Satisfaction with Life Scale

SWLS

psychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

A 5-item self-report instrument assessing global cognitive judgments of one's life satisfaction as a component of subjective well-being.

Items

Response format

7-point Likert scale

Version

1.0

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Life satisfaction was measured using the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al., 1985) on a 7-point Likert scale. The scale demonstrated good internal consistency in the original validation (α = .87).

Reliability & validation

notes

Test-retest reported over a 2-month interval.

Validation population

Undergraduate students

Test–retest

0.82

Cronbach's α

0.87

Response anchors

Strongly disagree · Disagree · Slightly disagree · Neither agree nor disagree · Slightly agree · Agree · Strongly agree

Known limitations

Measures global satisfaction judgments rather than affect or domain-specific satisfaction. Widely translated; researchers should cite validation work for the language version used.

Original citation

Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71-75.

https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13

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Library entry verified January 2024. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.