The Creation of Personal Happiness
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
Ellensburg
Event Website
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source
Start Date
16-5-2021
End Date
22-5-2021
Keywords
Happiness, Meta-analysis, Mental Health
Abstract
Happiness is something human beings all strive to acquire but how to obtain this elusive feeling remains a longstanding and intriguing inquiry. One reason for this is that there is no one specific definition of happiness and no standard measurement for it. This project focuses on defining what is believed to affect happiness from an individual’s personal perspective and aims to shed light on the current research and understanding of how to define happiness and what common variables lead to happiness. To this aim, a meta-analysis was conducted which led to the development of a mixed methods survey designed for a sample population of college students. The quantitative section of the survey utilizes the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) by Sonia Lyubomirsky and Heidi Lepper. The SHS provided a new and widely accepted approach to measure the construct of subjective happiness with high validity. Qualitative questions were added to provide more breadth and depth expanding the range of descriptive evidences to be gathered. Examples of these questions are, “What is your definition of happiness?” and “What would you say is/are a significant factor(s) that raises your happiness?” It is also noteworthy that the emergence of Covid-19 increased stress and anxiety worldwide disrupting the initial survey’s intent and reliability. This presentation provides an overview of the meta-analysis, presents the developed survey, and discusses the disruptive impact of the pandemic on the study. Suggestions for future research will be provided.
Recommended Citation
Zesiger, Jayme, "The Creation of Personal Happiness" (2021). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 86.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2021/COTS/86
Department/Program
Psychology
Additional Mentoring Department
https://cwu.studentopportunitycenter.com/the-creation-of-personal-happiness/
The Creation of Personal Happiness
Ellensburg
Happiness is something human beings all strive to acquire but how to obtain this elusive feeling remains a longstanding and intriguing inquiry. One reason for this is that there is no one specific definition of happiness and no standard measurement for it. This project focuses on defining what is believed to affect happiness from an individual’s personal perspective and aims to shed light on the current research and understanding of how to define happiness and what common variables lead to happiness. To this aim, a meta-analysis was conducted which led to the development of a mixed methods survey designed for a sample population of college students. The quantitative section of the survey utilizes the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) by Sonia Lyubomirsky and Heidi Lepper. The SHS provided a new and widely accepted approach to measure the construct of subjective happiness with high validity. Qualitative questions were added to provide more breadth and depth expanding the range of descriptive evidences to be gathered. Examples of these questions are, “What is your definition of happiness?” and “What would you say is/are a significant factor(s) that raises your happiness?” It is also noteworthy that the emergence of Covid-19 increased stress and anxiety worldwide disrupting the initial survey’s intent and reliability. This presentation provides an overview of the meta-analysis, presents the developed survey, and discusses the disruptive impact of the pandemic on the study. Suggestions for future research will be provided.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2021/COTS/86
Faculty Mentor(s)
Natalie Lupton and Fen Wang