Unhappiness among the unemployed: The roles of descriptive norms, injunctive norms and personal beliefs

Uğur Z. B., Durak A.

Asian Journal of Social Psychology, cilt.28, sa.2, 2025 (SSCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 28 Sayı: 2
  • Basım Tarihi: 2025
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1111/ajsp.70016
  • Dergi Adı: Asian Journal of Social Psychology
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, Index Islamicus, Psycinfo, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: descriptive norm, happiness, injunctive norm, unemployment
  • Abdullah Gül Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

This study explores the influence of social norms and individual beliefs on the well-being of unemployed individuals in Turkey, a context marked by both chronic unemployment and a high societal valuation of employment. Using province-level representative data from the 2013 Life Satisfaction Survey, encompassing 196,203 observations, we analyse how descriptive norms (prevalence of unemployment) and injunctive norms (social pressures due to unemployment) at the province level affect the happiness of the unemployed. We utilized people's perception of employment for being respected in social life and personally feeling social pressure as a measure of individual beliefs. Multilevel regression results reveal that descriptive norms can modestly alleviate the adverse impact of unemployment, particularly for the short-term unemployed, while injunctive norms slightly intensify the unhappiness of being unemployed, especially in the short term. The unemployed's personal beliefs about the value of employment matter for their happiness. These findings underscore the theoretical implications of social norms in shaping the well-being of the unemployed and highlight the importance of individual beliefs in moderating these effects.