Subjective Happiness Scale.
SHS
- What it measures
- Global, subjective molar judgement of one's overall happiness - whether one is a happy or unhappy person (both absolute and relative-to-peers framing).
- Length and format
- 4 items. 7-pt Likert (item-specific anchors); one item reverse-scored (self-report questionnaire)
- Language versions
- Translated/validated in 20+ languages incl. ES, PT (Brazil), JA, DE, FR, IT, ML (Malayalam) 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Licence classification is a research judgement by the catalogue’s authors, not legal advice, and it can be out of date.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
- Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social Indicators Research, 46(2), 137-155.
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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