The relationship between travel and positive personal growth – young adults’ perspective
Mäki, Janna (2024)
2024
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024052917420
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2024052917420
Tiivistelmä
Travel is one of those things that many people enjoy. Some may do it in a more relaxed way, others may take away deeper lessons. The purpose of this thesis is to research how travel has affected the personal growth of young adults. The emphasis is on positive personal growth, and the aim is to identify the lessons, feelings, and reflections that this target group has learned through travel.
The theoretical framework section of the thesis covers the concept of travel, its history, and de-fines separately leisure travel and types of travelers. The second part of the theory deals with personal growth: what it is, what are its five areas, followed by a discussion of the five founding fathers of positive psychology and three different theories of positive psychology. The theory is concluded in the third part, which discusses the most important theory of this thesis: a model called PERMA, which is a model of the elements of well-being.
Data was collected from the target group through an online survey conducted in April 2024. The survey was built around the PERMA model, which the author found to be the most fitting for ex-ploring the topic. The mixed methods approach was seen as the best way to analyze the data and it is the research method used in this thesis.
The research data was compared with the theory presented. The results of the research showed that travel had influenced the personal growth of young adults in many ways. There were many things that had contributed to their personal growth, but the key takeaways from the research were that the participants said they had learned to live more in the moment, had learned to recognize their strengths of character, and most had found an enrichment in their lives through travel, such as partner, a new friend, a job, a field of study or a hobby. In conclusion, traveling can be seen as good way to enhance personal growth.
This thesis was written in three months, from mid-January to mid-May 2024.
The theoretical framework section of the thesis covers the concept of travel, its history, and de-fines separately leisure travel and types of travelers. The second part of the theory deals with personal growth: what it is, what are its five areas, followed by a discussion of the five founding fathers of positive psychology and three different theories of positive psychology. The theory is concluded in the third part, which discusses the most important theory of this thesis: a model called PERMA, which is a model of the elements of well-being.
Data was collected from the target group through an online survey conducted in April 2024. The survey was built around the PERMA model, which the author found to be the most fitting for ex-ploring the topic. The mixed methods approach was seen as the best way to analyze the data and it is the research method used in this thesis.
The research data was compared with the theory presented. The results of the research showed that travel had influenced the personal growth of young adults in many ways. There were many things that had contributed to their personal growth, but the key takeaways from the research were that the participants said they had learned to live more in the moment, had learned to recognize their strengths of character, and most had found an enrichment in their lives through travel, such as partner, a new friend, a job, a field of study or a hobby. In conclusion, traveling can be seen as good way to enhance personal growth.
This thesis was written in three months, from mid-January to mid-May 2024.