When I read studies like this, especially those that measure something like happiness in terms of how healthy people are or how well they rebound from something serious in their lives, I wonder who the people are who are deemed not happy. It's sort of the same question you asked, Alison, though in reverse. I wonder how you measure happiness with anything other than an answer given by the person themselves, and whether you ask the question more than once over a given period of time.
I know that for me, my self-described happiness would probably change from day to day, depending on the question. If someone asked, "Are you happy right now?" vs. "Are you happy in general?" the answers might be two different things. If someone asked, "Would you generally describe yourself as a happy person?" the answer might be different than if the question was "Are you always happy?" If a person's answer to one of these questions was "I consider myself a happy person but I have been depressed since I lost my job," how would that answer count?
For this study, here was the happiness index:
"These participants had filled in questionnaires about their mental health, including a four-point depression scale that asked them the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statements "I felt hopeful about the future", "I enjoyed life", "I was happy", and "I felt that I was just as good as other people". Using this four-point scale, the authors defined happiness as a perfect score on all four items and then used statistical tools to measure how the social ties correlated with the various scores."
That means that a person might have agreed with the statements that they feel hopeful about the future, they enjoy life and that they were happy, and yet if they disagreed with the statement "i felt that i was just as good as other people," they'd have less of a happiness score.
Tell us
How would you rank yourself on the four statements asked in the study?
Comment Reply
When I read studies like this, especially those that measure something like happiness in terms of how healthy people are or how well they rebound from something serious in their lives, I wonder who the people are who are deemed not happy. It's sort of the same question you asked, Alison, though in reverse. I wonder how you measure happiness with anything other than an answer given by the person themselves, and whether you ask the question more than once over a given period of time.
I know that for me, my self-described happiness would probably change from day to day, depending on the question. If someone asked, "Are you happy right now?" vs. "Are you happy in general?" the answers might be two different things. If someone asked, "Would you generally describe yourself as a happy person?" the answer might be different than if the question was "Are you always happy?" If a person's answer to one of these questions was "I consider myself a happy person but I have been depressed since I lost my job," how would that answer count?
For this study, here was the happiness index:
"These participants had filled in questionnaires about their mental health, including a four-point depression scale that asked them the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the statements "I felt hopeful about the future", "I enjoyed life", "I was happy", and "I felt that I was just as good as other people". Using this four-point scale, the authors defined happiness as a perfect score on all four items and then used statistical tools to measure how the social ties correlated with the various scores."
That means that a person might have agreed with the statements that they feel hopeful about the future, they enjoy life and that they were happy, and yet if they disagreed with the statement "i felt that i was just as good as other people," they'd have less of a happiness score.
Tell us
December 8, 2008 - 10:12amHow would you rank yourself on the four statements asked in the study?
This Comment
Reply