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On the Trail of the Gold Standard for Subjective Well-Being

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Citation Classics from Social Indicators Research

Part of the book series: Social Indicators Research Series ((SINS,volume 26))

Abstract

The absence of a ‘gold standard’ for subjective well-being has severely hampered the interpretation of data from empirical studies. This paper demonstrates a remarkable consistency among the results of 16 studies that have investigated ‘life satisfaction’ among large samples drawn from the general population. It is concluded that a population standard for ‘life satisfaction’ can be expressed as 75.0 ± 2.5 percent of the measurement scale maximum score.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, Deakin University, Victoria, 3125, Australia

    Robert A. Cummins

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  1. Robert A. Cummins
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Northern British Columbia, Canada

    Alex C. Michalos

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Cummins, R.A. (2005). On the Trail of the Gold Standard for Subjective Well-Being. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Citation Classics from Social Indicators Research. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 26. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3742-2_18

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