Impact of Culture on Life Satisfaction of Students

Imp lick of assimilation on behavior- sequence triumph of StudentsABSTRACTDefining culture by reference to deeply situated societal determine and beliefs, this analyze makes triad contributions to the growing field of bliss explore first, it tries to uncover the relationship betwixt internationalistic students smell out happiness and ethnical vitality pleasure crossways unalike cultures Second, it explores whether and to what extent a range of cultural values dish as burning(prenominal) moderators of international students deportment joy Fin all(prenominal)y, it explains the spirit enjoyment differences amidst international students crossways pentadsome nations (India, Africa, China, United Kingdom and Turkey). A total of 100 international students from the University of Northampton participated in this information. Analysis of the present guide is found on data from 2 surveys. The first is the Dieners Satisfaction with heart Survey (SWL) to peak international students overall expiation with animation across nations. The second is the cultural mirth survey which includes the six determinants of cultural factors enjoyment in general, business, loving relationships, wellness work, authority serve and public caoutchouc. exploitation both Pearson and Partial correlation coefficient, statistical analysis correctioned that except for the full general Satisfaction discussion section p value is much than 0.05 (p0.05) for separately of the subsections. In addition, surmisal one specifyed that thither is not whatsoever correlation among behavior Satisfaction and Cultural Satisfaction amongst International Students. thitherfore, null hypothesis is accepted. One-Way amongst subjects ANOVAs enables us to partly accept hypothesis 2, which states thither give be a difference in CS amid International Students from distinguishable countries. Statistical results of one-way ANOVAs besides accepted guessing 3, wh ich states there will be a difference in LS between International Students from unlike nationalities as well. fit to these results, Hypothesis 2 is partially accepted beca ingestion four break of the six subsections of the CS (General and antic Satisfaction) showed these differences. These results show the importance of the cultural determinants of the affable relationship, wellness, authority and public safety satisfaction play a particularly prominent situation on individuals liveliness Satisfaction. Finally, base on the Dieners SWL (Diener et al, 1984) and cultural bearing satisfaction survey, the empirical results show that several(prenominal) cultural values atomic itemize 18 indeed rattling evidential influences on individuals assessment of their emotional state satisfaction.INTRODUCTIONPsychological query during the and then(prenominal) two decades has revealed cultural differences across a wide range of domains. These studies cerebrate on several factors such as what atomic number 18 masss desires, wants, and needs, and which liveness domains be decisive in an overall paygrade of living conditions? Does the calibre of a society in which a person lives play a crucial role? As a result most psychologists ar straightaway keenly cognizant that the way people in assorted cultures think, tactile sensation, and act are, in varying degrees, different.International students capture in recent overage age come to constitute a large proportion of the world-wide student frame in steeper(prenominal) learning institutions. in that respect are hardly any countries that are un impact by the presence of international students in its institutions of senior highschooler learning, or the pressure to send some of its own students to study afield (Paige, 1990). Current estimates suggest that up to 1 million students annually study in countries other than their own (Open Doors, 1996/97). One rationale behind the change magnitude numbe r of international students is the assumption that students sack up serve both as cultural ambassadors and resources (Klineberg, 1970 Mestenhauser, 1983 Paige, 1990), and as get togethers between cultures (Eide, 1970). It has besides been buy upd that these cultural links could process reduce inter-group tension, prejudice, hostility and discriminatory behaviour, and to help profit international understanding and co-operation (Amir, 1969 Baron and Bachman, 1987 Fulbright, 1976). These assumptions, however, get to not always been back up. On the contrary mental health problems such as depression, psychosomatic complaints, dread and paranoid reactions (Jou and Fukada, 1997a and b Sam and Eide, 1991 Ward, 1967 Ying and Liese, 1991) get hold of been suggested to characterise international students. These are in addition to socio-cultural problems (e.g., language difficulties, difficulties in negotiating day-to-day social activities and, racial and ethnic discrimination) (Fur nham and Bochner, 1982 Kagan and Cohen, 1990 Ward and Kennedy, 1993) and academic problems such as failure (Aich, 1963 barker et al., 1991) take over been documented as characterising international students overseas sojourn.Life Satisfacion (LS) has been define as a global evaluation by the person of his or her aliveness (Pavot et al., 1991, p. 150), and has been identified as a key aspect of quality of vivification and Subjective Well Being (SWB) (Mannel and Dupuis 1996). SWB is a way of defining a erect life, and is often referred to as happiness. People who discover riotous SWB have many pleasures and few pains, and they feel slaked with their lives (Diener, 2000). Satisfaction as well as refers to the cognitive/judgemental aspects of SWB (Neto, 1995). Diener and his colleagues (1999) argued that, SWB and happiness, has both an affective (i.e., emotional) and a cognitive (i.e., judgmental) component. The affective component consists of how frequently an individual repo rts experiencing prescribed and negative effects. In addition to this, antecedent research (Diener et al., 1999) has found college students consider happiness and LS to be extremely distinguished, and there is evidence that increase LS impacts upon academic surgical operation in college students (Rode et al., 2005). Research has shown that increased LS and happiness may be related to goal progression (Emmons, 1986), reason prohibited social relationships (Myers, 2000), and being involved in f let loose activities (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Moreover, Veenhoven (1991) uses the definition of LS as the degree to which an individual judges the overall quality of his life as a whole favourably. (1991 10). This idea punctuates satisfaction with ones life, implies contentment with or acceptance of ones life circumstances, or the fulfilment of ones wants and needs for ones life as a whole.Furthermore, the need satisfaction model (Maslow, 1970 McClelland, 1961) and the spill over (Diener , 1984Wilensky, 1960) theories provide multi purpose frameworks to conceptualise the processes that underlie happiness in a life domain. The canonical premise of the need satisfaction model is that people have canonical needs they captivatek to fulfil in each life domain. Individuals realise satisfaction in a particular life domain when events and experience related to that domain fulfil their needs. Therefore, this model seems to suggest that people who are triumphful in satisfying their needs are potential to have a go at it greater SWB than those who are less successful. For example, a person reports high satisfaction of her health life domain based on positive experiences concerning health-related activities such as a healthy diet, regular exercise and attention to medical needs. Moreover, the spill over theories of quality of life are viewed as having two broad types bottom-up and top-down theories. Firstly, bottom-up theories assume that LS is a drumhead evaluation of aspects of ones life. For example, one is satisfied with life because one has good social relationships, enough money, weight under control, and an interesting duty (Choi et al., 2007 George and Landerman, 1984 Larsen, 1978). Secondly, top-down theories assume that LS is due to personality influences. For example, a neurotic individual is more disgruntled in general with his or her job, social relationships, weight, and income in particular ( Shepard, 1974 Kremer and Harpaz, 1982).Although there may be some agreement about the pregnant qualities of the good life, with considerations like health and successful relationships, each individual assigns different values to these factors (Diener et al., 1985). Each person has his or her own values, criteria, and basis for evaluation. Furthermore, considerable research effort has been devoted to the study of adults perception of the quality of their lives, including LS judgements. LS research is obligateed by the variety of treasures a ppropriate for adults, such as the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985 Pavot and Diener, 1993), theatrical role of Life Inventory (Frisch et al., 1992), Life Satisfaction force (Neugarten et al., 1961), and the Salamon-Conte LS in the Elderly Scale (Salamon and Conte, 1984).Several studies have been carried out regarding LS and the results of these studies emphasise that LS is related to different factors. A great potful of mental research has explored the sources of peoples LS. Due to variation in the characteristics of the included samples such as age, grammatical gender or culture questions which are commonly found in questionnaires as well as included indicators, different factors have been found to be associated with LS. Campbell (1981) directs that there are at least 12 domains involved in contributing to LS. These are health, finances, family relations, paid employment, friendships, housing, living partner, recreational activity, religion, self-esteem, tr ansportation, and education (Campbell, 1981). particularized cultural and social factors as well have been found to play an important role in determining LS and happiness (Triandis, 2000). LS is used worldwide in research including adults, young people, students, older people and so forth (Baiyewu and Jegede 1992 Hilleras et al. 2001b,Neugarten et al. 1961 Vitterso et al. 2002 Wood et al. 1969) and is divinatory to be a useful outcome variable in different countries.Cultural context is an important element that influences an individuals cognitive evaluation of ones life. floriculture affects people in a variety of basic psychological domains, including self-concept, ascription and reasoning, interpersonal communication, negotiation, intergroup relations, and psychological well-being (Brewer Chen, 2007 Fiske et al., 1998 Markus Kitayama, 1991 Oyserman et al., 2002). Sociologists and social psychologists are interested in socio-demographic patterns that emerge when people evalua te their overall living conditions (Veenhoven 1984 Argyle 1999 Headey and eating away 1992 Hagerty et al. 2000 Glatzer and Zapf 1984). However, socio-demographic factors account for less than 20% of the variance of SWB, a finding affirm in several studies (Campbell et al. 1976 Andrews and Withey 1976 Diener and Suh 1997). Many efforts have been made to analyse determinants of LS and researchers from several disciplines illuminate this subject from different perspectives. The study revealed that the standard of living, access to employment, job satisfaction, marriage, social relationships, social networks, and health were the most decisive factors when explaining variations in LS at heart countries. preceding(prenominal) research also indicate that these factors have a positive impact on individuals LS (Diener et al. 1999) with results also showing that individuals with high LS have such benefits including physical health, mental health, good interpersonal relationships, and educa tional and vocational success (Frisch, 2000 Park, 2003, 2004 Veenhoven, 1989).More recently, economists have shown an interest in explaining LS outcomes with respect to report SWB as a proxy for individual utility. They primarily focus on cross country comparisons, the question of marginal utility of income, and the relationship between absolute and congress levels of income on SWB (Frey and Stutzer 2002a, b Oswald 1997 Layard 2005). Moreover, LS differs a great deal between individuals and between European countries. The introductory study within the enlarged European compass north shows average LS in 2003, postingd on a scale from 1 (in truth displease) to 10 (very satisfied), ranged from 8.38 in Denmark to 4.41 in Bulgaria. In every country high income goes hand in hand with higher LS scores. However, poor people in Denmark are nevertheless more satisfied than rich people in Bulgaria. The large differences in the overall level of LS between old and modernistic member states have so far been explained with reference to the level of sparing prosperity in each country (Fahey and Smyth 2004). Moreover, several studies have pointed out that poorer countries tend to possess lower LS than richer ones. To support this idea, Leelakulthanit and Day (1993) compared the LS scores of Americans and Thais. The results showed that Americans were more satisfied with their lives than Thais. Similarly, Diener et al., (1995) investigated LS among American, Korean, and Chinese college students. The results of the study illustrated that American college students scored more highly on LS, positive feelings and influential factors (e.g., income and wealthiness of the countries) than both Chinese and Korean college students. The results of these studies show that the countries with high qualities (such as income, wealth, education) have higher LS scores than the countries who have low quality of standards . Conversely, Heady et al. (2004) instead analysed household panel d ata for louvre countries and found the happiness pulse to be considerably more affected by economic factors than found in most of the earlier literature. The economic factors in the study include wealth and consumption expenditures and among the findings are that wealth has a stronger impact on happiness than income and that non-durable consumption expenditures are as important for happiness as income. Recent cross-country studies have accordingly returned to this issue, questioning the insignificance of economic factors, which led to a heated debate in Social Science Indicators between Richard Easterlin, who defended the standard conclusion that average income does not matter, and Michael Hagerty and Ruud Veenhoven, who opposed this and argued that positive happiness trends in most nations were caused by income offset (Hagerty and Veenhoven 2003 Easterlin 2005 Veenhoven and Hagerty 2006).Moreover, a number of previous studies exposed evidence about health playing a critical ro le in overall LS. In fact, health has long been viewed as one of the major factors to LS as previous studies have found that health plays a crucial role on individuals LS (Linn et al., 1988 Michalos, Zumbo, Hubley, 2000 Okun et al., 1984 Parkerson, Broadhead, Tse, 1990). Additionally, a number of previous studies have examined the relationship between LS and health factors such as obesity, alcohol use, suicidal thoughts, physical activity, stress, and academic performance in different populations. For example, the study of the Moum (1996) found that people who score high on LS measures are less likely to attempt suicide. Lewinsohn et al., (1991) also pointed out that people who score high on LS are less likely to become depressed in the future . Several researches have also examined that LS is related to healthy behaviours in a number of different populations (Kelly, 2004 Rudolf Watts, 2002 Valois, Zullig, Huebner, Drane, 2004b). To support this idea, Statistics Canada Web Site (2009), found that Canadians LS was related to their health. The statistics showed that people who were satisfied with their lives account that their health was excellent (62.5%) and only 8.4% of people who were satisfied with life reported poor health. Conversely, of those people who were not satisfied with their lives, 54.2% reported that their health was poor. As a result, this study found that weak levels of health are immediately related to low levels of satisfaction with life, low levels of morality, and low levels of satisfaction. This study also stresses that public health provisions have an important role on the emoluments of individuals quality of life. For example, Life expectancy in France or Germany has risen sharply. However, this improvement is not due to high-technology. These countries attach importance to improve the quality of health in urban sanitation. The main aim here is sexual relationly cheap treatment (for example antibiotics for childrens ear infection s) (Deaton, 2008).From the past to the present, a great deal of psychological research has explored the sources of peoples LS. These sources include ones overall wealth, whether one is single or hook up with, male or female (Gold et al., 2002 Murtagh Hubert, 2004), or young or old (Diener, 1984 Mercier et al., 1998 Prenda Lachman, 2001) A few studies have investigated international undergraduate students Satisfaction with Life (SWL) in the pattern of culture associates. Definition of the SWL emphasises the individuals own Quality of Life (QoL) based on their selected standards (Shin and Johnson, 1978). Each individuals decisions about their own particular criteria of their QoL can help them to judge and establish their own SWL (Diener et al., 1985). This shows that ones SWL is not a universally determined criteria of QoL, because each individual is judging their SWL by their own evaluation of the QoL. This is one of the important reasons to focus on people of diverse ethnic backg round and their different values and perceptions of what may characterise the good life (Diener et al., 1985).Another important reason to study SWL and kitchen-gardening across different nations is based on cultural factors (such as ones quality of life) that play an important role on individuals happiness. Veenhoven (1991) found that living in an economically favored country where freedom and democracy are respected political perceptual constancy being a part of a majority rather than a minority being toward the top of the social ladder being married and having good relationships with family and friends being mentally and physically healthy being alert and open minded feeling in control of ones life having aspirations in social and moral matters rather than money-making and being politically conservative are significantly related with individuals happiness rather than unhappiness.Moreover, other researchers have conventional that individuals from different cultures have differe nt levels of economic and social satisfactions with their Jobs. For example, people who have the same jobs but who live in different countries might have different levels of job satisfaction because of cultural influences (Cranny et al., 1992 Gallie Russell, 1998). This signifies that both economic (money) and social (interest) satisfaction with work, such as individuals quality of their working styles, experiences and achievements, is another very important component of individuals overall SWL (Frijters et al., 2003 Kraft 2000).Furthermore, health is a prejudiced phenomenon manifested as the experience of wellness/illness based on individuals evaluations of how they are feeling and doing. There are variety of factors on an individuals health satisfaction which have been related to their LS such as weight (Ball et al., 2004), alcohol use (Murphy et al., 2005), stress (Schnohr et al., 2005), and physical activity (Valois, Zullig, Huebner, Drane, 2004b) These have been shown to be related to life satisfaction in different populations. The relationship between LS and various aspects of sensed health has been investigated in different nations because in different cultures people have different health institutions and services which can affect both their QoL and SWL. Previous researchers found that there is a positive relationship between prejudiced health and LS (Arrindell et al., 1999 Lohr et al., 1988 Rapkin Fischer, 1992 Willits Crider, 1988).The information above supports that to study both SWL and culture have been useful in illuminating how individuals differ in their SWL from different nations and the role of culture. A Number of studies emphasize that culture affects individuals from several basic psychological domains. For example, attribution and reasoning, intergroup relations, interpersonal communication, self-concept, negotiation, and psychological well-being (Brewer Chen, 2007 Fiske et al., 1998 Lehman et al., 2004 Markus Kitayama, 1991 Oyse rman et al., 2002).From the theory and research presented in this review, it can be seen that cultural factors are the integrative parts of the LS. According to this, this study will focus on the assimilation and LS amongst international students to see whether culture plays an important role on the undergraduate students LS from five different cultures. The specific aims of the study are three-fold. Firstly, it determines whether there is a relationship between international students LS and CS amongst five different countries. Secondly, it specifies whether the international students have differences in CS in general factors (i.e. quality of services/ city/life and so on), social relationships, job satisfaction, health, authority and public safety across five different countries. Thirdly, it explores whether there is an LS difference between International Students from five different countries which are China, India, UK, Turkey and Nigeria. In this study, I will focus on more cro ss-cultural phenomenon of the students satisfaction as well as its link with cross-cultural differences in the bases of LS (Schimmack et al., 2002 Suh et al., 1998) and provide tests of an empirically supported explanation for the differences. When people construct judgments about their overall LS, different cultural members place relative emphasis on different aspects of life.Therefore the hypotheses for this study areThere will be correlation between LS and CS amongst International Students from five different countries .There will be a difference in CS between International Students from five different countriesThere will be a difference in LS between International Students from five different countries.METHOD SECTIONParticipantsA total of 100 students from the University of Northampton (UCN) in Northampton participated in the study. The sample for the current study comprised of 100 students, with twenty participants from each of the five nations India, Africa, China, United King dom and Turkey. Participants were selected from these five countries because many students from these countries came across to study in the University of Northampton. All participants were more than 18 years of age. Both males and females between the ages of 18-25 were selected. Each participant was required to complete both Questionnaire Section A of Life Satisfaction and Section B of the Cultural Satisfaction (see accompaniment 2). All student participation was voluntary.Apparatus/MeasurementsThe measures for the study were either taken directly or with modification from existing scales as described below. With the expulsion of the Satisfaction With Life Scale, all the pointednesss reported here were answered on a 5-point Likert Scale.Life Satisfaction Global life satisfaction was measured by the Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, Griffin, 1985) to measure the life satisfaction of the international undergraduate students. The SWLS is a five-item inventory with a 7-point scale. The five items used to measure satisfaction with life are (a) In most ways my life is close to ideal (b) The conditions of my life are excellent (c) I am satisfied with my life (d) So far I have gotten the important things I want in life and (e) If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing. Participants respond to each item on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 ( potently disagree) to 7 ( strongly agree), yielding a possible total score ranging from 5 to 35 (see vermiform appendix 2).Satisfaction With Culture Participants cultural life satisfaction was measured by questions both from Quality of Life Satisfaction Survey (2003) (QLS) (cited in Delhey, 2004) and the 2006 General User Satisfaction Survey (GUSS) (Torbay Council, 2006). Researcher also prepared some of the questions. The Satisfaction with Culture survey is a 70-item Likert scale designed to measure international students cultural satisfaction within six cultural life domains general, s ocial relationships, job satisfaction, health perception, authority and public safety were considered important influences on individuals life satisfaction. Participants respond to each item on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) (see appendix 2).General The general questions about the cultural life satisfaction, which consists of twenty-three out of the 70 items, was added to the beginning of the Cultural life satisfaction scale in order to measure general life satisfaction about the cultural factors. The researcher also prepared the questions from 1 to 19. However, questions 20 to 23 from the general section were obtained from QLS. Students were expected to respond to each item based on a five-point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Examples of items are It is a good place to live, overall quality of life in the city, water quality, noise etc. However, nine items were measured on an ordinal scale that assessed satisfaction with current state of general services (e.g. health services, public transport, education system etc.). Participants again respond to each item on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (poor) to 5 (very high). high values indicate higher LS.Social Relationships To achieve a high level of joy and happiness in life, people must be socially involved with people. This involves getting along well with others, having friends and companions, and offering help to those who need it. This part evaluates international students social relationships in their home countries by dint of sixteen items. However, five questions about the tensions between different groups were obtained from QLS. Scoring goes from 1 to 5, where 1 corresponds to the answer Very many tensions and 5 to No tension at all. Moreover, eleven questions consisted of general problems about parents, children, teenagers etc. These eleven questions were also prepared by the Researcher. Statements such as parents not fetching function for the behaviour of their children, noisy neighbours or loud parties and people being attacked because of their contend colour, ethnic origin or religion etc. The items were also based on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (a very big problem) to 5 (not a problem at all).Job Satisfaction In this section questions asked students to evaluate their overall Job satisfaction and financial situation. Questions in the Job Satisfaction section were adapted from QLS. A list of seven items was constructed to measure the job satisfaction variable. Items were presented on a 5- point Likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Items included My work is dull and boring , I am well paid, and My job offers good prospects for career advancement etc.Health Perception The health perception variable was measured on a Likert scale that assessed satisfaction with current state of health services in international students countries. This section consisted of eight items. Questi ons 1 to 4 from the health section were obtained from QLS. However, questions from 5 to 8 were obtained from GUSS. Items were presented on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from very satisfied to very dissatisfied where 1 corresponds to the answer very dissatisfied and 5 to very satisfied, and included statements such as waiting time to see doctor on day of appointment, Quality of Hospitals and Deal with patients etc.Authority The authority section consists of seven items. Question 1 and 7 from the authority section were adapted from GUSS . Also, questions 2 to 6 were prepared by the researcher . The items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale, and included statements such as how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with each of the following services provided or supported by your country City Council such as Sports/ empty facilities and events, libraries, museum, galleries, theatre etc. Scoring goes from 1 to 5, where 1 corresponds to the answer strongly disagree and 5 to strongly agree.P ublic condom Public safety questions about the cultural life satisfaction, which consists of nine items. Questions in the Public Safety section were prepared by the researcher. Questions include how safe do you feel walking in your neighbourhood during the day? and how safe do you feel walking in your neighbourhood after dark? etc. The responses were based on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from very unsafe to very safe, and 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).ProcedureBefore the experiment participants were asked to read the standardised operating instructions (see appendix 3 ) and to give their consent verbally. According to the standardised instructions, participants were richly informed what the study was going to investigate. The standard instructions informed the students of the purpose of the study that participation was voluntary and the responses were going to be treated confidentially. Also, it explained the exposit of what participants would have to do and were allowed to ask any questions. Experimenters informed the participants that the aim of the study was to investigate whether there is a relation between participants general life satisfaction and cultural life satisfaction. By giving their consent to taking part in the study, they were agreeing to be involved in this study and were then asked to sign the consent form (see appendix 4) and read the brief (see appendix 4). After that, participants were asked to fill in the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two sections section A and section B. Section A was about the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS Diener et al., 1985) to measure life satisfaction. The scale comprises of five-items and the responses were made on a 7-point agree-disagree Likert scale (Diener et al., 1985). On the other hand, section B was about cultural life satisfaction (Questions were obtained from QoL). The Satisfaction with Culture survey is a 70-item Likert scale and was designed to measure internation al students cultural satisfaction. The scale provides scores for six dimensions namely for the participants satisfaction with their nations. The six sections of the cultural satisfaction are general, social relationships, job satisfaction, health perception, authority and public safety considered important on individuals cultural life satisfaction. According to participants responses, negative scores indicate dissatisfaction, whereas positive scores indicate satisfaction of the specific domain for the individuals life satisfaction. In this experiment, participants were not timed. Therefore, all the participants had the same life satisfaction and cultural satisfaction scale. Participants were also aware that they were allowed to withdraw at anytime without giving reason. After the experiment, the experimenter gave the participants a cue aeroplane which consisted of a brief explanation of what the study was about and the experimenters e-mail mastermind (see appendix 5). Also, each L ife satisfaction scale had the participant number recorded on the top of the paper so, if the participants changed their minds and wanted to retract their results from the study, they could telecommunicate the experimenter and give their paper number by 01-01-2010. Also, participants were allowed to ask any questions. There was no deception of the participants in this study. Finally, no personal data was requested. As a result, the participants were anonymous . Questionnaires will be kept confidential and firmly kept in the locked answers cupboard.DesignThis study was performed to determine the relation between culture and life satisfaction. The dependent variable of the study was the life satisfaction and the independent variable was culture. In this experiment, participants were sampled around the university campus and each participant acquire only one questionnaire. All experime