Arts Comparative Study Of Subjective Well-being Of The Non-art Majors

Subjective well-being (SWB) is a measure of the quality of people's lives, an important comprehensive psychological indicator as well as one of the most remarkable fields in positive psychology. Different groups of people have been studied in a deep going way on SWB; however, the research specialized in that of students major in arts is not enough. In this paper, the difference on SWB between art major and non-art major students has been explored by means of questionnaires and interviews of 1,221 students from 6 colleges and universities in Sichuan, which will provide some references for enhancing psychological education of art major students. The results show that:1. There is statistical significant difference(p <0.001) in each dimension and the total score on SWB between art major and non-art major students, the score of the former is significantly lower than that of the latter.2. There is statistical significant difference (p <0.05) between college students major in arts from urban and those from rural areas on their health status, the score of those from cities and towns is significantly lower than those from rural areas. There is also statistical significant difference(p<0.01) on the total score as well as the negative and positive emotional experience of SWB between non-art major students from urban and those from rural areas, the former is significantly higher than the latter.3. There is statistical significant difference(p <0.001) between different grades of art major students on the positive emotional experience, health status as well as the total score, the positive emotional experience, health status and total score of sophomore students are significantly lower than that of freshman, junior and senior ones.4. Whether the student is the only child has no effect on the SWB of art major students, but has effect on that of non-art major ones. The negative and positive emotional experience as well as the total score of SWB of non-art major students as an only child is significantly higher (p<0.05) than that of non-art major students with brothers and sisters.5. There is statistical significant difference (p<0.01) on the negative emotional experience, health status and the total score among art major students with different monthly living cost - the score of negative emotional experience and the total score of students with cost less than 200yuan are both lower than that above 200yuan to 600yuan; the score of health status of the former is significantly lower than the latter. However, the different monthly living cost does not show much effect on non-art major students.6. The health status of art major students with highly educated father is significantly lower (p<0.05) than that without highly educated father. The positive emotional experience of non-art major students with highly educated parents is significantly higher (p<0.01) than that without highly educated parents, the total score of non-art major students with highly educated father is also significantly higher (p<0.05) than the without ones.