STUDY OF MOTIVATION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRY: CONCEPT OF HAPPY LIFE AMONG INDIAN FARMERS.

A comparative analysis of the concept of happy life was made among 300 Indian farmers from the developed and 290 from undeveloped villages. The pattern of needs and values reflected in such projections were similar in the two groups. Villagers were overwhelmingly concerned with immediate economic values and did not frequently display needs transcending their purely personal or familial spheres. Differences existed with regard to clarity with which the needs were expressed, and to the extent they were realistic or fanciful. The projections of the farmers from the developed group were comparatively more reality-oriented, and characterized by greater precision and clarity than those from the undeveloped group. On the other hand, farmers from the undeveloped villages tended more frequently than farmers from the developed villages to indicate needs beyond their span of attainment, and in terms which were general and vague. The need for proper channelization of urges as an important precondition for rapid socioeconomic development is stressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]