International Journal of Education and Psychological Research (IJEPR) Volume 5, Issue 2, June 2016

Psychological Well-Being Amongst Women Professionals in

Different Spheres of Work-Life

Soumya Sharma[1]
[2]
R.K. Sokhi

Abstract:
The present research study examines the role of profession in determining psychological well being amongst working women.
For the purpose of the present study, a sample of 180 working women aged 25-55 years and employed in three different working
sectors viz. Public (60), Private (60) and Teaching (60) was selected. Psychological well-being scale developed by Ryff (1989)
was administered in order to attain their overall well-being score. Data was analyzed using ANOVA. Results indicated
significant difference across the three professional groups and also between teaching and private sector professionals and
public and private sector professionals in their levels of psychological well being with teaching professional reporting the
highest level of well-being followed by public and lastly by private sector professionals. Significant difference was also found in
sub-dimensions of psychological well-being viz. Autonomy, personal growth and purpose in life.
Keywords: Psychological well-being, Women Professionals

I. INTRODUCTION
Psychological wellbeing is a diverse construct encompassing individual will be high in psychological well-being in the
myriad of psychological and social dimensions. Research has degree to which he has an excess of positive over negative
shown that psychological wellbeing is a multidimensional affect and will be low in well- being in the degree to which
concept (Wissing & Van Eeden, 2002), which develops negative affect predominates over positive (Bradburn, 1969,
through a combination of cognition, emotional regulation, p. 9) Ryff (1989b), on the other hand identified dimensions
personality characteristics; identity and life experience of psychological wellbeing viz. Autonomy, Environmental
(Bradburn, 1969; Helson & Srivastava, 2001). The cognitive Mastery; Positive relationships with others; Purpose in life;
aspect is an information based appraisal of an individuals Personal growth and Self-acceptance.
life, when one is involved in consciously evaluating ones life In todays context, wherein the Indian society is developing
satisfaction as a whole. The affective aspect is a hedonic rapidly, women have become professionally more inclined
evaluation based on emotions such as pleasant/unpleasant and are pursuing varied career choices. This substantial
states of mind. increase in women workforce over the past few years has led
Research on Psychological wellbeing has traditionally researchers to explore the effects of employment on womens
focused on two approaches viz. Hedonic and Eudaimonic well-being. Research suggests that employment of women
tradition. According to the Hedonic view of well-being, the may result in higher psychological well-being as it leads to
focus is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain and to find absorption of ones time and resources within a particular
the good or bad elements of life in order to maximize identity role (Elgar & Chester, 2007). In the Indian context, it
happiness (Kahneman, Diener & Schwarz 1999). Diener has been highlighted that personal control and psycho social
(1984) further developed the notion of happiness and competence are significantly positively related to well-being
proposed the concept of subjective well-being (SWB). amongst urban educated women (Varma & Dhawan, 2006).
Diener and his colleagues concluded that subjective Research studies (Patrick, 2001; Mojoyilana, 2007; Stuart et
wellbeing (SWB) refers to peoples evaluation of their lives, al. 2013; Klumb & Lamper, 2004; Watson, 2010; Bryson et
and the evaluations include both affective and cognitive al. 2012) have found a positive correlation between level of
aspects (Diener, & Lucas, 1999; Diener 2000). education, occupation, level of income and well-being
The philosophical roots of eudaimonia are in Aristotles amongst women. Also, according to Erlandson (2006),
(1925) formulation of the highest human good which he women working under less complex pattern of occupation
termed as Eudaimonia. Eudaimonia thus captured the had better health and well being as compared to those with
essence of the two great Greek imperatives: first, to know medium complex pattern of occupation.
yourself, and second, to become what you are. Bradburn The present research aims at exploring the significant
(1969) highlighted that Psychological wellbeing stands out difference in psychological wellbeing amongst women
as being of primary importance (p. 6). He linked this to employed in different professional groups viz. Public, Private
Aristotles view of eudaimonia, which is now commonly and Teaching. For the purpose of the present study the Public
translated as wellbeing. According to Bradburn: an sector employees comprised women employed in
[1]
Research Scholar, Recruitment & Assessment Centre, DRDO
[2]
Scientist, Recruitment & Assessment Centre, DRDO

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International Journal of Education and Psychological Research (IJEPR) Volume 5, Issue 2, June 2016

Government service and organizations. Private sector Figure 1.1: Graph depicting Means across three Professional
employees comprised women employees working in women groups (Public, Private, Teaching) on psychological
privately owned firms, BPOs or in other case self-employed. well-being
And lastly, the Teaching sector employees comprised women
teaching at school as well as university level.
Objectives
To find out significant difference between different
Professions viz. Public, Private and Teaching on
psychological well-being of working women.
To study the significant difference on various sub-
dimensions of psychological well-being of working
women across different professions viz. Public, Private
and Teaching. As depicted in Table 1 and Graph 1.1, Psychological
wellbeing is highest amongst women in teaching profession
II. METHOD (M=242.53, SD=20.81), followed by Public (M=237.51,
Sample: SD=20.55) and lastly the Private sector (M=229.25,
SD=23.04).
The sample comprised 180 working women aged 25-55 years
and employed in three different working sectors viz. Public Table No. 2: One-way ANOVA across three Professional
(60), Private (60) and Teaching (60). The mean and standard women groups (Public, Private, Teaching)
deviation of the sample is 34.75 and 8.4 respectively.
Measures:
Psychological well-being scale (Ryff, 1989): The
psychological wellbeing scale developed by Ryff (1989)
comprises six distinct components: self acceptance, personal
growth, purpose in life, positive relations with others,
environmental mastery and autonomy. The 54 item version
has been used for this study. It is a 6 point likert scale with
options ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly Table 2 depicts that significant difference has emerged (.05
agree). The sub scores from each scale are added to get an level) between the professional groups viz. Public, Private
overall score, with higher score reflecting high psychological and Teaching in their levels of psychological well-being,
well-being. Internal consistency values (coefficient alpha) thereby providing further support to the findings that
for each dimension ranged between 0.86 and 0.91 indicating organizational setting affects psychological well being levels
high reliability of the scale. Correlation coefficients varied amongst working women.
between 0.83 and 0.99 indicating higher level of validity for
the scale. Table 3: One-way ANOVA of sub-dimensions of
Psychological well-being
Procedure:
The participants (working women) for the study were
personally contacted and requested for cooperation after
briefly introducing the aim of the study. Some participants
obliged to complete the measures immediately thereby
allowing the investigator to ensure that the participant gave
responses to all the items. Instructions were given to the
participants only after forming adequate rapport. Others
requested time, in which case, the responses were collected
through e-mails.

III. RESULTS
Results of the study in respect to psychological well-being
across the three professional women groups viz. Public,
Private and Teaching is depicted in the following section.
Table No. 1: Means and SD across three Professional women
groups (Public, Private, Teaching) on psychological well-
being Figure 3.1: Graph depicting Means of sub-dimensions of
psychological well-being across three Professional women
groups (Public, Private, Teaching)

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International Journal of Education and Psychological Research (IJEPR) Volume 5, Issue 2, June 2016

groups. Wangsoyoung (2014) also reported psychological

well-being levels higher than the mean amongst teachers.
Hassen & Kibret (2016) also reported positive health-related
behaviours and high psychological well being levels of 110
teaching faculty at a university in Ethiopia. Another factor
could be that teachers are regarded as agents of change
(Lochman, 2003) which may further add to their overall
satisfaction with their professional life thereby resulting in
high psychological well-being levels. Similar findings were
also reported by Alam & Rizvi (2012) and Bashir &
Sufiyanzilli (2015) in their research study on difference in
level of psychological well-being of employees in private and
public sector undertakings in Aligarh. These findings can be
attributed to the fact that Public sector professionals have
fixed working hours, flexibility and a sense of job security as
compared to private sector professionals who are working
under constant pressure in order to meet deadlines and are not
As depicted in Table 3 and Graph 3.1, Teaching women provided enough flexibility and job security which could lead
professionals have significantly (.01 level) higher level of to an overall low psychological well-being. Burch (1992)
Autonomy followed by Public and lastly by Private women reported that job insecurity reduces psychological well-being
professionals. Teaching women professionals have amongst employees. Erlandson (2006) reported that women
significantly (.01 level) higher level of personal growth working under less complex pattern of occupation had better
followed by Private and lastly by Public women health and well being as compared to those with medium
professionals. It is also depicted that private women complex pattern of occupation.
professionals have significantly (.05 level) higher levels of
purpose in life followed by Teaching and lastly by Public
Psychological well-being of Public women
women professionals. Professionals
Findings of the present research suggest that although not
IV. DISCUSSION significant Public women professionals have been found to
be high on the sub-dimension of environmental mastery as
The aim of the present research was to study the relationship depicted in Table 3 and Graph 3.1. These findings are
between professional groups (Public, Private and Teaching) consistent with the previous research (Alam & Rizvi, 2012;
and psychological well-being, and if any significant Bashir & Sufiyanzilli, 2015) which suggests that Public
difference emerges in the levels of psychological well-being sector Professionals are high on Psychological well-being as
across the three groups. According to the findings of the well as its sub-dimensions as compared to Private sector
study, teaching professionals exhibited highest psychological Professionals. In the context of environmental mastery being
well-being level followed by Public sector and lastly Private higher in Public women professionals, it has been suggested
sector professionals (Refer Table 1). It was also found that by Rizvi (2009) that Private professionals experience more
Teaching women professionals have significantly higher role ambiguity as compared to Public professionals. In the
level of Autonomy and Personal growth as compared to the present research scenario, it is possible that the role and job
other two professional groups and private women profile of public women professionals is clearly defined and
professionals have significantly higher levels of purpose in hence they are able to handle complex situations and work
life as compared to the other two professional groups (Refer tasks more efficiently as compared to Private women
Table 3) professionals. Also, due to stressful working hours and
When compared with previous research (Srimathi & Kumar, pressure to meet deadlines, private women professionals are
2012), the results were found to be consistent wherein unable to exert much control over their surroundings both
teaching women professionals reported the highest level of personal as well as professional which could lead to lower
psychological well-being and private sector professionals the levels of environmental mastery.
least. These findings can be attributed to the fact that women
employed in the teaching profession are able to devote more Psychological well-being of Private women
time and attention to their personal lives as well as are able to Professionals
cater better to their household needs due to better working Findings of the present research study contrary to previous
hours, and flexibility in the organizational setting as research revealed that private women professionals are
compared to women working in the private sector, wherein significantly high on purpose in life dimension. These
they are required to meet daily deadlines and are working findings can be attributed to factors such as women working
under constant work pressure. Pandey & Srivastav (2003) in in the private sector are required to meet deadlines on a daily
their study on working women also reported similar findings, basis and have to keep pace with their work in order to cope
wherein teaching professionals experienced minimum level with the stiff competition at work as laxity at work could
of stress and illness owing to their work life. Another study by result in layoff since there is less job security in private sector
Sahoo & Mohapatra (2009) also reported similar findings compared to public and teaching sector. Research (Satava,
wherein teaching professionals displayed maximum amount 2009) on management executives has indicated that if an
of positive affect and happiness in comparison with other
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International Journal of Education and Psychological Research (IJEPR) Volume 5, Issue 2, June 2016

employee is not able to measure up to counterpart executives Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The structure of psychological
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