RE: STUDY: Want ‘sustained happiness’? Get religion.
August 17, 2015 at 7:05 am
(This post was last modified: August 17, 2015 at 7:18 am by Aractus.)
(August 17, 2015 at 5:18 am)Homeless Nutter Wrote: My main beef with the study presented in OP is this - where's the damn control group?
I want to know how happy people over 50 are, who DON'T waste what time they have left on church, community, charity, politics, nor educational courses (I mean - seriously - old people don't feel happy when they're expected to learn sh*t? Shocking...).
Or is that - somehow - not an option? Because when I turn 50 - you just watch me...
That's not how longitudinal surveys work. By definition they are surveys, not cohorts of people instructed to do different things. It would be unethical to tell a group of people not to participate in any forms of social activity for the next 20 years until the final results of the study are compiled.
But also, data obtained without the researcher modifying the behaviours or environment of the participants is the most reliable to be compared with real world data. That is, the people who were a part of the SHARE survey are completely representative of ordinary people, the researchers didn't instruct them to change their behaviours they simply observed. You really have no valid argument against the legitimate of longitudinal follow-up surveys like this, they provide excellent quality data.
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
