Myers & Diener (1995):

• Methodology & procedures: (interviews & questionnaires)


  Literature review of research on topic of happiness. (Secondary data). Can assess happiness by considering SWB of person through interviews with closed questions & questionnaires with a number of questions. Quantitative measure produced that represents happiness.
• Methodology & procedures: (observations):


  Researchers use beepers to remind participants to report what they're doing &/or thinking at particular moment. Way to sample behaviour.
• Methodology & procedures: (correlations)


  Understand happiness by considering what factors co-vary with it. Some factors may contribute to making person happy- other factors are consequence of being happy. Not always clear which is cause & which is effect. E.g, people with high SWB tend to have a positive appraisal to life events around them. Could be that if person tends to see events around them in rose-coloured way, this may create higher SWB.
• Methodology & procedures: (reviews):


  Study is review of research & some of research referred to is also based on multiple studies. Some are reviews & meta-analyses.
• Findings: (race or culture)


  Some notable differences. (Diener et al, 1993): African-Americans report nearly twice as much happiness as European-Americans. (Inglehart, 1990) Portugal 10% happy & Netherlands 40% happy. People in individualist cultures report greater subjective wellbeing than those in collectivist cultures.
• Findings: (gender)


  Inglehart (1990)- no difference between genders. Survey in 16 different countries- mean score 80% satisfaction with life (men % women). Some research found women more vulnerable to depression (Robins & Regier, 1991). Haring et al (1984)- calculated that a person's gender accounted for 1% of global well-being.
• Findings: (age)


  Overall, no difference between age groups. Survey of 170,000 of all ages in 16 different countries, found mean score of 80% satisfaction with life in all age groups (Inglehart 1990). Different factors contribute to happiness at different ages e.g, social relations & health are more important with age (Herzog et al, 1982). McCrae & Costa (1990)- people do experience crises but these aren't restricted to particular age such as the supposed mid-life crisis in one's early 40s.
• Costa et al (1987):


  Found those reporting being happy in 1973 tended to be happy a decade later.
• Traits of happy people:


  High self-esteem, sense of personal control, optimism & extraversion. Traits could make people happier or could develop as person is happy.
• Relationships of happy people:

  For some, relationships create more stress & unhappiness than happiness. For most, benefits outweigh the stresses (tend to be happier). Burt (1986)- people who can name several close friends are healthier & happier than those who can't. Lee et al (1991)- married people are happier than non-married people. 39% vs 24%. Wood et al (1989)- in meta-analysis of 93 studies, women & men reported similar levels of happiness for marriage & non-marriage.
• Faith of happy people:


  Poloma & Pendleton (1990): North America & Europe, people who are religious report higher levels of happiness. Gallup (1984): people with high 'spiritual commitment' twice as likely to say they're very happy. Witter et al (1985)- happiness also associated with strength of religious affiliation & frequency of worship attendance.
• Evaluate samples:


  Lot of data based on Western samples as researchers American & conducted much research in USA. Roots of happiness may be different in other cultures e.g, comparing individualist & collectivist cultures. People reported higher levels of happiness in individualist but may be that people in collectivist cultures are equally happy but don't express it as happiness. Their pleasure comes from success of group rather than individual.
• Work & 'flow' of happy people:


  Those out of work less happy than those in work. Work provides personal identity, sense that one's life matters & sense of community. Work satisfaction affects happiness. Work can be unsatisfying & stressful & associated with unhappiness. Csikszentmihalyi 'flow' theory: extent to which you become caught up in activity so other things matter less. Used beepers and found that people happiest when engaged in mindful challenge & experiencing flow (work not too easy & not too hard).
• Astin et al (1987):


  1993 survey found 75% American college students selected 'being well off financially' as essential life goal, compared with 39% in 1970.
• Diener et al (1993):


  Correlation between income & happiness is +0.12
• Diener et al (1985):


  Rich don't report greater happiness- survey of people on Forbes rich list found 37% less happy than average American.
• Argyle (1986):


  People who win lottery only report brief increases in their happiness.
• Where does lack of money importance not apply?


  Situations where people poor. E.g, in poor country (e.g, Bangladesh) people with money report higher SWB than those without. Affluence does increase happiness but up to a point. Once certain level of comfort reached, increased wealth makes little difference.