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Mastery in happiness – the role of expertise in everyday life
Agnieszka Bożeka, Ryszard Stockib
aWojtyla Institute - Science Foundation, Smolensk 29, 31-112 Cracow, Poland
bUniversity of Social Science and Humanities, Psychology Faculty in Katowice, Kossutha 9,
40-844 Katowice, Poland
Corresponding author: Agnieszka Bożek
E-Mail: agnieszka.bozek@wojtyla.edu.pl,
Phone: 0048502399723
Abstract
The research is based on two fundamental concepts. The first is Sternberg’s (1999) concept
of practical intelligence which stresses the role of tacit knowledge in everyday life. The
second is research on happiness (e.g., Myers and Diner 1995; Argyle 1999; Diener, Suh,
Lucas and Smith 1999; Czapiński 2004; Lyubomirsky, King and Diener 2005). The main
purpose of our study was to find whether tacit knowledge in everyday life increases
happiness. Secondary aim was to explore whether there is any dependency between happiness
and such factors as: gender; continuous education; community religious activities; depth of
religious experience; the quality of relationships with others and social support; proactivity,
self-perception. Inspired by Wagner and Sternberg (1987) we created the Tacit Everyday
Knowledge Inventory (TEKI) for measuring expertise in everyday life situations. The level of
happiness was measured with Happiness Scale referring to both hedonistic and eudaimonistic
dimensions of happiness. For the purposes of the pilot study 13 experts of both sexes aged 35
to 70 were selected meeting two criteria: being appointed as experts by the researchers and
having results most similar to one another, what was tested by Cronbach's alpha where
experts were treated as if they were scale items. The agreement was reached at the level of
alpha = 0,95. 152 social media users of both sexes aged 18 to 56 participated in the pilot
study. Preliminary results confirm the influence of expertise on the feeling of happiness and
the dependency between happiness and continuous education or satisfaction with relationships
with others. After making appropriate corrections in the methods the research is being
continued.
Key words Tacit knowledge · Expertise · Happiness · Meaning of Life · Everyday life
1 Introduction
For centuries people are interested in the sources and methods of good life. There are many
guides on what to do to be healthy, to have a good relationship and a successful job.
Notwithstanding, there is still little scientific research regarding everyday life and how
science can contribute to the improvement of life of an average person.
Life in modern times has become very complicated. Unprecedented technological
progress generated longer and faster life with changes as commonplace phenomena. The
knowledge and skills obtained from parents or at school seems not enough to function well in
such conditions. What is needed is continuous education and training of practical skills during
the life time.
The basis of our study is our conviction that daily life in modern, complicated times
requires cognitive effort analogous to the effort required in scientific fields such as physics
and biology - to live deliberately, to affect one’s life and shape it, one should become an
expert. In particular, we are interested in the knowledge and skills a modern person has to
possess to function well in all the areas of his/her life in order to be happy.
1.1 Practical Intelligence and Expertise
In search of cognitive aspects of expertise in everyday life one should refer to Sternberg’s
(1997, 1999a, 2005) theory of successful intelligence, according to which analytical, creative
and practical abilities are important for success in life. To use the ideas and analysis
effectively in one’s everyday life the practical intelligence is needed. It is a kind of
intelligence independent from academic success. Practical intelligence is defined as the ability
to adapt to, shape and select real-world environments to accomplish one’s goals within the
context of one’s society and culture (Sternberg 1997, pp. 298?). Its cognitive component
requires both explicit and tacit knowledge about how to effectively deal with situations in the
context of everyday experiences. Explicit knowledge is acquired through formal training.
Tacit knowledge is the procedural knowledge that is not readily articulated or openly
conveyed (Stemler and Sternberg 2006).
Sternbergs and his colleagues (Sternberg 1997; Sternberg et al. 2000; Sternberg and
Horvath 1997; Sternberg, Wagner, Williams and Horvath 1995) identified three main features
of tacit knowledge. Firstly, it is acquired with little or no support from other people or
resources. Secondly, it is context-specific knowledge about what to do in a given situation or
class of situations. Thirdly, it has direct relevance to the individual’s goals.
As opposed to the traditional approach to intelligence - a result of the interaction of
heredity and the environment, practical intelligence can be viewed as a form of developing
expertise. Developing expertise is understood as the ongoing process of acquisition and
consolidation of a set of skills needed for a high level of mastery in one or more domains of
life performance (Sternberg 1999b, pp. 359). In other words, individuals, who are dealing
with specific task within a given domain, are constantly in a process of developing expertise.
Such process is domain specific – development of expertise in one area does not necessarily
lead to the development of expertise in another area, although these processes may affect each
other positively (Sternberg 1999b). A number of studies support the idea that practical and
academic abilities might have different developmental trajectories (see Berg and Klaczynski
1996 for a review). One of the distinguishing features is the observation that the ability to
solve problems of everyday life may increase through the old age (Cornelius and Caspi 1987).
A number of studies have been conducted on the role of tacit knowledge in dealing
with the problems of everyday life (see Sternberg et al. 2000 for a review). People who are
dealing exceptionally well with the problems of their daily lives might be called experts in
everyday life.
The study of experts and expertise is controversial, as there are several related but in
majority separate traditions (psychological, sociological, philosophical, technical etc.).
Expertise might be seen as an internal property of an individual, external collaborative
construct of a community or from a viewpoint of a specific occupation or discipline (see Nun
2008 for a review). Thus there is no agreement about the definition of both constructs.
Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) created a basis for research in this area by developing a model of
skill acquisition and identifying five stages of competence development (i.e. novice, advanced
beginner, competent, proficient, expert). The scope of research in the field of expertise
spreads from topics such as expert systems in computer science (Wakefield 1990), expert
reasoning, clinical judgement and decision-making in the health professions (e.g., Dowie and
Elstein 1988; Ericsson and Smith 1992; Unsworth 1999), social work expertise (e.g., Fook,
Ryan and Hawkins 2000; Ryan, Dowden, Healy an Renouf 2005), expertise in creative
domains (see Kaufman, Baer and Cole 2009 for a review) expertise of managers (Wagner and
Sternberg 1987), expertise of team members (Sonnentag and Volmer 2009) to mention only a
few. So far, however, little is known about expertise in everyday life.
1.2 Happiness and Expertise
Starting from the ancient philosophers Epicurus and Aristotle (trans. 1982), who said that
happiness is the whole aim and the end of human existence, through present-day
philosophers, writers, poets to authors of popular psychology a lot has already been written
about happiness. During last decades also social scientists have taken interest in this subject.
The results of the research by Suh, Diener, Oishi and Triandis (1998) conducted on 7.204
college students in 42 countries show how important happiness is for ordinary people. 69 %
of their respondents rated happiness at the top of the importance scale. Thus, both research
and everyday observations suggest that happiness is one of the most significant dimensions of
human experience and emotional life (Lyubomirsky 2001).
Although there is no universally accepted definition of happiness, most researchers
agree that this concept includes the experience of joy, satisfaction and well-being combined
with the belief that one’s life is good, valuable and makes sense (Lyubomirsky 2001). In our
study we tried to connect two approaches to happiness: hedonic and eudaimonic. In everyday
language it is usually referred to as hedonic happiness, defined as a subjective experience that
includes the belief that one is getting the important things one wants, as well as certain
pleasant affects that normally go along with this belief (Kraut1979, pp. 178). In other words a
person feels happy if he/she experiences high level of positive affect (i. e. joy and pleasure)
and low level of negative affect regardless of its cause. Happiness in terms of eudaimonism,
an ethical theory which requires that people recognise and live in accordance with the daimon
or "true self" (Norton 1976), is concerned more with living a good life and realizing one’s
human potential (Deci and Ryan 2006). The research indicates that these two conceptions of
happiness are related but distinguishable (Waterman 1993). For example, experience of
eudaimonic living leads to the experience of hedonic enjoyment, but not every hedonic
enjoyment comes from eudaimonic living (Waterman, Schwartz and Conti 2006).
Above considerations led us to a new way of looking at the subject of happiness,
namely the recognition of happiness as a result of becoming an expert in everyday life. We
assume that people in making decisions affecting their happiness refer to tacit knowledge.
Experience gained over a lifetime may make them become an expert at being happy. Thus we
propose:
Hypothesis 1: Tacit knowledge in everyday life increases happiness.
1.3 Meaning of Life and Expertise
According to Frankl’s existential theory (1959), the primary motive of human behaviour is the
will to meaning of life. It is experienced when a person corresponds in time to the demands of
the situation she/he is in, discovers and undertakes personal goals and believes in an ultimate
meaning .e.g. has faith in God. Meaning of life can be discovered by experiencing: creative
values through goal achievement; experiental values through anything good, beautiful or true
that is taken from life; and attitudinal values through the attitudes toward difficult life
situations or suffering (Frankl, 1973). Frankl (1969) claims that if a person does not strive to
find meaning in his/her life then he/she will soon lose his/hers psychological well-being.
The meaning of life is understood as the subjective mental state of an individual affiliated
with the personal feeling of satisfaction with life (Crumbaugh and Maholic, 1964). Research
shows that it has been positively associated with physical/psychological health and negatively
with psychopathology e.g. depression. Moreover, people who can find meaning in negative
experiences cope better with such situations than those who cannot do that (see Kleftaras and
Psaara, 2012, for a review). We assume that people, who are experts in everyday life have
also stronger sense of meaning. Therefore, we propose:
Hypothesis 2: Tacit knowledge in everyday life is positively related to meaning of life.
1.4 Meaning of Life and Happiness
Happiness and Meaning are both features of a desirable life. In some theories, a sense of
meaning is one of the elements of happiness. In the aforementioned eudaimonism, happiness
is associated with experiencing a good, meaningful life (Deci and Ryan 2006); while
authentic happiness theory (Seligman, 2002) holds that there are three distinct kinds of
happiness: the Pleasant Life (pleasures), the Good Life (engagement), and the Meaningful
Life. The first two are subjective, but the third is at least partly objective and concerns of
belonging to and serving something that is bigger and more valuable than just own pleasure
and desires.
In other approaches, a sense of meaning and happiness are considered as constructs correlated
with each other, although with different sources and impacts (MacGregor and Little, 1998).
Findings of Baumeister and colleagues (2012) indicates a. o. that happiness is mainly linked
to getting what one wants and needs and is focused on felling good in the present while
meaningfulness is about doing the things the reflect and express the self, including doing
positive things for others and integrates past, present and future. Moreover meaningfulness
may sometimes mean feeling bad. While being an expert in everyday life is usually connected
to dealing with problems and moments of suffering we assume that the tacit knowledge in
everyday life further strengthens a sense of meaning in life than happiness. Thus, we propose:
Hypothesis 3: Tacit knowledge in everyday life is strongly related to meaning of life
than to happiness.
1.3 Happiness in Everyday Life
Research conducted for about 40 years reveals a lot of objective determinants of happiness,
such as high income, supportive marriage, good health or no major traumas in life (see Myers
and Diner 1995; Argyle 1999; Diener, Suh, Lucas and Smith 1999; Czapiński 2004;
Lyubomirsky, King and Diener 2005 for reviews). However, an increasing number of
researchers point to the fact that the objective factors and demographic variables affect
happiness not as strongly as it is commonly thought (e.g., Diener et al. 1999, Diener 2000). In
our research we want to contribute to above mentioned results by finding more complex
factors that are positively related to happiness which are important in everyday life.
The widespread belief that younger people are happier is not reflected in research
results. For example, Doyle and Forehand (1984) analysed the results collected from a
representative sample of Americans over the age of forty, and even though they found a small
correlation between age and life satisfaction, this relationship disappeared completely when
health, income and marital status were taken into account. Other studies have shown that
happiness increases with age, but more in the component of positive affect and less in
negative affect (e.g, Diener and Suh 1998). Thus, not age itself affects the feeling of
happiness, but other factors related to it. In Polish studies it was found that women general
feeling of happiness and quality of life assessment falls with age, whereas men in their forties
are happier than in their youth, and with age, at least for the period of 40-43 years they do not
lose hope for an even happier future (Czapiński 1994). Thus we propose:
Hypothesis 2: In women, the feeling of happiness decreases with age, in men the
feeling of happiness increases with age.
Numerous studies have shown a significant but slight influence of education on
happiness. It was detected that education is highly related to happiness but only for people
with lower income (Diener, Sandvik, Seidlitz and Diener 1993) and living in poor countries
(Veenhoven 1994). As education may help in solving problems in everyday life, we believe
that not only the level of education attained (i.e. higher education), but also constant
broadening of one’s knowledge, both formal (e.g. through post-graduate studies, participation
in trainings) and informal (reading non-fiction books) may contribute to an increase in the
feeling of happiness. Thus:
Hypothesis 3: Constant education is positively related to happiness.
According to an old truth of life, man is a social being. There is no happiness without
other people - family, friends, and community involvement (Seligman, 2002). For example,
Diener and Seligman (2002) have found that the happiest college students (the top 10%) have
high-quality social relationship. Other studies conducted among employees have revealed that
those who showed high dispositional positive affect received more emotional and tangible
assistance more than a year later (Staw, Sutton and Pelled 1994). It seems that those who are
happy are more likely to draw people to help them in everyday life situations. Thus:
Hypothesis 4: Happiness is positively related to satisfaction with contacts with other
people and a sense of social support.
Another variable often associated with happiness is religiosity. Individuals who pray
and attend church are happier than those who do not (e.g. Inglehart 1990). Moreover people
are happier in regions that are more religious (Clark and Lelkes 2008). Religiousness and
spirituality can be associated with happiness by treating adverse life events as an opportunity
for personal and spiritual growth (Maltby and Day 2003), and finding a deeper meaning in
negative events (Laubmeier, Zakowski and Bair 2004). In relationship between happiness and
religious behaviour two aspects may be particularly important: firstly, participation in
community; secondly, the sense of deep spiritual experiences. Thus we propose:
Hypothesis 5: Community religious activity and deep spiritual experiences increase
happiness.
Cross-sectional studies have revealed that happy people in general engage in greater
amount of activities (e.g. Veenhoven, 1994). We believe, that not only being active, but rather
being proactive may contribute to an increase in the feeling of happiness. A proactive person
is someone with a relatively stable behavioural tendency to initiate changes in the
environment (Bateman and Crant 1993, pp. 105). Much research has shown that proactivity is
correlated with positive outcomes across many job and career domains (see Parker, Bindl and
Strauss 2010 for a review). In our opinion it may also lead to happiness in everyday life.
Thus:
Hypothesis 6: Proactivity is positively related to happiness.
The finding that self-esteem is strongly associated with a sense of happiness appears in
many studies (e.g., Lucas, Diener and Suh 1996). People with high self-esteem do better in
some work and tasks as well as the stress and problems (Baumeister, Campbell, Krueger, and
Vohs 2003).We believe that people who like and accept themselves as they are, feel
significantly happier. Thus we propose:
Hypothesis 7: Positive self-esteem affects happiness.
2 Method
2.1 Participants
The study was conducted independently on two groups of participants. The group of experts
consisted of 9 participants (3 man and 6 women) aged 48 to 65 (M = 54, SD = 6,65). The
main sample consisted of 124 social media users, but only 80 (29 man and 51 women) have
answered all the questions. The age of this group ranged from 20 to 61 (M = 35, SD = 8,85).
Detailed demographic data of the participants are given in Table 1.
2.2 Procedure
The members of the group of experts were carefully selected. They had to meet the following
requirements: be in middle age or older, to experience in life a variety of difficult situations
that they would handle and actually function in life well; to be in some way socially engaged
(e.g. voluntarily share their knowledge, time or other resources with others). The selected
individuals were sent an invitation to the study. After receiving the approval they received a
link to the battery of questionnaires contained in the website www.surveymonkey.com.
The main sample was recruited through social media like Goldenline (Polish
equivalent of LinkedIn) and Facebook, where a link to the battery of questionnaires was
placed. In the study participants used their own equipment and Internet connection. After
completing questionnaires, the data were automatically stored in a file on a secure account on
the server. In the collection of the results some modification was used, namely respondents
could not accidentally or intentionally omit any of the items. If they did so, the statement
appeared again with instructions or a description of the situation.
2.3 Measures
2.3.1. Tacit Everyday Knowledge Inventory (TEKI)
Inspired by Wagner and Sternberg (1987) Tacit Knowledge Inventory for Managers we
created the Tacit Everyday Knowledge Inventory (TEKI) to assess tacit knowledge in
everyday life. A preliminary version consisted of 27 descriptions of real life situations with
several (up to 10) responses of possible solutions of those situations. The number was reduced
through discussion among 20 students to 11, apart from their relevance, similar situations
were excluded. The remaining situations were divided into three aspects, parallel to
Sternberg's (2000): self, relationships and tasks.
After determining and verifying the initial number of questions we first administrated
our inventory to a convince sample of 13 believed-to-be experts in everyday life of both sexes
aged 35 to 70. Three of them were rejected as their results significantly increased the
standard deviation among the expert group and 152 social media users (112 women and 39
men) aged 18 to 56. Original version of the TEKI consists of eleven description of difficult
everyday situations. To each situation there are given ten possible solution that should be
assessed on the seven-point scale ranging from (1) very bad to (7) very good. At the bottom of
each page there is also a possibility to give one’s own solution. An example of a real-life
situation with the possible answers is given in the appendix 1.There were 3 situations related
to self, 4 to relationship and 4 to tasks. The Cronbach's alpha for 30 questions related to self
equalled 0,84. The alpha for 40 questions related to relationships equalled 0.75 and finally the
scale formed out of 40 questions related to solving difficult everyday tasks had alpha = 0.85.
For the main study minor corrections were made in the form of statements (not
content) to improve the coherence of the entire Inventory. Re-scale analysis supported the
structure of TEKI and gave following results: the Cronbach's alpha for 30 questions related to
self equalled 0,96, for 40 questions related to relationships equalled 0.98 and for 40 questions
related to solving difficult everyday tasks equalled alpha = 0.99. The difference in scale
reliability is explained with increased awareness in the selection of experts to the main study.
2.3.2. Happiness Scale
The level of happiness was measured with Happiness Scale referring to both hedonistic and
eudaimonistic dimensions of happiness. A preliminary version of the scale contained nine
questions. Three questions related to the feeling of happiness in the hedonistic sense, e.g.:
“How often do you experience joy?” Replies were granted by assessing on the seven-point
scale ranging from (1) “never “to (7) “always”. Three questions related to the feeling of
happiness in the eudaimonistic sense e.g.: “Do you feel a fulfilled person?” Replies were
granted by assessing on the seven-point scale ranging from (1) “absolutely not” to (7)
“absolutely yes”. Two questions related to the overall feeling of happiness e.g.: “Do you feel
happy?” (ranging from (1) “absolutely not” to (7) “absolutely yes”). One question, namely:
“What do you miss the most to feel completely happy? “was an open question.
We first administrated our inventory to a sample of 152 social media users (112
women and 39 men) aged 18 to 56 (M = 25, SD = 6,97).
As there were high correlations between the items of the hedonic and eudaimonic
happiness scale, we decided to join those two groups of questions and create one happiness
scale. The Cronbach's aplpha for the scale equalled 0.93. After the content analysis of the
scale two questions about general feeling of happiness were reduced to one, the open question
was eliminated and one question referring to hedonistic happiness was added, namely “ How
often do you experience pleasure in your life?”.
The final version of Happiness Scale consists of eight questions rated on a scale that
range from (1) "never" to (7) "always" or from (1) "absolutely no" to (7) to “absolutely yes”.
The whole scale is presented in appendix 2.
2.3.2. PIL-6
The level of meaning of life was measured with shortened version of Purpose in Life Test
(PIL) by. J. C. Crunbaugh and L. T. Maholik. Życińska and Januszek (2011) created a one-
factor model version (items 4, 5, 9, 12, 17, 20 from the original version) measuring the degree
in which a person experiences a purpose and meaningfulness of his/her life, supported by the
positive self-esteem. The Cronbach's aplpha for one-dimensional model equalled 0.85. PIL-6
consists 6 items, each rated on its own separately labeled seven-point Likert scale.
2.3.4 Other measures
In order to verify the second hypothesis we collected information about the age and gender of
the respondents. The question of constant education referred to the level of education (from
preliminary education to postgraduate education with the degree of PhD or Professor) and the
number of non-fiction books read during a year. The fourth hypothesis was verified by the
question "Are you in a successful relationship?" and "Can you count on the help of other
people in difficult situations?". Community religious activity was assessed by asking "How
often do you attend community religious services (common family prayer, participation in
worship, etc.)?”. Spiritual experiences was measured by asking about the frequency of contact
with God (however one understood them). Proactivity was assessed by checking whether
participant wrote additional solutions to the given life situations, on the principle that
proactive person has a tendency to go beyond expectations. Positive self-perception was
measured by the question "Do you like yourself?".
3 Results
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Appendix 1
Situation 3
You are a teacher of English language in a primary school. You live in a detached house with
your husband/ wife, who works for a construction company. You have two children, the elder of
whom just started a degree in architecture. One day your husband/ wife has a serious car
accident which results in grievous bodily harm – he/ she can only get about in a wheelchair.
After this event, you become the sole family provider. The financial situation is complicated by
the fact that the insurer has paid such a small amount of compensation that it was not enough
even to buy a wheelchair adapted for the disability. You are obliged to care for a sick husband/
wife, who is often irritated because of the pain - it's hard for you to endure. In addition, the
younger son, experiencing the family situation in his own way, begins to show more serious
behavioral problems. You are on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Rate the quality of the possible actions described on the scale of 1-7.
23. Give up or limit your career for a time to devote more time to your husband/ wife and ask
your children to take up a job and the elder son to provide financial support by changing the
mode of his study.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
24. Employ a sitter, who would care for your husband/ wife for the duration of your absence
and increase your job involvement to make more money for a living.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
25. Find your husband/ wife work that he/ she could do at home.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
26. Ask relatives to visit your husband/ wife frequently and to give him/ her something to do.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
27. Hire a lawyer who would enforce greater compensation from the insurer
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
28. Find a sponsor who would finance the purchase of the wheelchair for your husband/ wife.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
29. Encourage your husband/ wife to use the recovery time to increase his/ her competences.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
30. Talk with your husband/ wife about the problems in your family and together find a
solution.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
31. Engage your husband/ wife in helping your younger son at school.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
32. Encourage your husband / wife to engage in social work and helping others.
.
1
very bad
2
bad
3
rather bad
4
not good/not bad
5
rather good
6
good
7
very good
Would some other solution be possible? Please enter it below.
Appendix 2
Happiness Scale
Below are some questions about how much you are happy. We ask for the honest answers.
1. How often do you experience joy?
1
never
2
very rarely
3
rarely
4
differently
5
often
6
very often
7
always
2. How often do you experience pleasure in your life?
1
never
2
very rarely
3
rarely
4
differently
5
often
6
very often
7
always
3. How often do you smile?
1
never
2
very rarely
3
rarely
4
differently
5
often
6
very often
7
always
4. Are you able to enjoy the small things?
1
absolutely no
2
no
3
rather no
4
yes and no
5
rather yes
6
yes
7
absolutely yes
5. Are you satisfied with how you manage your life?
1
absolutely no
2
no
3
rather no
4
yes and no
5
rather yes
6
yes
7
absolutely yes
6. Do you feel a fulfilled person?
1
absolutely no
2
no
3
rather no
4
yes and no
5
rather yes
6
yes
7
absolutely yes
7. Do you feel that your life has meaning?
1
absolutely no
2
no
3
rather no
4
yes and no
5
rather yes
6
yes
7
absolutely yes
8. Do you feel happy?
1
absolutely no
2
no
3
rather no
4
yes and no
5
rather yes
6
yes
7
absolutely yes