The Relationship between Altruism and Life Satisfaction: Mediator Role of Cognitive Flexibility

Abstract

Life satisfaction is one of the most basic goals of human beings. Covering all aspects of life satisfaction, the main dynamic and source of life motivation will be a key to human happiness. There are several factors affecting life satisfaction. This particular study probed how altruistic behaviors affect life satisfaction and how cognitive flexibility mediates the relationship between these two variables. A total of 559 undergraduate students aged between 18 and 36 (M = 21) studying at six different faculties participated in the study. The research data were collected through the scales of life satisfaction, cognitive flexibility and altruism measurement. The findings indicated that altruism is an important predictor of cognitive flexibility and life satisfaction and that cognitive flexibility is an important predictor of life satisfaction. It was also found that cognitive flexibility mediates the influence of altruism on young adult’s life satisfaction. The study concludes that students should be encouraged to exhibit altruistic behaviors to achieve life satisfaction. More importantly, it is believed that improving students’ flexible thinking skills as well as altruistic behaviors will increase their life satisfaction.