Summary of the Happiness Project to date

Summary of the Happiness Project to date

✪ No comment yet

i have recently collected another 41 reports. The total number of respondents so far is 389. The answers so far are: - 74.6% said that they feel happier - 8.7% did not provide a conclusion to their assignment - 5.9% said that the assignment did not make any difference - 4.1% said that they were not sure whether there is any change - 3.1% said that they feel more calm - 3.6% gave a variety of other answers Lets look at the story behind the numbers. A number of students have given me verbal feedback (typically, "I have started praying now", or "I have stopped drinking alcohol" or "I have stopped watching pornography") which they did not write in their reports. I suspect that some students "disguised" their answers for the sake of the grade. However, having read 389 reports, I think I can now distinguish the sincere answers from the politically correct answers. I suspect that the success rate is closer to 60% rather than 75%. However, even the students who did not take the assignment seriously have learned to process of spiritual development. In their future life, insha'Allah, they can still apply what they have learned when their lives become difficult. On a different note, I am now using two psychological instruments to measure the spiritual intelligence before and after the assignment. The data has already been collected but it will take some time to analyse the data. I assume that I will have some more data by June 2012, insha'Allah In terms of the literature review, I think I now understand both the Islamic perspective and the non-Islamic perspective. Since March 2012, I have been visiting schools and talking to young teenagers (15 to 17 years). These discussions gave me hope that the Happiness Project can be modified to help school children answer their spiritual concerns.