The Development of the Positive Emotion Assessment of Contentment Experience (PEACE) Scale

Contentment is an emotion that arises from the perception of completeness in life. Through a series of validation studies, the purpose of this work was to develop a scale of dispositional contentment, The Positive Emotion Assessment of Contentment Experience (PEACE) Scale. The PEACE Scale demonstrated favorable psychometric properties, including single factor structure, high internal consistency (alpha = .93), temporal reliability (r = .86), and construct and predictive validity. Scores on the PEACE Scale were positively correlated with all Big Five personality traits except for neuroticism. Scores also correlated positively with unconditional self-acceptance, and negatively with depression, anxiety, and stress. In addition, high levels of contentment were predictive of lower materialism and greed. Potential uses of the scale are discussed.

Automated summary

This study aimed to develop a scale of dispositional contentment, The Positive Emotion Assessment of Contentment Experience (PEACE) Scale, and found that the PEACE Scale demonstrated favorable psychometric properties. Scores on the PEACE Scale were positively correlated with all Big Five personality traits except for neuroticism, and also correlated positively with unconditional self-acceptance, and negatively with depression, anxiety, and stress. High levels of contentment were predictive of lower materialism and greed.