The Life Satisfaction Test (SWLS) remains the most widely used tool to discover our level of happiness. Created in the 1980s by psychologists Ed Diener, Robert A. Emmons, Randy J. Larsen and Sharon Griffin, this test is an interesting resource for reliable information on the level of satisfaction of adults, adolescents and different social groups from all countries and cultures.
Confucius said that where there is satisfaction there are no revolutions, this idea contains a truth in itself, as well as a problem, the truth is that when someone feels good about what he is and what he has, there is no need to look. to or do anything else. However, as we well know, such a thing is not always easy to achieve, so people are almost always forced to start small or large revolutions to get involved in this desired well-being.
- Having scales like this test allows us.
- Among other things.
- To know what is wrong in a society.
- As well as to understand what areas of our life we still need to explore.
- Work or mature.
- So we could say that satisfaction.
- More than state.
- Is an ongoing process of construction.
- So having this resource is of great help.
- Both for the field of psychological intervention and in any scenario of social research.
Let’s go a little further in this test to find out what it is
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious addictions for the future. It’s just a matter of resting satisfied with what we have. Would that be enough?
How is life satisfaction defined?The subject is not simple. There may be those who continue to claim that this condition is achieved with good work and a good current account, others, however, would say that happiness is with the person we love and who loves us, in this sense nothing is as subjective, particular and unique as the satisfaction itself.
Each mind is a world and every world a microuniverse inhabited by needs, priorities, tastes and anxieties. Frederic Bartlett, an experimental psychologist at the University of Cambridge, said that our lives are made of thoughts and that everyone can live in heaven or hell, even if he has the same bank account as the richest man in the world.
So, when assessing this dimension, Ed Diener, Robert A. Emmons, Randy J. Larsen and Sharon Griffin were clear that they had to ask a number of very general questions that went beyond material and even emotional aspects. The Life Satisfaction Assessment Test (SWLS) is based on cognitive judgments, based on what each person, in their particularity, values or does not value.
This test consists of 5 items (questions) that the person must answer from a Likert scale, i. e. 5 types of answers ranging from “Totally disagree” to “I disagree, neutral, okay?Until we get to ‘totally agree’. As you can see, the Life Satisfaction Assessment Test (SWLS) is one of the shortest, but this doesn’t mean it’s easy to perform.
One way or another, in the face of these problems that Ed Diener, Robert A. Emmons, Randy J. Larsen and Sharon Griffin first raised in 1985, through the Journal of Personality Assessment, we are forced to reflect on very deep aspects of our lives. .
Being sincere is, therefore, what matters most when using this instrument, only then will we understand more clearly what our starting point is to continue working on our well-being, on this happiness that is born from the very satisfaction of who we are and achieved.
As we have said, this instrument is articulated in five very specific themes.
The Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS) has not been developed to evaluate aspects such as health, finances, emotional relationships, etc. , is, in fact, an instrument that measures very subjective realities represented in five items, which at first glance can generate some doubts Is it really possible to know, with this test, whether a person is satisfied with their reality at the present time?
The answer is yes. Studies such as that conducted by Dr. William Pavot of the University of Minnesota show us that we are looking at an instrument that is valid compared to other scales that evaluate the same size.
In addition, SWLS evaluates the progression of satisfaction in the life of the person during a clinical intervention, so we are faced with a resource of great reliability, usefulness and very interesting in the fields of psychology and research.