Podium Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

The Experience Of Happiness In Young Peruvians At Remunerated Work And Volunteer Work (#292)

Greta Strusberg Benavides 1
  1. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima

One important line of research within the Millennial population has been the definition "work”. Traditionally the concepts of “work” and “payment” cannot be dissociated. However,  nowadays “work” is understood as multidimensional and incorporates refreshing views such as volunteer-work. In fact, the amount of young people donating their time and effort to altruistic activities has significantly increased. In Perú, due to economical,social and political changes in the last 20 years, job-insertion has become difficult. However, paradoxically research has shown that millenials are not looking for jobs to fulfill their economic interests but also their emotional and social needs such as happiness. The low levels of job permanency evidence this new necessity that has emerged globally in the last few years. The study explores the qualitative experiential happiness perception on a group of miillennials  at remunerated and volunteer work by using Seligman´s (2002) theory about happiness as the conjunction of the Pleasant life, Good life and Meaningful life. The study results shows that the subjective experience of happiness is key for both work contexts. The need for transcendence and sense of purpose is very similar in both cases. However, the positive emotional experience was significantly higher in the volunteer work.