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Satisfaction and happiness in a rural northern resource community

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Abstract

Satisfaction and happiness with life as a whole are analyzed in terms of satisfaction with health, finances, family, job, friends, housing, area, recreation, religion, self-esteem, transportation and government services for males and females. Patterns of influential variables differ for males and females. The perceived gap between what one has and wants is a better predictor of satisfaction than the gap between what one has and thinks similar others have, and the gap between what one has and the best one has had in the past. Domain-to-satisfaction and happiness explanations are combined with gap theoretic explanations to reveal the psychological dynamics of judgments of satisfaction for males and females for the 12 domains and global well-being.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Guelph, N1G 2W1, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

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  1. Alex C. Michalos
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Additional information

This is my last report written in collaboration with the Rural Development Outreach Project (RDOP) and sponsored by RDOP and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Again, I want to thank F. M. Andrews, D. Bell. C. C. Clogg, M. Dahms, A. M. Fuller, J. Kotarski, D. C. Poff, R. A. J. Ross, B. A. Rozee and J. S. Wolfe, I am responsible for the final product, but without their help there would have been no product at all.

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Michalos, A.C. Satisfaction and happiness in a rural northern resource community. Social Indicators Research 13, 225–252 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00318099

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