Section 1: The Perceived Wellness Survey (Get a copy)

The following statements are designed to provide information about your wellness perceptions. Please carefully and thoughtfully consider each statement, then select the one response option with which you most agree.

(Instructions to Researcher: Use as poles for the scale “Very Strongly Disagree” and “Very Strongly Agree.” The numerical value of each pole is respectively, “1” and “6.” Do not use descriptors over numbers 2 through 5.)

(Items marked with * should be reverse coded but you would obviously want to leave the * out of the actual scale)

1. I am always optimistic about my future.
2. There have been times when I felt inferior to most of the people I knew.*
3. Members of my family come to me for support.
4. My physical health has restricted me in the past. *
5. I believe there is a real purpose for my life.
6. I will always seek out activities that challenge me to think and reason.
7. I rarely count on good things happening to me. *
8. In general, I feel confident about my abilities.
9. Sometimes I wonder if my family will really be there for me when
I am in need.*
10. My body seems to resist physical illness very well.
11. Life does not hold much future promise for me. *
12. I avoid activities which require me to concentrate. *
13. I always look on the bright side of things.
14. I sometimes think I am a worthless individual. *
15. My friends know they can always confide in me and ask me for advice.
16. My physical health is excellent.
17. Sometimes I don’t understand what life is all about. *
18. Generally, I feel pleased with the amount of intellectual stimulation
I receive in my daily life.
19. In the past, I have expected the best.
20. I am uncertain about my ability to do things well in the future. *
21. My family has been available to support me in the past.
22. Compared to people I know, my past physical health has been excellent.
23. I feel a sense of mission about my future.
24. The amount of information that I process in a typical day is just about right for me (i.e., not too much and not too little).
25. In the past, I hardly ever expected things to go my way. *
26. I will always be secure with who I am.
27. In the past, I have not always had friends with whom I could share my
joys and sorrows. *
28. I expect to always be physically healthy.
29. I have felt in the past that my life was meaningless. *
30. In the past, I have generally found intellectual challenges to be
vital to my overall well-being.
31. Things will not work out the way I want them to in the future. *
32. In the past, I have felt sure of myself among strangers.
33. My friends will be there for me when I need help.
34. I expect my physical health to get worse. *
35. It seems that my life has always had purpose.
36. My life has often seemed void of positive mental stimulation. *

Section 2: PWS Subscales

The PWS items are numbered 1 through 36, but for ease of scoring they are numbered according to their respective subscale.

Psychological Items
PSY1 is #1. I am always optimistic about my future.
PSY2 is #7. I rarely count on good things happening to me.*
PSY3 is #13. I always look on the bright side of things.
PSY4 is #19. In the past, I have expected the best.
PSY5 is #25. In the past, I hardly ever expected things to go my way.*
PSY6 is #31. Things will not work out the way I want them to in the future.*

Emotional Items
EMOT1 is #2. There have been times when I felt inferior to most of the people I knew.*
EMOT2 is #8. In general, I feel confident about my abilities.
EMOT3 is #14. I sometimes think I am a worthless individual.*
EMOT4 is #20. I am uncertain about my ability to do things well in the future.*
EMOT5 is #26. I will always be secure with who I am.
EMOT6 is #32. In the past, I have felt sure of myself among strangers.

Social Items
SOC1 is #3. Members of my family come to me for support.
SOC2 is #9. Sometimes I wonder if my family will really be there for me when I am in need.*
SOC3 is #15. My friends know they can always confide in me and ask me for advice.
SOC4 is #21. My family has been available to support me in the past.
SOC5 is #27. In the past, I have not always had friends with whom I could share my joys and sorrows.*
SOC6 is #33. My friends will be there for me when I need of help.

Physical Items
PHYS1 is #4. My physical health has restricted me in the past.*
PHYS2 is #10. My body seems to resist physical illness very well.
PHYS3 is #16. My physical health is excellent.
PHYS4 is #22. Compared to people I know, my past physical health has been excellent.
PHYS5 is #28. I expect to always be physically healthy.
PHYS6 is #34. I expect my physical health to get worse.*

Spiritual Items
SPIR1 is #5. I believe that there is a real purpose for my life.
SPIR2 is #11. Life does not hold much future promise for me.*
SPIR3 is #17. Sometimes I don’t understand what life is all about.*
SPIR4 is #23. I feel a sense of mission about my future.
SPIR5 is #29. I have felt in the past that my life was meaningless.*
SPIR6 is #35. It seems that my life has always had purpose.

Intellectual Items
INT1 is #6. I will always seek out activities that challenge me to think and reason.
INT2 is #12. I avoid activities which require me to concentrate. *
INT3 is #18. Generally, I feel pleased with the amount of intellectual stimulation I receive in my daily life.
INT4 is #24. The amount of information that I process in a typical day is just about right for me (i.e., not too much, not too little).
INT5 is #30. In the past, I have generally found intellectual challenges to be vital to my overall well-being.
INT6 is #36. My life has often seemed void of positive mental stimulation. *

Section 3: Scoring Instructions
The methods below are based on the congruence to “wellness philosophy.” It is important that they be followed. The scoring method is described step by step below. One way to score the PWS is to open both the data file and the syntax file, highlight all the text in the syntax file, and then type Control+R (PC) or Command+R (Mac).

1. Score each item from 1, “very strongly disagree” to 6, “very strongly agree.” No labels are applied to respond options 2-5. Items with * are reverse scored.
2. Sum all of the subscale means. The result is the Wellness Magnitude.
3. Divide Wellness Magnitude by 6. The result is called “xbar.”
4. For each subscale, compute the following: (subscale mean – xbar)2. The result is called subscale deviation.
5. Sum all of the subscale deviations, then divide the total by 5 (n-1). The result is called the variance. Compute the Wellness Balance with the following formula [(square root of the variance) + 1.25]. The 1.25 is added to the denominator to prevent a Wellness Balance of 0 from creating an invalid Wellness Composite score.
6. Compute the Wellness Composite score with the following formula: Wellness Magnitude/Wellness Balance.

Sophisticated statisticians will recognize that there are quicker “more efficient” ways to do the statistics below. I continue to use the formula below because a) it helped my dissertation committee understand what I was doing, b) it has helped many readers comprehend how the philosophy and theory described in the paper can actually be translated into statistics, c) it is simple, and d) it works.

The variable “Wellness” is the primary variable of interest although you may also be interested in the subscales which are PSYWELL, SOCWELL, PHYSWELL, SPIRWELL, INTWELL, and EMOTWELL. However, I suggest that you check the subscale reliability before using the subscale scores.

Section 4: Computer Syntax (If you copy and paste the below into a syntax window of your favorite statistical software package, everything should score automatically). 

RECODE PSY2 PSY5 PSY6 EMOT1 EMOT3 EMOT4 SOC2 SOC5 PHYS1 PHYS6 SPIR2 SPIR3 SPIR5 INT2 INT6
(1=6) (2=5) (3=4) (4=3) (5=2) (6=1).
COMPUTE PSYWELL = PSY1+PSY2+PSY3+PSY4+PSY5+PSY6.
COMPUTE SOCWELL = SOC1+SOC2+SOC3+SOC4+SOC5+SOC6.
COMPUTE PHYSWELL = PHYS1+PHYS2+PHYS3+PHYS4+PHYS5+PHYS6.
COMPUTE SPIRWELL = SPIR1+SPIR2+SPIR3+SPIR4+SPIR5+SPIR6.
COMPUTE INTWELL = INT1+INT2+INT3+INT4+INT5+INT6.
COMPUTE EMOTWELL = EMOT1+EMOT2+EMOT3+EMOT4+EMOT5+EMOT6.
COMPUTE PSYMEAN = PSYWELL/6.
COMPUTE SOCMEAN = SOCWELL/6.
COMPUTE PHYSMEAN = PHYSWELL/6.
COMPUTE SPIRMEAN = SPIRWELL/6.
COMPUTE INTMEAN = INTWELL/6.
COMPUTE EMOTMEAN = EMOTWELL/6.
COMPUTE MAGNITUD = PSYMEAN+INTMEAN+SOCMEAN+PHYSMEAN+SPIRMEAN+EMOTMEAN.
COMPUTE XBAR = MAGNITUD/6.
COMPUTE EMOTDEV = (EMOTMEAN-XBAR)*(EMOTMEAN-XBAR).
COMPUTE PSYDEV = (PSYMEAN-XBAR)*(PSYMEAN-XBAR).
COMPUTE SOCDEV = (SOCMEAN-XBAR)*(SOCMEAN-XBAR).
COMPUTE PHYSDEV = (PHYSMEAN-XBAR)*(PHYSMEAN-XBAR).
COMPUTE SPIRDEV = (SPIRMEAN-XBAR)*(SPIRMEAN-XBAR).
COMPUTE INTDEV = (INTMEAN-XBAR)*(INTMEAN-XBAR).
COMPUTE SUMDEV = PSYDEV+SOCDEV+PHYSDEV+SPIRDEV+INTDEV+EMOTDEV.
COMPUTE VARIANCE = SUMDEV/5.
COMPUTE BALANCE = SQRT(VARIANCE)+1.25.
COMPUTE WELLNESS = MAGNITUD/BALANCE.