Happiness, subjective well-being and quality of life

Abstract

Existing definitions of happiness, subjective well-being, and quality of life suggest conceptual overlap between these constructs. The current paper addresses the call for empirical data initiated by Camfield & Skevington (2008) in order to verify these relationships. In the study 180 university students completed the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, the World Health Organisation Quality of Life Questionnaire, the Satisfaction with Life and the Positive and Negative Affect Scales. The results show that all well-being measures have high loadings on the single well-being factor that explains 83% of variance in both the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and the psychological domain of Quality of Life. Strong correlations were found between happiness, psychological and health domains of quality of life, life satisfaction, and positive affect. Together these data suggest a general well-being factor that can be measured using different approaches and support interchangeable use of terms happiness, subjective well-being and psychological well-being.