Study Wessman & Ricks (1966): study US 1957 /1
- Public
- Male college students, followed 3 years, Harvard University, USA, 1957-60
- Sample
- Respondents
- N = 17
- Non Response
- 37%: 9 dropouts, incomplete; about the same happiness distribution.
- Assessment
-
Multiple assesment methods
Mood diary kept 30 days and repeated interviews and tests during three years.
Correlate
- Authors's Label
- Ideal-self descript-ions
- Our Classification
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- Remarks
- See also under 'Content of real self-image' S 2.2.1). The group of Ss was divided in two according to their mean 'daily average mood' (AFF 3.1). The Q sort description provided by the nine re- latively happy men were compared with those of the eight relatively unhappy men. Only significant discrepancies between the des- criptions of both groups were presented.
- Operationalization
- Content analysis of a 60-item Q sort, filled out both in very elated and in very depressed moods for ideal-concept ('the picture of the sort of person you have hoped to become or fancied your- self to be').
Observed Relation with Happiness
ambition.
In general the unhappy men value nothing but
efficient work and ambition, especially in
their depressed moods.
The happier men value warmth and friendliness
as much as their academic goals, and reject
pretense, selfishness and pessimism more than
they reject ineffectiveness, wasting of time
and failure to fulfill ambitions.