Questionnaire for Happiness

by Dr. Steve Wright

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was developed by psychologists Michael Argyle and Peter
Hills at Oxford University. Take a few moments to take the survey. This is a good way to get a
snapshot of your current level of happiness. You can even use your score to compare to your
happiness level at some point in the future by taking the survey again. If you are using some of
the interventions presented on this site to raise your happiness level, you can see whether your
score on the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire goes up as a result.

Instructions

Below are a number of statements about happiness. Please indicate how much you agree or
disagree with each by entering a number in the blank after each statement, according to the
following scale:

1 = strongly disagree
2 = moderately disagree
3 = slightly disagree
4 = slightly agree
5 = moderately agree
6 = strongly agree

Please read the statements carefully, because some are phrased positively and others negatively.
Don’t take too long over individual questions; there are no “right” or “wrong” answers (and no
trick questions). The first answer that comes into your head is probably the right one for you. If
you find some of the questions difficult, please give the answer that is true for you in general or
for most of the time.

The Questionnaire

1. I don’t feel particularly pleased with the way I am. (R) _____

2. I am intensely interested in other people. _____

3. I feel that life is very rewarding. _____

4. I have very warm feelings towards almost everyone. _____

5. I rarely wake up feeling rested. (R) _____

6. I am not particularly optimistic about the future. (R) _____

8. I am always committed and involved. _____

9. Life is good. _____

10. I do not think that the world is a good place. (R) _____

11. I laugh a lot. _____

12. I am well satisfied about everything in my life. _____

13. I don’t think I look attractive. (R) _____

14. There is a gap between what I would like to do and what I have done. (R) _____

15. I am very happy. _____

16. I find beauty in some things. _____

17. I always have a cheerful effect on others. _____

18. I can fit in (find time for) everything I want to. _____

19. I feel that I am not especially in control of my life. (R) _____

20. I feel able to take anything on. _____

21. I feel fully mentally alert. _____

22. I often experience joy and elation. _____

23. I don’t find it easy to make decisions. (R) _____

24. I don’t have a particular sense of meaning and purpose in my life. (R) _____

25. I feel I have a great deal of energy. _____

26. I usually have a good influence on events. _____

27. I don’t have fun with other people. (R) _____

28. I don’t feel particularly healthy. (R) _____

29. I don’t have particularly happy memories of the past. (R) _____
Calculate your score

Step 1. Items marked (R) should be scored in reverse:

If you gave yourself a “1,” cross it out and change it to a “6.”

Step 2. Add the numbers for all 29 questions. (Use the converted numbers for the 12 items that
are reverse scored.)

Step 3. Divide by 29. So your happiness score = the total (from step 2) divided by 29.

I recommend you record your score and the date. Then you’ll have the option to compare your
score now with your score at a later date. This can be especially helpful if you are trying some of
the exercises, and actively working on increasing your happiness.

UPDATE: A lot of people have been asking for some kind of interpretation of the raw number
“happiness score” you get in step 3 above. What follows is just off the top of my head, but it’s
based in part on the fact that the average person gets a score of about 4.

INTERPRETATION OF SCORE

I suggest you read all the entries below regardless of what score you got, because I think there’s
valuable information here for everyone.

1-2 : Not happy. If you answered honestly and got a very low score, you’re probably seeing
yourself and your situation as worse than it really is. I recommend taking the Depression
Symptoms test (CES-D Questionnaire) at the University of Pennsylvania’s “Authentic
Happiness” Testing Center. You’ll have to register, but this is beneficial because there are a lot
of good tests there and you can re-take them later and compare your scores.

2-3 : Somewhat unhappy. Try some of the exercises on this site like the Gratitude Journal &
Gratitude Lists, or the Gratitude Visit; or take a look at the “Authentic Happiness” site
mentioned immediately above.

3-4 : Not particularly happy or unhappy. A score of 3.5 would be an exact numerical average of
happy and unhappy responses. Some of the exercises mentioned just above have been tested in
scientific studies and have been shown to make people lastingly happier.

4 : Somewhat happy or moderately happy. Satisfied. This is what the average person scores.
4-5 : Rather happy; pretty happy. Check other score ranges for some of my suggestions.

5-6 : Very happy. Being happy has more benefits than just feeling good. It’s correlated with
benefits like health, better marriages, and attaining your goals. Check back – I’ll be writing a
post about this topic soon.

6 : Too happy. Yes, you read that right. Recent research seems to show that there’s an optimal
level of happiness for things like doing well at work or school, or for being healthy, and that
being “too happy” may be associated with lower levels of such things.

Reference

Hills, P., & Argyle, M. (2002). The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: a compact scale for the
measurement of psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 1073–
1082.

I’ve used “don’t” rather than the more staid and formal “do not” in the phrasing of the questions
above; I decided to give preference to my own sense of what is more natural and conversational
in American English. (Remember that the questionnaire was developed in England.) I’ve also
added the phrase “(find time for),” which psychology researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky uses for
clarification in question 18.

Note: Michael Argyle died in 2002. If you would like to contact Peter Hills, you can email him at
p_r_hills “AT” hotmail “DOT” com (seems to be outdated) or contact him by telephone/fax in
the UK: Tel.: +44-1235-521-077; fax: +44-1235-520-067.