On the intrapsychic specificity of happiness1

Abstract

A correlation analysis of a heterogeneous sample of religiously active individuals provided two main findings. Firstly, persons determined to be more psychologically mature were found to be happier. This finding held for both a Maslovian measure of motivational maturation and for a measure of religious maturity developed by Allport. Secondly, the meaning of happiness, or at least the meaning of our measure of well-being which we used to index this trait, appeared to change as individuals became more mature. For mature individuals moderator analyses indicated that apparently greater discrimination was made between simple well-beiug and the basic acceptance of oneself. The personological tradition offers theoretically meaningful accounts of both this form of intrapsychic specificity as well as of the simpler more nomothetic relations of maturation and happiness."It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatified than a fool satisfied." This assertion in a classical treatise by John Stuart Mill (1907) recapitulates an ancient question raised in the Platonic dialogue Gorgias (Jowett, 1937) concerning the nature of happiness. This quotation prompts consideration of two issues. The first is whether Socrates, a wise, noble, supremely developed example of a human being, is in fact happier than the primitive pig or incompetent fool. In simpler terms, is the more mature person happier than one less mature? The second question is whether happiness as experienced by Socrates and happiness as experienced by the "pig" are in fact the same entity? Does a more 1. The authors wish to thank David Ricks for his helpful comments on an earlier draft.2. Now at Stanford University Medical School. Authorship is equal and in alphabetical order.

Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: Review and meta-analysis.

“…"In one case (Joe, McGee, & Dazey, 1977), exact reconstruction of the contingency table was based on reported degrees of freedom for Is in which the four cells were compared. In two other cases (Alker & Gawin, 1978;Dodrill, Bean, & Bostrom, 1973), information allowed reconstruction of tables consistent with the data. 'Batson and Ventis (1982) presented 1-E data that was based on a pooling of several studies.…”

“…This mean, however, is strongly influenced by four studies in which either the Feagin I/E scale or factor-analytically refined versions of the ROS were used; three of these studies had rather large sample sizes. For ease of discus- Dodrill et al, 1973Bolt, 1977Strickland & Shaffer, 1971Shoemaker & Bolt, 1977Spilka, 1977Batson, 1976Paloutzian et al, 1978Kahoe, 1974aAlker & Gawin, 1978Baker & Gorsuch, 1982Hood, 1971Stewin & Anderson, 1974McConahay & Hough, 1973Kahoe & Dunn, 1975Allport & Ross, 1967Minion & Spilka, 1976Thompson, 1974Spilka, Stout, Minton, & Sizemore, 1977Spilka et al, 1968Batson & Ventis, 1982Paloutzian et al, 1978Thompson, 1974Tate& Miller, 1971Hood, 1971Thompson, 1974Hoge & Carroll, 1973Elifson, 1976Hood, 1978Hoge & Carroll, 1973Joeetal., 1977Elifson, 1976Patrick, 1979Hood, 1970Stewin, 1976 Hunt & King, 1971; sample and methodology reported in King & Hunt, 1972. This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

The Relationship Between Religious and Spiritual Factors and the Perpetration of Intimate Personal Violence

“…Alternatively, I-religiosity was positively correlated with measures of religious commitment, but not related to antisocial behaviors and attitudes. Alker and Gawin (1978) established that participants who were highly intrinsic also had a greater sense of well-being and were happier. Sturgeon and Hamley (1979) examined the results of the ROS, as well as anxiety and locus of control instruments, and concluded that intrinsically-typed Christians were less anxious, more self-assured secure, and more self-supporting than extrinsically-typed ones.…”

The Practices of Happiness

“…In a study conducted among 233 subjects in America, they found a positive relationship between 'happiness' and time spent in religious activities. Bergin and colleagues (1987), following Alker and Gawin (1978), employed the sense of wellbeing scale of the California Psychological Inventory (Gough 1975) as a measure of happiness. In a study among 78 students in America, they found that happiness was positively associated with scores on the intrinsic dimension of the Religious Orientation Scale (Allport and Ross 1967).…”