Orientation to Happiness and its relationship with Emotional Regulation and Psychological Inflexibility

Abstract

In 350 BCE, a Greek philosopher stated that happiness is the sole desire of human beings and to achieve that they make go through any amount of hard-work as needed. The objective of the study was to see if there is significant difference in orientation to happiness between working and non-working population and to further see the impact on emotional regulation and psychological inflexibility. Mixed method technique was used to perform both quantitative and qualitative research. To determine the same(quantitatively) HEEMA scale, ERQ scale, EPIC scale was used. The data was collected by the means of an offline questionnaire from 100 participants from 50 from working sector and 50 from non-working sector. Independent t-test, Correlation and Regression was used to analyse the results for quantitative research using IBM SPSS software. The results revealed that there is significant difference in orientation to happiness between working and non-working population. And further when probed results showed that happiness was also positively correlated with sub factors of emotional regulation and with psychological inflexibility. For Qualitative research, semi-structured interviews were taken and results wee drawn using thematic analysis which revealed that there are various characteristics, factors and impacts of orientation to happiness in working and non-working population and it was also viewed that people tend to formulate their own definitions of happiness, subjective to their own experiences and believes.