648-659; Winkellmann L., Winkellman R. Why are the unemployed so unhappy? Evidence from panel data // Economica. -1998. No. 65. - P. 1-15; Rafael D.T., MacCulloch R.J. Oswald A.J. Preferences over inflation and unemployment: evidence from surveys of happiness // American economic review. - 2001. Vol. 91. No. 1. - P. 335-341; Becchetti L., Castriota S., Giutnella O. The effects of age and job protection on the welfare costs of inflation and unemployment: a source of ECB anti-inflation bias // Center for economic and international studies (CEIS) working paper. - 2006. No. 245. - P. 14.

leads to a change in the average level of subjective well-being (again, using the example of developed industrial countries).

Environmental - in particular, hypotheses have been put forward about the influence of the climate in which a person lives on life satisfaction46.

Despite the fact that a very large number of different factors influencing the subjective satisfaction or well-being of people have been considered, a comprehensive explanation of this phenomenon has not yet been found.

Sociodemographic and situational factors taken together explain no more than 10% of the variance in individual satisfaction, at least in wealthy societies (Campbell, Converse, and Rogers 1976 suggested 20%, but this is due to the peculiarities of their definition demographic factors). Factors such as age, education, and nationality are weakly related to the level of life satisfaction. According to earlier studies, life satisfaction is most closely related to marital status. Studies from the 1990s and 2000s have shown that married people (both men and women) are happier than those who have never been married, divorced, or separated47. However, what is the cause and what is the effect in this case is not yet clear - there is evidence, for example, that happy people are more likely to get married48.

Social parameters such as participation in the labor market, participation in public life, and social connections also turned out to be not very significant in explaining the level of satisfaction of individuals. Taken together, these factors also explain no more than 10% of the variation in answers to the question of life satisfaction49.

In developed Western countries there are several higher value have the personal qualities of people - their social adaptability, physical activity, energy, psychological stability. Interestingly, the level of intelligence (at least according to the example of an IQ test) has almost no connection with the level of life satisfaction. Contribute to

46 Rehdanz K., Maddison D. Climate and Happiness // Ecological Economics. - 2005. Vol. 52. No. 1. - P. 111-125.

47 Lee G.R., Seccombe K., Shehan C.L. Marital status and personal happiness: an analysis of trend data // Journal of marriage and the family. - 1991. No. 53. - P. 839-844.

48 Mastekaasa A. Marriage and psychological well-being: some evidence on selection into marriage // Journal of marriage and the family. - 1992. No. 54. - P. 901-911; Scott C.K. Marital status and well-being. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. - Illinois: University of Illinois. 1991. - P. 61.

49 Veenhoven R. The study of life satisfaction / A comparative study of satisfaction with life in Europe / Saris W. E., Veenhoven R., Scherpenzeel A. C., Bunting B. (eds). - Budapest: Eotvos University Press, 1996. - P.11-48.

a higher level of satisfaction with such personality traits as self-confidence, extrovertism and openness, the desire to take responsibility for oneself, and not feel external control over one’s life. All these factors can explain about 30% of the variation in answers to the question about life satisfaction50.

Thus, more than half of the variations in people’s satisfaction with their lives have so far not been explained by any factors - neither stable personality factors, but external factors environment.

Levels of satisfaction analysis - comparison of countries and comparison of people (aggregate and individual analysis)

If differences in the level of life satisfaction between people at the individual level cannot yet be explained, then at the aggregate level, differences in average life satisfaction between countries are moving more successfully.

Large trend cross-country comparative studies of the 90s of the last century (World Values ​​Survey, ISSP, etc.) made it possible to expand the analysis of the level of life satisfaction geographically and include in the analysis, in addition to developed industrial Western countries, other countries located in different stages development. This has largely changed the way scientists look at the problem. Comparison large quantity countries showed that countries differ in the average level of satisfaction of the population with their lives and the differences between countries are quite large. If the differences between advanced industrial countries are very small, in almost all of these countries the average level of life satisfaction is above the average on the scale, but in other countries the level of satisfaction is much lower, most often it is somewhere around the middle of the scale, sometimes slightly lower.

The average level of life satisfaction in different countries is influenced by several factors - the level of wealth of the country (GDP or similar indicators), the level of civil liberties and respect for human rights, the dominance of individualistic values.

Life satisfaction in different countries according to ESS

50 Veenhoven R. Happiness in Nations. Subjective appreciation of life in 56 nations (1946-19920, RISBO, studies in Social and Cultural transformations). - Rotterdam: Erasmus University. 1993. - 365 p.

The ESS includes a number of indicators of subjective well-being, including satisfaction with life in general, individual aspects, and private life ( financial situation), and public life (the state of the country's economy, education system, health care system, government work, development of democracy), as well as an indicator of happiness. This allows for both cross-country analysis of subjective well-being and analysis of the determinants of such well-being within a single country and testing of different theories.

ESS data provide an opportunity to test theories about differences in life satisfaction between countries as early as the beginning of the 21st century. using the example of Europe. In most European countries, the level of life satisfaction is very high - in 12 out of 25 countries it exceeds 80%. In almost all developed European countries, more than three quarters of the population are satisfied with their lives. The only exception is France (68%). These data are entirely consistent with the findings of previous decades that in developed Western countries the average level of life satisfaction is very high, and both people and countries differ little in their level of life satisfaction.

However, in countries of Eastern Europe the situation is much more complex. Firstly, in terms of the average level of life satisfaction, these countries are quite different both from developed industrial countries and from each other. In two countries - Slovenia and Poland - the average level of satisfaction is close to the lower limit of Western European countries and is at the level of three quarters of the population. In Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia it makes up more than 60% of the population, in Romania 57%. In other countries, the level of life satisfaction in general can be assessed as quite low - 50% are satisfied with life in Portugal, 46% in Hungary, 43% in Russia, and it is very low in Bulgaria and Ukraine.

If in Western Europe While the differentiation of people in terms of life satisfaction is small, in the countries of Eastern Europe such differences are quite significant. If in Western Europe the proportion of people dissatisfied with life is approximately only 10%, then in a number of countries in Eastern Europe the proportion of such people is twice as large (about 20% in Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia), from 25% to a third in Romania, Russia and Hungary. And in two countries (Ukraine and Bulgaria) the share of those who are dissatisfied exceeds the share of those who are satisfied. That is, people are not only differentiated by their level of life satisfaction, but we can talk about a situation of polarization of people in their assessment of their lives in Eastern European countries.

Picture 1

How satisfied are you with your life in general at present? (% of all respondents)

Denmark Finland Switzerland Netherlands Sweden Cyprus Norway

Belgium 87

Spain 86 5

Ireland Austria UK Germany Slovenia Poland France Estonia Latvia Slovakia Romania

Portugal 50 25 |

Hungary 46 30

Russia 43 1 33 |

Bulgaria Ukraine

] Satisfied 1 Not satisfied

In Russia, the level of life satisfaction is currently one of the lowest in Europe. The neutral middle was chosen by 24% of respondents, 33% of Russians are below the middle, and 43% are above the middle. As can be seen from Figure 2, the differences between Russians in assessing their lives are quite significant. While the vast majority of European residents use points 6-10 on an 11-point scale to assess their lives, Russians’ responses are distributed along the entire scale from the lowest life satisfaction to the highest. Almost all respondents were able to rate their lives on the proposed 11-point scale; the proportion of those who found it difficult to do this did not exceed 1%.

Figure 2

Level of life satisfaction in Russia

If the low average level of life satisfaction in Russia can be explained by factors that have shown their high significance in previous comparative studies at the cross-country level (level of economic development, level of development of civil and democratic society, level of corruption and bureaucracy, etc.), then explain the differences in the level of satisfaction within Russia itself, which, as we see from Figure 2, are very high, is quite difficult within the framework of existing theories. Let's try to analyze individual factors that could explain differences in life satisfaction in Russia, and build an aggregate model of these factors.

Dynamics of life satisfaction in Russia

If in European countries the average level of satisfaction has remained at a relatively stable high level over the past 20-30 years, and the changes that have taken place are insignificant, then in Russia there have been quite a lot of changes in this regard in the years since the start of reforms51.

51 Andreenkova A., Scherpenzeel A., Satisfaction in Russia / Saris W.E., Veenhoven R., Scherpenzeel A.C., Bunting B. (eds). - Budapest: Eotvos University Press, 1996. - P.11-48.

Figure 3 shows ESS data for 2006 and data from two more trending Russian studies - the Russian socio-economic panel Russet (1993-1999) and the CESSI Values ​​Study (1991-2005). The Russian Socio-Economic Panel (RUSSET) is a longitudinal study whose purpose was to study the consequences and influence of socio-economic and political transformations in the life of the country on subjective and objective indicators of the quality of life of the population. The study was conducted annually from 1993 to 1999, i.e. affected the period of the most radical changes in the life of Russian society after the collapse of the Soviet Union52.

The share of those who were satisfied with life in the first years of reforms (data from 1991) slightly exceeded the share of those who were dissatisfied (31% and 24%, respectively); a significant proportion were made up of those who assessed their satisfaction with their lives somewhere in the middle (34%). Already by 1993, the share of those dissatisfied exceeded the share of those satisfied, mainly due to the reduction of those who previously assessed their lives somewhere in the middle. Throughout the 1990s, the proportion of people who were satisfied with their lives gradually fell, and the proportion of those who were dissatisfied with their lives slowly grew. This process continued until 1998, when the size of the groups of satisfied and dissatisfied people became almost equal due to the gradual increase in the number of those satisfied with life. But after the 1998 crisis, there was a sharp decline in life satisfaction among a significant part of the population. There was a record high number of those who were not satisfied with their lives (47%), and the share of those who were satisfied fell sharply. Only in 2001 did this trend begin to gradually change in positive side. At the same time, the average level of life satisfaction has not returned to the previous level of the 90s, as would have happened according to the adaptation theory, but is at a higher level, although still very far from most European countries.

52 Russet - Russian socio-economic panel - panel study, i.e. the same people were included in the study over a number of years (from 1993 to 1999). Respondents for the study were selected from a random probabilistic multi-stage sample of the Russian population aged 18 years and older. About 3,700 people participated in the first wave of the panel in 1993. All interviews in this study were conducted face-to-face at the respondents' homes. The research was carried out by CESSI (Institute for Comparative Social Research) in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam (project director William Saris) with financial support from the Science Foundation of the Netherlands.

Figure 3

Dynamics of the level of life satisfaction in Russia in the 90s and 2000s

Note. Data 1993-1999 - RUSSET, 1991, 2002, 2005 - All-Russian study values ​​of CESSI according to the methodology of the World Values ​​Survey, 2002 - annual Monitoring of CESSI. All data were obtained based on all-Russian national surveys of the adult population of the Russian Federation 18 years of age and older, personal interviews at home.

As can be seen from Figure 3, the level of people's satisfaction with their lives in general in Russia throughout the entire period of reforms was closely related to the external socio-economic circumstances of life. During deterioration economic situation average life satisfaction in the country was falling, and with improvement general condition economy and stabilization of the situation, grew again. Until now, the level of life satisfaction in Russia has not stabilized at any particular level. Thus, it is unlikely that theories about the dependence of the level of life satisfaction on national character are true. Russians are not “by nature” a dissatisfied nation. Rather, changes in socio-economic conditions have a direct and quite significant impact on people's lives, which is reflected in people's assessments of their lives. But what exactly are the factors, and how seriously they influence Russians’ satisfaction with their lives, we still have to find out.

Socio-demographic factors, life circumstances and life satisfaction in general

At first glance, it may seem that life satisfaction depends on a large number of socio-demographic and structural variables. Statistically significant (at p level<0.001) является связь удовлетворенности жизнью и субъективной оценки состояния здоровья (0.27), уровня дохода (0.24), возраста (-0.18), семейного положения (0.17), образования (0.10), связь с полом (-0.06 на уровне р<0.01).

However, almost all of these variables are interrelated and therefore it is necessary to identify the internal structure of this relationship and evaluate it, taking into account the mutual influence of all significant structural variables.

Income and satisfaction

If money does not bring happiness, then, at least in Russia, it greatly contributes to it. A linear relationship between the level of income and the level of life satisfaction in Russia not only exists, but it is also quite strong. The difference in the level of satisfaction between people with the lowest income and the highest income in the sample is almost twofold (means 3.76 and 6.82, respectively). If among the poorest in Russia the share of those dissatisfied with life (0-4 on an 11-point scale) is more than half (58%), then among people with an average income there are already half as many, and among people with high incomes it is less than 10%. . However, as in Western countries, the level of satisfaction is most closely related to financial status in low-income groups, and as income increases, this relationship weakens. That is, after reaching a certain level of income, increasing it no longer leads to a corresponding increase in the level of satisfaction. The correlation coefficient of these two variables in the group of people with an income of up to 12 thousand rubles. per family in 2006 is 0.178, and for groups with higher income (12 thousand rubles and more) it is 0.131.

In some countries it is worse to be poor than in other countries. In many Western countries, differences in satisfaction levels between people of different income levels are small (although they exist everywhere, even in Denmark), but in the poorer countries of Eastern Europe, these differences are very large.

Figure 4

Level of life satisfaction among people with different income levels (%

satisfied with life, 6-10 on an 11-point scale)

Among people with relatively high incomes, life satisfaction is much more similar between countries than among people with low incomes. In most European countries, about 80% of high-income people are generally satisfied with their lives. In Russia, just over 60% of them are satisfied with life, as in Ukraine and Portugal. And this takes into account the fact that the share of people who believe that their income is quite high in Russia is significantly lower than the European average. Among low-income groups, satisfaction levels vary greatly between countries. If in countries such as the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, about half of people with the lowest income are still satisfied with their lives, then in Russia less than 20% of respondents among this group are satisfied. That is, people’s satisfaction with life is influenced not only by their personal income, even expressed in terms of standard of living, but also by other living conditions in the country as a whole. Poor groups of the population in poorer countries rate their quality of life especially low (although, in addition to economic development, these countries are also characterized by a number of parameters that are difficult to take into account in the analysis - the state of reform,

instability of the system, poor development of democracy, high level of corruption, low level of self-government, etc.).

Family status

Although we see that the most satisfied with life are people who have never been married, and the least satisfied are those whose marriage broke up for various reasons (most often due to the death of a spouse or because of divorce), but marital status itself is closely associated with age. In the group under 30, there is a very small proportion of people with a broken marriage to allow for analysis. In the group after 30 years of age, the proportion of people with a broken marriage and the proportion of those who have never been married are too small for analysis, and in older ages - the proportion of those who have never been married. Therefore, it is likely that the relationship between life satisfaction and marital status is largely related to age rather than to marital status per se.

Table 1

Life satisfaction of people of different ages (average on an 11-point scale)

Total 18+ 18-29 30-40 years old 40-50 years old Over 50 years old

Married 5.21 6.13 5.22 5.13 5.08

Broken marriage 4.47 4.81 4.34 4.42

Never married 5.77 6.02 5.01 4.58 5.32

Overall, among respondents 18 years of age and older who have never been married, life satisfaction is slightly higher than among people who were married and significantly higher than among people in a broken marriage. However, among young people under 30, the proportion of those who are satisfied with life among married people is even slightly higher than among those who have not been married, although the differences are not very large. In the older age group, there are quite large differences between people who are married and whose marriage has broken up.

Gender and age

Unlike many other countries, where life satisfaction has little connection with basic socio-demographic indicators (gender and age), in Russia there is such a connection, although not very strong. There is a general gradual decline in life satisfaction with age. The most noticeable differences are between the group of young people under 30 years of age and the middle-aged population approximately until retirement age, then some

an increase in the level of life satisfaction, and after 70 years it decreases again. Superimposed on these age differences are small and divergent gender differences. If in adolescence and youth the level of satisfaction of boys and girls is almost the same, then at the age of about 30 years the level of life satisfaction in women decreases significantly and remains slightly lower than in men throughout all years of life, and again begins to converge only after 50 years . On average across Europe, such gender and age differences are much less noticeable.

Figure 5

Life satisfaction of men and women of different ages (average on an 11-point scale)

The influence of all socio-demographic factors together on the level of life satisfaction in Russia

Together, all demographic factors and life circumstances explain 11% of the variance in people's responses to their overall satisfaction with life. In this respect, Russia is practically no different from other European countries. This finding confirms theories that have previously been tested in Western European populations (Table 2).

table 2

B-factor Standard Standardized

correlation with (regression) error B-coefficient

level of unstandardized regression coefficient (in)

satisfaction (b) (st error b)

life in general

(constant) 6.88 0.32

Gender -0.06* 0.00 0.10 0.00

Age -0.18** 0.00 0.00 0.03

Income level 0.24** 0.00 0.00 0.17**

Marital status -0.02 0.16 0.11 0.03

Availability and quantity -0.15** -0.16 0.07 -0.06

Education (years 0.10** -0.01 0.02 -0.01

training)

What kind of affiliation - -0.02 0.11 0.10 0.02

or religion

Health status -0.27 -0.79 0.07 -0.25**

(subjective assessment)

Note. R2=0.12, adjusted R2=0.12, **p<0.001, *p<0.01

The most significant factors influencing satisfaction with life in general, taking into account the internal relationship of all these factors, are financial situation and subjective assessment of health. The significance of other factors, even those that showed a relationship with life satisfaction when considered individually, such as age, education or gender, is not statistically significant in the overall model. That is, most likely, the influence of age and education on life satisfaction occurs mainly due to differences between different age groups and people with different levels of education, income and assessment of their health.

Table 3

The influence of social, demographic and other factors related to life circumstances on satisfaction with life in general (multivariate regression analysis)

Individual B-coefficient Standard Standardized

coefficient (regression) not error B-th coefficient

correlation with standard regression coefficient (c)

level (b) (st error b)

satisfaction

life in general

(constant) 6.53 0.35

Gender -0.06* -0.03 0.11 -0.01

Age -0.18** 0.01 0.00 0.04

Income level 0.24** 0.00 0.00 0.18**

Availability and quantity -0.15** -0.02 0.06 -0.01

Education (years 0.10** 0.00 0.02 0.00

training)

What kind of affiliation - -0.02 0.07 0.11 0.01

or religion

Health status -0.27 -0.70 0.08 -0.22**

(subjective assessment)

Note. R2=0.10, adjusted R2=0.10, **р<0.001, *р<0.01

Socio-psychological factors and satisfaction with life in general

Based on an analysis of various theories that try to explain life satisfaction by socio-psychological and personal factors, we have identified several indicators that could play a significant role in Russia. Among them:

The desire to exercise control over one's life and the belief that this is possible. The opposite is the position that control over a person’s life is external and depends on many circumstances (from God to the boss), and to a lesser extent - on the person himself. According to this theory, individuals who are focused on exercising independent control over their lives are more likely to achieve positive results in life and are more likely to evaluate their lives as successful or “satisfactory”;

Physical activity;

Psychological stability;

Curiosity, desire for knowledge, new things, openness to the world;

General level of optimism;

Self-esteem.

Table 4

The influence of personal qualities on life satisfaction in general (multivariate regression analysis)

Individual correlation coefficient with the level of satisfaction with life as a whole B-coefficient (regression) not standardized (b) Standard error of the B-coefficient f egrog b) Standardized regression coefficient (c)

(constant) 5.44 0.36

Responsibility for oneself -0.20** -0.13 0.06 -0.05

Physical activity -0.16 ** -0.12 0.05 -0.05

Psychological stability 0.21** 0.17 0.06 0.06*

Striving for something new -0.14** -0.11 0.07 -0.03

Optimism -0.33** -0.57 0.06 -0.20**

High self-esteem 0.30** 0.49 0.06 0.19**

Note. R2=0.16, adjusted R2=0.15, **p<0.001, *p<0.01

All socio-psychological factors included in the model can explain about 15% of the variation in life satisfaction. Among them, the most important factor is a general optimistic outlook on the future and high self-esteem.

All socio-psychological factors included in the model are indeed associated with life satisfaction (individual correlation coefficients are all statistically significant). At the same time, the most closely related to life satisfaction are the general level of optimism and self-assessment of the course of one’s life. The weakest connection is with physical activity and the desire for new knowledge. After taking into account the mutual influence of all these factors, the significance of optimism and self-esteem of the course of life remains quite high, and the significance of all other socio-psychological factors is greatly reduced and adds practically nothing to the explanatory power of this model.

External factors

Another explanatory possibility of life satisfaction is the assumption that life satisfaction is determined not so much by personal (social, demographic or psychological characteristics of people), but by their assessment and attitude towards the external environment. Such external environment can include both the social environment (close or distant), and general political and general economic circumstances of life, or more precisely, people’s attitude and assessment of these circumstances.

We included the following characteristics of the social environment and social environment:

assessment of how people around treat each other (social relationships in the immediate environment);

Respect and appreciation from others;

The level of interpersonal trust in the widest social environment, society as a whole;

Frequency of communication with people and opportunities for emotional communication;

Personal safety assessment;

Assessment of the political situation in the country (level of trust in representative democratic institutions (Parliament), assessment of the government’s activities, assessment of the work of democracy in the country as a whole);

Assessment of the work of socially significant areas - the education system and the healthcare system;

assessment of the economic situation in the country. Social life and social environment

Table 5

The influence of factors of the social environment and social life on satisfaction with life in general (multivariate regression analysis)

satisfaction

life in general

(Constant) 3.01 0.46

People around you help each other 0.15** 0.06 0.03 0.04

Respect from others 0.17** 0.03 0.05 0.02

Unfair treatment -0.18** -0.13 0.04 -0.08**

Merit rating 0.24** 0.30 0.04 0.16**

Interpersonal trust 0.16** 0.04 0.02 0.04

People behave honestly 0.23** 0.13 0.02 0.13**

People help each other 0.20** 0.06 0.02 0.06

frequency of time spent 0.17** 0.21 0.03 0.15**

Is there someone we can talk to -0.13** -0.43 0.15 -0.06**

Participation in public -0.07 -0.14 0.06 -0.05

useful activity

Frequency of helping others -0.02 0.08 0.03 0.05

Note. R2=0.14, adjusted R2=0.14, **p<0.001, *p<0.01

Almost all factors of the social environment are associated with life satisfaction in general at the individual level, with the exception of participation in socially useful activities and helping other people, which have little effect on life satisfaction in Russia. However, taking into account the mutual influence of all these factors, significant

Only five remained, among which the most important are the assessment that people judge you on your merits, the frequency of social communication and the perception of general relationships between people as fair and just, as well as less closely related to life satisfaction, the perception of fairness in the treatment of others and opportunities for close spiritual communication. Other factors, such as ideas about the general social climate in the personal environment (people help each other), interpersonal trust, mutual assistance and personal participation in mutual assistance, turned out to be of little significance.

All factors of the social environment taken together can explain about 14% of the differences in life satisfaction between people in Russia.

Table 6

The influence of subjective assessment of the favorableness of the environment, macro factors on satisfaction with life in general (multivariate regression analysis)

Individual B-factor Standard Standard

coefficient (regression) not error B-based

correlation with standardized coefficient coefficient

level (b) (st error b) regression (c)

satisfaction

life in general

(Constant) 2.09 2.09 0.33

Trust in Parliament 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02

Assessment of economic performance 0.38** 0.38 0.03 0.33**

Performance evaluation 0.09 0.09 0.02 0.08**

government

Assessment of the work of democracy 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.04

System performance assessment 0.06 0.06 0.02 0.06

education

System performance assessment 0.10** 0.10 0.03 0.09**

health

Collision experience with 0.19** 0.19 0.11 0.03

violence

Feeling of safety -0.12** -0.12 0.06 -0.04

Worry about the possible 0.09 0.09 0.08 0.03

Worry about opportunity 0.18** 0.18 0.07 0.06

robberies

Note. R2=0.27, adjusted R2=0.27, **p<0.001, *p<0.01

People's subjective perception of the favorable environment and macro factors in their lives has a very serious impact on their level of satisfaction with their lives, more than any other factors. The connection between life satisfaction and assessment of the economic situation in the country is especially close (0.38). This is most closely related to

life satisfaction indicator of all that we analyzed based on these data.

It must be taken into account, however, that from a technical point of view, all indicators of satisfaction with the macro-environment were assessed on the same satisfaction scale as satisfaction with life in general, and therefore correlations may be increased due to the “method effect”.

Safety indicators are weaker than other characteristics of the external environment and life satisfaction.

If we take into account the mutual influence of all these factors on each other, then only a few will remain significant. In particular, the most important factor in the external environment remains the subjective assessment of macroeconomic conditions; when this factor is taken into account, all other assessments of the state of the political and social sphere fade into the background.

General model

In the general model, with the help of which we will try to explain the differences in people’s life satisfaction, that is, to find the factors that determine it, we included all the most significant factors from the individual models discussed above. Social and demographic factors include gender, age, income, health status; among the socio-psychological factors are psychological stability, general optimism, self-confidence; among social ones - frequency of communication with people, opportunities for emotional communication, level of interpersonal trust in society, evaluation by others.

Table 7

The influence of personal characteristics on life satisfaction in general (multivariate regression analysis)

B-coefficient (regression) not standardized (b) Standard error of B-coefficient (st error b) Standardized regression coefficient (c) Significance c

(Constant) 5.31 0.48 0.00

Gender -0.03 0.10 -0.01 0.76

Age 0.00 0.00 -0.03 0.16

Income 0.00 0.00 0.12 0.00

Health status -0.47 0.08 -0.15 0.00

Psychological 0.05 0.06 0.02 0.37

sustainability

Optimism -0.39 0.06 -0.14 0.00

Self-confidence 0.32 0.06 0.12 0.00

Interpersonal trust -0.12 0.03 -0.07 0.00

(People are being dishonest)

Merit rating 0.25 0.04 0.13 0.00

Frequency 0.11 0.03 0.07 0.00

time with people

Mental capabilities -0.33 0.14 -0.04 0.02

Note. J2=0.23, adjusted J2=0.23, **p<0.001, *р<0.01

This model can explain 23% of the variance in satisfaction between people. The most important ones are:

Subjective assessment of health status;

General optimistic outlook on life;

Fair assessment by others; personal income;

Self confidence.

The influence is small but influenced by factors such as interpersonal trust in society and the frequency of social contacts. When all factors are taken into account together, demographic parameters practically cease to play a significant role, as do psychological stability and opportunities for emotional communication.

If we include macroeconomic factors in this model - an assessment of the state of the economy, government and health care system, then the model can explain 37% of the variations.

Table 8

The influence of all factors on life satisfaction in general (multivariate regression analysis)

B-coefficient Standard Standard Significance ß

(regression) not error B-based

standard standardized coefficient coefficient

(b) (st error b) regression (c)

(Constant) 3.16 0.44 0.00

Gender -0.10 0.09 -0.02 0.27

Age 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.93

Income 0.00 0.00 0.09 0.00

Health status -0.32 0.07 -0.10 0.00

Psychological 0.14 0.05 0.05 0.01

sustainability

Optimism -0.30 0.05 -0.11 0.00

Self-confidence 0.21 0.05 0.08 0.00

Interpersonal trust -0.10 0.03 -0.06 0.00

(People are being dishonest)

Merit rating 0.17 0.03 0.09 0.00

State assessment 0.30 0.03 0.26 0.00

country's economy

Performance evaluation 0.10 0.02 0.10 0.00

government

System performance assessment 0.12 0.02 0.11 0.00

health

Frequency 0.07 0.03 0.05 0.01

time with people

Mental capabilities -0.31 0.13 -0.04 0.02

Note. R2=0.37, adjusted R2=0.37, **p<0.001, *p<0.01

When all these factors are taken into account, the model can explain 37% of the variance in people's satisfaction with their lives. In this case, the most significant becomes the assessment of macroeconomic conditions (the number one factor, significantly surpassing all others in importance), the general level of optimism, health status, assessment of the work of the government and the work of the health care system, followed by external assessment of personality and personal achievements, personal income.

So, today in Russia personal life circumstances are less important for people’s assessment of their lives as a whole than their attitude to the situation in the country as a whole. Perhaps this is what determines that the overall average level of life satisfaction in Russia is significantly lower than in other Western European countries, and even the most prosperous segments of the population, who live in the most favorable circumstances, show lower life satisfaction than people in similar circumstances in Western Europe. European countries.

However, it is not yet possible to fully explain the reasons for low or high life satisfaction in Russia, just as it has not been possible to do this for many decades in Western European countries. So the mystery of why some people are happy with life, despite the circumstances, while others complain about it, remains, and we will continue to work on solving it both within the framework of ESS and with the involvement of all other data.

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INTRODUCTION

There is no need to prove that most people, if not all, want to be happy. It is believed that the very concept of happiness is very vague and incomprehensible. But most people are fully aware of what it is. When surveys were conducted on this topic, it turned out that by happiness people mean either a state when a person experiences joy or other positive emotions, or satisfaction with life.

Satisfaction or dissatisfaction with life determines many of the subject’s actions, various types of his activities and behavior: everyday, economic, political. These experiences are a significant factor in the state of public consciousness, group moods, expectations, and relationships in society.

It should be noted that interest in the problem of life satisfaction in modern science is manifested by representatives of various domestic and foreign psychological movements in the context of studying and improving the quality of life, which is evidence of the relevance and significance of this problem.

Our research was carried out within the institutes of Amazing State Pedagogical University. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of further use of theoretical aspects, materials, data obtained, as well as conclusions to study strategies for achieving life satisfaction in individual social groups.

We based our research on the high interest in this problem.

The objects of the study were first-year full-time students studying at the Amazing State Pedagogical University with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science, and students of the Faculty of Natural Geography.

The subject of the study was strategies for achieving life satisfaction.

Hypothesis: there are no differences in strategies for achieving life satisfaction among first-year students of different faculties.

The purpose of this study was to explore strategies for achieving life satisfaction among students.

1. Study the state of the problem in the scientific literature.

2. Study the theoretical aspects of the concept of strategy for achieving life satisfaction and the characteristics of adolescence.

3. To study strategies for achieving life satisfaction among first-year full-time students of AmSPGSU.

Empirical method: psychodiagnostic.

Data processing method: content analysis.

Techniques: unfinished sentences.

The subjects were first-year students of FITMiF (19 people), first-year students of the EHF (29 people). A total of 48 people took part in the study.

Theoretical aspects of the concept of life satisfaction and psychological characteristics of adolescence

Theoretical analysis of the problem of life satisfaction and strategies for achieving it

Life satisfaction has a direct impact on mood, mental state, and psychological stability of the individual. The significance of this important phenomenon is quite well understood both in everyday consciousness and in science.

To characterize the state of the subjective world of an individual in the aspect of its favorability, various terms are used: experience (feeling) of happiness, life satisfaction, emotional comfort, well-being.

Michael Argyle uses the concepts of life satisfaction and happiness as identical. “Happiness can be thought of as the awareness of one’s satisfaction with one’s life or the frequency and intensity of positive emotions.”

“Satisfaction (and contentment)” is a term with a very broad meaning, very common and therefore has a scope of definition with blurred boundaries.

An important feature of the term “life satisfaction” for a psychologist is its uncertainty in the subject of assessment - in what exactly satisfies or does not satisfy the respondent. The subject of assessment very often escapes the attention of researchers. But, depending on what exactly the respondent takes into account: the external circumstances of life (only to some extent changed by his efforts) or evaluates his decisions, actions and deeds, his own success, the assessment itself significantly depends.

In the early 40s, the famous American psychologist E. L. Thorndike compiled a list of factors for life satisfaction, which he called “conditions for a good life”:

1. Satisfying physical needs.

2. Satisfying the needs for activity (mental and physical).

3. Satisfaction of social needs (friendships, belonging to organized groups, dominance over others, service to others)

4. Personal success (recognition from others, self-esteem).

Only in 1973, for the first time, the category of happiness appeared in the subject index of the main reference publications on psychological publications, and in 1974 - the category of subjective well-being.

In 1976, Andrews and Whiteney identified three components that make up subjective well-being: life satisfaction, positive emotions, and negative emotions. Subjective well-being is higher the more positive emotions a person has, the fewer negative emotions and the greater the satisfaction with one’s own life, which is not a purely emotional assessment, but includes a moment of cognitive judgment.

M. Argyll, English specialist in the field of social psychology and interpersonal communication in the 80s. XX century publishes a comprehensive work containing extensive material on Western European and American studies of happiness. Basically, Argyll's review includes a list of happiness factors. Moreover, the factors also act as sources, and as conditions, and as areas of life satisfaction, and sometimes as characteristics of the subject himself - a set of personal traits of an individual’s life that can be defined, measured and reveal a statistically significant connection with life satisfaction.

Argyll understands happiness as the state of experiencing satisfaction with life as a whole, a person's overall reflective assessment of his past and present, and the frequency and intensity of positive emotions.

Satisfaction with life in general or with specific areas of life can be measured using self-reports. Research shows that most people believe that their level of happiness is above average - 70% of the maximum possible, not 50%. It is not clear whether individual domains affect overall satisfaction or vice versa, although both directions of causality were found in most domains.

Due to the large number of publications and studies, where everyone brings their own definition of happiness, within the framework of positive psychology the concept of “subjective well-being” was introduced, which is used as a synonym, a substitute for the concept of “happiness”. It relates to how people evaluate their own lives in terms of cognitive and affective explanations, and can be expressed by some formula: “Subjective well-being = life satisfaction + affect,” where life satisfaction reflects a person’s assessment of his own life. A person is satisfied when there is almost no gap between the existing situation and what seems to him to be an ideal situation or one that he deserves. Dissatisfaction, in turn, is the result of a significant gap between the given and the ideal. Dissatisfaction can also stem from comparing yourself to other people. Affect represents the emotional side, both positive and negative emotions and states associated with everyday experience.

Of particular interest in psychology is the question of what strategies a person uses to achieve subjective well-being. The concept of life strategy is considered within the framework of the general theory of personality.

In Russian psychology, the problem of life strategy was most widely considered by K.A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya. She identified three main features of a life strategy: choosing a way of life, resolving the “want-have” contradiction and creating conditions for self-realization, creative search. In her opinion, a person can be called mature if she is able to set her own “threshold” of satisfaction with material needs and begins to consider them as one of the conditions of life, directing her vital forces to other goals. “This ability of an individual to switch his life aspirations from material values ​​to others is an indicator that he has begun to live a personal life.” Domestic psychologists identify three main types of life strategies: a strategy of well-being, a strategy of life success and a strategy of self-realization. These types are based on more generalized ideas about what people generally strive for in life.

American psychologists distinguish two groups of life strategies based on the predominance of internal and external aspirations. Extrinsic aspirations, the value of which depends on other people, are based on values ​​such as material well-being, social recognition, and physical attractiveness. Internal aspirations are based on the values ​​of personal growth, health, love, affection, and service to society.

In our study, we relied on the strategies for achieving happiness identified by Kronik and Akhmerov. The first strategy, the principle of maximizing the utility of the world, consists in a person’s desire for the most useful objects that fully satisfy his needs. Since the usefulness of any thing is subjectively reflected in the emotional state of “pleasant”, maximizing the usefulness of the world at the same time means the desire to search for positively colored emotional experiences of varying intensity.

The second strategy - the principle of minimizing needs - consists in a person’s desire to reduce the intensity (degree of tension) of the needs that drive him. Such a desire may occur in a case where the actual satisfaction of needs is impossible - either due to the lack of appropriate objects, or due to insufficient human abilities to achieve them, or in the presence of other more important and vital for a person, but still unmet needs. Based on the principle of minimizing needs, various ideas arose about ways to achieve happiness - from moderation and reasonable limitation of needs to extreme deprivation and renunciation of external goods.

The third strategy consists in a person’s desire to simplify his world as a whole and to simplify specific objects - the goals of his various activities. This desire can manifest itself in cases where the complexity of the goal exceeds the level of the person’s abilities or when the goal is difficult to achieve in the time available to the person. A subjective measure of complexity, as shown above, is a person’s knowledge of what a given object is, how and in what direction it will change. Consequently, the principle of minimizing complexity comes down to a person’s desire to create for himself a clear picture of the world, allowing him to explain and predict and thereby make the world subjectively simpler and more understandable.

The fourth principle of self-regulation by a person of his motivation for the world - the principle of maximizing abilities - consists of a person’s desire for comprehensive development and self-improvement in physical and spiritual terms.

We independently identified two more strategies, since, in our opinion, not all people’s actions aimed at achieving life satisfaction can fit into the proposed categories. Thus, we added strategies such as “accepting yourself, other people and the world around you as they are” and “striving to be as useful as possible and exist for the benefit of other people.”