Content area
Full Text
(Accepted 29 November, 1997)
ABSTRACT. Using a "subjectivist" approach to the assessment of happiness, a new 4-item measure of global subjective happiness was developed and validated in 14 studies with a total of 2 732 participants. Data was collected in the United States from students on two college campuses and one high school campus, from community adults in two California cities, and from older adults. Students and community adults in Moscow, Russia also participated in this research. Results indicated that the Subjective Happiness Scale has high internal consistency, which was found to be stable across samples. Test-retest and selfpeer correlations suggested good to excellent reliability, and construct validation studies of convergent and discriminant validity confirmed the use of this scale to measure the construct of subjective happiness. The rationale for developing a new measure of happiness, as well as advantages of this scale, are discussed.
The happy man is not he who seems thus to others, but who seems thus to himself.
Publilius Syrus
Western culture has embraced happiness as one of its most important goals - both at an individual level and for society at large (Veenhoven, 1994). From Aristotle and the writers of the American Declaration of Independence to present-day philosophers, politicians, novelists, and authors of popular psychology, the secret to happiness has remained a subject of tremendous interest, especially within the American intellectual tradition. Surveys reveal that most North Americans think about happiness, on average, at least once each day (Freedman, 1978; Lyubomirsky and Ross, 1990). Moreover, while the status of individual differences in personality historically has been a source of heated controversy (cf. Mischel, 1968; see also Bem and Allen, 1974; Epstein, 1979, 1983; Kenrick and Funder, 1988; Mischel, 1984; Ross and Nisbett, 1991), anecdotal evidence and everyday experience alike suggest that one of the most salient and important human dispositions is that of happiness of well-being. We can all identify people who are chronically happy, even in the face of adversity, or people who are consistently unhappy, despite the best of circumstances (Myers and Diener, 1995). Furthermore, although individuals vary widely in the sources of their personal happiness, there is considerable agreement as to what happiness means and whether it has been achieved (Freedman, 1978). Although some people feel...