Abstract:
The present study investigated the life stress, personality and psychological well-being of women entrepreneurs, service holders and homemakers. The specific objectives of the study were (a) to assess and to compare personality of women entrepreneurs, service holders and homemakers; (b) to assess and to compare psychological well-being of women entrepreneurs, service holders, and homemakers; (c) To assess and to compare life stress of women entrepreneurs, service holders and homemakers; (d) To examine whether life stress and psychological well-being have any relationship with age and income of the respondents and (e) to examine whether life stress and psychological well-being varies with family type of the respondents. A total 300 women of Dhaka city were selected of whom 100 women were entrepreneurs, 100 were service holders (50 teachers, 30 Bankers and 20 Doctor) and 100 were homemakers. The three groups were matched in terms of education and age. The instruments used to measure the psychological variables were : (i) Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (ii) Life Stress Scale (iii) Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire and respondent’s personal information’s were also collected. The data were analyzed by one way ANOVA, Post Hoc test, t test and correlation coefficient. The findings were (a) In case of Psychoticism, no significant difference was found in three groups of Respondents. But significant difference was found in neuroticism and extraversion. Results revealed that service holders have the highest neuroticism scores and entrepreneurs have the lowest neuroticism score. Entrepreneurs scored high in extraversion and homemakers have the lowest extraversion scores. (b) Homemakers reported the least amount of psychological well-being than entrepreneur and service holder women; it was also found that the service holder reported significantly higher level of psychological well-being than the entrepreneurs; (c) It was found that homemakers reported significantly higher amount of life stress than entrepreneurs and service holder women, Service holder respondents scored lowest in life stress. (d) Respondents psychological well-being and life stress did not differ significantly based on family type irrespective of profession. (e) A negative correlation was found between life stress and psychological well-being, a positive correlation was found between age and income of the respondents and age was significantly correlated negatively to the life stress.
