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Studies

Brenner (1975a): study US Washington County, Maryland 1973

Publication

Author(s):
Brenner, B.
Title:
Quality of Affect and Self-Evaluated Happiness.
Source:
Social Indicators Research, 1975, Vol. 2, 315 - 331

Investigation

Public
18+ aged, general public, Washington County, Maryland, USA, 1973-1974
Sample
Probability cluster sample
Respondents
N = 916
Non Response
25%
Assessment
Interview: face-to-face
Structured interview

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:
Self evaluated happiness
Observed distribution
Frequencies
1: 6%,   2: 59%,   3: 35%   (total 100%)
Summary Statistics
On original range 1 - 3 On range 0-10
Mean:
2.29 7.45
SD:
0.57 1.48
Full text:
Self report on 2 questions:

A.  "How often do you feel that you are really enjoying life? Would you say.......?"
5 very often
4 fairly often
3 occasionally
2 rarely
1 never

B.  "How often do you feel downcast or dejected? Would you say....."
1 very often
2 fairly often
3 occasionally
4 rarely
5 never

Summation: Average A + B

Name: Brenner's `Two Component Quality of Affect Scale'
Classification:
A-BBr-g-mq-v-5-b
Author's label:
Quality of affect
Remarks:
80% often, 16% occasionally, 4% rarely enjoys life.
Full text:
Self report on 3 questions:

A.  "How often do you feel that you are really enjoying life? Would you say:
5 very often,
4 fairly often,
3 occasionally,
2 rarely,
1 never."

B.  "How often do you feel downcast or dejected?
Would you say:
1 very often,
2 fairly often,
3 occasionally,
4 rarely
5 never.

C.  "In general how would you say you feel most of the time? Would you say:
5 very good spirits,
4 fairly good spirits,
3 neither good spirits nor low spirits,
2 fairly low spirits,
1 very low spirits.

Summation: average A , B and C

Name: Brenner's `Three component Quality of Affect Scale'
Classification:
A-BBr-g-mq-v-5-a
Author's label:
Quality of affect
Error estimates:
Reliability: Equivalence: item 1 & 2: G = -.52 (001); item 2 & 3: G = -.56 (001); item 1 & 3: G = +.78 (001) Validity:
Full text:
Self report on 2 questions:

"Please tell me how often you have felt this way during the past week ...?"

A   I felt happy
B   I felt sad

Answer options:
1  rarely or none of the time
2  some or a little of the time
3  occasionally or a moderate amount of time
4  most of the time

Summation: average score on A (positive) and  B (negative)

Name: Brenner's `Happy/Sad Scale'
Classification:
A-BBr-cw-mq-v-4-c
Author's label:
Quality of affect
Error estimates:
Reliability: Equivalence: G = -.52 (.001) Validity:
Full text:
Self report on 2 questions:

Please tell me how often you have felt this way during the past week ....?"

A   I enjoyed life
B   I felt depressed

Answer options:
1  really none of the time
2  some or a little of the time
3  occasionally or a moderate amount of the time
4  most of the time

Summation: average scores on A and B

Name: Brenner's `Enjoyed/Depressed Scale'
Classification:
A-BBr-cw-mq-v-4-a
Author's label:
Quality of affect
Error estimates:
Reliability: Equivalence: G = -.72 (.001) Validity:

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Feeling downcast or dejected Feeling down (vs not) Enjoying life O-HL by M-AO Usual affect O-HL by A-AOL Quality of affect_A O-HL by A-AB Quality of affect _B A-AB by A-AB Quality of affect_C A-AB by M-AO