The Investigation of the Relationship between Happiness Levels of the Faculty of Sports Sciences and the Levels of Life Satisfaction and Optimism

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between happiness levels of university students with levels oflife satisfaction and optimism. The study sample consists of 318 freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior studentsrandomly selected from the departments of Physical Education and Sports Teaching, Coaching Education, SportsManagement, and Recreation Education of Faculty of Sports Sciences, Erciyes University, Turkey.Happiness Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Life Orientation Scale, as well as “Personal Information Form”prepared by the researcher were used as the data collection tools for the purpose of this research.The data obtained from Personal Information Form, Happiness Scale, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and LifeOrientation Scale was analyzed statistically with SPSS 20.0 package program. Personal information and inventorytotal scores, as well as factor scores for the candidates, are given by determining the frequency (f) and percentage (%)values. To determine the relationship between the scores obtained from the scales, Pearson Product MomentCorrelation Analysis (r), and to determine whether obtained scores are predicting each other or not, multipleregression analysis (β) were applied.As a result, happiness was found to have a high-level positive relation with life satisfaction and optimism.Considering the psychological aspects of the curriculum applied to prospective teachers, increasing the level ofhappiness will contribute to educating more qualified teachers.