Peter Hills

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: a compact scale for the measurement of psychological well-being

An improved instrument, the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), has been derived from the Oxford Happiness Inventory, (OHI). The OHI comprises 29 items, each involving the selection of one of four options that are different for each item. The OHQ includes similar items to those of the OHI, each presented as a single statement which can be endorsed on a uniform six-point Likert scale. The revised instrument is compact, easy to administer and allows endorsements over an extended range. When tested against the OHI, the validity of the OHQ was satisfactory and the associations between the scales and a battery of personality variables known to be associated with well-being, were stronger for the OHQ than for the OHI. Although parallel factor analyses of OHI and the OHQ produced virtually identical statistical results, the solution for the OHQ could not be interpreted. The previously reported factorisability of the OHI may owe more to the way the items are formatted and presented, than to the nature of the items themselves. Sequential orthogonal factor analyses of the OHQ identified a single higher order factor, which suggests that the construct of well-being it measures is uni-dimensional. Discriminant analysis has been employed to produce a shortform version of the OHQ with eight items. # 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

Positive moods derived from leisure and their relationship to happiness and personality

Abstract A comparative study has been made of the positive moods generated by four common leisure activities: sport/exercise, music, church and watching TV soaps. Some 275 participants whose ages ranged from 18 to 82 were invited to indicate the intensity of their personal, positive feelings for the items of four measures designed to be representative of each of the activities. It was found that each activity was a significant source of positive moods. Factor analysis of the measures showed that they each contained a strong social component, as well as a factor characteristic of each activity. Using the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) as a measure of happiness, only sport/exercise appeared to result in increased happiness, and the reasons for this are explained in terms of the several components of the OHI. The associations of each of the activities with the Eysenck personality traits as measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) were also examined and the most frequent association is with extraversion. Church membership is atypical, in that church members exhibit significantly lower scores for psychoticism (tough mindedness) and higher lie-scale scores (social conformity).

Emotional stability as a major dimension of happiness

Abstract Happiness is associated with both extraversion and neuroticism, and extraversion is generally considered the more important. A recent study of happy introverts has shown that extraversion is not always an essential correlate of happiness, and an extensive meta-analysis has found that neuroticism is a greater predictor of both happiness and life satisfaction. It is suggested that the reason for the importance of neuroticism having been overlooked in the past, is the difficulty of handling the idea that (positive) happiness is related to the absence of a (negative) construct. This difficulty could be resolved by the reversal of neuroticism into an alternative and positive concept of “emotional stability”. Happiness could then be regarded as being associated with two positive qualities. With this change of emphasis, a short empirical study has been made of the relationships between happiness as measured by the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) and extraversion and emotional stability. In bivariate and partial correlation, emotional stability was more strongly associated with happiness than extraversion, and accounted for more of the total variability in multiple regression. Emotional stability was also the greater correlate for a majority of the 29 items of the OHI, and the sole significant predictor of the happiness of younger people.

Happiness, introversion–extraversion and happy introverts

Abstract Some 270 mature participants completed the Oxford happiness inventory (OHI), the extraversion and neuroticism subscales of the Eysenck personality questionnaire and measures covering several cognitive and other aspects of individual personality. Extraversion was associated with happiness as is usually found, but the correlations of other personality differences, particularly those related to life satisfaction, were greater. These variables were substantially independent of extraversion but other variables such as empathic and affiliative tendencies were not. Extraversion is primarily a measure of sociability, and social relationships are a self-evident source of happiness. Nonetheless, a substantial minority of the participants could be classified as happy introverts. In terms of preference for solitude, relations with friends, and taking part in potentially introspective activities, the behaviours of happy introverts and happy extraverts were virtually identical. It is suggested that the mechanism by which introversion–extraversion affects happiness is different from that of the other variables, and might better be considered as an instrumental variable that mediates the ways individuals choose to achieve their own happiness.

Uses of the Internet and their relationships with individual differences in personality

Abstract Two hundred and twenty adult participants completed postal questionnaires to assess the frequency and location of their use of 16 different Internet services. They also completed a battery of scales covering various trait and cognitive aspects of personality. Internet use was wide spread and diverse. The relative popularities and frequencies of use of the different services were established, and it appears that individuals use the Internet most where it is readily and freely available. Gender and age significantly influenced patterns of use, but there were remarkably few significant associations with individual differences in personality when gender and age were controlled for. Exploratory factor analysis of the frequency of use data for individual services revealed the presence of four inter-correlated factors, which have been identified as Work, Social, Use-at-home, and Leisure. A consideration of the overt purposes for using individual services was not sufficient to identify the factors; it was also necessary to take into account the location at which services were accessed. It has been concluded that individuals’ use of the Internet can be regarded, at least in part, as a form of displacement activity, engaged in when there is nothing else to do or when the task in hand is not especially attractive.

Primary personality trait correlates of religious practice and orientation

The aim of the study was to examine the relationships between Eysencks primary personality factors and various aspects of religious orientation and practice. Some 400 UK undergraduates completed questionnaires constructed from the Batson and Schoenrade Religious Life Inventory (Batson & Schoenrade, 1991) and the Eysenck Personality Profiler (Eysenck, Barrett, Wilson, & Jackson, 1992). As is generally found, all the religious variables correlated negatively with the higher order personality factor of psychoticism. In contrast, among the primary factors, those associated with neuroticism appeared to be the strongest indicators of religiosity. In particular, all the primary traits classically linked to neuroticism correlate positively with the quest orientation. However, fewer primary traits predict religious behaviour in regression and of these, a sense of guilt is the greatest and a common predictor of extrinsic, intrinsic and quest religiosities. Upon factor analysis of the significant personality predictors together with the three religious orientations, the orientations formed a single discrete factor, which implies that extrinsic, intrinsic and quest religiosities have more in common with one another than with any of the personality traits included in the study. This suggests that religious awareness may itself be an important individual difference that is distinct from those generally associated with models of personality.

Musical and religious experiences and their relationship to happiness

Abstract Some 230 adults, many of whom were members of musical groups or churches or both, completed scales devised to describe the intensity of their emotional feelings for musical and church activities. Membership of both kinds of group was associated with enhanced scale scores and there were correlations between the corresponding scales, showing that the two kinds of experience are quite similar. There were also differences: musical experiences were more intense for most items, including those that have traditionally been used to assess the mystical aspects of religious experience. Factor analyses of the two sets of items, augmented with further musical and religious items, found that while social and mystical factors appeared in both, the religious items also produced a transcendental factor, whereas the musical items produced a factor related to challenge and performance. The relationships between the intensity scores and overall happiness as measured by the Oxford happiness inventory (OHI) were weak, although there were correlations between the social factor of the OHI and the social factors of the musical and religious items. This suggests that it is the social aspect of these activities which generates well-being. The transcendental religious factor had a small but negative correlation with happiness.

Individual differences in leisure satisfactions : an investigation of four theories of leisure motivation

Abstract The applicability of several theories of leisure motivation to a range of 36 activities typically undertaken by younger people has been investigated. The theories were Csikzentmihalyis theory of flow (theory 1), Banduras theory of self-efficacy (theory 2), Apters theory of telic and paratelic activity (theory 3) and a general theory of social motivation (theory 4). Participants were 183 young men and women in secondary and tertiary education who completed self-report questionnaires containing scales for the frequency, enjoyment, purpose, social satisfaction, skill, ability and challenge which they associated with activities they had personally experienced. The balance between skill and challenge implied by theory 1 was found to be characteristic of all activities, whether or not they could be expected to generate flow. The data collected in the study provided little support for theory 2. It was possible to distinguish telic and paratelic activities according to theory 3 and to show that the latter were more enjoyable and less purposive. Although theory 4 was not relevant to solitary activities, it was still the most generally applicable and even appeared to account for most of the enjoyment derived from highly purposive activities, which were not otherwise greatly enjoyed.

The factor structure of a measure of burnout specific to Clergy, and its trial application with respect to some individual personal differences

A 30-item measure of burnout appropriate to members of the clerical profession was constructed around the Maslachian dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal achievement, and administeredto a sample of 1071 Anglican stipendiary ministers in the UK. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the measure was best represented by a three-factor solution, although the overall fit was poor. Successive exploratory and confirmatory analyses, combined with the stepwise removal of ambiguous or poorly fitting items, produced a refined 20-item, three factor scale with satisfactory psychometric properties. However, the three Maslachian factors were strongly intercorrelated. The results provided by the compact scale suggested that the clergy were not particularly subject to the adverse effects of burnout and that self-reported job satisfaction was high. Separate hierarchical regressions were conducted for each of the three dimensions with respect to several personality, demographic and job-related variables. Most of the variability in the data was accounted for by the intercorrelations among the three dimensions, but neuroticism was a significant predictor of exhaustion, psychoticism of depersonalization, and extroversion of achievement. Few of the demographic and job-related variables were significant predictors. However, marital status was a significant predictor of exhaustion, age was a negative predictor of depersonalization, and job-satisfaction was greatest in populous parishes.

The development of the Meaning in Life Index (MILI) and its relationship with personality and religious behaviours and beliefs among UK undergraduate students

The scales available for assessing meaning in life appear to be confounded with several related constructs, including purpose in life, satisfaction with life, and goal-directed behaviour. The Meaning in Life Index (MILI), a new instrument devised as a specific measure of meaning in life, was developed from responses to a pool of 22 items rated by a sample of 501 undergraduate students in Wales. The nine-item scale demonstrated sufficient face validity, internal consistency, and scale reliability to commend the instrument for future use. With respect to personality, the MILI scores were most strongly predicted by neuroticism (negatively), and less strongly by extraversion (positively) and psychoticism (negatively). With respect to several religious behavioural variables, those who attended church at least weekly returned significantly higher MILI scores than those who attended church less frequently. Intrinsic religiosity was the only orientation to be significantly associated with the MILI scale scores, although the magnitude of the association was smaller than anticipated. These results suggest that meaning in life is associated more strongly with individual differences in personality than with specific religious behaviours and attitudes. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of individuals personal values and attitudes that might underlie their experience of a meaning in life.