John McCarthy

Annotated Bibliography for Happiness Research Paper

Overview
My main research question is: to what extent does the religious experience of Christmas lead to
more happiness than a secular experience of Christmas? Similarly, How does the experience
differ and why is one group happier than the other? I will answer this question by looking at the
relationship between religious people and happiness and how this overlaps into non-religious
people and happiness. I will only be focusing on certain aspects that overlap and then apply it to
the example of Christmas which has both a religious and secular understanding. My intended
audience is the average American, where hopefully I can make them reconsider their experience
of Christmas. Also, I want both secular and religious groups to see the validity of both Christmas
experiences. Comparing a secular and religious understanding of Christmas seems like an
important part of todays world where the separation of church and state causes conflict. By
having a better understanding of their relationship, I better apricate my understanding of
Christmas.
Aghababaei, Naser Purpose in life mediates the relationship between religiosity and happiness:
evidence from Poland Mental Health, Religion & Culture, vol. 17, no. 8, 2014, pp. 827-831.
http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.library.nd.edu/doi/full/10.1080/13674676.2014.928850?
scroll=top&needAccess=true
The author is from the department of clinical physiology from University, Tehran, Iran. The
intended audience would be people that are questioning the link between religion and subjective
well-being. The purpose is to find a relationship between religion and subjective well-being. The
findings of the experiment found that people who lived by religious values like, humanity,
compassion, and love lived better than those who use religion to get to something socially. The
context of this is to replicate and continue the research of prior research on the link between
religion and happiness. This parallels other evidence where this seems to be a relationship
between religion and happiness. This study was taken from the catholic context without crosscultural evidence which could be a limitation. This source fits into my paper by establishing the
idea that there is a relationship between religion and happiness. With regards to Christmas, it is
important to establish that in specific aspects of life this relationship is holds true that religion
can lead to happiness. It can also provide me with aspects that a non-religious person lacks with
regards to happiness.
Kasser, Tim, and Kennon M. Sheldon. "What Makes for a Merry Christmas?"Journal of
Happiness Studies, vol. 3, no. 4, 2002., pp. 313-329.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.nd.edu/10.1023/A:1021516410457.
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.library.nd.edu/docview/751322740?accountid=12874
Like other studies, this study found that there was an increase in happiness with family and
religious experiences compared to that of experiences that focused on spending money and
receiving gifts. A couple of factors were observed as leading to happiness: environmental

conscious consumption, older age, and male gender. The main argument was to say that the
materialistic aspects of modern Christmas celebrations may undermine well-being, while family
and spiritual activities may help people to feel more satisfied. This speaks to the audience that
focuses on the money and gift giving aspect of Christmas attempting to change the way they look
at Christmas focusing less on consumption. According to the article, 96% of Americans
celebrate Christmas (313). The studies goal is to look at different experiences during Christmas
and relate them to well-being. (1) Spending time with family; (2) Participating in religious
activities; (3) Maintaining traditions (e.g., decorating a Christmas tree); (4)Spending money on
others via the purchase of gifts; (5) Receiving gifts from others; (6) Helping others(e.g.,
Salvation Army bell-ringers); and (7)Enjoying the sensual aspects of the holiday (e.g., good
food).(314) Materialistic aspect was measured by, The materialistic aspects of the season were
also examined in this study by obtaining estimates of how much subjects spent on others, went
into debt, and gave to church and charity, as well as the monetary value of the gifts they received
from others. (315) They said that the happiness from religion might come from the satisfaction
of needs for relatedness to others. (323) A different interpretation is that because family and
spirituality are core aspects of the Christmas season, people with these types of experiences meet
the dominant social expectations of the season, and thus may be happy because they know that
they are being consistent with such expectations. (324) The study challenges the conventions
that are provided by society that an increase in spending and receiving does not improve
happiness. But people that are focused on things like money fame and power are not focused on
family. A limitation was this study was done after the holiday occurred which changes the
peoples opinion in the study. This will be a very useful source and credible source because it
provides me with concrete evidence as well as different interpretations which I can use in my
paper as arguments and counter arguments.
Berthold, Anne, and Willibald Ruch. Satisfaction with Life and Character Strengths of NonReligious and Religious People: Its Practicing Ones Religion That Makes the
Difference. Frontiers in Psychology 5 (2014): 876. PMC. Web. 25 Oct. 2016.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4132480/
This study compares the relationship between life satisfaction and the character strengths of
practicing religious people, non-practicing religious people, and non-religious people. The
audience of this study would be the people in the groups that it is testing. The test compares the
different subjects using the signature strengths (i.e., participants top five strengths) (1) These
could include gratitude, kindness, and forgiveness. It also found a correlation between practicing
religious rituals such as praying with liturgy. The results show that practicing a religion leads to
greater life satisfaction, stronger character strengths, and better evaluation of the meaning of life.
The context of this was that it was to again continue previous research as well as to reaffirm
previous beliefs. They successfully found that their hypothesis was correct. The importance of
this to my paper is that it provides me with a way to compare the happiness of different groups of
people by using character strengths; this is like other studies. It also allows me to have an idea
for what I need to compare life satisfaction, character strengths, and the evaluation of the
meaning of life with regards to a different understanding of Christmas. This again parallels the
idea that happiness is different for religious and non-religious groups and it defines some of the
ways which this is true.

Garibaldi, Carole "The Happiness of Christmas is made of Fragile Moments." New York Times
(1923-Current file), New York, N.Y., 1987. http://proxy.library.nd.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy.library.nd.edu/docview/110839980?accountid=12874.
This is an article for the New York times in 1987. Even though it is an older article the argument
of the article still stands today. The audience would probably be the many people that feel the
rush and pressure of Christmas which includes most modern Americans.
The article discusses the aspects of Christmas that help add to the happiness of the season. The
pleasures of Christmas include the sound of the familiar carols, the taste of fruitcake, plum
pudding and marzipan, the sights of colored lights flickering and glowing. After Christmas is
over it gives a person time to think and reflect. (1) These play a role in both religious and
secular Christmas. Also, she says, In January, I must retreat, be alone, find a new perspective
Mankind has always gone from feasts and festivals into periods of fasting and meditation. After
Christmas is the realization of the passage of time. (1) This discusses the reflective aspect of
Christmas. The article helps people understand their feelings after Christmas. The article
provides a concrete way to look at life after Christmas. This article helps to develop my
argument because I can look at how people react differently after Christmas in a time where
there are no more festive activities and buying of presents. This also could be a way to organize
my paper. I could look at happiness in the preparation of Christmas, in Christmas itself, and in
the aftermath of Christmas. This article could be limited because it is part of a newspaper leading
to a less academic interpretation. The information is a little different than the others because it is
written in a newspaper and focuses on enjoying the little moments of Christmas which is both
areligious and a secular experience.
"Squeezing Stress from the Season." USA Today, vol. 137, no. 2763, 2008., pp. 16.
http://proxy.library.nd.edu/login?
url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy.library.nd.edu/docview/214597308?accountid=12874.
This article was written for USA by an unknown author and focused on how to reduce some of
the stressful things of Christmas. The audience was for adults with children and it provided
advice for them on how to reduces some of the stress for the Christmas season. One specific
point of connection was the idea of taking time to volunteer. The act of volunteering can help the
children apricate the role giving has during Christmas. Another idea that deals with the
materialist idea of Christmas was proposed by Virginia Bentz, in her Quick Guide to Good Kids,
was the idea of less-is-more. (16) Parents can be happier by not spending as much money, and
children can be happier by apricating the gifts they do receive for Christmas. This source is not
very useful as academic evidence because it was written for a newspaper, but it does give me
concrete examples of the materialistic view of Christmas that can lead to unhappiness and how to
resolve this unhappiness.

Mutz, Michael Christmas And Subjective Well-Being: A Research Note Applied Reasearch in
Quality of Life, 2015, pp. 1-16. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11482-015-9441-8
The audience is those concerned with the happiness of Christmas and subjective well-being
(SWB) specifically with life satisfaction and emotional well-being. The study was taken in
European countries in the week leading up to Christmas and it was compared to other times
during the year. As a scientific study this is a reliable source that is only limited by the group that
the data was taken with and limitations on the data measurements being subjective (interviews).
The study was based of the evidence that hospital death rates increased, suicide attempts
increased, and there were greater levels of loneliness in the week before Christmas. Some causes
could have been weather, overindulgence, and greater levels of emotional stress. I will take quite
a few quotes from this article (shown below) because many of them support my point and are
directly related to my topic making this a useful article, I found that this helps me to narrow my
topic a little by focusing on the religious aspects and materialism. The articles main argument
was, Main findings suggest that the Christmas period is related to a decrease in life satisfaction
and emotional well-being. However, Christians, particularly those with more religiousness, are
an exception to this pattern. (1) I will want a section in my paper on materialism. This article
paralleled many findings that a religious experience can reduce the stress of the preparation of
the Christmas season.
Possible Quotes
This next paragraph summarizes the arguments made in the study with a series of quotes.
Kasser and Sheldon (2002) have assessed well-being at Christmas with regard to several types
of activities in the Christmas period and found that socializing with family as well as religious
experiences are associated with increased SWB whereas consumption activities are associated
with higher stress levels and reduced SWB. It discusses the close connection of a religious
Christmas with Christian values of compassion, charity, forgiveness, renunciation of violence as
well as of indulgence and other religious practices such as Attending religious services,
intensifying prayer, watching nativity plays, donating for poor and needy persons, spending time
and exchanging gifts with family and friends may be regarded as ways in which basic Christian
values manifest themselves and are reinforced. On the contrary, a secular Christmas focuses
more on consumption commerce, and materialism. In a paper on the history of Christmas
celebrations in the US, Bartunek and Do (2011: 803) conclude that organized commercialism
has become sacred, and the religious experience of Christmas has lost a good deal of its sacred
character. The findings showed that In the aftermath of Christmas, subjective well-being is not
particularly positive, but again converging to its annual mean level. This finding may suggest
that it is particularly the Pre-Christmas hustle and not the Christmas holiday itself that has caused
the short-term decline in well-being. The study stated, Hence, both findings consistently show
that Christian religious affiliation is a protective factor against the general decline in SWB
around Christmas. It is less clear however, if this protection comes along with Christian
affiliation per se or if it needs to be combined with high religiousness.

Other sources
"Mindfulness an Excellent Strategy to Manage the Stress of Christmas" Claims Ontario
Psychotherapist, Thomson Scarlett
http://bi.galegroup.com.proxy.library.nd.edu/essentials/article/GALE
%7CA393841855/c1ffd70437880a7fc577c572e09495b4?u=nd_ref
Identity moderates the effects of Christmas displays on mood, self-esteem, and inclusion
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103110001472
-this study looks at the physcological effects of people that do or do not celebrate Christmas by
having people in the presense or lack there of of a Christmas display. The first study found that
well being was harmed for non-celebrators and non-Christians and improved for Christians. The
second study found that the display decreased for non-celebrators and non-Christians the feeling
of inclusion.
Therefore, we argue that Christmas displays will have differential effects depending on people's
relationship to Christmas or Christianity. For people who do not celebrate Christmas or who
belong to religious or cultural groups that do not include Christmas as a valued celebration,
Christmas displays should threaten their sense of inclusion, harming mood and self-esteem.
Conversely, Christmas displays should have positive effects for those who do celebrate
Christmas. In addition to the possibility that Christmas displays might increase feelings of
inclusion for celebrators, Christmas displays might boost mood and self-esteem by reminding
celebrators of positive associations they have with Christmas.
Results found no significant negative effects on mood but there was a significant difference
between improvement of Christians and non-Christians
They also found that these positive effects were not a result of increased feeling of inclusion,
which implies that it was from something else.
One idea the study brought up was that of cultural application where symbols like Christmas can
affect those who do not participate in the ritual.
Limitations are that this study was only for the symbol of Christmas and the effects could have
been a result of something culturally different and not necessarily with Christmas.
Materialism and Its Relationship to Life Satisfaction
http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.nd.edu/stable/27526951?ref=searchgateway:9b810e116604e50735274e01474126a6&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Faith and Happiness
http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.nd.edu/stable/pdf/20447531.pdf
Normally people believe that attendance with faith
There is a relationship between nearness to god and happiness not just attendance (123)
In some ways faith

The Four M's of Religion: Magic, Membership, Morality and Mysticism

http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.nd.edu/stable/pdf/20447525.pdf
-----------------------------------------------------------------------The purpose of Christmas book
Christmas Is A Time Of Happiness
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1296583885
Merry Christmas And Happy New Year! The Impact Of Christmas Rituals On Subjective WellBeing And Family's Emotional Climate
http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.library.nd.edu/doi/abs/10.1174/021347411797361347

Searches
Christmas and life satisfaction
Religion and gratitude
The stress of Christmas
Notes from talk with Dr. McLaughlin
Audience, purpose, context---how it fits into my paper
Why does the audience care about what I find? What do I want them to learn from my argument
with regards to the findings of different studies?
What do I want to convince my reader of