4. Discussion

Over the past year of research, data collection and surveys, we have gained more knowledge about the different perceptions of different people, as shown by the definition of happiness by  Mogilner et al (2010) and Seligman (2002), the definition of stress by Canadian Mental Health Association (n.d.). and Mental Health Foundation (n.d.). . In our research, we have compared the stress, happiness and grades through the Spearman’s Rank Correlation.

Our results show that there is a weak but significant relation between stress and happiness, which supports previous research by Schiffrin et. al. (2008)

It is also shown that there is little to no relation between stress and grades. This contradicts previous research by Struthers et. al. (2000)

There is also little to no relation between happiness and grades. This also contradicts previous research by Quinn and Duckworth (n.d.).

We believe that these contradictions to previous research were caused by a flaw in our methods of collecting data. This is a summary of our methods of collecting data:

We did a survey and collected the students responses over a span of one week (23/09/2012-30/09/2012). From there, we asked Ms Gwendolyn Lim and Mr Ng Guohui for the grades of Secondary 1 students of 2012 End-of-year results. In order to add to the confidentiality of the grades, Mr Ng randomised the whole list and deleted the names of the pupils from the list. We only had 50 students’ grades in the end.

Thus, the number of responses we gathered was inadequate to garner an accurate result. The number of questions and the specification of the questions could be further enhanced by being more specific like describing the “level of happiness/stress” that they are in with a 5 point scale and by increasing the number of questions. The information of the survey might be inaccurate as each person’s perspective of “Extremely happy/stressed” might differ from the other. Thus, a description of what it means to be “extremely happy/stressed” , “very happy/stressed”, “not so happy/stressed”, etc. will help to improve the method of conducting the survey.

Future research could be done to find out how stress affects happiness at a neurological level. More research could also be done to verify whether students’ grades are affected by happiness and stress. Results from this research also shows that activities which relieve stress might increase happiness. More research could be done to verify if that is true. This will definitely contribute to a better the school life. This will improve the school conditions and make the school a better and more conducive place. This research can take on a higher level by researching on workplaces of the adults. From this we will be able to find out the needs of the various beneficiaries and employers can cater to them better. This will increase work efficiency.