Measuring Happiness: Ryff’s psychological wellbeing-scale

 Today is a quick review of another happiness measurement tool: Ryff’s psychological wellbeing-scale

As a little bit of review, these are the measurement tools I found for happiness and plan to explore. These came from the site: Pursuit of Happiness.

Existing Methods of Measuring Happiness

Ryff’s psychological wellbeing-scale

Alrighty, so this measurement tool is significantly larger than the last two I've investigated. The full tool consists of 42 questions, the "condensed" version includes 18 questions. Each question is a statement to which the respondent indicates their agreement. I've included the 18 question version of the tool below including my answers.

RESPONSE FORMAT

1 = strongly agree; 
2 = somewhat agree; 
3 = a little agree; 
4 = neither agree or disagree; 
5 = a little disagree;
6 = somewhat disagree; 
7 = strongly disagree.

Instructions: Select one response below each statement to indicate how much you agree or disagree.

  1.  “I like most parts of my personality.” (R)
    • 3 (5)
  2. “When I look at the story of my life, I am pleased with how things have turned out so far.” (R)
    • 4 (4)
  3.  “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.”(R)
    • 5 (3)
  4.  “The demands of everyday life often get me down.”
    • 3
  5. “In many ways I feel disappointed about my achievements in life.”
    • 3
  6. “Maintaining close relationships has been difficult and frustrating for me.”
    • 1
  7.  “I live life one day at a time and don’t really think about the future.”
    • 6
  8.  “In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live.” (R)
    • 3 (5)
  9. . “I am good at managing the responsibilities of daily life.” (R)
    • 3 (5)
  10.  “I sometimes feel as if I’ve done all there is to do in life.”
    • 7
  11. “For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and growth.” (R)
    • 3
  12.  “I think it is important to have new experiences that challenge how I think about myself and the world.” (R)
    • 1 (7)
  13.  “People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with others.” (R)
    • 2 (6)
  14.  “I gave up trying to make big improvements or changes in my life a long time ago”
    • 6
  15. “I tend to be influenced by people with strong opinions”
    • 4
  16.  “I have not experienced many warm and trusting relationships with others.”
    • 5
  17. “I have confidence in my own opinions, even if they are different from the way most other people think.” (R)
    • 1 (7)
  18. “I judge myself by what I think is important, not by the values of what others think is important.” (R)
    • 4
Scoring:
The Autonomy subscale items are Q15,Q17, Q18. The Environmental Mastery subscale items are Q4, Q8, Q9. The Personal Growth subscale items are Q11, Q12, Q14. The Positive Relations with Others subscale items are Q6, Q13, Q16. The Purpose in Life subscale items are Q3, Q7, Q10. The Self-Acceptance subscale items are Q1, Q2, and Q5.

Q1, Q2, Q3, Q8, Q9, Q11, Q12, Q13, Q17, and Q18 should be reverse-scored. Reverse-scored items are worded in the opposite direction of what the scale is measuring. The formula for reverse-scoring an item is:

((Number of scale points) + 1) - (Respondent’s answer)

For example, Q1 is a 7-point scale. If a respondent answered 3 on Q1, you would re-code their answer as: (7 + 1) - 3 = 5. 

In other words, you would enter a 5 for this respondents’ answer to Q1.

To calculate subscale scores for each participant, sum respondents’ answers to each subscale’s items. Higher scores mean higher levels of psychological well-being. 
My Score: 90 / 126 = 71% "Well"

Ok, so I used the tool to measure my own well being (as you can see above) and... I really don't like this tool. The first downside is that it's pretty long - so using it as a quick check-in for my happiness would be a bit difficult. The second downside is it doesn't aim to measure "happiness" it only aims to measure "well being" - which to me is a very different thing. It also makes assumptions about what factors lead to happiness, which to me is a red flag because who really knows that? 

The specific aspects of well being that this tool aims to measure are:

Psychological Wellbeing (PWB) Scale measures six aspects of wellbeing and happiness: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance 

So, if you're looking to keep tabs on any of those aspects of your life, I'd say use this tool. But if you are aiming at happiness specifically - I think the tools I looked at prior are more effective at measuring actual happiness as it is understood by the individual reporting on it.  

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