Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Psych 1
Psych 1
Introduction;
Oxford happiness scale, developed by Michael Argyle and Peter Hills of Oxford Brookes
University, and originally published in 2002 in the Journal of Personality and Individual
Differences, is one of several measures of “subjective wellbeing” (aka happiness)
constructed by scientific research psychologists. It may be helpful in charting your own
sense of happiness.
Hedonia relates to immediate sensory pleasure, happiness, and enjoyment. The hedonic
perspective concerns the pursuit of pleasant and comfortable states while the eudaimonic
perspective concerns living a good life and being fully functioning. Eudaimonia relates to
the consequences of self-growth and self-actualization.
Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, concludes that happiness has three
dimensions that can be cultivated: the Pleasant Life, the Good Life, and the Meaningful
Life.
In Freud's view, a balance in the dynamic interaction of the id, ego, and superego is
necessary for a healthy personality.
Materials:
Plan:
A set of 29 statements is given to the subject and is asked to mark each on a scale of 1 to
6 where 1 strongly disagrees and 6 strongly agrees. The scores of statements which have
a (R) against it are reversed where 1 strongly agree and 6 strongly disagree.
After the scores are reversed, the average is calculated with the new scores and is
compared with the scale to find the happiness level of the subject.
Instruction:
Below are a number of statements about happiness. Please indicate how much you agree
or disagree with each by entering a number in the blank after each statement, according to
the following scale:
1 = strongly disagree
2 = moderately disagree
3 = slightly disagree
4 = slightly agree
5 = moderately agree
6 = strongly agree
Please read the statements carefully, some of the questions are phrased positively and
others negatively. Don’t take too long over individual questions; there are no “right” or
“wrong” answers (and no trick questions). The first answer that comes into your head is
probably the right one for you. If you find some of the questions difficult, please give the
answer that is true for you in general or for most of the time
Review of literature:
The paper titled "A hierarchy of happiness? Mokken scaling analysis of the Oxford
Happiness Inventory" by Mary E. Stewart, Roger Watson, Andrea Clark, Klaus P.
Ebmeier, Ian J. Deary was published in the year 2010.
The study assesses the hierarchical properties of the items in the OHI, using Mokken
scaling. ( OR - In the study, they inquired whether items from the OHI form a hierarchy
by using Mokken scaling.)
OHI item-level data from 1024 participants were entered into the Mokken Scaling
Procedure. Participants were recruited from Edinburgh’s Universities. 400 males, 619
females, and five people who did not indicate their gender, were included in the sample.
Ages ranged from 17.1 to 50.4 years
The reduction in the OHI’s items from 29 to 12 in the Mokken scale may have utility,
making it more accessible to participants. It was concluded that the twelve items of the
29-item OHI form a reliable hierarchical scale of Happiness. Nevertheless, the scale
obtained is highly reliable and statistically significant.
Individual discussion:
Conclusion:
The Oxford happiness questionnaire helps to measure personal happiness with a 29-item
questionnaire. It helps one to find out which parts of their life needs more work in order
to become fully happy.