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Studies

Wessman & Ricks (1966): study US 1957

Publication

Author(s):
Wessman, A.E.; Ricks, D.F.
Title:
Mood and Personality.
Source:
Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, 1966, New York, USA

Investigation

Public
Female college students, Radcliff USA, followed 6 weeks, 1957
Sample
Respondents
N = 21
Non Response
16%
Assessment
Diary
Mood diary kept 30 days.

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on single question, answered every evening before retiring during six weeks (experience sampling)

"On average;  how elated or depressed,  happy or unhappy you felt today....?
10  Complete elation, rapturous joy and soaring ecstasy
9    Very elated and in very high spirits.   Tremendous
      delight and buoyancy
8    Elated and in high spirits
7    Feeling very good and cheerful
6    Feeling pretty good , "OK"
5    Feeling a little bit low. Just so-so
4    Spirits low and somewhat 'blue'
3    Depressed and feeling very low.
      Definitely 'blue'
2    Tremendously depressed.
      Feeling terrible, really miserable, "just awful"
1    Utter depression and gloom. Completely down.
      All is black and leaden. Wish it were all over.

Name:  Wessman & Ricks'  `Elation - depression scale'
Classification:
A-ARE-md-sqr-v-10-b
Author's label:
Hedonic level
Observed distribution
Summary Statistics
On original range 1 - 10 On range 0-10
Mean:
6.14 5.70
SD:
0.98 -

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Affective complexity