Methodology

Although the environmental benefits of reducing one’s consumption are well documented, the mental health benefits of a simpler and more sustainable lifestyle - in terms of happiness (or “subjective well-being,” SWB) - are poorly understood in the sciences. As a result, the initial aim of this research is to discern the relationship between VS practice/behavior and happiness (SWB) at the individual level of analysis.

Within this process, variety of methodologies will be employed, divided into 3 distinct phases. They include:

PHASE 1 – Literature Review

A comprehensive literature review of the two key concepts of VS and Happiness dating back to Ancient Greece, including a phonic literature review of contemporary experts in these fields. Researchers and professors will be interviewed and podcasts of those interviews will be produced and uploaded online.

Visually and phonically documented key informant interviews, participant observation, informal interviews, focus groups, and oral histories of VS practitioners and communities. An individual’s perspective and complex opinions, particularly with issues such as the ones involved in this study, are far more nuanced then a single number, percentage or chart can reflect alone. As a result, it is important to conduct a qualitative analysis (in addition to the survey analysis employed) using the range of methodologies outlined above. According to Tim Rapley, “Interviewing is currently the resource through which contemporary social science engages with issues that concern it” (Rapley 2004). Interviews enable a “’special insight’ into subjectivity, voice and lived experience” (Rapley 2004). According to Sara Delamont, “Participant observation… means spending long periods watching people, coupled with talking to them about what they are doing, thinking and saying, designed to see how they understand their world” (Delamont 2004). In addition, oral histories “draw on memory and testimony to gain a more complete or different understanding of a past experienced both individually and collectively” (Bornat 2004). The focus groups, in a sense, are aimed at exploring the more collective aspect of these oral histories. Indeed, this methodology is primarily concerned with “shared and tacit beliefs, and in the way these beliefs emerge in interaction with others in a local setting. They are often used in an exploratory way, when researchers are not entirely sure what categories, links and perspectives are relevant” (Macnaghten and Myers 2004). This documentation will also be uploaded online for public consumption.

PHASE 2 – Experimentation

SWB surveys of 300 respondents (broken up into three groups: a control group, a group that practices VS, and a group that explicitly does not identify with the principles of VS living) using a variation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) taken three times over a 1 year period. SWLS will serve as the foundation since it has achieved the greatest level of reliability of all SWB indexes. I am especially interested in developing an index that is not overly value-laden in its pronouncements of how people should live and what constitutes happiness. Instead, I will continue with the standard SWB approach that places primary importance on the respondent’s internal perspective and personal experience.

A visually documented self-study of the mental and physical health benefits associated with downshifting over a 1 year period. During this self-study, the author of this proposal will downshift for a year-long period and make regular, bi-weekly appointments with both a psychologist and a physician that are qualified to objectively document any increases or decreases in physical and psychological health throughout that period of time.

The Role of Media

All of these methodologies will employ new media tools and the internet in their execution and the dissemination of the results.

Indeed, the internet will be a critical factor in this project, serving as the primary methodological tool (in terms of videos, still imagery, and podcasts uploaded) and the preferred mode of disseminating the results and data analysis.