Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

320

Date

2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Counseling Psychology

Committee Chair

Sara K. Bridges

Committee Member

Nancy J. Nishimura

Committee Member

Ronnie Priest

Committee Member

Douglas Clark Strohmer

Abstract

College can be a trying time and research suggests that college student positive and negative outcomes are broadly influenced by their well-being. Well-being is a broad construct that can be defined in terms of theoretically and subjectively derived components characterized by hedonic (i.e., happiness and affect) and eudaimonic (i.e., a sense of personal congruence in life) concepts. Research suggests that mindfulness, experiential avoidance, and values-based action, three theoretically important variables in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), may be used as significant indicators of college student well-being. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of college student mindfulness, expriential avoidance, and values-based action on hedonic and eudaimonic forms of well-being after accounting for a measure of social desirability and a strong predictor of well-being, namely the Big Five personality factors conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and agreeableness. This study collected and analyzed responses from 174 college students using hierarchical regression procedures. Results indicated that students with higher hedonic well-being had lower experiential avoidance and neuroticism. Further, higher student eudaimonic well-being was predicted by lower experiential avoidance and neuroticism, as well as by higher mindfulness, conscientiousness, and extraversion. Additionally, post-hoc hierarchical regression analyses examining components of hedonic well-being revealed that students with high positive affect had high mindfulness, and that students with high life satisfaction had high values-based action. The implications of how these results may impact and inform college students, researchers, mental health professionals, and counseling psychologists are provided.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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