Showing papers on "Happiness published in 1979"

Scales for the measurement of some work attitudes and aspects of psychological well‐being

Abstract: Two studies of male manual workers are described, in which eight scales relevant to the quality of working life are introduced and assessed. The scales build upon previous work, but are designed to remedy certain conceptual and operational deficiencies. They cover work involvement, intrinsic job motivation, higher order need strength, perceived intrinsic job characteristics, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, happiness, and self-rated anxiety. In addition, components of job satisfaction and life satisfaction, derived through cluster analyses, are also identified. The scales are shown to have good internal reliability and to be factorially separate. Comprehensive psychometric data are provided as a base-line for future applications.

Americans View Their Mental Health

Abstract: BOOK REVIEWS Americans View Their Mental Health. By Gerald Gurin, Joseph Veroff, and Sheila Feld. Price, $7.50. Pp. 444. Basic Books, Inc., 59 Fourth Ave., New York 3, 1960. This is the fourth in the series of ten monographs sponsored by the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health and designed to assess the nation's mental health resources and needs from a variety of perspectives. Its focus is the subjective dimension of mental health. Although not all of the monographs have been published so far, the findings and the recommendations of each have been already summed up and interpreted in the Commission's final report which, because of the publicity it has received, may be familiar to many readers. The present volume is based on an interview survey conducted in 1957 with nearly twenty-five hundred individuals selected to provide a probability sample of the country's adult population. It is a product of three social psychologists, all of whom are on the staff of the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan, one of the few widely recognized and influential organizations of its kind in social sciences. Besides being impressive for sheer magnitude and the consistent clarity in the presentation and evaluation of the data, the study gives further testimony of the methodological sophistication and the technical know-how typical of the work produced by the Center. Without committing themselves to a definition of mental health, the investigators explore it through a number of measures of adjustment. The measures, however, all derive from the self-appraised, experiential realm of the respondent. In the area of general life adjustment, such measures are obtained from the information about the extent of worrying, evaluation of personal happiness, whether the respondent ever felt close to a nervous breakdown, and if he ever experienced a problem relevant for professional help. In the more specific areas of functioning, namely, marriage, parenthood, and work, adjustment is studied via consideration of such variables as satisfaction with the particular role, feelings of adequacy in performing it, degree of involvement, expectations about future, and the type of problems and their prevalence encountered in each role. It is worth pointing out that in taking a multiple-criterion approach to mental health, the investigators are implicitly in agreement with the current view (e.g., Jahoda, 1958; Smith, 1961) that the search for a conceptual formulation of mental health which could meet with a general consensus is futile because of the unavoidable valuative assumptions in all such formulations. The organization of the book is as follows : The first part deals mainly with the distribution and the interrelations of the indices of adjustment in different demographic groups, most often specified in terms of such variables as sex, education, and age. (Religion, in-

Facial patterning and infant emotional expression: happiness, surprise, and fear.

Abstract: Although recent studies have convincingly demonstrated that emotional expressions can be judged reliably from actor-posed facial displays, there exists little evidence that facial expressions in lifelike settings are similar to actor-posed displays, are reliable across situations designed to elicit the same emotion, or provide sufficient information to mediate consistent emotion judgments by raters. The present study therefore investigated these issues as they related to the emotions of happiness, surprise, and fear. 27 infants between 10 and 12 months of age (when emotion masking is not likely to confound results) were tested in 2 situations designed to elicit hapiness (peek-a-boo game and a collapsing toy), 2 to elicit surprise (a toy-switch and a vanishing-object task), and 2 to elicit fear (the visual cliff and the approach of a stranger. Dependent variables included changes in 28 facial response components taken from previous work using actor poses, as well as judgments of the presence of 6 discrete emotions. In addition, instrumental behaviors were used to verify with other than facial expression responses whether the predicted emotion was elicited. In contrast to previous conclusions on the subject, we found that judges were able to make all facial expression judgments reliably, even in the absence of contextual information. Support was also obtained for at least some degree of specificity of facial component response patterns, especially for happiness and surprise. Emotion judgments by raters were found to be a function of the presence of discrete facial components predicted to be linked to those emotions. Finally, almost all situations elicited blends, rather than discrete emotions.

Happiness: Time trends, seasonal variations, intersurvey differences, and other mysteries.

Abstract: This paper examines trends in psychological well-being in the United States since the Second World War. To measure these trends, a long series of surveys with questions on subjective, personal happiness are analyzed. To test the adequacy of this measure, its association with more complex measures of well-being (e.g., the Bradburn Affect Balance scale and the Andrews and Withey life-feeling scale) was examined, and its testlretest stability determined. Both indicated that happiness might serve as a suitable indicator. Variations in question wording were examined in the happiness series. Differences were found that prevented all wordings being used in a uniform, single series, but the general trends were detectable by using the two main variations as parallel series. Possible seasonal and context effects were also found that further complicated the analysis of happiness. With the effects of variant wordings, seasons, and contexts taken into consideration, it appears that happiness rose from the late forties to the late fifties, then fell until the early seventies, and then, possibly after some rebound, remained stable from the early seventies to the present.

A Note on Family Situation and Global Happiness

Abstract: Recent evidence from one U.S. national survey (the Quality of Life Survey) indicates that being married very likely contributes, in the aggregate, to the psychological well-being of both men and women but that the presence of children may tend to lower the satisfaction of both sexes (Campbell; Campbell et al.).' The evidence on marital status and psychological wellbeing is corroborated by data from several other studies (e.g., Bradburn; Bradburn and Caplovitz; Glenn, a; Gurin, Veroff, and Feld; Knupfer et al.) and thus a zero-order association of being married with feelings of wellbeing in the United States in the recent past is hardly in doubt. There is no conclusive evidence that the relationship is not spurious, but Glenn (a) argues on the basis of data for different age levels that it is quite improbable that the relationship results entirely from selection of superior, more adaptable persons for marriage. The evidence from the Quality of Life Survey for negative effects of presence of children is much more tenuous than the evidence for the effects of marriage. Weak estimated effects in the data from one survey may well result from sampling error; and Campbell et al. base most of their discussion on zero-order relationships and report little analysis conducted to test for spuriousness. Furthermore, other evidence on the topic is inconsistent. Although the findings of several studies suggest a negative effect of children on marital happiness or satisfaction (e.g., Feldman; LeMasters; Renne), there could be typical gratifications from parenthood which offset any negative effects on global happiness through quality of marriage. Studies of the effects of the last child's leaving home on the psychological well-being of parents consistently fail to provide evidence of large typical negative effects (see Axelson; Clausen; Deutscher; Glenn, b), but most of the studies also fail to indicate substantial positive effects. The ambitious

Correlates of marital happiness among the remarried.

Abstract: During the last decade, the divorce rate per 1, 000 population in the United States has doubled and divorce is now recognized as being pervasive throughout all major segments of society. While the remarriage rate has declined somewhat in the past few years, most of those who divorce will, nevertheless, eventually marry again. Data on the correlates of marital satisfaction among those who remarry tends to be fragmentary and dated. To provide additional information on this topic, questionnaires were received from 500 ever-divorced persons living in eight western states who were identified through a screening questionnaire sent to a much larger random sample of residents of these states. A total of369 of these persons were remarried at the time of the study. Comparatively, these individuals exhibit a very high level of marital satisfaction. However, traditional correlates of marital happiness among the firstmarriedsuch as presence or absence of children, religious homogeneity, and social class-are found to be relatively poor predictors of marital happiness among the remarried. The nature and types qf problems which do exist in the remarriages tend to be quite different from those that occurred in the marriage that was terminated by divorce.

Individual differences in Pollyannaism.

Abstract: The Pollyanna Principle states that people process pleasant information more accurately and efficiently than less pleasant information. This study examined whether different measures of Pollyanna tendencies are correlated with each other. Fourteen measures of Pollyannaism were derived for 133 students. The results showed that subjects who rated themselves as optimistic or happy also showed Pollyannaism on other measures of happiness, believed that the events in their lives were pleasant, gave themselves positive ratings on personality characteristics, recalled pleasant words more often than unpleasant words, supplied more free associations to pleasant stimuli than to unpleasant stimuli, listed pleasant items first, and judged that pleasant words were more frequent in the English language.

Preface to the philosophy of education

Abstract: Part 1: Education 1. The Words and Enterprise 2. Mistakes and Methodology Part 2: Learning 3. The Implications of Learning 4. What There is to Learn Part 3: Education and Human Nature 5. Happiness and Learning 6. Seriousness and Fantasy 7. Love and Morality

Sex Differentials in the Effect of Remarriage of Global Happiness.

Abstract: Data from a large state-wide survey are used to examine the effect of divorce and remarriage on global happiness. A comparison of the remarried and the once-married shows that remarried men report themselves significantly more happy than men in intact first marriages, whereas remarried women are less happy than women in first marriages. These observed differences in global happiness are shown to be systematically related to diff'erences in levels of social integration, socioeconomic status, and general and marital satisfaction. It is suggested that differential recruitment into remarriage is an important contributor to the observed interaction.

Aquinas: God and Action

Abstract: First published thirty years ago and long out of print, "Aquinas: God and Action" appears here for the first time in paperback. This classic volume by eminent philosopher and theologian David Burrell argues that Aquinas' god is not the god of Greek metaphysics, but the God of Christian revelation who is both being and activity. Aquinas' plan in the Summa Theologiae, according to Burrell, is to instruct humans how to find eternal happiness through acts of knowing and loving. Featuring a new preface by the author, this edition will be welcomed by philosophers and theologians alike.

The Peculiar Function of Human Beings

Abstract: The passage I will discuss in this paper, one of the best known in the Aristotelian corpus, occurs in Book I chapter 7 of the Nicomachean Ethics, and concerns the ergon, i.e. the function, of human beings. Aristotle argues that we have a function, that our happiness consists in fulfilling it, and that this function must be idion, i.e. it must be peculiar to us. On this basis, he asserts that our function cannot consist in being alive, nourishment, growth, or perception, for these activities are common to other species. Aristotle then arrives at his familiar conclusion that our function consists in the excellent use of reason. I want to raise the following question about this argument: Does it entail that our happiness does not consist in contemplation? After all, we share this activity with Aristotle's god, and so it is not in any straightforward way peculiar to us. The function argument therefore

Is Unhappiness Morally More Important than Happiness

Abstract: Karl Popper, I believe, has answered for the majority. "There is, from the ethical point of view", he has said, "no symmetry between suffering and happiness. . . . Human suffering makes a direct moral appeal, namely, the appeal for help, while there is no similar call to increase the happiness of a man who is doing well anyway. . . . Instead of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, one should demand, more modestly, the least amount of avoidable suffering for all."' It is unfortunate that what Popper says there was later dubbed "Negative Utilitarianism".2 That name suggests that the issue matters only to utilitarians, whereas it matters to anyone who in any way gives weight to people's welfare. If one gives any weight to utility, then what relative weights, the general question is, should one give to the positive and negative sides of the scale? The answer that we have equally strong obligations to promote happiness and to eliminate unhappiness we might call, in order to preserve proper distance from parochial issues of utilitarianism, the "Positive Doctrine". The answer that the obligation to promote happiness is, as Popper puts it,3 "in any case much less urgent" than the obligation to eliminate unhappiness we might call the "Negative Doctrine". As Popper's words suggest, the Negative Doctrine has various forms. A Strong Negative Doctrine would maintain that promoting happiness is not morally obligatory at all-morally desirable and commendable, of course, but no part of what one is morally required to do. A Weak Negative Doctrine would maintain, instead, that promoting happiness is a slighter obligation than eliminating suffering. (Finally, one could also hold a Very Weak Negative Doctrine, in which eliminating suffering is granted more weight than promoting happiness on practical grounds. It is usually more difficult to see how to make a person happy than to see how to reduce his suffering; perhaps governments that seek to promote the good life fall into a paternalism that degenerates too easily into tyranny. Although this last form of the Negative Doctrine is not unimportant, I shall not look into it.) These two doctrines, as I have formulated them, lessen the generality of the discussion. Some who give weight to utility would not be happy with either. For instance, it might be objected that our most stringent obligation of this sort is to avoid deliberately causing suffering, our obligation to relieve 1The Open Society and Its Enemies (London, 1966), 5th ed., vol. I, pp. 284-5. 2By R. N. Smart, "Negative Utilitarianism", Mind, 67 (1958). SOp. cit., vol. I, p. 235.

Singer on killing and the preference for Life

Abstract: According to Singer, it is not directly wrong to kill ‘non‐self‐conscious beings’, such as lower animals, human foetuses and newborn infants, provided that any consequent loss of happiness is made good by the creation of new sentient life. In contrast, normal adult humans, being ‘self‐conscious’, generally have a strong preference for going on living, the flouting of which cannot, Singer argues, be morally counterbalanced by creating new, equally happy individuals. Singer's case might be reinforced by taking account, not only of the preference for continued life itself, but also of other preferences for whose satisfaction continued life is essential. It proves difficult, however, to find a formulation of ‘preference utilitarianism’ which, while lacking other obviously unacceptable consequences, supports Singer's ‘non‐replaceability principle’. Also, Singer's position fails adequately to accommodate our conviction that the lives of human beings are, in general, more valuable than those of other animals. Fi...

Sex and Games: On Oppression and Rationality

Abstract: ‘Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry’, was penned by Jeremy Bentham in 1825, but could as appropriately appear in most contemporary treatments of social choice and rationality. Political economists still use the felicific calculus; they search for ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’ by exploring means and consequences of aggregating individuals' preferences to form social choices among competing values. The values are assigned equal weight. The origins and processes of development of individual preferences are taken as ‘givens’, i.e. as irrelevant to the problem of social choice. What counts is rational behaviour, which is said to exist when action is ‘correctly’ designed to maximize goal achievement, ‘given the goal in question and the real world as it exists’.

Choosing to Be Child Free.

Abstract: The pronatalism bias of present-day U.S. culture is documented in this discussion of the psychological difficulty of choosing to couple and yet remain childless. An outline for a natalistic education course is provided. Based on survey results which took into account 2 major factors affecting natality religion and education religion was found to play a major role in whether women chose to have children. Protestants accepted this idea less than Catholics; however more Catholics felt that bearing a child would help attain marital happiness more than feeling that it was their religious duty. Similarly the fewer number of years of schooling the mother had the more likely she was to accept pronatalistic ideas: such as 1) a belief that the couples prestige is increased with having children; 2) a belief that a females most important role and main responsibility was bearing children; 3) that bearing children constitutes religious duty; and 4) that attainment of marital happiness is contingent on having children. Economics is the other major factor in choosing to be child free; and it was discovered that women who are voluntarily childless tend to be well-educated and have some financial security; these are the same women who cited personal freedom as a reason for rejecting the pronatalistic pressures of family friends media and advertising. IPPF wants to disseminate the idea that choosing to not have children is as reasonable as choosing to have children.

Virtue and Happiness

Abstract: Polus had come back to the conclusion that ‘doing what one pleases can only be called a blessing if the action is attended by advantage to the actor’. So Socrates asked when we are to say that an action brings advantage and argued that it brings advantage only when it is right. When it is wrong it brings the reverse (470).

Surgical techniques in the treatment of obesity

Abstract: Ritual extremes of obesity practised by various races and countries, especially in Africa, have not generally been seen in Western Society. Even so, it has long been felt by the lay public that the fat person represents the ideal in happiness and contentment, even though physicians over 150 years ago cautioned that, in the extreme, obesity was a cause of early death.

Searching for euthanatos: the hospice alternative.

Abstract: American culture, with its insistence on happiness and its obsession with technology, discourages a realistic approach to death. Within the concept of Euthanatos, a "good death," however, patients get the chance in the comfortable surroundings of the hospice to integrate dying into their total life experience. Here, their emotional as well as physical needs receive medical attention.

The Alchemy of Happiness

Abstract: The 'Sufi message' series is devoted to the works of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Each volume deals with a specific aspect of Sufism, showing the path to inner peace and providing an insight into understanding and spirituality.

The Philosophical Concept of Revolution

Abstract: The twentieth century is not only the century of great scientific and technological progress bringing mankind to the threshold of final happiness (or else final ruin), it is also a century of great revolutions.

Happiness is a warm librarian

Abstract: the first Library of Congress Conference on Library Automation about fifteen years ago. It was worn partly as the reaction of a humanist who loves both books and computers against the peculiar sort of computer macho that seemed to be evolving. There should, of course, be a rider on this perversion of "Happiness is a Warm Puppy." I'm not insinuating that librarians are like puppies, and I'm using warm, of course, not in the sense of temperature or even of emotion, but merely of being human, and not steel and silicon. I must say at the outset that I am no male chauvinist pig, but perhaps the full title of this paper ought to be "Happiness is a Warm