The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: a compact scale for the measurement of psychological well-being
Section snippets
Participants
One hundred and seventy-two undergraduate students of Oxford Brookes University and their friends and relations (66 men, 99 women, seven unspecified) took part in the study. Ages ranged from 13 to 68 (M=30.9, SD=12.9) years.
Measures
Respondents were invited to complete and return a self-report questionnaire constructed from the OHI, the OHQ, and a number of published scales that are known to correlate with well-being. These were the Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism sub-scales of the short form
Scale reliabilities
Both the OHI and the OHQ demonstrated high scale reliabilities with values α(167)=0.92 and α(168)=0.91 respectively. The inter-item correlations for the OHI ranged from−0.03 to 0.58, mean 0.28, and the corresponding values for the OHQ were −0.04 to 0.65, mean 0.28. These virtually identical results show that the multiple-choice items of the OHI can be replaced with the more compact single choice items of the OHQ without detriment. The observation that the maximum inter-item correlations within
Conclusions
The Oxford Happiness Inventory is a relatively lengthy measure of well-being constructed from 29 multiple choice items. A more compact instrument, the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire has been devised which consists of a similar number of similarly worded, single items that respondents may answer on a uniform six-point Likert scale. The latter scale, which contains roughly equal numbers of positive and negative items that can be intermingled with other items in the construction of personality
References (20)
- et al.
The happiness of extraverts
Personality and Individual Differences
(1990) - et al.
A revised version of the psychoticism scale
Personality and Individual Differences
(1985) - et al.
Happiness as stable extraversion: A cross-cultural examination of the reliability and validity of the Oxford happiness inventory among students in the UK, USA, Australia, and Canada
Personality and Individual Differences
(1998) - et al.
Personality and happiness
Personality and Individual Differences
(1990) - et al.
Musical and religious experiences and their relationship to happiness
Personality and Individual Differences
(1998) - et al.
Positive moods derived from leisure and their relationship to happiness and personality
Personality and Individual Differences
(1998) - et al.
Happiness, Introversion-extraversion and happy introverts
Personality and Individual Differences
(2001) - et al.
Personality and happiness: Is mental health a mediator?
Personality and Indivdual Differences
(1997) Life events, happiness and depression: The half empty cup
Personality and Individual Differences
(1993)- et al.
Religious experiences and their relations with happiness and personality
International Journal for the Psychology of Religion
(2000)
Cited by (854)
Development and testing of the Night Sky Connectedness Index (NSCI)
2024, Journal of Environmental PsychologyA tonic for the highly stressed: Memories of extraordinary group experiences lead to greater cohesion and well-being
2024, Journal of Business ResearchExploring quantitative measures in metacognition of emotion
2024, Scientific ReportsWhat is the good life and how do individuals attain it? Meaning of happiness, its assessment, and pathways
2024, Asian Journal of Social PsychologyAttitudes and Feelings Among Married Mothers and Single Mothers by Choice During the Covid-19 Crisis
2024, Journal of Family Issues