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Studies

McKinley Runyan (1980): study US 1932

Publication

Author(s):
McKinley Runyan, W.
Title:
The Life Satisfaction Chart: Perceptions of the Course of Subjective Experience.
Source:
International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 1980, Vol. 11, 45 - 64

Investigation

Public
Highschool pupils, Oakland, USA, 1932, followed from age 12 to 38, 1959
Sample
Non-probability chunk sample
Respondents
N = 91
Non Response
Assessment
Multiple assesment methods
Lengthy, tests and school photographs. Participants were asked to rate the level of satisfaction in each year of their past life on a graph with values ranging from 1 (low) to 9 (high) and to write in the events and conditions associated with these ratings ("We would like for you to think over your life and then rate each year as to whether it was a high or a low point in your life, i.e., your overall feeling, not necessarily financial success or health, etc., but generally speaking feeling of well-being however determined".)

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on life graph

'We would like for you to think over your life and then rate each year as to whether it was a high or a low point in your life, i.e., your overall feeling, not necessarily financial success or health, etc., but generally speaking a feeling of wellbeing, however determined.
9  |  high
    |
8  |
    |
7  |
    |
6  |
    |
5  |
    |
4  |
    |
3  |
    |
2  |
    |
1  |  low
    |______________________________________________
           5     10      15       20      25        30       35          40    

The last score represents present happiness
Classification:
O-HL-cy-sq-lg-9-a
Author's label:
Life satisfaction
Page in publication:
48
Observed distribution
Summary Statistics
On original range 1 - 9 On range 0-10
Mean:
5.23 6.54
SD:
1.71 -

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Early versus late maturation