NOPPADON’S AWARDED PAPER : The Best Conference Paper of 2009,

The Nelson Award, The World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR)

Investigating Gross Domestic Happiness in Thailand

Noppadon Kannika (Academic Network for Community Happiness Observation
and Research (ANCHOR), ABAC POLL Research Center, Assumption University,
Thailand)

In this paper, the research and development surrounding the evolution and
improvement of Gross Domestic Happiness surveys are highlighted. First, some of
the work endeavored by previous researchers, making mention of possible
methodological oversights and inaccuracies, are covered and criticized. Second, the
happiness research in Thailand has been developed and presented the trend of GDH
among people since April 2007 to February 2009. Also, significant factors affecting
the GDH are presented. Then, the intentions for future survey methodological
research and the accuracy of measuring target populations’ relative happiness are
briefly suggested.

Brief Description of the Research: There have been many surveys on happiness
conducted around the world. Some focused on physical well‐being surveys and
others emphasized marital and general happiness, while others still investigated the
relationship between income and happiness. Tourangeau and others showed
methodological issues on measuring happiness in their studies and other previous
research papers. They examined changing the word choice to see if word
choice matched their hypothesis that the respondents were responding to
implication in order: asking survey questions about marriage first meant it was less
likely to be included in the following general item regarding happiness among
studied respondents. They tested if question wording could capture the effects of
the order problem and to see if word choice could imitate the effects of item order.
But what they did not address was that the ordering of the items created an
ambiguity that the words helped to clarify (Tourangeau Roger, Rasinski A.
Kenneth, and Bradburn Norman, (1991)).

In Bhutan, the Gross National Happiness was conceptualized and operationalized

for the country’s public policy. A survey on happiness among Bhutanese people was
conducted on March, 2008. This survey covered nine different domains
including psychological well‐being, good governance, education, health,
community vitality, time use and balance, culture, ecological diversity and
resilience, and standard of living (The Centre for Bhutan Studies,. (2008)). In
Thailand, happiness surveys have been conducted since 2006. The Gross Domestic
Happiness (GDH) surveys are defined as an aggregate of people’s value‐as-a-total
on their wellbeing, life satisfaction, quality of life, and life actualization via
subjective and objective investigation. The GDH was determined to be a key term
as a dependent variable in a conceptual framework. The GDH surveys aim to
measure the happiness of Thai citizens as a whole, not individual happiness, in
relation to independent variable factors such as sense of community, workplace life,
family life, overall health, political climate and governance, self- sufficient life use,
economy situation, and social justice (Noppadon K., (2006)).
 In this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods had been conducted
including focus groups and survey research. A focus group discussion has been
applied for gaining more insight regarding the happiness and survey measurement
design. The target population is made up of people aged 18 and over in Thailand. A
sample size has been determined by the appropriate equation to a sample
selection design i.e., stratified multi‐stage cluster sampling in survey research. All
issues of survey measurement have been investigated and improved by testing
reliability, validity, and cognition among related people to the study.
The results of the Multiple Regression Analysis show that mental health plays an
important role in effecting the Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH): Beta 0.198, t =
10.393, p‐value = 0.000. Over 27% of the variability in the GDH can be explained
by reference to mental health, economy situation, social justice, sense of
community, environment, physical health, and family life: R square = 0.273, p‐
value =0.000. After using Odds Ratio, the results show that Thai people who apply
the His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej’s sufficiency economy principles (e.g., middle
path of conducts, patience, perseverance, diligence, wisdom and prudence) for their
lives are 4.791 times more likely than those who do not apply them to be happy.

Conclusion: According to Tourangeau’s work, word order and question order can
understandably alter the results of a survey by influencing the perceptions of the
respondents. Insuring qualitative results requires scrupulous attention to detail in
designing a survey. The results of GDH surveys in Thailand allow for the analysis
of how people as a whole view their happiness and the factors that contribute to
them. Obviously the happiness of the individual is, to some degree, dependent on an
individual’s efforts and personal views in life. However, this does not preclude
governmental assistance potentially affecting the GDH. In fact, quite the opposite is
true: using the information from GDH research, a government has the unique
opportunity to affectively influence its people for the betterment and benefit of the
nation. This could be observable in further research on the GDH. Our happiness and
the factors that contribute to it are hardly static and require more research and
analysis.