Showing papers on "Happiness published in 1993"

Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment.

Abstract: Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia and hedonic enjoyment constitute 2 philosophical conceptions of happiness. Two studies involving combined samples of undergraduate and graduate students (Study 1, N = 209; Study 2, N = 249) were undertaken to identify the convergent and divergent aspects of these constructs. As expected, there was a strong positive correlation between personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Analyses revealed significant differences between the 2 conceptions of happiness experienced in conjunction with activities for the variables of (a) opportunities for satisfaction, (b) strength of cognitive-affective components, (c) level of challenges, (d) level of skills, and (e) importance. It thus appears that the 2 conceptions of happiness are related but distinguishable and that personal expressiveness, but not hedonic enjoyment, is a signifier of success in the process of self-realization. The qualities deemed to represent optimal, healthy, or effective psychological functioning have been a perennial concern within personality psychology. However, work on optimal functioning has generally been carried out within diverse theoretical systems with few efforts made to interrelate or integrate concepts proposed as optimal within the different theories. Four such constructs are (a) a sense of personal identity (Erikson, 1963, 1968—ego analytic theory), (b) self-actualization (Maslow, 1968,1970—humanistic theory), (c) an internal locus of control (Rotter, 1966—social learning theory), and (d) principled moral reasoning (Gilligan, 1982, Kohlberg, 1969—cognitive developmental theory). In an analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of these constructs, I (Waterman, 1981, 1984) have demonstrated that they share individualistic philosophical assumptions regarding the role of self-realization as a component of optimal psychological functioning. The philosophical theory that corresponds to the perspectives advanced with regard to each of the four constructs, and that is foundational to claims made for each, is eudaimonism.

A Dark Side of the American Dream: Correlates of Financial Success as a Central Life Aspiration

Abstract: Aspiring for financial success is an important aspect of capitalist cultures. Three studies examine the hypothesis that values and expectancies for wealth and money are negatively associated with adjustment and well-being when they are more central to an individual than other self-relevant values and expectancies. Studies 1 and 2 use 2 methods to show that the relative centrality of money-related values and expectancies is negatively related to college students' well-being and mental health. Study 3, using a heterogeneous noncollege sample, extends these findings by showing that a high centrality of aspirations for financial success is associated with interview ratings of lower global adjustment and social productivity and more behavioral disorders. Discussion is focused on the deleterious consequences of materialistic world views and the need to examine differential effects of content regarding goals and values. Financial success has long been a core component of the American dream, and many of the values modeled and encouraged by modern society suggest that success and happiness depend on procuring monetary wealth (Derber, 1979). Yet folklore and table side discussion often suggest that a darker side lurks behind the American dream. Pursuing material wealth is sometimes viewed as empty or shallow and as precluding investment in one's family and friends, self-actualization, and contributions to the community. Suspicion about the worth of material pursuits is echoed in some humanistic theories. Both Rogers (1963) and Maslow (1954), for instance, consider humans to be energized by an actualizing tendency and believe that well-being occurs to the extent people can freely express their inherent potentials. In situations of conditional positive regard (Rogers, 1963) or forceful external demands (Maslow, 1956), however, individuals often forego their own actualization to attain regard or outcomes from others. Similarly, Fromm (1976) distinguished between a "having" or consummatory orientation and a "being" or experiential orientation to life. He considered the former as reflecting alienation from the actualizing tendencies of the self. Inasmuch as money represents an external incentive for behavior that is contingently given, these theories suggest the pursuit of

The morality of happiness

Abstract: To understand ancient ethics, we must examine the basic structure of ancient ethical theory. This treatise presents the results of a wide-ranging study of ancient ethical philosophy, and makes it accessible to anyone with an interest in ancient or modern ethical studies. Her examination of the basic concepts and arguments of ancient ethics corrects many widespread misconceptions, and shows that ancient ethical theories are theories of morality and its demands.

Dimensions of Interpersonal Relation Among Australian Children and Implications for Psychological Well-Being

Abstract: Three dimensions of interpersonal relations among Australian school children were hypothesized as reflecting tendencies (a) to bully others, (b) to be victimized by others, and (c) to relate to others in a prosocial and cooperative manner. School children from two secondary schools (School A, n = 285; School B, n = 877) answered 20 questions assessing styles of interpersonal relations. Factor analyses of the item scores obtained from each of the two schools provided highly similar results, supporting the factorial independence of the three hypothesized dimensions. Students attending School B answered additional questions to assess self-esteem, level of happiness, and liking for school. Generally low levels of self-esteem were found among children who reported being more victimized than others, and high self-esteem among children practicing more prosocial behavior. The tendency to bully others was correlated negatively with happiness and liking school, but no relationship was found between this variable and self-esteem.

Pursuing Happiness: American Consumers in the Twentieth Century

Abstract: Whether watching baseball or undergoing heart surgery, Americans have bought a variety of goods and services to achieve happiness. Here is a provocative look at what they have chosen to purchase. Stanley Lebergott maintains that the average consumer has behaved more reasonably than many distinguished critics of "materialism" have suggested. He sees consumers seeking to make an uncertain and often cruel world into a pleasanter and more convenient place--and, for the most part, succeeding. With refreshing common sense, he reminds us of what many "luxuries" have meant, especially for women: increased income since 1900 has been used largely to lighten the backbreaking labor once required by household chores.Whether watching baseball or undergoing heart surgery, Americans have bought a variety of goods and services to achieve happiness. Here is a provocative look at what they have chosen to purchase. Stanley Lebergott maintains that the average consumer has behaved more reasonably than many distinguished critics of "materialism" have suggested. He sees consumers seeking to make an uncertain and often cruel world into a pleasanter and more convenient place--and, for the most part, succeeding. With refreshing common sense, he reminds us of what many "luxuries" have meant, especially for women: increased income since 1900 has been used largely to lighten the backbreaking labor once required by household chores.

“The Movement Is My Life”: The Psychology of Animal Rights Activism

Abstract: 1 used a qualitative research approach to investigate psychological aspects of involvement in the animal rights movement. Interviews were conducted with 23 rank-and-file activists, focusing on cognitive and emotional aspects of involvement with the movement, concomitant lifestyle changes, effects on interpersonal relations, and the happiness and well-being of the participants. Three main themes emerged from these interviews. First, there was a surprising degree of diversity in attitudes and beliavior of the activists. Second, animal rights activism usually entailed major changes in lifestyle: almost all interviewees strove to achieve consistency between their ideals and their actions. Third, there were several parallel.^ between an involvement with the animal rights movement and religious conversion. The potential for increased communication between the animal protection and scientific communities is discussed. The animal rights movement has been spectacularly successful at drawing public attention to the ethical issues involved in our relationships with other species. Animal protection organizations have proliferated in number, membership, and influence since the publication of Peter Singer's book .Animal Liber

Activity and happiness: Towards a science of occupation

Abstract: (1993). Activity and happiness: Towards a science of occupation. Journal of Occupational Science: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 38-42.

The Influence of Depressed and Elated Mood on Deductive and Inductive Reasoning

Abstract: Depressed and elated mood states may produce distinct information processing styles that can affect performance on deductive and inductive reasoning tasks differentially. Seventy-two undergraduates...

The Depression-Happiness Scale

Abstract: It is argued that there is a need for a measure which can quantify a continuum of affect and which is able to assess current frequency of mood for use in survey research with the general population. In a preliminary attempt to develop such a scale, a 40-item questionnaire containing items thought to tap feelings of depression and happiness was completed by 200 young people whose mean score on the Beck Depression Inventory was within that expected of a normal population. On the basis of factor analytic data, the 25 highest loading items were selected for inclusion into a bipolar Depression-Happiness Scale which was shown to have good internal reliability and concurrent validity with the Beck Depression Inventory.

A Descriptive Empirical Study of Gay Male Stepfamilies.

Abstract: This descriptive study identified family dynamics associated with measures of family happiness for biological fathers, stepfathers, and adolescents in 48 European-American gay stepfamilies. The Stepfamily Adjustment Scale was modified for use with this population. For all three family members, family happiness was more highly related to stepfather inclusion in the family and to a positive steprelationship than it was to the couple's relationship, family cohesion, relationship with the ex-wife, money issues, or adolescent family-related self-efficacy. Adolescents were the most closeted and biological fathers were the least closeted.

Job stress among Muslim immigrants in North America: Moderating effects of religiosity

Abstract: This study examined the relationship of job stress with psychosomatic health problems, happiness in life, job satisfaction, job motivation, organizational commitment and turnover motivation in a sample of Muslims living in Canada and the USA. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire (N = 325). Results generally supported the prediction that job stress will be positively related to psychosomatic health problems and turnover motivation, and negatively related to happiness in life, job satisfaction, job motivation and organizational commitment. Degree of religiosity was proposed as a moderator of job stress-outcome relationships. Results from moderated multiple regression indicated that for this sample of Muslims religiosity was an important moderator of the stress-outcome relationships. Implications of the findings for stress management and for future research in the racioethnic area are highlighted.

Casting off the bonds of organized religion: a religious-careers approach to the study of apostasy

Abstract: This study proposes that apostasy be conceptualized as process of disengagement from two major elements of religion: belief and community. A typology of religious careers was developed to approximate the dynamics of apostasy through cross-sectional data. Data were derived from self-administered questionnaires from Canadian and American undergraduates. The career types Apostates, Switchers, Converts and Stalwarts were compared in terms of origins, reported early family experiences, persistence of beliefs and sources doubt. Finally, the consequences of apostasy - happiness, life-satisfactions, self-esteem, socio-political attitudes, gender traditionalism - were analyzed

The relationship of social support to perceived control and subjective mental health in adolescents

Abstract: This study investigated the link between social support and positive constructs, specifically, psychological well-being and the perceived ability to obtain and savor positive life events. Eighty-two high school students were surveyed. Social support was significantly related to positive dimensions of subjective mental health (happiness, gratification, and self-confidence), but not to its negative components (vulnerability, strain, and uncertainty), and was also significantly related to respondents' perceived ability to obtain and savor positive life events, but not to their perceived ability to avoid or cope with negative events. Future theory and research should examine the link between social support and positive constructs such as psychological well-being and positive life experience.

Death and whom to save from it

Abstract: Frances Kamm's book deals with the question of the badness of death. Death is generally felt to be the worst wrong that can happen to one. Philosophers from Epicurus onwards have argued, on the contrary, that as death involves the absence of experience, and bad things involve bad sensations, death cannot be bad; also, for something to be bad, it must be bad for someone, yet as we cease to exist when we die, it cannot be bad for us. Kamm discusses this view and the objections made to it by Nagel, Williams, and others, and considers the question of whether there is an asymmetry between dying and never having come into existence; and she goes on to consider the question of saving lives, and whether it is better to save more lives at a lower level of happiness or fewer lives at a higher level of happiness. The final section of the book deals with the question of organ transplantation and the distribution of resources which are unequally available. The book contains much theoretical and methodological argument, but is firmly grounded in practical ethical issues, and is illustrated throughout by examples.

Choice and Emotion in Comparison Theory

Abstract: This article examines the part played by choice and emotion in comparison processes, processes that lead to such phenomena as happiness, self-esteem, relative deprivation, and distributive justice....

Women's multiple roles and psychological well-being.

Abstract: Examination of the relationships of multiple roles and internal-external locus of control with psychological well-being among 162 middle-class women aged 23 yr. and over, returning to school at a community college, showed women occupying two or three of the roles of partner, mother, and paid employee were happier than those occupying one or none. Internal locus of control was important in adding significantly to the prediction of both happiness and self-esteem, beyond that predicted by number of roles and control variables. Psychological well-being for women returning to school is positively correlated with more social roles and internal scores on locus of control.

The Impossibility of Utilitarianism

Abstract: Utilitarianism is the ideology of two tribes: a vast majority of academic economists, and a notable fraction of English-speaking philosophers. It enjoins one to maximize the sum of individuals’ “pleasures less pains”, or “utilitiesor “felicities”. Now, we will make clear that there is no entity, attached to individuals, that can meaningfully both (1) be subjected to an operation of addition, and (2) sufficiently “measure” individual happiness, pleasure, etc. Hence, utilitarianism strictly understood is simply meaningless. The various attempts one can imagine for making sense of it indeed turn out to fail when closely scrutinized. These attempts include casual empirical interindividual comparisons of “happiness” or “pleasure”, mathematically “separable” “social welfare functions”, and the justifications using uncertainty. Among the latter, the “Original Position” theory indeed delivers utilitarianism, but it is not a social ethical theory.

Leisure Meanings in Adolescence

Abstract: The current study was intended to examine adolescent leisure meanings and to relate meanings and behavior to experience. Eighty-six high school juniors and seniors responded to a written questionnaire, and a subgroup of 24 volunteered to take part in an experience sampling (ESM) phase, responding to random signals over a seven day period. The ESM analysis showed that levels of relaxation, enjoyment, intrinsic motivation and happiness and seeing the activity as freely chosen and a reflection of one's”true self' were all related to seeing a situation as leisure. Perceiving a situation as leisure was not related to self- evaluation, was negatively related to seeing it as challenging, and was more likely to be an occasion where skills were perceived to be greater than challenges rather than well matched. In response to an open ended survey question, “leisure” was most often defined in terms of relaxation and free time. These findings suggest that for most of these adolescents leisure seems to be a co...

TV watching, soap opera and happiness.

Abstract: One hundred and fourteen subjects reported the amount of time they spent watching television in general, and soap opera in particular. They also completed scales measuring happiness and other personality variables, such as extraversion and cooperativeness. In the multiple regression analysis, having controlled for the demographic variables, watching TV was related to unhappiness, whereas watching soap opera was related to happiness. Discriminant analysis showed that females, higher happiness and extraversion distinguished regular soap watchers (who nevertheless watched little TV in general) from irregular soap watchers (who nevertheless watched a lot of TV in general).

Creating Contexts To Change Teachers' Beliefs about the Influence of Research.

Abstract: Expectations for educational research can seem like the ancient moral equation Nietzsche criticizes in his Twilight of the Idols. There Nietzsche (1968/1889) derides the Socratic/Platonic equation of reason, virtue, and happiness. Reason leads to truth. Truth leads to virtue, and virtue leads to happiness. Clifford (1973) notes a similar equation in her work on the history of the impact of research on teaching. Underlying the enduring optimism and hope for educational research is the belief that "to know the right is to do the right" (pp. 1-2). Educational research provides the knowledge that will influence teachers. Teachers thereby acquire the pedagogical excellence (virtue) necessary to promote some educational good. This article does not question the equation's basic structure, except to deny any necessary connection between parts. Knowledge derived from research may lead to pedagogical excellence. But, important differences appear in how teachers, teacher educators, or researchers conceptualize "knowing the right." Among teachers, Dewey (1929) laid out broad possibilities. Prospective teachers, on the one hand, want to know how to do things in order to be successful teachers. Research knowledge becomes a source of procedural advice for good performance, and knowing the right means using the right "recipes" (p. 15). For Dewey, on the other hand, knowing the right was also associated with understanding a system of scientific thought. This sense of "knowing the right" meant understanding the principles of and warrants for knowledge derived from research in order to enrich teacher judgment:

Cyborgs, drag queens, and goddesses: Emancipatoryregressive paths in feminist theory

Abstract: Herbert Marcuse once observed that religion contains a "basic ambivalence," that is, an ambivalence that persists as a result of the unresolved tension between "the image of domination and the image of liberation" at the heart of religious consciousness.' For Marcuse, religion denies the hope for peace, justice and happiness that it once aroused in human beings by teaching them "to appreciate the facts in a world of alienation."2 The link between religion and the desire for a just world identified by Marcuse derives from Marx's definition of religion as "the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world ... the spirit of spiritless conditions."3 For Marx, religion detaches the legitimate desire for justice on earth from concrete historical struggles, with the result that human beings are directed to find their happiness m illusions, rather than in the actual conditions of their life experience. That is why for Marx the critique of religion is central to "the premise of all criticism": with the abolition of religion and its compensating illusions, the "task of history" as the establishment of "the truth of this world1'4 becomes possible. The idea that the abolition of religion is requisite to the struggle for social transformation is predicated on the recognition that, in the words of Max Horkheimer, "[dissatisfaction with earthly destiny is the strongest motive for acceptance of a transcendental being." Following Marx, both Horkheimer