De Paola Jennifer, Wagner Wolfgang, Pirttilä-Backman Anna-Maija, Lehtonen Josetta
Faculty of Social Sciences, Social Psychology, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 54, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.
University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2021 Jun;55(2):329-353. doi: 10.1007/s12124-020-09579-4. Epub 2020 Oct 16.
This paper presents results from a study exploring representations of "happiness" and "unhappiness." Word associations with these concepts were produced by 16-18 and 29-34-year-old women from Finland, the country that the United Nation's World Happiness Report has ranked the "happiest" in the world. Correspondence Analysis (CA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis show that participants in both age groups share three clusters of words associated with "happiness": Tangible happiness, Affective happiness and Serene happiness. We noted more differences in the associations with "unhappiness," for which the two groups share only two clusters: Loss and Everyday problems. A distinct third cluster, Affective unhappiness, emerged for the younger women, whereas older women's associations are further differentiated into a more complex structure, including two more clusters: Dejection and Apprehension. Additionally, CA shows that in both age groups, self-reported happiness levels do not discriminate which words are associated with happiness and unhappiness. Finally, qualitative content analysis of a questionnaire item investigating how to reach complete happiness suggested that there are three recurring answer types: happiness can be improved through external changes, internal changes, or not at all because complete/permanent happiness does not exist. The study provides a methodological design which, unlike most happiness studies, allows participants the freedom to bring up the meaning of happiness and unhappiness. Thus, the study constitutes a contribution to a more nuanced understanding of happiness.
本文展示了一项探索“幸福”与“不幸福”表征的研究结果。来自芬兰的16 - 18岁和29 - 34岁女性生成了与这些概念相关的词汇联想。芬兰在联合国《世界幸福报告》中被评为世界上“最幸福”的国家。对应分析（CA）和层次聚类分析表明，两个年龄组的参与者都有与“幸福”相关的三类词汇：物质幸福、情感幸福和宁静幸福。我们注意到在与“不幸福”相关的联想中差异更多，两个年龄组在这方面只有两类词汇相同：失落和日常问题。年轻女性出现了一个独特的第三类：情感不幸福，而年长女性的联想则进一步分化为更复杂的结构，包括另外两类：沮丧和担忧。此外，对应分析表明，在两个年龄组中，自我报告的幸福水平并不能区分哪些词汇与幸福和不幸福相关。最后，对一个关于如何实现完全幸福的问卷项目进行的定性内容分析表明，有三种反复出现的答案类型：幸福可以通过外部改变、内部改变来提升，或者根本无法提升，因为完全/永久的幸福并不存在。该研究提供了一种方法设计，与大多数幸福研究不同，它允许参与者自由提出幸福和不幸福的含义。因此，该研究为更细致入微地理解幸福做出了贡献。
