DEVELOPING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The literature review in Chapter 2 discussed how happiness is predominantly defined and understood according to the concept of subjective well-being (SWB). Psychological research on happiness is popularly dominated by models of SWB and/or Psychological well-being (see Chapter 2). This generally favours eudaimonia, which emphasises personal growth and development, and agentic choice. Modern constructions of happiness promote the agentic child, who can achieve happiness by making successful choices, achieving their potential, flourishing and excelling in all areas of their lives. Hedonia is less well understood, and like research on emotions, tends to be overlooked or downplayed in this literature.

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There is still a knowledge gap in the literature on happiness that centres on young people’s own perspectives. According to Silva Dias and Menezes (2014), children and adolescents are social actors who participate in society, and as such their voices should be heard, and children themselves should be actively involved in discussions about their life context. These authors further argue that research methods need to be inclusive in order to allow children to voice their thoughts and feelings about their lives. As discussed in the literature review, child-centred methods of understanding how they conceptualise their own happiness are rare. Nic Gabhainn and Sixsmith’s (2006) use of child photography and child interpretation of the resulting photographs indicates that when children are given an opportunity (and an interesting and age-appropriate method is used), their voices reveal a different perspective from adult-led measures of young people’s happiness and well-being. Chaplin’s (2009)

“happiness collage” has shown good potential for use with children and adolescents in investigating happiness in an interesting and enjoyable way for participants; it is also apparent that the happiness collage method is enhanced by qualitative analysis rather than reliance on quantitative analysis.

There are unanswered questions about young people’s happiness, which require uncovering the meanings they ascribe to happiness. What affects happiness from young people’s point of view? How does it form part of their subjectivities, and how important is happiness to them?

The research questions of this study aim to begin to address some of these points. The study has an overarching question: What counts as happiness for a group of young people in the second decade of the twenty-first century?

This will be explored by addressing the following questions, which have emerged from the literature discussed above:

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RQ1: What meanings are attached to happiness for young people? How do young people conceptualise happiness?

Meanings are culturally and individually sensitive. This is an opportunity to listen to what young people are saying about their own happiness, but also to critically evaluate existing theories of happiness.

RQ2: How important is happiness for young people?

Research from the Good Childhood Report (2012) states that approximately half a million young people in the UK experience low well-being at any one time. Is being happy important for young people? If it is important, do people need to feel happy all of the time? Huta (2012) maintains that both positive and negative emotions are important for well-being.

RQ3: How do young people understand how their happiness changes over time? In what way is happiness part of young people’s past, present and expectations of the future?

Much emphasis is placed on young people to make active choices, and to achieve their potential. Walkerdine, Lucey and Melody (2001) have argued that trajectories are not the same for all young people, and that their subjectivities are situated in their gender, and class.

Young people’s subjective well-being, or happiness, has been found to be relatively stable, but can change every three months or so (The Children's Society, 2012). Critical moments in young people’s lives have an impact on their well-being. These are particular events that young people consider to have significant consequences in their lives, either at the time of the event happening, or in hindsight (Henderson et al., 2007, p. 20). Additionally research in psychology highlights how important changing values and circumstances are in people’s subjective well-being (Kasser et al., 2014). This will be explored by asking young people to think about whether their happiness has changed over time.

61 4.3 SITUATING THE STUDY

In tracing the ways in which psychology has regarded children in research, as “subjects, objects or participants”, Woodhead and Faulkner (2008, pp. 10-39) discuss the traditional psychological disciplinary-related expectations of the “scientific paradigm” (objective, hypothesis testing, reductionist: the logico-deductive approach also criticised by Glaser and Strauss, 1967)). This paradigm has drawn considerable criticism in the context of researching children (both from within and outside of psychology) for how it constructs the child, the role this type of research plays in regulating children’s lives (for example, its emphasis on age-related developmental expectations and milestones), and for its failure fully to respect ethical considerations in researching with children (Woodhead & Faulkner, 2008, pp. 11-14).

Nonetheless, these authors are clear that psychology has significantly and importantly

contributed to knowledge of child development, understanding of children as ‘social actors in cultural contexts’ and as active members of the whole of society including their changing status within psychological research. Childhood Studies is regarded as evolving from

“sociological and psychological research to become an interdisciplinary field that recognises children as active, competent social beings…who can impart important messages about their experiences” (Cooper, 2014, pp. 53-54).

Where psychology continues with its ‘considerable inertia to methodological diversification’

(Woodhead & Faulkner, 2008, p. 34), it remains hampered in researching children and childhoods, as a result of its historical tendency to treat the child as the “subject” of research, rather than as a participant. For psychology to progress further towards Childhood Studies, it needs to continue to embrace and legitimise more qualitative methods, render assumptions explicit, acknowledge power relationships, and engage in reflexivity. As a psychological researcher, I can identify with much that Woodhead and Faulkner describe. I came from a

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positivist background and through the course of my undergraduate and master’s degrees, felt increasingly uncomfortable with traditional, logico-deductive approaches to researching aspects of young people’s lives, well-being and happiness. Whilst not all Childhood Studies researchers employ qualitative methods, the use of qualitative methods is recognised as being appropriate for giving children and young people a voice, so as to facilitate understanding of their experiences and lives (Clark et al., 2014). I further share the ethical view of Childhood Studies researchers who believe that “the lives of children and young people are of intrinsic interest. They should be valued and understood for what they are, rather than studied in relation to adult concerns” (Clark, Flewitt, Hammersley, & Robb, 2014, p. 2). I still regard myself as an academic psychologist, but one who has learned a little more about the criticisms of methods primarily used in psychology and about the criticisms of the psychological approach itself.

I have also been influenced by the writing of Walkerdine, Lucey and Melody (2001) in their book Growing Up Girl. The authors maintain that the person is rooted in practices of self-invention that are psychological, sociological and cultural (Walkerdine, Lucey, & Melody, 2001, p. 15 ), and are interested in understanding the subjectivities of young people: their lived experiences Considering how young people attach meanings to happiness through their subjectivities has the potential to provide a new insight into child well-being research.

Additionally, Kehily (2007) suggests that engaging with the cultural perspectives of young people allows us to understand how they make sense of their environments, and the energy and motivations they commit to finding meaning in their lives.

Fraser et al., (2014, p. 42) outline that research with children covers a broad spectrum of approaches: from those in which children carry out the research themselves to research where children are interviewed and/or provide information in ways that allow them to speak for themselves. In my study, I am the primary researcher, but it has been my aim throughout to

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facilitate ways in which the young people in my study can articulate, reflect upon and discuss their views on happiness from their perspective. I aim to understand what happiness means for young people, how happiness is constructed for and by them, the context in which it is embedded into their lives, its importance to them in the present and in their visions of their future.

I aimed to select research methods that were appropriate for the age of the young people participating. These methods needed to be comprehensive enough to uncover meaning, and sensitive and broad enough for young people to explore the things that were important to how they viewed happiness. I was mindful of the ethical care and attention needs to be paid to participants and the need to adhere to sound ethical procedures.