Ex.
No-1 Experimenter’s Initial- SBN
Date-19/07/2022 Subject’s Initial- TS
LIFE SATISFACTION SCALE
Introduction
Life Satisfaction
Life satisfaction is an endorsement of or positive attitude toward one’s life overall.
Satisfaction is a Latin word that means to make or do enough.
Satisfaction with one’s life implies a contentment with or acceptance of one’s life
circumstances, or the fulfillment of one’s wants and needs for one’s life as a whole. In essence,
life satisfaction is a subjective assessment of the quality of one’s life. Because it is inherently an
evaluation, judgments of life satisfaction have a large cognitive component.
Life Satisfaction and Happiness
According to Ed Diener and his colleagues (1999), subjective well-being or happiness,
has both an affective (i.e., emotional) and a cognitive (i.e. judgmental) component. The affective
component consists of how frequently an individual reports experiencing positive and negative
affect. Life satisfaction is considered to be the cognitive component of this broader construct.
Happiness is a momentary experience that arises spontaneously and is fleeting.
Meanwhile, satisfaction is a long-term feeling, built over time and based on achieving goals and
building the kind of life you admire.
Factors influencing life satisfaction
There are many factors that contribute to life satisfaction from a number of domains, including
work,
romantic relationships,
relationships with family and friends,
personal development,
health and wellness, and others.
The strongest predictors of life satisfaction are
satisfaction with standard of living,
household income satisfaction,
tertiary and secondary education,
social support,
negative affect, positive affect,
interesting experience.
Theories of Life Satisfaction
The two main theories of Life Satisfaction are bottom-up theory and top-down theory.
Bottom-up theories
It is based on the idea that overall life satisfaction is the sum of its parts. That is, self-
reports of life satisfaction represent a weighted average of satisfaction with different aspects
(domains) of life.
The ‘bottom-up’ perspective assumes that a person’s overall life satisfaction depends on
his or her satisfaction in many concrete areas of life, which can be classified into broad life
domains such as family, friendship, work, leisure.
The bottom-up model allows for life-circumstances to influence life-satisfaction. For
example, actual income could influence income satisfaction, which is supported by studies that
show moderate to strong correlations between income and financial satisfaction.
Top-down theories
Top-down theories rest on the premise that satisfaction with domains of life is mainly a
consequence of overall life satisfaction, which itself primarily depends on personality traits and
other fixed genetic effects.
The ‘top-down’ perspective is a dispositional explanation, which contends that
differences in personality and other stable traits of the person predispose people to be
differentially satisfied with their lives.
The top-down model assumes that personality traits influence life-satisfaction and that
life-satisfaction mediates effects of personality on life domains.
Top-down theories assert that satisfaction with various domains of life is mainly a by-
product of overall life satisfaction, which itself importantly depends on personality traits and
other fixed genetic outcomes.
Research
Moksnes & Espnes conducted a study on self-esteem and life satisfaction in adolescents
in 2003 and the results revealed that boys report higher self-esteem and life satisfaction than girls
and also self-esteem has a positive role in association with adolescents’ life satisfaction, and this
relationship is equally strong for both genders and across age.
Saric & Sakic conducted a study on the relations of parenting styles and friendship
quality to self-esteem, life satisfaction and happiness in adolescents in 2013. This study aims to
examine the effects of mother’s and father’s perceived parenting style and friendship quality on
several indicators of adolescents’ well-being. The results revealed that adolescents of
authoritative and permissive mothers reported higher self-esteem and life satisfaction than
adolescents who had authoritarian mothers. Adolescents with a higher quality of friendship
reported more happiness, life-satisfaction and self-esteem.
Danielsen et. al conducted research in 2009 to examine the effect of school-related social
support from teachers, classmates, and parents on students' life satisfaction that school
satisfaction, scholastic competence, and general self-efficacy. Results confirmed the importance
of self-related domains, such as general self-efficacy, to students' life satisfaction. Teacher
support strongly related to school satisfaction. On the basis of significance tests between
correlations, school satisfaction more strongly related to girls' life satisfaction than to that of
boys.
Aim
To assess the life satisfaction of the subject
Materials Required
Life Satisfaction Scale by Dr. Promila Singh and George Joseph (1996), Manual, Scoring Key,
Response Sheet & writing materials.
Description about the subject
The subject TS is a 22 years old female pursuing her postgraduation in applied psychology. The
subject is from an semi-urban area and brought up in an nuclear family.
Procedure
The subject is seated comfortably and the following instructions are given. “This questionnaire
contains 35 statements with 5 responses namely always, often, sometimes, seldom(rarely), never.
Read each statement carefully and choose one of the responses that is most appropriate to you.
There is no right or wrong answers. There is no time limit but try to complete as soon as
possible.
The scoring is done using the scoring key, the results are tabulated, discussion and
conclusions are drawn.
Scoring and Interpretation
136-175 – High
81-135 – Average
35-80 – Low
Results
Table-1 shows the individual data of the experiment
Table-2 shows the group data of the experiment.
Table-1 shows the individual data of the experiment
Initial Score Interpretation
TS 149 High
Individual Discussion
The subject TS is a 22 years old female pursuing her postgraduation in Applied Psychology. The
subject is from a semi-urban area and brought up in an nuclear family. The subject is
administered with Life Satisfaction Scale to assess the level of life satisfaction. The table-1
depicts the subject’s individual score. The subject TS scored 149 in life satisfaction scale that is
interpreted as high level of life satisfaction. High level of life satisfaction is associated with
better psychological well-being on several indicators including higher: positive affect, optimism,
purpose in life, and mastery -- as well as lower: hopelessness, negative affect, perceived
constraints, and loneliness. Individuals with high level of life satisfaction can cope with more
demanding life styles than individuals with low life satisfaction, but they did not suffer greater
personal stress (Bailey & Miller, 1998). It is also found that high life satisfaction was associated
with involvement in projects of high short-term importance that were highly enjoyable and
moderately difficult and the presence of a social network that shared project involvements and
offered social support. (Palys & Little, 1983). As the subject TS has high level of the life
satisfaction, the subject may possess the above briefed qualities. If the same experiment is
repeated again the scores may vary.
Table-2 shows the group data of the experiment.
Interpretatio GA 123 Average
Initial Score n AA 139 High
SM 158 high
JA 131 Average KM 139 High
AR 155 High KPM 111 Average
AAK 147 high AKN 111 Average
NA 143 High SBN 163 high
BN 136 High SN 128 Average
BB 133 Average PP 148 high
PC 158 high PS 123 Average
RD 123 Average SPJ 123 Average
DG 111 average MR 115 Average
DPR 103 Average MSK 137 high
DB 131 Average SI 145 high
ND 108 Average RS 115 Average
RG 142 High TS 149 high
GV 145 High SS 153 High
MH 147 high MS 128 Average
GS 135 Average VT 127 Average
SH 156 High UU 126 Average
IB 136 High 134.318181
MJ 140 High Mean 8
MK 117 average
high-22
DJK 123 average
average
KP 153 High
-22
RL 119 Average
MM 157 High
Group Discussion
The total group consists of 44 subjects with 8 males and 36 females. The age of the
subjects in the group is between 21-25. The group is administered with Life Satisfaction Scale to
assess the level of life satisfaction. From the group table it is found that the group mean of life
satisfaction is 134.4 which can be interpreted as average life satisfaction. Thus, the overall group
has an average life satisfaction. It is also found that 22 subjects scored high in life satisfaction
and 22 subjects scored low in life satisfaction. The is no low level of life satisfaction in the
group. So, based on the data the group may have higher level of positive affect, optimism,
purpose in life, and mastery as well as lower level of hopelessness, negative affect, perceived
constraints, and loneliness as a result of average life satisfaction. Since the number of females
vastly outnumber the number of males their mean scores cannot be compared. There exists
individual difference in the group. If the same experiment is repeated again, the scores may vary.
Conclusion
The subject TS scored high in life satisfaction
The group’s mean is average in life satisfaction.
There exists individual difference in the group.
If the same experiment is repeated again the scores may vary.
References
Bailey, R. C., & Miller, C. (1998). Life satisfaction and life demands in college students. Social
Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 26(1), 51-56.
Danielsen, A. G., Samdal, O., Hetland, J., & Wold, B. (2009). School-related social support and
students' perceived life satisfaction. The Journal of educational research, 102(4), 303-
320.
Hall, A. (2014). Life Satisfaction, Concept of. Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being
Research, 3599–3601. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_1649
Joshanloo, Mohsen; Jovanović, Veljko (2018). Similarities and differences in predictors of life
satisfaction across age groups: A 150-country study. Journal of Health Psychology, (),
135910531881905–. doi:10.1177/1359105318819054
Moksnes, U.K., Espnes, G.A. Self-esteem and life satisfaction in adolescents—gender and age as
potential moderators. Qual Life Res 22, 2921–2928 (2013).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-013-0427-4
Palys, T. S., & Little, B. R. (1983). Perceived life satisfaction and the organization of personal
project systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(6), 1221–
1230. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.6.1221
Raboteg-Saric, Z., Sakic, M. Relations of Parenting Styles and Friendship Quality to Self-
Esteem, Life Satisfaction and Happiness in Adolescents. Applied Research Quality
Life 9, 749–765 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-013-9268-0
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