Findings on Happiness & Life-Events

Life satisfaction is prospectively associated with the occurrence of several major events in work and family life. Analyzing longitudinal data from three nationally representative panel studies (Ns between 2,321 and 18,692), we found that higher life satisfaction is associated with a higher likelihood of marriage and childbirth, and with a lower likelihood of marital separation, job loss, starting a new job, and relocating. These effects held even after controlling for gender, age, socio-economic status, and the Big Five, and were highly consistent across the three samples. Discrete-time survival analyses indicated that for most of these events, temporary rather than stable mechanisms account for the prospective effect of LS. Together, these findings provide evidence that life satisfaction is an important predictor of major life outcomes.

2009

Population: 62-89 aged females, followed 4 years USA, 1967-71 Sample: Non-Response: 27%; 24% unattainable, 3% incomplete. N: 44 Correlate Authors label: Gains in social status over 4 years. (1) Our classification: Change in resources, code R2.1.2 Measurement: Comparison of T1 and T2. A significant move to a fully independent household, marriage, and taking paying employment were defined as status gains. Institutionalization, the death of supportive family members and friends, and recent geographic dispersion of supportive children were defined as losses. Ss classified as having experienced: losses / no change / gains Observed Relation with Happiness Happiness Measure Statistics Elaboration/Remarks http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/hap_cor/top_sub.php?code=R2 (2 of 23)9-9-2009 14:00:17 Findings on Happiness and RESOURCES A-BB/cm/mq/v/2/a tb=+.13 ns At T1 all Ss were in good health, able to care for themselves and lived alone. Happiness assessed at T2. % happy at T2: -losses 22% -no change 28% -gains 40%

2003

Ss were classified on the basis of present-self, past-self and future-self ratings using the Cantril (1965) question on "best possible life". (See CANTR 1965) TD temporary deprivation: present lower than past: future higher than present CD continuous deprivation: present lower than past: future lower than present GED great expectative deprivation: present higher than past: future higher than present SND Stereotyped non-deprivation: present higher than past: future slightly higher than present AD anticipatory deprivation: present higher than past: future lower than present.

2009

All ß controlled for: 1 Satisfied with health 2 Voluntary retirement 3 More active person 4 No pension income 5 Has a confidant 6 Higher standard house 7 Satisfied with job while working 8 Enjoys aspects of retirement 9 Retired suddenly 10 Is happy as grandparents were 11 Agrees: planning is key to success 12 Preference for entrepreneurship in retirement

Journal of Economic Psychology, 2006

In the United States happiness rises slightly, on average, from ages 18 to midlife, and declines slowly thereafter. This pattern for the total population is the net result of disparate trends in the satisfaction people get from various life domains: their financial situation, family life, ...

American Journal of Community Psychology, 1980

This study explored the relationship between life events and subjective ratings of well-being. Adaptation-level (AL) theory suggests that arranging unvarying positive societal experiences for individuals will lead to a "hedonic treadmill" and later affect're neutrality or even dissatisfaction. In its current form, AL theory does not account for individual sense of control, and arranging societal experiences which promote individual competence may generate more lasting feelings of well-being and psychological adjustment. Subjects were scored on their positive and negative life experiences which either involved personal control (Origin) or did not {Pawn). Results showed that Positive Origin experiences led to reports of greater well-being and less maladjustment than either Pawn events which were positive or negative events.

2003

Retrospective selfrating of ambitions-between age 30-40-since age 40-Excellence in work a. age 30-40 b. since age 40-Recognition c. age 30-40 d. since age 40-Vocational advancement e. age 30-40 f. since age 40-Financial gain g. age 30-40 h. since age 40

Social Indicators Research, 2006

The intersection of dimensions of subjective well-being (SWB) generates SWB types. We delineated SWB types by cross-tabulating happiness and suffering ratings that participants attributed to outstandingly meaningful periods in their life referred to as anchor periods. A sample of 499 older Israelis (age 58-94) was queried about two positive periods (the happiest, the most important) and two negative periods (the most miserable, the most difficult). A variety of variables discriminated between the more frequent congruous types of Happy (high happiness and low suffering) and Unhappy (low happiness and high suffering), but also presented the incongruous types of Inflated (high happiness and high suffering) and Deflated (low happiness and low suffering) as discriminable. Thus, women were more likely to be Inflated whereas men were more likely to be Deflated; low education related more to Happy in the happiest period and to Unhappy in the negative periods; present life satisfaction related more to Happy than to Unhappy in the positive, but not in the negative, periods; and Holocaust survivors were more likely to be Deflated and Unhappy in the negative, but not in the positive, periods. The study supported a differential perspective on SWB within people's narratives of their lives.

International Journal Of Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Research, 2013

The present study is an attempt to find out the relationship of Stressful Life Events and Happiness in a group of employed adults. Total 100 employed adult individuals (age range 23- 28 years) of both sexes were selected for the present study after an initial screening by General Health Questionnaire-28. To fulfill the objective of the present venture, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and Presumptive Stressful Life Event Scale were administered on the subjects following an uniform procedure. The nature of relationship was measured by using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Results indicated that Stressful Life Events bears a significant negative relationship with happiness.

… manuscript. University of …, 2010

An examination of emotions reported on 12 million personal blogs and a series of surveys and laboratory experiments show that the experience of happiness is not fixed; instead, it systematically shifts over the course of one's lifetime. Whereas younger people are more likely to associate happiness with excitement, as they get older, they become more likely to associate happiness with peacefulness. This change appears to be driven by a redirection of attention from the future to the present as people age. The dynamics of how happiness is experienced has broad implications both for the efficacy of methods designed to increase happiness and for the choices people make over their life course. This work has largely focused on people's levels of happiness, while little empirical work has studied the meaning of happiness-what is being experienced when an individual proclaims, "I feel happy"? Some research has suggested that the experience of happiness is similar across individuals ; others have argued that its experience is highly subjective and idiosyncratic . In the current work, we explore the possibility that the answer lies between the two, suggesting that there is a dynamic and predictable shift in the meaning of happiness and how it is experienced over one's life course.

deposit.ddb.de

I also would like to thank Richard E. Lucas whose research has inspired the topic of this dissertation.

As they move into and through the retirement years women's advantage over men in happiness is reversed. Although the happiness of both sexes is affected similarly by retirement from work, marital disruption, and changes in income and health, the difference between men and women in the life cycle occurrence of retirement and widowhood results in different trends in happiness. Men who survive to older age benefit disproportionately from the positive effect on happiness of retirement, while women suffer disproportionately from the adverse effect of widowhood. For women and men in the same work and marital circumstances, women continue to be happier than men. In the future, the turnaround in the relative happiness of women and men in later life is likely to continue, but the shift will be somewhat smaller in magnitude.

Public Performance Management Review, 2009

2003

Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 1977

THE LIFE events approach to the study of social stress, generally recognized to represent an advance over approaches based on simple additive models, has been the focus of increasingly critical attention. The reliability and validity of life event instruments, for example, has been questioned [e.g. l-41. In the present paper two additional issues are addressed. The first centers on whether it is appropriate to use predetermined ranks for weightings based on the respondent's own perception of the impact of life events, in order to more accurately assess the association of stress with physical and psychological well-being [e.g. 2, 5-101. A second issue concerns the policy, advocated by Holmes and Rahe [ll] for the computation of Life Change Unit (LCU) scores, of indiscriminately combining positive and negative events. While perhaps adequate for the prediction of physical problems or physiological arousal, the admixture may seriously impair assessment of the impact of stressors upon psychological state [e.g. 8, 12-151. The purpose of the present study was to compare the efficacy of several alternative approaches to life change analysis. Using the same life events, weighting systems were developed that were based on the original Holmes and Rahe [l l] LCU ranks, a predetermined ranking of stress developed by Horowitz et al. [16], simple frequency counts, the positive or negative quality of the event, and preoccupation with positive or negative event. Respondents METHOD The respondents included 47 younger men (x age=265, range 21-43), 47 younger women (x age=252, range 22-38 years), 45 older men (x age=60.9, range 49-70 years), and 50 older women (x age=58.7, age range 44-72 years). All are part of a longitudinal study of adaptation to normative psychosocial transitions (for a more detailed presentation of the sample characteristics see reference [151).