International Survey Wants Local Participants

International Wellbeing Survey Wants Local Participants

Local residents are being asked to participate in a ground breaking international online survey which measures their wellbeing.

The research is being led by Open Polytechnic psychology lecturer Aaron Jarden, who is also the President of the New Zealand Association of Positive Psychology.

New participants will have until the end of September to register to be part of the study and complete the first set of questions. They will then be asked to complete another four scheduled assessments until the end of September 2011.

The survey, at www.wellbeingstudy.com, asks participants to answer a number of questions to help the researchers establish the wellbeing of the respondents and how this changes over time.

The research team includes Mr Jarden’s colleagues from the Open Polytechnic, as well as researchers from institutions around New Zealand, the UK and USA. The international study, which began last year, already has 4,000 participants and has been translated into 14 different languages.

“Positive psychology is still a relatively new field, and this research is already giving us new insights on the factors that contribute to peoples’ feelings of wellbeing”, says Mr Jarden.

“There has been considerable research which measures negative health indicators, such as depression and disease, but only a small amount of research on contributing factors to wellbeing such as how people work to their strengths, their overall satisfaction and happiness with life”, says Mr Jarden.

Participants in the wellbeing survey will be offered the opportunity to opt-in to free internet based wellbeing orientated courses, draws for vouchers, and be provided with a report on their wellbeing scores at the end of the five assessments.

Anyone who would like to participate in the study is invited to complete the first survey at www.wellbeingstudy.com by the 30 September.

ENDS