Assessing whether people are living comfortably and happily is in great demand not only in psychology, but also in such diverse fields as policy making and urban development. In response to this demand, many psychological studies have used a questionnaire method in which participants are presented with several questionnaire items and asked to answer them. In recent years, however, there are so many scales that measure the degree of people’s subjective well-being. To clarify which academic disciplines address these scales and to obtain suggestions for future use of the scales, this study conducted a review of scales measuring people’s subjective well-being and proximity concepts. We conducted a literature review using the Google Scholar and CiNii Research databases. After screening, we found 70 publications that were eligible for the review in this study. The specific constructs addressed by these publications were: 10 reporting on subjective well-being, 12 reporting on happiness, 10 reporting on satisfaction, 10 reporting on quality of life, 7 reporting on purpose in life, 11 reporting on emotions and moods, and 10 reporting on self-esteem. These were examined in a wide range of academic disciplines, not just in psychology. None of the 7 scales measuring purpose in life were translated from English, but rather the items were developed based on research with Japanese participants. Given the varying scales for subjective well-being and proximity concepts, the need for a new scale in this area should be thoroughly considered once again when conducting a survey. If a new scale is not highly needed, it is important to use representative scales that have been frequently used in previous studies. Our findings are significant for the appropriate use of scales on subjective well-being and proximity concepts by psychological researchers and for their proper advice to researchers in other fields.
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