Permission to Use

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.

 

About 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.

SWLS_English.doc

In order to better understand the scores of the SWLS, please read the document below.

Understanding the SWLS scores (.pdf)

 

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

 

Important Papers on the 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 the reprint page (at UIUC).

 

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

 

SWLS Translations:

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.