Michael B. Kaufman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226550015
- eISBN:
- 9780226550299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226550299.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Chapter 9 reconsiders the findings of the book’s study by replicating its main statistical analyses using a conventional and widely used survey self-report measure of happiness as a dependent ...
More
Chapter 9 reconsiders the findings of the book’s study by replicating its main statistical analyses using a conventional and widely used survey self-report measure of happiness as a dependent measure, the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diener and colleagues. While showing important areas of convergence with the book’s models developed using the Scale of Intrapsychic Brightness and Darkness, results show that this conventional measure introduces and fails to detect social desirability and cultural biases in participant responses. The chapter illustrates and accounts for these biases using qualitative and quantitative evidence. This finding raises concerns about reliance on survey self-reports to study happiness. In the book’s research use of self-reports alone would have led to significant omissions and distortions in findings. These limitations are compared with use of the book’s new qualitative method of assessing well-being. The new approach offers a viable alternative to conventional happiness research reliant on self-reports.Less
Chapter 9 reconsiders the findings of the book’s study by replicating its main statistical analyses using a conventional and widely used survey self-report measure of happiness as a dependent measure, the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diener and colleagues. While showing important areas of convergence with the book’s models developed using the Scale of Intrapsychic Brightness and Darkness, results show that this conventional measure introduces and fails to detect social desirability and cultural biases in participant responses. The chapter illustrates and accounts for these biases using qualitative and quantitative evidence. This finding raises concerns about reliance on survey self-reports to study happiness. In the book’s research use of self-reports alone would have led to significant omissions and distortions in findings. These limitations are compared with use of the book’s new qualitative method of assessing well-being. The new approach offers a viable alternative to conventional happiness research reliant on self-reports.
Michael B. Kaufman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226550015
- eISBN:
- 9780226550299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226550299.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Chapter 4 introduces a main innovation in happiness research: a qualitative method for assessing well-being using clinical life history interviews and a rigorous narrative coding procedure developed ...
More
Chapter 4 introduces a main innovation in happiness research: a qualitative method for assessing well-being using clinical life history interviews and a rigorous narrative coding procedure developed by the study using grounded theory. This method was implemented with a high level of agreement by blind, independent coders. It captures variation in participants’ brightness and darkness without obscuring the richness of their lives because it links a numeric rating with psychobiographical description. The study implemented the procedure for each participant in college and separately in late midlife in order to systematically determine longitudinal patterns of well-being. The chapter presents the resulting Scale of Intrapsychic Brightness and Darkness for the sample in college and again in late midlife, its correlation with conceptually related measures, and other evidence of its soundness. It explains the development of the measure, how it is implemented, and its conceptual building blocks.Less
Chapter 4 introduces a main innovation in happiness research: a qualitative method for assessing well-being using clinical life history interviews and a rigorous narrative coding procedure developed by the study using grounded theory. This method was implemented with a high level of agreement by blind, independent coders. It captures variation in participants’ brightness and darkness without obscuring the richness of their lives because it links a numeric rating with psychobiographical description. The study implemented the procedure for each participant in college and separately in late midlife in order to systematically determine longitudinal patterns of well-being. The chapter presents the resulting Scale of Intrapsychic Brightness and Darkness for the sample in college and again in late midlife, its correlation with conceptually related measures, and other evidence of its soundness. It explains the development of the measure, how it is implemented, and its conceptual building blocks.
