Feeling of good cheer? Maybe it was the TV

By Benedict Carey The New York Times
Friday, December 3, 2004
Study of well-being brings surprises

NEW YORK: A team of psychologists and economists has discovered what many people know but do not always admit, especially to social scientists: that watching television by oneself is a very enjoyable way to pass the time, and that taking care of children is often about as much fun as housework.

The findings, to be published Thursday in the journal Science, run contrary to previous research and to conventional wisdom about what makes people happy and why, and suggest that the fundamental realities of money, marriage and job security have far less to do with daily moods than factors such as deadlines on the job and sleep quality.

The study also marks the debut of a novel questionnaire that investigates the subtle, moment-to-moment emotions that constitute an ordinary day. In the new approach, called the Day Reconstruction Method, people keep a diary of everything they did during the day.

The next day, consulting the diary, they relive each activity and, using 12 scales, rate how they felt at the time.

The study, of 909 women living in Texas, found that, in general, the group woke up a little grumpy but soon entered a state of mild pleasure that increased by degrees through the day, punctuated by occasional bouts of anxiety, frustration and anger. Predictably, they found that commuting, housework and facing a boss rated as the least pleasant activities, while sex, socializing with friends and relaxing were most enjoyable.

Yet, contrary to previous research on daily mood, the study found that the women rated television watching high on the list, ahead of shopping and talking on the phone, and ranked taking care of children low, below cooking and not far above housework.

Traditionally, researchers who study well-being have asked sweeping questions about contentment, tried to determine the health of relationships or to evaluate coping skills. In contrast, the new survey method prompts people to relive a normal day, rating how pleased or annoyed, depressed or competent they felt while doing specific activities.

Re-imagining the day's activities, rather than reporting what they could or should be feeling about them, allows people to be more honest about their actual enjoyment at the time, some psychologists said.

"This is a measure of people's mood in the moment, but that doesn't mean it's the best thing they could be doing," said Dr. Daniel Kahneman, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University and the lead author of the study. "If we used adjectives like thrilled, or excited or involved, we would be getting different answers."

He added: "But we are trying to get a better idea or sense of what people's daily lives are actually like."

One of the most consistent findings in the study was how little difference money made. As long as people were not battling poverty, they tended to rate their own happiness in the range of 6 or 7 or higher, on a 10-point scale. After controlling for other factors, Kahneman and his colleagues found that even differences in household income of more than $60,000 had little effect on daily moods. Job security, too, had little influence.

And again, contrary to previous research, the researchers found that divorced women in the study reported being slightly more cheerful during the day than did married women.

By far the two factors that most upset people's daily moods were a poor night's sleep and tight work deadlines. According to a scale the researchers developed, women who slept poorly reported relatively little enjoyment even when relaxing or shopping.

Dr. Richard Suzman, associate director of behavioral and social research at the National Institute on Aging, said that if the new survey method proves sensitive to life changes in further studies, it could also establish quality of life measures firmly in mainstream medicine, giving researchers a more complete picture of how new drugs or medical technologies may enrich or dull the small pleasure of daily life.

"This instrument should give us a much improved measure of well-being," Suzman said. "At the broadest level, it could help us set up a national well-being account, similar to the gross national product, that would give us a better understanding of how changes in policy, or social trends, affect quality of life."

Dr. Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Authentic Happiness," said that the method also adds a valuable dimension to the understanding of what constitutes a good life. One part of it is mood, he said; another is how engaged people are in what they're doing; and a third is meaning. "You could think of them as three different takes a person has on his or her life," he said.

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