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Abstract chapter 3 Introductory text to Collection Measures of Happiness

METHODS FOR MEASURING HAPPINESS

Since happiness is defined as something we have on mind, it can be measured using questioning. The standard approach is to ask people directly how much they like the life they live. Questions of that kind are typically posed in the context of survey studies. Means and standard deviations observed in samples are generalized to a population.

Non-standard methods are: multiple questions, multi-moment assessment of mood, analysis of ego-documents and observations of cheerful appearance by external raters.

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