Education and the Quality of Life in Korea and the United States: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

The search reported in this article analyzed two sets of national sample survey data recently collected from the United States and the Republic of Korea, and sought to compare the influence of educational attainment on the perception of life quality in these two countries. Results of this comparison indicate that education contributes a lot more to the psychological quality of life in Korea than in America. Two explanations were offered for the different roles which educational attainment plays in the two countries. Doh C. Shinn is a Professor of Political Studies and Public Affairs at Sangamon State University in Illinois. His research on the quality of life was supported by a postdoctoral research grant from the Social Science Research Council and a travel grant from the Association for Asian Studies. The data used in this article were made available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan, and the Institute of Social Sciences, Seoul National University. For their valuable advice at all stages of his work on life quality, the author thanks Professors Ahn Chung-Si, Chey Myung, Chung se-koo, Khil Seung-Hem, Kim Kyong-Dong, and Lee Hongkoo at Seoul National University, Dr. Conrad Rutkowski at Fordham University, and Professors Craig Brown and Jack Van Der Slik at Sangamon State University. He also gratefully acknowledges the helpful comments and suggestions of the three anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of this article and the assistance of Jackie Wright in preparing tables, figures, and text. Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 50:360-370 ? 1986 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research Published by The University of Chicago Press 0033-362X/86/0050-360/$2.50 This content downloaded from 157.55. 39.112 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:07:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor. org/terms EDUCATION IN KOREA AND THE USA 361 been confined to advanced industrialized societies in Western Europe and North America; very little systematic research has been conducted to compare the effects of education on psychological well-being across culturally and economically divergent types of societies. The present study seeks to fill this void in the psychological study of life quality by analyzing two sets of national sample survey data recently collected from the Republic of Korea and the United States. Unquestionably, America represents one of the most affluent and educationally advanced countries in the West. Korea, on the other hand, is one of the most rapidly developing, nonwestern countries of the Third World. More important, Korean and American societies have long been shaped by different cultures, Confucianism and Christianity. These differences in their economic wealth, educational attainment, and cultural heritage provide an interesting opportunity to explore the dynamics of education in the psychological world of human well-being. Does more education help people in America and Korea to live happier, more pleasant, more satisfying, and more successful lives? Or does educational attainment increase aspirations and expectations so much that it makes it more difficult to experience life as "better"? In which of these two countries does education have stronger and more pervasive effects on psychological well-being, and why? Conceptualization and Measurement The concept of quality of life has been defined and measured in many different ways. McCall (1975), for example, viewed it as a life of happiness (see also Shinn and Johnson, 1976). Other scholars have equated life quality with a sense of satisfaction (Atkinson, 1978; Campbell et al., 1976). Still others have related it to the extent to which life goals are accomplished (Hankiss, 1980; Milbrath, 1982). Undoubtedly, such unidimensional approaches to the concept of life quality portray a partial picture of the quality of life perceived by people themselves. This study measures quality of life in terms of four widely known elements of the good life: happiness, enjoyment, satisfaction, and accomplishment (von Wright, 1972). Happiness and enjoyment represent the hedonic dimension of the good of man, while satisfaction and accomplishment constitute its welfare dimension. By considering at least these two dimensions of life quality, we are attempting to make a more comprehensive and balanced analysis of education's effects on it. In measuring educational attainment, the present study focuses on learning experience in public and private schools. Unquestionably, there are important differences in what Korean and American schools teach and how they teach their students. Yet, these differences are This content downloaded from 157.55. 39.112 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 05:07:10 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor. org/terms