Url
	https://wou.omeka.net/s/repository/item/1165
Title
	Measuring Lay Conceptions of Well-Being: The Beliefs About Well-Being Scale
Creator
	Ethan A McMahan
	David Estes
Subject
	well-being
	happiness
	lay conceptions
	scale development
	measurement
Publisher
	Springer
Date
	4/1/2011
Type
	Text
Identifier
	fac_pubs/35
Source
	Journal of Happiness Studies
Language
	eng
Abstract
	A number of explicit conceptions of well-being have been provided by philosophers and psychologists, but little is known about laypersons’ conceptions of well-being. Two studies investigating the content and measurement of lay conceptions of well-being are presented. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures, the 16-item Beliefs about Well-Being Scale (BWBS) was developed to measure lay conceptions of well-being along four theoretically-meaningful dimensions: (1) the Experience of Pleasure, (2) Avoidance of Negative Experience, (3) Self-Development, and (4) Contribution to Others. Initial evidence concerning the reliability and validity of the BWBS indicated that this new scale has acceptable psychometric properties. In both studies, associations between each subscale, representing the above four dimensions, and multiple self-report measures of experienced well-being were also examined. Each subscale was significantly associated with well-being, with Self-Development and Contribution to Others indicating stronger associations with measures of well-being than either Experience of Pleasure or Avoidance of Negative Experience. Implications for future research using this economical new scale are discussed.
Issue
	2
Page end
	287
Page start
	267
Volume
	12
Department or school name within institution
	Psychological Sciences
Note
	This is the authors' final accepted (peer-reviewed) manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10902-010-9194-x

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