Policy makers’ ultimate goal is to deliver the highest possible level of population welfare. Economists investigate the effect of socio-economic dimensions on wellbeing using unidimensional measures of life satisfaction or happiness as proxies for welfare. However, social psychologists have shown that wellbeing is a much broader construct and that an intervention may have opposite effects on its components. Unidimensional measures may hide these patterns. Most literature focuses on high-income countries. The growing evidence from low- and middle-income countries also largely relies on standard unidimensional measures. This study tests the validity of this reliance by exploring the wellbeing construct of South African women, quantitatively analysing textual data from focus group discussions to investigate whether unidimensional measures are appropriate in this context. It provides evidence against the indiscriminate use of unidimensional wellbeing measures. Cluster and correspondence analysis of the transcripts show that relevant domains of women’s wellbeing include relations with others, autonomy, and a perception of control over their environment (environmental mastery). Results also reveal that participants have a relational view of themselves, distinct from the individuated view predominant in the US and Europe and the collectivist view found in East Asia. Such relational self-perception modifies study participants’ wellbeing construct in ways that are important for policy implementation and evaluation. For example, women’s autonomy and environmental mastery rely on shared peer-identity to redefine rules and meet challenges. Wellbeing measures for policy evaluation would benefit from incorporating these insights to meaningfully measure progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3 on ‘good health and wellbeing’ in South Africa and other contexts that exhibit similar concepts of wellbeing.

政策制定者的最终目标是提供尽可能高水平的人口福利。经济学家使用生活满意度或幸福的单维测量作为福利的代理来研究社会经济维度对幸福的影响。然而，社会心理学家已经表明，幸福是一个更广泛的结构，干预可能对其组成部分产生相反的影响。一维度量可能会隐藏这些模式。大多数文献都集中在高收入国家。来自低收入和中等收入国家的越来越多的证据也很大程度上依赖于标准的单维测量。这项研究通过探索南非女性的幸福感来检验这种依赖的有效性，定量分析来自焦点小组讨论的文本数据，以调查单维测量在这种情况下是否合适。它提供了反对滥用一维福利措施的证据。对成绩单的聚类和对应分析表明，女性幸福的相关领域包括与他人的关系、自主权和对环境控制的感知（环境掌控）。结果还表明，参与者对自己有一种关系观，这与美国和欧洲占主导地位的个人观点和东亚地区的集体主义观点不同。这种关系性自我认知以对政策实施和评估很重要的方式改变了研究参与者的幸福感。例如，女性的自主权和对环境的掌控依赖于共同的同伴身份来重新定义规则和迎接挑战。政策评估的福祉措施将受益于纳入这些见解，以有意义地衡量在南非和其他表现出类似福祉概念的情况下实现可持续发展目标 3“良好健康和福祉”的进展。