Long- and short-term affective states in happiness: Model,paradigm and experimental evidence

The present paper evaluates relevant findings on long- and short-term affective states in subjective well-being and argues for a componential model that combines the two into the more general concept of happiness. Two age parameters, one for long-term and one for short-term affect are added to the simple model to account for age changes in happiness. Measures of long- and short-term affect are presented, as is a paradigm for separating the components. Support for the simple model is provided by an experimental investigation with 64 college students who were exposed to positive and/or negative mood induction. As expected, the induction had substantially greater effect on short- than on long-term affect measures, particularly the negative induction procedure. These findings are consistent with predictions. However, multiple age cohorts will have to be assessed within a longitudinal framework to obtain values for the age parameters.     

Religiousness and Subjective Well-Being Among Israeli-Palestinian College Students: Direct or Mediated Links?

Espousing a positive psychology orientation, this study aimed to explore the links between religiousness and subjective well-being, and test whether social support and self-control mediate the expected associations between these two variables. Participants were 264 Israeli-Palestinian college students, who were asked to provide demographic information and complete measures of religiousness, social support, self-control, subjective happiness, positive emotions and negative emotions. We found that religiousness was positively correlated with both subjective happiness and positive emotions, but no significant correlation was found between religiousness and negative emotions. Both social support and self-control partially mediated the links between religiousness and both subjective happiness and positive emotions. The findings of the study, as well as its implications and limitations, are discussed.     

The Danish Effect: Beginning to Explain High Well-Being in Denmark

Although income and happiness have been linked at both the individual and national levels of analysis, few studies have specifically examined the different relationships between these two variables in affluent nations. This study investigates various measures of well-being in both the United States and Denmark. Respondents in both countries reported high levels of well-being but Americans generally reported greater positive and negative affect while Danes reported higher levels of satisfaction and enjoyment. Interestingly, low income respondents in the United States reported higher negative affect and lower life satisfaction than their counterparts in Denmark. For positive affect, the major difference between the two countries was found among high income respondents. The key to understanding differences in the well-being of these two nations appears to lie in understanding the well-being of the poor. Suggestions for future directions in research are discussed.     

Three Ways to Be Happy: Pleasure,Engagement, and Meaning—Findings from Australian and US Samples

This study examined the contributions of orientations to happiness (pleasure, engagement and meaning) to subjective well-being. A sample of 12,622 adults from the United States completed on-line surveys measuring orientations to happiness, positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. A sample of 332 adults from Australia also completed these surveys as well as a measure of the big five factor personality traits. Hierarchical regressions generally supported the hypothesis that the three orientations to happiness predict subjective well-being (satisfaction with life, positive affect and negative affect) beyond sociodemographic variables and personality. Meaning and engagement explained the greatest variance in all three components of subjective well-being. Overall, these findings support the importance of a eudaimonic approach in addition to the hedonic approach to achieving happiness. Moreover, findings were relatively consistent in both the Australian and US samples. Some of these data were presented at the 8th Australian Centre on Quality of Life Conference, Melbourne, Australia.     

The Subjective Well-being Construct: A Test of its Convergent,Discriminant, and Factorial Validity

Using structural equation modeling, we found empirical support for the prevailing theory that subjective well-being consists of three domains: (1) cognitive evaluations of one’s life (i.e., life satisfaction or happiness); (2) positive affect; and (3) negative affect. Multiple indicators of satisfaction/happiness were shown to have strong convergent validity as well as discriminant validity from positive and negative affect. Positive and negative affect likewise exhibited discriminant validity from one another. At both the item and scale levels of analysis, we obtained an intercorrelated three-factor solution corresponding to the three proposed subjective well-being domains.     

The analysis and measurement of happiness as a sense of well-being

General happiness is philosophically construed as a sense of well-being which in turn has been defined either as a complete and lasting satisfaction with life-as-a-whole or as a preponderance of positive over negative feelings. A factor analysis of thirteen well-being scales shows that these two definitions coalesce into a single general well-being factor which is distinguishable only from an independent stress/worries factor. Further evidence shows that familiar scales of neuroticism, depression and trait anxiety measure the same well-being dimension if only in the negative half-range. So does a list of somatic complaints. Various two-factor models of well-being that treat positive and negative affect as independent processes, or that distinguish between affective and cognitive components, are challenged on the grounds that they depend on the properties of Bradburn's affect scales which are found to be highly dependent on methodological parameters. Attention is drawn here to the role of test method effects and curvilinearities as factors influencing inter-scale correlations and structural models. It is concluded that well-being is a robust, primary dimension of human experience and that happiness research is alive and well in psychology.     

Happiness and Satisfaction: Measures of Affect and Cognition?

Analyses of data from six national samples of adult respondents indicated that happiness could be predicted better from cognitive measures of domain satisfaction and work attitudes than from a measure of positive affect, thereby calling into question the widely accepted argument that satisfaction measures are cognitive and happiness measures affective in orientation. Perhaps distinctions between cognitive and affective measures are illusory in studies of subjective well being.     

Hope: An affective cognition

Hope is here operationalized as a predominance of expected future positive feelings over future expected negative feelings. Hope, comprised of both desire and expectation, involves the interaction of affect and cognition. Modifications of Bradburn's Affective Balance Scale were used to measure hope and happiness. Four graphic rating scales were used to measure psychological well-being, perceived health, satisfaction, and happiness. Hope, measured by the Expected Balance Scale correlated as expected with the other measures. A factor analysis further supported the robustness of the hope variable. Hope is offered as an important personality dimension worthy of continued research.     

Happiness in Canada Since World War II

Where data exist, measures of averagehappiness in industrialized countries typicallyshow little or no upward trend over time,despite substantial growth in real per capitaincomes. This paper examines the existingCanadian data to see if they support thisgeneralization. The Canadian data have someoverall positive trend. Some simple regressionssuggest that per capita real incomes arepositively associated with happiness, whileunemployment and inflation appear to benegatively associated with happiness, a resultalso found in recent studies of Western Europeand the United States. Controlling for thesevariables, a negative time trend emerges.     

Religious domains and general well-being

With only a few notable exceptions, studies on quality of life or general well-being have failed to deal with religiosity in general, and the development of more refined measures of religious meaning and belonging in particular. Data measuring subjective perceptions of well-being for various domains of life, including neighborhood, employment, work at home, education, friends, household members, marital status, standard of living, health and religion were used to form a number of domain scales. Relationships between the multidimensional concepts of well-being and religiosity are explored and the importance of religiosity in defining well-being is tested. Religious satisfaction was found to be important for general life satisfaction and existential well-being. Among the eight indicators and scales of religiosity, various combinations of religious satisfaction, frequency of prayer, prayer experience, and relationship with God, were important predictors of general life satisfaction, existential well-being, and overall happiness. Under no circumstance did any measure of religosity contribute to negative affect.     

Long- and short-term affective states in happiness: Age and sex comparisons

Data from 690 persons in three adult age groups were used to evaluate the generality of a componential model of happiness (Kozma et al., 1990). The model postulates that long- and short-term affective states combine in an additive manner to produce current happiness. The short-term components should be more susceptible to environmental manipulation than the long-term ones and should change more readily with an appropriate experimental manipulation. Subscales of the Memorial University Mood Scale (MUMS) were used to assess short-term affect while the experience subscales of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH) and Diener's Long-term Satisfaction Scale were used to measure long-term affect. Overall current happiness was assessed by a seven-point avowed happiness rating scale. The Velten mood induction procedure was used to manipulate current affective state. In five of six comparisons, changes on short-term components were significantly greater than on long-term components. Age differences in reactivity to mood induction emerged only when a negative induction procedure was followed by a positive one. Under these conditions, the youngest cohort responded more consistently than the oldest cohort. An additive model, based on long- and short-term affect, age, and sex produced the best explanation for current happiness.     

Determinants of Subjective Well-Being and Poverty in Rural Pakistan: A Micro-Level Study

Drawing on unique survey data for rural Pakistan, we investigate the impact of socio-demographic factors on happiness index with particular emphasis on subjective well-being measurement to evaluate poverty and its different components. The data elicits information on overall well-being in terms of household’s happiness with the current socio-economic status. We estimate a happiness model to explore to what extent a well-being perspective adds to our understanding of poverty. We find that the well-being approach closely depicts the idea of well-being poverty in terms of the level education, health and income which matter significantly. Moreover unlike developed nations where children have a negative impact on overall well-being, this study suggests a positive impact on well-being and poverty. As studies employing good data from developing countries are rare, this paper can potentially make a good contribution to the existing happiness literature, with special reference to Pakistan.     

Use of Other-Reports to Validate Subjective Well-Being Measures

Level of agreement between self-reports and other-reports obtained from a large two-wave study of older adults was examined. Various measures of subjective well-being (affect, happiness, and life satisfaction) and behavioral manifestations (smoking and sleep quality) were assessed. Results indicate that the SWB measures were highly stable over a 9-month period, and that good agreement between the self- and other-reports was found for the SWB measures. In addition, SWB was related to behavioral manifestations and that these ratings were corroborated through the other-reports. This study furthers the support for the reliability of SWB over time and advances the criterion validity of SWB measures through use of collateral assessments.     

Stability and Sensitivity in Perceived Quality of Life Measures: Some Panel Results

The aim of this study was to test a fundamental assumption concerning 27 of the most frequently used measures to assess aspects of the quality of people’s lives, e.g., measures concerning happiness, satisfaction with life as a whole, with the quality of one’s life, with domains of life (job, marriage, friendships), and with perceived gaps between what one has compared to what one wants, what one’s neighbor has and so on. The assumption is that such measures are sensitive to changes in the circumstances of one’s life measured by self-perceptions of change and by self-assessments of the net balance of salient positive and negative events one has experienced in some specified period of time. A total of 462 residents of British Columbia distributed across 3 different panels completed mailed-out questionnaires at 3 points in time in 2005, 06 and 07. Among other things, we found that measuring year-by-year changes in respondents’ life circumstances by reports of their own perception and experienced life events, on average the values of the 27 variables changed in ways that were consistent with respondents’ reported changes in 49.7% of the cases examined. The success rate of the assumption using self-perceptions of change (61.7%) was much higher than the success rate using a net balance of experienced events (37.3%).     

The Strains and Gains of Caregiving: An Examination of the Effects of Providing Personal Care to a Parent on a Range of Indicators of Psychological Well-Being

This study explores the effect of providing regular help with personal care to a resident or non-resident parent or parent-in-law on different aspects of psychological well-being. We use cross-sectional data from the Norwegian Life Course, Ageing and Generation (LOGG) study (N ~ 15,000, age 18–79) and two-wave panel data from the Norwegian study on Life course, Ageing and Generation (NorLAG) (N ~ 3,000, age 40–79). We separate outcomes into cognitive well-being (life satisfaction, partnership satisfaction, self-esteem), affective well-being (happiness, positive and negative affect, depression, loneliness) and sense of mastery. Caregiver status is largely unrelated to these aspects of well-being, both in cross-section and longitudinally. One notable exception is that caring for a resident (but not a non-resident) parent relates to lower affective well-being among women, also longitudinally. This effect is more marked among unpartnered and lower educated women. In addition, caring for a non-resident parent is associated with a positive change in sense of mastery among women. The results reviewed and presented indicate that caregiving has less detrimental effects in the Nordic countries than in other countries, highlighting the role of social policies and care systems in shaping the impact of caregiving on well-being.     

A global perspective on happiness and fertility

The literature on fertility and happiness has neglected comparative analysis. We investigate the fertility/happiness association using data from the world values surveys for 86 countries. We find that, globally, happiness decreases with the number of children. This association, however, is strongly modified by individual and contextual factors. Most importantly, we find that the association between happiness and fertility evolves from negative to neutral to positive above age 40, and is strongest among those who are likely to benefit most from upward intergenerational transfers. In addition, analyses by welfare regime show that the negative fertility/ happiness association for younger adults is weakest in countries with high public support for families, and the positive association above age 40 is strongest in countries where old-age support depends mostly on the family. Overall these results suggest that children are a long-term investment in well-being, and highlight the importance of the life-cycle stage and contextual factors in explaining the happiness/fertility association.     

Relative Income,Relative Assets,and Happiness in Urban China

Does more money always mean that people are happier with their lives? To test the social comparison hypothesis as applied to happiness, this study uses survey data from the 2002 Chinese Household Income Project to examine the association between household economic resources and happiness in urban China. Household economic resources are measured as both income and assets (e.g., net worth and net worth minus home equity). In addition, the analyses include measures of relative income and relative assets. Results of ordinary least square regression analysis show a positive association of absolute income with the happiness score whereas relative income is negatively associated with happiness. Although household assets are a significant and positive predictor of self-assessments of happiness, measures of relative household assets do not correlate with happiness. Study findings suggest the level of happiness among urban populations could be increased through policies that promote pro-poor growth and equal distribution of economic resources. In addition, introducing asset-building policies as supplements to other social assistance programs may promote happiness.     

Response artifacts in the measurement of subjective well-being

The degree to which response artifacts introduce error into self-report measures has long been a matter of concern in the psychological literature. For example, it has been suggested that self-report measures of subjective well-being (SWB) contain large amounts of variance due to the response style of social desirability (Carstensen and Cone, 1983). In the present study, four potential response artifacts (social desirability, current mood, moral beliefs about happiness, and happiness image management) and their effects on self reports of SWB were studied. Using nonself-report measures of happiness, in addition to self-report measures of SWB, various modes for the prediction of SWB were constructed. A measure of social desirability was found to be a significant predictor of nonself-report as well as self-reported measures of happiness, indicating that social desirability is a substantive personality characteristic which enhances well-being, rather than being a response artifact and source of error variance. Current mood was found to sometimes contribute as a predictor of self-report measures of SWB, suggesting the need for control of or assessment of its effects. Moral beliefs in happiness and image management did not significantly correlate with measures of happiness. Implications of the results for the measurement of well-being and for future research are discussed.     

Happiness and Satisfaction with Work Commute

Research suggests that for many people happiness is being able to make the routines of everyday life work, such that positive feelings dominate over negative feelings resulting from daily hassles. In line with this, a survey of work commuters in the three largest urban areas of Sweden show that satisfaction with the work commute contributes to overall happiness. It is also found that feelings during the commutes are predominantly positive or neutral. Possible explanatory factors include desirable physical exercise from walking and biking, as well as that short commutes provide a buffer between the work and private spheres. For longer work commutes, social and entertainment activities either increase positive affects or counteract stress and boredom. Satisfaction with being employed in a recession may also spill over to positive experiences of work commutes.