The purpose of this study was to develop entity theory concerning the process of obtaining happiness for people with schizophrenia. This study focused on "what is the process of schizophrenics' obtaining happiness?" based on grounded theory methodolog...
The purpose of this study was to develop entity theory concerning the process of obtaining happiness for people with schizophrenia. This study focused on "what is the process of schizophrenics' obtaining happiness?" based on grounded theory methodology(Strauss and Corbin, 1998). The subjects of this study were 12 outpatients aged 29 to 51 diagnosed as schizophrenia. The research materials were collected from March 2008 to October, 2008 through in-depth interviews and the process of analyzing the materials was based on grounded theory methodology(Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Based on this methodology, the interview results were analyzed using three stages of data analysis--opening, axial and selective coding methods.
As the result of this study, open coding drew 163 concepts, 44 subcategories and 15 superordinate categories. In the axial coding, the result of analyzing the categories by paradigm showed that in the process of schizophrenics' achieving happiness, the causal condition was ‘being regarded as dead’, the core phenomenon was ‘wanting to live happily as though having normal lives’. The contextual condition corresponding to this phenomenon was ‘no way out’, ‘not treated as human beings’. The action/ interaction strategies to control this situation were ‘thinking of themselves as normal people’, ‘thinking positively’, ‘adjusting their expectation', and 'experiencing a sense of accomplishment'. The intervening condition to boost or control the action/interaction strategies was 'exhibiting strong will', 'recognizing the possibility of change', and 'overcoming obstacles in their surroundings to improve their opportunities to change'. The results were 'holding their daily life dearer than before', 'restoring self-esteem', 'reconciliating broken relationships', and 'having hope'.
The process of schizophrenic people obtaining happiness is considered to progress in 4 stages-- 'the stage of denying happiness', 'the stage of craving for happy life', 'the stage of grasping how to get happiness‘, and 'the stage of experiencing happiness'.
'The stage of denying happiness' starts from showing despair and denying happiness. Subjects feel miserable. They have difficulty in building social relationships. They feel they are not treated as human beings and fall into despair by concluding that they can't get over their mental disorder. Therefore they can't feel happy however hard they try, and they end up denying themselves happiness.
'The stage of craving for normal life' is defined as showing the instinct to live when they reached the bottom of despair. They try to escape from the bottom, challenging the limitations of their mental disorder and having a faith to overcome it. And then they show strong will to live a normal and happy life.
In 'the stage of grasping how to get happiness', they endeavor to get away from feeling shameful of schizophrenia and to think of themselves as normal people. They grasp how to become happy by thinking positively, taking it easy and lowering their expectation.
'The stage of experiencing happiness' is the stage in which they realize that happiness exists in daily life and experience happiness. By making efforts to be satisfied with small daily things, they can come to love themselves, restore self-esteem and end up building good relationships with people.
The core concept in selective coding was revealed as 'experiencing happiness in the process of overcoming limitation'. The continuous relevance between categories centered on core concept was checked. The study participants were classified into four types by the strategies they used to pursue happiness: 'self-esteem type', 'simple-thinking type', 'expectation-adjusting type', and 'accomplishment-seeking type'.
The self-esteem type feels happy when she or he is recognized to be worthwhile. The people, who experienced isolation, reported that they felt happier when mental health workers called their names, recognized and supported them. People with this type were found to feel happy using the strategy of regarding themselves as normal people and restoring self-esteem.
The simple-thinking type looks at life positively and doesn't worry too much. People with this strategy said that they feel happy in daily life where they are not ill and can work. This thinking resulted in them valuing everyday life and restoring human relationships through the strategy of thinking positively.
The expectation-adjusting type experiences happiness through the strategy of adjusting expectation to situation, instead of having unrealistic expectations. They said that they felt happiest when they left the hospital and could stay at home with family. This type produced the result of valuing everyday life using the strategy of adjusting their expectation.
The feature of Accomplishment-seeking type is to believe in the their potential. They challenge their obstacles and show strong tenacity for one goal. They feel happy as they progress toward a higher goal through experiencing small accomplishments. This type resulted in recovering self-esteem and having hope with the strategy of seeking accomplishments.
The situational model showed that schizophrenics experienced happiness through the process of 'experiencing happiness by getting over their limitations with their full strength'.
Based on the results founded in the study, the conclusion suggested which process need more in-depth understanding in the field of practice and discussed them in the light of social issues concerned and established theory. Finally, the implications for future social work practice and the suggestions for follow-up study were added.