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Abstract

This dissertation is about students' understandings and expectations of happiness. The aim of this research was to gain insight into the importance students place on displays of happiness and positivity, and how this is shaped by British culture, among other factors. Additionally, the research sets out to understand how comfortable students, who have been positioned as ‘vulnerable’ by recent literature and the media, feel about expressions of unhappiness and poor wellbeing. Neoliberal societies are centred around individual needs and desires rather than those of the community or society, therefore individual happiness is a significant preoccupation for many people today. Through semi-structured interviews with eight university students, it was revealed that students felt that going to university would increase their chances of happiness in the future. Participant responses, analysed using thematic analysis and coding, found that common themes surrounded happiness as a personal responsibility that is shaped and restricted by pressures that are unique to students. Furthermore, the findings revealed that displays of positivity are deemed somewhat important in British culture, but more so on social media, which contributes on a large scale to how students perceive displays of happiness. The dissertation ultimately concludes that while students do not feel entirely comfortable with displays of unhappiness and poor wellbeing, society is slowly moving towards an acceptance that it is ‘okay not to be okay’.

Course: Sociology and Criminology - BSc (Hons) - C0979

Date Deposited: 2022-06-06

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13920.html