Myers and Diener Flashcards
What’s the background of Myers and Diener’s research?
The approach doesn’t just seek to improve people’s lives but also to find evidence that indicates how this can be done.
The positive approach is a psychological approach and therefore aims to be scientific and evidence based.
Myers and Diener took on the task of looking at the evidence for what makes people happy.
This approach is in contrast with the traditional psychological emphasis on what causes negative emotions.
What’s the methodology?
This study / article is a literature review of research on the topic of happiness.
1980s and early 1990s - there was a flood of research exploring people’s sense of well-being.
What are the key points for the interviews and questionnaires?
One way to assess happiness is to consider a person’s sense of their own happiness or well-being.
This is called subjective well-being (SWB).
This is done by interviewing people using a closed question:
“How satisfied are you with your life as a whole these days?“
Are you very satisfied?
Not very satisfied?
Not at all satisfied?
Alternatively, a multi-item scale (a form of questionnaire) can be used which includes a number of questions related to happiness.
In both cases a quantitative measure is produced to represent happiness.
What are the key points for observations?
Asking them to report what they are doing at selected times (a form of observation).
Researchers may use beepers to remind participants to send a message saying what they are doing and / or thinking at a particular moment.
This a way to sample people’s behaviour.
What are the key points for correlations?
Another way to understand happiness is to consider what factors co-vary with it.
Some of these factors may contribute to making a person happy.
Other factors are a consequence of being happy.
It’s not always clear which is cause and which is effect.
What are the key points of reviews?
This study is a review of other research.
Some of the research referred to is also based on multiple studies.
Some of these are reviews and some are meta-analyses.
What did Inglehart (1990) find?
Survey of almost 170,000 people of all ages in 16 different countries found no differences between age and happiness.
However, at different ages, different factors contribute to happiness.
Mean score was 80% satisfaction with life.
What did McCrae and Costa (1990) find?
People do experience crises, but these are not restricted to a particular age.
What did Haring and et al (1984) find?
A person’s gender accounted for 1% of global well-being.
What did Robins and Regier (1991) find?
Women are twice as vulnerable as men to depression.
What are the key points for is happiness related to culture?
People in individualist cultures report greater SWB than in collectivist cultures:
In an individualist culture people are more concerned with their individual needs whereas in collectivist cultures people focus on the needs of the group.
In individualist cultures, individual happiness matters more.
What did Diener et al (1993) find?
African-Americans report nearly twice as much happiness as European-Americans.
What did Inglehart (1990) find in relation to Portugal and the Netherlands?
In Portugal, 10% of people reported that they were happy compared to the 40% in the Netherlands.
What did Astin et al (1987) find?
Survey in 1933 found that 75% of American college students selected “being well of financially” as an essential life goal, compared with 39% in 1970.
What did Diener et al (1985) find?
People who are rich don’t report greater happiness. Survey of people on the Forbes rich list found that 37% were less happy than the average American.
What did Costa et al (1987) find?
Found the people who reported being happy in 1973 tended to be the happy ones a decade later.
What are the key traits of happy people?
High self-esteem.
Sense of personal control.
Optimism.
Extraversion.
(It is not clear whether these traits make people happier or the traits develop because a person is happy)
What are the key points of high self-esteem?
Such individuals like themselves and typically agree with statements such as “I’m a lot of fun to be with” and “I have good ideas.”
What are the key points of sense of personal control?
People who feel empowered rather than helpless do better at school, cope better with stress and are typically happier.
What are the key points of optimism?
Such people agree with a statement such as “When I undertake something new, I expect to succeed.”
What are the key points of extraversion?
People who are more outgoing are happier when with other people and also when alone.
What did Poloma and Pendleton (1990) find?
In North America and Europe people who are religious report higher levels of happiness.
What did Gallup (1984) find?
People with a high “spiritual commitment” were twice as likely to say they were very happy.
What did Burt (1986) find?
For most people the benefits of relationships outweigh the strains.
People who can name several close friends are healthier and happier than people who can’t name such friends.
What did Lee et al (1991) find?
Married people are happier than non-married people.
In one study the rates were 39% compared to 24%.
What are the key points for work and the “flow” of happy people?
People who are out of work are less happy than those in work.
Work provides a personal identity, a sense that one’s life matters and also a sense of community (working with other people).
However, work can also be unsatisfying and / or stressful and is then associated with unhappiness.
What are the key points for the self-report evaluation point?
The data collected about SWB is inevitably subjective.
When someone reports they are very happy we have no way of confirming or challenging that.
It may be that respondents are not telling the truth.
On questionnaires people often provide socially desirable answers because they want to appear in a good light.
Research has found that social desirability scores correlate reasonably with happiness scores.
What are the key points for the correlation evaluation point?
Many of the findings are correlational.
This means that we can’t assume that a particular factor is a cause of happiness.
There may be important intervening variables.
What’s an example for the correlation evaluation point?
Link between marriage and happiness may be due to other things in a marriage rather than the relationship.
It might be that married people have more disposable cash than single people because they have two incomes but only need one house, one car etc and this makes them happier.
What are the key points for the sample evaluation point in relation to culture?
A lot of the data is based on Western samples as the researchers are American and have conducted much of their research in the USA.
The roots of happiness may be different in other cultures.
What are the key points for the psychological harm evaluation point?
Little risk of harm to participants because behaviour is not being manipulated.
However, it is possible that some people, who are unhappy, may not welcome being asked about their happiness and in fact may feel more depressed after being asked about their sense of well-being.
Therefore researchers must be sensitive to participants’ needs and debrief them appropriately.
Why is the research considered as socially sensitive?
Might make us more likely to think (positively or negatively) about a certain group of people, such as a particular culture, in a particular way.
What’s the alternative evidence for Myers and Diener’s research?
Happiness stays at a fairly steady level through life, with occasional highs or lows.
Some researchers call this your happiness set-point and believe that it could be at least partly due to genetics.
One gene has been linked to happiness:
The 5-HTTgene.
This controls levels of serotonin.
