Title: The impact of changing values on life satisfaction and happiness in Turkey

Authors: Erdem Seçilmiş

Addresses: Department of Public Finance, Hacettepe University, Ankara, 06800, Turkey ORCID: 0000-0002-5331-8122

Abstract: The present study aimed to identify the determinants of life satisfaction and happiness in Turkey with a special focus on value orientations. For this purpose, data that were collected as a part of the World Values Survey in 1990, 1996, 2001, 2007, and 2012 were used. The findings revealed that levels of life satisfaction and happiness had changed across time. Additionally, the findings indicated that Inglehart's theory of value change is not valid for Turkey. Turkish people tended to demonstrate a materialistic value orientation across the last two waves of the survey. The analytic results of ordered logit models also supported the existence of a significant relationship between value orientations and subjective well-being. The present results suggest that postmaterialists are more satisfied with their lives than materialists who ascribe importance to only traditional economic concerns.

Keywords: life satisfaction; happiness; value orientation; materialism; postmaterialism; Turkey.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHD.2021.117100

International Journal of Happiness and Development, 2021 Vol.6 No.3, pp.285 - 305

Received: 23 Jul 2020
Accepted: 26 Oct 2020
Published online: 17 Aug 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article