First Name:
Sarah
Last Name:
Gorry
Major Department:
Psychology
Thesis Director:
Kelly Williams
Date of Thesis:
May 2013
This thesis explores the international differences in defining happiness and how the definitions of happiness relate within the framework of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In the emergent field of positive psychology, happiness and Subjective Well-Being (SWB) have been studied using quantitative measures. This qualitative study seeks to examine happiness from a phenomenological perspective to understand how participants themselves define what it means to be happy and what it means to have a good life. Thirty-one total participants from Kitoola and Kampala, Uganda and Boone, North Carolina were interviewed. Participants were asked two interview questions, “What does it mean to be happy?” and, “What does it mean to have a good life?” Responses were then analyzed using an adapted version of the phenomenological method of analysis developed by Colaizzi (1978). The 24 themes that emerged from this method were then examined within the framework of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This study found there were cultural differences in perspectives on happiness and the good life, particularly with regard to the fulfillment of basic and safety needs.