fear of happiness scale

Fear of Happiness Scale

Primary use / Purpose:

To measure fear of happiness or aversion to happiness (the belief that happiness may cause bad things to happen).

Psychometrics:

The scale has 5 items. It has demonstrated acceptable validity, reliability, and measurement invariance in 15 cultures (see the key references).

Author of Tool:

Mohsen Joshanloo

Key references:

Joshanloo, M., Lepshokova, Z. Kh., Panyusheva, T., Natalia, A. Poon, W.C., Yeung, V.W., Sundaram, S., Achoui, M., Asano, R., Igarashi, T., Tsukamoto, S., Rizwan, M., Khilji, I., A., Ferreira, M. C., Pang, J.S., Ho, L.S., Han, G., Bae, J., & Jiang, D. (2014). Cross-cultural validation of the fear of happiness scale across 14 national groups. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 45(2), 246-264. doi: 10.1177/0022022113505357

Joshanloo, M. (2013). The influence of fear of happiness beliefs on responses to the satisfaction with life scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 54(5), 647-651.

The fear of happiness scale

1234567
Strongly disagreeSomewhat disagreeA little disagreeNeither Agree or DisagreeA little agreeSomewhat agreeStrongly agree
1. I prefer not to be too joyful, because usually joy is followed by sadness.1234567
2. I believe the more cheerful and happy I am, the more I should expect

bad things to occur in my life.

1234567
3. Disasters often follow good fortune.1234567
4. Having lots of joy and fun causes bad things to happen.1234567
5. Excessive joy has some bad consequences.123456

7

Cite this article

mohammad looti (2026). Fear of Happiness Scale. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Retrieved from https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/fear-of-happiness-scale/

mohammad looti. "Fear of Happiness Scale." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 1 Apr. 2026, https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/fear-of-happiness-scale/.

mohammad looti. "Fear of Happiness Scale." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, 2026. https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/fear-of-happiness-scale/.

mohammad looti (2026) 'Fear of Happiness Scale', PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. Available at: https://scales.arabpsychology.com/s/fear-of-happiness-scale/.

[1] mohammad looti, "Fear of Happiness Scale," PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES, vol. X, no. Y, ص Z-Z, April, 2026.

mohammad looti. Fear of Happiness Scale. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCALES. 2026;vol(issue):pages.

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