Experimenting with Happiness
This experiment included 8 students were recruited to partake in a happiness experiment for their writing class at the University of Denver. I was one of these unfortunate souls who had to attempt to increase his overall happiness. We had to take time out of our precious week to follow an activity that could be defined as our “passion” or an activity that we love to do similar to a hobby. As experiments go this was one of the greatest that I have ever done. I was essentially doing my homework while procrastinating this itself increased my happiness.
The specific parameters of the experiment were that all 8 participants were required to do the activity for 3 days a week for at least a half an hour. We were given 6 week period to record daily happiness on a scale from 1 to 10. Three of those six weeks were when we had to collect our data. After the six week period we had to compile our data and see if there was any possible correlation between pursuing our passions and an increase in our overall happiness.
The Results of the Data
The data that appeared from the experiment was quite interesting. When I entered into this experiment I expected that our passions would help our weekly happiness. It would make sense right? Doing the things we love generally should make us happier. However, this was not the case from the results that I saw. In general happiness stayed the same or dropped across the entire study group. The average happiness for the first three weeks of study was around 5.971 whereas the last three weeks during the actual experiment they average was 5.987. There was only a .016 point change in the happiness levels. This was not nearly enough change to indicate a correlation between our passions and our overall level of happiness.
The data collected for this experiment was almost entirely quantitative since all that people recorded were numbers. The first two numbers that I stated above were the average level of happiness across the three week periods. To get a broader look at the data I also calculated the averages using the data from all 8 participants and compiled them into a graph. This graph displays the data based on time of day.
The data that appeared from the experiment was quite interesting. When I entered into this experiment I expected that our passions would help our weekly happiness. It would make sense right? Doing the things we love generally should make us happier. However, this was not the case from the results that I saw. In general happiness stayed the same or dropped across the entire study group. The average happiness for the first three weeks of study was around 5.971 whereas the last three weeks during the actual experiment they average was 5.987. There was only a .016 point change in the happiness levels. This was not nearly enough change to indicate a correlation between our passions and our overall level of happiness.
The data collected for this experiment was almost entirely quantitative since all that people recorded were numbers. The first two numbers that I stated above were the average level of happiness across the three week periods. To get a broader look at the data I also calculated the averages using the data from all 8 participants and compiled them into a graph. This graph displays the data based on time of day.
Notice that overall happiness levels were generally lower in the 4- 6 week time interval. The trend I find interesting is that the only time happiness was higher from week 4-6 was in the morning. It is unfortunately difficult to explain this strange spike at the beginning.
Reasons, Conclusions, and Some Insight
Upon further reflection I eventually came to the conclusion that our overall happiness is affect by multiple factors. This became evident when I noticed that during the last 3 weeks of the mood record time interval, most people’s midterms were occurring during this time period. This most likely decreased the overall mood of many if not all of the participants in the study. Furthermore, in the case of some participants, personal issue also decreased their happiness. Based on these observations I determined that since our overall happiness is affect by multiple factors, it is nearly impossible to isolate one of these factors and see if it increases or decreases happiness. It is a possibility that pursuing our passions did prevent our happiness levels from dropping lower but again it is impossible to tell if they actually did or not.
My Opinions and Experience
Despite all of my optimism, my expectations were wrong. The thing that I found strange was that when I was pursuing my passion I generally felt happy. For my experiment I went and did archery for an hour or so. Even if I arrived angry or upset over something the activity calmed me down and made me happier. However, the level of happiness was rather fleeting in hind sight. During archery I did not think of school or my personal problems but the minute I left for home all my troubles seemed to rush back at me in a most dissatisfying fashion. I think the key is that our passions make us happy while we do them. They provide us a time where we can simply do an activity that we care about and find fun which is relaxing and happy. However, when it is all over the rest of the world appears again.
No comments:
Post a Comment