Homeorhesis and Indication of Association Between Different Types of Capital on Life Satisfaction: The Case of Greeks Under Crisis

Abstract

Research on subjective well-being (SWB) for western nations has been growing for the last 30 years. So far there has not been any study of Subjective Well-Being in the case of Greece. This study is the first attempt to quantify the SWB in Greece which is in a state of deep economic and values crisis. For this purpose the Personal Well-being Index (PWI) developed by Cummins et al. (2002) and used by the International Well-being Group has been applied. Additionally this study attempts to give answers to two research questions: (i) what is the effect of economic crisis on PWI and as a consequence on the homeostasis hypothesis? (ii) is there any indication of association between different types of capital (built, natural, human, and social capital) and domains of life satisfaction? A cross-sectional survey of 1,216 participants included sociodemographic variables, questions relating to dimensions or domains of personal well-being, and questions pertaining to built, human, natural and social capital. Based on cross-sectional data, statistical analyses were performed for the whole sample and for men and women to account for gender differences. Descriptive, correlation, factor and regression statistical techniques were used. Regression models were used to determine, which types of capital variables had a statistically significant association with each domain of life satisfaction. The statistical results of this study demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Greek adaptation of the Cummins questionnaire. Significant differences are found between men and women in personal well-being index score. The results support the hypothesis that the economic crisis has an impact on personal well-being. It is, therefore, possible that such an impact affects the state of homeostasis. This suggests that other mechanisms such as homeorhesis may be applicable in explaining the behavior of the state of personal well-being index. Different types of capital and domains of life satisfaction are found to be positively related. These findings must be considered in light of cross-sectional limitations. This study evaluated the psychometric characteristics of the Greek version of the Cummins questionnaire. The PWI results are not within the range of normative data for western nations. This is an interesting and important result: it shows that the economic crisis matters significantly for personal well-being. The statistical results of this study offer an indicational support for the role of types of capital on domains of life satisfaction. Since we are using cross-sectional data, no causal inferences can be drawn.