Orientations to Happiness Scale.
OTH
- What it measures
- Three routes/motivational orientations to happiness - Pleasure (hedonism), Engagement (flow), and Meaning (eudaimonia); a dispositional profile rather than a happiness level.
- Length and format
- 18 (6 per orientation). 5-pt Likert (1 very much unlike me - 5 very much like me) (self-report questionnaire)
- Language versions
- Validated in 27 nations (Park, Peterson & Ruch 2009) and translated into many languages incl. DE (short form), ES, ZH, IT and others
- Normative data
- Normative data for this instrument is held in our reference library. The per-population breakdown is not published here.
- Licence
- open with attribution
Licence classification is a research judgement by the catalogue’s authors, not legal advice, and it can be out of date. Confirm terms with the copyright holder or publisher before using an instrument, especially for commercial use.
- Reference
- Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction: the full life versus the empty life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6(1), 25-41.
Choosing between this and the alternatives
We do not deliver this instrument. If you are selecting a measure for a research programme, a national survey or an assessment product, and the question is which instrument, in which language, against which norms and under which licence, that is the work we do.
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