Concept of Happiness in Adults from Low-Income Class

Abstract

There is relatively little research about the meaning of happiness, since studies measure it psychometrically (etic), and its meaning for the people remains opaque. The objective here is to identify what the concept of happiness is for low-income class people (emic) from popular Chilean sectors. By using the qualitative method, an interview with open questions about the meaning of happiness was applied to a sample of 141 adults of both genders, within the age range 24 to 88, from the city of Molina (Chile). Their answers were analyzed with the program NVivo, graphically represented through CmpasTools. For this sample, happiness can be understood through four axes of meaning: well-being, emotions, to be, and to have, and all these essentially represented as tranquility, joy, and, more globally as well-being, produced as a consequence of, or associated with, the obtainment of some basic satisfiers.