Life satisfaction
Life satisfaction is the assessment of a person's general situation in life. This is not determined by feelings. Likewise, life satisfaction is not a momentary state and also not dependent on whims, but the result of thinking about one's own situation. Life satisfaction always relates to a longer period of time and includes the evaluation of very different areas such as partnership, work , finances, leisure time , friends, living situation, etc. Psychologists often determine life satisfaction with general questions, such as "All in all, how satisfied are you with your life?", To which people can then answer with different levels from "not at all" to "mediocre" to "completely" .
Life satisfaction contrasts with living conditions. Depending on how the living conditions actually are and what life satisfaction arises from it, various technical terms are used in the social sciences :
- The meeting of good living conditions and positive well-being is the most desirable combination and is known as well- being.
- Adaptation refers to the combination of poor living conditions with the simultaneous presence of satisfaction (also known as the "satisfaction paradox"). This phenomenon has found its way into gerontology under the term “paradox of life satisfaction in old age” .
- In deprivation , bad living conditions go hand in hand with negative well-being.
- Dissonance describes the situation in which good living conditions exist, while dissatisfaction is expressed (also known as the “dissatisfaction dilemma”).
In psychology and the social sciences various standardized questionnaire designed to detect differences in life satisfaction or quality of life to capture and compare results population representative surveys such. B. Life Satisfaction Questionnaire .
See also
literature
- Yvonne Albe: The influence of education on life satisfaction in old age: what contribution can education make to successful aging? Research results and implications VDM, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-4668-6 .
- Jens B. Asendorpf , Franz Josef Neyer: Psychology of Personality , 5th Edition, Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-30263-3 .
- Horst-Joachim Rahn : To the meaning of life , Windmühle, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86451-005-2 .
- Anne Weber: Professional Success and Life Satisfaction University Library Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg / Essen 2014, DNB 1046502751 Dissertation University Duisburg-Essen 2013, Reviewers: Klaus Birkelbach and Heiner Meulemann ( full text online PDF, free of charge, 201 pages 2.2 MB).
Web links
- Florian Rötzer: Satisfaction increases with fair taxation , TELEPOLIS, November 19, 2011.