An Exciting Start
The story begins back during registration time winter quarter, when I sat in my room mourning the loss of an entire quarter to excruciating classes. My mission was to find classes that got me excited, and challenged me in a more positive, less painful sort of fashion. So, when I opened up the list of Writ classes and found the words “happiness” and “experiment” casually displayed in tandem, I was overjoyed. It officially became my mission to join that class, and figure out a way to be happier. I remember calling my Mom and saying “It’s literally in the syllabus that I need to find something to make me happier. This is going to be great!” She obviously was very excited, and classes started without a hitch.
On the first day of class we were asked to begin recording our happiness levels on a scale from 1-10 three times a day, every day, for the next several weeks. What a task! I thought it would be impossible to determine my happiness or remember to record such a thing. But, to my surprise, I actually found myself very conscious of my own happiness levels, in order to be able to remember them for later recording. With that alone, I began to see increases in my happiness. I attribute a lot of that increase to the fact that I consider myself a happy person, and wanted to do things in my day that would allow me to reflect that happy nature on paper. This was the beginning of what I had been promised- I’m doing it mom, I’m becoming happier!
On the first day of class we were asked to begin recording our happiness levels on a scale from 1-10 three times a day, every day, for the next several weeks. What a task! I thought it would be impossible to determine my happiness or remember to record such a thing. But, to my surprise, I actually found myself very conscious of my own happiness levels, in order to be able to remember them for later recording. With that alone, I began to see increases in my happiness. I attribute a lot of that increase to the fact that I consider myself a happy person, and wanted to do things in my day that would allow me to reflect that happy nature on paper. This was the beginning of what I had been promised- I’m doing it mom, I’m becoming happier!
Process and Perspective
After about three weeks of classes and recording happiness levels three times of day, we got to the heart of the experiment. The part that I was most excited for was finally here, I intentionally had to alter my behavior in order to increase my own happiness. We were tasked with coming up with anything tangible that might have a positive impact on our mood. As I believe that I am a relatively proactive person, and generally do most things with the intention of elevating/maintaining my mood, this was a bit of a struggle. However, I had recently been talking with one of my friends who was getting through a rough breakup by journaling about it. He said that he would write out all of his worries or stray thoughts and felt so much comfort from doing so. I took that idea and ran with it. I figured I like writing, I have this notebook laying around that my Grandma gave me years ago, and I’m pretty confident that I would not run out of things to say. So, I embarked on this new and exciting journey of writing down everything that possibly happened to/around me each day.
There was only one problem. I have a major BS meter (excuse the subliminal French), and I was pretty sure talking out my issues to a piece of paper was pretty dumb. I mean, what advice do a few lined pieces of tree covered in graphite have to offer me?! Turns out, quite a lot. Though I felt silly talking to myself in such a middle-school girl sort of manner, I actually noticed the effect the writing was having on my daily life. First of all, this experiment could not have come at a better time. One of my first entries is simply letting off my chest the intense things that other people had recently told me. Journaling was honestly the only way I would get to remove these secrets from my own head, and doing so gave me such a huge sense of relief. It was as though I was giving myself the freedom to forget some of the things that I had been told, because I had written them down, and therefore could remember them later if needed.
The other valuable part of journaling came from being able to tangibly see my own mood swings. I would be having an aggressively hard day, and of course take that in my own head to mean that I was having a horrible week, or month, or any extension of exaggerated time. I would go to start writing about whatever was bothering me, and casually see my all caps note from the day before “I AM SO EXCITED THAT HAPPENED” or some other cheesy exclamation of joy. It sounds so silly when I say it out loud, but those little things really did remind me that life is generally so good with a few little hiccups. And those hiccups do not need to be blown out of proportion, but they are worth writing down and figuring out.
There was only one problem. I have a major BS meter (excuse the subliminal French), and I was pretty sure talking out my issues to a piece of paper was pretty dumb. I mean, what advice do a few lined pieces of tree covered in graphite have to offer me?! Turns out, quite a lot. Though I felt silly talking to myself in such a middle-school girl sort of manner, I actually noticed the effect the writing was having on my daily life. First of all, this experiment could not have come at a better time. One of my first entries is simply letting off my chest the intense things that other people had recently told me. Journaling was honestly the only way I would get to remove these secrets from my own head, and doing so gave me such a huge sense of relief. It was as though I was giving myself the freedom to forget some of the things that I had been told, because I had written them down, and therefore could remember them later if needed.
The other valuable part of journaling came from being able to tangibly see my own mood swings. I would be having an aggressively hard day, and of course take that in my own head to mean that I was having a horrible week, or month, or any extension of exaggerated time. I would go to start writing about whatever was bothering me, and casually see my all caps note from the day before “I AM SO EXCITED THAT HAPPENED” or some other cheesy exclamation of joy. It sounds so silly when I say it out loud, but those little things really did remind me that life is generally so good with a few little hiccups. And those hiccups do not need to be blown out of proportion, but they are worth writing down and figuring out.
Getting Results
As it turns out, there were real results to show that I was not the only one whose mood was elevated through the act of journaling. I was one of about five other participants who took part in the same experiment, all of us concluding similar results. The main difference was that we were not given strict guidelines on the length or topic of our writing. Therefore, many of my peers chose to write with much less description, for the purpose of brief reflection, rather than whole-hearted explanation of their lives. Despite the differences, we all seemed to join the journaling band-wagon, and somehow increase our mood during the last four weeks of the experiment. Now, I realize that many things in our lives fluctuated that could change our mood beyond the experiment. However, due to the consistent nature of increased mood throughout all of the test subjects, it is logical to assume the element that we all changed happened to be the element that simultaneously increased our moods. These results are most appropriately shown in the following graph, which represents the mood by time of day before and after the experiment started:
As the graph above shows, there were consistently higher mood ratings in the weeks after the journaling began, as is represented by the orange line. The importance of the time of day is less significant, as we do not know what time of day each participant was writing. But in all of the accounts, the average scores after journaling (6-6.6) are higher than the average scores before journaling (5.9-6.1). These results support the initial hypothesis that stated journaling should increase overall happiness.
Looking Back, and Ahead
Based on all of the collected data, the results of our experiment support the hypothesis that journaling increases personal happiness. Though these results appear to be conclusive, it is important to note any potential third variables in this study. First of all, many other things could have changed in our lives during the experiment, including midterms, major weather fluctuations, and of course personal/social events (and we all know I had a few of those). Also, it is important to note the variability when comparing subjects to one another. This is because of the rating scale being different for each individual. For example, one subject may consider a 7 to be extremely high rating, whereas another subject may consider it to be ordinary. These are all simply necessary notes to keep in mind, as well as adjust for whenever possible.
If future researchers were to attempt to conduct a similar experiment, they should try to adjust for as many of these variables as possible. They could start by running the experiment for a longer amount of time with many more subjects participating. Additionally, they could normalize the rating scale, as well as make the requirements for writing much more structured. Interestingly, I believe they would come out with similar but more specific results.
So, I’m sure you are all wondering why I bothered to do this experiment, and why you bothered to sit here and read about it. Besides the fact that it was required, the results actually have a very relevant impact on our own lives. After conducting this experiment I am far more aware of my own personal mood levels. I am aware of the times that I tend to feel sadder, and the times that tend to make me the happiest. I now know that journaling does in fact elevate my mood. These are all incredible things to learn about oneself. I feel as though I have gained tools for the future of my happiness. Hopefully by reading about my successes and struggles, you as readers will begin to consider the implications of outside factors on your own happiness. I hope you all get to call your moms jumping with joy over a successful research experiment.
If future researchers were to attempt to conduct a similar experiment, they should try to adjust for as many of these variables as possible. They could start by running the experiment for a longer amount of time with many more subjects participating. Additionally, they could normalize the rating scale, as well as make the requirements for writing much more structured. Interestingly, I believe they would come out with similar but more specific results.
So, I’m sure you are all wondering why I bothered to do this experiment, and why you bothered to sit here and read about it. Besides the fact that it was required, the results actually have a very relevant impact on our own lives. After conducting this experiment I am far more aware of my own personal mood levels. I am aware of the times that I tend to feel sadder, and the times that tend to make me the happiest. I now know that journaling does in fact elevate my mood. These are all incredible things to learn about oneself. I feel as though I have gained tools for the future of my happiness. Hopefully by reading about my successes and struggles, you as readers will begin to consider the implications of outside factors on your own happiness. I hope you all get to call your moms jumping with joy over a successful research experiment.
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