| Substantive Meaning | Focus | The kind of happiness addressed. |
| Time-frame | The period considered | |
| Method of assessment | Mode | The technique by which happiness is assessed |
| Scale-type | How the observation is scored | |
| Scale-range | Number of degrees of happiness distinguished | |
| Sub-variant | Wording | Variation in phrasing of otherwise equivalent questions |
EXAMPLE OF A QUESTION
'Taken all
together, how would you say things are these days? Would you say that you are....?'
-
very happy
-
pretty happy
-
not too happy
This question is classified as follows:O-HL/c/sq/v/3/aa
| Focus | Overall: Happy life | O-HL |
| Timeframe | Currently | c |
| Mode | Self report on single question | sq |
| Scale type | Verbal rating scale | v |
| Scale range | 4 step rating scale | 3 |
| Sub-variant | Wording | aa |
| Focus on Overall appraisal of Life | |
| Keyword Happiness | |
| O-HL | Overall: Happiness in Life |
| O-HP | Overall: Happy Person |
| O-H? | Overall: Happiness: item not reported |
| O-H* | Overall: Happiness various items |
| Keyword life-satisfaction | |
| O-SLu | Overall: Satisfaction with life (unspecified) |
| O-SLC | Overall: Satisfaction with Life-Course |
| O-SLL | Overall: Satisfaction with Life one Lives |
| O-SLS | Overall: Satisfaction with Life-Situatuation |
| O-SLW | Overall: Satisfaction with Life as a Whole |
| O-SP | Overall: Satisfied Person |
| O-SQL | Overall: Satision with Quality of Life |
| O-SLP | Overall: Satisfaction with Personal Life |
| O-SL? | Overall: Satisfaction With Life: item not reported |
| O-SL* | Overall: Satisfaction with Life: mixed items |
| Further keywords | |
| O-DT | Overall: Delighted vs Terrible life |
| O-EL | Overall: Enjoyment of Life |
| O-GBB | Overall: Good-Bad Balance |
| O-LWL | Overall: Life Worth Living |
| O-QLS | Overal: Quality of Life Situation |
| O-QL? | Overall: Quality of Life, item not repored |
| Sum Scores | |
| O-Sum | Overall: Summed overall appraisals of life |
Focus on Hedonic level of Affect |
|
| Computed Average | |
| A-ARE | Affect: Average Repeated Overall Estimate |
| A-ASA | Affect: Average of Specific Affects |
| A-AOL | Affect: Average Overall Level |
| Computed Affect Balance (positive minus negative affects) | |
| A-BB | Affect: Balance (Bradburn's 10 item index |
| A-BBr | Affect: Balance (Brenner's index) |
| A-BC | Affect: Balance (Cohen's index) |
| A-BD1 | Affect: Balance (Diener's 8 item index) |
| A-BD2 | Affect: Balance (Diener's ABS) |
| A-BD3 | Affect Balance (Diener's 24 item index) |
| A-BH | Affect: Balance (Huelsman) |
| A-BK | Affect: Balance (Kamman's index) |
| A-BL | Affect: Balance (Lichter's index) |
| A-Bly | Affect: Balance (Lyubomirski) |
| A-BMc | Affect: Balance: McGreal 'Depression-Happiness' |
| A-BM | Affect Balance (McNear's POMS) |
| A-BMr | Affect: Balance (Mrozek) |
| A-BS | Affect: Balance (Schultz's index) |
| A-BW | Affect: Balance (Watson et al PANAS) |
| A-AB | Affect Affect Balance (various indexes) |
| Further Items | |
| A-TH | Affect: Time Happy |
| A-CP | Affect: Cheerful Person |
| A-CA | Affect: Cheerful Appearance |
| A-? | Affect: item not reported |
| A-* | Affect: various items |
| Sum-Scores | |
| A-Sum | Affect: Summed appraisals |
Focus on Contentment |
|
| Overall self estimate | |
| C-BW | Contentment: Best-Worst possible life |
| C-RA | Contentment: Realization of Aspirations |
| C-RG | Contentment: Realization of Goals |
| C-A | Contentment: Accomplishments in life |
| C-W | Contentment: getting things Wanted |
| Computed average | |
| C-ASG | Contentment: Average Success in Goals |
| C-P | Contentment: Person |
| Various items | |
| C-? | Contentment: item not reported |
| Sum-scores | |
| C-Sum | Contentment: Summed appraisals |
Mixed focus |
|
| Ambiguous items | |
| M-TH | Mixed: Time Happy |
| M-PL | Mixed: Pleasure in Life |
| M-FH | Mixed: Feel Happy |
| M-LS | Mixed: Life Succes |
| Mixed multiple items | |
| M-AO | Mixed: Affect + Overall |
| M-AC | Mixed: Affect + Contentment |
| M-CO | Mixed: Contentment + Overall |
| M-ACO | Mixed: Affect + Contentment + Overall |
CLASSIFICATION BY TIME REFERENCE IN THE QUESTION
| Presently | |
| c | currently (today, these days, presently) |
| cm | last month, last few weeks |
| cw | last week |
| cq | last quarter |
| cy | last year |
| Momentary | |
| m | momentary (now) |
| mi | last instant |
| mh | last hour |
| mp | last part of day |
| md | last day |
| Generally | |
| g | generally |
| Lately (past and future happiness not included) | |
| se | since event |
| h | hitherto |
| ly | last years |
| Miscellaneous | |
| u | time unspecified |
| * | various time frames |
| ? | time frame not reported |
CLASSIFICATION OF OBSERVATION: Method by which appraisal is estimated
Observation by self reports |
|
| Single closed question | |
| sq | 1 question |
| sqr | 1 question, repeated |
| sqt | 1 question, asked twice |
| Multiple closed questions | |
| mq | multiple questions |
| mqr | multiple questions, repeated (number not reported) |
| Open questioning | |
| oq | open questioning |
| pq | projective questioning |
| fi | focussed interview |
| Content-analysis of ego-documents | |
| cd | content analysis of dairies |
| cr | life review |
Observation by others (only Hedonic level of Affect) |
|
| Ratings based on clinical contact | |
| rc | rating by clinican |
| Ratings based on daily contact | |
| rdf | rating by family |
| rdn | rating by nurses |
| rdp | rating by peers |
| rdt | rating by teachers |
| rdv | rating by various |
| Ratings based on systematic observation | |
| ri | rating by interviewer (of happy appearance) |
| tsb | time sampling of happy behaviors |
CLASSIFICATION OF RATING SCALES: How observations are scored
| Verbal scale | |
| v | verbal scale |
| vt | Various verbal scales transformed to range 1-3 |
| Numerical scales | |
| n | numerical scale |
| nt | various numerical scale transformed to range 0-10 |
| Graphical scales | |
| f | faces scale |
| l | ladder scale |
| m | mountain scale |
| ol | open line scale |
| c | circles scale |
| lg | life-graph |
| Miscellaneous | |
| t | transformed from one scale to another |
| ro | rank-order of subjects |
| v* | various verbal scales combined |
| X | not classified |
| th% | Time happy percent |
| * | Various rating scales combined |
| ? | scale not reported |
VARIATION IN THE WORDING OF QUESTIONS
If a combination of the above characteristics is unique, the code gets an extension a. If there are more queries of the same kind that differ only in wording, these variant are indicated with further letter extensions, following the alphabet. If a query-code has an extension 'd', that means that there are at least four variants of that item in the catalog.