Measuring Our Happiness
LURIE, WALTER A.
Measuring Our Happiness The Sense of Weil-Being in America By Angus Campbell McGraw Hill. 263 pp. $14.95. Reviewed by Walter A. Lurie Contributor, "Journal of Social Psychology" In his first...
...There seems to have been little change in attitude on this issue over the years of the women's liberation movement...
...This trend was accompanied by a drop in general happiness during the Vietnam War years up to 1972...
...I agree...
...we know that individuals tend to give interviewers the response they believe will receive approval...
...From 1957 until 1978, the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan conducted five major surveys that sought to gauge the feeling of well-being in the country...
...These positive responses predominated among almost all groups through the two turbulent decades...
...Many are indeed arresting...
...Reviewed by Walter A. Lurie Contributor, "Journal of Social Psychology" In his first few pages Angus Campbell—who died on December 15, shortly after the publication of this book-appears to be setting the stage for a titanic battle of straw figures: "Economic Man" vs...
...But he nevertheless asserts the study's validity and worth...
...Angus Campbell and his associates have well served the American democratic process...
...Perhaps the others willingly accepted "female" occupations...
...But that is not true of much of the material here...
...For one thing, a comparison of different years by means of cross-sectional studies, rather than longitudinal research, can be misleading...
...The increase since 1957 in the number of women working has produced evidence of tension, since many now carry a double load...
...He specifically acknowledges methodological problems...
...Only one woman in six—a constant proportion over the years—reported having experienced discrimination in the job market...
...On many items precisely the opposite results would have been considered obvious by those relying exclusively on common sense...
...Surveys of this sort are frequently criticized, too, for being costly and discovering the obvious...
...By the end of the 1970s this difference had disappeared, largely because young people—perhaps disillusioned by the Vietnam War—became less optimistic and the older groups held steady...
...In any case, to Campbell's credit he does not claim too much for the Michigan project...
...The generally optimistic replies could reflect an absence of the most depressed elements...
...Rejecting identification of the good life with affluence alone, he presses the importance of more meaningful experiences...
...It is surprising to learn, given the disarray in our society, that many of the interviewees said they were happy with their marriages, jobs, friendships, and living conditions...
...Campbell analyzes this mass of material without including excessive statistical details or resorting to annoying rhetorical flourishes...
...The information regarding women, blacks and young people is particularly interesting...
...Campbell's purpose was not polemics...
...Women found their lives no less pleasant than did men...
...People in large urban centers, for example, felt less contentment than those residing elsewhere...
...any such impression is an illusion generated by the close-to-home nature of the questions asked...
...Moreover, it would be difficult to find a preferable alternative method for dealing with this issue...
...Black people were on the whole less happy than whites, with low-income blacks having feelings of least well-being...
...Despite their limitations, the Institute's surveys constitute an impressive, revealing and unique body of information about America's sense of itself...
...It was to interpret concisely the often surprising data he and his colleagues had gathered...
...But while by 1978 fewer women were pleased with a role restricted to housework, a steadily high proportion spoke favorably of the homemaking aspect of their lives...
...In the early studies the younger age groups were happier than the older generations...
...He recognizes that examinations of the perception of well-being, a wholly subjective matter, are still experimental and imprecise...
...For another, the notion that a person is happy because he or she says so is highly questionable...
...But he quickly sends his straw men back to their corners and cancels the match, making clear that only as economic needs are more widely gratified can attention to psychological needs assume greater prominence in our lives...
...One set of questions of timely interest concerns trust in government...
...In addition, Campbell reports that there was a 15-25 per cent rate of refusal or incomplete interviews...
...The survey also found that whereas in 1964 one black person in three reported living in an all black neighborhood, this proportion fell to one in five from 1970-74, then rose again by 1978 to three in 10...
...Measures of each person's estimate of his or her circumstances were derived from the replies, and then analyzed in relation to such factors as year of the interview, sex, age, race, occupation, income, and residence...
...Census Bureau in finding people at the bottom layer of American society...
...During hour-long interviews, large representative samples of Americans over 18 were asked about happiness and strain regarding self, family, friends, health, job, and living conditions...
...There were noteworthy differences, however, in the generally high level of satisfaction...
...Use of the sample survey method to measure delicate shadings of attitude is of course fraught with pitfalls...
...The results show a startling decline: from 58 per cent trusting the government in the 1950s to 19 per cent in 1978...
...Psychological Man...
...Even with the advanced state of the art of sampling, these figures suggest that the Institute may have been no more successful than the U.S...
...Instead, he maintains a balanced, judicious tone throughout, allowing the findings themselves to attract and hold attention...
...Although in most groups happiness rebounded thereafter, trust in government continued to slide in 1976 and 1978...
Vol. 63 • December 1980 • No. 24
