Abstract
Unlike other measures of happiness that have tended to capture current levels of happiness, the Authentic Happiness Inventory (AHI) (Peterson, 2005; Seligman et al. in The American Psychologist 60:410–421, 2005) assesses changes in happiness based on the creation of positive emotions (the pleasant life), engagement in activities that facilitate the utilization of one’s strengths (the engaged life), and serving a more worthwhile purpose than merely the self’s pleasures (the meaningful life). Nonetheless, there is little published data regarding the construct validation of the AHI. The present study, which is part of a larger research project in assessing the effectiveness of integrating happiness intervention programs in the foreign language teaching curriculum at private English institutes and universities in Iran, attempts an examination of the psychometric quality and the construct validation of the Persian version of AHI (hereafter AHI-PV) using data collected from 234 Iranian learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), mainly through employing the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The AHI was translated into Persian to ensure item comprehension by the Iranian participants. The results show that the AHI-PV enjoys a high internal consistency (alpha = .93). Further, having determined a ‘marvelous’ factorability of the present sample through the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test of Sampling Adequacy (.94) and Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (p < 0.05), we employed the EFA to the data. Moreover, the results obtained from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Scree test indicated that, in contrast to earlier findings, a four-factor solution provides a more parsimonious grouping of the items in the inventory. Having analyzed the items on the scale, we labeled the four factors as ‘Meaningful and Purposeful Life’, ‘Pleasures and Positive Emotions’, ‘Engagement in Life Activities’, and ‘Interpersonal Connectedness’, hence the alignment of these new factors to Seligman’s (2002) conceptualization of authentic happiness.
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Appendix
Appendix
The Validated Authentic Happiness Inventory (AHI) and Its Underlying Factors
Directions: Please read each group of statements carefully. Then pick the ONE statement in each group that best describes the way you have been feeling for the past week, including today. Be sure to read all of the statements in each group before making your choice by circling the letter next to it.
Item | Statement |
FACTOR 1: Meaningful and Purposeful Life | |
1 | A. I feel like a failure. B. I do not feel like a winner. C. I feel like I have succeeded more than most people. D. As I look back on my life, all I see are victories. E. I feel I am extraordinarily successful. |
4 | A. My life does not have any purpose or meaning. B. I do not know the purpose or meaning of my life. C. I have a hint about my purpose in life. D. I have a pretty good idea about the purpose or meaning of my life. E. I have a very clear idea about the purpose or meaning of my life. |
9 | A. By objective standards, I do poorly. B. By objective standards, I do neither well nor poorly. C. By objective standards, I do rather well. D. By objective standards, I do quite well. E. By objective standards, I do amazingly well. |
10 | A. I am ashamed of myself. B. I am not ashamed of myself. C. I am proud of myself. D. I am very proud of myself. E. I am extraordinarily proud of myself. |
12 | A. In the grand scheme of things, my existence may hurt the world. B. My existence neither helps nor hurts the world. C. My existence has a small but positive effect on the world. D. My existence makes the world a better place. E. My existence has a lasting, large, and positive impact on the world. |
13 | A. I do not do most things very well. B. I do okay at most things I am doing. C. I do well at some things I am doing. D. I do well at most things I am doing. E. I do really well at whatever I am doing. |
16 | A. I am pessimistic about the future. B. I am neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the future. C. I feel somewhat optimistic about the future. D. I feel quite optimistic about the future. E. I feel extraordinarily optimistic about the future. |
17 | A. I have accomplished little in life. B. I have accomplished no more in life than most people. C. I have accomplished somewhat more in life than most people. D. I have accomplished more in life than most people. E. I have accomplished a great deal more in my life than most people. |
18 | A. I am unhappy with myself. B. I am neither happy nor unhappy with myself--I am neutral. C. I am happy with myself. D. I am very happy with myself. E. I could not be any happier with myself. |
20 | A. I spend all of my time doing things that are unimportant. B. I spend a lot of time doing things that are neither important nor unimportant. C. I spend some of my time every day doing things that are important. D. I spend most of my time every day doing things that are important. E. I spend practically every moment every day doing things that are important. |
21 | A. If I were keeping score in life, I would be behind. B. If I were keeping score in life, I would be about even. C. If I were keeping score in life, I would be somewhat ahead. D. If I were keeping score in life, I would be ahead. E. If I were keeping score in life, I would be far ahead. |
FACTOR 2: Pleasures and Positive Emotions | |
6 | A. I have sorrow in my life. B. I have neither sorrow nor joy in my life. C. I have more joy than sorrow in my life. D. I have much more joy than sorrow in my life. E. My life is filled with joy. |
22 | A. I experience more pain than pleasure. B. I experience pain and pleasure in equal measure. C. I experience more pleasure than pain. D. I experience much more pleasure than pain. E. My life is filled with pleasure. |
23 | A. I do not enjoy my daily routine. B. I feel neutral about my daily routine. C. I like my daily routine, but I am happy to get away from it. D. I like my daily routine so much that I rarely take breaks from it. E. I like my daily routine so much that I almost never take breaks from it. |
24 | A. My life is a bad one. B. My life is an OK one. C. My life is a good one. D. My life is a very good one. E. My life is a wonderful one. |
FACTOR 3: Engagement in Life Activities | |
3 | A. When I am working, I pay more attention to what is going on around me than to what I am doing. B. When I am working, I pay as much attention to what is going on around me as to what I am doing. C. When I am working, I pay more attention to what I am doing than to what is going on around me. D. When I am working, I rarely notice what is going on around me. E. When I am working, I pay so much attention to what I am doing that the outside world practically ceases to exist. |
7 | A. Most of the time I feel bored. B. Most of the time I feel neither bored nor interested in what I am doing. C. Most of the time I feel interested in what I am doing. D. Most of the time I feel quite interested in what I am doing. E. Most of the time I feel fascinated by what I am doing. |
14 | A. I have little or no enthusiasm. B. My enthusiasm level is neither high nor low. C. I have a good amount of enthusiasm. D. I feel enthusiastic doing almost everything. E. I have so much enthusiasm that I feel I can do most anything. |
15 | A. I do not like my work (paid or unpaid). B. I feel neutral about my work. C. For the most part, I like my work. D. I really like my work. E. I truly love my work. |
19 | A. My skills are never challenged by the situations I encounter. B. My skills are occasionally challenged by the situations I encounter. C. My skills are sometimes challenged by the situations I encounter. D. My skills are often challenged by the situations I encounter. E. My skills are always challenged by the situations I encounter. |
FACTOR 4: Interpersonal Connectedness | |
2 | A. I am usually in a bad mood. B. I am usually in a neutral mood. C. I am usually in a good mood. D. I am usually in a great mood. E. I am usually in an unbelievably great mood. |
8 | A. I feel cut off from other people. B. I feel neither close to nor cut off from other people. C. I feel close to friends and family members. D. I feel close to most people, even if I do not know them well. E. I feel close to everyone in the world. |
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Zabihi, R., Ketabi, S., Tavakoli, M. et al. Examining the Internal Consistency Reliability and Construct Validity of the Authentic Happiness Inventory (AHI) among Iranian EFL Learners. Curr Psychol 33, 377–392 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9217-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9217-6