engleski

Trust in people and some aspects of psychological well-being in adults

The aim of this study was to examine the relation of trust in people with life satisfaction, self-esteem and integrity in adulthood. Trust in people refers to beliefs that people are basically trustworthy, moral, responsible, unselfish and sincerely interested in others. This construct emerged from philosophies of human nature concept conceived of as expectancies that people possess certain qualities and will behave toward others in certain ways (Wrightsman, 1992). Since studies of fundamental beliefs about human nature in relation with different aspects of psychological well-being in adults are rare, relationships of trust in people with life satisfaction, self-esteem and integrity in age heterogeneous sample of adults (N=300, average age= 50.5 years) were examined in this study. It was expected that positive beliefs about people will correlate positively with variables of psychological well-being, i. e. with life satisfaction or general evaluation of one's life, self-esteem or global evaluative orientation toward the self, and integrity or the outcome of the eighth stage of Erikson's theory referring to the sense of coherence and purpose in one's one life. The relevant constructs were measured using Trust subscale from Cynicism and Trust Scale (Cubela Adoric and Tucak, 2006), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985), Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965/ Bezinovic, 1988), and Integrity Scale (Hawley, 1988/ Lackovic-Grgin et al., 2002). According to expectations, correlation analyses showed that trust in people significantly, although modestly, correlated with life satisfaction, self-esteem and integrity. Sex and age differences in trust and variables of psychological well-being were also examined. Significant age effect on trust, life satisfaction and integrity emerged. Trust increased, while life satisfaction and integrity decreased with age. Results of this study suggest the importance of fundamental positive beliefs about people for psychological well-being of adults.

trust in people; life satisfaction; self-esteem; integrity; adulthood

nije evidentirano