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dc.contributor.advisorIdemudia, Erhabor S.
dc.contributor.authorAwosola, Rasaq Kayode
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-28T12:18:32Z
dc.date.available2022-02-28T12:18:32Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10394/38578
dc.descriptionPhD (Psychology), North-West University, Mafikeng Campusen_US
dc.description.abstractSubjective 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.isoenen_US
dc.publisherNorth-West University (South Africa)en_US
dc.subjectHappinessen_US
dc.subjectLife satisfactionen_US
dc.subjectValidityen_US
dc.subjectReliabilityen_US
dc.subjectAfricansen_US
dc.subjectIndividualisticen_US
dc.subjectCollectivisticen_US
dc.titleThe development and validation of a happiness and life satisfication scale for adults in Africaen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.description.thesistypeDoctoralen_US
dc.contributor.researchID22337660 - Idemudia, Erhabor Sunday (Supervisor)


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