Happiness, health, and religiosity: Significant relations

Transcription

1 Mental Health, Religion & Culture March 2006; 9(1): Happiness, health, and religiosity: Significant relations AHMED M. ABDEL-KHALEK Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Kuwait University, Kuwait Abstract The aim of the present work was to test for an association between, and gender differences in, happiness, physical health, mental health, and religiosity. Four separate self-rating scales of these variables with good retest reliability were used. The sample comprised 2,210 male (n ¼ 1,056) and female (n ¼ 1,154) volunteer Kuwaiti undergraduates. Males had a significantly higher self-rating mean score of happiness and mental health than females, while females had a significantly higher religiosity mean score than their male counterparts. All the inter-correlations between the four self-ratings were significant and positive. They yielded one high loaded factor. Though the loadings were all high (>0.51), the ratings for happiness and mental health had the highest loadings (>0.82). Multiple regression revealed that the main predictor of happiness was mental health. Mental health accounted for 60% of the variance in predicting happiness, while religiosity accounted for around 15% of the variance in predicting happiness. However, the self-rating of physical health did not contribute significantly to the prediction of happiness. Based on the self-rating scales, the current data provide strong evidence that, among a large sample of Kuwaiti Muslim undergraduate students, religious people are happier. Introduction The medieval Arab philosopher, Ibn Hazm ( ), of Cordova wrote a book entitled A Treatise Concerning Moral Behavior (1962). He said: I searched for an aim common to all people and found it to be the expulsion of anxiety. Moreover, when I became aware of this, I realized that not only did people have this aim in common, but also that different though their inclinations and aspirations may be all their Correspondence: A. M. Abdel-Khalek, Department of Psychology, College of Social Sciences, Kuwait University, P.O. Box Kaifan, Code No , Kuwait. ahmedkuniv@ hotmail.com ISSN print/issn online ß 2006 Taylor & Francis DOI: /

2 86 Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek words and actions originally stem from the wish to expel anxiety. For vanquishing it is a manner common to all nations and persons. (p. 7f) Consistent with this notion but in a contrary direction, it could be true to a large extent to say that every nation and each person seeks happiness and wants to be happy. This idea was propagated in 1789 by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and is gaining support nowadays. Notwithstanding all this, the word happiness has rarely appeared in the psychological research literature. Happiness may be conceptualized as the ultimate aim of practising psychology, as well as a main topic in, and a suitable subject for psychology. Yet, during several decades in its history, psychology focused more on negative emotions, such as depression and anxiety, than on positive emotions, such as happiness, well-being, and satisfaction (Myers & Diener, 1995). A plethora of studies on depression, for example, have been published, while there is a paucity of investigations into the psychology of happiness. From the 1980s onwards, this imbalance has been corrected, especially in the field of relations between happiness and personality, mental health and social encounters (see e.g., Argyle & Lu, 1990a, 1990b; Brebner, 1998; Brebner, Donaldson, Kirby & Ward, 1995; Diener, Sandvik, Pavot & Fujita, 1992; Lu & Argyle, 1991, Ramanaiah, Detwiler & Byravan, 1997). In the same vein, Freeman, Templer & Hill (1999) found a significant correlation between adult happiness and self-appraised childhood happiness. One may ask: What is happiness? Veenhoven (1995) defined happiness or life satisfaction as the degree to which one judges the quality of one s life favorably (p. 34). Argyle, Martin, and Lu (1995) defined three possible components of happiness: positive emotion, satisfaction, and the absence of negative emotions such as depression or anxiety. Different theories of happiness have been introduced. The comparison theory assumes that the evaluation of life is based on a mental calculus, in which perceptions of life-as-it-is are weighed against standards of howlife-should be. The anecdotal theory sees happiness as the reflection of a body of widely held notions about life, i.e., part of the national character. The livability theory assumes that subjective appreciation of life depends in the first place on the objective quality of life; the better the living conditions in a country, the happier its inhabitants will be (Veenhoven, 1995, pp ). He tested the aforementioned three theories of happiness on two cross-national data sets: a comparative survey among university students in 38 nations, in 1985, and a collection of comparable general population surveys in 28 nations, around Most predictions of comparison theory and anecdotal theory are negated by the data. The predictions of the livability theory are all confirmed (Veenhoven, 1995). A comparison in the early 1990s between 34 nations of quality of life in individualistic society was carried out by Veenhoven (1999). His data show a clear, positive relationship: the more individualized the nation, the more citizens enjoy their life. This relationship appears to be contingent on level of education and economic prosperity.

3 Happiness, health, and religiosity 87 Michalos (1991) carried out a large-scale survey among university students in 39 nations (N ¼ 18,032) in order to study life satisfaction and happiness. The range of scores on both variables (questions) could range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 7. Among students, the averages are, respectively, 4.63 and Differences across nations were predicted and found. Scores on the happiness item vary between 4.02 (Cameroon) and 5.27 (USA). The actual range is thus 21% of the maximally possible range. Average scores on the lifesatisfaction item vary between 4.09 ( Japan) and 5.44 (Finland). Here, the actual range is 22% of the theoretical range (quoted from Veenhoven, 1995, p. 52f). Diener and Diener (1995) used the same data as Michalos (1991), except that several nations and some participants were dropped from their analysis. They used college students in 31 nations (N ¼ 13,118). At the national level, they found that individualism was not correlated with heterogeneity, but positively and highly correlated with wealth. At the individual level, self-esteem and life satisfaction were positively correlated for the entire sample. The associations of financial, friend and family satisfactions with life satisfaction and with self-esteem also varied across nations. They verified the hypothesis postulated by Veenhoven (1991) that income has a stronger relation to global well-being in poorer nations. Regarding the sex-related differences, many studies have found only small differences between men and women in happiness and satisfaction with life in general (Argyle, 1986; Diener & Diener, 1995). Following a similar pattern, in a meta-analysis of 146 studies, gender accounted for less than 1% of people s global well-being (Haring, Stock & Okun, 1984). Nevertheless, in Taiwan, Lu, Shih, Lin and Ju (1997) found that age and gender had indirect effects on happiness through social support. Different findings have been obtained in Kuwait using 1,420 participants. Abdel-Khalek et al. (2003) administered the Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle, Martin & Crossland, 1989) to adolescents, undergraduates, and personnel. In the last two samples, males had significantly higher mean scores than their females counterparts. Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that people, who are religiously devout and committed to their tradition, excluding extremists, tend to enjoy better health both physical and mental (see Koenig, 1997). Therefore, the relations between happiness and health, both physical and mental, may be hypothesized on solid grounds, inasmuch as bad physical or mental health may have an adverse effect on feeling happy. In the great majority of cases, the complaining person, suffering from noxious and deleterious symptoms, would not feel happy. On the other hand, positive emotional states may promote healthy perceptions, beliefs, and physical well-being itself. In the same vein, positive emotions and healthy outcomes may be linked through multiple pathways (Salovey, Rothman, Detweiler & Steward, 2000). One may ask: What is religiosity? There are several recent theoretical and empirical studies emphasizing the different experiences and outcomes associated with diverse types of religiosity. Foremost among them is the intrinsic versus

4 88 Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek extrinsic religious orientation (Wulff, 1997). At the assessment level, religiosity is operationalized in terms of various measures, including both behavioural measures, e.g., the frequency of religious/church attendance (Lewis, 2002), and attitudinal measures of religiosity (Hill & Hood, 1999; Lewis, Lanigan, Joseph & de Fockert, 1997; Lewis, Maltby & Burkinshaw, 2000). In the present research, religiosity is operationalized in terms of the self-rating of the participant. The relationship between happiness and religiosity has been the subject of a plentiful number of investigations. However, this relationship remains an intriguing area for investigation, and the results of studies have been equivocal (Lewis, 2002). Eight samples have demonstrated a significant positive association between happiness and attitude toward Christianity (for a review, see Lewis, 2002; compare also: Argyle, 1986; French & Joseph, 1999; Myers & Diener, 1995). In contrast, different samples have demonstrated no significant association between happiness and attitude toward Christianity (see Lewis, 2002; Lewis et al., 1997, 2000). In general, the relation between religious feeling and both mental health and psychopathology has been the subject of numerous studies, from over 100 years ago until recently (see Al-Issa, 2000; Koenig, 1998, Maltby, Lewis & Day, 1999, Thorson, 1998). This relation is a complex one. A number of research projects found that religion may suppress symptoms and resocialize the individual, encouraging more conventional and socially acceptable forms of thought and behaviour. It may provide sources for the development of broader perspectives and the fuller realization of individual capabilities (Wulff, 1997, p. 244). Wulff added that...intrinsic religious orientation, proved to be positively associated with life satisfaction, psychological adjustment, self-control, better personality functioning, self-esteem, and purpose-in-life. While negative association with intrinsic orientation has been found for anxiety, death anxiety, neuroticism, depression, impulsivity etc. (p. 248) Following a similar pattern, there has been a significant negative correlation between anxiety and religiosity among a large sample (N ¼ 2,453) of Kuwaiti adolescents (Abdel-Khalek, 2002a). Cross-cultural studies in this endeavour are few (see Francis, Brown, Lester & Philipchalk, 1998; Furnham & Cheng, 1997, 1999), and investigations in this field carried out among Arab participants are scarce. In 1982, Meleis studied the effects of modernization on Kuwaiti women (Meleis, 1982). Unfortunately, this article does not report the mean level observed. Nor does it report the exact measure of happiness used. More recently, Abdel-Khalek (2004b) found that average happiness among 140 Kuwaiti college students seemed to be quite low compared with students in other countries. However, the sample in the aforementioned study was not large, especially the male group. Thus, the objective of the current investigation was to explore, in a large sample of Kuwaiti undergraduates: (1) the level of happiness, (2) any sex-related differences in happiness, and (3) the relationship between the self-ratings of happiness, physical health, mental health, and religiosity.

5 Happiness, health, and religiosity 89 Method Participants A sample of 2,210 (1,056 male and 1,154 female) volunteer Kuwaiti Muslim undergraduates, enrolled in different colleges at Kuwait University, was recruited. Their mean age was 20.7 years (SD ¼ 2.4). Generally speaking, they represented different socio-economic statuses, but there was a small sector in the lower part of the SES dimension. Based on personal observation, a small portion of the sample were considered as Westernized. Self-ratings Four separate self-rating scales were used to assess happiness, physical health, mental health, and religiosity. The self-rating scales were as follows: 1. Do you feel happy in general? 0 ¼ No; 10 ¼ Always. 2. How is your physical health? 0 ¼ Poor; 10 ¼ Excellent. 3. How is your mental health? 0 ¼ Poor; 10 ¼ Excellent. 4. What is your level of religiosity? 0 ¼ Very low; 10 ¼ Very high. Each rating used a graphic device represented on one horizontal line containing an 11-point scale, anchored by 0 (No, Poor or Very low), to 10 (highest degree: Always, Excellent, or Very high), in which 5 was the average point on the scale. It is worth mentioning that in each rating scale, the question was followed by the horizontal line containing the 11 numbers. Only two words/anchors were written in the two opposite poles of the line. The subject was requested to circle one of these alternatives in each one of the four ratings, separately. They were advised to respond according to their global estimation and general feelings, and not as a present state. The 1-week test retest reliabilities for these four ratings were computed by the present researcher. These coefficients were 0.86, 0.77, 0.77, and 0.89 respectively, denoting good temporal stability. The criterion-related validity of the self-rating scale of happiness was computed against the Oxford Happiness Inventory (Argyle et al., 1989) in its Arabic form. The two scales were administered to male and female adolescents (N ¼ 477), undergraduates (N ¼ 509), and personnel (N ¼ 434). The correlations between the two scales ranged from 0.56 to 0.70, denoting a good criterion validity of both scales (Abdel-Khalek et al., 2003). The criterion-related validity of the self-rating scale of physical health ranged from 0.49 to 0.57 in three studies against the Somatic Symptoms Inventory (Adel-Khalek, 2004a), denoting good validity. In the same vein, the criterion-related validity of the self-rating scale of mental health was 0.51 against the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale (Abdel- Khalek, 2000), denoting a good criterion-related validity. Regarding the validity of the self-rating of religiosity, it is worth noting that data are now being collected.

6 90 Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek Procedure The four self-ratings, along with other personality questionnaires, were administered anonymously to students during group testing sessions in their classrooms. Each session contained 30 to 40 students. Results Table I sets out the descriptive statistics. Since the four self-ratings had the same range and number of alternatives, i.e., from 0 to 10, the comparison between their means became viable. As can be seen from Table I, the self-rating of physical health had the highest mean score among both sexes in proportion to the other three ratings. This finding was to be anticipated because of the youthful age of those adults (their mean age was years). They were enjoying, as a group, good physical health, in comparison with their ratings of happiness, mental health, and religiosity. Table I shows also that males had significantly higher mean scores on self-ratings of happiness and mental health than their female counterparts, whereas females had a significantly higher mean score on religiosity than their male peers. Inspection of Table II shows that all the inter-correlations between the students self-ratings were significant and positive. The highest inter-correlation was between happiness and mental health, whereas the lowest was between physical health and religiosity. These results were compatible for both sexes. The correlational matrix of males and females (4 4) was subjected, separately, to principal-components analysis (SPSS, 1999). The application of the Kaiser test Table I. Self-ratings Mean (M), standard deviation (SD), and t values in males and females. Males (n ¼ 1,056) Females (n ¼ 1,154) M SD M SD 1. Happiness Physical health Mental health Religiosity t p Table II. Inter-correlations* between the four rating-scales among males (n ¼ 1,056 above diagonal) and females (n ¼ 1,154; below diagonal). Self-ratings Happiness Physical health Mental health Religiosity *p < 0.01, two-tailed.

7 Happiness, health, and religiosity 91 Table III. Loadings of the first factor in males and females. Self-ratings Males Factor 1 Females 1. Happiness Physical health Mental health Religiosity Eigenvalue Percentage of variance Table IV. females. Regression for predicting happiness in males and Self-ratings Males Females 1. Mental health 0.60** a 0.61** a 2. Religiosity 0.16** a 0.15** a 3. Physical health F-ratio ** ** a Significant in a backward multiple regression. **p < (i.e., the eigenvalue 1.0) yielded only one factor with a somewhat high eigenvalue (lambda 1 ¼ 2.19 and 2.16) and accounted for and 53.89% of the variance for males and females, respectively, as shown in Table III. Though all the four ratings had salient loadings (>0.51) onto this factor, the ratings of happiness and mental health had higher loadings (>0.82) than the loadings of the ratings of physical health and religiosity. Multiple regression was applied, and the self-rating of happiness turned out to be the dependent variable. This analysis revealed that the main predictor of happiness was mental health, as shown in Table IV. Mental health accounted for 60 and 61% of the variance in predicting happiness among males and females respectively, whereas religiosity accounted for around 15% of the variance in predicting happiness. However, the self-rating of physical health did not contribute significantly to the prediction of happiness. R 2 Discussion The test retest reliability of the self-rating of happiness, namely 0.86, is fairly high. This indicates that the concept is well recognized by the present sample of undergraduates and is not alien to Kuwaiti culture (as sometimes suggested for the Japanese). This retest coefficient is within the boundaries of previous studies (Veenhoven, 2002). In the same vein, the test retest reliabilities of the

8 92 Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek self-ratings of physical and mental health, and religiosity (from 0.77 to 0.89) lie almost within the boundaries of a part-related field, i.e., using a single-item asking for a self-rating of death anxiety. Its test retest reliability was 0.82, and the median of the correlations between the single-and multi-item scales in order to assess death anxiety was about 0.5. It was concluded that it may be more efficient and equally valid simply to ask a person to rate their fear of death with the help of a single item (Abdel-Khalek, 1998). Consistent with this conclusion, the four self-ratings used in the present study have a good justification, bearing in mind that the four self-ratings have reliabilities >0.76. Kline (1993) stated that a reliability of 0.7 is a minimum for a good test (p. 13). To compare the mean happiness scores of the two Kuwaiti samples with those of other countries, it was found that the numbers of points/options of the selfrating scales were different. However, Cummins and Nistico (2002) suggest a good solution. They express averages as a percentage of the scale range. Their homeostatic level means that the scores of happiness ranged between 70 and 80% of the measurement scale maximum. On applying that criterion, the level of the Kuwaiti present samples reached 70.5 and 66%, for males and females, respectively. It is obvious that this result was against predicted expectations, especially for females, since the Kuwait population possesses better elements for happiness than has been shown. Given the wealth of the country, one would have expected a higher level of happiness. The possible reasons for this finding among the present sample of undergraduates are many. Of relevance to this result are the higher mean scores on anxiety, depression, pessimism, and obsession-compulsion among Kuwaiti college students when compared with American counterparts (Abdel-Khalek & Lester, 1999, 2002, 2003, in press; Lester & Abdel-Khalek, 1998a, 1998b). There is another important factor, i.e., the recent rising rate of unemployment. In a similar vein, Kuwait is still not very individualistic in its social mores. It is relevant here to note that Veenhoven (1999) has shown a connection between happiness and individualism. Finally, Kuwait is a society in transition between collectivism and individualism, and as Veenhoven (2001) has shown, the pressures of transition tend to diminish happiness. However, further study along this line of endeavour seems desirable. One of the salient results of the current investigation is the sex-related differences in the self-rating of happiness, i.e., males had significantly higher mean scores than their female counterparts. Based on the negative relationship between happiness and psychopathology, this difference could be elucidated. That is, females in Arab countries usually attained higher mean scores than their male peers for anxiety, fear, neuroticism, and depression (see Abdel- Khalek, 1994, 1997, 2002a, 2002b; Abdel-Khalek & Alansari, 2004; Abdel-Khalek & Eysenck, 1983). Different factors can play a significant role in this respect, e.g., child-rearing practices and gender role. By the same token, different theories have been proposed to elucidate the development of sex role behaviour. Foremost among them is the social learning theory (modelling and

9 Happiness, health, and religiosity 93 imitation), cognitive developmental theory, and the gender schema theory (Jacklin, 1989). Consistent with the higher mean score on happiness among males than females is the high mean score on mental health in males. This finding is congruent with the high scores on psychopathology questionnaires among females, as previously discussed. Nonetheless, females had a significantly higher mean score on selfrating of religiosity than their male counterparts. Even though no good explanation for this was noted, the result is compatible with personal observations at this age-group level. By and large, one of the main findings of the present study is the significant relation between the self-ratings of happiness, physical health, mental health, and religiosity, and the extraction of one factor in which the four ratings have salient loadings onto it. That is, the subjects viewed these four variables as one package, and the co-variation of these variables was high. In particular, the inter-correlations between religiosity and the other self-ratings were to be anticipated in this Muslim society. Although all the last-mentioned inter-correlations were significant, the main predictor of happiness was mental health. So, the self-rating of religiosity came as a predictor of happiness, but to a lesser degree. It is important to note that the self-ratings of both happiness and mental health had the following characteristics: (1) the highest inter-correlations, (2) the highest two loadings onto the single factor, and (3) mental health being the main predictor of happiness. This pattern of relationships seems to be universal, and that of Kuwait was no exception. This correlation could be interpreted in the light of Veenhoven s (1999) findings related to quality of life and individualism. It is important to note, however, that Kuwaiti society, after the Iraqi aggression of 1990, experienced rapid social change, i.e., from collectivism to individualism, and from the extended family to the nuclear family. Furthermore, the aspect indicators of individualization maintained by Veenhoven (1999) could be supposed to apply to the large majority of Kuwaiti subjects nowadays. Foremost among them are opportunities to choose, i.e., political, economic and personal freedom, in addition to the capacity to choose which involves both awareness of alternatives and the courage to choose. One should add to all these factors the high national income of the Kuwaiti population. It is noteworthy that the self-rating of religiosity was significantly correlated with the self-ratings of happiness, mental health, and physical health, successively, in a descending order among both sexes. It is quite evident, in general, that religion is more central and plays a more important role in Kuwait society. In addition to personal impressions, Thorson, Powell, Abdel-Khalek and Beshai (1997) found that Kuwaiti college students scored much higher than their American counterparts on the scale of Intrinsic Religious Motivation (Hoge, 1972). Therefore, a strong correlation between religiosity and both happiness and mental health was to be expected in Kuwaiti society. Needless to say, the present findings were reached based exclusively on a college student population. So, the question is: What are the differences

10 94 Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek between students and the general population? The livability theory, according to Veenhoven (1999), suggests that...average happiness is different if the quality of life is different. Because students and the average citizen live in the same country, living conditions are at least partly similar. Still, there may be differences; in some countries student life can be relatively harsh for students and in other countries comparatively lax. (p. 46) On the basis of both the limited number of Kuwaiti citizens (around 900,000), and the elevated average national income, in addition to the personal impressions of the present writer, one can expect that the differences in level of happiness between students and the general population would not be too large. Previous studies have indeed disclosed more or less the same findings as the current investigation (see, e.g., Furnham & Cheng, 1999; Masse et al., 1998). If mental health is considered the opposite of neuroticism, we will find a host of research papers yielding the same conclusion. What is new in the present study? There are two points: First, the majority of published research papers have been carried out on Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking samples. Thus, results of any studies done outside that culture deserve special notice, for the sake of testing the hypothesis of the generalizability of results cross-culturally. It is obvious that the present sample has different properties in language, religion, site, circumstances, and culture, i.e., Arabic, Muslim, and living in the Middle East, being Kuwaiti undergraduates. In spite of these sharp differences, the results were compatible, and generalizable in the two different kinds of culture. Second, some previous studies used multi-item questionnaires, while the present one administered single-item rating-scales. However, both reached the same conclusions. It is obvious that the single-item measure would be useful for research for different reasons, as follows: (a) when the participant time available to the researcher is very limited, and (b) to incorporate the short self-rating scales into large-scale community surveys. In sum, there are specific advantages from using short scales (see Abdel-Khalek, 1998, 2001; Burisch, 1984, 1997; Merrens & Richards, 1973). Despite the large number of participants, and the good temporal stability of the rating scales used in the present study, as well as the good criterion-related validity of the three out of the four rating scales, specific limitations have to be acknowledged. Foremost among them is the limited range of the ages in the current sample. An important next step in this endeavour would be to investigate the correlations between the aforementioned single-item rating scales and multi-item scales measuring the same attributes. It would also be better to correlate the self-rating of happiness with more demographic, social, and psychological variables in different Kuwaiti populations. These are points for further testing and investigation. Acknowledgements I thank the Editor-in-Chief of this periodical, as well as Dr Christopher Alan Lewis, and an anonymous reviewer for the helpful comments on this manuscript.

11 Happiness, health, and religiosity 95 References Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (1994). Normative results on the Arabic Fear Survey Schedule III. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 25, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (1997). A survey of fears associated with Iraqi aggression among Kuwaiti children and adolescents: A factorial study 5.7 years after the Gulf War. Psychological Reports, 81, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (1998). Single-versus multi-item scales in measuring death anxiety. Death Studies, 22, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2000). The Kuwait University Anxiety Scale: Psychometric properties. Psychological Reports, 87, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2001). A short version of the Beck Depression Inventory without omission of clinical indicators. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 17, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2002a). Age and sex differences for anxiety in relation to family size, birth order, and religiosity among Kuwaiti adolescents. Psychological Reports, 90, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2002b). Death, anxiety, and depression: A comparison between Egyptian, Kuwaiti, and Lebanese undergraduates. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 45, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2004a). Can somatic symptoms predict depression? Social Behavior and Personality, 32, Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (2004b). Happiness among Kuwaiti college students. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5, Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Alansari, B. M. (2004). Gender differences in anxiety among undergraduates from ten Arab countries. Social Behavior and Personality, 32, Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Al-Shatty, T. S., Al-Theeb, S. A., Abbas, S. H., Yousef, S. Y., Al-Thweiny, N. M., et al. (2003). Happiness in Kuwaiti samples. Derasat Nafsiyah, [Psychological Studies], 13, (in Arabic). Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1983). A cross-cultural study of personality: Egypt and England. Research in Behavior and Personality, 3, Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Lester, D. (1999). Obsession-compulsion in college students in the United States and Kuwait. Psychological Reports, 85, Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Lester, D. (2002). Can personality predict suicidality? A study in two cultures. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 48, Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Lester, D. (2003). The Kuwait University Anxiety Scale: A cross-cultural evaluation in Kuwait and United States. Psychological Reports, 93, Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Lester, D. (in press). Optimism and pessimism in Kuwaiti and American college students. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. Al-Issa, I. (2000). Religion and psychopathology. In I. Al-Issa (Ed.), Al-Junun: Mental illness in the Islamic World, (pp. 3 42). Madison, CT: International Universities Press. Argyle, M. (1986). The psychology of happiness. London: Methuen. Argyle, M., Martin, M., & Crossland, J. (1989). Happiness as a function of personality and social encounters. In J. P. Forgas & J. M. Innes (Eds.), Recent advances in social psychology: An international perspective (pp ). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science. Argyle, M., & Lu, L. (1990a). The happiness of extraverts. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, Argyle, M., & Lu, L. (1990b). Happiness and social skills. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, Argyle, M., Martin, M., & Lu, L. (1995). Testing for stress and happiness: The role of social and cognitive factors. In C. D. Spielberger & I. G. Sarason (Eds.), Stress and emotion, Vol. 15 (pp ). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis. Brebner, J. (1998). Happiness and personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 25, Brebner, J., Donaldson, J., Kirby, N., & Ward, L. (1995). Relationships between happiness and personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, Burisch, M. (1984). You don t always get what you pay for: Measuring depression with short and simple versus long and sophisticated scales. Journal of Research in Personality, 18, Burisch, M. (1997). Test length and validity revisited. European Journal of Personality, 11, Cummins, R. A., & Nistico, H. (2002). Maintaining life satisfaction: The role of positive cognitive bias. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3,

12 96 Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek Diener, E., & Diener, M. (1995). Cross-cultural correlates of life satisfaction and self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, Diener, Ed., Sandvik, Ed., Pavot, W., & Fujita, F. (1992). Extraversion and subjective well-being in a US national probability sample. Journal of Research in Personality, 26, Francis, L. J., Brown, L. B., Lester, D., & Philipchalk, R. (1998). Happiness as stable extraversion: A cross-cultural examination of the reliability and validity of the Oxford Happiness Inventory among students in the UK, USA, Australia, and Canada. Personality and Individual Differences, 24, Freeman, L. J., Templer, D. I., & Hill, C. (1999). The relationship between adult happiness and self-appraised childhood happiness and events. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 160, French, S., & Joseph, S. (1999). Religiousness and its association with happiness, purpose in life, and self actualization. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 2, Furnham, A., & Cheng, H. (1997). Personality and happiness. Psychological Reports, 80, Furnham, A., & Cheng, H. (1999). Personality as predictor of mental health and happiness in the East and West. Personality and Individual Differences, 27, Haring, M. J., Stock, W. A., & Okun, M. A. (1984). A research synthesis of gender and social class as correlated of subjective well-being. Human Relations, 37, Hill, P. C., & Hood Jr, R. W. (1999). Measures of religiosity. Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press. Hoge, D. R. (1972). A validated intrinsic religious motivation scale. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 11, Ibn Hazm, A. (1962). A treatise concerning moral behavior. Cairo: Dar Al-Thagafah Al-Arabia (in Arabic). Jacklin, C. N. (1989). Female and male: Issues of gender. American Psychologist, 44, Kline, P. (1993). The handbook of psychological testing. London: Routledge. Koenig, H. G. (1997). Is religion good for your health? The effects of religion on physical and mental health. New York: Haworth Press. Koenig, H. G. (Ed.) (1998). Handbook of religion and mental health. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Lester, D., & Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (1998a). Depression in college students in the United States and Kuwait. Psychological Reports, 83, 410. Lester, D., & Abdel-Khalek, A. M. (1998b). Suicidality and personality in American and Kuwaiti students. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 44, Lewis, C. A. (2002). Church attendance and happiness among Northern Irish undergraduate students: No association. Pastoral Psychology, 50, Lewis, C. A., Lanigan, C., Joseph, S., & de Fockert, J. (1997). Religiosity and happiness: No evidence for an association among undergraduates. Personality and Individual Differences, 22, Lewis, C. A., Maltby, J., & Burkinshaw, S. (2000). Religion and happiness: Still no association. Journal of Beliefs and Values, 21, Lu, L., & Argyle, M. (1991). Happiness and cooperation. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, Lu, L., Shih, J. B., Lin, Y. Y., & Ju, L. S. (1997). Personal and environmental correlates of happiness. Personality and Individual Differences, 23, Maltby, J., Lewis, C. A., & Day, L. (1999). Religious orientation and psychological well-being: The role of the frequency of personal prayer. British Journal of Health Psychology, 4, Masse, R., Poulin, C., Dassa, C., Lambert, J., Belair, S., & Battaglini, A. (1998). The structure of mental health: Higher-order confirmatory factor analysis of psychological distress and well-being measures. Social Indicators Research, 45, Meleis, A. I. (1982). Effects of modernization on Kuwaiti women. Social Science and Medicine, 16, Merrens, M. R., & Richards, W. S. (1973). Length of personality inventory and the evaluation of a generalized personality interpretation. Journal of Personality Assessment, 37, Michalos, A. C. (1991). Global report on student well-being. Vol. 1, Life satisfaction and happiness. New York: Springer. Myers, D. G., & Diener, E. (1995). Who is happy? Psychological Science, 6, Ramanaiah, N. V., Detwiler, F. R. J., & Byraven, A. (1997). Life satisfaction and the five-factor model of personality. Psychological Reports, 80,

13 Happiness, health, and religiosity 97 Salovey, P., Rothman, A. J., Detweiler, J. B., & Steward, W. T. (2000). Emotional states and physical health. American Psychologist, 55, SPSS, Inc. (1990). SPSS: Statistical data analysis. Chicago, IL: SPSS. Thorson, J. A. (1998). Religion and anxiety: Which anxiety? Which religion? In H. G. Koenig (Ed.), Handbook of religion and mental health (pp ). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Thorson, J. A., Powell, F. C., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., & Beshai, J. A. (1997). Constructions of religiousness and death anxiety in two cultures: The United States and Kuwait. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 25, Veenhoven, R. (1991). Is happiness relative? Social Indicators Research, 24, Veenhoven, R. (1993). Happiness as an indicator in social policy evaluation: Some objections considered. In K. Mesman Schultz, J. T. A. Koster, F. L. Leeuw & B. M. J. Wolters (Eds), Between sociology and sociological practice: Essays on social policy research (Liber Amicorum dedicated to Mark van de Vall). Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Institute for Applied Social Science. Veenhoven, R. (1995). The cross-national pattern of happiness: Test of predictions implied in three theories of happiness. Social Indicators Research, 34, Veenhoven, R. (1999). Quality of life in individualistic society: A comparison of 43 nations in the early 1990s. Social Indicators Research, 48, Veenhoven, R. (2001). Are the Russians as unhappy as they say they are? Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, Veenhoven, R. (2002). World Database of Happiness, Correlational Findings, subject code H Last revision , Erasmus University Rotterdam, Faculty of Social Sciences, Netherlands, Internet met site. Retrieved from Wulff, D. F. (1997). Psychology of religion: Classic and contemporary (2nd Edn). New York: Wiley.