Satisfaction with Life Scale

SWLS

psychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no licence fee. Cite the original publication.

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).

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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

Questions researchers ask

What does the SWLS measure?

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

How many items does the SWLS have?

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) has 5 items.

Is the SWLS free to use?

The SWLS is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the SWLS reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.87, test–retest reliability of 0.82. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the SWLS, and how do I cite it?

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

Or track new research mentioning SWLS as it publishes

Library entry verified September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.