Flourishing Scale
Flourishing Scale overview
Creator and Context
The Flourishing Scale is a concise yet comprehensive tool designed to assess an individual's self-perceived success across several key life domains. Comprising 8 items, it evaluates important aspects such as relationships, self-esteem, purpose in life, and optimism, culminating in a single score that represents the individual’s overall psychological well-being.
The Flourishing Scale was developed as a means to provide a quick and effective measurement of a person's subjective well-being. Its emphasis on multiple facets of personal success makes it a versatile tool in psychological assessments.
Presenting Conditions
The scale primarily focuses on assessing:
Quality of personal relationships.
Sense of self-worth and self-esteem.
Level of life purpose and meaning.
Degree of optimism and positive outlook.
Administration
The scale is self-administered and can be completed in a few minutes. It consists of 8 statements with which respondents rate their agreement on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."
Desired Audience
The Flourishing Scale is suitable for a wide adult audience, including those in community settings, educational institutions, and clinical environments. It is valuable for individuals seeking to evaluate their own sense of well-being.
The tool is useful for both individual self-assessment and research purposes. It can help in identifying areas of life where an individual feels successful or may need improvement.
Considerations
The scale measures subjective well-being, and responses can be influenced by current mood and situational factors.
It is important to consider cultural and contextual factors when interpreting results.
The scale should be used as part of a broader assessment of well-being.
How to score the Flourishing Scale
Conducting the assessment
Respondents read each statement and select a response that best reflects their level of agreement, based on their own perceptions of personal success and well-being.
Interpretation
The responses are summed to create a total score, with higher scores indicating greater psychological well-being. The simplicity of the scoring system makes it easy to interpret and use. There are no specific cut-off thresholds, as the scale provides a continuum of well-being. Scores should be interpreted in the context of the individual's overall life circumstances.
Clinical Considerations
Use the Flourishing Scale as a starting point to discuss areas of life satisfaction and personal success.
Consider the results as part of a holistic view of the individual’s mental health.
Be aware of the subjective nature of the responses and explore them in depth during discussions or therapy sessions.
Flourishing Scale use cases
Personal development and self-improvement programs.
Psychological research in the area of well-being and happiness.
Assessments in counselling and therapy settings.
Category
General Well-being
Research Summary
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., et al. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 97(2), 143-156.
Hone, L. C., Jarden, A., Schofield, G. M., et al. (2014). Measuring flourishing: The impact of operational definitions on the prevalence of high levels of wellbeing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 4(1), 62-90.
