Study Dermer et al. (1979): study US 1978 /2

Public

Female students, moderately happy, USA, 1978

Sample

Respondents

N = 73

Non Response

Assessment

Questionnaire: Paper & Pencil Interview (PAPI)

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 their conceptions of life in Milwaukee at the turn of the century. They were asked to view a series of slides describing this area, to vividly imagine the scene and to write a description of a day in the life of a typical Milwaukeean living in 1900.
                                   1.Bad old days condition:            Half saw the slides accompanied by  negative discriptions: (a)anymals and  people drank and washed themselves in  the same public fountain.(b)People  all drank from the same filthy  communal drinking cup.(c)These cups  were vehicles for tuberculosis,  smallpox and other diseases.(d)There  were many people killed by these  diseases.

2.Good old days condition:           Half sa the slides accompanied by    positive discriptions:(a)Beautifully  carved fountains.(b)Artfully sculpted  staues,characteristic of the  craftsmanship of European immigrants.
  c)Fountains suplied a thirsty  public   with cool water on sunny  afternoons.

Observed Relation with Happiness