Freedman Vicki A, Conrad Frederick, Cornman Jennifer, Schwarz Norbert, Stafford Frank
University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research.
Jennifer C. Cornman Consulting, Granville, OH.
J Happiness Stud. 2014 Jun 1;15(3):639-655. doi: 10.1007/s10902-013-9440-0.
Duration-based measures of happiness from retrospectively constructed daily diaries are gaining in popularity in population-based studies of the hedonic experience. Yet experimental evidence suggests that perceptions of duration - how long an event lasts - are influenced by individuals' emotional experiences during the event. An important remaining question is whether observational measures of duration outside the laboratory setting, where the events under study are engaged in voluntarily, may be similarly affected, and if so, for which emotions are duration biases a potential concern. This study assesses how duration and emotions co-vary using retrospective, 24-hour diaries from a national sample of older couples. Data are from the Disability and Use of Time (DUST) supplement to the nationally representative U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We find that experienced wellbeing (positive, negative emotion) and activity duration are inversely associated. Specific positive emotions (happy, calm) are not associated with duration, but all measures of negative wellbeing considered here (frustrated, worried, sad, tired, and pain) have positive correlations (ranging from 0.04 to 0.08; p<.05). However, only frustration remains correlated with duration after controlling for respondent, activity and day-related characteristics (0.06, p<.01). The correlation translates into a potentially upward biased estimate of duration of up to 10 minutes (20%) for very frustrating activities. We conclude that estimates of time spent feeling happy yesterday generated from diary data are unlikely to be biased but more research is needed on the link between duration estimation and feelings of frustration.
在基于人群的享乐体验研究中，通过回顾性构建的日常日记来衡量幸福持续时间的方法越来越受欢迎。然而，实验证据表明，对持续时间的感知——即一个事件持续多长时间——会受到个体在事件过程中的情感体验的影响。一个尚未解决的重要问题是，在实验室环境之外，当所研究的事件是自愿参与时，对持续时间的观察性测量是否也会受到类似影响，如果是，那么对于哪些情绪来说，持续时间偏差可能是一个潜在问题。本研究使用来自全国老年夫妇样本的回顾性24小时日记，评估了持续时间和情绪如何共同变化。数据来自美国全国代表性的收入动态面板研究的残疾与时间利用（DUST）补充调查。我们发现，体验到的幸福感（积极、消极情绪）与活动持续时间呈负相关。特定的积极情绪（快乐、平静）与持续时间无关，但这里考虑的所有消极幸福感指标（沮丧、担忧、悲伤、疲惫和疼痛）都呈正相关（范围从0.04到0.08；p<0.05）。然而，在控制了受访者、活动和与日期相关的特征后，只有沮丧与持续时间仍保持相关性（0.06，p<0.01）。这种相关性转化为，对于非常令人沮丧的活动，持续时间的估计可能会有高达10分钟（20%）的向上偏差。我们得出结论，从日记数据得出的昨天感到幸福的时间估计不太可能存在偏差，但需要更多关于持续时间估计与沮丧情绪之间联系的研究。
