Yea-saying and mood-of-the-day effects in self-reported quality of life

This paper focuses on some of the complications that may arise from errors of measurement in quality of life (QOL) scales based on self-report. It is argued that systematic errors as well as random errors (specifically in the shape of mood-of-the-day effects) will tend to suppress, mask or “wash out” statistical associations between “objective”, sociologically relevant, indicators of well-being and self-reported quality of life. Results from a Norwegian sample of middle-aged and old participants in a health screening operation (N=610) are reported. The findings indicate that response acquiescence (“yea-saying”) may be a source of systematic error even in balanced QOL-scales, and that this bias may lead one to underestimate QOL among the well-educated and overestimate it among older respondents. Utilizing over-time data we are able to show that self-reported QOL appears particularly vulnerable to mood-of-the-day effects among younger females. Implications for sociological research on subjective well-being are pointed out.     

MEASURING QUALITY OF LIFE: ECONOMIC,SOCIAL, AND SUBJECTIVE INDICATORS

Thinkers have discussed the “good life” and the desirable society for millennia. In the last decades, scientists offered several alternative approaches to defining and measuring quality of life: social indicators such as health and levels of crime, subjective well-being measures (assessing people's evaluative reactions to their lives and societies), and economic indices. These alternative indicators assess three philosophical approaches to well-being that are based, respectively, on normative ideals, subjective experiences, and the ability to select goods and services that one desires. The strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches are reviewed. It is argued that social indicators and subjective well-being measures are necessary to evaluate a society, and add substantially to the regnant economic indicators that are now favored by policy makers. Each approach to measuring the quality of life contains information that is not contained in the other measures.     

Quality of life as a concept and measurable entity

This chapter proposes that “quality of life” (QOL) is a multidimensional concept, the measurement of which must contain objective elements of a person's life. It is further suggested that in the development of QOL measurement instruments the selection of items must be influenced significantly by the views of the population under study. Instruments to measure quality of life have been flawed owing to their inadequate conceptual bases and the attempts to utilise general measures which are often the “broad brush” to detect changes in disease specific situations. The chapter outlines conceptual approaches to quality of life and provides an analysis of a range of definitions. It provides an overview of a number of approaches to measure QOL in specific populations. Finally, it addresses some of the potential uses and abuses involved in the measurement of QOL. The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. (Albert Einstein, 1950, p. 59)      

Measuring Subjective Issues of Well-Being and Quality of Life in the European Statistical System

Over the last decades, the European Statistical System has developed many European statistics and indicators to measure social progress and sustainable development. Initially only in a few cases the measuring instruments contained questions on subjective issues. With the adoption of its Communication on “gross domestic product and beyond” the Commission has given an impetus to the development of subjective social indicators. This has led to the establishment of a first set of indicators on quality of life and well-being and to a new instrument (the 2013 EU-SILC ad-hoc module for measuring subjective well-being). This new step in European statistics creates an important potential for researchers to engage in in-depth analysis and for national and European Union policy makers to use the resulting indicators—and in casu subjective well-being indicators—for developing and monitoring policy strategies and programmes.     

Objective and Subjective Quality of Life: an Interactive Model

This paper reviews the relationship between objective and subjective quality of life indicators. It proposes that the interaction of these variables occurs within a system that homeostatically maintains subjective quality of life within a narrow range. Due to the capacity of this system to adapt to varying environmental circumstances, the objective and subjective indicators are normally poorly correlated. However, it is also proposed that very poor objective conditions can defeat homeostasis and, once this occurs, the objective and subjective indicators display stronger covariation. Empirical data are provided to support this model and the implications for understanding the QOL construct are discussed.     

Urban Quality of Life: A Case Study of Guwahati

This paper studies quality of life (QOL) in urban environment. The term environment has been used in broader sense, which includes physical, social and economic environment. A framework has been proposed which posits that QOL comprises objective condition of living and satisfaction from such living condition constitutes QOL. Such objective condition refers to objective QOL and satisfaction refers to subjective QOL. Dimension of QOL has been found to be multi dimensional. It has been found that both objective and subjective condition is important dimension of QOL. But correlation between objective and subjective QOL has been found not to be high. At the same time it has been found that satisfaction from condition of traffic is the lowest among all satisfaction variables.     

Quality of Life in Italian Official Surveys

Quality-of-life studies have a 50-year history and inherited the tradition of the “social indicators” movement, born in the United States during the sixties and involving scholars and researchers, supported by the public administration and interested in gathering and analysing data aimed at studying non-economic components of societal wellbeing. The idea of quantifying “symptoms” (indicators) of living conditions has been launched by Italian statistician and criminologist, Alfredo Niceforo, who has been recognised as the pioneer of social-indicators concept. Moreover, with his book on Les indices numérique de la civilisation et du progrès, he may be considered the originator of an approach of comprehensive welfare and quality of life measurement as it is the concern of modern social indicators and quality of life.     

Quality of life indicators and health: Current status and emerging conceptions

Quality of life is an increasingly common theme in the health status and health promotion literatures. Six approaches that consider quality of life and health are reviewed. These are (a) health-related quality of life; (b) quality of life as social diagnosis in health promotion; (c) quality of life among persons with developmental disabilities; (d) quality of life as social indicators; (e) the Centre for Health Promotion (University of Toronto) model, and (f) Lindstrom's quality of life model. Each approach is considered as to its emphasis on objective or subjective indicators, individual or system-level measurement, value-laden or value-neutral assumptions, and potential relationship to social policy and social change goals. The links among the social indicators, quality of life, and health promotions areas are examined.     

Subjective and objective indicators of regional quality of life in Switzerland

Mainly because of data limitations, direct comparisons between subjective and objective indicators of local or regional quality of life have been inconclusive until now. The 1978 opinion survey among more than 33 000 Swiss recruits representing about 80% of their age cohort allows one for the first time to disaggregate survey data regionally for all parts of a whole country. The portrait of 97 regions and 25 cantons of Switzerland, based on the recruits' assessments of their native commune, seem adequately to reflect the rich variety of quality of life experiences in this extremely decentralized and culturally heterogenous country. Evidence from several procedures for validating the opinion survey data is presented, among which comparisons between the subjective and selected objective indicators of regional quality of life prove to be most conclusive. In general, the intercorrelations between these two types of social indicators are astonishingly high. Some consequences of this result for the subjective vs. objective social indicator controversy are elaborated. Methodological considerations on the peculiar elusiveness of the quality of life category follow, indicating the outline of a workable methodology of usable social indicators knowledge.     

The Shape of South African Society and its Challenges

South Africa's negotiated settlement and its transition to democracy reads like a modern fairy tale. A brief review of South Africa's social indicators serves to temper some of optimism about the country's future. The indicators reflect the society's quality of life which has been shaped by its turbulent history. Political “caste formation”, changing political alliances, the reforms intended to forestall the demise of apartheid, and the race for global competitiveness have left indelible marks on the society's social indicators. A comparison of living conditions in South Africa with those of roughly comparable economies indicates that the country lags behind in securing overall and widespread socio-economic upgrading of the population at large. A review of a cross-section of South African indicators and their trends over time shows that South Africa is still a very deeply divided society with a very large backlog in socio-economic development. There is evidence of breakdown in the society's social cohesion. Popular expectations of future quality of life indicate that the euphoria following on the first democratic elections has been replaced by a sense of realism among all sectors of the population. It is concluded that quality of life as reflected in South Africa's social indicators may get worse before it improves. The challenge will be to avoid new forms of economic “apartheid” which would depress the quality of life of marginal sectors of the population at the expense of the economically privileged.     

Measuring Quality of Life

This paper considers quality of life (QOL) to be a global, yet unidimensional, subjective assessment of one's satisfaction with life. This conceptualization is consistent with viewing QOL assessments as resulting from the interaction of multiple causal dimensions, but it is inconsistent with proposals to limit QOL to health-related quality of life (HRQOL). We test the unidimensional yet global conceptualization of QOL using data from coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients. The Self-Anchoring Striving Scale (SASS) and four other indicators derived from the literature, all seemed to function as indicators of a single concept (QOL) that was repeatedly drawn upon as the patients determined their responses to these indicators. However, only about half the variance in each indicator was attributable to that common QOL source. Several structural equation models are used to assess whether the superior performance of the Life 3 indicator is an artifact of the repetition of an item within this indicator. The data convincingly indicate that the superior performance is not a memory artifact, and that even the repetition of an identically worded item prodded the patients into drawing yet again upon the same QOL factor that grounded all the other measures.     

The stability and sensitivity of subjective well-being measures

A longitudinal investigation of the stability and sensitivity of several subjective social indicators is presented. Over a seven year period, data collected from 93 Canadians indicated moderate stability for measures of enjoyment, satisfaction, and life quality. When respondents were divided into “change” and “no change” groups on the basis of their self-reported health status, the self-anchoring ladder of present life quality was found to be sensitive to change. Implications of this methodological inquiry are examined.     

A Happy Nation? Opportunities and Challenges of Using Subjective Indicators in Policymaking

This article seeks to combine decades of academic research with emerging policy demands by systematically assessing the state of the knowledge on using subjective indicators in public policy. In particular, it outlines opportunities that arise from a new focus on subjective information as a basis for policy decisions and challenges that ought to be overcome. The paper presents pros and cons of using subjective (versus objective) indicators, and it discusses six ways in which information on citizens’ subjective well-being (SWB) can advance the policymaking process: Monitoring progress, informing policy design, policy appraisal, examining the divergence of objective and subjective quality of life, ranking public institutions and allocating resources, as well as informing development strategies and goals. In doing so, best practice examples are presented and put in context. Finally, subjective measures “beyond SWB” are discussed and a new measure for the overall satisfaction with society is suggested. The next frontier for research and practice will be to build on the potential outlined here and to address the deficits in order make the most out of subjective indicators and the unique value they can add to the policymaking process.     

Subjective evaluation of well-being: Problems and prospects

This paper discusses some of the substantive and methodological pitfalls that arise in the subjective evaluation of well-being. The discussion includes illustrative references to the empirical findings of the 1977 Edmonton Area Study. Issues discussed include (1) specific, domain, and global measures; (2) objective states and subjective perceptions; (3) micro and macro units of analysis; and (4) the problem of cultural relativism. It is concluded that it is not yet possible to delineate a simple set of social indicators for use by policy-makers and social planners. Accurate assessment of social well-being currently requires the study of demographic and objective states together with cognitive and evaluational responses and also requires assessment not only at the global ‘general satisfaction’ level but also at more specific levels of analysis.     

Psychological Mechanism of Subjective Well-Being: A Stable Trait or Situational Variability

This study explored the holistic configuration of self-control and self-esteem with Latent Profile Analysis and examined the effect of self profiles on five adolescent quality of life indicators, including deviant behavior, friendship, academic achievement, time management and life satisfaction. The sample included 488 Taiwan junior-high students selected from a panel data. Four-group solution is considered optimal across years. At time 1, the “Quality Selves” group (high SC–SE) had consistent best performance in all the adolescent quality of life indicators while the “Disadvantageous Selves" group (low SC–SE) displayed consistent the worst. Given the same level of SC in “Baseline” group and “Self-Esteem” group, higher SE in the “Self-esteem” was related to higher evaluation of life satisfaction while no difference was found in other 4 quality of life indicators. At time 2, “Self-Esteem” became the “SC-Improved” who had the same best quality of life as the “Quality Selves,” while the “Baseline” was renamed as the “Lower Baseline” who performed similarly as the worst adjusted “Disadvantageous Selves” in indicators, except fewer deviant behaviors. Group membership was generally stable and self-profile transitions were more likely upward than downward. Along the adolescent period, findings suggest the level of SC need to be strengthened in order to sustain a good quality of life. Meanwhile, higher SE seems to be a propelling factor for students to gain better SC at a later time. Educational programs solely aim at cherishing self could move beyond for a double-core direction that also enhances adolescent social adaption with self-discipline training.     

Social indicators and social management

The social indicators movement, which has attained world-wide significance, is based on awareness of the increasing necessity for a conscious regulation of social processes, as well as on the successful utilization of the social sciences. Both of these processes depend on: the character of the social order in the different countries, conceptions of the nature and functions of science, and the nature and functions of social indicators. Irrespective of international differences, however, many common problems exist; this makes their discussion possible despite different philosophical and sociological paradigms. Two main problems are addressed: (1) the definition of the concept of “system of social indicators” and especially “unity of objective and subjective indicators”, and (2) the definition of the conditions for their most effective involvement in the purposeful regulation of the social processes.     

Social indicators of living conditions in Ireland with European comparisons

This monograph presents data from a nationwide survey of social indicators of living conditions in Ireland. This survey was part of a European Community (EC)-harmonised survey of subjective social indicators carried out in eight EC countries. The survey, the first of two, focussed on people's perceptions of their health, health services, housing, neighbourhood and life in general. Extensive analysis is made of the demographic determinants of a wide range of subjective measures of well-being in all of these life domains. Examination is also made of the predictors of global measures of well-being. Data are presented for Ireland and multi-nation comparative data are also presented throughout. Emphasis is placed on the relationship between objective and subjective social indicators.     

Toward a comprehensive ‘quality-of-life’ index

Any attempt to construct an overall measure of the quality-of-life (“QOL”) of a community, population group, or larger society must inevitably confront the critical obstacle posed by the absence of a common numéraire. The diverse elements that significantly affect the “QOL” of individuals and social groups are each subject, at least in principle, to some form of measurement, but no satisfactory method has yet been devised whereby these different measurements could be reduced to a single metric.The construct that is developed in this paper cannot claim to have overcome this fundamental problem; nor does it settle the equally basic difficulties relating to what specific indicators to include in the composite construct, and how to weigh their individual values. However, it illustrates one possible approach toward the development of a summary index value that provides some insight into both direction (“favorable” or “unfavorable”) and magnitude of observed year-to-year changes in a selected number of fairly representative socioeconomic indicators for which measures were available for the United States annually from 1969 to the present. The information provided by this index lacks explanatory power, but examination of the components of the observed changes in the index does yield some useful insight into the relative contribution of changes in different “areas of concern” to the overall changes observed in the “QOL” in the United States during the 1969–1985 period.     

The quality of life in large American cities: Objective and subjective social indicators

The concept of ‘quality of life’ as a tool of comparative social indicators research is analyzed. Inter-city comparisons of objective and subjective measures of well being are presented and the distinctiveness of these two dimensions of the quality of life is documented. The paper concludes with some observations on the implications that this distinctiveness has for the use of the concept ‘quality of life’ in future social indicators research.     

Objective and subjective social indicators of the quality of life in American SMSA'S: A reanalysis

The paper examines and critiques Schneider's work that related the subjective and objective indicators of quality of life in American cities. The work then employs data collected by Liu in 1973, and the Institute for Survey Research in 1972 as part of their national election study for 41 large and medium-sized Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSA's) to re-examine the question of the relationship between the objective and subjective factors. Although the results of this paper are in general comparable with those obtained by Schneider, there are individual cases where they differ. The paper then concludes with a discussion of the reasons why objective and subjective indicators may coincide.