HAPPINESS UNDERESTIMATED

• Authors: Fang Zhou , Chen Yue-Mei-Tong
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper, an exploratory study was conducted to investigate a potential measurement bias in happiness studies using 0-10 Likert scales. A total of 121 college students from a public university in California participated in the study by completing a hypothetical subjective well-being survey. The survey consisted of 23 scenarios with varying levels of happiness or unhappiness, and the students were asked to rate their level of happiness/unhappiness on the 11-point Likert Scales. The results showed that there was an inconsistent understanding of the scale when the expected value was between 7 and 8 on the 0 to 10 Likert scales, which leads to a higher variance and lower observation values. Based on these findings, it is suggested that an alternative scale length or a -5 to 5 scale should be considered to improve data quality.

Keywords

EN

LIKERT SCALE; HAPPINESS; DECIMAL SYSTEM

• Publisher: Institute of Experimental Psychology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 111 - 120

Contributors

author

Fang Zhou

• Department of Economics, St Mary’s College of Maryland, USA

• https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2590-3719

author

Chen Yue-Mei-Tong

• https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9528-0531

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/sp.2024.02.894