Deck 2: The Meaning and Measure of Happiness

Question 1

Positive psychologists argue that national statistics describing how we are doing as a society provide a misleading view of happiness and health because they

A) only measure economic changes.
B) do not involve large enough samples.
C) do not measure happiness and positive mental health or functioning directly.
D) are biased by middle class values.

Answer 1

do not measure happiness and positive mental health or functioning directly.

Question 2

Positive psychologists argue that statistics on the objective facts of people's lives give a misleading view of well-being because

A) the facts of people's lives are not strongly related to their subjective interpretations.
B) the facts do not capture all the relevant objective features of an individual's life.
C) of the many regional and cultural differences that are glossed over by summary statistics.
D) the facts are biased towards the "haves" and do not fairly represent the life circumstances of the "have-nots."

Answer 2

the facts of people's lives are not strongly related to their subjective interpretations.

Question 3

The difference between hedonic and eudaimonic conceptions of happiness boils down to the difference between

A) pleasure/happiness and meaning/personal expressiveness.
B) pleasure and happiness.
C) short-term and long-term satisfaction.
D) serving the self and serving others.

Answer 3

pleasure/happiness and meaning/personal expressiveness.

Question 4

The word "daimon" in eudaimonia refers to

A) happiness.
B) true self or spirit.
C) God or a transcendent power.
D) personal fate.

Question 5

According to Waterman's studies, eudaimonic enjoyment results from activities that create feelings of

A) relaxation, excitement, and happiness that make us forget our problems.
B) personal expressiveness, meaning, challenge, competence, and growth.
C) spirituality and awe.
D) triumph and superiority.

Question 6

When Waterman had people rate their 5 most self-defining activities according to their level of hedonic and eudaimonic enjoyment, he found that the hedonic and eudaimonic ratings

A) were largely unrelated.
B) showed almost complete overlap.
C) showed substantial overlap (50 to 66%).
D) were negatively correlated.

Question 7

In a series of studies, Laura King and her colleagues examined the relationship between positive affect (e.g., happiness) and sense of meaningfulness or life purpose. Overall, these studies found that

A) the experience of positive affect was consistently related to meaningfulness.
B) positive affect and meaningfulness were unrelated.
C) the experience of positive affect or happiness detracted from a sense of meaningfulness.
D) meaningfulness and happiness showed an inconsistent relationship.

Question 8

Subjective well-being (SWB) is defined and measured by

A) happiness and health.
B) personal expressiveness and happiness.
C) life satisfaction and positive affect .
D) life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect.

Question 9

Harker and Kletner examined the type of smile women showed in their women's college yearbook photographs and related smile-type to life outcomes 30 years later. What kind of smile predicted what life outcomes?

A) Non-Duchenne smilers were generally unhappy and depressed.
B) Duchenne smiles were related to greater health and happiness and more stable and satisfying marriages.
C) Duchenne smiles predicted success and happiness, but were confounded with the effects of physical attractiveness.
D) Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles only predicted people's general feelings about life and not their actual competence, marital stability/satisfaction or health.

Question 10

The controversy regarding affect (emotion) concerns whether or not positive and negative affect

A) are two ends of a single dimension or two independent dimensions of emotional experience.
B) measures are valid and reliable or contaminated by self-report biases.
C) are adequate representations of people's complex emotional experiences.
D) are both necessary to define happiness or if positive affect is sufficient.

Question 11

According to research by Diener and his colleagues, happiness is built more on the 1.___________of positive emotions than on their 2.______________ .

A) 1. diversity 2. intensity
B) 1. intensity 2. frequency
C) 1. frequency 2. intensity
D) 1. intensity 2. diversity

Question 12

The peak-end rule says that the impact of an emotional experience is determined by

A) the duration and peak-end intensity of the experience.
B) the peak of emotional intensity and the ending intensity and not the duration of the experience.
C) the average of the lowest and highest peak intensity.
D) only the duration because peak and ending intensity make little difference.

Question 13

Experience Sampling Methods (ESM) involve

A) recording "real time" changes in emotional experience and retrospective recording shortly after events occur (e.g., daily diary).
B) global ratings of critical life events that sample the most important experiences in people's lives.
C) recordings of people's emotions and actions by neutral observers.
D) thematic statistical analysis of people's self-reported "best" and "worst" life experiences.

Question 14

The day reconstruction method developed by Kahneman and his colleagues asks people to

A) record their emotional reactions during the day using a small hand- held computer.
B) reconstruct their day as a sequence of episodes or scenes in a film and giving each episode a short name.
C) reconstruct their day around those activities that had the greatest emotional impact.
D) reconstruct their day by specifying what happened and how they felt during each hour after they awoke.

Question 15

The different information that may be gained through Experience Sampling Measures compared to Global Self-Report Surveys is highlighted in the Kahneman et al. study using the day reconstruction method. According to global surveys, raising children is a significant source of 1.________________ for most people. In contrast, Kahneman et al. found that women's day to day (ESM) positive emotional ratings of "taking care of my children" were 2.______________ .

A) 1. regret and frustration 2. very high
B) 1. happiness 2. dependent on the support they got from their husbands.
C) 1. life satisfaction 2. lower than watching TV, shopping or fixing meals
D) 1. life satisfaction 2. were only high on the weekends when they could spend quality time with their kids.

Question 16

According to your text's comparison of Experience Sampling Methods (ESM) and Global Measures, each measure has a "maximal sensitivity" to different influences on well-being. Which of the following best describes these different sensitivities?

A) ESM is most sensitive to stable personality trait influences, while global measures are more sensitive to situational influences.
B) ESM is most sensitive to individual differences in well-being and global measures are more sensitive to commonalities among people.
C) ESM is most sensitive to psychological variables and global measures to social variables.
D) ESM is most sensitive to situational influences and global measures are most sensitive to stable personality trait influences.

Question 17

A criticism made of the hedonic definition and measure of subjective well-being by eudaimonic researchers such as Carol Ryff is that the hedonic view

A) does not specify the basis and meaning of well-being.
B) tells us if people are happy, but not why people they are happy.
C) does not distinguish between happiness and health.
D) all of the above

Question 18

In the model of positive or complete mental health developed by Ryff and Keyes, the dimensions of psychological well-being and social well-being attempt to measure and define the

A) specific aspects or markers of positive functioning.
B) positive side of mental illness.
C) strengths and weaknesses of people dealing with emotional problems.
D) the psychological ingredients for successful mental illness recovery.

Question 19

Self-determination theory specifies three needs as the foundation for well-being. These are

A) autonomy, self-esteem, and nurturance.
B) independence, esteem, and belongingness.
C) autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
D) autonomy, self-esteem, and success.

Question 20

In their 14-day diary study of "what makes a good day," Reis, Sheldon, and colleagues found that needs for relatedness and autonomy were more likely to be satisfied

A) on Friday night.
B) on weekends.
C) in the period following an event that increased a sense of competence.
D) in the period following a decreased sense of competence.

Question 21

In their 14-day diary study of "what makes a good day," Reis, Sheldon and colleagues examined the relationship of need fulfillment to well-being and happiness. Results showed that

A) only trait measures of need fulfillment were related to well-being.
B) only state measures of need fulfillment were related to well-being.
C) both trait and state measures of need fulfillment were related to well- being and relatedness needs had the most impact on daily well-being.
D) both trait and state measures of need fulfillment were related to increased well-being and competence needs had the most impact on daily well-being.

Question 22

According to your textbook authors, a basic difference between hedonic and eudaimonic approaches to understanding happiness and well-being is that

A) hedonic approaches are "research driven" and eudaimonic approaches are "theory driven."
B) hedonic approaches are "theory driven" and eudaimonic approaches are "research driven."
C) hedonic approaches emphasize quantitative measurement and eudaimonic approaches emphasize qualitative measurement.
D) hedonic approaches emphasize qualitative measurement and eudaimonic approaches emphasize quantitative measurement.

Question 23

Based on studies examining the relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic measures of happiness and people's everyday understanding of the meaning of a good life, your textbook authors argue that hedonic and eudaimonic views

A) are two distinct and largely independent ideas about the meaning of happiness.
B) are complementary and interrelated.
C) cannot be compared because relevant research is lacking.
D) have recently been integrated into a single new model of happiness.