Measuring And Empirical Research Of Residents’ Happiness In Society Development

What are the starting-point and the destination of human society development? It is an enduring issue puzzling human beings for centuries. Definitions and opinions of development are changing as time passes by. Once people regarded the production of wealth as the main pursuit of human society development. However, recently people found that their happiness did not increase as the economic growth, although the material conditions of their life became better and better. Therefore people start to reconsider the purpose of society development, gradually transferring its focus from wealth creation to the development of human beings. They begin to attach importance to the happiness of human beings, which becomes the primary purpose of social development according to the common understanding of people in different professions.Though it had been doubted and questioned for a long time whether happiness can be measured or not, there is an affirmative answer today. However, measuring happiness accurately turns to be a most challenging issue to study and practice. Different attemptions have been put forward by research institutions in different fields globally. Today to evaluate the happiness of human beings becomes one of the most important focusing topics in fields of statistics, economics, sociology, psychology and etc. In the1970s, some developed countries started researching about measuring happiness. Bhutan regarded the improvement of national happiness as the state managing policy in the early1980s. In China, it has aroused wide public concern since the year of2005. There are subjective and objective indexes, single or combined, to measure happiness. Different measurement indexes of different subjects result in widely divergent outcomes about the same object of study. There has not been an index system to measure happiness, which is widely accepted and used in the world, such as the system of GDP. Considering about the practicality and measurement, it is necessary to build an exercisable and respectable index system, which can serve as a reference system for the governments of all levels to implement macro management policies or a comparison basis for the communication between different countries and districts. In consideration of the hysteresis of researches about measuring happiness and the divided measuring methods and content to build index systems, the dissertation is trying to explore a cross-disciplinary measuring method based on the study in context of statistics, economics, sociology and psychology, theoretically and empirically. It is devoted to innovate and consummate the index system of happiness measurement as well as bring it into practice.The main line of the dissertation is a close loop including the definition of the topic, background information, references review, index system building and researching, empirical study, conclusions and revelation as well. The dissertation makes progress in cycles. The whole process of researching is a loop in which every step connects with each other closely. If the conclusion can not answer all questions in the demarcation, the research as a whole will be demolished, and there will be a redefinition of the issue. The dissertation builds an index system which can cover micro and macro indexes now and in the future. It is based on the references domestic and overseas, which starts from discussing the relationship between happiness and social development. The system is made up by thirty-seven indexes from seven categories, and it is applied in empirical study on measuring happiness of people in Hangzhou. It mainly focuses on the empirical design of measurement and the practicing of measurement, and it also gives a list of major factors influencing happiness. The dissertation takes migrant workers and public service satisfaction, which is considered to be one of the main influence issues in macro social environment, as two special groups. The whole dissertation is finished with a principle of absorbing new research results and adjusting the index system constantly. New empirical methods are explored and practiced in the dissertation, which serve the countermeasure proposal with predictability, applicability and operability.The dissertation has three conclusions as follows.First, as the perfection of theories and methods of happiness measurement, happiness of residents can be measured.Second, there is still a long way to realize communal benefits brought by reforms and opening.Third, the purpose of happiness measurement is to improve better public service.According to the researches and conclusions above, the dissertation provides three suggestions to improve happiness of residents not only in Hangzhou and also in other districts of China.First, speed up economic development to prepare abundant materials of residents.Second, accelerate the institution construction to create harmonious social environment.Third, strengthen the spiritual civilization to build a positive sense of happiness.The innovation of the dissertation includes three parts.First of all, it starts researches in a creative perspective which has a standpoint combined concerns of statistics, economics, sociology and psychology. It connects the process of social development and psychological experience together to discuss theories, methods and practice of happiness measurement with theoretical and empirical researches. It also goes over different methods of happiness measurement in different subjects and makes an integration of them. It makes a complete research system by revising and expanding former researches theoretically and empirically.Thereafter it chooses a controversial topic which attaches wide concerns, and it is closely related with the social development and life of people. It studies advantages and weak points of different measuring methods from different perspective. The dissertation finally builds up an index system of happiness measurement, which makes up the weak points of GDP system. It is an embodiment of people-orientated Scientific Outlook on Development. The dissertation is significant both theoretically and empirically, showing the ultimate value of social and economical development.Finally, the dissertation makes a breakthrough in using structural equation model as its key technique of building index system of happiness measurement. It contains thirty-seven indexes and seven factors. It tests the reliability and validity of scales by empirical data selected in Hangzhou. The dissertation measures happiness indexes and finds influence factors out by using structural equation and decision tree analysis. The dissertation provides techniques for happiness measurement and efficient information for the government policies, and it builds up a reference system with data base.There are still some limitations in this dissertation, and the future research directions are listed as below.First, researches transnational and cross-cultural are still necessary to continue, and study on longitudinal data has to be put forward continuously. To test the applicability and comparability of the index system of happiness measurement in a more general range, researches in bigger time domain and space region. Future researches should be started in larger scope, looking for obtained data information and exploring for developing trends. Applicability of the index system in different districts on different time still needs further study.Second, theoretical and empirical researches still need to develop and expand. Although all the indexes here in the system are chosen discreetly and scientifically, there are still some disadvantages and insufficient need to be improved by more advantageous and effective methods from every subject above.