Most people know when they’re struggling, but it can be harder to actually pinpoint when you’re getting better. The Flourishing Scale is a quick, research-based tool that can help assess psychological well-being and life functioning.
This article will help you learn more about the Flourishing Scale’s applications, alongside:
The Flourishing Scale was originally developed by University of Virginia psychologist Ed Diener, a renowned researcher in the science of well-being, along with his colleague Robert Biswas-Diener.[1]
It consists of eight statements in all that a person rates on a scale of one to seven, from strongly disagree to strongly agree (known as a Likert scale):
The statements to be ranked on the measurement scale are:[2]
Diener spent decades in his career arguing that mental health research had focused too much on what’s going wrong and ignoring what it looks like when things go right.[3] The Flourishing Scale can provide a more balanced view of where you are currently, and where improvements can be made.
In positive psychology, flourishing refers to a state of optimal human functioning. This doesn’t mean the absence of problems, but the presence of things that make life worthwhile.[4] Researchers in positive psychology tend to view happiness as a combination of two things:[4]
As a result, the Flourishing Scale focuses more directly on psychological functioning and perceived life meaning than many symptom-based mental health tools.
The Flourishing Scale is not a diagnostic tool intended to note the potential presence of a mental health disorder, and it can’t tell you if you have depression, anxiety, or other mental health conditions.
It’s intended to measure subjective well-being and how a person perceives their own life. This is meaningful data, but it is not the same as a full mental health assessment.
For adults already in treatment, this difference is what makes the scale so useful. Many mental health self-assessments focus mainly on symptoms and how challenging things are. The Flourishing Scale gives you an idea of how fully you’re living, even when difficult symptoms might also be present.
Most mental health screening tools for adults, such as the PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) for depression or the GAD-7 (General Anxiety Disorder-7) for anxiety, screen and track for potential illness. The best possible score you can get means that nothing is potentially wrong from a clinical standpoint.
Emotional well-being evaluation tools such as the Flourishing Scale ask how often you feel:
A person can score well on a depression-based inventory, meaning their symptoms have reduced, and still feel as if their life lacks meaning or direction overall. Many standardized measurements wouldn’t be able to detect that, but a quality-of-life assessment built around well-being can detect these experiences.
It’s important to note that these two approaches aren’t in competition with one another. They are intended to measure different things, and the most complete picture of how someone is doing can come from using both as part of a full biopsychosocial assessment by a professional.
The well-being questionnaire developed by Diener is designed to be accessible and easy to complete. You don’t need a clinician to administer or interpret the assessment in order to get a better idea of your well-being.
Once you’ve rated each of the eight statements between 1 and 7, add your total score together. Scores can range from eight to 56. Overall, a higher score reflects a strong association with the statements the scale includes, while lower scores can suggest areas that are worth paying closer attention to.
A single score has useful information, but a series of scores taken across weeks and months is much more useful. Measuring life satisfaction isn’t intended to be a one-time exercise, so taking the scale once per month and logging your scores can give you a record of movement across several meaningful life domains.
Tracking mental health progress like this may help to reveal patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. If you are currently engaged in treatment, sharing these scores with your clinician can add new dimensions to therapy that work alongside symptom-focused work.
AMFM is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
Mood, by definition, fluctuates, as do the circumstances of your life. Tracking your well-being over an extended period of time can help you see new patterns that might otherwise be missed.
When someone takes the Flourishing Scale, they’re building a record in time. A score that climbs over three months tells a story, as does a score that goes up after a vacation and drops back down again.
This is useful information for adults who might find it hard to gauge their own improvement. People engaged in mental health care adapt to their baseline gradually, which means they can lose track of how much things have changed.
Most clinical check-ins lean on the events of the past week. That’s useful information, but it’s also a narrow window. A therapist who can see your own sense of purpose has remained flat while your mood has improved has many more avenues to help you explore, giving a more complete picture and generating more impactful conversations.
Regularly asking yourself how engaged, connected, purposeful, and meaningful your life is also functions as a useful practice. Adults who make a habit of self-reflection can catch changes earlier and respond to stressors with more intention, recognizing the habits that help them function at their best.[5]
A Flourishing Scale score is at its most useful when you view it as a starting point. There are no universally accepted clinical cutoff scores for the Flourishing Scale. However, here is a general framework for interpreting your measurements:
Your score doesn’t define you. As with any measurement, your score is only a tool to better understand what you’re experiencing. A pattern of low scores could be an invitation to explore your experience and take care of your mental health.
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Yes, it is. Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener developed and validated the scale through peer-reviewed research, and it has since been used across hundreds of studies of well-being in diverse populations.[6] The Flourishing Scale isn’t a diagnostic tool, but its validity as a mental well-being assessment tool has been well established.
For most people, once a month would be a good frequency. Taking it too often (such as every week) could narrow the scope too much to identify any meaningful patterns. Monthly intervals will likely give you enough time for genuine shifts to register and settle while also keeping the data current enough to be actionable.
Yes, and the scale might give you new ideas and directions to pursue. Bringing your Flourishing Scale scores to appointments can give your therapist a broader view of how you’re doing overall, and across dimensions that standard clinical check-ins might not touch on. Most therapists would welcome this kind of information in the work you’re doing together.
Getting flat or declining scores isn’t a sign that your therapy or treatment isn’t working. However, they are something to talk about with your treatment team.
Treatment inherently tends to focus on addressing symptoms, so lower scores could be a sign that some aspects of your well-being haven’t yet had the chance to be addressed.
At AMFM, we strive to provide the most up-to-date and accurate medical information based on current best practices, evolving information, and our team’s approach to care. Our aim is that our readers can make informed decisions about their healthcare.
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