The Satisfaction With Life Scale

Abstract

This article reports the development and validation of a scale to measure global life satisfaction, the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Among the various components of subjective well-being, the SWLS is narrowly focused to assess global life satisfaction and does not tap related constructs such as positive affect or loneliness. The SWLS is shown to have favorable psychometric properties, including high internal consistency and high temporal reliability. Scores on the SWLS correlate moderately to highly with other measures of subjective well-being, and correlate predictably with specific personality characteristics. It is noted that the SWLS is Suited for use with different age groups, and other potential uses of the scale are discussed.

Doctoral students’ well-being: a literature review

“…Pychyl and Little (1998) applied a concept of subjective well-being (SWB) which was operationalized in the quantitative part of their study using the Composite Affect Scale developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985), the Satisfaction with Life Scale by Diener et al (1985), and domain-specific measures of subjective well-being by Palys and Little assessing life satisfaction in seven specific domains (Palys & Little, 1983). Diener views SWB as the person’s evaluation of his or her life (Diener, Napa Scollon, & Lucas, 2003), and uses SWB as the scientific term for happiness and life satisfaction (Edward Diener, 2018).…”

Strategy‐based reasoning training modulates cortical thickness and resting‐state functional connectivity in adults with chronic traumatic brain injury

“…To quantify subclinical‐but‐residual depressive and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity of the participants, we measured the Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI‐II) (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) and PTSD Check List Stressor–specific (PCL‐S) (Weathers, Litz, Herman, Huska, & Keane, 1993). We also administered the satisfaction with life scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985) to measure global cognitive judgments of the participants’ life satisfaction.…”

Delayed pain decrease following M1 tDCS in spinal cord injury: A randomized controlled clinical trial

“…The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) assessed patients' happiness with current quality of life [26,27].…”

“…The authors explained that lack of effects is likely due to refractoriness of pain and duration of disease since most of the patients enrolled had injury durations of 10 or more years. In addition, the limited number of [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] sessions and small sample size, may not have been sufficient to observe significant effects at follow-up. The second study, on low back pain, even though the sample size was large (n = 135), did not show significant differences between sham and active tDCS [58].…”