The Meanings of Happiness in Mass Observation's Bolton

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4495082
AutoresIan Gazeley (0000-0002-4277-1001, Innovations for Poverty Action, autor de correspondencia), Claire Langhamer (0000-0002-0148-070X, British Academy)
Año2013
Volumen75
Número1
Páginas159-189
Fecha de publicación2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory Workshop Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/hwj/dbs015
OpenAlexW2112145828
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas20

In April 1938, the social investigative organization, Mass Observation conducted an inquiry into the happiness of Bolton people. In this article we analyse the letters and questionnaire responses generated through a competition that asked, ‘What is happiness?’ We examine the extent to which these competition entrants were representative of Bolton population and conclude that they were broadly representative in terms of occupation and sex, but less so in terms of social class. We describe the factors which according to competition entrants determined individual happiness. These were remarkably stable across age groups and gender. Economic security emerged as the dominant consideration, whilst personal pleasure was represented as playing little part in generating happiness. A detailed analysis of the happiness letters and questionnaires suggests that introspective and relational factors were also important determinants of well-being. We demonstrate that these introspective factors were framed by an individual’s personal moral framework and that relational factors were under-pinned by gendered conceptions of domestic happiness.

Cognitive psychology · Competition (biology) · Developmental psychology · Happiness · Introspection · Pleasure · Population · Sociology · Data Analysis and Archiving · Demography · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Psychology · Social Psychology