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What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types

Although Korea has achieved successful economic, social, cultural, and technological development over the past decades, Korean people do not seem to be particularly happy. To enhance an individual’s happiness, we need to be aware of what situations and environmental conditions are conducive for happ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Doh, Young Yim, Chung, Ji-Bum
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084433/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32110951
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051502
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author Doh, Young Yim
Chung, Ji-Bum
author_facet Doh, Young Yim
Chung, Ji-Bum
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description Although Korea has achieved successful economic, social, cultural, and technological development over the past decades, Korean people do not seem to be particularly happy. To enhance an individual’s happiness, we need to be aware of what situations and environmental conditions are conducive for happiness and explore the values of happiness we pursue. This study investigated the types of happiness expressed by Korean people using a mixed-method approach. Personal in-depth (n = 15) and focus group (n = 16) interviews were conducted with people who reported feeling a high level of happiness. Happiness categorization was conducted using Q methodology (n = 63). Subsequently, we surveyed 999 nationally representative samples of Korean adults to generalize the results of the Q analysis. The findings revealed seven types of adult happiness in Korea: (1) Self-actualization, (2) Belongingness, (3) Mission, (4) Social recognition, (5) Enjoyment, (6) Material success, and (7) Parenting. The combined results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that in Korea, people pursuing money or social success feel the unhappiest, whereas people pursuing a mission or sense of belonging feel the happiest. In conclusion, we discussed the need for happiness literacy education, to provide each adult an opportunity to understand the type of happiness they pursue.
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spelling pubmed-70844332020-03-24 What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types Doh, Young Yim Chung, Ji-Bum Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Although Korea has achieved successful economic, social, cultural, and technological development over the past decades, Korean people do not seem to be particularly happy. To enhance an individual’s happiness, we need to be aware of what situations and environmental conditions are conducive for happiness and explore the values of happiness we pursue. This study investigated the types of happiness expressed by Korean people using a mixed-method approach. Personal in-depth (n = 15) and focus group (n = 16) interviews were conducted with people who reported feeling a high level of happiness. Happiness categorization was conducted using Q methodology (n = 63). Subsequently, we surveyed 999 nationally representative samples of Korean adults to generalize the results of the Q analysis. The findings revealed seven types of adult happiness in Korea: (1) Self-actualization, (2) Belongingness, (3) Mission, (4) Social recognition, (5) Enjoyment, (6) Material success, and (7) Parenting. The combined results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses showed that in Korea, people pursuing money or social success feel the unhappiest, whereas people pursuing a mission or sense of belonging feel the happiest. In conclusion, we discussed the need for happiness literacy education, to provide each adult an opportunity to understand the type of happiness they pursue. MDPI 2020-02-26 2020-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7084433/ /pubmed/32110951 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051502 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Doh, Young Yim
Chung, Ji-Bum
What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types
title What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types
title_full What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types
title_fullStr What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types
title_full_unstemmed What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types
title_short What Types of Happiness Do Korean Adults Pursue?—Comparison of Seven Happiness Types
title_sort what types of happiness do korean adults pursue?—comparison of seven happiness types
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084433/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32110951
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17051502
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