Happiness

I have become an advocate for evidence-based evaluation of intervention in education (e.g., http://metasyn.com/ch/viewtopic.php?t=233). One of the criticism I have often read and heard repeatedly from those both within the educational field is that test scores do not reflect all that education aims to impart to children. While this is true, I have been amazed at the rigor with which social scientists have been able to measure nearly every facet of life.

Take happiness, for instance. At some point in our lives, or more likely, at many points in our lives, we ask "what is happiness?" "Am I happy?" "Would I be more happy if I did ____?" We consider our current state and our desires for the future. Social scientists quantitate happiness with questionnaires. For example, Helliwell and Putnam (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B (2004) 359, 1435–1446; The social context of well-being) review several of the larger studies on happiness.

From the abstract:
"Large samples of data from the World Values Survey, the US Benchmark Survey and a comparable Canadian survey are used to estimate equations designed to explore the social context of subjective evaluations of well-being, of happiness, and of health. Social capital, as measured by the strength of family, neighbourhood, religious and community ties, is found to support both physical health and subjective well-being. Our new evidence confirms that social capital is strongly linked to subjective well-being through many independent channels and in several different forms. Marriage and family, ties to friends and neighbours, workplace ties, civic engagement (both individually and collectively), trustworthiness and trust: all appear independently and robustly related to happiness and life satisfaction, both directly and through their impact on health.

The factors described in the abstract as affecting happiness (i.e., subjective well-being) are not surprising. Within the paper is also an analysis of the effect of age on happiness. The nadir of happiness, on average, occurs in middle age (35-44 or 45-54 yrs of age). Given the phenomenon of the mid-life crisis, this is not surprising. This mid-life low in happiness has been reprodicibly found for the last 30 years. Health and marital status are included in the model but even without considering these, the low point is still in mid life except with very poor health.

Reading this paper did not make me any happier. It does not offer explanations or solutions. But perhaps there is a bit of hope for the future for those of us struggling through mid-life. Oh, and i remain extremely skeptical that education research could not measure any desirable endpoint in assessing the effectiveness of an educational strategy.