Re: [xmca] established fact: x per cent of people are happy

For what is worth, if you are interested in this topic, you may want
to take a look at the book Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic
Psychology, which Kahneman and others edited. There is indeed a lot of
data gathering done recently on happiness and this book, although
already more than 5 years old, is still a good reference.
DP

On Nov 11, 2009, at 12:39 AM, Andy Blunden wrote:

> So am I right that this paper argues that stupid as
> self-reporting of mental states may be, it is better than
> conventional choice theory? They even talk about people's
> "perception of their experience." Wow! Long live the homunculus!
>
> One that always makes me laugh is whenever there is a
> scandal about advertising of some kind, the journalists go
> out into the streets and ask the punters if they are
> influenced by advertising. Surprise, surprise, the result is
> always 100% "no."
>
> Interesting to read that there is currently an explosion of
> these happiness surveys and their scientific credibility. I
> thought Amartya Sen has done a pretty good job on this one.
> Rather than using Sen's classic example of the Indian beggar
> who sleeps on a wet concrete floor every night, but has just
> laid some fresh straw, I decided to do a survey myself. My
> partner was 3 years ago an attractive, gregarious, smoking,
> drinking, eating butterfly who had never even had a headache
> in 50 years. Then she had a stroke. She can't eat, let alone
> smoke or drink, can hardly talk or walk, doesn't go out and
> is in almost constant pain. I just asked her if she's happy.
> Answer "yes." I don't deny that that tells me something. And
> I was pleased to hear it, too. Answers to researchers'
> questions are objective data. But it is nonsense to think
> that these words reflect observations of a person's own
> state of consciousness.
>
> Oh, and I'm happy too.
>
> Thanks for the paper David. I will study it with more
> liesure shortly.
>
> Andy
>
> David Preiss wrote:
>> Dear Andy,
>> This paper by Daniel Kahneman and Alan Krueger addresses your
>> question, I think:
>> Developments in the Measurement
>> of Subjective Well-Being
>> Daniel Kahneman and Alan B. Krueger
>> Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 20, Number 1—Winter 2006 —
>> Pages 3–24
>> http://www.krueger.princeton.edu/PDF%20of%20Kahneman%20Krueger%20paper.pdf
>> According to these authors, self reported measures may be not that
>> bad, after all.
>> David
>> On Nov 10, 2009, at 11:44 PM, Andy Blunden wrote:
>>> I heard another one of those silly reports on the radio just now.
>>> Never mind what it was about, but it reported that x% of people
>>> who did y are happy, whilst of who didn't, only z% are happy, and
>>> the reporter went on to refer to it as an "established fact" that
>>> x made people happy. This "established fact" was gained from
>>> people filling out survey forms, "checking all the boxes" and
>>> returning them in the mail.
>>>
>>> It is over 100 years, isn't it, since mainstream, positivist
>>> science (let alone real science) rejected self-reporting of mental
>>> states as a legitimate way of doing psychology. How come it's
>>> still going on? Is this taught at universities, or is it just
>>> marketing firms moving in on the territory?
>>>
>>> Andy
>>>
>>> --
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Andy Blunden http://www.erythrospress.com/
>>> Classics in Activity Theory: Hegel, Leontyev, Meshcheryakov,
>>> Ilyenkov $20 ea
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>> David Preiss
>> ddpreiss@me.com
>> http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Andy Blunden http://www.erythrospress.com/
> Classics in Activity Theory: Hegel, Leontyev, Meshcheryakov,
> Ilyenkov $20 ea
>
>
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David Preiss
ddpreiss@me.com
http://web.mac.com/ddpreiss/

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Received on Tue Nov 10 19:45:28 2009