Well-Being as a Post-Modern Value. A study on the subjective Meanings of Well-Being in a Group of young People

Each definition of well-being has the mark of a special view of the world, full of the dominant values of the historic times and the environment in which the person giving the definition lives. It cannot be established once and for all and, more to the point, it cannot be decided with any certainty by others. The present research uses Landfield’s (1971) pyramid procedure which consists of a semi-structured interview that, starting from the presupposition that an individual’s system of constructs is hierarchically organised, presents participants with such a structure leaving them free to fill it in with their own meanings. The participants in the research are 38 individuals, aged between 21 and 30 years, with an equal number of males and females and of workers and students. Results point to the importance of «believing in what one does» and of continually setting new objectives trying to successfully achieve them: authenticity, self-realisation and satisfaction are strong constructs to which the young seem to attribute responsibility for their well-being. These reflections seem to be confirmed also by the analyses of the pyramids on the meanings of discomfort in which predominant are the constructs that concern dissatisfaction, failure, and lack of stimuli as well as solitude and issues connected to personal relationships. Some of the young say that they try to react to their moments of despair by not withdrawing into themselves; others say they lose their self-esteem and experience feelings of anxiety and laziness.