Factors that Influence Satisfaction of Life Overall - Coursework Example

Research on Factors that Influence Satisfaction of Life Overall Introduction The main objectives of this work are to identify and describe the factors that affect or influence the life satisfaction overall. Thus, the dependent variable in is satisfaction with life overall. The paper will try to relate this variable to other explanatory variables so as to find the nature or direction of relationshipsbetween the dependent (satisfaction with life overall) and ten other independent or explanatory variables. Diener, (2011) shows how the level of satisfaction can be scaled in relation to how satisfied or how often you feel contented. In addition Diener (2011 stresses on how the life can be made satisfactory or more appealing to live through meeting some of the basic needs or necessities. This can be made by the some fundamental and secondary factors. Employment is the essentialfactorto any happy and self-appealing life. This is because any person who is employedcanpay for theirday-to-day needs. Thus, they can afford the basic needs such as clothes, shelter, food, and education. I chose other differentfacts that might influence the validityof life, and make it more jovial. The nature of employment matters significantly, whether self-employed or employed by another party, to the person. This will play a crucial part of one’s obtaining happiness. This is because some of the jobs have more securities than others. Thus when the nature of security comes in question one is happy when employed in a secured job. Hence, if a person is in a permanent job they are in a position to be happy than when they are in temporary jobs. Another aspect is the periodic returns of a given job since some have more returns than others. By the use of the same token income, a person may be employed, but he/ she is not satisfied with the job, hence job satisfaction is another key element that should be taken into consideration, as one seeksto determine the satisfaction with the life overall. This can be becausein most cases the employees tend to spend a lot of their time at workplaces or doing the work they are employed to do. Thus, if a person is not happy with the job, then, they will end up living dissatisfied. Hence, theattitudeat work plays a significant role when it comes to life overall satisfaction. Hypothesis of the paper 1. There exist a significant relationship between thesatisfaction of life overall and nature of thejob, and employment and attitude towards the job. 2. There is a relationship between the satisfaction of life overall and numbers of hours normally spent at work, job satisfaction, theassociation at theworkplace and themonthly amount saved. 3. There is a positive relation between the satisfaction of life and the amount pain per month (salary). Research question How does employment number of hours normally spent at work, job satisfaction, theassociation at theworkplace and themonthly amount saved and other affect the satisfaction of life overall? Though out the research I was trying to answer this research question. Similarly, I used this research question as a guiding line of what I was to do, in addition, it helped me in choosing different independent variables to be tested. Background According to Diener (2013), satisfaction in life is one of the factors that contribute to the well-being of all living things, for a person to attainself-sufficiency. Also,life one’s is satisfied when theylive a happy, dailylife, especially in the working. This case is true because thejob takes the greatest portion of time that one spendsevery day. Therefore, one should or opts to be happy and contendedwith the place where they are employed. In this case,people aresupposed to find jobsthat make them happy. Here, they can choose them from a list of their interests or hobbies. The net monthly income also plays a major role in theachievement of self-sufficiency. This is because it helps the person in reducing stress about thebudget and budgetary Keyes, (2014. It can, therefore, be deduced that the job that any person is engaged in should be well paying so that there is thecertainty of continuous provision of the basic needs. Keyes, (2014) states that satisfaction can be derived from our place of work since a good working atmosphere creates a conducive environment for relaxing and adequate time for self-fulfillment. Thus, a health working relation will help in making a person’s life worthier and more sufficient. According to Diener (2011),most of thepeople’s time is spentother people, who are perceived as important and significant in their life. These are the people who make them comfortable and eventually, they are satisfied with life. Workers that have common goals make the work easier becausedisputes that may arise from their time being togetherare eliminated. This makes the employees value each. Thus, they feel acknowledged and comfortable at work. This feeling make their life full and satisfying. Diener, (2013) also stressed that higher level of education calls for a better job, and also self-indulgence. As a result, most of the highly learned people have a positive attitudein life. Although sometimes life is full of disappointments, Learned people have the ability to think critically, when it comes to problem-solving. As a result, they mostly make the right decisions. Thus they face disappointments in life Another aspect of sufficient lifestyle is the ability to have financial security. The savingsmade every month counts when it comes to the well-being of people. According to Diner, (2011) it is a wise decision on a successful future because any of it is derived from a great foundation of saving and having a positive mind. This is true because, most of the time, the savings act as a guarantee of the future that all will be well. People whomake monthly savings are not prone to suffer from an unplanned occurrence since they have liquid assets that can be used to outsource funds when financial problems face them. This makes people with high saving habit tobe more satisfied with life for they have a finances that can be used to solve such a problem. In addition, they value their future (Diener, 2013). Another aspect of life is the number of hours that one spends at work. It hasa positive relationship to life satisfaction. Work should be setin and a way that a person is not demoralized by long working hours and tedious activities.Fagan et al. (2012 explains how long working hours has a negative influence on the life satisfaction overall. This is true as onemay end up not valuing the job that they are doing and become prone to dissatisfaction. This case brings theproblem to that person’s life as they feel unworthy and misused, and it may make them perceive life as unbearable and unfair. It can be deduced that one should have reasonable number of working hours, for doing this it will make them value their precious time at work. Using the same token of time, people who have satisfactory time for their leisure find life full of fun and satisfactory. This makes them value their time even at work as they have adequate time to be engagedin their interest or hobbies. For life to be worthy, one should find time to perform what they like for it boosts their perception of life, which eventually make them contented with their situation in life. Similarly,it makes them think positively, towardslife, and this makes them have a positive attitude to life and make fun out of it at their free time. Furthermore, it makes them have anadequate plan for their future,hence promoting a positive attitude tolife (Keyes, 2014). Health, in general, is the root of any happiness because a healthy person is always in a good mood and jovial (Veenhoven, 2015).Research conducted in previous studies has shown that there is a positive correlation between health and life satisfaction overall. This has been because the person does not live in agony or worry that they may die any time. As a result, they spend their precious time doing constructive and more economical activities. This helps them to make improve their lifestyleand stop worrying Biener, (2012) also urges that for people to feel satisfied with life, they have to be in good health. Furthermore a good health act as a road to any open opportunity, since a person cannot even celebrate when they are in pain. Thus, for a people to have been satisfied, they should be in good health condition. A healthy person is in aposition to utilize the leisure well and also be able to engage in socially and also economically. Through this sort of engagement a person meets the basic needs, also they are the position to participate in leisure more in an appropriate way. In addition, Biener (2012) states that health status is the backbone to any life satisfaction overall. This research shall relate the above, discussed, factors, to the life-sufficiency of a person. Model The research was based on the three hypotheses, as stated earlier, and throughout data analysis the researcher was trying to test their validity.In order to test this hypothesis, I set the degree of freedom at 0.05, the low significance level was to reduce the chances of making types 1 error (rejecting the null hypothesis when it is correct) this is in accordance with Pituch, (2013). This measure helped in increasing the precision of the result of my analysis. The participants of my research were different people with different lifestyles and socioeconomic levels. This population helped in reducing prejudgment, which may result to biasness of the results. In such a case, biases may eventually give inappropriate results of the analysis. The dataset that I used in my analysis was collected by Understanding Society, The Household Longitudinal Study; the dataset was a compressed version that contained only 74 variables from which I selected my ten independent variables. Since this data set was very large, I selected a sample of 100 out of it. Wooldridge, (2012) strongly supports that a sample should be drawn at random this is to reduce the chances of confounding variables. I applied randomization technique to draw my sample such that I did not distort or tamper with the relationship between the dependent variable (life satisfaction overall) and other independent variables, but this technique does not guarantee that there will be no association, but it only ensures that lurking variables are not likely to affect the outcome or the inference Pituch, (2013). On the collected data, I performed some qualitative analysis like Analysis of Variance and Regression analysis, in order to determine the degree of relationship between the response variable and independent variables. The data collected was analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics software version 22. This was necessary because it helps in drawing inferences about the population nature of relationships Wooldridge, (2012). I also performed an ANOVA analysis to the collected sample, which was necessary to determine the variability of satisfaction of life overall and other explanatory variables. The variances of the different variables were compared with my dependent variables so that any significant difference can be noted. In addition, I carried out a regression analysis on the data and the results were identical to that ANOVA yield. Mandel, (2012) also stipulates that ANOVA and regression should give the same results as both try to test the variability of data that is collected. In addition to that I also performed a multi-collinearityso that I can find the multi association between the different variables under study. The output/ results were portrayed in a matrix form with leading diagonals being the variances between explanatory and dependent variables and the other diagonal being covariance. Covariance helps in understanding the correlation between the variables and at the same time their variances Pituch, (2013). In order toinvestigate the relationship of the variables, I had to perform some inferential statistics on the sample dataset that aid in understanding the nature of relationships between the variables with my dependent variable. This also acts as a tool to determine the direction of therelationship between the variables. The sample data set after running a t-test analysis the calculated value most of them layoutside the rejection region as shown it the table iii and thus there were indeed significant relationship between satisfaction of life overall and nature of job, and employment and attitude towards the job. The results were tables and also, as shown in the attached files. Furthermore, the result of the analysis showed that there existed a relationship between the life satisfaction overall and variables such as number of hours normally spent at work, savings and free time. This was because the results from the ANOVA tests lied outside the rejection region which implies that there existed a relationship between the satisfaction of life and the various factors i.e. all of the independent variables have a positive correlation, apart from general health and highest qualification. Conclusion In this research I found out that there are a number of factors that influence the satisfaction of life overall. This was because the output / results showed most the independent variables having positive correlation and also the F- calculated was greater than the F-tabulated in this case I failed to reject my hypothesis and concluded that indeed there existed a positive relation between the satisfaction of life overall and variables like usual pay, satisfaction with amount of leisure time, monthly amount saved, Highest qualification, total monthly personal income - gross, general health, full-time/ part-time employed, current job permanent/ temporary, union or staff association at workplace and employed or self-employed . The greatest test setbacks that might have affected the result of my analysis may have occurred during theselection of the sample. In the future given an opportunity to carry out the same research, there will be a number of Factors that I will include as my independent variables as they may have an impact on satisfaction overall of life.These factors include usual net pay per month, current job, age, legal marital status and accessibility to sporting facilities. References Diener, E. D., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of personality assessment, 49(1), 71-75. Diener, E., Inglehart, R., & Tay, L. (2013). Theory and validity of life satisfaction scales. Social Indicators Research, 112(3), 497-527. Fagan, C., Lyonette, C., Smith, M., & Saldaña-Tejeda, A. (2012). The influence of working time arrangements on work-life integration or'balance': a review of the international evidence. ILO. Keyes, C. L. (2014). Happiness, flourishing, and life satisfaction. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Health, Illness, Behavior, and Society. Mandel, J. (2012). The statistical analysis of experimental data. Courier Corporation. Pituch, K. A., Whittaker, T. A., & Stevens, J. P. (2013). Intermediate statistics: A modern approach. Routledge. Veenhoven, R. (2015). The Overall Satisfaction with Life: Subjective Approaches (1). In Global Handbook of Quality of Life (pp. 207-238). Springer Netherlands. Wooldridge, J. (2012). Introductory econometrics: A modern approach. Cengage Learning. Appendix In my analysis I used the dataset that was collected by Understanding Society was so helpful general health current job permanent/ temporally employed or self employed union or staff association at workplace monthly amount saved satisfaction with life overall satisfaction with amount of leisure time Highest qualification total monthly personal income - gross full time/ part-time employed usual pay 2 1 1 2 -8 -8 -8 4 1524.72 1 -8 1 -8 -8 -8 -8 7 7 -9 281.67 -8 -8 1 1 1 1 200 7 6 3 948 2 300 4 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 7 2 2089.17 -8 -8 2 1 1 1 -2 6 4 2 2166.67 1 -8 4 -8 -8 -8 300 6 6 4 962.82 -8 -8 2 1 1 1 40 3 3 4 2181.33 1 -8 5 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 3 9 1594.08 -8 -8 4 2 1 2 -1 5 5 4 2153.75 2 -8 4 2 1 1 250 7 5 1 3050 1 -8 2 1 1 2 100 7 6 5 932.2 1 -8 4 1 1 2 -8 5 5 3 3166.67 1 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 50 5 4 4 810.83 -8 -8 5 -8 -8 -8 25 -8 -8 9 981.25 -8 -8 3 1 1 2 -8 5 2 9 2120 2 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 -8 1 1 5 1857.33 -8 -8 2 1 1 1 100 6 5 2 1335.33 1 -8 5 -8 -8 -8 -8 7 7 2 866 -8 -8 4 -8 -8 -7 -7 -7 -7 4 907.89 -7 -7 3 -8 -8 -8 10 7 7 9 413 -8 -8 3 1 1 -7 -7 -7 -7 5 1268.81 -7 -7 4 -8 -8 -8 100 2 3 9 862.29 -8 -8 3 1 1 -7 -7 -7 -7 4 1662.85 -7 -7 3 1 1 2 10 6 6 9 1250 1 -8 2 1 1 2 50 2 2 1 816.47 1 -8 3 1 1 2 30 6 7 1 2695 2 -8 2 1 1 -7 -7 -7 -7 3 505.22 -7 -7 2 1 1 -7 -7 -7 -7 1 1400.46 -7 -7 4 1 1 2 10 6 3 2 1150 1 -8 3 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 1 0 -8 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 9 0 -8 -8 2 1 1 1 200 6 5 3 2100 1 -8 2 1 1 1 -8 4 4 3 3000.67 1 -8 3 1 2 -8 -8 -8 -8 3 2011.54 1 -8 2 1 1 2 -8 6 4 4 1950 1 -8 5 -8 -8 -8 -8 4 3 5 800.67 -8 -8 1 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 6 3 0 -8 -8 2 2 1 2 -8 6 5 4 137.48 2 -8 3 1 1 2 -8 6 2 4 1304.33 1 -8 1 1 1 2 -8 4 3 4 1720.03 1 800 3 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 6 4 805.33 -8 -8 2 1 1 2 -8 4 4 4 3500 1 -8 2 1 1 2 120 4 3 3 1170 1 -8 3 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 6 9 251.99 -8 -8 3 -8 -8 -8 -8 5 5 9 687.43 -8 -8 1 1 1 1 500 6 3 1 3848.12 1 3500 2 1 1 1 -1 5 5 1 8278.55 1 -8 3 1 1 2 -2 7 7 3 3204.92 1 -8 4 -8 -8 -8 -8 1 4 5 663.67 -8 -8 3 -8 -8 -8 -8 5 4 5 0 -8 -8 2 1 1 2 5000 6 5 3 3007.5 1 -8 4 1 1 1 100 6 6 4 1680 1 -8 2 1 1 2 -8 3 3 1 2105.83 1 -8 1 1 1 1 -8 6 5 5 675.08 2 -8 3 1 1 1 -8 5 5 1 1166.67 1 -8 1 1 1 1 -8 4 3 9 1270 1 -8 2 -8 -8 -7 -7 -7 -7 4 290.1 -7 -7 1 1 1 2 -8 5 6 4 520 1 -8 2 2 1 1 50 6 6 4 1239.67 2 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 -8 7 7 5 1015.33 -8 -8 1 1 2 -8 -8 7 5 1 166.5 1 -8 3 -8 -8 -8 90 -8 -8 9 399.75 -8 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 5 4 648.42 -8 -8 2 1 1 2 100 5 3 3 1733 1 -8 1 -8 -8 -8 150 7 7 9 1020.08 -8 -8 4 1 1 2 220 4 4 4 3564.67 1 -8 2 1 1 1 160 6 6 3 3786 1 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 250 6 6 5 1300 -8 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 -8 3 3 1 0 -8 -8 1 1 1 2 150 6 5 3 3458.33 1 -8 1 1 2 -8 -8 6 5 2 1250 1 -8 2 1 1 1 300 5 3 1 2416.67 1 -8 5 -8 -8 -8 -8 1 3 5 1102.83 -8 -8 1 -8 -8 -8 20 7 3 -9 130.42 -8 -8 3 1 1 1 -8 3 2 3 1123.51 1 900 4 -8 -8 -8 -8 4 4 9 779.83 -8 -8 1 1 1 2 -8 6 6 4 1548.33 1 -8 4 1 1 1 -8 5 3 4 215.48 1 -8 2 1 1 -7 -7 -7 -7 3 5299.64 -7 -7 3 1 1 1 -8 5 3 1 2395 1 -8 2 2 1 1 66 7 6 2 1741.58 1 -8 1 1 1 -7 -7 -7 -7 1 1247.77 -7 -7 1 1 1 2 -8 7 6 3 268.67 2 -8 2 1 1 1 -8 6 7 4 1189.67 1 -8 4 -8 -8 -7 -7 -7 -7 9 221.73 -7 -7 4 1 1 1 30 3 4 5 1541.67 1 -8 3 1 1 1 -2 3 2 3 1161.65 2 -8 4 -8 -8 -8 -8 2 3 4 223.17 -8 -8 4 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 4 858 -8 -8 2 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 6 9 452.33 -8 -8 2 1 1 -1 -8 6 4 3 728 1 -8 2 1 1 2 -8 6 3 1 1261.67 2 -8 2 1 1 1 -8 6 6 4 1401 2 -8 3 -8 -8 -8 -8 6 5 4 385.42 -8 -8 5 -8 -8 -7 -7 -7 -7 3 0 -7 -7 4 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 -8 4 376 -8 -8 4 1 1 1 -8 5 1 1 1500 1 -8 1 1 1 1 30 6 4 3 2080 1 -8 1 1 1 2 -8 3 6 1 4000 1 -8 The data in the table was analyzed using SPSS software version 22, and the output/ results were as follows. Empirical analysis Table i. ANOVAa Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 2425.285 10 242.528 169.783 .000b Residual 125.705 88 1.428 Total 2550.990 98 a. Dependent Variable: satisfaction with life overall b. Predictors: (Constant), usual pay, satisfaction with amount of leisure time, monthly amount saved, Highest qualification, total monthly personal income - gross, general health, full time/ part-time employed, current job permanent/ temporary, union or staff association at workplace, employed or self employed Table ii. Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 1.300 .398 3.268 .002 general health .031 .120 .007 .255 .800 emplyed or self employed .026 .537 .022 .048 .962 current job permanent/ temporary -.039 .530 -.034 -.074 .941 union or staff assocciation at workplace -.005 .092 -.005 -.054 .957 monthly amount saved .000 .000 .013 .519 .605 satisfaction with amount of leisure time .985 .030 .940 32.385 .000 Highest qualification -.069 .042 -.042 -1.639 .105 total monthly personal income - gross .000 .000 -.054 -1.893 .062 full time/ parttime employed .119 .114 .104 1.039 .302 usual pay .001 .000 .046 1.897 .061 a. Dependent Variable: satisfaction with life overall Table iii. Correlations Control Variables general health current job permanent/ temporary employed or self employed union or staff association at workplace monthly amount saved satisfaction with amount of leisure time Highest qualification total monthly personal income - gross full time/ part-time employed usual pay satisfaction with life overall general health Correlation 1.000 -.327 -.338 -.190 -.048 .067 .272 -.083 -.251 -.151 Significance (2-tailed) . .001 .001 .061 .642 .513 .007 .416 .013 .137 df 0 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 current job permanent/ temporary Correlation -.327 1.000 .998 .851 .077 -.216 -.241 .473 .914 .102 Significance (2-tailed) .001 . .000 .000 .450 .032 .017 .000 .000 .319 df 96 0 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 employed or self employed Correlation -.338 .998 1.000 .837 .077 -.220 -.244 .472 .914 .103 Significance (2-tailed) .001 .000 . .000 .449 .030 .016 .000 .000 .311 df 96 96 0 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 union or staff association at workplace Correlation -.190 .851 .837 1.000 .104 -.169 -.135 .440 .922 .111 Significance (2-tailed) .061 .000 .000 . .308 .095 .184 .000 .000 .277 df 96 96 96 0 96 96 96 96 96 96 monthly amount saved Correlation -.048 .077 .077 .104 1.000 -.038 -.022 .156 .076 .066 Significance (2-tailed) .642 .450 .449 .308 . .709 .831 .124 .455 .519 df 96 96 96 96 0 96 96 96 96 96 satisfaction with amount of leisure time Correlation .067 -.216 -.220 -.169 -.038 1.000 .180 .055 -.213 -.198 Significance (2-tailed) .513 .032 .030 .095 .709 . .077 .594 .036 .051 df 96 96 96 96 96 0 96 96 96 96 Highest qualification Correlation .272 -.241 -.244 -.135 -.022 .180 1.000 -.156 -.178 -.083 Significance (2-tailed) .007 .017 .016 .184 .831 .077 . .126 .079 .414 df 96 96 96 96 96 96 0 96 96 96 total monthly personal income - gross Correlation -.083 .473 .472 .440 .156 .055 -.156 1.000 .412 .170 Significance (2-tailed) .416 .000 .000 .000 .124 .594 .126 . .000 .094 df 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 0 96 96 full time/ part-time employed Correlation -.251 .914 .914 .922 .076 -.213 -.178 .412 1.000 .108 Significance (2-tailed) .013 .000 .000 .000 .455 .036 .079 .000 . .290 df 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 0 96 usual pay Correlation -.151 .102 .103 .111 .066 -.198 -.083 .170 .108 1.000 Significance (2-tailed) .137 .319 .311 .277 .519 .051 .414 .094 .290 . df 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 96 0 Read More