Abstract

HERNANDEZ, Ronald M.  and  CARRANZA ESTEBAN, Renzo Felipe. Happiness, optimism and self-realization in students from a higher education program for adults. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2017, vol.34, n.2, pp.307-325. ISSN 1668-7027.

Currently, new and interesting topics are being studied and they are promoted by Positive Psychology. This new psychological approach studies what makes life worth living, analyzes what is going well in life since birth until death (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Positive Psychology studies the optimal experience, in which people show how they are and do their best in each activity they perform. Thus, a new look at humans, focusing on their positive qualities, welfare, optimism and happiness, this new landscape gives us a new approach to solving the problems of mental health and obtaining optimum quality is provided of life. The results of the Positive Psychology are aimed at contributing to a more complete and balanced scientific understanding of the existence and experience of the human being and transmitting valuable lessons about how to build a happy, healthy, productive and significant life (Park & Peterson, 2009). Based on the literature review, there are currently few studies addressing topics of Positive Psychology, and of happiness, optimism and self-realization in adult college students compared to self-concept or anxiety. "Martin Seligman was one of the mentors in relation with this. After he had studied about depression for many years, he started to study positive emotions giving place to what is known today as Positive Psychology" (Zúñiga, 2010, p. 9). A research was done and it analyzes the relationship between happiness, optimism and self-realization in students of a Higher Education Program for Adults. The description of study variables was also studied using sociodemographic data. Samples consisted of 300 adult students of both genders and of age 19 to 59. The reviewed Spanish version of Life Orientation Test, the Happiness Scale of Lima (EFL) and the APICE Self-realization Scale of Leni were applied. The psychometric properties of the instruments show that they are valid and reliable. The validity of the content was obtained from the opinions of experts, and reliability values for the scales. Among the main findings, it was found that there is a direct and highly significant correlation between happiness and optimism, happiness and self-realization and optimism and self-realization, that is, high levels of happiness and optimism are better predictors of self-realization, ie that as college students adults evidencing higher levels of happiness, also presented higher levels of optimism, which allows feel self-realization, so students who are perceived happy and optimistic have less unsolved problems when fighting for their goals, targets or face the difficulties of their environment, performing them in a more successful way. Likewise, there is a multiple normal distribution of happiness, optimism and self-realization dimensions, which represent input variables to the canonical correlation analysis. A very intense positive correlation was found between positive meaning of life and a very intense negative correlation with pessimism. In conclusion, each stage of the cycle of life in the human being implies getting adapted, setting goals, accepting losses, as well as new challenges; but during the early adult hood stage, the human being experiences and develops physical, cognitive, affective and social changes, which are framed in a single goal, responsibility in the family, work and studies (François, 2001). Thus, people who feel happy, optimistic and self-realized will be more socially affective, more persistent, tenacious in achieving their goals and more competitive and will be more motivated for the effective performance. By focusing on the discussion of this article, the positive relationships they play an important role, are related to social skills which favors the academic development, especially in adults who undertake the challenge of becoming professionals; also it is invited to these results as a basis to highlight the need to expand research with positive variables as its application in academia can help promote the role of a student.

Keywords : Happiness; Optimism; Self-realization; College students; Adult students; Positive Psychology.

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