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Studies

Hershfield et al. (2013): study US San Francisco, California 1994

Publication

Author(s):
Hershfield, H.E.; Scheibe, S.; Sims, T.
Title:
When Feeling Bad Can Be Good: Mixed Emotions Benefit Physical Health Across Adulthood.
Source:
Social Psychology and Personal Science, 2013, Vol. 4, 54 - 61

Investigation

Public
18+ aged, general public, San Francisco, California, United States, followed 10 years, 1994-2005
Survey name
Unnamed study
Sample
Probability area sample
Respondents
N = 312
Non Response
Assessment
Interview: face-to-face
After demographic assesments respondents completes a questionnaire on physical health, happiness and cognitive ability. On an electronic pager participants completed the emotion response questionnaires each time they were paged, 5 times a day at random times. After completion of the week-long data collection they returned to the lab for a follow-up interview, after which they were debriefed and paid for their participation.

Happiness Measure(s) and Distributional Findings

Full text:
Self report on 19 questions repeated 5 times a day

Degree to which one feel emotion at the moment (Full text of lead phrase not reported)
A  happiness
B  joy
C  contentment
D  excitement
E  pride
F  accomplishment
G  interest
H  amusement
I   anger
J  sadness
K  fear
L  disgust
M  guilt
N  embarrassment
O  shame
P  anxiety
Q  irritation
R  frustration
S  boredom

Rated
1  not at all
2
3
4
5
6
7 extremely

Computation: (A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H)/8 -(I+J+K+L+M+N+O+P+Q+R+S)/11
Classification:
A-AB-mi-mq-n-7-a
Author's label:
Happiness
Remarks:
PA: M = 3, 60 SD = 1,03
NA: M = 1,64  SD = 0,55
ABS computed by WDH team
Page in publication:
56,57
Error estimates:
Change by wave: 0.05 (p<.05)
Observed distribution
Summary Statistics
On original range -6 - 6 On range 0-10
Mean:
1.96 -
SD:
- -

Correlational Findings

Author's label Subject Description Finding Negative health symptoms