Flourishing: what Ed Diener's eight-question scale measures

Picture someone with no symptoms of anything. They sleep well, they are rarely anxious, and their mood is steady. Ask them whether their days mean anything, whether people around them would miss their help, or whether they are getting better at something they care about, and the answers may be vague. Psychologists have a word for the state where those answers are clear and positive: flourishing.

Our Flourishing Test is based on the Flourishing Scale by Ed Diener and colleagues. It gives you one score for how well you are doing across eight areas of life.

Beyond the absence of problems

In 2002 the sociologist Corey Keyes described mental health as a continuum from languishing to flourishing. Languishing means a life that feels hollow or stuck, even when no mental illness is present. Flourishing means feeling good and also functioning well, with purpose, growth and good relationships. Keyes found that many adults without any diagnosis were not flourishing, so the absence of illness and the presence of wellbeing need to be measured separately.

Martin Seligman made a similar point in his 2011 book Flourish, where he described wellbeing through positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment.

The Flourishing Scale

In 2010 Ed Diener, Derrick Wirtz, William Tov and colleagues published the Flourishing Scale, eight short statements about the areas that theories of psychological wellbeing treat as basic. Diener had earlier created the Satisfaction with Life Scale, which asks how you judge your life as a whole. The Flourishing Scale asks about specific parts of a good life instead.

Our test uses the eight statements of the published scale. They include "I lead a purposeful and meaningful life", "I am engaged and interested in my daily activities", "I actively contribute to the happiness and well-being of others" and "People respect me". The others cover supportive relationships, competence, being a good person, and optimism about the future.

The original asks you to answer on a seven-point scale. We use a five-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, so your number may not match published norms exactly. No statement is scored in reverse, and all eight add up to one flourishing score.

Reading your score

A high score means you see your life as meaningful, your relationships as supportive, and yourself as capable and useful to others. It does not mean you never have bad days. Flourishing describes how your life is going overall, and you can have a high score in a stressful week.

A lower score is most useful when you look at the individual statements. The eight areas are fairly separate. Someone can feel competent at work and still answer low on relationships, or feel close to people but unsure what their days add up to. The statements you rated lowest point to where a change would make the most difference, for example more time with people who support you, or a project that uses your skills.

The scale was built for the general population and does not screen for depression or any other condition. If a low score comes with weeks of low mood, loss of interest or poor sleep, consider the PHQ-9 depression test and a conversation with a doctor or psychologist.

To compare flourishing with your overall judgement of your life, take the Satisfaction with Life Scale. If meaning was your lowest area, the meaning in life test looks at it more closely, and the post on the Subjective Happiness Scale covers the emotional side of wellbeing.