Subjective well-being, life satisfaction, and quality of life describe how people evaluate and experience their lives as a whole and in specific domains. This domain focuses on the positive and evaluative side of psychological functioning: happiness, satisfaction, flourishing, positive experience, engagement, and perceived quality of life.
These measures assess global happiness, subjective well-being, and overall positive evaluation of life.
The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ, OHI) assesses general happiness and psychological well-being, including positive affect, life satisfaction, and a sense of purpose.
The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) – a brief measure of a global subjective happiness as a broad evaluative construct.
The Fordyce Emotions Questionnaire assesses subjective happiness by combining a global rating of average happiness with estimates of the proportion of time spent feeling happy, unhappy, and neutral.
The Cantril Ladder is a single-item measure of life evaluation, asking individuals to rate their life on a ladder from the worst possible life to the best possible life.
Life satisfaction represents the cognitive component of well-being: a reflective evaluation of one's life as a whole or of major life periods.
The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) is one of the most widely used instruments, assessing global judgments of life satisfaction rather than momentary emotional states.
The Life Satisfaction Index (LSI) is an earlier measure, focused on general contentment, purpose, and perceived success in life.
The Life Satisfaction Index for the Third Age (LSITA-SF) assesses life satisfaction and successful aging in older adults.
These instruments assess broader well-being and positive functioning rather than happiness or satisfaction alone.
The WHO Well-Being Index (WHO-5) is a short and widely used measure assessing positive mood, vitality, and general interest in life. Its brevity makes it suitable for large-scale studies and clinical screening.
The Secure Flourishing Index (SFI) assesses human flourishing across happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, close social relationships, and financial and material stability.
The BBC Subjective Well-Being Scale (BBC-SWB) assesses subjective well-being across psychological, physical health, and relationships domains.
The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) assesses positive mental well-being, including positive affect, satisfying relationships, and psychological functioning.
The Flourishing Scale (FS) assesses perceived success in important areas of life, including relationships, meaning, competence, and optimism.
The PERMA Profiler assesses well-being across positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment.
The Comprehensive Inventory of Thriving (CIT, BIT) assess psychological well-being across domains such as relationships, engagement, mastery, meaning, optimism, and subjective well-being.
The Well-Being Manifestation Measure Scale (WBMMS) assesses multidimensional psychological well-being, including self-esteem, balance, social engagement, sociability, and perceived control.
The Mental Health Continuum (MHC-SF) assesses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, providing a broader indicator of positive mental health.
The Interdependent Happiness Scale (IHS) assesses happiness grounded in relational harmony, ordinary peacefulness, and a sense of balance with close others and the surrounding social context.
The Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI) assesses subjective psychological well-being, emotional distress, vitality, self-control, and general perceptions of mental health.
The Peace of Mind Scale (PoM) assesses an internal state of peacefulness, calmness, and harmony in everyday life.
These measures assess subjective well-being, flourishing, positive functioning, and life satisfaction in children and adolescents.
The EPOCH Measure of Adolescent Well-Being assesses positive psychological functioning in adolescents across five domains: engagement, perseverance, optimism, connectedness, and happiness.
These measures focus on positive experiences as they occur in activity and perception: flow, engagement, savoring, and responsiveness to beauty. They describe how people notice, maintain, deepen, and become absorbed in rewarding experiences.
The Leisure Attitude Scale (LAS) assesses cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes toward leisure and recreational activities.
The Flow Short Scale (FSS) assesses the experience of flow, including absorption in activity, perceived fluency of performance, and task-related engagement. It is relevant to well-being, motivation, learning, work, sport, and leisure contexts.
The Savoring Beliefs Inventory (SBI) assesses beliefs about one's ability to notice, intensify, and prolong positive experiences.
The Engagement with Beauty Scale (EBS 2.0) assesses engagement with beauty in nature, art, and moral experience.
Quality of life measures extend beyond subjective happiness to include broader evaluations of functioning, health, satisfaction, living conditions, and everyday life circumstances.
The World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL) instruments assess multiple domains, including physical health, psychological well-being, social relationships, and environmental conditions.
The Quality of Life Inventory (QOLI) assesses life satisfaction across important life domains by combining the perceived importance of each domain with satisfaction in that area.
The Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (Q-LES-Q) assesses enjoyment and satisfaction in daily functioning across domains such as physical health, mood, work, leisure, social relationships, and general activities.
The Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI-A) assesses subjective well-being across key life domains, such as standard of living, health, achievement, relationships, safety, community, and future security.
These measures assess subjective safety, psychological security, and satisfaction of the need for protection and stability.
The Urban Residents Psychological Security Scale (URPS) assesses psychological security in urban life, including self-related security, social environmental security, and natural environmental security.
The Neuroception of Psychological Safety Scale (NPSS) assesses perceived safety through social, emotional, and bodily sensations. It includes dimensions related to social engagement, compassion, and physiological feelings of safety.
⇒ Existential well-being. Life satisfaction is close to meaning and fulfillment, but existential well-being concerns deeper questions of purpose, authenticity, personal growth, and life integration.
⇒ Self-Determination Theory. Many aspects of well-being depend on autonomy, intrinsic motivation, and satisfaction of basic psychological needs, which are developed in detail within this framework.
⇒ Goals and Motivation. Values, goals, aspirations, future orientation, and personal projects often shape how people evaluate their lives and what they consider a satisfying life.
⇒ Affect. Subjective well-being includes an affective component, but mood measures focus more directly on positive and negative emotional states.