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Oxford Happiness Questionnaire

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. Dont 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 dont 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) _____ 7. I find most things amusing. _____ 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 dont 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 dont find it easy to make decisions. (R) _____ 24. I dont 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 dont have fun with other people. (R) _____ 28. I dont feel particularly healthy. (R) _____ 29. I dont 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. Change 2 to a 5 Change 3 to a 4 Change 4 to a 3

Change 5 to a 2 Change 6 to a 1 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 youll 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.

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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 its 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 theres valuable information here for everyone. 1-2 : Not happy. If you answered honestly and got a very low score, youre 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 Pennsylvanias Authentic Happiness Testing Center. Youll 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. Its correlated with benefits like health, better marriages, and attaining your goals. Check back Ill be writing a post about this topic soon. 6 : Too happy. Yes, you read that right. Recent research seems to show that theres 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, 10731082.
Ive used dont 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.) Ive 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. There is a problem with the comments below. None of the early comments are showing up since an upgrade a few days ago. Heres one example, a comment from me:
Dr. Steve Wright says:

The highest score you can get on an item is a 6, and the lowest a 1. If you add up all your scores and divide by the number of questions (29 questions), youd get an average score for all the questions. The highest possible average would be 6, the lowest possible would be 1. Right in

the middle would be 3.5, so you might think thats what the average person would get, but this is just a raw score. In fact, other studies show that people are generally somewhat happy on average. So it may not be surprising to hear that the average score on the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire is right around a 4, which is essentially what you got (since you got 3.9 out of 6). Rather than compare yourself to other people, its probably more meaningful to compare your score now to your score later, and see if theres a change. Some of the exercises on this site have been shown in scientific studies to make a lasting, positive impact on happiness. You might want to try some of them (Ill be adding more), and see if they work for you. A few gratitude exercises are already on the site: *Gratitude Journal & Gratitude Lists *Gratitude Visit

Written by Dr. Steve Wright on October 17th, 2008

Related Articles:
Sonja Lyubomirsky and the How of Happiness First step: What do you really want? Two Principles of Psychological Wealth, part 2: Happiness as a Valuable Resource Two Principles of Psychological Wealth, part 1

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82 Comments so far
1. Arvind Ramanujam says: October 12, 2009 at 3:59 pm Hello Dr.Steve, Thanks for the questionnaire. I scored 3.8 and I guess it means Im as happy as an average person. Presently, Im recovering from depression. The result matches my own experiential perception of my happiness state. I intend to keep track of my progress with the help of the questionnaire. Thanks once again for the free service. 2. Yiasemina Ioannidou says: October 18, 2009 at 12:32 pm Hi, I tried to e-mail Peter Hills in order to get a permission to use the questionnaire but the e-mail delivery failed. Is there an alternative address I could use? 3. Dr. Steve Wright says: October 20, 2009 at 1:18 pm Yes, I had the same experience when I tried to email Peter Hills. Im afraid I dont have any other contact information. I will try a couple other avenues and will post the results here, but please check back because I may not be able to do it (or get results) right away. 4. Mississauga says: October 24, 2009 at 12:47 am I am from Mississauga, Ontario (right next to Toronto)and I got 2.5. Funny, multiply that by ten and you have my age. I would have scored lower except for some strange reason I can laugh at things even when I feel bad. I have borderline personality disorder and an eating disorder. I will have to take this test again, I am going to the hospital soon for my ED and would like to see how it changes when I am done.