Introduction
Happiness and the term more commonly used in psychology, subjective wellbeing, are frequently studied in the field of psychology (including in positive psychology) and related applied areas, such as social care.
There are a number of measures of subjective well-being (see also the children’s happiness scale here in the survey library).
| Which countries have the happiest people? Another interview with Ed Diener |
In the above interview Ed Diener lists three kinds of happiness
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Life Satisfaction (check on the PsyToolkit survey library)
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Positive Feelings (enjoying life currently)
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Negativity (depression, anger, etc)
With 29 items OHS is longer than the SHS, which has only 4 items.
The original paper by Hill and Argyle does not list sample means.
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Legal stuff
It seems that the OHQ can be used for research, but you need to acknowledge the authors and their research paper when writing about it (References).
Technically
This is a simple scale question with some reverse coded items.
The survey code for PsyToolkit
scale: agree
- strongly disagree
- moderately disagree
- slightly disagree
- slightly agree
- moderately agree
- strongly agree
l: ohq
t: scale agree
o: random
o: width 50%
q: Below are a number of statements about happiness.<br>
Would you please indicate how much you agree or disagree with each?<br>
- {reverse} I don’t feel particularly pleased with the way I am
- I am intensely interested in other people
- I feel that life is very rewarding
- I have very warm feelings towards almost everyone
- {reverse} I rarely wake up feeling rested
- {reverse} I am not particularly optimistic about the future
- I find most things amusing
- I am always committed and involved
- Life is good
- {reverse} I do not think that the world is a good place
- I laugh a lot
- I am well satisfied about everything in my life
- {reverse} I don’t think I look attractive
- {reverse} There is a gap between what I would like to do and what I have done
- I am very happy
- I find beauty in some things
- I always have a cheerful effect on others
- I can fit in everything I want to
- {reverse} I feel that I am not especially in control of my life
- I feel able to take anything on
- I feel fully mentally alert
- I often experience joy and elation
- {reverse} I do not find it easy to make decisions
- {reverse} I do not have a particular sense of meaning and purpose in my life
- I feel I have a great deal of energy
- I usually have a good influence on events
- {reverse} I do not have fun with other people
- {reverse} I don’t feel particularly healthy
- {reverse} I do not have particularly happy memories of the past
l: score
t: set
- sum $ohq
l: feedback
t: info
q: Your score on the Oxford Happiness Scale is {$score}.<br>
The possible range of scores lies between 29 and 174.
References
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Hills, P. & Argyle, M. (2002). The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: a compact scale for the measurement of psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 1073-1082.