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Irrational Happiness Beliefs Scale: Development and Initial Validation

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Abstract

This study sought to develop a new scale of irrational happiness beliefs (IHB) and test its reliability and validity across two British samples. The participants were subjected to a series of happiness, rationality, irrationality, and subjective and psychological well-being measures. The exploratory (n = 207) and confirmatory factor analyses (n = 157) suggested that the IHB scale was unidimensional with three items demonstrating a good internal consistency reliability estimate. The IHB also showed significant positive correlations with measures of valuing happiness, negative affect, perceived stress and irrational thinking, and that significant negative correlations with measures of satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, positive affect, psychological well-being, and rational thinking. Additionally, the IHB scale was found to be discriminated from the valuing happiness measure. The results thus suggest that the IHB is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to assess one’s irrational happiness beliefs and that can readily be placed within wider psychology by contributing to individual well-being.

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Acknowledgements

This study is a part of PhD thesis entitled “Irrational Happiness Beliefs: Conceptualization, Measurement and its Relationship with Well-being, Personality, Coping Strategies, and Arousal” of the first author under the supervision of Prof John Maltby.

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Authors

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Correspondence to Murat Yıldırım.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Ethics approval has been obtained before conducting the research.

Informed Consent

Consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Irrational Happiness Beliefs Scale

Instructions: Below are three statements that you may agree or disagree with. Using the 1 (strongly disagree)–7 (strongly agree) scale below, please indicate your agreement and disagreement with each item by circling the appropriate number on the line following that item.

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Strongly disagree

Somewhat disagree

A little disagree

Neither Agree nor Disagree

A little agree

Somewhat agree

Strongly agree

1. I should always be happy in all aspects of my life.

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7

2. I must always be happy in all aspects of my life.

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3. I ought always to be happy in all aspects of my life.

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7

Note: There is no reverse item on the scale. Sum all responses to create a total score. A high score indicates a greater level of irrational happiness beliefs

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Yıldırım, M., Maltby, J. Irrational Happiness Beliefs Scale: Development and Initial Validation. Int J Ment Health Addiction 20, 2277–2290 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00513-2

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