RELATIONSHIP OF HAPPINESS TO INCOME: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS
OF GENERAL SOCIAL SURVEY DATA . . . . . .2
RELATIONSHIP OF HAPPINESS TO INCOME: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS OF GENERAL SOCIAL SURVEY DATA
Those who say that money can't buy happiness don't know where to shop.
The proposed research is designed to conduct a comprehensive investigation for a relationship between income and money using data from a national database. So that the research can be placed in context, the paper begins with a review of the pertinent research. The review is divided into four sections.
The first section examines and discusses the early research in the field. The second section examines more recent research. The third section presents a brief review of related theory and the fourth and final section summarizes the main findings of the literature.
Does money contribute to happiness? The existing research attempting to answer this question is rather ambiguous. For example, in some very early research in the area Thompson (1977) analyzed the relationship between the receipt of an employee pension and happiness among retired men and women. Findings were said to suggest that those receiving pension payments as supple-ments to their government retirement monies were not happier than those who were not getting supplemental income.
In another early study Nontasak and Frese (1978) reported that many studies have found that rising affluence has been found
to be associated with a gradual, consistent decline in reported levels of happiness. However, in their own study of a large population, the authors did find a mild, positive, and linear correlation between income and satisfaction with one's quality of life.
Another study that supports the notion that income may be a contributor to happiness was conducted by Gittman (1975) who examined the motivations of 275 women who were employed full time, employed part-time, homema...