The Analysis and Measurement of Happiness as a Sense of Well-Being
Author(s)
Kammann, Richard; Farry, Marcelle; Herbison, Peter
Abstract
General happiness is philosophically construed as a sense of well-being which in turn has been defined either as a complete and lasting satisfaction with life-as-a-whole or as a preponderance of positive over negative feelings. A factor analysis of thirteen well-being scales shows that these two definitions coalesce into a single general well-being factor which is distinguishable only from an independent stress/worries factor. Further evidence shows that familiar scales of neuroticism, depression and trait anxiety measure the same well-being dimension if only in the negative half-range. So does a list of somatic complaints. It is concluded that well-being is a robust, primary dimension of human experience and that happiness research is alive and well in psychology.
