Social Context As Mediator Between Values and Well-Being

Ed Diner (2009, p. 66) claims that individuals attain subjective well-being (at least partly) while moving toward an ideal state or accomplish a valued aim. Shalom Schwartz (1994, p. 20) defines values as „desirable transsituational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles in the life of a person or other social entity”. Consequently happiness occurs after needs are met and goals are fulfilled. Therefore people are happy when their values are “right”; that is, attainable in given social, cultural and economic context. Sagiv & Schwartz (2000) have also argued that people are likely to experience a positive sense of well-being when they emphasize the same values that prevail in their environment, when they inhabit an environment that allows them to attain the goals to which their values are directed.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate relations between basic human values (or desirable subjective goals), socially differentiable environments undermining or supporting the value priorities in question and subjective well-being.

Multi-group and multilevel structural equation models are used to accomplish this task. Data from the fifth round (year 2010) of European Social Survey is used.