A unique study being conducted by Point Park’s Humanities Department that merges psychology and urban studies will attempt to determine perceptions of well-being in the Pittsburgh region.
Through the use of an online survey, Dr. Brent Robbins, chair of the Humanities Department, and Kirill Kryuchkov, a graduate student in the department are conducting the rare study.
The pair hopes to identify and connect socioeconomic issues to an individual’s own perception of well-being.
“It’s about well-being and the connection to one’s environment,” Kryuchkov said. “Sometimes it is easy to see what effects on well-being in terms of the human environment, the environment where we live and how to improve well-being and give some solutions.”
The study will be conducted through a survey posted online. Respondents will self-report how they perceive their own well-being. That information will then be combined with environmental factors such as socioeconomic standing and location.
“How can you measure well-being?” Kryuchkov said. “I can measure it objectively if I make you feel pain. I can measure your EKG, but in that case it is not self-reported. It is more ‘how do I perceive how I feel’.”
This study is a replication of a study first done by researchers in Russia. Those same researchers will be assisting Kryuchkov and Robbins in their study.
“They’re there to help us. They have the software to create a map, essentially. They are able to show a geographical map and convert the scores on the well-being study so that it reflects graphically on the map,” Robbins said.
The study is targeting adults ages 18-64 in Allegheny County. “We are looking at well-being and its relationship with a geographical area. So we will be able to use this inventory to assess mental and physical well-being and see if there are correlations with certain geological areas,” Robbins said.
Eventually, a map of Pittsburgh could be constructed showing the correlation between well-being and a particular location.
“Our colleagues are in urban studies, they are not psychologists,” Kryuchkov said. “We need them in terms of their help in the urban explanations.”
The researchers in Russia need the help of Kryuchkov and Robbins’ to explain the correlations between the results of the study and the human mind.
“They can help us create this map and provide us with some explanations on the urban factors,” Kryuchkov said. “We can help them with the psychological things.”
According to Robbins, this collaboration between urban studies research and the psychology of well-being is relatively new.
“Mostly, the research has been on the relationship between community factors and mental health, but not well-being.” Robbins said.
This research aims to show more than that.
“In other words, are there certain kinds of social, economic or cultural correlations that we can find that link up to the psychological variables of well-being?” Robbins added.
This is a more positive spin on psychology. According to Robbins, very few people have done research in positive psychology.
This study will link psychology, usually the study of the individual, to thinking about the individual in their larger social context.
“We aren’t looking at how people go wrong but how they go right,” Robbins said.