Study of the Happiness of the Teachers of Indore City, India

Study of the HAPPINESS of the Teachers of Indore City

Dr. (Mrs.) Kiran Dammani

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Key Words: Pleasant life, Engaged life, Meaningful life,

All the activities, efforts of human being are directed towards Happiness. Whether one is purchasing car, bungalow, ornaments, or any other luxurious items, or celebrating festivals, organizing parties, visiting temples, tourist places, giving donation for charity or any other activity the ultimate motto is to become happy or obtain Happiness. Thousands of books are written on the topic Happiness. Barbara L. Fredrickson (2006), Richard Easterlin Plagnol and Easterlin's Anke Plagnol (2008), studied the effect of interaction of age and gender on Happiness. Argyle (1999), Benson, H. (2000), Scarborough, J. (2001), Bertges, W. (2001), Mendes, E. (2002), Barlow, P. (2002), James H. Fowler, (2008), Warren Davies (2008), and Barber, Janet E. ,(2010) Ryan Howell (2011) , Dammani Kiran, (2013), Dammani K., Dammani, K. (2013), Dammani K. & Indani. M. (2014). Dammani, K.( Oct2015) studied correlation of happiness with the variables like Age, Gender, Economical Status, Religion, Marriage, Employment, Intelligence, social class, attractiveness, strength-building strategies, emotional intelligence, optimism, increases in income etc. Dammani, K. & Indani M. (2015 ), Dammani K. & Indani. M. (2014) suggested various strategies to enhance Happiness. Fordyce (1977, 1983); Uribe, C. (2001); Schooler et al. (2003); Firpo, H. (2001); Rashid, T. (2004); Seligman, et al.(2005); Papaousek & Schulter, (2008); Miriam Akhtar (2009); and Gavian, M. (2011) used various strategies to enhance Happiness. A lot of research has been carried out by the Psychologists on the topic of Happiness. But most of these researches were carried out in foreign countries. Due to dearth of research in this area the present study has been taken. For the present study the concept of Happiness is adopted as given by Martin Seligman, (2002) one of the leading researchers in Positive Psychology and the author of the book ‘ Authentic Happiness’ . He describes happiness as having three parts: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Pleasure is the “feel good” part of happiness. Engagement refers to living a “good life” of work, family, friends, and hobbies. Meaning refers to using our strengths to contribute to a larger purpose. There are a number of ways to achieve a meaningful life, including close interpersonal relationships, generosity, social activism or service, spirituality. One necessary condition for meaning is the attachment and connection to something larger than is the self. Institutions such as church, mosque, temple, a professional or leisure club, or a nonprofit charitable organization all offer opportunities to connect with something larger. Thus Happiness consists of experiencing positive emotions in the past and future, savoring positive feelings from pleasures, deriving abundant gratification through engagement, and creating meaning in the service of something larger than the self.

The future of any country is in the hands of teacher. So it is vary essential that the teachers those who are nation builder, must be happy. Teaching is one of the most complicated jobs today. It demands broad knowledge of the subject matter, curriculum, and standards, caring attitude, knowledge of discipline and classroom management techniques, there are so many other responsibilities on the teacher, in this context, it is very essential to understand the level of Happiness of Teacher. For the present study teachers teaching in the colleges and high schools, were selected as a sample, if the teachers are happy, they can give optimum level of performance. Richard Layard (2007) argues that we need a new cadre of teachers specifically trained to teach values and the ways to happiness. In this 21st century one of the main goal of education is to develop good and happy people – especially at a time when growing numbers of children are suffering from emotional disturbance. Thus to know the level of happiness of teacher, effect gender and age on the Happiness the present study has been undertaken.

OBJECTIVES

1. To find out the Gender wise differences in the mean scores of Pleasant life, Engaged life, Meaningful life and Happiness of the Teachers’ of Indore city.
2. To find out the Age wise differences in the mean score of Pleasant life, Engaged life, Meaningful life and Happiness of the Teachers’ of Indore city.

SAMPLE

Sample comprised of 172 Teachers of Indore city, working in the Private Educational Institution. Random sampling technique was used for the selection of sample. The age of teachers ranged between 19 to 72 years. The teachers were categorized into three groups based on their age. The teachers till the age of 28 were included in the group One , The teachers between the age of 29 to 42 were included in the group Two, and teacher above the age of 43 were included in Group Three. Both Males and Females along with Singles and Married were comprised of the sample.

Table 1.1: Marital status wise, Gender-wise and Age wise distribution of Sample

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It can be observed from the Table 1.1, that the sample consisted o 111 females and 61 males. Sample was divided into 3 age groups. The age of 57 teachers were below 29 years, while 70 teachers were between the age group of 29 to 42 years. The age 45 teachers were above the 43 years. All these teachers were working in reputed educational institution of Indore.

TOOL

In the present study, the data were collected in respect of Happiness by administering the “Positive Psychotherapy Inventory’ (PPI), a standardized tool, developed by Rashid P. (2008). It assesses the Pleasant Life, Engaged Life, Meaningful Life, and Overall Happiness. The Inventory is made up by total 21 items. Scores can range from 0 – 63 with higher scores indicating higher levels of overall happiness. The Inventory was suitable for the age group of above 18 years.

PROCEDURE OF DATA COLLECTION

The main aim of the study was to assess and compare Happiness of the teachers of Indore city on the basis of Gender, Age, and Marital status.

RESULTS

The first objective was to find out the Gender wise differences in the mean scores of Pleasant life, Engaged life; Meaningful life and Happiness of the teachers of Indore City. The data related to this objective were analyzed with the help of Independent Sample t-test. The results are given in Table 1.2.

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