Mid-term writing exam

For the survey in the English class, me and my team-mates decided to interview people about their perception of happiness. We took that subject because we did not even know exactly what our perception of happiness was. Instead of doing a quantitative survey, we decided to do a qualitative one. We thought it would be more effective with our subject. The questions we asked were not yes/no questions so we got to develop them with our respondants if they had more to say on one question in particular. Happiness is a really important concept to think about and some times, we just live without asking ourselves if want we are doing or planning to do will really make us happier!

Since our survey was qualitative, we only interviewed two persons. That may not seem a lot, but we wanted deeper answerers so it was easier to talk with only two persons. We chose two persons from different social-classes. Our hypothesis was the fallowing: people who are richer base most of their happiness on their material possessions and professional achievements. People who are not well fortuned base most of their happiness on human relationship. I personally had no idea of what would be the answers that we would have. That was really interesting because I did not know what to expect.

We asked question to Sam and William Miller. Sam is a homeless person and William is a business man. We ask them the same question to compare their answers. They both answered our 7 questions. We discovered that our hypothesis was partially right. William thought that happiness was about money, but not just about it. He thought it was important to have money, but that other things like family relationships are just as important. Sam did not think money was important. He thinks it was helpful, but not necessary. He really enjoyed meeting people and discussing with them.

To conclude we found our survey really interesting because we got to know two new persons and talk with them for a while. Our hypothesis was partially right in this case, but it could have been really different. I think everyone has their own perception of happiness. The point is just to take a few minutes to find what is OUR own definition. Sam and William both seemed to like the theme of our survey and maby they talked about happiness later that day with some of their friends and exchange their opinions on that with them! One thing I have learn during the project is that happiness is important to everyone!

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