Satisfaction and Happiness

The structure of this paper is as follows. There is a review of some of the anomalies that have been encountered by social indicators researchers section “Anomalies as Prods to Research”, and an overview of studies exploring various explanatory hypotheses of the anomalies section “Overview of Previous Research”. Plausible next steps are considered in the fourth section “Next Steps”. Beginning with section “Method and Sample”, I report the results of a small survey undertaken at Guelph to at least prepare the way for others to take the important next steps on a grander scale. The methods and sample are described section “Method and Sample” and some basic statistics are provided section “Means, Standard Deviations and Skews”. Substantial intercorrelations among domain satisfaction scores and life as a whole satisfaction and happiness scores are shown section “Intercorrelation”. A path model of satisfaction and happiness, called simply the Michigan model, is examined in relation to a dozen domains section “Path Models of Satisfaction”. Types of satisfaction are distinguished section “Types of Satisfaction”, and there is a brief conclusion section “Conclusion”.