SSC People Pursue Of Happiness Concerning Their Personalities Discussion after reading 2 scholarly articles on happiness. I would like to see how the resul

SSC People Pursue Of Happiness Concerning Their Personalities Discussion after reading 2 scholarly articles on happiness. I would like to see how the results from either one connect to your experiences. In your post, include the following:Summarize any result/s from either article – this does not mean that you should directly quote them!Explain how this relates to you personallyInclude an image IN your post that best illustrates your point.Your post should be 5 – 10 sentences in length Journal of Happiness Studies (2006) 7:183–225
DOI 10.1007/s10902-005-4754-1
Springer 2006
CHRIS TKACH and SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY
HOW DO PEOPLE PURSUE HAPPINESS?: RELATING
PERSONALITY, HAPPINESS-INCREASING STRATEGIES,
AND WELL-BEINGw
ABSTRACT. Five hundred ethnically diverse undergraduates reported their
happiness strategies – that is, activities undertaken to maintain or increase
happiness. Factor analysis extracted eight general strategies: Affiliation, Partying, Mental Control, Goal Pursuit, Passive Leisure, Active Leisure, Religion,
and Direct Attempts at happiness. According to multiple regression analyses,
these strategies accounted for 52% of the variance in self-reported happiness
and 16% over and above the variance accounted for by the Big Five personality traits. The strongest unique predictors of current happiness were Mental
Control (inversely related), Direct Attempts, Affiliation, Religion, Partying,
and Active Leisure. Gender differences suggest that men prefer to engage in
Active Leisure and Mental Control, whereas women favor Affiliation, Goal
Pursuit, Passive Leisure, and Religion. Relative to Asian and Chicano(a) students, White students preferred using high arousal strategies. Finally, mediation analyses revealed that many associations between individuals’ personality
and happiness levels are to some extent mediated by the strategies they use to
increase their happiness – particularly, by Affiliation, Mental Control, and
Direct Attempts.
KEY WORDS: affiliation, Big Five, factor analysis, goals, happiness, leisure,
mediation, mental control, personality, subjective well-being
The inalienable right to the ‘‘pursuit of happiness’’ listed in the
U.S. Declaration of Independence illustrates the long-standing
American preoccupation with well-being. Continuing to this
day, happiness is considered an integral part of a desirable life
(King and Napa, 1998) and the subject of most people’s daily
thoughts (Freedman, 1978). Perhaps as a result of this fixation,
w
The authors would like to thank Sabine French for comments on earlier
drafts and Andrew Comrey, Dan Ozer, and Chandra Reynolds for their
valuable statistical advice.
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self-help books about how to become happier have proliferated.
Interest in the sources of happiness inspires the age-old problem, ‘‘What can people do to become happier?’’ Embedded in
this issue are two fundamental questions: ‘‘What specific strategies do people use to try to make themselves happy?’’ and ‘‘Are
these strategies effective?’’ Surprisingly, to our knowledge, little
research has addressed these questions directly.
To fill the aforementioned gap in the well-being research literature, the present study aimed to identify the intentional
behaviors that individuals engage in to pursue happiness. To that
end, the study had three general aims: First, we sought to derive
empirically the strategies that people report using to maintain or
increase their happiness levels. Second, we aimed to evaluate the
predictive power of the individual strategies – that is, determine
which strategies are most strongly related to self-reported happiness. Third, we sought to test a process model of long-term happiness by examining the relations among personality traits,
happiness strategies, and subjective happiness.
Happiness and Its Sources
Happiness is characterized by the experience of more frequent
positive affective states than negative ones (Bradburn, 1969), as
well as by the perception that one is progressing toward important life goals (Diener et al., 1999). Judgments of happiness
involve global affective self-appraisals and affect ratings, which
are inherently subjective (Myers and Diener, 1995). Chronic or
long-term happiness, the focus of the present investigation, is
the relatively stable level of positive well-being one experiences
over a specific time period, such as 3 or 6 months (Lyubomirsky,
2001; Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999).
Research investigating the sources of happiness has focused
on determining the strongest predictors of happiness and life
satisfaction. Three general categories of happiness predictors
have been identified: (1) life circumstances and demographics,
(2) traits and dispositions, and (3) intentional behaviors
(Lyubomirsky et al., 2005).
HOW DO PEOPLE PURSUE HAPPINESS?
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Circumstances and Demographics
Although circumstantial factors (e.g., income, place of residence,
employment, injury) affect temporary mood, their effects tend to
dissipate over time and ultimately appear not to have a substantial
effect on enduring happiness (e.g., Brickman et al., 1978; Suh et
al., 1996). Similarly, demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity) are weak predictors of happiness and account for a surprisingly small portion of happiness variance in most populations (see
Diener et al., 1999, for a review). Indeed, the meager predictive
power of life circumstances and demographic variables has led at
least one researcher to conclude that these factors play a ‘‘negligible role’’ in understanding happiness (Kammann, 1983).
Personality Traits
In contrast to demographic and circumstantial variables, personality traits account for a large portion of the variance in
individual differences in happiness – as much as 40–50% (Diener et al., 1999) – and appear to be critical to well-being.
Traits are biologically-based, enduring dispositions (McCrae
and Costa, 1996) that include attitude and behavior complexes, which are consistent across time and situations (Allport, 1955). Research has repeatedly shown that certain
personality traits are related to happiness, or subjective wellbeing (see DeNeve and Cooper, 1998, for a review). For
example, McCrae and Costa (1991) documented the relations
between the five-factor model of personality and the individual
components of subjective well-being – that is, positive affect,
negative affect, and life satisfaction.
Researchers have typically focused on the two most robust
predictors of happiness and well-being – extraversion and neuroticism. In general, extraverts report being happier than introverts, and neurotic individuals report being less happy than
emotionally stable individuals (Costa and McCrae, 1980; Costa
et al., 1987; Emmons and Diener, 1985; McCrae and Costa,
1991). Although relatively overlooked in comparison to the closely examined traits of extraversion and neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness have also been found to be
positively related to happiness (McCrae and Costa, 1991).
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McCrae and Costa (1991) proposed a number of ways that
traits might influence happiness, two of which were the focus of
the present investigation – namely, the temperamental and
instrumental paths. To illustrate the temperamental causal path,
extraversion leads to positive affect and neuroticism leads to
negative affect, and then, in turn, both traits and affect influence
happiness (Costa and McCrae, 1980; McCrae and Costa, 1991).
Experimental evidence supporting the temperamental causal
sequence for extraversion and neuroticism has been provided by
Larsen and Ketelaar (1989). Similarly, Rusting (1998) proposed
that the linkage between traits and moods is such that traits predispose people to process mood-relevant information in a manner congruent with their dispositions. Thus, seeing the world
through rose-colored glasses may be considered equivalent to
seeing the world through the eyes of an extraverted optimist.
Alternatively, according to McCrae and Costa (1991), the
instrumental causal sequence is illustrated by the notion of traits
establishing conditions that are conducive to happiness or
unhappiness. For example, extraverts may frequently seek out
social activities and behaviors, which, in turn, influence positive
moods, and, eventually, overall happiness. The instrumental
perspective can be applied to the study of the relations among
self-regulatory behaviors, transient mood, and chronic happiness. To illustrate, traits influence the conscious self-regulatory
actions that people take to manage their emotional lives – that
is, their happiness-enhancing ‘‘strategies.’’ Traits and strategies
in turn, influence current mood, and, ultimately, overall happiness level.
Emmons et al. (1986) document just such a trait-behavioraffect linkage. Specifically, they found that extraverts choose to
be in social situations more so than did introverts, and that
while in their chosen social setting, extraverts are in a better
mood than when in an imposed non-social setting. More
recently, Moskowitz and Coté (1995) found that it may not be
the situation itself that leads to improved moods, but, rather,
the behaviors that are elicited and then performed by the person in the situation. In other words, extraverts are happier in
social settings because they are acting sociably.
HOW DO PEOPLE PURSUE HAPPINESS?
187
These findings highlight how particular volitional behaviors,
such as happiness-increasing strategies, can mediate the relation
between dispositions and well-being. This process perspective
has one fundamental advantage over the study of traits alone
with regard to understanding how happiness can be elevated –
namely, the fact that intentional behaviors are easier to modify
than personality. Consequently, research findings in this area
can be directly translated into prescriptive suggestions for
boosting well-being.
The Self-Regulation of Moods
Although little research has been conducted on the activities
individuals intentionally use to promote chronic, or long-term,
happiness, much research has examined activities used to regulate short-term moods – particularly, negative moods (see Morris
and Reilly, 1987, for a review). For example, Thayer et al. (1994)
catalogued the activities that people use to get themselves out of a
bad mood, such as exercising, seeking out friends, and hobbies.
Unfortunately, this body of research suffers from two limitations with regard to our present topic of intentional activities
used to promote happiness. First, with the exception of Thayer
and colleagues’ work (Thayer et al., 1994), much of this research has focused on single behaviors, without attempting to
identify the full range of intentional activities that people use to
alter their mood states. Second, and more important, the focus
of these studies has been the lifting of negative moods, not the
promotion of positive moods or well-being.
Research on the self-regulation of mood does, however, offer
one distinct advantage – in some cases, it provides experimental
evidence supporting the causal link between intentional behavior and mood change. For example, active distraction in the
form of exercise has been found to reduce negative mood
(Erber, 1996).
Research has also shown that people often engage in activities
that they believe will relieve negative mood, but, in the long
term, these activities either have no benefit or, worse yet, serve
to make people feel even worse. The most notable example of
this maladaptive attempt at mood regulation is drinking alcohol.
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Although drinking is a common mood regulatory activity (Hull
and Bond, 1986) and may relieve a negative mood in the short
term, its continued use leads to depression and other negative
consequences in the long term (Anshensel and Huba, 1983).
It is also worth noting that men and women handle their
emotions in different ways. For example, women report using
social support more frequently than do men to combat negative
moods (Thayer et al., 1994). However, the emotional benefits
that women gain through affiliation may be undercut by their
greater tendency (relative to men) to ruminate about the causes
and consequences of their unhappiness (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991).
In contrast, men tend to manage bad moods through pleasurable
and distracting activities, such as sports (Thayer et al.). Given
these findings, it is likely that men and women also differ in the
strategies that they prefer to use to increase or maintain happiness.
Finally, ethnic differences have been reported in the correlates of happiness and well-being (Adams, 1997; Diener, 1984),
and some predictors of well-being are stronger in particular cultures than in others. For example, Diener and Diener (1995)
found that self-esteem was a better predictor of subjective wellbeing in nations with individualist cultures than in those with
collectivist cultures. In light of these results, we tested whether
the derived happiness strategies showed any differences for gender or ethnicity.
Summary
The happiness literature suggests that circumstantial factors
such as income and place of residence account for only a small
portion of the variance of happiness and are relatively unimportant (Kammann, 1983; Lyubomirsky, 2001). By contrast, dispositional traits account for a large portion of happiness variance
(Diener et al., 1999) and are clearly critical. However, up to
40% of the variance in individual differences in happiness is not
accounted for by circumstances and dispositions, and may be
linked to intentional strategies and behaviors (Lyubomirsky
et al., 2005). At the same time, the literature suggests that people use self-regulatory mechanisms to control their mood states
(Erber, 1996; Morris and Reilly, 1987). Finally, research reveals
HOW DO PEOPLE PURSUE HAPPINESS?
189
gender and cultural differences in factors associated with happiness and satisfaction (Diener et al., 1999).
Several questions, however, remain unanswered. First, which
precise strategies do people report using to maintain their own
happiness? Second, are these happiness-increasing strategies
effective? And, finally, how do the happiness strategies relate to
personality? The current study aimed to address these questions.
The Present Study
The first aim of our exploratory study was to derive the happiness strategies that individuals use to maintain or increase their
happiness levels and to explore individual differences in strategy
use. We anticipated that the derived strategies would, in general, resemble self-regulatory behaviors used to control transient
mood (Erber, 1996; Morris and Reilly, 1987; Thayer et al.,
1994). Although gender and ethnic differences in frequency of
strategy use were expected, specific hypotheses were not made
with regard to these differences.
The second aim was to evaluate the predictive power of the
derived strategies, and to identify those strategies with the strongest associations to individuals’ current happiness. To this end,
the relations between the strategies and happiness levels were assessed. We expected the derived strategies to vary in the strength
and direction of their correlations with self-reported happiness.
The third aim of the study was to assess the relations among
personality traits, happiness-increasing strategies, and subjective
happiness. Taking a process approach, the strategies, traits, and
reported happiness levels were subjected to a mediation analysis
(Baron and Kenny, 1986; Kenny et al., 1998). We predicted
that strategies would partially mediate the relation between the
‘‘Big Five’’ personality traits and long-term happiness.
METHOD
Participants
Five hundred undergraduate students (341 females, 157 males, 2
unknown) participated by completing a questionnaire for course
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credit. The sample was ethnically diverse (8% African American,
38% Asian, 23% Caucasian, 19% Chicano/a, and 11% Other),
with ages ranging from 17 to 35 years (M=19.4, SD=1.71).
Procedure
The paper-and-pencil questionnaire was mass-distributed in a
large Introductory Psychology class at a state university. Students filled out the questionnaire at home and returned it
1 week later. The questionnaire took less than 45 min to complete.
Measures
Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS; Lyubomirsky and Lepper,
1999)
The SHS is a 4-item measure of subjective, chronic happiness.
The first item asks participants the extent to which they identify themselves as a happy person (1=not a very happy person,
7=a very happy person). The second item is a comparative
assessment that requires respondents to describe themselves
compared to their peers (1=less happy, 7=more happy). The
third item asks participants the extent to which a description
of a chronically happy person describes them: ‘‘Some people
are generally very happy. They enjoy life regardless of what is
going on, getting the most out of everything. To what extent
does this characterization describe you?’’ (1=not at all, 7=a
great deal). Lastly, the fourth item, which is reverse coded,
describes a chronically unhappy person: ‘‘Some people are
generally not very happy. Although they are not depressed,
they never seem as happy as they might be.’’ Again, participants are asked to judge the extent to which the characterization is accurate in describing them (1=not at all, 7=a great
deal). This scale demonstrated very good reliability in this
study (a=0.85).
Happiness-increasing Strategies
In a pilot study, 70 students completed an open-ended survey in
which they were asked to ‘‘list things that [they] do to maintain
or increase [their] happiness level.’’ The students’ responses yielded
HOW DO PEOPLE PURSUE HAPPINESS?
191
a list of 66 happiness-enhancing strategies used in the present
study (see Table I) These were the 66 items that were most frequently generated in the open-ended pilot survey. Examples included ‘‘pursue life goals,’’ ‘‘study,’’ ‘‘spend time with friends,’’
and ‘‘watch TV.’’ In the present study, students were asked to rate
each of the 66 items on ‘‘how frequently [they] use this strategy to
increase or maintain [their] happiness’’ (1=never, 7=all the time).
Big Five Inventory (BFI; John et al., 1991)
The BFI is a 44-item assessment of five primary personality
traits – Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism. The scale asks respondents the extent to
which they agree that a particular characteristic applies to them
– that is, ‘‘I see myself as someone who is…‘‘ Examples include
‘‘Is curious about a number of things’’ (Openness), ‘‘Is outgoing, sociable’’ (Extraversion), ‘‘Likes to cooperate with others’’
(Agreeableness), ‘‘Does a thorough job’’ (Conscientiousness),
and ‘‘Worries a lot’’ (Neuroticism). The participants respond on
a 5-point Likert-type scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly
agree). (Approximately half the items were reverse coded.) Reliability for this study was good: a=0.74 (Openness), a=0.83
(Extraversion), a=0.77 (Agreeableness), a=0.77 (Conscientiousness), and a=0.74 (Neuroticism).
RESULTS
Overview of Statistical Procedures
Consistent with the three aims of the study, three sets of statistical analyses were conducted. First, an exploratory factor analysis was performed to derive happiness-increasing strategies from
a larger set of behaviors used to ‘‘maintain or increase happiness.’’ Second, correlational analyses and multiple regression
analyses were used to assess the relations between the derived
strategies and happiness, and to evaluate the extent to which
happiness strategies account for differences among individuals’
happiness levels. Finally, mediation analyses were performed to determine how happiness strategies fit into a process model of happiness.
The last set of procedures modeled the paths among the Big Five
traits, happiness-enhancing strategies, and long-term happiness.
Strategy I: Social Affiliation
Support and encourage friends
Help others
Savor the moment
Receive support from friends
Interact/communicate with friends
Focus on maintaining relationships
Draw
Clean
Become absorbed in tasks
Cultivate a sense of hu…
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