Rethinking happiness (measures) Amelie Aidenberger Introduction Ø Sociological research on happiness: happiness = life satisfaction Ø Psychological perspective: happiness = many faceted construct with (at least) two distinct components: hedonic & eudaimonic well-being Ø Aim of this research: discovering the potentials of this perspective for sociological studies
Theoretical concepts
Data & Measures
Ø Hedonic well-being
Ø Data: British Household Panel Survey, waves 6-10 (‘96-’00) & 12-18 (‘02-’08)
Maximisation (minimisation) of experiences of pleasure (displeasure) of mind and body à high levels of positive emotions, low levels of negative emotions
Ø Operationalisation Hedonia / Eudaimonia: Factor analysis of GHQ-12 scale
Ø Eudaimonic well-being Living an autonomous, self-determined life in accordance with one’s true self and perceived development of one's best potentials à sense of purpose and meaning in life Ø Life satisfaction More general, overarching concept which refers to an assessment of people’s feelings and attitudes towards their life as a whole (plus, in some cases, towards subdomains of their life)
Have you recently… ...lost much sleep over worry? ...felt constantly under strain? ...felt you couldn't overcome your difficulties ? ...been feeling unhappy or depressed? ...felt that you were playing a useful part in things? ...felt capable of making decisions about things? ...been able to face up to problems ?
Hedonia 0.756 0.801 0.749 0.800 0.137 0.128 0.301
Eudaimonia 0.117 0.096 0.246 0.249 0.751 0.806 0.701
Ø Operationalisation life satisfaction: Standard single-item question Ø How dissatisfied or satisfied are you with your life overall? Ø Empirical application: Fixed-Effects-Models; separate for men and women
Empirical application: Effects of children on parental happiness Life satisfaction Women
Base model
Base model
Base model
Effect on life satisfaction −.2 −.1 0 .1 .2
.1
1 Years before and after birth
2
3
−1
0
1 Years before and after birth
2
3
−1
0
1 Years before and after birth
Hedonia Men
Eudaimonia Men
Life satisfaction Men
Base model
Base model
Base model
2
3
2
3
Effect on life satisfaction −.2 −.1 0 .1 .2
.1
−1
0
1 Years before and after birth
2
3
−.3
−.2
−.15
Effect on eudaimonia −.1 −.05 0 .05
−.2
−.15
Effect on hedonia −.1 −.05 0 .05
.1
.3
.15
0
.15
−1
−.3
−.2
−.15
Effect on eudaimonia −.1 −.05 0 .05
−.2
−.15
Effect on hedonia −.1 −.05 0 .05
.1
.3
.15
Eudaimonia Women
.15
Hedonia Women
−1
Scale: 1 (low) – 4 (high)
0
1 Years before and after birth
2
3
−1
0
1 Years before and after birth
Scale: 1 (low) – 4 (high)
Scale: 1 (low) – 7 (high)
Results
Discussion & Conclusion
Ø Effects of the birth of a first child show diverging tendencies for the three different dimensions over the course of time ➔ Consistently positive (negative) effect on mothers’ (fathers’) hedonic well-being ➔ Alternating positive and negative effects on mothers’ and fathers’ eudaimonic well-being ➔ Initial positive effects followed by negative effects on mothers’ and fathers’ life satisfaction Ø However: effects not significant in most time periods
Ø Measures constructed here can only be considered rough approximations of the constructs hedonia and eudaimonia Ø Particularly critical: operationalisation of hedonic well-being based on items assessing the absence of negative affective states, while the presence of positive affective states (not in the data) is an equally important component of hedonic well-being Ø Summary: Results can be regarded as a first indication that the onedimensional concept ‘life-satisfaction’ does not capture all aspects of happiness and that further pursuit of a multidimensional conceptualisation might indeed prove beneficial to future advances of sociological research
Contact: Amelie Aidenberger | University of Zurich (Institute of Sociology) |
[email protected] | +41 44 635 23 72 Acknowledgements: I thank Gerrit Bauer for his dedicated supervision of my thesis and for all his invaluable feedback.
