Doctoral Dissertation Research: New Markets for Motivation: Exploring Varieties of Success and Well-Being in Mauritius

为了应对人口快速增长的实际压力和跟上全球现代化趋势的社会压力，毛里求斯在20世纪60年代末制定了一项大规模计划，以使其单一作物经济多样化。这项计划的目的是为更多的人提供更多的就业机会，并最终增加国家的财富和经济生产力。该国在这方面取得了成功，在过去的四十年里，毛里求斯的国内生产总值、生活质量和流动机会都大幅增加。然而，尽管在新民主化的毛里求斯，经济和社会平等的语言，从国家的殖民主义，奴隶制和契约奴役的历史遗留下来的阶级差异继续复杂化的富裕水平，乐观主义和野心在社会群体。本研究探讨了感知机会，野心和地位的比较评估的差异如何影响不同社会地位的个体的压力，焦虑和抑郁水平。该项目采用访谈和调查方法，以了解个人如何评价自己及其与文化理想化生活方式有关的成就，以及这些积极或消极的自我评价如何对他们的健康产生重大影响。这项研究检验了一个假设，即人们往往不仅根据他们在实际限制条件下认为可行的方式，而且根据他们与毛里求斯和世界其他地区其他群体，特别是大众媒体所代表的群体的社会认同，来调整他们对成功的期望。个人在当地、国家和/或国际层面上与他们认同的人的富裕程度相匹配的程度被假设会影响他们的幸福和福祉。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括一个站得住脚的解释广泛记录的社会经济阶层之间的福祉差异，并了解经济增长和现代化对个人的影响，为未来的公共卫生研究和政策制定。

In response to the practical pressures of a fast-growing population and the social pressures to keep up with global trends of modernization, Mauritius instituted a large-scale program in the late 1960s to diversify its mono-crop economy. The purpose of this plan was to provide more jobs for more people, and to ultimately increase the nation's wealth and economic productivity. The country has been successful in this attempt, and over the past forty years, GDP, quality of life, and opportunities for mobility in Mauritius have substantially increased. However, despite the language of economic and social equality in newly democratized Mauritius, class differences left over from the nation's history of colonialism, slavery, and indentured servitude continue to complicate levels of affluence, optimism, and ambition across social groups. This research explores how differences in perceived opportunity, ambition, and comparative appraisals of status affect levels of stress, anxiety, and depression across individuals of different social standing. The project incorporates interviewing and survey methods to find out how individuals appraise themselves and their achievements in relation to a culturally idealized lifestyle, and how these positive or negative self-appraisals have significant consequences on their health. The study tests a hypothesis that people tend to adjust their aspirations for success not only according to what they perceive to be feasible given practical constraints, but also according to their social identifications with other groups of people in Mauritius and the rest of the world, particularly those represented in the mass media. How well individuals can match the levels of affluence of those people with whom they identify at the local, national, and/or international level is hypothesized to affect their happiness and well-being. The broader impacts of this study include a tenable explanation for the widely-documented differences in well-being across socioeconomic strata, and an understanding of the effects of economic growth and modernization on individuals for future public health research and policy development.