Study Strack et al. (1985): study XZ Germany West 1983 /1

Public

Students, West Germany, 1983

Sample

Respondents

N = 64

Non Response

-

Assessment

Questionnaire: Paper & Pencil Interview (PAPI)

Correlate

Authors's Label

Positive reminiscence

Our Classification

Operationalization

Subjects were asked to think about past life and to write down either a positive and pleasant, or a negative and unpleasant event. Both groups had the same restricted number of lines for the descriptions.

EXPERIMENTAL VARIATIONS
-How: describe in detail how the event
occured ("How" being emphasized)
-Why: give three accounts of why the
event occured ("Why" being emphasized)

Next, subjects were asked to rate their happiness.
Lastly, subjects were asked to indicate the degree to which they had been searching for causes and reasons (0) or imagined the course of the event vividly (9). Result: subjects generated more vivid descriptions in "How" than in "Why" variation.

Observed Relation with Happiness