Introduction Happiness. Some would say fame and fortune is happiness, others see career stability, family or the perfect spouse as happiness. This is a common misconception, because these things may in actuality not bring happiness. Happiness is the driving force of what you live for, what makes you get out of bed in the morning, what makes you unconsciously smile uncontrollably. It is important to measure happiness levels in people because of a variety of things, but mainly to correct the misconception of what happiness really is in their lives. Some people believe you cannot control how happy you are, however this is not the case. Research in this area has shown that 40% of the happiness a person feels is determined solely on their
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One example of research done on this topic was by Madhu S. Mohanty from California State University who used a cross-sectional sample of surveys to measure this construct and its relationship to income (“Happiness”, 2011). The samples were from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth which was first started in 1979 and continued until 1992 annually with the same individuals ages 14-21 and then biannually after 1992. The dependent variable, happiness, was recorded numerically with answers to the statement, “On the whole, I am satisfied with myself,” by choosing one of the four alternatives: (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) disagree and (4) strongly disagree” (Mohanty, 2014). Income, which was the total family income, was recorded each time as well as the individual’s attitude by responding to the statement, “I take a positive attitude toward myself,” with (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) disagree and (4) strongly disagree” (Mohanty, 2014). By using a numerical value for each response it became much easier to interpret the results when using these categorical …show more content…
This study examined the accuracy of measuring happiness with a self rated single item scale which, used an 11-point scale (0-10) while asking the following question: “do you feel happy in general?” The reason given for using such a short measurement was given as: “if researchers are interested only in an overall life satisfaction score, there seems little benefit in asking respondents multiple questions” (Abdel-Khalek, 2006). It seems that while this research may be getting straight to the point there are plenty of explanations for why the data may not properly depict someone’s level of happiness compared to another. A much different type of tool used to measure happiness is the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) by Hills and Argyle (Doğan & Sapmaz, 2012). The OHQ measured happiness with a 29 item with a 6-item Likert-type scale, which, ranged as (1- Not agree to 6-fully agree). Some of the questions that appear on this questionnaire are “I feel that I can take anything on” or “I do not have particular happy memories of the past” (Doğan & Sapmaz, 2012). When doing my research I would like to mostly model this survey as I believe that is covers a wide range of variables that affect
One example of research done on this topic was by Madhu S. Mohanty from California State University who used a cross-sectional sample of surveys to measure this construct and its relationship to income (“Happiness”, 2011). The samples were from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth which was first started in 1979 and continued until 1992 annually with the same individuals ages 14-21 and then biannually after 1992. The dependent variable, happiness, was recorded numerically with answers to the statement, “On the whole, I am satisfied with myself,” by choosing one of the four alternatives: (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) disagree and (4) strongly disagree” (Mohanty, 2014). Income, which was the total family income, was recorded each time as well as the individual’s attitude by responding to the statement, “I take a positive attitude toward myself,” with (1) strongly agree, (2) agree, (3) disagree and (4) strongly disagree” (Mohanty, 2014). By using a numerical value for each response it became much easier to interpret the results when using these categorical …show more content…
This study examined the accuracy of measuring happiness with a self rated single item scale which, used an 11-point scale (0-10) while asking the following question: “do you feel happy in general?” The reason given for using such a short measurement was given as: “if researchers are interested only in an overall life satisfaction score, there seems little benefit in asking respondents multiple questions” (Abdel-Khalek, 2006). It seems that while this research may be getting straight to the point there are plenty of explanations for why the data may not properly depict someone’s level of happiness compared to another. A much different type of tool used to measure happiness is the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) by Hills and Argyle (Doğan & Sapmaz, 2012). The OHQ measured happiness with a 29 item with a 6-item Likert-type scale, which, ranged as (1- Not agree to 6-fully agree). Some of the questions that appear on this questionnaire are “I feel that I can take anything on” or “I do not have particular happy memories of the past” (Doğan & Sapmaz, 2012). When doing my research I would like to mostly model this survey as I believe that is covers a wide range of variables that affect