The issues in constructing measurement of happiness

Measuring happiness is a new phenomenon in the West. In the East, Bhutan has pursued the goal of Gross National Happiness (GNH) since 1972 (Johnston, 2010). Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) evaluates projects and policies based on 26 criteria which include culture, economic security, rights, gender equality, values and pollution (GNHC, 2011). For study of level, causes, consequences and dynamics of happiness we have to have some psychometric measures of happiness which provide overall scores of happiness as well as scores of different dimensions of happiness. Several efforts have been made in this direction. As with any other psychometric scales, to construct a scale of happiness, first of all one needs to develop an inventory of items which may be used as proper measure of happiness. This can be done by using existing literature on the subject or by conducting qualitative studies of how people conceptualize happiness. Then appropriate scales such as Likert scale are developed to measure each item. Finally, the overall or unitary happiness score is obtained by taking a simple or weight sum of all the items. At the end, researchers have to provide estimates of reliability and validity of the suggested scale. In other words, they have to tell us to what degree their results can be reproduced in further research and to what degree they are the exact measures.

Böckerman and Ilmakunnas’s measure of happiness

Böckerman and Ilmakunnas measured happiness by asking a simple question: “Taking all things together, would you say you are 4 (very happy), 3 (quite happy), 2 (not very happy), or 1 (not at all happy).” Likewise life satisfaction may be measured by asking the question: “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life as a whole in these days?” Böckerman and Ilmakunnas used a scale from 1 to 10 for responses. Such scales provide overall measures of happiness without referring to any particular dimension of happiness. It is assumed that although their happiness may depend on a number of things but people are able to think in terms of overall levels of happiness and communicate with others in those terms.