GPA and Happiness – Correlated?

Doing well in academics requires different circumstances for different people. Some students thrive in the face of challenges; while others believe that mental and emotional stability reflect greatly on studies and grades. So here's to debunking the myth of whether happiness does indeed affect academic results. 

On first thought, the answer seems simple and even logical. A person who is happy in other areas of their life has nothing to deter them from doing well in school. In the absence of financial troubles, illnesses, family problems or even a broken heart, for instance, it only makes sense that they will be able to concentrate on studies. There are in fact people who find it difficult to compartmentalise when other things are going wrong in their lives, and focus on what they need to do. 

Such is the case for Tasnuva Raidah, a student of Economics at a private university, who says, "Yes my good grades are affected by my level of happiness. Usually when I'm depressed I become sceptical and think – what's the point? But when I'm happy, I have the hopeful mentality that I can do well in the future. And the drive to do well in studies comes through that optimism."

Meanwhile, there are others whose grades appear to be unaffected by their happiness or the lack of it, or who even believe that doing well in studies might in fact make things better for them. A Marketing and HR major at a private university, Fariha Haque says, "I think I study to distract myself from problems, so my mood has little to do with my grades. It feels mechanical for me, like cleaning your room. Happiness I think may affect it on some subconscious level but I'm not really aware of it."

So far, we've established that being happy either makes a student's grades better or leaves it unaffected. A study undertaken at the Arizona State University in 2009 shed light on how being happy may in fact harm a student's study patterns and grades. The research results discussed how happy students are indeed likely to have higher commitment to college and that commitment is what results in positive grades. However, a happier person is also likely to be more socially involved. Greater time spent with friends or in other activities, therefore, means that s/he spends less time studying. 

Weighing the influence of happiness injecting commitment into students versus happiness leading to greater distractions, the study found out that the two effects offset each other. The conclusion was of a null relationship, i.e. the level of happiness in students has little to no effect on students' cumulative grade point averages. 

Another study of a similar topic held at the Morgan State University, Maryland said, "Overall, the study found that happy or moderately happy students tended to cope just as well as those students who had high happiness scores."

We must consider the fact that education patterns and GPA in the US and in Bangladesh differ a great deal in many parameters. What's more important is that these trends or results apply specifically to university students, unlike younger children who do seem to perform better academically when put in an optimistic environment (as per a research done at the Harvard Graduate School of Education). 

When looked at individually, we can find people who let their moods affect their studies and others who do not. It's all a relative matter of how college-committed we are or how well we can cope with our surroundings. Nevertheless, statistically speaking, happiness and GPA appear to be unrelated in the case of most university students.

References:
https://psychology.clas.asu.edu/sites/default/files/fulltext_1.pdf
http://gradworks.umi.com/34/19/3419332.html
https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/15/03/because-i%E2%80%99m-happy