Study Dermer et al. (1979): study US 1978 /1

Public

Female students, moderately happy, USA, 1978

Sample

Respondents

N = 81

Non Response

Assessment

Questionnaire: Paper & Pencil Interview (PAPI)
And projective technique: role playing

Correlate

Authors's Label

Pleasant imagination

Our Classification

Related specification variables

Operationalization

Experimental manipulation. Subjects were lead to believe they participated in an experiment to study the ability of people to vividly imagine "life events". They were asked to read a series of life events, to imagine the events happening to themselves and to describe their reactions to the events.
Half did so in a negative imagination condition and half in a positive condition.

1. Negative imagination: Ss were    
   required to imagine: (a) that they     were severely burned,(b) that they     were blind,(c)that they were invalid    (d) that they suffered Hodgkin's
   disease.
2. Positive imagination: Ss were     required to imagine:(a)that they     were winners of an all-expenses-paid    tour,(b)that they were    multimillionaires,(c) that they were    well-paid private secretaries,(d)    that they were winners of an    all-expenses-paid vacation.

Observed Relation with Happiness