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Studies

Vitterso et al. (2009): study NO 2005

Publication

Author(s):
Vitterso, J.; Oelmann, H.I.; Wang, A.L.
Title:
Life Satisfaction is not a Balanced Estimator of the Good Life: Evidence from Reaction Time Measures and Self-Reported Emotions.
Source:
Journal of Happiness Studies, 2009, Vol. 10, 1 - 17

Investigation

Public
Students and technical staff university, Norway, 2005
Sample
Non-probability accidental sample
Respondents
N = 30
Non Response
Assessment
Interview: Computer Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI)
The study was conducted in a quiet room, containing a chair and a table with a computerscreen and a keyboard. Participants were taken to the room one by one, and told that the study was about happiness and quality of life, and that they had to answer some questions and conduct some tasks, all of which would be done in front of the computerscreen. The program first asked about background information (age, gender and whether the participants were right handed or left handed). Next the participants answered a series of commonly used subjective well-being questions, such as the Satisfaction With Life Scale and a one item happiness question, and a series of positive emotion and negative emotion items. Participants gave their answers by pressing the number keys on the keyboard as each item was presented on the screen. Finally participants did several recognition tasks.

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on single question:

All things considered, would you say that you are:
1  very unhappy
2  unhappy
3  happy
4  very happy
Classification:
O-HL-u-sq-v-4-j
Author's label:
Happiness
Page in publication:
8
Observed distribution
Summary Statistics
On original range 1 - 4 On range 0-10
Mean:
2.97 -
SD:
0.67 -

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Life satisfaction