INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HAPPINESS, AND SELF-

REGULATORY CHOICE IN A HEALTHTY HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT POPULATION

Dr. Betty Fomby-White, Ph. D, R.N.PROFESSOR/ SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY/ UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX ONLINE 

Happiness Is Not Meant For a Few We Must Pursue Happiness with A Common Effort and Obligation

From President Obama’s Inaugural Speech January 21, 2013

HOW HAPPY ARE THEY AS COLLEGE STUDENTS?

INTRODUCTION

An important question for the academic setting is how happy and healthy are our students who are sitting in our classrooms

•This presentation reports findings of a descriptive study that was conducted as an in- class research study that investigated “What is the relationship among happiness, self-regulatory choice and health in apparently healthy students enrolled in classes in a local HBCU ?”.

INTRODUCTION

•This question was investigated by testing 63 masters and doctorial students who were in their first Fall 2012 semester of classes at a HBCU

•The testing was conducted using two research tools a 10 item Theory of Choice Questionnaire that has a validity of .82 and a 4 item Subjective Happiness Quiz that has a validity of .82.

•After receiving approval from the university IRB students were given an informed consent to sign and were then requested to complete the two research tools

• Little is know about the happiness and health of college students that can lead to unhappiness, poor academic achievement, depression, anxiety, stress and other poor health outcomes.

• It has been found that , if these become chronic it can dampen immunity and increase inflammation in the body leading to a multitude of diseases and conditions. (2012, Stress).

• In a doctoral dissertation study it was found that there is a negative relationship between masked depression and academic achievement (Fomby, 1986)

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

• The purpose of this research was to examine is there a relationship among happiness, self-regulatory choice and health in an apparently healthy population.

• Additional purposes are to investigate, the relationship between the choice position and the health of an individual, and to evaluate are there gender differences in happiness, self-regulatory choice and health.

PURPOSE

This investigation used the newly developed Theory Of Choice to guide the research.

The theory is designed to assist clients and health professionals to use theory guided practice to plan the appropriate interventions that are based on mutually acceptable self-regulatory choices made by clients and the health care provider.

The theory directs the user when a person, family or community are faced with a health choice situation they are to begin by assessing the client’s external and internal factors that are influencing the client’s health choices. (See Handout 1)

THEORECTICAL FRAMEWORK

After this assessment the user is to along with the client mutually develop a SAMIC Plan meaning a plan that is Simple, Attainable, Measurable, Individually Center and Committed.

Actions taken to implement the plan will assist clients to make healthy self-regulatory choices and to set realistic measurable goals that can be either high, medium or low goals.

It is after the client has selected their chosen behaviors and goals that they are categorized in three possible choice positions which are designated as choice position I, II, or III.

THEORECTICAL FRAMEWORK

Individual with behaviors indicative of Choice Position 1 will accept the SAMIC plan that they are given without making any change. They will do what they are told to do

Individual with behaviors indicative of Choice Position 2 will accept the SAMIC plan that they are given but will make changes. They will not always do what they are told to do (i.e.. weight watchers)

Individual with behaviors indicative of Choice Position 3 will not accept the SAMIC plan stating that they are not ready to change what they are doing and their plan is a good as a SAMIC plan (i.e.. Smokers)

EXPLANATION OF CHOICE POSITIONS

The research tool used to measure self-regulatory choice was a 10 item questionnaire that was developed using the Theory of Choice and pilot tested for validity.

The tool achieved a Cronback’s Alpha p= .82

The respondents were requested to indicate age, gender and marital status along with number of children in the household, who makes the choices in your house for health care and where does the respondent live. (Turn to Handout 2)

A yes or no answer was required to answer the question

do you have a current health problem that you are being treated for and do you have a health problem that you are

not being treated for was requested?

RESEARCH TOOL TO MEASURE SELF-REGULATED

CHOICE

Other questions asked were: “When you need help with a health problem

who do you go to”, “ (Refer to handout 2).

When you go for help do you discuss what you

would like to do about the problem?, When you go for help and receive a plan of care that addresses your problem what do you do?

“ Before starting the plan of care what do you do?”, “When I receive a plan of care do I think about the plan of care again and ask myself what are my desires, needs and wants and then set goals that guide my choice position of 1, 2, or 3 (Refer to handout 2)

RESEARCH TOOL TO MEASURE SELF-

REGULATED CHOICE

• The research tool that was used to measure happiness was a four item Subjective Happiness Quiz that was developed and tested by Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999).

• When using the tool respondents are asked to respond to the question of “In general, I consider myself”. There are four sub questions with each requiring to be answered on a Likert Scale of 1 not a happy person to 7 a very happy person. (Turn to handout 3)

Scoring of quiz: a score of 12 -19 indicates below - average happiness. a score of 20 to 25 indicates average happiness. a score of 26 indicates above-average happiness.

Validity: Cronback’s Alpha p= .82

• Source: Lyubomirsky, S. and Lepper, H. (1999)

RESEARCH TOOL TO

MEASURE HAPPINESS

For this study there were 5 hypotheses:

1. Participants with a above average happiness score will set high goals that indicate they are in personal Choice Position 1 as measured by the Theory of Choice Questionnaire

2. Participants with an average happiness score will set medium goals that indicate they are in personal Choice Position 2 as measured by the Theory of Choice Questionnaire

HYPOTHESES

3. Participants with a below-average happiness score will set low goals that indicate they are in self-regulatory Choice Position 3 as measured by the Happiness Quiz and the Theory of Choice Questionnaire.

HYPOTHESES

4. There will be no difference between the overall happiness scores and personal choice position of the groups as measured by the Happiness Quiz and the Theory of Choice Questionnaire.

5. There will be no difference between male and female participant scores for happiness, and personal choice position as measured by the Happiness Quiz and the Theory of Choice

HYPOTHESES

DEMOGRAPHIC FINDINGS

Age Ranges Have Children Treated for Current Health Problem

25- 30 26 31-41 21

42-52 12

53- 59 3

61 1

Total 63

Yes 35

No 28

Total 63

Yes 26 No 37 Total 63

DEMOGRAPHIC FINDINGS

• Hypothesis 1: Participants with an above average happiness score will set high goals that indicate they are in personal Choice Position 1 as measured by the Happiness Quiz (HQ) and the Theory of Choice Questionnaire (TOC) 

• • This one was answered by comparing the happiness score

with whether they check option 1 in question 5 (See handout 2)

  

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

It was found that of all 63 respondents there were only four respondents who selected Choice Position 1 on Theory of Choice Question #5.

The mean happiness score for this group was a low average happiness score of 17.0 with a standard deviation of 4.163.

This hypothesis was rejected.

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

Hypothesis 2:    Participants with an average happiness score will set medium goals that indicate they are in personal Choice Position 2  as measured by the Happiness Quiz and the Theory of Choice Questionnaire. This one was answered by comparing the happiness score with whether they check 2 in question 5.

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

Of the total 63 respondents more than half N = 35 selected option 2 indicative of Choice Position 2 on Theory of Choice Question #5.

However, the mean happiness score for this group indicated a still less than average happiness score of 18.74 with a standard deviation of 3.248.

This hypothesis was rejected.

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

• Hypothesis 3.    Participants with a below average happiness score will set low goals that indicate they are in personal Choice Position 3 as measured by  the Happiness Quiz and the Theory of Choice Questionnaire . This one was answered by comparing the happiness score and whether they check 3 in question 5.

• Of the total 63 respondents there were 23 respondents selecting

•

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

Of the 63 respondents 23 selected option 3 which indicated Choice Position 3 on Theory of Choice Question #5. It was found that the mean happiness score for this group was still a below- average happiness score of 19.13 and a standard deviation of 2.418. These finding indicate that while all three groups did not make a score indicating average or above average happiness the respondents who selected choice position 3 had higher happiness score than other respondents. But the hypothesis was rejected .• 

STATISTICL FINDINGS

Hypothesis 4.    There will be no difference between overall happiness scores, and personal choice position in the groups as measured by  the Happiness Quiz and the Theory of Choice Questionnaire.

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

ANOVA was the method used to compare means of the TOC Question #5 response by each of the three groups above.

The ANOVA test was not successful as indicated by a significance level of 0.432.

Although the means of each for the three groups based on response to question 5 on the TOC appear different, this could be due to statistical or random chance alone.

There was no difference in the mean happiness scores regardless of the answers to Question #5 on TOC Questionnaire.

This hypothesis was accepted.

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

Tukey Test is a post hoc test on one way ANOVA to identify which in the group are different also fails and no significant differences was apparent for groups.

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

Hypothesis 5.   There will be no difference between male and female participant scores for happiness and personal choice position as measured by  the Happiness Quiz and the Theory of Choice Questionnaire

 

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

STATISTICAL FINDINGS

A t-test was performed comparing means of the HQ Total Score by gender and the TOC Total Score by Sex.

There was no difference between groups based on gender for either variable.

This hypothesis was accepted.

REPORTED MEDICAL CONDITIONS AND HAPPINESS

Subjects who selected Choice Position 1 had the lowest happiness mean score of 17.00

Subjects who selected Choice Position 2 had the next happiness mean score of 18.74

Subjects who selected Choice position 3 had the highest happiness score mean of 19.13

No statistical differences were found between groups in their happiness scores

No differences in gender were found

The two subjects who reported obesity as a health problem reported the lowest happiness score of 9

Irritable bowel syndrome was a high 22 , hypertension was also high with a happiness value of 20 and diabetes was a high 18.

SUMMARY

For the study health was self-reported. A surprising result occurred in that two

subjects scored a 9 on the happiness quiz which indicates below average happiness. (very unhappy).

Unfortunately to maintain confidentiality the researcher did not matched numbers with names on the happiness quiz or the theory of choice questionnaire therefore the researcher can not identify these subjects or gender for follow up.

Another surprising result was that students who selected to do what they want to do and not what they are told to do are happier than those who do what they are told to do.

DISCUSSION

When ask to respond to question 4 on the Happiness Quiz that asks the respondent to respond to the statement “Some people are generally not very happy although they are not depressed, they never seem as happy as they might be. To what extent does this characterization describe you?’”

The response scale on the Happiness Quiz was 1 not at all to 7 a great deal

21% reported not at all as happy as they might be with a score of 3 to 5. None of the respondents selected a not at all score of 1 and 2.

DISCUSSION

Of the 26 % of the participants who reported being treated for a current health problem they had an average happiness score of 15.5 indicating below average happiness

Of the 74% of the participants who reported no health problems they also had a below average happiness score of 19.4 but because this is higher than 15.5 it is indicating that they are happier than those who reported having a health problem but they still did not achieve a score of 20 to 25 indicating average happiness.

0 participants reported no untreated health problem

DISCUSSION

While there was a small sample of males compared to females no statistical differences were found between the happiness scores of males (18.11) and females (18.89)

• Having to reject three of the research hypothesis and to accept two is a research reality and these findings help to answer the “so what question” and to identify appropriate interventions.

DISCUSSION

•Using the direction given by an article found in the Highland Business Journal (2012) that asks and answers the question of “Why the "so what?" factor is critical to empirical research”? the researcher used the findings to answer the So What? Question of what do you do with the findings.

While it was hypothesized that individuals who accept to do what they are told will select Choice Position 1 and will have higher happiness scores than those who can do what they want to do was found not to be true.

USING THE FINDINGS TO ANSWER THE “SO WHAT”QUESTION AND TO DESIGN

INTERVENTIONS

Therefore the so what of this finding indicates that to improve happiness scores efforts should be made to expose students to therapeutic interventions that are directed towards discovering what people want and to work with them to achieve their wants and needs thus improving their happiness.

Because it was found that there is no difference between the happiness of males and females it is important to remember when implementing therapeutic interventions emphasis should be placed on working with both genders with gender specific wants and needs to improve their happiness.

USING THE FINDINGS TO ANSWER THE “SO WHAT”

QUESTION AND TO DESIGN INTERVENTIONS

• Because there were no differences found in overall happiness in groups of students teachers need to talk to all students about what academic factors that are affecting their happiness and to make changes as appropriate

• From these research findings an important question emerges “What are the happiness scores in the HBCU undergraduate students as compared to the graduate students?”

• The research findings opens the door for retesting the current respondents at a later time to see if changes have occurred

USING THE FINDINGS TO ANSWER THE “SO WHAT” QUESTION AND TO DESIGN

INTERVENTIONS

Because subjects who self reported currently being treated for health problems such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol were found to have lower happiness scores than those without health problems the so what of this finding indicates that one therapeutic intervention can be to use the book “In pursuit of happiness” by E. Perry Good to teach unhealthy people how to pursue happiness (Good, 1987)

The So What Question generated by this research has discerned information that is important, profitable and deserves further research in different student populations

As a researcher/instructor these findings have guided me into the direction of further exploration of the happiness, self-regulatory choice, health status and academic achievement of HBCU students because it is my assumption that these findings are just the tip of the iceberg.

USING THE FINDINGS TO ANSWER THE “SO WHAT” QUESTION AND TO DESIGN

INTERVENTIONS

FOMBY-WHITE, B. (2010) ENHANCING HEALTH EDUCATION BY INCLUDING CHOICE EDUCATION INTERVENTION AND THE THEORY OF CHOICE INTO THE TEACHING PLAN. JOURNAL OF Race, Gender & Class: Volume 17, Number 3-4, 2010 ( 13 )

• Fomby, B (1986) A Health Promotion Strategy for Adolescents: Effects of Values Therapy and Relaxation Exercises on Depressed

Adolescents. Unpublished dissertation.

• Good, E. P. (1987) In Pursuit of Happiness, North Carolina, New View Publications

• Holden, R. (2009) Be happy: release the power of happiness in you. Hay House Publications, 2009.

• Holden, R. (2007) The Happiness Project retrieved September 23, 2012 from http://www.happiness.co.uk/about/about.php

• Lyubomirsky, S. and Lepper, H. (1999) A Measure of Subjective Happiness: Preliminary Reliability and Construct Validation. Social Indicators Research; Feb 1999; 46, 2; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 137

• Why the "so what?" factor is critical to empirical research. Retrieved from www.highlandbusinessresearch.com/articles/sowhat.jst

• November 18, 2012.

REFERENCES

If your question is not answered

please email me at bfomby@aol.com

WE NOW HOW A SHORT TIME FOR QUESTIONS