DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONTENTMENT WITH LIFE ASSESSMENT SCALE (CLAS): USING DAILY LIFE EXPERIENCES TO VERIFY LEVELS OF SELF-REPORTED LIFE SATISFACTION

On average, Anglo-Americans report that they are satisfied with their lives, but their global evaluations tend to deviate from their daily experiences (e.g., Oishi [2002, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(10), 1398-1406]). We explored the hypothesis that the average life satisfaction of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social indicators research 2007-09, Vol.83 (2), p.201-244
Main Authors: LAVALLEE, LORAINE F., HATCH, P. MAURINE, MICHALOS, ALEX C., MCKINLEY, TARA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of daily living
Alcohol use
Asian American Students
Asian Americans
Averages
Contentment
Correlations
Cross Cultural Studies
Cultures and civilizations
Daily stress
Depressive disorders
Diaries
Diary
Discrepancies
Drinking
Drinking behavior
Everyday Life
Hypothesis testing
Life experiences
Life Satisfaction
Lifestyles. Everyday life
Longitudinal Studies
Marital status
Mathematical validity
Measurement
Measurement Techniques
Measures
Measures (Individuals)
Mental health
Narcissism
Normal distribution
Normative data
Personality
Personality psychology
Physical symptoms
Program Effectiveness
Psychological assessment
Psychometrics
Quality of Life
Questionnaires
Ratings & rankings
Reliability
Research methods
Resistance (Psychology)
Self esteem
Self report
Social indicators
Social Psychology
Sociology
Stress
Stress Management
Studies
Subjectivity
Survey data
Symptoms (Individual Disorders)
Television Viewing
U.S.A
United States of America
University students
USA
Validity
Welfare measurement
Well Being
Wellbeing
White people
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Summary:On average, Anglo-Americans report that they are satisfied with their lives, but their global evaluations tend to deviate from their daily experiences (e.g., Oishi [2002, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 28(10), 1398-1406]). We explored the hypothesis that the average life satisfaction of Anglo-Americans is better characterized as neutral than satisfied. In Study 1 we developed the five-item Contentment with Life Assessment Scale (CLAS), which focuses on contentment, fulfillment and self-discrepancies. Normative data based on three general population samples demonstrated that the CLAS produces a close to normal distribution of scores, has excellent reliability, and is sensitive to differences in life conditions (e.g., income, marital status). In two daily diary studies we tested whether global life satisfaction measures corresponded to people's daily subjective well-being. The CLAS was the best predictor among three self-report life satisfaction measures of daily escapist behaviors including television watching and alcohol consumption, and daily stress-related physical symptoms (Study 2). In Study 3, participants recorded their level of life satisfaction daily for two weeks. Average daily life satisfaction scores clustered close to the neutral rather than satisfied point of the measurement scale.
ISSN:0303-8300
1573-0921
DOI:10.1007/s11205-006-9054-6