Technique 1.152 Modified Steen Happiness Index (SHI)
Introduction
SHI was developed to be sensitive to changes in happiness levels.
It is based upon the Beck Depression Inventory.
It describes 3 kinds of a happy your, ie the pleasant life, the engaged life and meaningful life, ie experiencing and savouring pleasures, losing yourself in engaging activities, and participating in meaningful activities.
It contains 19 items that require you to read a series of statements and pick the one from each group that currently best describes your situation.
Responses can vary from negative (1) to an extremely positive (5)
Statements
1. Which statement best describes your attitude to your daily routine?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You dislike your daily routine | |
| 2 | You neither enjoy nor dislike your daily routine | |
| 3 | You enjoy your daily routine, but do like to get away from it | |
| 4 | You enjoy your daily routine so much that you rarely take breaks from it | |
| 5 | You enjoy your daily routine so much you almost never take breaks from it |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
2. Which statement best describes your degree of connection with other people?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You dislike your daily routine | |
| 2 | You feel neither connected nor disconnected from other people | |
| 3 | You feel connected to friends and family members | |
| 4 | You feel connected with most people, even if you don't know them well | |
| 5 | You feel connected to everyone in the world |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
3. Which statement best describes how you feel about failure/success?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You feel like a failure | |
| 2 | You do not feel like a success | |
| 3 | You feel like you have succeeded more than the average person | |
| 4 | As you look back on your life, all you see is a lot of successes | |
| 5 | You feel like you are an extremely successful person |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
4. Which statement best describes your degree of boredom/interest?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Most of the time you are bored | |
| 2 | Most the time you are neither bored nor interested in what you are doing | |
| 3 | Most of the time you are interested in what you are doing | |
| 4 | Most of the time you are quite interested in what you are doing | |
| 5 | Most of the time you are fascinated by what you are doing |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
5. Which statement best describes your degree of pleasure/displeasure
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You are displeased with yourself | |
| 2 | You are neither pleased or displeased with yourself, ie neutral | |
| 3 | You are pleased with yourself | |
| 4 | You are very pleased with yourself | |
| 5 | You could not be more pleased with yourself |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
6. Which statement best describes your degree of frustration when working on a task
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | When you are working on a task, you often feel frustrated | |
| 2 | When you are working on a task, sometimes you feel frustrated and sometimes you don't | |
| 3 | When you are working on a task, you are usually not frustrated | |
| 4 | When you are working on the task, you are rarely frustrated | |
| 5 | When you are working on the task, you are almost never frustrated |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
7. Which statement best describes your attitude to joy*ii
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You are joyless | |
| 2 | You are neither joyful or joyless | |
| 3 | You are more joyful than joyless | |
| 4 | You are more joyful than joyless | |
| 5 | Almost everything about my life fills me with joy |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
ii) Joy can be defined as a positive emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires (main source: Merriam-Webster dictionary).
8. Which statement best describes your attitude to your work?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You dislike your work (paid or unpaid) | |
| 2 | You neither like or dislike your work | |
| 3 | For the most part, you like your work | |
| 4 | Your work gives you great satisfaction | |
| 5 | You work provides true and general satisfaction |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
9. Which statement best describes your attitude to the choices you have made?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You have made more bad choices than good ones in your life | |
| 2 | Some of the choices you have made in life had been good; some have been poor | |
| 3 | You have made more good choices then than poor ones in your life | |
| 4 | You have made mostly good choices in your life | |
| 5 | Even if you could, you would not change any of the choices you made |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
10. Which statement best describes your attitude to your life?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your life is bad | |
| 2 | Your life is okay | |
| 4 | Your life is good | |
| 5 | Your life is very good | |
| 6 | Your life is wonderful |
Your life is wonderful
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
11. Which statement best describes your attitude to your purpose in life?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Your life does not have a purpose | |
| 2 | You do not know your purpose in life | |
| 3 | You have an idea about your purpose in life | |
| 4 | You have a pretty good idea about your purpose in life | |
| 5 | You have a very clear idea about your purpose in life |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
12. Which statement best describes your attitude to your energy levels?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You have little or no energy | |
| 2 | Your energy level is neither high nor low | |
| 3 | You have a good amount of energy | |
| 4 | You feel energetic doing almost everything | |
| 5 | You have so much energy that you feel you can do almost anything |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
13. Which statement best describes your attitude to your use of time?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Time passes slowly during most or all of your activities | |
| 2 | Time passes quickly during some of your activities and slowly for other activities | |
| 3 | Time passes quickly during most of your activities. | |
| 4 | Time passes quickly during all of your activities | |
| 5 | Time passes so quickly during all of my activities that you do not even notice it |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
14. Which statement best describes your attitude to your self-image?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You are ashamed of who you are | |
| 2 | You are not ashamed of who you are | |
| 3 | You are proud of who you are | |
| 4 | You are very proud of who you are | |
| 5 | You are extraordinarily proud of who you are |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
15. Which statement best describes your attitude to the future?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You are discouraged about the future | |
| 2 | You are neither encouraged or discouraged about the future | |
| 3 | You feel somewhat encouraged about the future | |
| 4 | You feel encouraged about the future | |
| 5 | You feel extraordinarily encouraged about the future |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
16. Which statement best describes your attitude to your attention at work?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | When you are working on a task, you pay more attention to what is going on around you, then you do to the task | |
| 2 | When you are working on a task, you pay as much attention to what is going on around you as you do to the task | |
| 3 | When you are working on a task, you pay more attention to the task than to what is going on around you | |
| 4 | When you are working on a task, you rarely notice what is going on around you | |
| 5 | When you are working on a task, you pay so much attention to it that the outside world practically ceases to exist |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
17. Which statement best describes your attitude your time management?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daily you spend almost all of your time doing things that are unimportant | |
| 2 | Daily you spend a lot of time doing things that are neither important nor unimportant | |
| 4 | Practically every moment of your day is spent doing things that are important | |
| 5 | You spend the greater part of each day doing things that are important | |
| Daily you spend some time doing things that are important |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
18. Are you a more of a pessimist or an optimist?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | You are pessimistic | |
| 2 | You neither enjoy nor dislike your daily routine | |
| 3 | You are optimistic | |
| 4 | You are very optimistic | |
| 5 | You are the most optimistic person you know |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
19. Which statement best describes your attitude to the world?
| No. | Statements | Tick*i |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | If anything, what you do has a negative impact on the world | |
| 2 | In the grand scheme of things, your existence neither helps nor hurts the world | |
| 3 | You are making a small but positive difference in the world | |
| 4 | You are making the world a better place | |
| 5 | You enjoy your daily routine so much you almost never take breaks from it |
Notes
i) Tick the box with the most appropriate statement.
Comments
- The higher the number of your response, ie 1 to 5, the better your happiness. Conversely, the lower the number of your response, the lower your level of happiness
(main source: https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/steen-happiness-index-shi/#google_vignette)