Correlates of psychological well-being with reference personal values

Pages: 711-715
V. Veera Balaji Kumar and S. Subramanian (Department of psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)

The present paper analyses the relationship between value priorities of individuals and their wellbeing utilizing Schwartz values model and Carol ryff’s Psychological wellbeing [PWB] scale. Even though psychological wellbeing has been studied in relation with personality variables, hardly research studies conducted linking PWB and personal values. The study was conducted over a sample of 876 students (429 male and 447 female drawn from various colleges in Madurai, TN, India. Results revealed that the male participants had significantly lower PWB than female participants.. This difference might be partly due to females espousing higher self-direction, security values and lower hedonism and stimulation values. Overall, it was found out that espousing hedonistic values provides significantly lesser psychological wellbeing. PWB scores had significantly positive correlation with values of Tradition and Self-direction. Analysis of higher-order personal values revealed that there is a significant negative correlation between self enhancement value domain and almost all dimensions of PWB such as autonomy, personal growth, environmental mastery, self-acceptance and total PWB. On the other hand, It was noticed that there was a significant positive correlations were found between self-transcendence values and psychological well being domain of personal growth. In sum, the results showed that hedonistic values provides “psychological ill being”, whereas espousing values like self-direction and tradition provides greater psychological wellbeing.