Instrument details

Instrument Title

Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)

View PDF - SWLS_Diener.pdf

Source Article

Diener, E. D., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71-75.

Response Options

7-Point Likert scale with options: Strongly disagree (1), Disagree, (2), Slightly Disagree (3), Neither Agree nor Disagree (4), Slightly Agree (5), Agree (6), Strongly Agree (7)

Scoring

• 31 - 35 Extremely satisfied
• 26 - 30 Satisfied
• 21 - 25 Slightly satisfied
• 20 Neutral
• 15 - 19 Slightly dissatisfied
• 10 - 14 Dissatisfied
• 5 - 9 Extremely dissatisfied

Survey Items

1. In most ways my life is close to my ideal
2. The conditions of my life are excellent
3. I am satisfied with my life
4. So far I have gotten the important things I want in life
5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing

Internal Reliability

Test retest reliability was .82, coefficient alpha was 0.87.

Validity

Convergent and discriminant validity

Google Scholar

View article on Google Scholar

Terms Of Use

Individuals may use this information for research or educational purposes only and may not use this information for commercial purposes. When using this instrument, please cite:

Diener, E. D., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71-75.

When presenting results using any survey information you obtained from the SABI, please acknowledge the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), an NIH funded program P30 AI50410.