Correlation of Fear of Happiness with Flourishing and Hope in Young Adults

Abstract

The present study titled “Correlation of Fear of Happiness with Flourishing and Hope in Young Adults” aims to find out the effect of an individual’s fear of happiness with respect to their level of flourishing and hope. Hypotheses for the present work are a) An individual’s fear of happiness will negatively affect their ability to flourish, and b) an individual’s fear of happiness will negatively affect their level of hope. For the purpose of this study 50 young adults aged between 18-23 years were selected through random sampling technique. The original English version of the Fear of Happiness Scale, Flourishing Scale, and the Adult State Hope Scale were distributed exclusively to the respondents currently studying in Amity University Lucknow Campus, who were without any present history of mental illnesses. The analysis of data included the mean and standard deviations of the scores obtained from each questionnaire, suggesting higher levels in flourishing and hope as compared to fear of happiness. Further analysis included finding out the Pearson’s Correlation and Spearman’s rho respectively. The correlation between fear of happiness and flourishing proved to be significant at 0.01 levels for both. The correlation between fear of happiness and hope proved to be significant at 0.05 level in Pearson’s Correlation, and 0.01 level in Spearman’s rho. After the analysis of data, the hypotheses were accepted, that is, there was indeed a negative effect of fear of happiness on one’s level of flourishing and hope.