Rural-urban differences in subjective psychological well-being in the United States

This study looked at people's self-reports of satisfaction with various aspects of life and personal happiness. The sample was divided into three categories regarding the size of the community of the respondent: rural, urban and large urban. Similarly to other studies of this nature, we found that rural people expressed higher levels of subjective psychological wellbeing than did people who live in urban and large urban communities. The concept of social desirability was incorporated into this paper. A rather large percentage of all three categories (rural, urban and large urban) of respondents, across a wide range of demographic characteristics (such as age, sex, race, etc.), indicated substantial amounts of satisfaction and happiness. This seems partially due to the fact that people have a tendency to give very positive answers to questions regarding subjective psychological well-being. In other words, it is socially desirable to indicate that one is satisfied and happy with various aspects of one's life; while it is socially undesirable to indicate that one is dissatisfied or unhappy.Thesis (M.A.