Subjective Well-being and Self-acceptance among Scavengers

Sarah Hafiza, Marty Mawarpury, Dahlia, Maya Khairani

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Aceh, Indonesia

Keywords: Subjective Well-Being, Self-Acceptance, Scavengers, Banda Aceh.

Abstract: Working as a scavenger provides positive and negative experiences. It relates to the individual's self-esteem

and subjective well-being. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between subjective

well-being with self-acceptance on scavengers in Banda Aceh. This study using a quantitative approach

with non-probability sampling and incidental sampling techniques which involved 94 scavengers consisting

of 48 males and 46 females (17-65 years). Subjective well-being was measured using Satisfaction with Life

Scale (SWLS) and Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE), while self-acceptance was

measured using Berger's Self-Acceptance Scale. Data analysis using correlation analysis Spearman-Brown

Formula with the result of correlation coefficient (r)=0.036 and significance value (p)=0.727 (p>0.05).

These results indicated that there was no relationship between subjective well-being and self-acceptance on

scavengers. In separate, data showed that more than 50% of scavengers with the highest category, both for

subjective well-being (67.1%) and self-acceptance (61.7%). It happens caused by several factors in the

meaning of life.

1 INTRODUCTION

The population continues to occur in Indonesia.

According to Bahar (2014), a country will

increasingly get poorer population and economic

growth does not increase in harmony. Indonesia's

Central Statistics Agency (BPS) 2019, the number of

poor people in March 2019 reached 25.14 million

people with the number of poor people in Aceh as of

March 2019 depending on the number of 819

thousand people or 15.32 percent and the highest in

Sumatra. Poor population in Indonesia, including

Aceh, decreased population from the previous year,

but the poor population will affect the social life of

the community (Bahar, 2014; Nurnaningsih, 2017).

The results of Fitrah, Isnaini, and Asshary (2017)

research stated that scavengers are alternative jobs

chosen by several individuals so they will not be

accepted. Scavengers, according to Shalih (2003),

are individuals who collect, collect, and search for

trash, both individuals and groups. The positive

impact of working as a scavenger is to get an

education and be able to finance education for

families, free from work rules (KumparanNews,

2017), and also avoid deviant policies (Magdalena,

2015). Another benefit of scavengers for the

surrounding environment can reduce the amount of

waste in the city while classifying waste by type

(Pardede, 2017). On the other hand, the negative

impact of working as a scavenger is that some

people consider working as a scavenger representing

a profession that is considered low (Perdanaffebri,

2016), risks to health due to uncleanliness and the

safety factor of the scavengers working in

'mountains of garbage' (KumparanNews, 2017).

Working as a scavenger is one part of economic

development to get income. Efforts to increase

income to meet the needs needed and can improve

individual welfare (Rochaida, 2016). According to

Diener (2000), subjective well-being is determined

by how individuals evaluate information or events

experienced. The methods used to evaluate an event

are also influenced by temperament, standards set by

the individual, mood, situations that occur and are

experienced as well as cultural influences. In other

words, subjective well-being includes cognitive and

affective evaluations (positive and negative feelings)

of the individual.

In addition to subjective well-being, the impact

that is received by the scavengers is very influential

on the individual, so that this condition indirectly

relates to self-acceptance with the situations and

conditions that are undertaken. According to

Osborne (1992) self-acceptance as an attitude of

Haﬁza, S., Mawarpury, M., Dahlia, . and Khairani, M.

Subjective Well-being and Self-acceptance among Scavengers.

DOI: 10.5220/0009447202430248

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Psychology (ICPsy 2019), pages 243-248

ISBN: 978-989-758-448-0

243

accepting themselves both weaknesses and strengths

they have. Self-acceptance is the key to achieving

success because individuals can walk with

confidence. Individuals with low self-acceptance

conditions will tend to close themselves off from

others, ashamed, to make certain efforts towards

various things that are still lacking (Ridha, 2012).

Conversely, individuals with high self-acceptance

will be able to accept all the weaknesses and

strengths they have to create self-confidence, joy,

enthusiasm, not feel inferior, be able to

communicate, adjust, and be able to carry out social

interactions with others and be more focused in

business optimizing one's potential for success

(Santrock, 2003; Prihadhi, 2004).

Working as a scavenger is not something that

every individual wants, but rather a life demand that

forces the scavenger to continue to live his life as

well as possible and accept his life sincerely (Ulina,

Kurniasih, & Putri, 2013; Diansari, 2016).

Individuals with low self-acceptance will tend to

close themselves off from others, ashamed, to make

certain efforts towards various things that are still

lacking (Ridha, 2012). Based on this, this study aims

to see whether there is a relationship between

subjective well-being with self-acceptance in

scavengers.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Subjective Well-being

In early 1969 Bradburn introduced welfare having

two approaches which are usually called hedonists

and eudaemonic. Hedonic well-being refers to good

feelings, while eudaimonic well-being refers to a

good life. Hedonic well-being is also often called

subjective well-being (Hederson & Knight, 2012).

According to Diener and Tov (2013), subjective

well-being is the way a person evaluates himself and

the experiences that occur from their lives.

Subjective well-being is also better known as

happiness, it is because positive feelings become an

important thing for the welfare aspect. According to

Diener and TOV (2013), subjective well-being has

three components, including; a) life satisfaction, b)

pleasant effect, and c) Negative Affect. Diener

(1984) explains that 6 factors influence subjective

well-being, some of which are subjective

satisfaction, income, behavior and results,

personality, and biological influence.

2.2 Self Acceptance

In the 20th century, experts discussed the acceptance

of acceptance (Williams & Lynn, 2010). In the late

1940s acceptance (acceptance) was divided into two

domains, namely self-acceptance and acceptance of

others (Sheerer, 1949). Self-acceptance is an

individual's assessment of him by giving rise to

confidence in living life, being responsible, being

able to accept criticism and suggestions objectively,

not blaming yourself, not feeling rejected, not

thinking of himself differently from others, and not

ashamed and feeling inferior (Berger, 1952). Self-

acceptance behavior according to Berger (1952) are;

a) Internal standards for individuals are guidelines

for behavior where the individual does not rely on

external pressure to behave; b) Have self-confidence

in living life; c) Responsible for accepting the

consequences of each behavior, d) Receiving praise

and criticism objectively, e) Individuals do not try to

reject and deny the feelings, motives, limitations,

and abilities possessed, f) Feel valuable and equal

with others; g) Individuals do not feel that others

will reject it; g) Individuals do not consider

themselves strange, abnormal, and different from

others; h) Individuals do not feel ashamed or self-

conscious of others.

3 RESEARCH METHOD

This research is a type of quantitative research using

a non-probability sampling method with incidental

sampling techniques. The subjects in this study were

94 scavengers with the following subject criteria:

collecting or collecting used goods in various places

to make a living, do not have a permanent job, aged

15 years and above. Measuring instruments used in

the study are divided into three, on subjective well-

being measured using two scales, namely

Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, et al.,

1985) which measure the components of life

satisfaction and positive and negative affect

components measured using Scale of Positive and

Negative Experience (SPANE) (Diener, et al.,

2009). Self-acceptance was measured using Berger's

Self-Acceptance Scale compiled by Berger (1952).

Analysis of the data used in this study uses non-

parametric methods, namely Spearman-Brown

Formula because the two variables are not linear.

ICPsy 2019 - International Conference on Psychology

244

4 RESULT

The results of data analysis using the assumption test

that is the normality test on the subjective well-being

variable have a significance value (p) = 0.634 and

the self-acceptance variable shows a significance

value (p) = 0.390, and a linearity test with a

significance value (p) = 0.759. The assumption test

results indicate that the research data is normally

distributed and not linear, so the hypothesis test is

performed using the nonparametric method, namely

the Spearman-Brown Formula correlation. This

method is used to analyze the relationship between

subjective well-being and self-acceptance in

scavengers. Both variables show a correlation

coefficient of (r) = 0.036, with a significance value

(p) = 0.727 (p> 0.05), thus, it can be interpreted that

there is no relationship between self-acceptance and

subjective well-being of scavengers. The

demographic data of research subjects can be seen in

table 1.

5 DISCUSSION

The results showed that there was no relationship

between subjective well-being with self-acceptance

in scavengers, in other words, the hypothesis put

forward in the study was rejected. The absence of a

relationship between subjective well-being and self-

acceptance in individuals can be caused by several

factors. According to Diener (1984) which can affect

subjective well-being in individuals, for example,

subjective satisfaction, income, age, gender, culture,

religion, work, education, marriage, and personality.

The same thing was expressed by Hurlock (2009)

that several factors affect individual self-acceptance,

namely the existence of self-understanding, having

realistic expectations, the absence of environmental

barriers, appropriate social behavior, the absence of

emotional stress, and self-concept stable one.

Further study is conducted at the level of subjective

welfare categorization and self-acceptance. Can be

seen in the following Table 2.

Table 2: The level of subjective welfare

categorization and self-acceptance.

Variable

Categorization

Percentage

(%)

High (%) Low (%)

Subjective well-

being

(67.1%)

(32.9%)

100

Self

Acceptance

(61.7%)

(38.3%)

100

Table 1: Demographic data of study samples.

Description Number

Subjects

Percentage

(%)

Total

(%)

Gende

100

Male 48 51 %

Girl 46 48,9 %

Age

17-25 years 19 20,2 %

100

26-35 years

29 30,8 %

36-45 years

27 28,7 %

46-55 years

16 17 %

–

65 years 2 2,1 %

65 and above 1 1,06 %

Last educatio

Elementary

school

13 13,8 %

100

Middle School 38 40,4 %

SMA / SMK /

STM

39 41,4%

D2 / D3 2 2,1 %

S1 2 0,01 %

Marital status

Marrie

65 70 %

100

Single 20 21,2 %

Widow 6 6,3 %

Widowe

3 3,1 %

Suk

Ace

82 87,2 %

100

Flores 1 1,1 %

Java 8 8,5 %

Mandailing 1 1,1 %

Nias 2 2,1 %

Religion

Islam 94 100 % 100

Length of

wor

<3 years 43 45,7%

100

4-6 years 14 14,8%

7-9 years 12 12,7%

10-12 years 18 19,1%

13-15 years 6 6,3%

> 16 years ol

11%

Earnings (per

day)

Rp1,000 –

Rp50,000

38 40,2 %

100

Rp 50,000 to

Rp 100,000

49 52,1 %

IDR 100,000 -

IDR 150,000

5 5,3 %

Rp150,000 –

Rp200,000

1 1,06 %

> 200,000 1 1,06 %

Subjective Well-being and Self-acceptance among Scavengers

245

According to the results of the study, researchers

suspect the role of religious and cultural factors that

greatly affect the level of subjective well-being and

self-acceptance of waste pickers in Aceh. Of the 94

subjects, there were 82 Acehnese and all of them

were Muslim. According to Ishak (2013), Islam is

the identity of the people of Aceh, so that Islam

becomes a way of life that is settled in a system and

social structure that will become a way of life.

Umami (2009) further explained that Aceh was

known to have a culture with strong religious values,

attitudes, and a hard character in dealing with life's

problems, and patience and sincerity towards things

that were God's will. According to Abdullah (2010),

there are several characteristics of Acehnese

according to the socio-cultural side of Aceh built

based on religion and tradition which forms a source

of social structuring that takes place in Aceh,

Acehnese people uphold the values of collectivity, it

can also be explained that culture and Acehnese adat

is nothing but the Islamic norm itself. Culture or

adat in the context of religion is very important and

Islamic teachings have become the way of life of the

people of Aceh (Samad, 2017).

Diener in 1984 said that religion and culture

were one of the factors that influenced subjective

well-being. In general, individual trust tends to

increase higher subjective well-being, such as prayer

and worship have also been linked to higher

subjective well-being (Diener & Ryan, 2009).

Badaria and Astuti (2004) also revealed that religion

can be one of the factors that influence self-

acceptance, where individuals will accept all trials

and see as something natural, consider themselves as

people chose to be tested, as trials of life, and maybe

things are not liked but that's the best thing for him.

individual self. The same thing was expressed by

Subandi (1997) that individuals who can accept their

nature with all their shortcomings and weaknesses

by trusting to foster an attitude of self-acceptance.

This is supported by the results of the research

conducted. Mukti and Dewi (2013) found that there

is a relationship between the role of religion and

self-acceptance.

When conducting research, researchers also

obtain information verbally in the field that shows

several reasons why subjects choose to work as

scavengers that can affect the level of subjective

well-being and subject self-acceptance. Some

reasons for choosing to work as a scavenger include;

because it went bankrupt from the business that was

undertaken before, did not get a job despite getting a

bachelor's degree, and other reasons because

working as a scavenger did not beg for others and

avoid deviant behavior (stealing). According to

Diener (2013) individuals who have a job, have

higher subjective well-being than those who do not.

work can also affect the feelings and happiness of

individuals. The results also showed that some of

these subjects showed high levels of subjective well-

being.

Based on the results of the analysis conducted

separately showed that more than 50% of research

subjects are in the high-level categorization both for

the variable subjective well-being and self-

acceptance variable, where there are 67% of subjects

have a high level of subjective well-being, and there

are 61.7% subjects have a high level of self-

acceptance. Furthermore, there were only 32.9% of

subjects in the low categorization for subjective

well-being and 38.2% of subjects for low self-

acceptance. This is because there are factors that

influence subjective well-being and self-acceptance

in each of these variables.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The results showed that there was no relationship

between self-acceptance and the subjective well-

being of scavengers in the city of Banda Aceh.

However, if the two variables are examined

separately it can be seen that more than 50% of

scavengers in the city of Banda Aceh have

subjective well-being and high self-acceptance.

Based on the results of further analysis of each

variable, it is known that there are factors that

influence subjective well-being and self-acceptance,

namely the role of Acehnese culture and religion, in

which Acehnese culture makes Islam as a guide or

guideline in the values of life.

The next researcher can use qualitative methods

through observation and interviews to deepen the

results of the research variables, especially related to

the dynamics or the description of subjective well-

being and self-acceptance in the scavengers.

Research can also be done not only with scavengers

but can be compared with beggars or individuals

who have similar criteria.

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