Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
Permissions
The scale is copyrighted but you are free to use it without permission or charge by all professionals (researchers and practitioners) as long as you give credit to the authors of the scale: Ed Diener, Robert A. Emmons, Randy J. Larsen and Sharon Griffin as noted in the 1985 article in the Journal of Personality Assessment.
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About Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
The SWLS is a short 5-item instrument designed to measure global cognitive judgments of satisfaction with one's life. The scale usually requires only about one minute of a respondent's time.
If you would like to access the SWLS in English, please select it from the list of Translations above.
In order to better understand the scores of the SWLS, please locate it in the Supporting Documents below.
If you would like to use SWLS on a 5-point scale, please refer to the following paper for norms.
Kobau, R., Sniezek, J., Zack, M. M., Lucas, R. E., & Burns, A. (2010). Well‐being assessment: An evaluation of well‐being scales for public health and population estimates of well‐being among US adults. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being, 2(3), 272-297. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-0854.2010.01035.x
If you would like to use an abbreviated three-item form of the SWLS, please refer to the following paper. This paper is included in our Support Documents, below, as well as under the Translations tab.
Kjell, O. N. E., & Diener, E. (2020). Abbreviated Three-Item Versions of the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Harmony in Life Scale Yield as Strong Psychometric Properties as the Original Scales, Journal of Personality Assessment. DOI: 10.1080/00223891.2020.1737093
Translations of the SWLS into various languages are available. Feel free to translate the SWLS into other languages. However, we would appreciate it if you could send us a copy of the translation so we can update this list.
Supporting Documents
Important papers on Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
If you would like to know more about SWLS and its related research, please read the following papers, whose references are below.These papers can be found on this website under Articles and Documents.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.
Pavot, W. G., Diener, E., Colvin, C. R., & Sandvik, E. (1991). Further validation of the Satisfaction with Life Scale: Evidence for the cross-method convergence of well-being measures. Journal of Personality Assessment, 57, 149-161.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Psychological Assessment, 5, 164-172.
Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (2008). The Satisfaction With Life Scale and the emerging construct of life satisfaction. ournal of Positive Psychology, 3, 137–152