IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v13y2012i4p685-700.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spirituality as an Essential Determinant for the Good Life, its Importance Relative to Self-Determinant Psychological Needs

Author

Listed:
  • Dirk Dierendonck

Abstract

This study focuses on the relevance of spirituality as an essential element for the Good Life. Despite spirituality’s prominence in people’s lives and cultures, it has been mostly neglected in psychological needs theories. This paper investigates the value of spirituality compared to that of the three basic psychological needs of self-determination theory: relatedness, competence and autonomy. In a scenario study design, participants in two samples (students and train passengers) were asked to judge a survey on the personal well-being of an imaginary person. The results show that spirituality positively contributes to the qualification of a good life, in terms of desirability and moral goodness. In addition, the crucial role of relatedness was confirmed. Copyright The Author(s) 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Dirk Dierendonck, 2012. "Spirituality as an Essential Determinant for the Good Life, its Importance Relative to Self-Determinant Psychological Needs," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 685-700, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:13:y:2012:i:4:p:685-700
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-011-9286-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-011-9286-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-011-9286-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lindsay Thompson, 2010. "The Global Moral Compass for Business Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 15-32, June.
    2. Ruut Veenhoven, 2000. "The Four Qualities of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-39, March.
    3. Liesbeth Snoep, 2008. "Religiousness and happiness in three nations: a research note," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 207-211, June.
    4. Eduardo Wills, 2009. "Spirituality and Subjective Well-Being: Evidences for a New Domain in the Personal Well-Being Index," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 49-69, March.
    5. Michael Fordyce, 1988. "A review of research on the happiness measures: A sixty second index of happiness and mental health," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 355-381, August.
    6. Carol Ryff & Burton Singer, 2008. "Know Thyself and Become What You Are: A Eudaimonic Approach to Psychological Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 13-39, January.
    7. Christie Scollon & Laura King, 2004. "Is the Good Life the Easy Life?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 127-162, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Avi Anuj Jain, 2022. "In The Pursuit of Happiness: Observations of Young Tibetan Refugees in Exile, India," South Asian Survey, , vol. 29(1), pages 42-60, March.
    2. E. T. Bohlmeijer & L. Frielingsdorf & J. T. Kraiss & E. Jager-Meezenbroek & A. Visser & P. M. Klooster, 2023. "Spirituality in the Context of Well-being. Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties and Added Value of the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List Short Form (SAIL-SF)," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 1169-1190, March.
    3. Eric Hill & Heather Terrell & Andrea Arellano & Blake Schuetz & Craig Nagoshi, 2015. "A Good Story: Using Future Life Narratives to Predict Present Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(6), pages 1615-1634, December.
    4. Corey L. M. Keyes & Malik Muhammad Sohail & Nneka Jebose Molokwu & Heather Parnell & Cyrilla Amanya & Venkata Gopala Krishna Kaza & Yohannes Benyam Saddo & Vanroth Vann & Senti Tzudier & Rae Jean Proe, 2021. "How Would You Describe a Mentally Healthy Person? A Cross-Cultural Qualitative Study of Caregivers of Orphans and Separated Children," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1719-1743, April.
    5. Andrew Howell & Holli-Anne Passmore & Karen Buro, 2013. "Meaning in Nature: Meaning in Life as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Nature Connectedness and Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1681-1696, December.
    6. J. M. Tomás & P. Sancho & L. Galiana & A. Oliver, 2016. "A Double Test on the Importance of Spirituality, the “Forgotten Factor”, in Successful Aging," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 1377-1389, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katsunori Sumi, 2014. "Reliability and Validity of Japanese Versions of the Flourishing Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 601-615, September.
    2. Ruut Veenhoven, 2015. "Informed Pursuit of Happiness: What we should know, do know and can get to know," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1035-1071, August.
    3. Wills, Eduardo & Orozco, Luis & Forero, Clemente & Pardo, Oscar & Andonova, Veneta, 2010. "The relationship between perceptions of insecurity, social capital and subjective well-being: Empirical evidences from conflicted rural Colombia," Galeras. Working Papers Series 026, Universidad de Los Andes. Facultad de Administración. School of Management.
    4. Wills-Herrera, Eduardo & Orozco, Luz E. & Forero-Pineda, Clemente & Pardo, Oscar & Andonova, Venetta, 2011. "The relationship between perceptions of insecurity, social capital and subjective well-being: Empirical evidences from areas of rural conflict in Colombia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 88-96, February.
    5. Anna Kovacs-Györi & Pablo Cabrera-Barona & Bernd Resch & Michael Mehaffy & Thomas Blaschke, 2019. "Assessing and Representing Livability through the Analysis of Residential Preference," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-23, September.
    6. Fatih Terzi & Handan Türkoğlu & Fulin Bölen & Perver Baran & Tayfun Salihoğlu, 2015. "Residents’ Perception of Cultural Activities as Quality of Life in Istanbul," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 211-234, May.
    7. Mia M. Vainio & Daiva Daukantaitė, 2016. "Grit and Different Aspects of Well-Being: Direct and Indirect Relationships via Sense of Coherence and Authenticity," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 2119-2147, October.
    8. Heather Lacey & Todd Kierstead & Diana Morey, 2012. "De-Biasing the Age-Happiness Bias: Memory Search and Cultural Expectations in Happiness Judgments Across the Lifespan," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 647-658, August.
    9. Soo Yon Yi & Aimee Jeehae Kim, 2023. "Implementation and Strategies of Community Music Activities for Well-Being: A Scoping Review of the Literature," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-34, January.
    10. Erik Carlquist & Pål Ulleberg & Antonella Delle Fave & Hilde E. Nafstad & Rolv M. Blakar, 2017. "Everyday Understandings of Happiness, Good Life, and Satisfaction: Three Different Facets of Well-being," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 481-505, June.
    11. Lisa A. Newland & Daniel Mourlam & Gabrielle Strouse, 2018. "A Phenomenological Exploration of the Role of Digital Technology and Media in Children’s Subjective Well-Being," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(5), pages 1563-1583, October.
    12. Gennaro Punzo & Rosalia Castellano & Mirko Buonocore, 2018. "Job Satisfaction in the “Big Four” of Europe: Reasoning Between Feeling and Uncertainty Through CUB Models," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 205-236, August.
    13. Agnieszka Krugielka & Grazyna Bartkowiak & Sebastian Dama, 2021. "Functioning of Academic Teachers in the Conditions of the COVID-19 Epidemy in Poland in 2020 (Qualitative Test on the Basis of Self-Assessment)," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 5), pages 269-287.
    14. Manfred Garhammer, 2002. "Pace of Life and Enjoyment of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 217-256, September.
    15. Ruut Veenhoven, 2003. "Notions of Art-of-Living," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 345-349, December.
    16. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina Fischer, 2008. "Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(1), pages 119-173, January.
    17. Ruut Veenhoven, 2011. "World Database of Happiness Example of a focused ‘Findings Archive’," RatSWD Working Papers 169, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    18. Isabel Neira & Fernando Bruna & Marta Portela & Adela García-Aracil, 2018. "Individual Well-Being, Geographical Heterogeneity and Social Capital," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1067-1090, April.
    19. Eduardo Cuenca García & José Rodríguez Martín & Margarita Navarro Pabsdorf, 2010. "The Features of Development in the Pacific Countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(3), pages 469-485, December.
    20. Antonella Delle Fave & Ingrid Brdar & Teresa Freire & Dianne Vella-Brodrick & Marié Wissing, 2011. "The Eudaimonic and Hedonic Components of Happiness: Qualitative and Quantitative Findings," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 185-207, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:13:y:2012:i:4:p:685-700. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.