Citation: Peter Warr. (1990) The measurement of wellbeing and other aspects of mental health. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 193-210.
PMID or DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8325.1990.tb00521.x
Main positive psychological well-being construct measured: Affective well-being
Sub-constructs measured: Anxiety, comfort (labelled earlier contentment), depression, enthusiasm, competence, aspiration, negative job carry-over
Available subscales:
- job-related affective well-being
- job-related anxiety-contentment (6 items)
- job-related depression-enthusiasm (6 items)
- non-job-related affective well-being
- non-job-related anxiety-contentment (6 items)
- non-job-related depression-enthusiasm (6 items)
- competence
- reported job competence *read resilience* (6 items)
- non-job-related competence *read resilience* (6 items)
- aspiration
- reported job aspiration (6 items)
- non-job-related aspiration (6 items)
- negative job carry-over (4 items)
Description: This measure assesses two axes of affective well-being: job-related and non-job related mental health, based upon dimensions of pleasure and arousal, competence, aspiration and negative job carry‐over.
Number of items: 52
Example of statement/item: “Thinking of the past few weeks, how much of the time has your job made you feel each of the following? (e.g., tense, uneasy, worried, calm, contented, relaxed)
“In the past few weeks, how much of the time in your life outside your job have you felt each of the following? (e.g., depressed, gloomy, miserable, cheerful, enthusiastic, optimistic)
“Please rate how strongly you agree or disagree with the following statements”: I can do my job well; I enjoy doing things in my job; I find it difficult to unwind at the end of a work day
Response options:
- For the job and non-job related affective well-being sections, the answer options were “never, occasionally, some of the time, much of the time, most of the time, all of the time”, scored 1-6 respectively.
- For the job and non-job related competence, aspiration, and negative job carry-over sections, the answer options are “strongly disagree, disagree, neither disagree nor agree, agree, strongly agree”, scored 1-5 respectively.
Total score: A mean score for each scale is found by reverse scoring each of the negative adjectives, adding each response, and dividing by the number of responses. Higher scores on each scale indicates higher affective well-being in that category.
Examples of studies:
Daniels, K., & Guppy, A. (1994). Occupational stress, social support, job control, and psychological well-being. Human Relations, 47(12), 1523–1544.
Kompier, M. A., Taris, T. W., & van Veldhoven, M. (2012). Tossing and turning–insomnia in relation to occupational stress, rumination, fatigue, and well-being. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 38(3), 238–246.
Jones, M.K., Latreille, P.L. and Sloane, P.J. (2016), Job Anxiety, Work-Related Psychological Illness and Workplace Performance. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 54: 742-767.