Discrepancies between the
actual/virtual-self and Well-being:
an empirical investigation
André Sijtsema
Master Thesis
Faculty of Economics and Business
MSc Business & ICT
09-2012
(06) 3819 1926
a.j.sijtsema@student.rug.nl
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Abstract
In this paper, the link between well-being and the self-discrepancy between the actual-self and virtual-self is researched. People can act different online than in real-life and they may enact multiple personalities. Their virtual identity may allow them to express themselves more freely, or it may reflect their ideals. Therefore, it is proposed that people can be more happy and satisfied with their virtual-self than with their actual-self. In addition, important (repression-based) social factors, which influence the actual/virtual self-discrepancy, are identified. A survey was distributed which gathered 183 useful responses. Results indicate that political freedom, extraversion and neuroticism are significant influencers of subjective well-being (SWB), and SWB is negatively associated with actual/virtual self-discrepancy. For people with high SWB, the association between self-discrepancy and ‘online’ well-being was negative. However, for people with low SWB, this association was significantly positive. In other words, for ‘unhappy’ people, an increase in self-discrepancy between their actual/virtual discrepancy leads to an increased online well-being. This (preliminary) finding, which is contradictory to Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory, is discussed. Furthermore, findings indicate that people with low SWB are influenced by different social factors than people with high SWB when creating actual/virtual discrepancies.
Key words: actual-self, virtual-self, virtual identity, social factors, self-discrepancy theory,
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ... 4 1.1. Initial motive... 4 1.2. Problem statement ... 10 1.3. Research question ... 11 1.4. Research design ... 11 2. Theory ... 12 2.1. Subjective well-being ... 12 2.1.1. Definitions ... 12 2.1.2. Affecting factors ... 13 2.1.3. Limitations ... 16 2.2. Virtual Identity ... 17 2.2.1. Personal perspective ... 18 2.2.2. Business perspective ... 19 2.2.3. Technical perspective ... 20 2.2.4. Self-discrepancy theory ... 21 3. Literature review ... 243.1. Social factors and subjective well-being ... 24
3.2. Subjective well-being and self-discrepancy ... 25
3.3. Self-discrepancy and ‘online’ well-being ... 26
4. Methodology ... 29
4.1. Literature review ... 29
4.2. Survey development ... 30
4.3. Data collection and analysis ... 39
5. Results ... 43 5.1. Results ... 43 5.2. Post-hoc analysis... 45 6. Discussion ... 48 7. Conclusion ... 55 References ... 57 Appendix ... 65
Literature review table ... 65
Questionnaire ... 66
Post-hoc analysis ... 70
Post-hoc analysis for low SWB - values ... 70
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1. Introduction
1.1. Initial motive
The internet has become very important in today’s world. It has eased communication and enhanced the availability of information, both personal and commercial (Gius & Ceccucci, 2010). Especially with the availability of personal information, people start to live more in the virtual world than before. For example, they interact with others through a Facebook account. However, people tend to present themselves in a favorable way on their Facebook profiles. This creates an unbalanced view regarding people’s perception of others: people often think their Facebook friends are happier and have better lives than themselves (Chou & Edge, 2012). This especially applies for Facebook friends which people have never met offline.
Another example where people interact in the virtual world is in the gaming area. Players create an avatar, which represents that individual in the virtual world who is playing the game in the real world (e.g. World of Warcraft or Second Life). They are no longer limited to text-description or simple pictures of their own representation. With an avatar, they can display their virtual identity in much more detail. How they design their avatar in comparison with who they really are depends on e.g. their personality and gender. For example, people who are on the less-advantageous side of the personality spectrum (e.g. low self-esteem, introvert and neurotic) are likely to compensate for that by means of their avatar (Dunn & Guadagno, 2011). More generally, the internet provides individuals with the opportunity to try out new personality aspects and to express important self-aspects that are constrained in their non-Internet relationships (McKenna & Bargh, 1999). This does not only apply for the gaming area.
In short, the actual-self and the virtual-self are not necessarily the same: there is often a gap between actual (offline) selves and virtual (online) selves. The virtual self is defined as “the
representation of an identity in a virtual environment, consisting of a property of objects allowing these objects to be distinguished from each other” (Kokswijk, 2007). According to the
self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987), such a self-discrepancy creates anxiety and emotional discomfort. The discrepancy theory is further elaborated in section 2.2.4. Some self-discrepancies examples in the virtual world will be illustrated below.
Example 1
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of the messages changed. Eventually, Josh sent “… everyone in O’Fallen knows how you are. You are a bad person and everyone hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be better off without you…”. Megan responded: “You’re the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over.” Twenty minutes later, she was found dead. The most striking matter in this incident is that Josh Evans did not exist. The real person behind this virtual identity is a middle-aged woman called Lori Drew, who lived in Megan’s neighborhood. The question then becomes why Lori Drew created such a different virtual identity than her actual identity. Or, in a broader context, why would a person create a different virtual identity from who these people really are? This example indicates that a discrepancy between the actual (offline) self and the virtual (online) self can cause very negative impacts on society (i.e. cyber bullying and ultimately suicide). In addition, the self-discrepancy theory states that the discrepancy causes emotional discomfort. This may imply for the development of technologies which force people to minimize discrepancy between their actual (offline) self and virtual (online) self. It may also imply for public policies which aim to minimize self-discrepancy in order to prevent such negative consequences.
Example 2
The second example is about a 35-year-old Arab woman called Amina Araf. Amina was sent to Syrian jail because she was an outspoken lesbian blogger (The Guardian, 2011). She blogged about participating in street protests and about what it is like to be a lesbian in Syria. After she got arrested, which was blogged by Amina’s cousin, the news spread fast. Activist groups demanded the release of Amina and on Facebook some 41.000 people showed their support by joining an online campaign. However, when the news got big, IP addresses of emails sent by Amina to the blog were analyzed and traced back to servers at the Edinburgh University. Also, photos used by Amina resembled photos of Jelena Lecic, a woman living in London. It was then revealed that Amina Araf did not exist. It was the creation of Tom MacMaster, a married 40-year-old American male studying in Scotland. He made the whole blog up and used photos of Jelena Lecic which he had found online.
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if you want to compliment me, tell you like my writing… That’s how to make me happy”. Despite a lot of furious reaction, he did raise attention for the repression situations in the Middle-East. In this example, there are some negative consequences on society (i.e. misleading information). However, the blog also reflects some positive consequences. The writer intentionally created a great discrepancy between his actual-self and virtual-self. This gave him more emotional confidence, it enabled him to write more easily. This is contradictory the self-discrepancy theory, which states that such a discrepancy causes emotional discomfort. This situation may call for technologies and public policies which allow self-discrepancy, so that people are better able to express themselves.
Example 3
Another example is a about a man who calls himself Vax Sirnah (nwn.blogs.com, 2010). He is in his thirties, overweight, balding and married with children. However, online, in Second Life, he is a “flirty cyber-chick” who hangs out at clubs and has hundreds of clothing items (see figure 1). And it’s not just out of curiosity or for fun. Vax is gender dysphoric, which means that he is not comfortable with the gender he was born with. He stated “… I look in the mirror and am always surprised the guy staring back at me is actually me. I live in a liminal state: half in my body, half detached from it. Half male, half female…”. Second Life is a haven for him. In this virtual world, he can realize a part of him which he always knew existed, but could never point at. In Second Life, he is able to talk with other women and be treated as a sister, not a potential predator. Also he is able to “feel pretty”, a feeling which he not had in real life. Vax: “It’s a ‘me’ which cannot exist in the real world. It also helps me with my therapy in real life. I am not trying to deceive anyone. I am not trying to live as a lie. I am trying to live the truth, in its entirety”.
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Example 3 shows quite positive consequences which result from self-discrepancy. In this case, the discrepancy between the actual self and virtual self positively impact society because people are able to freely express themselves. More broadly speaking, they may also be capable of stimulating and challenging the prevailing social norms and ideas, which is significant for societies to develop. This also may call for technologies and public policies which allow self-discrepancy, so that people are able to express themselves freely and innovatively.
In short, the above examples illustrate different consequences of a self-discrepancy between the actual-self and the virtual-self, both positive and negative. In addition, the self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) does not always seem to apply. Instead of causing anxiety and emotional discomfort, some discrepancies appear to give emotional comfort and confidence to people and it appears to make them happier. An example is that those who feel better able to express their “true selves” on the internet rather than face-to-face interaction setting are more likely to form close relationships with people met on the internet (McKenna, Green & Gleason, 2002). In addition, when individuals take part in online communities, they become accepted members of that community. This leads to an increase in that identity for them, which in turn leads to a greater self-acceptance and a decreased feeling of social and cultural interaction (McKenna & Bargh, 1999).
The link between happiness (or the more general subjective well-being (SWB)) and self-discrepancy has been made in previous research. For example, Lynch, La Guardia & Ryan (2009) found that self-discrepancy is negatively associated with well-being and Metin (2011) verified that a reduced self-discrepancy predicts greater well-being. However, the studies of Lynch et al. and Metin, and most other research, were conducted in an offline setting.
Choi, Kim & Shin (2010) have assessed self-discrepancy between the actual-self and the online-self on social networking sites and confirmed that there is a negative association between SWB and self-discrepancy on social networking sites (SNSs). Furthermore, they demonstrated that people can easily and intentionally create different selves in a virtual world, and that they monitor others’ responses to those virtual selves. However, the research of Choi et al. contain some limitations.
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discrepancies through creating a free, uncontrolled context where one can pursue their ideal-self (Lynch, La Guardia & Ryan, 2009).
In addition, Choi et al. (2010) identified three constraining factors in creating different virtual selves. They are ‘perceived anonymity’, ‘offline activities’ and ‘anchored relationships’. Their research only included SNSs, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, where these constraining factors play a role. However, these constraining factors may vary between different online platforms. For example, on SNSs, individuals are often linked to people who they also know in real-life. This is likely to have a relatively high ‘offline activities’ and ‘anchored relationships’ and a lower ‘perceived anonymity’. There are more online platforms, in addition to SNSs, where communication between people take place. Examples include discussion boards, chat rooms, blogs, video-sharing sites and gaming environments. Self-discrepancy can exist in each of these platforms.
Contribution of this research
The topics in this research can roughly be divided in three sections. First, social factors are linked to subjective well-being. This is done in order to identify (and verify) significant influencers on a person’s subjective well-being, which in turn may lead to the creation of self-discrepancy. This is the second main topic: the association between subjective well-being and self-discrepancy. In prior literature, a negative association is identified (Choi et al., 2010). This study aims to verify this association and adds a more detailed approach. The approach is further elaborated below. Finally, the key point of this study is made. The association between self-discrepancy and ‘online’ well-being is made. The underlying notion behind this proposition is that people may be more satisfied with their virtual-self than with their real-life self, since their virtual-self may reflect their ideal attributes. The internet provides individuals with the opportunity to try out new personality aspects and to express important self-aspects that are constrained in their non-Internet relationships (McKenna & Bargh, 1999). Especially when people are dissatisfied with themselves in the real world or they want to try a new self, they may seek to establish a very different self online (Ma & Agarwal, 2008). An alternative virtual-self may also allow self-expression more freely, especially in repressed areas. The idea is further elaborated in section 3.3.
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such a social system may call for the possibility to create any virtual-self in order to enable individuals to express themselves freely. In societies with low repression, this need may not be critical, since individuals can express themselves freely with their actual-self. Additionally, the social factors may be particular important, since social systems focus attention on user-created content and not specific requirements (Chaturvedi, Dolk & Drnevich, 2011). As a result, identifying important social factors from the user’s environment, in order to facilitate the user with generating content (e.g. by allowing actual/virtual self-discrepancy), may be increasingly important.
Furthermore, this research acknowledges the fact that subjective well-being is negatively associated with a discrepancy between the actual- and virtual-self. However, the subjective well-being refers to a person’s real-life. In addition to SWB, this research aims to capture a person’s well-being in the virtual world. An individual may carefully craft their virtual identity and it can resemble their ideals. In addition, it allows for more self-expression. Therefore, while a person’s real-life subjective well-being may be low and their self-discrepancy may be high, their ‘online’ well-being may be high as well. The relevance of this idea may only increase, since communication through the internet increases, where individuals connect “within” the internet (Kapp & O’Driscoll, 2010). In the IS-field, many articles are about the design of virtual worlds (e.g. Chaturvedi, Dolk & Drnevich, 2011) or about the effect on economic or governmental models (Wasko et al., 2011), but not on the link between virtual-self and its consequences (e.g. well-being).
This research takes a broad view of the online platforms where communication between individuals take place. In addition to SNSs, platforms such as discussion boards, gaming areas, blogs and video-sharing sites are taken into account. In these platforms, people can interact with others freely and often anonymously, and self-discrepancy may exist on each of these platforms. Finally, this research distinguishes between two types of discrepancies. Social system designers are increasingly introducing avatars as the new forum for identity construction in online environments (Valasou et al., 2008). These avatars give expressive freedom, people can design their appearance and decide how to present themselves to others virtually. However, people can also act differently online than in real-life and engage in different personalities, since an online anonymous environment provides an outlet for the expression of ‘hidden selves’ (Suler, 2004) and allow for the exploration of non-conventional identities (Rosenmann & Safir, 2006). Therefore, a distinction is made between ‘inner’- and ‘outer’-discrepancy.
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states that further investigation of the relationship between self-discrepancy and subjective well-being is needed. Differences in inner- and outer-discrepancy may also call for different technologies or policies (e.g. allowing a person to freely design an avatar or allowing a person to engage in multiple identities). Inner discrepancy focuses on the personality characteristics of an individual, e.g. self-discrepancies between actual- and virtual selves in self-esteem, directness in communication or emotionality. Outer discrepancy reflects the appearance of an individual, e.g. self-discrepancies between the actual- and virtual-self in gender, race or material possessions.
1.2. Problem statement
Based on the examples and theory described above, it is clear that self-discrepancies exists between the actual (offline) selves and the virtual (online) selves. It is also clear that these discrepancies have consequences for society. However, it is unclear whether these consequences are positive or negative. This may depend on specific characteristics of societies. As stated above, this may imply for different technologies or public policies. Furthermore, the self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) is reviewed. This theory appears to have limits in the virtual world: it does not explain why people intentionally create a self-discrepancy in the virtual world. In addition, this self-discrepancy does not always have negative impacts. It could be that people are particularly happy with a self-discrepancy. A virtual-self may reflect their ideals.
The objective of this research is twofold. First, it aims to identify which repression-based subjective well-being factors which influence the self-discrepancy in the virtual world. These factors should be identified, because they may influence the self-discrepancy of people in the virtual world. For example, in a closed or repressed society, people are often subjected to strict social norms. In these societies, individuals create possible (virtual) selves in order to express themselves freely. This may imply for positive consequences: individuals are less repressed, they may even decrease their self-discrepancy by being able to express their actual-self in the virtual world. According to the self-discrepancy theory, this leads to emotional comfort. However, in open and liberal societies, people can freely develop their actual-self based on who they want to be in real-life. In these societies, individuals can create possible (virtual) selves mainly for fun or experimentation. However, this may lead to cyber-bullying or other negative consequences, such as misleading information. For example, Chesney, Coyne, Logan & Madden (2009) researched the phenomena of unacceptable behavior in Second Life. Second Life mainly has users from US and the European Union. The study showed that there is unacceptable, persistent behavior in Second Life, often caused by experienced users and targeted at inexperienced residents.
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in real-life or for people who create their ideal-self online. The self-discrepancy theory, which is elaborated in more detail in section 2.2.4, does not explain this phenomena. This research includes possible discrepancies on multiple online platforms or contexts, such as social networking sites, discussion boards, video-sharing sites and gaming environments. In addition, the association between a person’s subjective well-being (in real life) and their self-discrepancies between the actual- and virtual-self is verified.
1.3. Research question
This research aims to answer the following research questions:
1) Which repression-based subjective well-being factors influence the self-discrepancy in the virtual world?
2) Does self-discrepancy between the actual-self and the virtual-self lead to higher well-being online?
1.4. Research design
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2. Theory
In this chapter, an overview of theory relevant in this research is presented. The first section is about subjective well-being (SWB) and the second section is about the virtual identity, i.e. the self-being in the virtual world.
For the first section, literature was sought in order to explain SWB, identify possible factors which affect SWB and describe limitations involved with SWB. Search-terms such as social,
factors, attributes, society, nation, cross-national, cross-cultural, subjective, well-being and measurements were used. Subsequently, there was sought for additional literature about the
definitions and factors identified in the first search. In the appendix, an overview of this literature is presented. For the second section (about virtual identity), literature was sought in order to define the virtual identity, explain the use of virtual identities (using three perspectives: personal, business and technological) and elaborate on the self-discrepancy theory. Combinations of search-terms such as actual, virtual, self, world, identity, offline, online, avatar,
discrepancy, theory and behavior were used. Again, additional literature was sought using terms
and references of literature found in the first search. More details about the literature search are provided in the methodology, section 4.1.
2.1. Subjective well-being
Happiness, or subjective well-being (SWB), is a universally cherished goal (Suh & Oishi, 2002). However, it is an ambiguous concept, lacking a universally acceptable definition and often faced with competing interpretations (McGillivray & Clarke, 2006). In this theory section, definitions of SWB will be given, some existing measurements will be discussed and the use and limitations of SWB will be addressed.
2.1.1. Definitions
Diener (2006) gives the following definition of SWB: subjective well-being refers to all of the
various evaluations, both positive and negative, that people make of their lives. He also states that
often the term well-being is used instead of subjective well-being, in order to avoid the suggestion that there is something arbitrary or unknowable about the concepts involved. This is the case with McGillivray (2007), who states that well-being is generally viewed as a description
of the state of people’s life situation.
In both these definitions of SWB, happiness is not explicitly mentioned. Is the concept of well-being is the same as happiness? Veenhoven (2000) suggests that happiness is “the degree to
which someone evaluates positively the overall quality of his or her life as a whole”. In this sense,
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SWB. Minkov (2009) states that happiness is the hedonic facet of SWB. In addition, Bruni & Porta (2007) give some more clarity about the difference between SWB and happiness. They state that SWB consists of four factors: pleasant emotions, unpleasant emotions, global life judgment (or life evaluation) and domain satisfaction. Happiness, however, is a more narrow concept than SWB and it is different from life satisfaction. Life satisfaction and happiness are both major components of SWB, where life satisfaction reflects the individual’s perceived distance from their aspirations, whereas happiness results from a balance between positive and negative affect.
There are various other definitions of happiness: there is no clear consensus on what happiness means. According to Frey & Stutzer (2002) there are two extreme concepts of happiness: subjective and objective measures. Subjective happiness asks people how happy they feel themselves to be. This is a self-report about how happy people feel, all things considered. Objective happiness aims to capture happiness through the measurement of brain waves. This is a more psychological approach. Another example of such an objective measurement is the expert rating of facial expressions on photos and videos. These facial expressions seem to correlate with self-reports of SWB (Pavot, 2008). Furthermore, some authors claim that happiness means the same for all individuals (Layard, 2005; Myers & Diener, 1995), whereas others claim that happiness is highly subjective (Gilbert, 2006).
Life satisfaction refers to a judgmental process, in which individuals assess the quality of their life based on their own unique set of criteria (Shin & Johnson, 1978). An individual reports high life satisfaction if a person’s perceived life conditions matches with a self-composed set of standards. Therefore, life satisfaction is a conscious cognitive judgment of a person’s life in which the criteria for judgment are up to the individual. Gündel & Herschbach (2000) state that Life Satisfaction is a measure of an individual’s perceived level of well-being, and therefore it is a subjective indicator of the quality of life. Life satisfaction is one of the major components of SWB, and it refers to the summation of evaluations regarding a person’s life as a whole (Vitterso, Biswas-Diener & Diener, 2005). All of these definitions seem to be in line with each other, however, distinctions can be made. Veenhoven (1996) summarizes the following distinctions. In the 60’s there is between objective and subjective aspects of life satisfaction, and a distinction between cognitive and affective aspects of life satisfaction was made in the 70’s. Another development in the 70’s was the difference between overall and domain satisfaction, such as work or relationship domains.
2.1.2. Affecting factors
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single measurements have to be used. These single measurements can be classified in multiple ways. Some example classifications are discussed. Subsequently, a number of SWB measurements are discussed.
Well-being measurements can be classified into two broad categories: objective and subjective. In the objective categories, well-being is measured using certain observable facts, such as economic, social and environmental statistics. People’s happiness is assessed indirectly using cardinal measures. Subjective measures aim to capture people’s feelings or experiences directly, assessing well-being in an ordinal way (McGillivray & Clarke, 2006; van Hoorn, 2007).
Helliwell & Barrington-Leigh (2010) state that SWB measurements can be grouped into three independent categories: life evaluations, positive emotions and negative emotions. Life evaluations is more reflective of the overall and continuing circumstances of an individual’s life, whereas emotions are more volatile. Emotions can be captured as they occur, but are more usually measured by recall. Life evaluations are the result of a cognitive process taking place, or being updated, at the time the questions are asked.
Furthermore, multiple perspectives can be used while assessing SWB. The most common perspective is the individual perspective. Individual SWB depends on achieving satisfaction in multiple domains. The framework of SWB allows a more complete assessment of the many factors which affect well-being. Another widely used perspective in the nation level one. This perspective allows comparison in general well-being between nations. Some nations have far lower average SWB levels than other nations. Also, Rice & Steele (2004) found that some SWB differences between nations remain within ethnic groups which live in another nation. In other words, even if some ethnic groups share the same environment, some group SWB differences remain.
Graham & Shier (2010) list a number of individual factors which have proven to influence SWB: - personality (Diener et al, 2003)
- dysfunctional thought processes (Judge & Locke, 1993) - religiosity (Poloma & Pendleton, 1990; Ellison, 1991) - self-esteem (Schimmack & Diener, 2003)
- relationship harmony (Reid, 2004) - goal attainment (Kehr, 2003)
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and mental health. Van Praag et al (2003) add that individual SWB depends on achieving satisfaction in multiple domains, such as health, finance, work and leisure.
In his paper, Minkov (2009) gives an overview of a examples of measurements of the well-being of a nation which exist in the literature. This is done in order to discuss predictors of differences in subjective well-being in 97 nations. These measurements are as follows:
- wealth (Diener & Oishi, 2000; Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003; Inglehart & Klingemann, 2000; Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991; Suh & Oishi, 2002; Triandis, 2000),
- individualism versus collectivism (Suh & Oishi, 2002; Triandis, 2000)
- uncertainty avoidance and masculinity versus femininity dimensions (Arrindell, 1998; Hofstede, 2001)
- average national personality traits such as extraversion and neuroticism (Lynn & Steel, 2006; Steel & Ones, 2002)
- political freedoms (Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991; Triandis, 2000; Veenhoven, 2007) - personal freedom (Suh & Oishi, 2002; Veenhoven, 2007)
- social equality (Diener & Diener, 1995; Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991; Triandis, 2000; Veenhoven, 2007)
- gender equality (Veenhoven, 2007)
- social security (Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991; Triandis, 2000) - tolerance (Veenhoven, 2007)
- the quality of citizen–bureaucrat relationships and the quality of public institutions (Triandis, 2000)
- the degree of rule of law and corruption (Veenhoven, 2007)
- norms dictating appropriate feelings and how important SWB should be (Diener, Oishi, & Lucas, 2003)
- levels of trust (Triandis, 2000; Veenhoven, 2007) - competitiveness (Van de Vliert & Janssen, 2002)
On a nation-level, Inglehart & Klingemann (2000) propose a historical analyses as predictors of SWB. They believe that a historical legacy of communist rule explain the low SWB levels in eastern Europe, whereas the legacy of Protestantism may have something to do with the high SWB levels of the English and the Scandinavian countries. It may also be that these predictors may not have a direct effect on SWB. It may be some of their side-effects which actually influence SWB (Suh & Oishi, 2002).
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commonly known measures depend too much on the economic perspective: they do not capture the richness and variety of the well-being concept. In addition, there is the U-index, where U stands for unpleasantness. The U-index aims to measure the amount joy people experience in their activities. This is an longitudinal approach.
Furthermore, there are several surveys which include SWB measurement items. On example is the World Values Survey (WVS, 2011). In contrast to the factors above, which capture SWB indirectly, the measurements used in the WVS aim to directly measures a person’s SWB. There are questions such as “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life these days?”, which aim to measure Life Satisfaction. In addition, there are happiness questions such as “Taken all things together, would you say you are: very happy / rather happy / not very happy /
not at all happy” and “All in all, how would you describe your state of health these days: very good / good / fair / poor”. Simply asking for a person’s happiness shows to get quite accurate results
(Diener et al., 1985). In addition, single-item questions on e.g. Life Satisfaction have proven to be reliable (Lucas & Donnellan, 2012). For this reason, the same concept is used in this research. The measurements which are used in this research are elaborated in detail in the methodology, section 4.2.
2.1.3. Limitations
Eckersley (2009) has assessed if and how the SWB measurement can indicate a populations well-being and a societal functioning. He concludes that there are some issues with using SWB to compare nations in ‘happiness’.
One of the issues is that people may perceive measures of SWB differently, which causes differences in SWB between nations. For example, single (indirect) SWB measurements such as ‘tolerance’ and ‘vulnerabilities’ (e.g. floods) are somewhat vague (Minkov, 2009). Also, some cultures may denigrate certain emotions and reward the experience of other emotions, whereas other cultures may downplay the experience of all emotions (Lewis & Saarni, 1985). Positive affect and negative affect are two of the major components of SWB (Andrews & Withey, 1976; Bradburn, 1969). As a result, cultures that prescribe the experience of one emotion and prohibits the experience of another, might substantially change the SWB of societies by influencing the emotions which are actually felt. Cultures which view pleasant emotions as positive might tend to be happier.
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Chirkov, 2006). However, other studies contradict these findings. Triandis (2009) state that individualists are more likely to deceive about their own qualities, while collectivists’ self-deceptions favor their group. Triandis & Suh (2002) and Koltko-Riviera (2004) state that collectivist societies have a higher tolerance for contradictions, cope better with change, think more holistically and are more flexible across social situations. Furthermore, Suh & Oishi (2002) sought to explain high levels of SWB caused by democracy in countries, but Inglehart & Klingemann (2000) are not convinced that democracy fosters high SWB, despite the correlation between the two.
Furthermore, the potential tension between seeking personal happiness and societal functioning is illustrated by the psychosocial dynamics of global threat, such as climate change, as well as more general concerns about the state of the society and the world (Eckersley, 2008). People are responding in different ways to these “apocalyptic suspicions”, influencing the SWB in quite different ways.
In short, certain issues have to be taken into account when researching SWB. Unfortunately, SWB is not a perfect, encompassing factor for measuring people’s happiness and quality of life. However, SWB does capture a broad evaluation of people’s lives, both positive and negative. Therefore, SWB is a useful and promising factor and the scientific interest in SWB is growing (Eckersley, 2009), as is the “science of happiness”.
2.2. Virtual Identity
Virtual interaction can take place in many ways: email, forums, chatting, social-networking, virtual worlds etc. Complex, real-time, human interaction is no longer limited by the participants physical location. Increasingly, virtual setting are becoming the locale of choice for people to socialize (Childress & Braswell, 2006; Cole & Griffiths, 2007; Martey & Stromer-Galley, 2007; Williams et al, 2006). As stated in the introduction, an important and widely discussed topic in the literature is the avatar. Social system designers increasingly use avatars as the new way for identity construction in online environments (Valasou et al., 2008). Some examples of avatars are displayed in figure 2.
Blascovich et al (2002) defines the avatar as a representation of oneself within the
computer-mediated environments that is typically graphical in nature. Galanxhi & Nah (2007) add to this
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Figure 2: examples of avatars
In this section, one’s identity in the virtual world will be introduced. Three perspectives will be used in order to assess different uses of the self-representation in virtual worlds: a personal perspective, a technical perspective and a business perspective. The purpose is to show the use and possibilities of virtual worlds and –identities. As stated in the introduction, the virtual self is defined as “the representation of an identity in a virtual environment, consisting of a property of
objects allowing these objects to be distinguished from each other” (Kokswijk, 2007).
2.2.1. Personal perspective
As stated in the introduction, the virtual-self is can be any possible self (e.g. it may reflect a person’s ideals). Creating such alternative virtual-self changes the totality of a person’s thoughts and feelings in reference to oneself as an object. This is known as the self-concept (Rosenberg, 1986). The self-concept is an important topic in the psychological field. Markus & Nurius (1986) summarize the existing self-concept research in as follows. The traditional view describes the self-concept as fairly uniform and consistent over time. It is assumed that the self-concept is compromised from some number of psychological structures that deduce the essential traits from the individual’s past behavior. However, other concept researchers state that the self-concept is not static. In contrast, the self-self-concept is believed to be highly malleable. It seems that one’s self-conceptions can change quite dramatically, depending on the nature of the social situation (Choi et al., 2010). The self-concept reflects the potential for growth and change, and all the values that are attached to these possible future states.
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referred to as self-discrepancy. The self-discrepancy theory states that people are motivated to reduce this gap. This is further elaborated in section 2.2.4.
2.2.2. Business perspective
Avatars are more than just a simple graphical image of oneself. Some people purchase digital items for their avatar, in order to satisfy their alter-ego (Kim & Que, 2007). Sorom (2010) reports that the virtual goods industry, which was virtually nonexistent a few years ago, is now expected to reach 7.3 billion dollars. Therefore, companies regard human-controlled avatars as consumers in cyberspace (Hemp, 2006).
Secondly, the virtual worlds, such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, provide new opportunities for organizations to facilitate group interaction (Bainbridge, 2007; Mennecke et al, 2008). Through these group interaction platforms, organizations are able to engage in direct and intensive contact with different types of customers. Companies such as Sun and IBM and educational institutions such as Harvard and Princeton are already exploring the use of virtual worlds for learning purposes and group collaborations. In order for the new technology to be useful, individuals have to be satisfied with it so that they continue to use it. Otherwise, they may be reluctant to use it. This is an important aspect for organizations (Sutanto et al, 2009). For example, if an organization decides to employ a virtual-world technology, e.g. a $100 piece of ‘dedicated land’ in Second Life with a monthly maintenance fee of $295, the organization must also build 3D content.
A great advantage of virtual worlds for companies is that these playful environments have been described as engines of creation that provide the freedom to experiment and lead to unprecedented rates of innovation (Ondrejka, 2007). Users are provided with built-in tools with which they are able to interactively create almost anything imaginable. In addition, they are able to share their creations with others. As the boundaries of the virtual world and the real world dissolve, avatars might very well use their creativity to design products with real world potential (Hemp, 2006). In the literature this is known as Avatar-Based Innovation (ABI) (e.g. Kohler, Matzler & Füller, 2009). ABI may very well be useful in the process of open innovation, since customers are recognized as a valuable source for innovation (von Hippel, 2005). In addition, ABI allows all sorts of customers with an active role in the innovation process. Not only lead
users are able to deliver input for new product development, other users are also able to deliver
various contributions (Ogawa & Pillar, 2006). Lead users are users of a product or service that currently experience needs still unknown to the larger public (Von Hippel, 1986).
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more accessible and better expressed in Internet settings and virtual worlds then in face-to-face settings (Bargh et al, 2002). An important disadvantage is that avatars cannot be held accountable for their actions since the avatar is a pseudonym. Companies may be harmed by avatars that pretend to be someone else and provide untrustworthy input.
Another opportunity for organizations is called reverse product placement. Traditionally, brands were placed in fictional worlds in order to gain publicity. Reverse product placement refers to creating a fictional brand in a fictional world (e.g. Second Life), and then release it into the real world (Wasserman, 2007). An example is the American Apparel clothing chain. They launched a line of jeans in Second Life a few months before launching it into the real world, which generated substantial interest before the launch. Similarly, opportunities for users exists through their avatars. Hemp (2006) described examples of multiple Second Life designers who have been approached by fashion houses in the real world. Creativity in the virtual world is not limited to the digital world, it crosses the line to the physical world.
2.2.3. Technical perspective
The possibility to create different selves in the virtual environment can take place on different (social) technological systems or platforms. A number of technologies are shortly discussed in this section and examples are given. The technological platforms are social networking sites,
video sharing sites, online gaming, discussion boards, blogs and instant messaging.
Social networking sites (SNSs) are “virtual communities which allow people to connect and
interact with each other on a particular subject or to just ‘hang out’ online” (Murray & Waller, 2007). Examples of social networking sites are Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Generally, such sites consists of visible profiles that display an particular list of friends, who are also users of the system (Boyd & Ellison, 2008). Profiles are unique pages where one can “type oneself into being” (Sundén, 2003). Video sharing sites are sites which combine social networking features with media production and distribution (Chau, 2010). Such new media platforms offer a participatory culture in which to develop, interact and learn. Examples include YouTube and Vimeo.
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environments (MUVE) has been identified as a subset of MMOGs (Mennecke et al., 2008). They generally offer the same features as MMOGs, however with less violence and more economic activities. Thus, MUVEs function as realistic economic zones, they are designed around the ownership of (virtual) property and intellectual property. Examples of MUVEs are Second Life and Habbo.
Furthermore, discussion boards and blogs are platforms which enable social activities in which individuals may publicly discuss their concerns, insights and experiences (Stefanone & Jang, 2008; Miller & Pole, 2010). Finally, instant messaging (IM) refers to and internet-based application that provides real-time communication between people (Wang, Hsieh & Song, 2012). IM is a text-based communication, often with (optional) additional features such as voice and video.
2.2.4. Self-discrepancy theory
The self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) states that there are three basic domains of oneself. The first one is called the actual-self, which is the representation of the attributes someone believes they possess. The second one is the ideal-self, which is the representation of attributes that someone would like to, ideally, possess (i.e. a representation of someone’s hopes, aspirations or wishes). The third one is the ought-self, which is the representation of attributes that someone think they should or ought to possess (i.e. a representation of someone’s sense of duty, obligations or responsibilities).
Furthermore, for each domain, the theory suggests two representations by considering whose perspective on the self is involved. The two basic standpoints are your own standpoint and the
standpoint of a significant other (e.g. a mother, sibling, spouse or close friend). A standpoint is
defined as a point of view from which you can be judged that reflects a set of attributes or values. With this distinction between self and other, different emotional/motivational conditions can be related to different self-state conditions, as shown in table 1.
Self-state representation Known as…
Actual/own Self-concept (Wylie, 1979)
Actual/other Self-concept
Ideal/own Self-guides (Higgins, Strauman & Klein, 1986)
Ideal/other Self-guides
Ought/own Self-guides
Ought/other Self-guides
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The self-discrepancy theory postulates that people are motivated to reach a condition where the self-concept matches the relevant self-guides (Higgins, 1987). If there is a discrepancy, or gap, emotional discomfort emerges. Each type of discrepancy reflects a negative psychological situation that is associated with specific emotional/motivational problems. The theory elaborates on four self-concept/self-guides discrepancies. They are actual/own versus ideal/own, actual/own versus ideal/other, actual/own versus ought/own and actual/own versus ought/other.
Actual/own versus ideal/own
In this case of discrepancy, the actual attributes a person believes they possess does not match the ideal attributes they hope to develop (Higgins, 1987). This discrepancy is characterized by the threat of absence of positive outcomes and it is related to low self-esteem. The negative emotions which are associated with this discrepancy are e.g. dissatisfaction and disappointment. A person is likely to be vulnerable to these negative emotions because these emotions are related with people believing that their personal ideals and wishes have been unfulfilled. Furthermore, the motivational nature of this discrepancy predicts that emotions such as frustration, not feeling effective and blameworthy are connected with the discrepancy due to the unfulfilled desires. In addition, the discrepancy is associated with depression.
Actual/own versus ideal/other
This discrepancy contains a person’s view of their actual attributes not matching the ideal attributes of their significant other whishes or hopes for them (Higgins, 1987). If an individual believes that they have failed to obtain some significant other’s hopes or wishes, they are likely to believe that the significant other is dissatisfied or disappointed in them. The negative emotions which stem from this situation are shame, embarrassment or feeling downcast. These emotions are also associated with discrepancies from achievement or status standards. This is because the person believes that they have lost esteem or standing in the eyes of the other. Other negative emotions associated with this discrepancy are loneliness, feeling lack of pride, feeling blue and lack of feeling sure of oneself. In addition, this discrepancy may lead to perceived or anticipated loss of social affection or esteem.
Actual/own versus ought/own
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nature of this discrepancy suggests that it may be associated with feelings of moral worthlessness or weakness.
Actual/own versus ought/other
If a person possesses this discrepancy, their believe of actual attributes do not match with the attributes what they think significant others think they should possess (Higgins, 1987). This discrepancy is associated with negative outcomes, it creates an expectation of punishment. The theory suggests a person is vulnerable to fear and feeling threatened, these emotions occur when danger or harm is anticipated. The motivational nature of this discrepancy suggests that it may be associated with feelings of resentment.
This paper mainly focuses on the actual/own versus ideal/own discrepancy, since a possible virtual-self allows for the creation of one’s own ideal-self. This may also be true for the
actual/own versus ought/own discrepancy: people may create a virtual identity in which they
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3. Literature review
In this section, literature is reviewed and hypotheses are presented. The literature review builds on chapter two. The first section is about social factors which influence subjective well-being, the second section about the link between subjective well-being and self-discrepancy. The final section focuses on self-discrepancy in the virtual world.
3.1. Social factors and subjective well-being
After chapter 2, it may be clear that identifying factors which influence SWB is difficult and sometimes ambiguous. In addition, the variety of factors is very extensive. For this reason, in this research paper the affecting factors are selective. Solely factors which can be characterized as
repression factors are used. Repression is the condition of being repressed, which means that
individuals cannot freely act: they are controlled, suppressed or restrained within a society. These factors are selected, because it is assumed to be more likely that these factors influence the discrepancy between the actual- and the virtual-self, since repression restricts people from expressing their selves freely. They may seek to express through virtual-selves, since it is assumed one is anonymous and not traceable. In addition, Suler (2004) states that online anonymous environments provides an outlet for expressing one’s ‘hidden selves’.
Minkov (2009) gives an overview of factors which influence the SWB of a nation. This is done in order to assess predictors of differences between nations. The relevant repression-based factors are as follows. They are explained in more detail in the methodology section.
- Social equality (Diener, Diener & Diener, 1995; Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991; Triandis, 2000; Veenhoven, 2007)
- Gender equality (Veenhoven, 2007) - Tolerance (Veenhoven, 2007)
- Personal freedom (Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991; Triandis, 2000; Veenhoven, 2007) - Political freedom (Suh & Oishi, 2002; Veenhoven, 2007)
Minkov (2009) adds a factor which he terms ‘indulgence-restraint’ to the overview. For this factor, he found significant correlation with SWB. However, he found no significant support for social equality, gender equality and tolerance as being important predictors of subjective well-being, whereas Diener, Diener & Diener (1995), Ouweneel & Veenhoven (1991), Triandis (2000) and Veenhoven (2007) did indicate that the factors do significantly predict SWB. For this reason, the following factors will be considered as having a positive association with subjective well-being: social equality, gender equality, tolerance, personal freedom, political freedom and
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In addition to these factors, two other salient factors which influence nations SWB are derived from literature. They are extraversion-neuroticism (Steel & Ones, 2002; Lynn & Steel, 2006) and extraversion-introversion (DeNeve & Cooper, 1998; Vitterso, 2001). These factors will be related with subjective well-being in order to verify earlier findings: extraversion and neuroticism (H7-H8).
3.2. Subjective well-being and self-discrepancy
As elaborated above, the self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987) proposed that people have multiple kinds of self-representations. These are the actual-self (who they currently believe to be), the ideal-self (who they would ideally like to be) and the ought-self (who they think they should be). If there is a gap (discrepancy) between these selves, the theory predicts a result of emotions such as sadness, anxiety and depression. These negative emotions remain unless the discrepancies are resolved. Thus, if discrepancies are resolved and the negative emotions resolve, it is likely that an individual’s subjective well-being increases, since a part of well-being consists of pleasant and unpleasant emotions (Bruni & Porta, 2007) or positive and negative emotions (Helliwell & Barrington-Leigh, 2010).
As expected, a negative relationship was found between self-discrepancies and well-being (Lynch, La Guardia & Ryan, 2009). Additionally, this study highlight that an autonomy supportive environment reduces discrepancies through creating a free, uncontrolled context where one can pursue their ideal-self. Campbell, Sedikides & Bosson (1994) found similar results. They stated that individuals who are romantically involved reported a higher psychological well-being. Their research showed that romantically involved individuals reported to being closer to their ideal-selves than romantically uninvolved individuals. Thus, a smaller discrepancy between the actual- and ideal-self resulted in a higher psychological well-being. Research of Choi et al. (2010) is in line with the findings of Lynch, La Guardia & Ryan (2009). Choi et al. found that a person has a lower subjective well-being if their discrepancy between the actual- and virtual-self is high. In other words, there is a negative association among the discrepancy between the actual-self and virtual-self and subjective well-being. Therefore, it is proposed that subjective well-being will be negatively related with both inner- and
outer-discrepancy (H9-H10).
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another personality. For example, a person may display more emotions online than in real-life (i.e. an inner-discrepancy).
3.3. Self-discrepancy and ‘online’ well-being
The self-discrepancy theory states that discrepancies between actual- and ideal-/ought-selves have negative emotional consequences. In the virtual world, people can create such an ideal-/ought-self. From some examples in the introduction, it seems that such discrepancies do not necessarily have negative emotional consequences. This is not in line with Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory (1987). However, there are also indications in literature that appear to confirm the notion that people intentionally create different virtual selves which can cause positive emotional feelings.
In the gaming area, Bessière, Fleming Seay & Kiesler (2007) examined the identity exploration possibilities in World of Warcraft. In this game, people are represented in the virtual area through characters or avatars. The authors found that people created their main characters which were more similar to their ideals than to their actual-selves. The difference between their main character and actual selves was significantly higher for people with low self-esteem or depression. The study suggested that the game world allows people the freedom to create successful virtual selves the regardless of their actual situation. Another study revealed a similar result. Dunn & Guadagno (2011) found that people, both men and women, created self-representations for themselves which closely displayed ideal male and female bodies. Men with a high openness to new experience were more likely to create self-representations with a different skin tone and introverts were more likely to create more attractive self-representations. Furthermore, in online gaming avatars were often made to look more intellectual (Vasalou & Joinson, 2009).
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2009). This means that people who craft their avatar in detail are more likely to gain trust from others.
In another study, Hongladarom (2011) showed that people are creating their own alternate persona online. Social media is sometimes used to present completely new personae to the public, personae of which the actual person behind it is not known. It occurs often in Thailand, where freedom of speech is very limited. This phenomena contradicts studies such as Zhao et al. (2008), which suggests that construction of online identities in social media sites tend to reflect the true identity of the user. In addition, people may alter their actual-self in online presentation. An example in online dating shows that males tend to report being slightly taller and women tend to report being slightly slimmer than in actual fact (Hancock, Toma & Ellison, 2007). This is in line with a study of Bargh, McKenna & Fitzsimons (2002). These authors confirmed that people are better able to express their ideal-self qualities to their partners over the internet than in a face-to-face setting. The cause for this is that the ideal-self is more accessible in memory during internet interaction, and the actual-self is more accessible during face-to-face interactions.
In the IS-field, however, there is not much literature about the link between the virtual-self or self-discrepancies and its consequences (e.g. well-being). A number of articles are about the design and validation of virtual worlds (e.g. Chaturvedi, Dolk & Drnevich, 2011) or how virtual worlds change economic and governmental models (Wasko et al., 2011). For example, Schultze & Orlikowski researched the link between the emergent aspects of virtual worlds and organizational performance.
Other IS-literature focuses on psychological bonding with virtual communities. Bateman, Gray & Butler (2011) show that members of a virtual community have a psychological bonds with that community based on affect (which predicts reply posting), need (which predicts thread reading) and obligation (which only has a moderating effect). Furthermore, interactions between usability, psychological ownership and intention to use has been studied (Lee & Chen, 2012). These authors induce that creating a virtual world with high usability and psychological ownership is important in order to attract more users who spend more time, participate in more activities and revisit the virtual world more often.
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may experience more positive attitudes towards their virtual identity. This may cause higher levels of well-being with their virtual identity than with their actual life.
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4. Methodology
In this section, there is described how this research was conducted. First, there is the literature review section in which literature search is described. Second, there is the survey development section, in which the formation of relevant measurements is explained, factors with hypotheses are elaborated and the research model is presented. Finally, there is the data collection and analyses section. In this section, demographic information is provided and reliability of the questionnaire is discussed.
4.1. Literature review
During the creation of the theoretical background and literature review, several databases were used, including Business Source Premier, Academic Source Premier, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and
SocINDEX. In these databases, articles were searched both through a top-down and bottom-up
approach. The top-down approach was done by searching for a variety of terms. The bottom-up approach was done by using references from articles found in the top-down approach. The literature search can roughly be divided into two sections. The first one concerns the social factors and SWB. The second one is about SWB and the virtual-self.
Social factors and subjective well-being
The following search terms (and combinations) were used for the first literature section: social,
factors, attributes, characteristics, society, nation, cross-national, cross-cultural, macro, comparison, subjective, well-being, indicators, variables, measurements. With these search
combinations, 249 articles were found of which 19 articles were useful for this paper.
Subsequently there was searched for terms which were found in the used articles, such as (combinations of): personal, political, freedom, social, gender, equality, tolerance, indulgence,
restraint, extraversion, introversion, neuroticism, survey, subjective, well-being, happiness, life satisfaction, society, nation, culture. The search led to 468 potential articles, 27 were selected.
The selection of articles is based on the title and abstract. Further usability of the article is based on the introduction, conclusion and in-text headings. An overview of the literature is included in the appendix. In this overview, the literature for each factor is listed and there is indicated whether the existing literature holds a consistent view on that factor.
Subjective well-being and the virtual-self
In this section, the following search terms (and combinations) were used: actual, virtual, self,
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New insights led to the following (combinations of) search terms: virtual, reality, environment,
personality, difference, web 2.0, Facebook, social media, self-presentation. This search combination
resulted in 117 potential articles, 18 were useful.
Top-rated journals were the preferred option in selecting articles. By using the bottom-up approach, a more thorough literature search is achieved, since the found references usually also contained new usable references (they are included in the literature search described above). Again, the potential usability of each article is based on its title and abstract. Further usability of an article is based on the introduction, conclusion and headings.
4.2. Survey development
Factor Based On Description Measurements Political freedom Ouweneel & Veenhoven,
1991; Triandis, 2000; Veenhoven, 2007
The extent of restriction in the participation in the political system.
Political, based on the world happiness report, 2012: - Freedom of speech/opinion?
- Right to vote?
- Right to join a political party of choice? - Right to form or join an association?
- Equal access and the opportunity to join public service? - The right for equal pay for work of equal value?
- Freedom from discrimination based on race,sex etc? Political, based on Veenhoven, 2000:
- Respect of political and civil rights Personal, based on Veenhoven 2000,2007:
- Freedom of marriage choice - Freedom of sexual orientation - Freedom in sexuality and procreation - Freedom in practice of religion
- Freedom in traveling in the country and abroad - Freedom in ending your life
Personal, based on world happiness report, 2012:
- Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what to do with your life?
Personal freedom Suh & Oishi, 2002;
Veenhoven, 2007 The extent of restriction in the private sphere of life.
Social equality Diener, Diener & Diener, 1995; Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991; Triandis, 2000; Veenhoven, 2007
The extent of equal and fair treatment of all individuals in society
Objective, based on Diener, Diener & Diener, 1995: - equality of length of life
- equality of income
- equal access of sexes to education Social, based on Veenhoven, 2000,2007:
- Freedom of marriage choice - Freedom of sexual orientation - Freedom in sexuality and procreation - Freedom in practice of religion
- Freedom in traveling in the country and abroad - Freedom in ending your life
Gender, based on the World Value Survey, 2010:
- When jobs are scarce, men should have more right to a job than women.
- When jobs are scarce, employers should give priority to Gender equality Veenhoven, 2007 The extent of equal and fair
treatment of women in society Tolerance Veenhoven, 2007 Recognizing and respecting the
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people of this country over immigrants.
- If a woman earns more money than her husband, it's almost certain to cause problems
- Having a job is the best way for a woman to be an independent person
- On the whole, men make better political leaders than women do.
- A university education is more important for a boy than for a girl.
- On the whole, men make better business executives than women do
- Being a housewife is just as fulfilling as working for pay Tolerance, based on the World Values Survey, 2010:
- Could you mention any of these people below that you would not like to have as a neighbor?
Drug addict/People of a different race/People who have AIDS/immigrants or foreign workers/
homosexuals/people of a different religion/heavy drinkers/unmarried couples living together/people who speak a different language.
Indulgence-Restraint Minkov, 2009 The degree to which it is culturally acceptable to indulge in leisurely and fun-oriented activities and spend one’s money at one’s own discretion.
Questions are based on the following characteristics:
Extraversion-Neuroticism
Steel & Ones, 2002; Lynn
& Steel, 2006 The extent to which an individual perceives to experience positive or negative emotions.
Extraversion, based on the Big Five, Costa & McCrae, 1992: - I am the life of the party
- I don’t mind being in the center of attention - I feel comfortable around people
33 Introversion Diener, 2000; Vitterso,
2001 seeks out stimulation and the company of others. - - I start conversations I talk to a lot of different people at parties - I don’t talk a lot (reversed)
- I keep in the background (reversed) - I have little to say (reversed)
- I don’t like to draw attention to myself (reversed) - I am quiet around strangers (reversed)
Neuroticism, based on the Big Five, Costa & McCrae, 1992: - I am easily disturbed
- I change my mood a lot - I get irritated easily - I get stressed out easily - I get upset easily
- I have frequent mood swings - I often feel blue
- I worry about things
- I am relaxed most of the times (reversed) - I seldom feel blue (reversed)
Freedom
To what extent does a society allow the autonomy of individuals? Freedom, both personal and political, have significant correlations with subjective well-being. Personal freedom is the freedom to decide what to do in the private sphere of life. It allows people to choose life-styles that better fit their personal needs and capacities (Veenhoven, 2007). In societies with high personal freedom, people have a better chance to choose and invest their time in personally rewarding life projects, evaluate their happiness using more self-flattering standards and try harder to view their lives in a positive angle (Suh & Oishi, 2002). Therefore, personal freedom may be very important in the subjective well-being of nations. In addition to these findings, Minkov (2009) states personal freedom leads to life satisfaction and happiness. Both of these terms are an important part of subjective well-being. Therefore,
H1: personal freedom is positively associated with subjective well-being.
Political freedom is likely to protection against injustice and assault (Veenhoven, 2007). Furthermore, happiness tends to be higher when a society respects citizens political rights (Ouweneel & Veenhoven, 1991). Ouweneel & Veenhoven state that political freedom is one of the factors which explains the bulk of the variance in happiness between nations. For these reasons,
H2: political freedom is positively associated with subjective well-being. Equality
The factor equality is about equal and fair treatment of all individuals in a society. The measurement items are based on three areas of equality which are found in literature. The first one is a comprehensive factor called social equality. Diener, Diener & Diener (1995) indicate that people in countries with high social equality report higher SWB that people in countries with low social equality. They discuss that people in nations with equality are more likely to achieve their goals. This is in line with earlier findings of Ouweneel & Veenhoven (1991), who state that happiness is higher in relatively equal societies. Also, in nations with social inequalities, issues of equity and social justice are likely to arise. Veenhoven (2007) adds that social inequality can affect happiness negatively due to the frustrations and limitations it invokes. The hypothesis:
H3: social equality is positively associated with subjective well-being.
