Role of Value-oriented Personality and Meaning in Life in Predicting Happiness among Students and Academicians

Description

Abhimanyu Ramkisan Dhormare (Department of Psychology, Babuji Avhad Mahavidyalaya, Pathardi, Ahilyanagar, Maharashtra)

India’s consistently low position in global happiness indices highlights the imperative for context-specific research. The present research is a part of this endeavour. This study examined the role of Spranger’s value-oriented personality types and meaning in life in predicting happiness among students and academicians. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional, comparative-correlational design, data were collected from 87 participants through purposive sampling: 53 postgraduate students from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla and 34 Fellows from the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Participants completed standardized measures of Study of Values Test, the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. The results revealed that both groups were different in terms of value-oriented personality, especially on religious and economic values. Academics tended to have religious value-oriented, while students tended to have economic value-oriented personalities. Regarding the meaning in life, the ‘search for meaning’ was observed among students, whereas the ‘presence of meaning’ was observed among academics. Furthermore, higher levels of happiness were observed among academics compared to students. However, no differences were observed between the two groups in theoretical, aesthetic, social, or political values. Furthermore, happiness was found to be positively correlated with the ‘presence of meaning’ and negatively correlated with the ‘search for meaning’; however, no significant correlation was found with Spranger’s value types. Moreover, stepwise multiple regression showed that meaning in life significantly predicted happiness, accounting for 22.5% of the variance. Presence of meaning was a significant positive predictor, whereas search for meaning was a significant negative predictor of happiness.