More than feeling good : investigating college students' experience of well-being

This study, "More Than Feeling Good: Investigating College Students' Experience of Well-Being." is a first-person, phenomenological investigation of the experience of well-being. Twelve traditional-college-age students attending a large, comprehensive public university in the south were interviewed. The students were asked to respond to the request: "Think about some times in your life when you experienced well-being. Tell me about them." The taped interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using an established phenomenological method that included the involvement of a research group. The thematic analysis produced a description of well-being based on the co-participants' reported experiences. Well-being was identified as a positive state, yet the co-participants were unable to talk about the positive without describing negative experiences as well. The basis to understanding well-being is recognizing that it is an experience that involves an awareness of comparisons. Well-being emerges from a context of change/comparison and is dependent on what is important to me (the individual). The description of well-being also involves three themes and three occasions or whens. Well-being is characterized by a sense of being in control of, completeness in, and feeling good about one's sense of self, one's relationships with others, or one's doings. The themes of well-being are known in comparison through changes that are identified as transformations, havens, or contrasts. The whens involving well-being emerge in comparison between what is important and what is not, between a change in the number of things that are important, or between a change in the intensity of the importance of a particular doing, relationship, or sense of self. The thematic structure presented in this study provides a framework for interpretating and integrating many of the currently used conceptualizations of well-being. The themes of well-being have been compared to frequently used measures and models of well-being and wellness. The common aspects of life identified by these co-participants have been targeted as issues for consideration for those involved in higher education. Several suggestions are made for researchers and practitioners concerning the importance of change/comparison and personal meaning in the experience of well-being.