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BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet Test: Satisfaction With Life Survey (SWLS) Year: 1985 Domain: Psychological Assessment Tool Category: Quality of Life/Satisfaction Variations/Translations: English and Portuguese Setting: Clinical setting Method of Delivery: Questionnaire completed through interview in person or over the phone. Description: Life satisfaction is one of three constructs which makes up subjective well being. This 5 item scale allows individuals to rate their degree of agreement or disagreement on a 7 point Likert type scale for the stated questions. SWLS does not focus on specific areas such as loneliness, as it is intended to measure general/global satisfaction. It has been shown to detect change with regards to life satisfaction during clinical interventions. Scoring/Interpretation: Participants are instructed to rate each of the five statements of the SWLS on a 7-point scale (1=Strongly disagree, 7=Strongly agree). A maximum score is 30 with the degree of life satisfaction increasing as the score increases. Score ranges from 5 to 9 exhibits someone who is ‘extremely dissatisfied with life’, 15 to 19 indicates ‘slightly dissatisfied with life,’ 21 to 25 indicates ‘slightly satisfied’ whereas a score of 26 to 30 represents ‘high satisfaction’. A neutral point on the scale is located at a score of 20 and explains that the participant is neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with life. Time to Administer: 5 to 10 minutes Availability: Can be accessed online Software: N/A Website: http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/lifesatisfactionscale.pdf http://www.tbims.org/combi/swls/swlsrat.html http://generallythinking.com/blog/the-satisfaction-with-life-scale/
Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative Validity (Quantitative): Adequate criterion validity, good convergent and discriminant validity. Pavot and Diener (1993) a number of studies were found to support the validity of the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Reliability (Quantitative): Reliability has been demonstrated in terms of high internal consistency with a value of 0.87 and stability overtime with a test-retest coefficient of 0.82. References: Allison, D., Alfonso, V., & Dunn, G. (1991). The Extended Satisfaction with Life Scale. The Behavior Therapist, 5, 15-16. Corrigan, J. (2000). The Satisfaction with Life Scale. The Center for Outcome Measurement in Brain Injury. Retrieved on February 13, 2010 from http://www.tbims.org/combi/swls Diener, E., Emmons, R., Larsen, R., & 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. Vassar, M. (2007). A note on the score reliability for the Satisfaction with Life Scale: an RG Study. Social Indicators Research, 86, 47-57 Comments: This scale was created on the premise that in order to make judgments about life satisfaction there was a need to know about a participant’s overall perception of life. It is one of the most popular scales for measuring life satisfaction and is easy to understand with a higher score corresponding to higher satisfaction with life. |