In order to guarantee the conceptual soundness of the would-be undertaken longitudinal study of the selected cohort of UCLA students (concerned with identifying/measuring the âfactors of happinessâ, throughout their lives), its theoretical premise must be consistent with the currently predominant socio-cultural discourse. Moreover, it must also be observant of what account for the driving forces behind the process of this discourse attaining ever more of the previously unheard-of qualitative characteristics.
The validity of this suggestion can be illustrated, in regards to Vaillantâs observation that: âSocieties are forever changingâ (10). In its turn, this presupposes the continual alteration of the manner, in which people perceive the significance of such vaguely defined terms as âhappinessâ. Probably the primary discursive aspect of the discourse of post-modernity, which now encompasses the realities of a modern living in America, has to do with the fact that, unlike what it used to be the case even a few decades ago, the deployment of the positivist approach towards conceptualizing the notion of âsocietyâ can no longer be considered thoroughly appropriate.
The reason for this is apparent â in light of recent discoveries in the fields of sociology, biology and cybernetics, the overall quality of a particular human society is not merely summative of the qualities of its integral parts â it is something that creates the discursive realm of its own. As Uphoff and Krishna pointed out: âIt (the notion of society) refers not to a single, homoÂgeneous thing which can be larger or smaller, stronger or weaker, but rather to networks of relationships between state institutions and the citizens within a society who are subject to state authority as well as among those citizensâ (358). What it means is that, contrary to what the commissioners of the original Grant Study used to assume, the measure of the society membersâ happiness is not something innately ego-centric/individualistic, which implies that it cannot be discussed in terms of a âthing in itselfâ.
One of the major findings of the mentioned Study indirectly confirms the full soundness of such our point of view, in this respect: âWarm, intimate relationships are the most important contributing factor in the establishment of a good lifeâ (Vaillant 37). After all, this particular finding indicates that it is specifically oneâs ability to choose in favor of the socially integrated lifestyle, which is the most important predictor of his or her happiness. In its turn, this exposes the erroneousness of the Studyâs initial premise (if assessed through the lenses of the discourse of post-modernity) that oneâs happiness should be discussed in terms of âachievementâ, rather than in terms of a âcontinuous processâ.
It is even more inappropriate to presume (as the original Study does) that a personâs likelihood to achieve a financial prosperity is being reflective of what happened to be the particulars of his or her racial background/social status. Due to being utterly euro-centric, this premise is profoundly inconsistent with the spirit of cultural relativism, emanated by the process of American society becoming increasingly multicultural, on one hand, and progressively less fond of the neo-Liberal idea that the accumulation of material riches is the actual purpose of oneâs life, on the other (Hilton 226).
Yet, this represented the actual rationale behind the original Studyâs methodological approach to selecting the would-be engaged participants: âWell-to-do (White) men donât die early of malnutrition, infection, accident, or bad medical care, as happens much too often to poor⊠These men had a high likelihood of long lifeâ (Vaillant 10). In this respect, the proposed longitudinal study of UCLA Bruins will be much different â as opposed to what it is the case with the Grant Study, its âdecathlon of successâ will be inherently holistic.
That is, it will be concerned with measuring the participantsâ âpredictors of happinessâ in close conjunction with what appear to be the measurable aspects of their ability to function as the productive society members. After all, as it was pointed out earlier, there is now indeed a real reason to believe that in the post-industrial society oneâs chances to attain happiness and to experience it on a prolonged basis, positively relate to his or her ability to remain on the path of a continual self-perfection â regardless of what happened to be the concerned personâs social status.
The above-mentioned explains our rationale for applying adjustments to the original Studyâs approach towards collecting the âintakeâ data. The chief of them will be concerned with qualifying the predominantly non-White/socially-underprivileged UCLA students to participate in the Study. Such our proposal is dictated by the fact that, even though it is indeed more likely for the lifespan of White/well-off students to be longer than that of their non-White/socially underprivileged counterparts (something that formally makes the former better suited to participate in the longitudinal study), the fertility rate of Whites in the U.S. continues to decline (Ma 2285). In its turn, this significantly reduces the chances of White students to attain happiness through social integration. After all, oneâs ability to contribute to the societyâs overall well-being continues to be commonly assessed, in relation to what appears to be the measure of his or her eagerness to indulge in âbaby-makingâ, as one of the most socially beneficial activities.
The validity of this statement can be illustrated, in regards to the fact that the so-called âwelfare statesâ are dialectically predetermined to honor oneâs talent in propagating the species â and, as we are well aware of, the building of such a state has been proclaimed the Governmentâs official goal (Sandel 11). Because the joys of parenthood are commonly regarded in terms of âhappinessâ, and because the âfactor of happinessâ (in this respect) can be measured with ease (the more children – the more happiness), we propose that the outcome âlow in psychological distressâ (in the original Studyâs Decathlon of Flourishing) should be replaced with the result âthe number of children from 25-year-old onwardsâ.
The appropriateness of such a proposal on our part, can be confirmed even further, in regards to the well-known fact that it is specifically the innately lonely/introvertedly-minded (and therefore often childless) individuals, who are very likely to experience the sensation of psychological distress at some point in their lives, which leads towards depression and alcohol abuse. The original Studyâs findings leave only a few doubts about it: âMen of white Anglo- Saxon Protestant (WASP) and Irish extractions had rates of alcohol abuse five times those of men of Italian extractionâ (Valliant 290).
To make the UCLA Studyâs Decathlon of Flourishing even more discursively sound, its outcome of âincluded in Whoâs Who in Americaâ should be replaced with the one that can be formulated as âthe indications of the participantâs social advancement/self-perfectionâ. The logic behind this suggestion is as follows: the initial outcome is concerned with measuring the participantsâ success in attaining the dominant social status.
This, in turn, reflects the outcomeâs close affiliation with the discourse of Euro-centrism/Darwinism, based on the assumption that the qualitative dynamics within a particular society are always concerned with the never-ending struggle of everybody against everybody for the âroom under the Sunâ (Nelson 493). However, as it was implied earlier, this assumption has been long ago proven conceptually fallacious â all due to its acute lack of systemic soundness.
The suggested outcome will assess the strength of the participantsâ commitment to applying a continual effort towards becoming âbetter menâ, on one hand, and evaluate their ability to derive an emotional pleasure (happiness) out of the process, on the other. The measurable variables, in this respect, can be concerned with the number of books that a particular participant manages to read throughout the set period, the number of professional degrees that he or she holds, and/or with the number of confirmed volunteer-activities, on this personâs part.
Even though that the mentioned suggestions (as to how the UCLA longitudinal study could be improved) are far from being considered exhaustive, there is nevertheless a good reason to believe that while keeping them in mind, the studyâs commissioners will be able to increase the objective value of the would-be obtained data. This should come as the consequence of the fact that, due to having incorporated these suggestions as its integral part, the studyâs methodological apparatus will be much more likely to resonate with the discourse of post-modernity â just as it was hypothesized at the very beginning of this paper.
Works Cited
Hilton, Matthew. “The Death of a Consumer Society.â Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 18 (2008): 211-236. Print.
Ma, Sai. “Paternal Race/Ethnicity And Birth Outcomes.” American Journal Of Public Health 98.12 (2008): 2285-2292. Print.
Nelson, Richard. “Evolutionary Social Science and Universal Darwinism.” Journal of Evolutionary Economics 16.5 (2006): 491-510. Print.
Sandel, Michael. “Obama and Civic Idealism.” Democracy.16 (2010): 9-14. Print.
Uphoff, Norman and Anirudh Krishna. “Civil Society and Public Sector Institutions: More than a Zero-Sum Relationship.” Public Administration & Development 24.4 (2004): 357-372. Print.
Vaillant, George. Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. Print.