THE SATISFIED WITH LIFE SCALE (1985)
BY EDWARD F. DIENER
ABOUT
Edward F. Diener is an American psychologist, professor, author, and leading researcher in positive psychology who invented the expression "subjective well-being". He created SWLS (Satisfied With Life Scale) which measures universal psychological judgements of satisfaction with one's life through five short statements to help individuals get a sense of satisfaction with their lives as a whole.
HOW IT WORKS
All statements are to be rated on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 being 'strongly disagree' and 7 being 'strongly agree'...
- In most ways my life is close to my ideal...
- The conditions of my life are excellent.
- I am satisfied with my life.
- So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
- If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.
RESULTS
31 - 35 = Extremely satisfied
26 - 30 = Satisfied
21 - 25 = Slightly satisfied
20 = Neutral
15 - 19 = Slightly dissatisfied
10 - 14 = Dissatisfied
5 - 9 = Extremely dissatisfied
In his book, Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth, Ed Diener summarizes the results from the twenty-five years of research he did on happiness.
He highlights four essential ingredients for a happy life:
- Psychological wealth is more than money-it is also your attitude, goals, and engagement at work.
- Happiness not only feels good, it is also beneficial to relationships, work, and health.
- It is helpful to set realistic expectations about happiness. No one is completely happy all the time.
- Thinking is an important piece of happiness. His theory of Attention, Interpretation, and Memory (AIM) helps people to increase their psychological wealth.
"It turns out that for Dr. Happiness, happiness is ultimately not about being happy. It's about being happy in order to live a rich, varied, and meaningful human existence."