Flourishing Scale (FS)

Abstract

The Flourishing Scale (FS) is a concise, 8-item self-report instrument designed to summarize a respondent’s perception of their own success across critical life domains. These domains include relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. The FS yields a single, holistic score of psychological well-being, focusing on perceived resources and strengths rather than deficits. The scale is primarily intended for use with non-clinical populations seeking to enhance an already adaptive lifestyle and provides useful stimulus for self-reflection.

Keywords

Flourishing Scale, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, life satisfaction, optimism, self-esteem, positive psychology, eudaimonia.

Authors

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Flourishing Scale is to provide a rapid, summary assessment of an individual’s perception of their own success and efficacy across vital life areas. It moves beyond simple hedonic happiness metrics to gauge how well respondents feel they are functioning holistically in life.

By generating a single score of psychological well-being, the scale serves as a valuable tool for non-clinical populations seeking personal growth. It is specifically intended to stimulate self-reflection and offer actionable feedback regarding potential areas for life enhancement, focusing on perceived resources and strengths.

Construct

The Flourishing Scale measures the broad construct of psychological well-being, which is central to the field of positive psychology. This construct is operationalized as the individual’s perception of success in key domains that contribute to a thriving and fulfilling life, known as flourishing.

Specifically, the FS targets four major components of flourishing: positive social relationships, competence (self-esteem and capability), purpose and meaning in life, and an optimistic outlook toward the future. It aims to capture the respondent’s overall sense of thriving, positioning it as a key measure of eudaimonic well-being.

Validity

The validity of the Flourishing Scale was established through evaluation on a robust sample of 689 college students recruited from six international locations (in the USA and Singapore). These studies confirmed the scale’s ability to accurately measure subjective well-being.

Convergent Validity was demonstrated through strong correlations with established psychological metrics. The FS showed convergence with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985), Lyubomirsky and Lepper’s (1999) 4-item scale of happiness, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988), confirming that it measures constructs closely related to overall life satisfaction and affective state. Detailed convergence correlations are available in the primary reference documentation.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the Flourishing Scale is considered strong. The measure reported a high Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .87, indicating excellent reliability in terms of homogeneity and inter-relatedness among the eight items.

Furthermore, the scale demonstrated acceptable test-retest reliability. The temporal stability of the scores, measured over a one-month interval, was reported at .71. This suggests that the FS provides stable measurements of an individual’s psychological well-being over short periods.

Factor Analysis

A principal axis factor analysis was conducted on the Flourishing Scale items to determine its underlying psychometric structure. The analysis strongly supported the unidimensionality of the scale, confirming that all eight items contribute to a single, overarching construct of flourishing.

The analysis revealed one strong factor with a substantial eigenvalue of 4.24, which accounted for 53 percent of the total variance in the items. Crucially, no other factor yielded an eigenvalue above 1.0. The factor loadings for the individual items were consistently high, ranging from .61 to .77, further reinforcing the strength and coherence of the single-factor solution.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Psychometric Scale

Format: 8 items utilizing a 7-point Likert response scale, ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree).

Language Available: English (Original), widely translated into various languages.

Population Group: Non-clinical individuals seeking self-enhancement or assessment of an already relatively adaptive lifestyle.

Age Group: Adults and adolescents (Validated primarily on college student populations).

Population Details: Initial validation was conducted on a sample of 689 college students across six locations in the USA and Singapore. The mean score for this sample was 44.97 (SD = 6.56).

Test Methodology: Scores are summed across the 8 items to produce a single total psychological well-being score. The possible score range is from 8 (lowest flourishing) to 56 (highest flourishing).

Keywords

Self-reflection, eudaimonia, resources, strengths, competence, relationships, Diener, life quality.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in source material.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence details typically associated with the lead author, Ed Diener, often affiliated with the University of Illinois or the University of Virginia.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2009

Permissions and Fee: The Flourishing Scale is generally available for free public and academic non-commercial use. Users should consult the official scale website maintained by Dr. Ed Diener for specific terms and conditions regarding reproduction and use. Additional information and resources are available at the developer’s website: http://internal.psychology.illinois.edu/~ediener/FS.html

Reference’s

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi. D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2009). New measures of well-being: Flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 39, 247-266.

Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. S. (1999). A measure of subjective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct validation. Social indicators research, 46(2), 137-155.

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070.

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

Items of the Flourishing Scale (FS)

Instructions: This test is designed to measure your self-perceived success in important areas such as relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. Below are 8 statements with which you may agree or disagree. Using the scale below, indicate your agreement with each item, where 7 = Strongly Agree and 1 = Strongly Disagree.

The 7-point Likert scale response options are:

• 7: Strongly agree
• 6: Agree
• 5: Slightly agree
• 4: Mixed or neither agree nor disagree
• 3: Slightly disagree
• 2: Disagree
• 1: Strongly disagree

The 8 items of the Flourishing Scale are:

1. I lead a purposeful and meaningful life.
2. My social relationships are supportive and rewarding.
3. I am engaged and interested in my daily activities.
4. I actively contribute to the happiness and well-being of others.
5. I am competent and capable in the activities that are important to me.
6. I am a good person and live a good life.
7. I am optimistic about my future.
8. People respect me.