Happiness

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1034, 26 July 1930, Page 18

Happiness

Neither Youth Nor Maturity Can Be Called Golden Age According to Scientific Survey ...

APPINESS is a state of being at once felicitous and strangely baffling. Science will never be , able to put up happiI ness in capsule form for

those who yearn for it. In short, one is either happy or one isn’t; one’s station in life has nothing whatever to do with it, and precisely how one arrives at the enviable state is and always will, perhaps, remain a mystery. But some of its ingredients can be learned from the study in adult happiness which was recently completed by Dr. Goodwin B. Watson, Professor of Education. Dr. Watson sent out a questionnaire covering a wide range of inquiry on the subject to 400 graduate students whose average age was 30 and whose answers were anonymous so far as an individual was concerned. He allowed them to hold their own opinions regarding the definition of that joyous state. The questions ranged all the way from asking whether the subject could easily dispense with playing cards and automobiles to one inquiring whether he —or she—was easily shocked or not. Then the challenging findings were brought together in the form of hypotheses. One of these was that happiness—that blessed state which we all eternally strive to attain —is associated with "serious, deliberate, responsible, earnest, hard-working living,’’ rather than with "impulsive, light, amusing dilettantism.’’ This discovery alone ought to make some people happy. No longer need they envy those who 101 l on sunny beaches, travel through Europe, take Mediterranean tours or race motorboats. The hard-working stay-at-home can derive comfort from the fact that all this gay frivolling does not, after all. necessarily make for happiness. It is encouraging to note that 81 per cent, of the men and women who answered the questionnaire believed themselves to possess more than aver age happiness, which is a pretty fair score in favour of the elusive and much-desired gift. Besides those discoveries already mentioned, the study of adult happiness brought about other conclusion? many of which explode long-cherished theories. Married persons, for example, are happier than the unmarried. Disappointment in love is a major factor in unhappiness. Love of nature goes with greater happiness. Music and poetry tend to be refuges for the unhappy. Men believe themselves happier than women believe themselves to be. Intelligence has no relation to happiness. Enjoyment of and success in work is a major factor in happiness Youth is not the golden era of happi ness. Discussing his survey, which has aroused widespread interest. Dr. Watson said:—"Several of the findings surprised me. I was surprised, for example, to find that children of divorced parents Were not less happy in maturity than