SOC 20 - Summer Session C Research Proposal: Exercise and Happiness

This research proposal, prepared for a SOC 20 course, investigates the correlation between regular exercise and personal happiness. The student explores the research question: "Do regular exercise improve personal happiness?" The proposal includes a literature review discussing the benefits of exercise on mood, stress reduction, immune system improvement, and healthy aging. It identifies dependent and independent variables, outlines research methods such as experiments, web research, and questionnaires, and presents relevant data and hypotheses. The student also discusses the sociological implications of the research and acknowledges the limitations of the study, such as the need for direct observation and potential biases in data collection. The proposal aims to create awareness of the positive impact of exercise on overall well-being and happiness.

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Research proposal
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Research question: Do regular exercise improve personal happiness?
Reason for addressing the research question
Exercise is a fundamental activity for quality health. Consequently, many health centers and
media groups have been creating awareness among the members of the community to adopt the
lifestyle of regular exercise. However, a great number of people have not noticed there is always
an improvement in their moods when they adapt to regular exercise practice (Bian ,80). The
constant doubting may have made several people ignore the knowledge and continue with their
normal lifestyle. On the other hand, this continuous ignorance has made many people encounter
bad moods that would have been wiped away through the regular exercise process. Many people
become exhausted in mind and brain after the daily chores (Diamond, 130). Every day, the
previous day moods are always still in the mindset of several people. The bad moods make many
people become less productive in whichever field they are working on during the day.
The goal of this research proposal is to create awareness to members of the society that regular
exercise brings happiness to one’s life. The constant happiness makes everyone to be more
productive as compared to those who do not take part in the exercise. On the hand regular
exercise achieve the goal of happiness in various ways. The research proposal is going to
elaborate on how the happiness is achieved.
Literature review
When there is no regular exercise, the body of an individual is always exhausted from head to toe
and this leads to lack of enthusiasm while discharging duties. One feels at ease when there is the
flexibility of moving from one place to another (Zanten, 1405). In bringing happiness to an
individual, exercises ensure it through the following:

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i. Quality mood to an individual
There is hormone in the brain called serotine and norepinephrine. These hormones accumulate
in the brain making one to feel exhausted and inflexible to deliver some duties. However, if one
engages even in a ten-minute exercise, all these hormones are released from the brain. It will
make you feel happy and ready to tackle all the tasks of the day without any hindrance.
ii. The second way that exercise can assist one to achieve happiness is releasing one’s stress.
From the research, many people are always at positive mood after the daily exercise. It is evident
that what causes stress is anxiety concerning a specific issue in one’s mind. However, there are
people who turn this moment of depression to an opportunity for doing exercise. After the
exercise the mind is at peace and further more many people get alternative solutions to what was
causing anxiety in them only after exercise. Therefore, the capability to think and make a sound
decision is after exercise.
iii. improvement in the quality of immune system
Once an individual has low immune in the body, he or she is prone to getting sick and thus
making the person unhappy always (Prasad, 45). However, exercise is a tool that brings
happiness through improving the immunity. When one takes place in exercise, a lot of bacteria
which might accumulate in the lungs and other parts of the body sent out making one fresh and
happy.
iv. Exercise makes one age feeling happy
From the research those who constantly do not engage in exercises find themselves encroached
by constant disease at older ages. The diseases are so frequent in their lifetime that they are

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always uncomfortable and unhappy most of the time. However, the other group of people who
take part in exercise seemed to remain healthy and stronger even in their old age. Several
diseases of the aging period are out and the individual is happy always.
Consequently, it is evident that several people are not aware of the ways in which exercise leads
to happiness. People need to be aware that their lives would have been better with constant
exercise (Khazaee‐pool et al, 50).
Reinstated research question: constant exercise brings personal happiness
Variables in the research
There are two variables that apply to this research, the dependent and the independent variable.
Dependent variables
In this research, the dependent variable will be groups of people who rarely take part in exercise
and the other group of people who are not committed to their routine of doing exercise. When
doing research, the life of the individuals is revised from time to time (Joffe et al, 110). The
result of the research is that the life of people who rarely take part in exercise is the field with a
lot of anxiety and stress (Duarte‐Rojo, 125). Even, those who take exercise at some point in life
seems better, this group of individuals still have challenges in achieving happiness in life. They
experience constant ailing, stress, poor immune system that cannot make them happy (Hurd, 50).
Independent variables
The independent variable in this context is the group of individuals who have incorporated
exercise as their lifestyle. Their happiness in life do not vary most of the in life. Even though

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they are encountering stresses, these group of people seems to be stronger and younger because
of the constant exercise they engage in every day in the life (Sheldon, 36).
Research methods
While researching on the matter whether exercise brings happiness or not, various tools were
used to answer the question. The methods include:
i. Experiments
Experiments were the efficient way to do this research. Two groups of people, those doing
exercise regularly and the other group who rarely engage in exercise could be monitored for a
certain period of time. The level of happiness was different. The group of people who takes
regular exercise seemed to be well off in terms of happiness than the other group.
ii. Research on web
Some questions were posted online, the result was that the higher percentage of people who are
brought down by stress in life are those who ignore the regular exercise as a way of life.
iii. Questionnaire
A questionnaire was printed to people at random. The paper asked about how exercise brings
happiness to one’s individual. Many people said their lives had changed when they started taking
part in a constant exercise.
The data that the research would use
The data collected from experiment reflected the true picture of how to exercise influence once
happiness. The number of days that the individual went through the study process was enough to
prove the importance of exercise in once happiness. On the other hand, the result from the

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questionnaire may not give the correct result because many people could just feel the questions
anyhow without giving what they have experienced in life. On part of the online survey, it may
not influence the final say because the answers may be biased. For instance, the response would
have been coming from only one age group and thus may not influence the true picture that the
research requires.
Hypotheses of the research
After doing the research and experimental the issue, this research would have the following
hypotheses.
i. If an individual engages in regular exercise, then the level of personal happiness would
improve.
ii. If one wants to live young and happy, then regular exercise is the best medicine for the
same.
iii. If a person ignores doing exercise for a long period of time, then he would end up much
more stressed and unhappier.
How the hypotheses can be added to the social research
When doing sociological research, many members of the society do not engage in regular
exercise. People give various reasons why they do not engage in regular exercise. The reason
includes inaccessibility to the exercise points, lack of awareness, being busy and ignorance.
However, the authority can come up with a policy to ensure that everyone takes at least an
exercise a day. For instance, creating a policy that everyone must build a house with an exercise
room. However, the policy would have some effects. The implication is that several people

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would attain to afford the construction cost and maintenance, but the good thing is that the
quality of life would improve.
Limitations of the research proposal
The limitation of this research arises during the collection of the data. The first limitation is that
the researcher needs to be around the people whom he or she is studying. When one is around
that is when he can get the true data for the analysis. Apart from that, many people assume that
exercise is not a key activity in their life therefore they are not even willing to provide data on
whether they take in exercise or not. Lastly, in order to get the true picture on the research topic,
one have to sample lifestyle of very many people, thus delaying the research findings.

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Work cited
Bian, Yanjie, et al. "Subjective wellbeing of Chinese people: A multifaceted view." Social
Indicators Research 121.1 (2015): 75-92.
Diamond, Adele, and Daphne S. Ling. "Conclusions about interventions, programs, and
approaches for improving executive functions that appear justified and those that, despite
much hype, do not." Developmental cognitive neuroscience 18 (2016): 34-48.
Duarte‐Rojo, Andrés, et al. "Exercise and physical activity for patients with end‐stage liver
disease: Improving functional status and sarcopenia while on the transplant waiting
list." Liver Transplantation 24.1 (2018): 122-139.
Hoeger, Wener WK, and Sharon A. Hoeger. Principles and labs for fitness and wellness.
Cengage Learning, 2015.
Hoeger, Wener WK, et al. Lifetime of Physical Fitness and Wellness. Cengage Learning, 2018.
Hurd, Amy, and Denise M. Anderson. Kraus' Recreation & Leisure in Modern Society. Jones &
Bartlett Learning, 2017.
Joffe, Helene, and Nicholas Smith. "City dweller aspirations for cities of the future: How do
environmental and personal wellbeing feature?." Cities 59 (2016): 102-112.

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Khazaee‐pool, M., et al. "Effects of physical exercise programme on happiness among older
people." Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing 22.1 (2015): 47-57.
Prasad, Lona, Aneesha Varrey, and Giovanni Sisti. "Medical students’ stress levels and sense of
well being after six weeks of yoga and meditation." Evidence-Based Complementary and
Alternative Medicine 2016 (2016).
Sheldon, Kennon M., and Richard E. Lucas, eds. Stability of happiness: Theories and evidence
on whether happiness can change. Elsevier, 2014.
van Zanten, Jet JCS Veldhuijzen, et al. "Perceived barriers, facilitators and benefits for regular
physical activity and exercise in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a review of the
literature." Sports medicine 45.10 (2015): 1401-1412.