Myers and diener

• methodology and procedures


  literature review on happiness
• methodology and procedures


  interviews and questionnaires

  a persons sense of their own happiness or well-being,subjective well being(SWB).

  Interviewing people using simple closed questions or a multi-stem scale can be used which includes a number of questions related to happiness.

  quantitative measure
• methodology and procedures


  Observation

  asking people to report what they are doing at selected times,researchers use beepers to remind pp to send a message of what they are doing,thinking,sampling peoples behaviour
• Methodology and procedures


  Correlations

  consider what co-vary factors are related to happiness to understand it

  a result of being happy or making you feel happy,not always clear

  High SWB could be because of positive life events or someone seeing events in a rosy way
• methodology and procedures


  reviews

  review of other research and some of the research is based on multiple studies

  some are also meta analyses
• Findings-Myths of happiness


  Is happiness related to age?

  survey of 170000 people in 16 countries=no difference,all ages were equally as happy,mean satisfaction score 80%(Inglehart)

  At different ages,different factors contribute to happiness eg-health at old age(Herzog et al)

  Crises may happen but not restricted to a particular age(mid life crisis)(Mccrae and Costa)
• Findings-Myths of happiness


  Is happiness related to gender?

  Inglehart-80%of men and women were 'fairly satisfied' with life.

  Haring et al-1% of global well-being accounted for by gender

  Robins and Regier-Women 2x as vunerable to depression than men
• Findings-Myths of happiness


  Is happiness related to race or culture?

  Diener et al-African-americans 2x as much happiness than European-americans

  Inglehart-Portugal 10% reported they were happy compared to 40% Netherlands

  Individualistic cultures higher SWB than collectivist
• Findings-Myths of happiness


  Is happiness related to money?

  Astin et al-1993,75% American college students selected being well off financially as essential,but only 39% in 1970

  Not everyone agrees that money can buy happiness but having more money would make them a little happier

  Diener et al-correlation of +1.2 between money and happiness,37% of people on forbes rich list are less happy than average.

  Argule-Lottery winners only get a breif increase in happiness
• Findings-Happy people


  The traits of happy people

  not clear if they are cause or effect.

  High self-esteem,sense of personal control,optimism,extraversion
• Findings-Happy people


  The relationships of happy people

  Some people think that relationships can cause more unhappiness than happiness.

  Burt-those that can name several close friends are healthier and happier

  Lee et all-Married people are more happy than non-married people 39%-24%

  Wood et al-meta analysis,93 studies,men and women had similar levels of happiness married or not
• Findings-Happy people


  Work and the flow of happy people

  People out of work are less happy than those in work,work provides personal identity,importance and community.Can be stressful leading to unhappiness

  Csikszentmihalyi,flow,when we become caught up in something other things matter less.Used beepers to question people throughout their day,asking if they were happy and what they were doing.People were happiest when engaging in mindfulness and experiencing flow
• Findings-Happy people


  The faith of happy people

  Poloma and Pendleton-North America and Europe,people who are religious report higher levels of happiness

  Gallup-People with a higher spiritual commitment were 2x as likely to say they were very happy.

  Witter et al-Happiness associated with strength of religious affiliation and frequency of worship
• Conclusions


  1.The importance of Adaption

  the effects of positive and negative events fade over time.

  winning the lottery only creates short term happiness and those gone through traumatic events recover.

  A longitudinal study found that events that have happened in the last 3 months influence SWB
• Conclusions


  2-Cultural world view

  Cultural attitudes predispose people to interpret life events differently

  Some cultures construe the world as benevolent and controllable,other emphasise negative emotions
• Conclusions


  3-Values and goals

  People with high SWB have goals-ambitions and things they are striving to achieve.Other factors(money,intelligence)only matter if relevant to your goals.Explains why money matters more in poorer countries.In wealthier countries have money isnt essential to achieving their goals
• Conclusions


  The future

  Happiness is not predictable from age,gender or wealth.Nor associated with race or culture.

  Happy people possess certain traits,have close relationships,enjoy work and are religious.

  Helps build a world that enhances well-being
• Evaluation-Methodology and procedures


  Self report

  data collected about SWB is inevitably subjective,when someone reports they are happy,there is no way of confirming it.

  People will answer questionnaires in a socially desirable way and these scores correlate with happiness scores.When they have asked friends to rate happiness of the same people it correlates with them,confirming validity
• Evaluation-Methodology and procedures


  Correlations

  Many findings are correlational,cant assume a factor is a cause of happiness,may be intervening variables

  Eg-Married people may be happier because they have more disposable income rather than the relationship
• Evaluation-Methodology and procedures


  The samples

  data is based on western samples,as most researchers are American,happiness might be seen differently in other cultures.

  Individualistic cultures report higher levels of happiness but people in collectivist cultures may be equally as happy but dont express it
• Evaluation-Ethical issues


  Psychological harm

  Very little risk of harm,behaviour isnt being manipulated,some people may not welcome being asked about happiness and make them feel more depressed,researchers must be sensitive and debrief appropriately.

  Ethical guidelines advise psychologists to practice within boundaries of competence,they cant help someone that discusses their depression but recommend a source of professional help
• Evaulation-Ethical issues


  Socially sensitive research

  Might make us think about a certain group of people in a particular way Eg-Inglehart found 10% of Portugal reported happiness compared to 40% of Netherlands,people may think all people from Portugal are unhappy,however the sample might not have been a fair representation of the population
• Evaluation-Social implications


  Education

  Promoting well-being in schools can have a positive impact on attendance and academic performance.
• Evaluation-social implication 


  Families

  importance of the work-life balance and the impact of family dynamics on happiness.

  Unhappiness in the family unit can have detrimental effects on well-being