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Studies

Bradburn & Caplovitz (1965): study US Illinois 1962

Publication

Author(s):
Bradburn, N.M.; Caplovitz, D.
Title:
Reports on Happiness. A Pilot Study of Behavior Related to Mental Health.
Source:
Aldine Publishing Company, 1965, Chicago, USA

Investigation

Public
Adult, general public, 4 towns, varying in economic prosperity, Illinois, USA, 1962
Sample
Respondents
N = 2006
Non Response
-
Assessment
Interview: face-to-face

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on single question:

Taken all together, how would you say things are these days?   Would you say that you are....?
3  very happy
2  pretty happy
1  not too happy
Classification:
O-HL-c-sq-v-3-aa
Author's label:
Happiness
Full text:
Self report on 9 questions:

We are interested in the way people are feeling these days. The following list describes some of the ways people feel at different times. Please indicate how often you felt each way during the last week.

How often last week did you feel .....?
A  On the top of the world
B  Very lonely or remote from other people
C  Particularly excited or interested in something
D  Depressed or very unhappy
E   Pleased about having accomplished something
F   Bored
G  Proud because someone complimented you on something  
     you had done
H  So restless you couldn't sit long in a chair
I    Vaguely uneasy about something without knowing why

Answer options:
0  not at all
1  once
2  several times
3  often

Summation:
Positive Affect Score (PAS): summed scores on A, C, E, G
Negative Affect Score (NAS): summed scores on B, D, F, H, I
Affect Balance Score (ABS):  PAS minus NAS

Possible range:  -15 tot +12

Name: Bradburn's `Affect Balance Scale' (modified version)
Classification:
A-BB-cw-mq-v-4-e
Author's label:
Affect Balance
Error estimates:
Reliability: Equivalence (on the basis of the responses of the males who were personally interviewed: N = 393): - Positive items : r ranging from +.26 to +.47 - Negative items : r ranging from +.31 to +.54 - Positive x negative items : r ranging from -.19 to +.11 - Positive affect score x negative affect score : r = .07 (ns) Validity:

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Age