Presence of Significant Others and the Avowal of Happiness Among the Elderly: Reply to Bobys

Abstract

Bobys' thesis is that the changing relationship between age and happiness we reported is quite possibly a methodological artifact, despite our not inconsiderable efforts in the study to insure that it was not. The problem, to state his argument a little more formally, is that we failed to consider the joint effects of two forces. First, older respondents are more likely to have a third party help them complete their questionnaires, one who is probably a significant other (a relative, friend, or service provider). Second, older persons responding through a signficant other are more likely to report greater happiness than older persons filling out their own questionnaires, because the former wish to avoid offending this person who has tried to make them happy. Thus, Bobys thinks that the positive relationships we reported for age and happiness in the 1970s could be due to significant others' influence on response to questionnaires and therefore an artifact of the methodology employed by the pollsters whose data we used. We have to reject Bobys' specific argument out of hand. Interviews, not questionnaires, were used to gather these data. Respondents could neither fill out their own schedules nor ask some significant other to do it for them, because they had to respond to each question as put to them by a trained interviewer. However, Bobys' general point may be more applicable to interview data. The presence of significant others during the interview might increase the level of happiness avowed by the aged, even though these significant others do not answer any of the questions. The elderly may not only simply wish to avoid offending someone who has made them happy (as Bobys notes), but more importantly, may wish to avoid offending significant others because many elderly are so dependent for survival on these significant others. Further, it seems not unreasonable to expect that