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Life Satisfaction and Perception of Happiness among University Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Jesús San Martín ,
Fabiola Perles  and
Jesús María Canto
Jesús San Martín*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
Fabiola Perles
Affiliation:
Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
Jesús María Canto
Affiliation:
Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jesús San Martín. Departamento de Psicología Social, Antropología Social, Trabajo Social y Servicios Sociales. Facultad de Psicología. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Teatinos s/n. 29071 Málaga. (Spain). E-mail: sangar@uma.es
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Abstract

The aim of this essay has been the evaluation of three orientations towards happiness: pleasure, meaning and engagement, as well as their relation to life satisfaction and the perception of happiness in a sample of 320 university students. The results show that the most used kind of orientation towards happiness is pleasure, followed by meaning, and finally engagement. It has also been found that pleasure is the orientation most closely associated to happiness while engagement seems to be more related to life satisfaction. These findings aim to the distinction between the concepts of happiness and life satisfaction and lead the attention to the actions which can improve the levels of happiness.

El objetivo del presente trabajo ha sido la evaluación de tres orientaciones hacia la felicidad: placer, implicación y significado, y su relación con la satisfacción vital y la percepción de felicidad en una muestra de 320 estudiantes universitarios. Los resultados muestran que el tipo de orientación hacia la felicidad más utilizado es el placer, seguido del significado y en tercer lugar la implicación. También se ha encontrado que el placer es la orientación que más se asocia a la felicidad y la implicación se relaciona más con la satisfacción vital. Estos hallazgos apuntan hacia la distinción entre los conceptos de felicidad y satisfacción vital y dirigen la atención hacia las actuaciones que pueden mejorar los niveles de felicidad.

Keywords

happinesslife satisfactionpleasuremeaningengagementfelicidadsatisfacción vitalplacersignificadoimplicación
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , November 2010 , pp. 617 - 628
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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