dc.contributor.advisor | Idemudia, Erhabor S. | |
dc.contributor.author | Awosola, Rasaq Kayode | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2022-02-28T12:18:32Z | |
dc.date.available | 2022-02-28T12:18:32Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2017 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10394/38578 | |
dc.description | PhD (Psychology), North-West University, Mafikeng Campus | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | Subjective well-being consists of happiness and life satisfaction devoid of any unpleasant
emotion. Measurement of happiness and life satisfaction is important because it allows people to
determine their own criteria for life and the value they attach to such criteria. Africa has been
regarded as a black spot as far as happiness and life satisfaction are concerned; this is due to the
paucity of research on happiness and life satisfaction among Africans. Not only that, there is no
Africa indigenous scale among the plethora of scales use in measuring happiness and life
satisfaction. This consequently creates a gap in knowledge. To close this gap, an indigenous
happiness and life satisfaction scale was conceived and developed using a three stage method
(stage 1 = 48, stage 2 = 408, stage 3 = 1468 participants) amongst adult Africans. A sequential
mixed method approach and cross sectional design were adopted for data collection to validate
the proposed Happiness and Life Satisfaction Scale (HLSS). Data were analysed using Cronbach
alpha for internal consistency, correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory
factor analysis. At the end of the stage 1 of the study, which took place in Nigeria and South
Africa, 42 items were retained in the happiness sub-scale and 47 items were retained in the life
satisfaction sub-scale; also face and content validities were built into the process of arriving at
these items. At stage 2, which took place in Nigeria only, the 42 item happiness sub-scale and 47
item life satisfaction sub-scale were field tested to evaluate the performance of the items with the
aim of eliminating items that performed poorly. Thirty (30) items were retained in the happiness
subscale and thirty-four (34) items were retained in the life satisfaction sub-scale. The third stage
of the research took place in both Nigeria and South Africa. The Thirty (30) items happiness
sub-scale and thirty-four (34) items life satisfaction sub-scale were subjected to exploratory factor
analysis which yielded one factor solution. This was further validated by means of confirmatory
factor analysis. The fit statistics indicated that the model fit was acceptable and confirms the one
factor solution of the 23 items for happiness sub-scale and 28 item life satisfaction sub-scale of the
happiness and life satisfaction scale. The model shows a good fit of SRMR = .065; PRATIO =
.923 ; P FI= .602; PCFI = .615 for happiness sub-scale and SRMR = .059; PRATIO = .931;
PNFI = .644; PCFI = .657 for the life satisfaction sub-scale. Thus the one factor solution was
confirmed. The analysis further indicated that the final scale showed a satisfactory internal
consistency (a = 0.92) for the happiness sub-scale and (a = 0.94) for the life satisfaction sub-scale.
The study also conducted convergent and discriminant validities by correlating the happiness
sub-scale with the Social Health Inventory and Zung depression scales with coefficients of -0.22
and 0.38 (See hypotheses 1 &3). Similar analysis was conducted for the life satisfaction sub-scale
with coefficients of -0.28 and 0.47 (See hypotheses 2 &4). Overall, the results provided
satisfactory psychometric properties for the happiness and life satisfaction scale. The scale would
be useful for policy makers, social welfare consultants, and scholars as a "proxy" measure for
happiness and life satisfaction among the indigenous African population. The scale will provide
opportunity to make accurate assessments of the level of happiness and life satisfaction of
Africans and will help in providing necessary intervention as well as giving insight into human
behaviour and decision making processes. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | North-West University (South Africa) | en_US |
dc.subject | Happiness | en_US |
dc.subject | Life satisfaction | en_US |
dc.subject | Validity | en_US |
dc.subject | Reliability | en_US |
dc.subject | Africans | en_US |
dc.subject | Individualistic | en_US |
dc.subject | Collectivistic | en_US |
dc.title | The development and validation of a happiness and life satisfication scale for adults in Africa | en_US |
dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
dc.description.thesistype | Doctoral | en_US |
dc.contributor.researchID | 22337660 - Idemudia, Erhabor Sunday (Supervisor) | |