My Simplicity Score
UPDATE ON MEASUREMENT STUDY
Simple Living America is working with Dr. Kirk Warren Brown and his team at Virginia Commonwealth University’s psychology department to scientifically construct the first simple living measurement scale for the general public, defining the concept broadly as “substantially free of detractions from fulfillment and sufficiency” (full academic definition below).
The scientists have completed extensive analysis on a random sample of 912 surveys from the thousands of responses received, in order to see if some of the 30 scale items used so far to measure the above concept hang together as a unit. So far they do not, potentially due to the self-selected, mostly high-scoring responders at the SLA website, and we will follow their recommendation to collect data from a different sample in the general population. Their professional wording and description of the process to date is below in italics, followed by brief demographic statistics on the sample analyzed. (The current survey with this explanation will remain on the SLA website for now, since thousands of responses continue to come in, just for fun.)
Factor Analyses of Simple Living Scale
The factor structure of the Simple Living Scale was explored with a series of factor analyses. First, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to identify the factor structure for the scale (N=300). Examination of the eigenvalues, scree plot and percent of variance explained by each factor supported a unidimensional model. Results from the EFA also revealed six scale items (2, 6, 20, 23, 27, and 30) that were not performing as well as the other items, based on an examination of the factor loadings. Consequently, these items were removed from the scale prior to further analyses.
After the factor structure was identified and poorly performing items were removed from the scale, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on an independent sample drawn from the same data set as the EFA (N=311). Conducting a CFA after an EFA is a recommended strategy because it provides a more stringent test of the model. Examination of the fit statistics from the CFA revealed poor fit for the one-factor model… In an effort to diagnosis model misfit, scale items were inspected for patterns of skew and kurtosis. This inspection revealed a potential root of the poor CFA fit, namely a self-selected sample, wherein many responses to items were at the high end of Likert scale range. This is problematic because in cases where a sample is considerably more homogeneous than the population on questionnaire items, the result can be restriction of range, which attenuates correlations. Therefore, our recommendation is to collect data from a broader sample of participants that more closely reflects the perceptions and lifestyles of the general population. This would attenuate or eliminate the range restriction issue, facilitate factor analyses, and permit a clearer interpretation of whether the items, or a subset thereof, do indeed comprise a coherent scale.
Brief Demographic Description of Sample Analyzed
The ages ranged from 16 to 85 years with a mean of 41.95 years. The gender breakdown was 21.1% male and 78.9% female. In terms of ethnicity, 84.9% were White, 7.5% were Black, and the remaining 7.6% included Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. The most substantial diversity was seen in the annual family income category: 8.9% were under $9,999 and 7.2% were over $150,000, with a fairly even distribution of incomes between these figures.
Current Academic Definition of Simple Living for the Study
The following working definition of simple living is based on follow-up from Simple Living America’s January 2004 “Mental Health and Simple Living” conference at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, especially work with Dr. Roderic Gorney and Dr. Peter C. Whybrow. This academic definition is broadly framed for diverse perspectives and does not specify all aspects of simple living:
Simple Living is a self-endorsed pattern of activities, possessions and values that is substantially free of detractions from fulfillment and sufficiency, fostered by conducive social policies.
If you are interested in participating in this short, anonymous survey and finding out your ad hoc simplicity score according to the above definition, select the response for each item in the survey that best applies to you:
1 = very untrue for me
2 = somewhat untrue for me
3 = slightly untrue for me
4 = slightly true for me
5 = somewhat true for me
6 = very true for me
All thirty items need to be filled in to obtain your score. Each statement is worded differently, although some differ by only one word. For scientific purposes, each person may take the survey only once.
At the conclusion of the survey, there are demographic questions helpful to the development of this work.
Begin The Survey
My Simplicity Score
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at Cornell University"Our Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska DVD is now part of the library collection of our local simplicity group. The DVD is an excellent resource for sharing useful hints and tips with others in our Simple Living community. I plan to give out “I simplify” buttons from Simple Living America to simple living people in my area and also have them on hand for future conferences, tabling, and similar events."
Kathryn Benedicto
Sunnyvale, CA