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Psychological Wellbeing Scale
Measuring Mobility Toolkit > Measure Selector > Psychological Wellbeing Scale
Psychological Wellbeing Scale
Factor: Power and Autonomy
Age: Adult
Duration: 3 to 5 minutes (18-item), 6 to 8 minutes (42-item)
Reading Level: 6th-8th grade
What
Developed by psychologist Carol D. Ryff, the 42-item Psychological Wellbeing (PWB) Scale measures six aspects of wellbeing and happiness: autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance (Ryff et al., 2007; adapted from Ryff, 1989).
Who
Researchers have used both the 42-item PWB Scale and a shortened 18-item version (Ryff & Keyes, 1995) with American adults of all ages, including those from lower-income backgrounds (Ryff & Keyes, 1995; Curhan et al., 2014). The 18-item scale has also been used with Latinx college students (Gloria, Castellanos, Scull, & Villegas, 2009), African-Americans living in New York, and Mexican-Americans living in Chicago (Ryff, Keyes, & Hughes, 2003).
How
INSTRUCTIONS
Respondents rate how strongly they agree or disagree with 42 statements using a 7-point scale (1 = strongly agree; 7 = strongly disagree).
The PWB Scale has six subscales: Autonomy (e.g., “I have confidence in my opinions, even if they are contrary to the general consensus”); Environmental Mastery (e.g., “In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live”); Personal Growth (e.g., “I think it is important to have new experiences that challenge how you think about yourself and the world”); Positive Relations With Others (e.g., “People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with others”); Purpose in Life (e.g., “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them”); and Self-acceptance (e.g., “When I look at the story of my life, I am pleased with how things have turned out”).
Researchers later reverse-code 21 items so that higher scores indicate greater wellbeing, and then calculate separate subscale scores by summing all items within each subscale.
RESPONSE FORMAT
1 = strongly agree; 2 = somewhat agree; 3 = a little agree; 4 = neither agree or disagree; 5 = a little disagree; 6 = somewhat disagree; 7 = strongly disagree.
Instructions: Circle one response below each statement to indicate how much you agree or disagree.
1. “I like most parts of my personality.”
2. “When I look at the story of my life, I am pleased with how things have turned out so
far.”
3. “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.”
4. “The demands of everyday life often get me down.”
5. “In many ways I feel disappointed about my achievements in life.”
6. “Maintaining close relationships has been difficult and frustrating for me.”
7. “I live life one day at a time and don’t really think about the future.”
8. “In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live.”
9. “I am good at managing the responsibilities of daily life.”
10. “I sometimes feel as if I’ve done all there is to do in life.”
11. “For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and growth.”
12. “I think it is important to have new experiences that challenge how I think about myself and the world.”
13. “People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with others.”
14. “I gave up trying to make big improvements or changes in my life a long time ago”
15. “I tend to be influenced by people with strong opinions”
16. “I have not experienced many warm and trusting relationships with others.”
17. “I have confidence in my own opinions, even if they are different from the way most
other people think.”
18. “I judge myself by what I think is important, not by the values of what others think is important.”
Instructions: Circle one response below each statement to indicate how much you agree or disagree.
1. “I am not afraid to voice my opinions, even when they are in opposition to the opinions of most people.”
2. “For me, life has been a continuous process of learning, changing, and growth.”
3. “In general, I feel I am in charge of the situation in which I live.”
4. “People would describe me as a giving person, willing to share my time with others.”
5. “I am not interested in activities that will expand my horizons.”
6. “I enjoy making plans for the future and working to make them a reality.”
7. “Most people see me as loving and affectionate.”
8. “In many ways I feel disappointed about my achievements in life.”
9. “I live life one day at a time and don’t really think about the future.”
10. “I tend to worry about what other people think of me.”
11. “When I look at the story of my life, I am pleased with how things have turned out.”
12. “I have difficulty arranging my life in a way that is satisfying to me.”
13. “My decisions are not usually influenced by what everyone else is doing.”
14. “I gave up trying to make big improvements or changes in my life a long time ago.”
15. “The demands of everyday life often get me down.”
16. “I have not experienced many warm and trusting relationships with others.”
17. “I think it is important to have new experiences that challenge how you think about yourself and the world.”
18. “Maintaining close relationships has been difficult and frustrating for me.”
19. “My attitude about myself is probably not as positive as most people feel about themselves.”
20. “I have a sense of direction and purpose in life.”
21. “I judge myself by what I think is important, not by the values of what others think is important.”
22. “In general, I feel confident and positive about myself.”
23. “I have been able to build a living environment and a lifestyle for myself that is much to my liking.”
24. “I tend to be influenced by people with strong opinions.”
25. “I do not enjoy being in new situations that require me to change my old familiar ways of doing things.”
26. “I do not fit very well with the people and the community around me.”
27. “I know that I can trust my friends, and they know they can trust me.”
28. “When I think about it, I haven’t really improved much as a person over the years.”
29. “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.”
30. “I often feel lonely because I have few close friends with whom to share my concerns.”
31. “When I compare myself to friends and acquaintances, it makes me feel good about who I am.”
32. “I don’t have a good sense of what it is I’m trying to accomplish in life.”
33. “I sometimes feel as if I’ve done all there is to do in life.”
34. “I feel like many of the people I know have gotten more out of life than I have.”
35. “I have confidence in my opinions, even if they are contrary to the general consensus.”
36. “I am quite good at managing the many responsibilities of my daily life.”
37. “I have the sense that I have developed a lot as a person over time.”
38. “I enjoy personal and mutual conversations with family members and friends.”
39. “My daily activities often seem trivial and unimportant to me.”
40. “I like most parts of my personality.”
41. “It’s difficult for me to voice my own opinions on controversial matters.”
42. “I often feel overwhelmed by my responsibilities.”
Why It Matters
Researchers have found that Americans who feel they hold a higher status in society (as measured by the MacArthur Subjective Social Status measure) have better wellbeing. In fact, feelings of status are more strongly related to wellbeing than objective markers of status like education level (Curhan et al., 2014).
Research using the 18-item PWB Scale has shown that experiences of daily discrimination are associated with worse wellbeing. But adults have better wellbeing when they remember having had supportive and affectionate relationships with their parents in childhood (An & Cooney, 2016). Additionally, multiple studies have found that education is associated with better wellbeing (Ryff, Keyes, & Hughes, 2003; Keyes, Shmotkin, & Ryff, 2002). Because education is both an indicator of status and a path out of poverty (Card, 2001), PWB may be an important link to mobility.
HEADS UP
The 42-item scale is more statistically sound than the 18-item version (Ryff et al., 2007) but it takes longer to administer.
References
An, J. S., & Cooney, T. M. (2016). Psychological well-being in mid to late life: The role of generativity development and parent–child relationships across the lifespan. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30, 410–421.
Card, D. (2001). Estimating the return to schooling: Progress on some persistent econometric problems. Econometrica, 69(5), 1127-1160.
Curhan, K. B., Levine, C. S., Markus, H. R., Kitayama, S., Park, J., Karasawa, M., … Ryff, C. D. (2014). Subjective and objective hierarchies and their relations to psychological well-being: A U.S./Japan Comparison. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(8), 855–864.
Gloria, A. M., Castellanos, J., Scull, N. C., & Villegas, F. J. (2009). Psychological coping and well-being of male Latino undergraduates: Sobreviviendo la universidad. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 31(3), 317–339.
Keyes, C. L. M., Shmotkin, D., & Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 1007–1022.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069-1081.
Ryff, C. D., Almeida, D. M., Ayanian, J. S., Carr, D. S., Cleary, P. D., Coe, C., … Williams, D. (2007). National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS II), 2004-2006: Documentation of the Psychosocial Constructs and Composite Variables in MIDUS II Project 1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.
Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727.
Ryff, C. D., Keyes, C. L. M., & Hughes, D. L. (2003). Status inequalities, perceived discrimination, and eudaimonic well-being: Do the challenges of minority life hone purpose and growth? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44(3), 275-291.
