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Feeling Safe and Subjective Well-being

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Feeling Safe
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Feeling Safe
Eduardo Wills-Herrera
School of Management, Universidad de Los
Andes, Bogota, DC, Colombia
Synonyms
Feelings of Security; Human Security; Satisfac-
tion with Personal Security; Self-Control
Definition
It is the state of being free from threat and danger
that calls an emotional reaction.
It is the feeling of being protected from
external threats, risk, or dangers.
Perceptions of insecurity are manifested to the
individual as fears of losing control of their lives,
loss of property, loss of social relationships, or
even loss of the life.
Perceptions of insecurity influence subjective
well-being because insecurity implies a lack of
control or autonomy of the individual in relation
to managing his environment.
2233 F
Description
Safety is a multidimensional concept. Discus-
sions about the relationship between feeling safe
and ▶ subjective well-being (SWB) include
topics about the definition of safety and security,
including the concept of ▶ human security, as
well as an assessment of the mechanisms of
▶ adaptation that people and groups use to
counteract the negative feelings that insecurity
brings about. It is also important to discuss
about the causes and consequences of insecurity F
for the individual, the group, the city, and region-
and nation-state level. There is also the issue
of why objective and subjective measures of
security and safety differ.
Perceptions of insecurity are manifested to
the person involved as fears of losing their lives,
loss of property, loss of social relationships, or
losing control over their lives. The presence of
present dangers and lack of control affect SWB.
Perceptions of insecurity influence SWB
because insecurity manifests a lack of control or
autonomy of the individual to manage his/her
environment (Wills-Herrera, Orozco, Forero,
Pardo, & Andonova, 2011).
Satisfaction with personal safety has been
proposed by various analysts (Cummins,
Eckersley, Pallant, van Vugt, & Misajon, 2003;
Cummins, Eckersley, Lo, Davern, Hunter, &
Okerstrom, 2004) as a principal dimension to
subjective well-being. Maslow (1943) had origi-
nally identified security as one of the low-order
needs that have to be fulfilled in order that people
tend to satisfy their high-order needs for ▶ self-
actualization (Maslow, 1970). Safety needs
reflect order and predictability in the environ-
ment and the human desire for security and pro-
tection. Lower-level needs tend to be more salient
in extreme conditions such as when natural disas-
ters occur, wars, or extreme poverty. Feeling
insecure may be expressed as a feeling of reduced
safety in everyday life due to individual reasons,
existence of crime at the community level, inse-
curities from armed groups in rural areas, and fear
of terrorist attacks which have been heightened
since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the
USA. Feelings of insecurity may also come
F 2234
from political reasons (fear of exerting voice in
public discussions), health and food insecurities,
insecurity from natural disasters, and community
insecurity, when people do not feel safe by
belonging to a particular group or community,
for instance, the fear Muslims feel by their
perception of anti-Muslim sentiments among
some sections of their community.
When people feel unsafe, this feeling can
easily overwhelm their world view so that they
can feel a drastic reduction of well-being in
a similar way to an unemployed or an individual
who is feeling pain. This relationship has been
demonstrated empirically. For instance, Moeller
(2005) has found that in South Africa urban
metropolitan municipalities, worries about
personal security and ▶ fear of crime exert
a very negative impact on satisfaction with life.
Di Tella, MacCulloch, and Nopo (2009) and
Di Tella, MacCulloch, and Oswald (2003) have
also shown that ▶ victimization by crime has
a positive relationship with anxiety and other
negative feelings. In such circumstances, an
adaptation process may occur. On the other
hand, a number of researchers have used need
hierarchy theory to explain the relationship
between subjective well-being and variables like
income, food supply, nutrition, and shelter
(Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002; Veenhoven,
1991; Oishi, Diener, Lucas, & Suh, 1999).
People adapt to their circumstances of living
by adapting their behaviors to suit their
living environments. A process of adaptation
may even occur under severe environmental
conditions. Many people in the world live under
violent circumstances yet are able to maintain
a stable level of SWB or they develop strategies
to reduce its impact. For instance, Cummins
(2012) and Di Tella and Schargrodsky (2009)
have shown that people react strategically to
insecurity by a different array of measures
such as not wearing jewelry, contracting private
security services, and creating associations
in rural areas (Wills-Herrera et al., 2011). In
insecure neighborhoods, parents exert closer
monitoring of their children, restricting their
children’s behavior outside home (Kling et al.,
2005). Other studies have explored the
Feeling Safe
relationship between fear of crime and ▶ quality
of life (Michalos & Zumbo, 2000; Moeller,
2005). On the other hand, the International
Well-being Index (Cummins, 2012) includes
items on personal security and national security.
Feelings of security can also be seen as part
of a human security concept (Sen, 1999; Jolly &
Ray, 2007), which has been proposed as an
individual-centered process diverging from the
security notion derived from the use of military
forces available to protect a given territory or
nation (Gasper, 2005). The Commission on
Human Security proposes human security as
“protecting the vital core of all humans’ lives
in ways that enhance human freedoms
and human fulfillment” (Ogata & Sen, 2003).
This concept of human security is not limited
to the negative dimension of the absence
of violent conflict but includes safeguarding
opportunities for people to build their strengths
and aspirations (Haq, 1999). It is an individual-
centered and multidimensional concept.
Community connectedness and social capital
may be seen as buffer variables to compensate
lack of control over the environment. People
with larger networks of social contacts may have
ample material and affective support to individual
members and provide ample knowledge and
information to compensate the feelings of insecu-
rity. Voluntary associations to social, cultural, rec-
reational, and environmental associations is an
indicator of social connectedness and social capi-
tal, and it has been shown to moderate the rela-
tionship between feelings of insecurity and SWB
(Wills-Herrera et al., 2011).
Cross-References
▶ Adaptation
▶ Fear of Crime
▶ Food Security
▶ Human Security
▶ Quality of Life
▶ Self-Actualization
▶ Subjective Well-Being
▶ Victimization
 Feelings of Justice 2235 F
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