What's this Happiness thing about, anyway?

I will be using this blog and this webspace (http://gotthink.com/) for my exciting independent study project. To quote from my proposal:

What makes a person happy? Do happy people share common characteristics? The measure of subjective happiness can be correlated with the respondent’s life satisfaction, which can indicate the health of the surrounding society. When people are happy their society works; happiness data helps policy makers and social scientists predict how to change society to make it better for all. For my independent study, I will design and conduct an empirical, quantitative research project that will study the relation between one’s subjective happiness and gender, income, ethnicity, age and education.

I hope to explore these research questions:

• Why is it important to study subjective happiness and well-being?
• Do happy people share common characteristics?
• Are women happier than men?
• Are blacks happier than whites?
• Which brings higher levels of happiness: money or satisfaction with your monetary situation?

This will continue the research I completed as part of the Quantitative Research Methods course I took in the spring of 2008. From my literature review I hypothesized that female respondents would report higher levels of life satisfaction than males. This hypothesis was tested and supported using data from the third wave of the World Values Survey 2000. However, I also determined that further study might be warranted. My literature review revealed that some studies or cohorts men reported higher levels of happiness. In regard to race, in some studies whites reported higher levels of happiness; in my study minorities showed a significant, positive relationship toward happiness.

Since I am starting a couple of weeks later than I intended, the next two weeks will be very intensive, for me, as I get ready for the semester to begin. My goal for this independent study is the creation, design and completion of original quantitative research project. To that end I will:

• Conduct a literature review
• Formulate a hypothesis based on the literature review
• Design a quantitative online survey that will test the hypothesis
• Gain approval for study through USM’s Institutional Review Board
• Administer online survey to collect data
• Analyze data
• Report findings in research paper

And here is my timeline:

• January, 2009 Complete literature reviewJanuary, 2009 Formulate research hypothesis; design survey
• January, 2009 Submit proposal to USM’s Institutional Review Board
• February 1, 2009 Submit abstract for USM’s Thinking Matters
• Feb/March, 2009 Start data collection
• March, 2009 Start data analysis
• April 10, 2009 Complete draft of research paper
• April 17, 2009 Present findings at USM’s Thinking Matters
• May 1, 2009 Submit final research paper

I invite comments and suggestions for this project, and even some discussion. This should be fun! And because this is for a class, it won't be just another blog I start and never update. I have to update it! (Well, it would behoove me to do so anyway!)