Gratitude could contribute to the psychological well-being of resident around Lapindo Mudflow resident

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Ilustration oleh CNN Indonesia

May 29, 2006, was a historical moment for Sidoarjo, East Java. On that day, blazing hot 100°C of gas and mud erupted from the ground. That phenomenon, or rather, natural disaster, later known as “Lumpur Lapindo” or Lapindo mudflow. The villages which were flooded by the mud are located in three different districts named, Tanggulangin, Porong, and Jabon. The villages that got flooded were Renokenongo Siring (east side), Jatirejo (east side), Glagaharum (west side), Kedungbendo Ketapang (east side), and Besuki (west side). The area growth of those three districts categorized as very dynamic and have a highly populated citizens because of the industrial region, settlements, and the main access to the bigger cities in south and east side of Sidoarjo.

The Lapindo mudflow has caused some issues to arise. The point of eruption of the mud was located on highly populated settlement. The east side of Lapindo mudflow is a shrimp aquaculture area. Mud that came out caused pollution in the area so according to calculations from the province, farmers suffered losses of more than Rp. 13 billion. Because the overflow area also inundated the industrial area, which is a source of work for local residents and residents outside the Sidoarjo city. It is estimated that the total loss until August 2007 reached Rp. 28.3 billion for infrastructure assets, the industrial sector and its indirect impact on the economy of East Java Province. In addition, in the western part of the Lapindo mudflow is the main route connecting major cities in the south and east to cities in the north, such as Surabaya as a trading center in East Java. This causes tens of thousands of citizens to bear the socio-economic burden.

Various socio-economic losses that are both experienced directly by the resident and the local government certainly have an impact on the psychological welfare of disaster victims, namely residents around Lapindo mudflow. Residents experience loss of their homes and sources of work, which are basic human needs. That resulted in the difficulty to fulfill other basic needs. The Lapindo mudflow disaster cause change in socioeconomic condition of the affected resident which result on the change in their psychological well-being.

Psychological well-being (PWB) is conditions where an individual has a purpose in life to be more meaningful, realize the potential possessed, creating and managing the quality of their relationships with others, responsible for his life and trying to develop and explore himself.

One of the factor that correlate with individual psychological wellbeing is gratitude. Gratitude is a feeling that occurs when someone acknowledges that he received valuable benefits from another. The main purpose of gratitude is to reflect back the good received. Researches shows that gratitude has a positive relationship with psychological wellbeing. Gratitude found to be a significant factor that could improve individual psychological wellbeing. However there is little evidence that proved the relationship between gratitude and psychological wellbeing. Therefore this study was conducted on 80 resident lived around Lapindo mudflow area. Aimed of this study is to investigate the relationship between gratitude and psychological 2 wellbeing of resident live in around Lapindo mudflow.

Based on the results of data collection, it is found that gratitude is important factor that relate to psychological well-being. Beside of that, this research also found that there is a significant difference between resident that live near and they who live far from the Lapindo mudflow area.

In conclusion, gratitude has a positive relationship with psychological wellbeing of people live in around the Lapindo mudflow area. Beside of that, difference geographical location also influence the trength of the relationship between gratitude and psychological wellbeing of the resident lived around Lapindo mud flow disaster.

Author: Dian Anggraini1 and Listyati Palupi

Personality and Social Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Link: https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/ref/2020/13/e3sconf_corectijjss2020_03005/e3sconf_corectijjss2020_03005.html

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