How Happy Are You, Really?
What you think of your life, and how your days actually feel
Researchers who study happiness stopped asking the single question 'are you happy?' decades ago, because people answer it with two different things in mind. One is a judgement: looking at your life from a distance, does it measure up? The other is the weather of ordinary days: how often you feel good, and how often you feel bad. The three move somewhat independently, so a person can be satisfied with a life full of stressful days, or enjoy the days of a life they would not choose.
Before you start There are no right answers. Pick what is usually true for you, not what sounds best.
Some statements ask about your life as a whole, others about the last few weeks. Answer each one on its own terms.
What it measures
The three parts of subjective well-being as Diener defined them: life satisfaction, your considered judgement of how your life is going; positive feelings in recent weeks; and negative feelings in recent weeks. It differs from optimism, which is about what you expect from the future, and from gratitude, which is about noticing what you have received. It is also narrower than psychological well-being, which looks at purpose, growth and autonomy rather than feelings and satisfaction.
Based on: Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985) and SPANE (Diener et al., 2010)
Possible results
Life satisfaction
Your overall verdict on how your life is going.
Positive feelings
How often you have felt good in recent weeks.
Negative feelings
How often you have felt bad in recent weeks - here, lower is lighter.
Common questions
Is life satisfaction the same as happiness?
It is one part of it. Life satisfaction is a thought - a judgement you make when you compare your life with what you hoped for. Positive and negative feelings are the emotional side. The two are related but distinct, which is exactly why researchers measure them separately: a given circumstance does not always move both by the same amount.
Can you become happier, or is it set by your genes?
Both matter, and researchers do not agree on the exact split. Temperament plays a real part, but studies that follow the same people for years also find well-being shifting after major changes such as unemployment, a new relationship or a move - so it is not fixed for life. Relationships, health and sleep are the areas most consistently discussed in the well-being literature.
Why do my feelings and my life satisfaction disagree?
Because they answer different questions. A parent of small children or someone building a business can be tired and stressed most days and still judge their life as going well. The reverse happens too: pleasant days inside a life that is not heading where you want. The gap is often the most useful part of your result.
Sources
- Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The Satisfaction With Life Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13
- Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y
- Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.95.3.542
An honest note The items are Quinthea's own wording, adapted from the Satisfaction With Life Scale and the SPANE, so scores are not comparable with the published norms. The feelings bars cover only recent weeks and will shift with events. How openly people report happiness varies across cultures. This is not a diagnosis: if low mood or tension has lasted weeks, or you feel hopeless, please talk to a doctor or a mental health professional.
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