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Subjective Happiness Scale (1999–2020)

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research

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Synonyms

Happiness; Subjective happiness; Subjective well-being

Definition

The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) is a four-item measure of global subjective happiness that was developed by Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999).

Description

The SHS contains four self-report items. The first two items ask the respondents to rate how much do they consider themselves as a happy person and how happy they are compared to most of their peers, respectively. The other two items describe individuals who are generally happy and unhappy, and ask respondents the extent to which each characterization describes them (Lyubomirsky and Lepper 1999).

The response format is a seven-point Likert scale that has descriptions only at the extreme options (i.e., “1” and “7”). A single composite score is computed by averaging responses to all four items with the last item being reverse coded. The possible range of scores is from 1.0 to 7.0. Higher scores indicate greater happiness (Lyubomirsky and Lepper 1999).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Sophie Ma Zhu

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  1. Sophie Ma Zhu
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Correspondence to Sophie Ma Zhu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy

    Filomena Maggino

Section Editor information

  1. Measurement, Evaluation, & Research Methodology (MERM), Adult Development and Psychometrics Lab, The University of British Columbia, Department of ECPS, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Anita M. Hubley

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Zhu, S.M. (2022). Subjective Happiness Scale (1999–2020). In: Maggino, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_104697-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_104697-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69909-7

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