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Tins Is the second of two papers dealing with the relationship between voluntary social participation and happiness. The earlier paper/ which like the present one was influenced by the work of Norman M. Bradburn and his associates on the 'happiness" project at National Opinion Research Center and by the theoretical writings of George C. Homans,2 examined the influence of voluntary social participation upon people's self-reports of happiness and explored the mechanisms through which this relationship was established. Analysis of data from a sample of 600 adults revealed that, as hypothesized, happiness was highly related to social participation? The greater the extent of participation, the greater the degree of happiness reported. This relationship was shown to emerge from the following: (a) positive feelings were directly correlated with social participation, (b) negative feelings were generally unrelated to social participation, and (e) the difference between the scores on the positive and negative feelings indices which Braclburn termed the Affect Balance Score 4--was a major determinant of happiness. That is, the greater the preponderance of positive over negative feelings, the greater the probability that an individual would report being "very happy." Conversely, the greater the preponderance of negative over positive feelings, the greater the likelihood of an individual's being Knot too happy." To explore the stability of these relationships, they were examined under several different control variables. For the most part, the original relationships were maintained within these various subgroups. Before proceeding to the main concerns of this report, it is useful to restate the hypotheses tested in the earlier paper and to explain the reasoning behind them. The first hypothesis—the higher the extent of voluntary social participation, the greater the number of positive feelings —was derived from consideration of Homans' general proposition that individuals tend to repeat those activities that were found to be rewarding in the past and to avoid those activities that were found unrewarding. Hence, if an activity is not rewarding or is punishing, individuals sooner or later will look for some alternative source of reward—if they are free to do so. Since with voluntary social participation men are, by definition, free to look for alternatives, it was hypothesized that a greater extent of social participation leads to a higher level of positive feelings. The second hypothesis—that negative feelings are unrelated to extent of social participation—also follows from the above argument. For as long as they are free to do so, we should expect individuals to withdraw from any social activities that are unrewarding or result in negative experiences. The third hypothesis—the greater the extent of voluntary social participation, the greater the degree of happiness—was derived from the first and second hypotheses and from the work of Bradburn which showed that the difference between the scores on the positive and negative feeling indexes is a good indicator of an individual's current level of happiness. Thus, the earlier paper concentrated mainly on testing these three hypotheses. It also was concerned with the stability of the relationships within each of several control groups and not, for the most part, with differences among groups. In this paper, however, the main focus is on examining the effects of socioeconomic status upon the relationships between social participation and positive and negative feelings, and participation and happiness. A further interest is in "interaction-opportunities" and "investments," two concepts which are utilized to account for patterns of relationship between social participation and the various dependent variables listed above: positive feelings, negative feelings, and happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the meaning of happiness according to perspectives of different individuals. Many contend that true happiness is less dependent upon things than it is upon the personality of the individual. The kind of happiness that remains with the individual, is the kind which springs from inward thoughts and emotions rather than external things. Experts cogitate on the significance of education in attaining happiness. They assert that advanced education may or may not make men and women more efficient; but it enriches personality, increases the wealth of the mind and hence brings happiness.

This article attempts to determine the adequacy of institutionalized mental retardates in dealing with emotions on a happiness-unhappiness continuum as portrayed by nine moon face line drawings. Each subject was administered a series of nine moon face line drawings, graded from unhappiest to neutral to happiest. Schizophrenics and three retardate groups perform significantly less well than normal adults. The adolescent male retardates were the only experimental group which did not significantly differ from the two control groups.

The article attempts to adumbrate differential patterns of traits for gamblers and non-gamblers, using a classification scheme for gamblers. Undergraduates who were avowed gamblers were trichotomized as to motive for gambling and compared on measures of security, femininity, dominance, social responsibility, avowed happiness and psychological isolation with fellow undergraduates who were avowed non-gamblers. Some marked differences were found, both between gamblers and non-gamblers and among subgroups of gamblers, but differential patterns did not reach statistical significance.

Autonomic responses were recorded from three groups of subjects as they viewed a sadness-inducing film, a comedy film, or a control film. Psychological reactions indicated that the stimulus films were effective in eliciting sadness and mirth. Physiologically, sympathetic activation was common to both emotions, with cardiovascular changes being more prominent during sadness and respiratory changes more characteristic of mirth. The relevance of these findings for the investigation of differential physiological patterning during emotion is discussed, and an hypothesis is presented concerning the biological significance of grief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study addressing vocal communication. Accordingly, language is a complex function that enables human being to express feelings and ideas. The study revealed that language has two types of development, emotional and volitional types. Emotional type is expressed in times of danger, pain, happiness and sorrow while volitional language is an acquired skill progressed through observation and participation.