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Happiness Measures

Characteristics

Code:
A-AOL-cm-mq-*-5-a
Focus:
Affect: Average Overall Level (A-AOL)
Time frame:
last month, last few weeks (cm)
Mode:
multiple questions (mq)
Scale Type:
Different rating scales combined (*)
Scale Range:
5

Description

Self report on four questions:

How have you felt during the past month?

A  How have you been feeling in general?
    6  in excellent spirits
    5  in very good spirits
    4  in good spirits mostly
    3  my spirits have been up and down
    2  in low spirits mostly
    1 in very low spirits
B  Have you felt so sad, discouraged, hopeless or had so
     many problems that you wondered if anything was worthwhile?
    1  extremely so, to the point of just about given up
    2  very much so
    3  quite a bit
    4  some, enough to bother me
    5  a little bit
    6  not at all
C  Have you felt downhearted or blue
    1  all the time
    2  most of the time
    3  a good bit of the time
    4  some of the time
    5  al title of the time
    6  none of the time
D  How depressed or cheerful have you been?
     0  very depressed
     1
     2
     3
     4
     5
     6
     7
     8
     9
    10 very cheerful

List of Studies Using this Measure

Study Population N Mean
Standard Deviation
Ardelt (2003a): study US 1997 55+ aged, USA, North-Central Florida, 1997 N = 174
Mean
= 4.020
SD
= 0.750