The Satisfaction with Life Scale

Abstract

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a widely used, brief, five-item instrument designed to measure an individual’s global cognitive judgment of their life satisfaction. Developed by Diener and colleagues in 1985, the scale assesses how people evaluate their life as a whole, rather than focusing on specific life domains or momentary emotional states. It is a fundamental tool in the field of positive psychology and subjective well-being research, providing a reliable measure of the cognitive component of well-being.

Keywords

Satisfaction with life, Subjective well-being, SWLS, Cognitive judgment, Quality of life, Happiness, Positive psychology, Assessment scale.

Authors

Ed Diener, Robert A. Emmons, Randy J. Larsen, Sharon Griffin

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Satisfaction with Life Scale is to provide a quick, reliable, and valid assessment of an individual’s overall appraisal of their life circumstances. Unlike measures that focus on affect (positive or negative feelings), the SWLS specifically targets the cognitive component of subjective well-being. Researchers use the SWLS to study factors influencing happiness, mental health, and successful aging across diverse populations globally.

The scale is designed to be universally applicable, using broad items that allow respondents to define their own criteria for a good life, thereby minimizing cultural bias inherent in scales that rely on specific domain satisfaction (e.g., job, marriage). The scoring methodology is straightforward: higher scores indicate greater satisfaction with life.

Construct

The SWLS measures the psychological construct of global life satisfaction. This construct is defined as the cognitive evaluation process whereby an individual compares their current life conditions to their personal standards or ideals. It is a major component of Subjective Well-Being (SWB), which is generally understood as comprising high positive affect, low negative affect, and high life satisfaction.

The scale operates under the assumption that individuals use an internal, self-defined standard when evaluating their lives. The five items are intentionally general to capture this overarching evaluation rather than measuring satisfaction with specific, limited areas of existence, ensuring the measure assesses a holistic, cognitive judgment.

Validity

The SWLS exhibits strong evidence of both convergent and discriminant validity across numerous studies. Convergent validity is demonstrated by its high positive correlations with other established measures of happiness, self-esteem, and general well-being. For instance, it typically correlates highly with the Fordyce Happiness Measure and the Affect Balance Scale.

Discriminant validity is supported by its low to moderate correlations with measures of psychopathology, negative affect, and clinical distress, confirming that it measures satisfaction as a distinct construct, separate from the absence of negative mental states. Furthermore, cross-cultural studies have established the structural validity of the SWLS, confirming its utility across different linguistic and cultural contexts, making it a robust measure for international research.

Reliability

The reliability of the SWLS is consistently reported as high. Internal consistency, measured primarily using Cronbach’s alpha, typically ranges from 0.80 to 0.90, indicating that the five items measure a single, cohesive construct reliably. This strong internal consistency suggests that the items are highly correlated with each other and contribute effectively to the overall score.

Test-retest reliability is also robust, demonstrating stability over time. Studies tracking participants over periods ranging from two weeks to two years show correlation coefficients typically falling between 0.50 and 0.84, suggesting that life satisfaction, while responsive to major life events, remains relatively stable over medium timeframes, thus providing a consistent measure of the construct.

Factor Analysis

Extensive confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis across diverse samples consistently supports the unidimensional structure of the SWLS. The results show that all five items load onto a single, dominant factor, which is interpreted as global cognitive life satisfaction. This single-factor structure is crucial for its interpretation, confirming that a single total score is sufficient and appropriate to represent the underlying construct.

Although the original authors hypothesized a single factor, this finding has been replicated across various cultures, languages, and age groups, solidifying the scale’s use as a measure of a holistic, non-domain-specific construct. The clean factor structure contributes significantly to the scale’s widespread acceptance and ease of use in research settings.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological assessment scale

Format: Five-item, 7-point Likert scale (1=Strongly disagree to 7=Strongly agree)

Language Available: Extensive (Translated into dozens of languages, including Spanish, Chinese, German, French, etc.)

Population Group: General population, clinical, and non-clinical samples

Age Group: Adolescents (14+) through older adults

Population Details: Suitable for use with individuals who possess basic reading comprehension skills necessary to understand the abstract nature of the items. It has been successfully administered across various educational and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Test Methodology: Pencil-and-paper or digital administration. Scoring involves summing the responses to the five items, resulting in a total score ranging from 5 (low satisfaction) to 35 (high satisfaction). Interpretation typically involves established norms and score ranges, where a score of 20 is considered neutral.

Keywords

SWLS, Ed Diener, Psychological assessment, Unidimensional scale, Cognitive evaluation, Likert scale, Well-being research, Psychometrics.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not uniformly available; specific authors must be researched individually (e.g., Ed Diener).

Affiliation Email addresses: Contact information generally managed via the University of Illinois or the Positive Psychology Center.

Correspondence Address: Correspondence is typically directed to Dr. Ed Diener via his affiliated university research centers, such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Emeritus).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Satisfaction with Life Scale is generally available for free, non-commercial use by researchers and clinicians, provided proper citation of the original 1985 publication is maintained. Commercial use or modifications may require explicit permission from the authors or their representatives. There is typically no fee associated with academic administration of the instrument.

Test Year: 1985

Reference’s

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

Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (1993). Review of the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Psychological Assessment, 5(2), 164-172.

Pavot, W., & Diener, E. (2008). The Satisfaction With Life Scale and the emerging construct of life satisfaction. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(3), 137-152.

Items of the The Satisfaction with Life Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The following are some of your views on yourself. Please read the following statements carefully to determine how much you agree or disagree and draw a “√” on the corresponding number. The higher the score, the more you agree with the items.

Item	Strongly disagree	………………………………					Strongly agree
1. In most ways my life is close to my ideal.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
2. The conditions of my life are excellent.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
3. I am satisfied with my life	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
4. So far, I have gotten the important things I want in life.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.	1	2	3	4	5	6	7