Study #2 I want to introduce in my blog. Continuing on the last post on Peterson, Park, & Seligman (2005) study on happiness, I chose another study on happiness.
Tkach, C., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How do people purse happiness?: Relating personality, happiness-increasing strategies, and well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 183-225.
As you can tell from the title of this study, the authors explored what people do to be happy (or even happier!). They had several questions in mind:
- What are the happiness strategies individuals use to maintain or increase their happiness levels? Are there any individual differences in strategy use?
- How much do the happiness strategies predict individuals’ current happiness? Which strategy works the best?
- Does personality have anything to do with the happiness strategies?
Before conducting the main study, the authors first did a pilot to generate a list of happiness strategies. How? They asked 70 students take an open-ended survey and “‘list things they do to maintain or increase happiness level.” The end results? 66 happiness-enhancing strategies found!
Then, they conducted a paper-and-pencil survey among 500 undergraduate students at a state university. They asked the students’ happiness (subjective, chronic), Big Five personality, and frequency of each happiness strategy usage. And (some of) the findings:
- Happiness strategies explained 52% of the variance in self-reported happiness! 52%!! That’s a lot!
- Happiness strategies could be sorted into 8 categories:
- 1. Social affiliation: e.g., Support and encourage friends
- 2. Partying and clubbing
- 3. Mental control: e.g., Think about what is wrong with life, Take illegal drugs
- 4. Instrumental goal pursuit: e.g., Pursue career goals, Study
- 5. Passive leisure: e.g., Watch TV
- 6. Active leisure: e.g., Exercise
- 7. Religion: e.g., Seek support from faith
- 8. Direct attempts: e.g., Decide to be happy
- Frequency
- Most frequently used strategy = Social Affiliation and Instrumental Goal Pursuit
- Least frequently used strategy = Partying and Mental Control (wow!)
- Gender difference
- Women used Affiliation, Goal Pursuit, Passive Leisure, and Religion more frequently than did men
- Men used Mental Control and Active Leisure more
- Personality matters! Here’s how personality is linked with different happiness strategy.
- Extrovert & Social Affiliation
- Conscientiousness & Instrumental Goal Pursuit
- Agreeableness & Social Affiliation
- Neuroticism & maladaptive Mental Control
- Happiness strategies (at least some of them) might work! They predicted the happiness level in the following strength:
- Mental Control (inversely) > Direct Attempts > Social Affiliation > Religion > Partying and Clubbing > Active Leisure
I thought this study was really awesome in that it asked people what they do to be happy/happier. I found it sooo interesting that I actually did a follow-up study to see if I can find what they found with different sample. One limitation of their study was that they surveyed undergraduate students whose happiness strategies may not be used by others. For example, I can’t imagine my 60 year old dad partying to be happy.
Another limitation of this study was it could not prove whether these happiness strategies actually helped people maintain or increase happiness level. Also, it was not certain how the participants interpreted ‘happiness’. I tried to address this last limitation in my follow-up study and did find (not too surprisingly) people have different ideas on what happiness (at work) means.
Ok, so that’s it for this study. I don’t know how to conclude other than saying this study awesomely provided invaluable insights into happiness (strategy) and made me do my study. =)