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

“Major personality traits that are associated with SWB are extraversion and neuroticism (Costa and McCrae, 1980; Diener et al., 1992), optimism (Scheier and Carver, 1993), and self-esteem (Campbell, 1981; Diener and Diener, 1995).”

“…between the two indicators have been surprisingly modest, leading some researchers to conclude that each approach contains unique information that is crucial to the comprehensive understanding of overall life quality (e.g., E. Diener & Suh, 1997; Murrell, 1999; Rogerson, 1995; Veenhoven, 1996).”

“Many researchers follow independent methods, leaving little room for comparison between studies [5,6,17,66,110,125,145,189,251].”

“Diener and Suh (1997) also note that individualistic societies have higher suicide rates, and suggest that increasing a social variable like personal freedom involves trade-offs, and can have both desirable and undesirable consequences.”

“In cross-section data there is typically a positive association between income and SWB (Camfield and Skevington 2008; Diener and Suh 1997; Layard et al. 2008).”

“With the multitude of factors that can influence levels of well-being, research concerning the relationships between objectively measurable factors and subjective evaluations has the potential to inform public policy and to ‘‘assist individuals in their everyday life decisions, such as where and how to live’’ ( Diener…”

“indicators that can be employed in measuring quality of life (Grayson and Young 1994; Diener and Suh 1997; Yuan et al. 1999).”

“This study attempts to answer this question.5 5 There were at least two attempts to answer this question: Schneider (2005) and Diener and Suh (1997).”

“Diener and Suh (1997) The purpose is to use alternative indicators to assess three philosophical approaches to wellbeing that are based, respectively, on normative ideals, subjective experiences, and the ability to select goods and services that one desires.”

“The approach takes into account individual experiences and helps to understand and communicate the interpretations, priorities and needs of people [80,81].”

“The limitations in regarding the GDP level or growth as an indicator of resident well-being are well known (Diener and Suh 1997).”

“…multi-dimensional evaluations of their lives, and embraces a threefold structure, consisting of one cognitive component (life satisfaction) and two affective components, including (a) the presence of positive affect, and (b) the relative absence of negative affect (e.g. Diener & Suh, 1997).”

“…measures has been established as strong and credible via links to physiological measures, behaviors, peer perceptions, and experiences (Diener 1984; Diener and Suh 1997; Frey and Stutzer 2002; Headey and Wearing 1992: 148-159; Radcliff 2001: 950) Moreover, these and other subjective well-being…”

“Furthermore, perceived life satisfaction is highly related with a compound index consisting of the indicators of objective quality of lives such as health, financial status, freedom, entertainment and so on (Diener & Suh, 1997).”

“Apparently, older residents have a higher SWT, which is consistent with the literature showing that older individuals report higher levels of subjective well-being in general (Diener and Suh 1997).”

“Although most scholars agree that quality of life is about perceived personal well being, and thus is subjectively determined ( Diener & Suh, 1997 ), they approach it from several different perspectives.”

“A number of studies have also found positive linear relationships between national levels of well-being and income (Diener et al., 2003; Diener & Suh, 1997; Easterlin, 1995; Schyns, 1998).”

“However, socio-demographic factors account for less than 20% of the variance of subjective well-being, a finding confirmed in several studies (Campbell et al. 1976; Andrews and Withey 1976; Diener and Suh 1997).”

“Subsequent work on positive and negative affect also revealed some gains in well-being with age (Charles, Reynolds, & Gatz, 2001; Diener & Suh, 1997; Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998; Shmotkin, 1990).”

“Diener and Suh (1997) discuss how measures of SWB, economic indices and social indicators can complement each other in assessing quality of life.”

“For example, it is well established in nondisabled persons that increasing age is associated with increases in subjective well-being.(71) It is also clear from several studies that most individuals with SCI report levels of quality-of-life that are not significantly different than those in nondisabled persons.”

“This paper takes a disaggregate, subjective well-being approach focusing on “individuals’ subjective experience of their lives” (Diener and Suh, 1997, p. 191); that is, their “own internal judgment of well-being” (p. 201) as opposed to using aggregate social indicators.”

“This elicitation of subjective perceptions of wellbeing allowed for experiences, interpretations, needs and priorities of individuals to be communicated (Diener and Suh, 1997).”

“In fact, the psychological capital can be considered a necessary resource in the management of the unpredictable and unforeseeable social and economic environment, which includes working environments, with the aim to improve two dimensions of the subjective well-being: flourishing and life satisfaction, which represen…”

“The individual characteristics are gender, age, marital status, education level, and self-rated health (Wahrendorf et al. 2008); and, economic characteristics consist of objective and subjective economic conditions (Diener and Suh 1997).”

“Life satisfaction has been defined as ‘a feeling of contentment and lack of dissatisfaction with all areas of one’s life’ (Ardelt 1997, p. 16-17), and is commonly used as a measure of well-being (Mentzakis et al. 2012; Veenhoven 2007; Diener and Suh 1997).”

“In fact, such links seem logical as Diener and Suh show that that there is a high correlation between life satisfaction and a social index that includes cost of living, ecology, health, culture and entertainment, freedom and infrastructure indicators [30].”

“Subjective well-being (SWB) refers to the different evaluations people make of their lives overall or in various domains (Diener 1984, 2009; Diener and Suh 1997; Diener et al. 1999; Kahneman 1999; Kahneman and Krueger 2006).”

“Many studies report that happiness increases with age, particularly after midlife (Cantril 1999; Diener and Suh 1997; Ryff 1989; World Values Study Group 1994).”

“Economists, in turn, have counterbalanced the subjective study of wellbeing with a focus on objective indicators (e.g. income, mortality, and morbidity; Diener and Suh, 1997).”

“Subjective well-being scale is typically conceived of as comprising a cognitive component of life satisfaction and two affective components, namely the presence of positive affect and absence of negative affect (Diener and Suh, 1997).”

“According to Diener and Suh (1997), PWB may appear in the form of thoughts or in the form of affect.”

“A primary purpose of the analysis is to determine the discrepancy between personal outcomes and community-based social indicators (Cummins, Baxter, Colquhoun, & Monteath, 1996; Diener & Suh, 1997; Emerson, 2005; Matikka, 2000; Murrell & Norris, 1983; Schalock & Jensen, 1986; Schneider, 1976; Umb-Carlsson & Sonnander,…”

“Difficulty with any social indicators approach is that someone must decide which indicators to include (see Diener & Suh, 1997; Easterlin, 2000 for critique).”

“There is a close relationship between quality of life and the environment (Diener & Suh, 1997; UNECE, 2009).”

“In a popular context, the QoL concept rose up as counterpoint to environmental pollution and deterioration of living conditions, whereas in the academic setting it was related to the search of objective indicators to describe the standards of living of a society.(3-6) This tendency coincided with, and was fueled by, t…”

“Diener and Suh in a comprehensive review of indicators identify three philosophical approaches, each associated with a different set of variables ( Diener and Suh 1997 ).”

“as a person’s subjective experience of his/her own life, we can probably pin down its meaning (or part of its meaning) as it has been done in related research fields as: “life satisfaction, pleasant and unpleasant affect” (Diener and Suh 1997).”

“, 2010) and their urbanization quality (Diener and Suh, 1997; Shafer et al., 2000).”

“Both Veenhoven (2000) and Diener and Suh (1997) pointed out that aggregate subjective well-being scores are consistent enough to be meaningfully comparable across cultures.”

“For some parameters, methods or indicators have become available, such as for poverty reduction (Anonymous 2018), quality of life (Diener and Suh 1997), empowerment (Kabeer 1999; Alsop and Heinsohn 2005), and food and nutrition security (Swindale and Bilinsky 2006b; Swindale and Bilinsky 2006a; Coates et al.”

“Moreover, although social indicators are thought to be ‘objective’, they are often contaminated by measurement problems (Diener and Suh, 1997).”

“There are three main philosophical approaches to assess well-being according to Diener and Suh (1997): • Economics (choice utility) approach considers that people select things and activities that enhance their utility within the constraints of resources they possess (utilitarianism).”

“Diener and Suh (1997) state that “well-being consists of three interrelated components: life satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant affect.”

“Subjective well-being concerns individuals’ perceived levels of life satisfaction or happiness (Diener & Suh, 1997), while objective well-being relates to factors such as psychological and physical health, security, access to education and employment.”

“In addition, this model of social cohesion includes indicators of social support, subjective well-being and quality of life (e.g., Larson, 1993; Diener and Suh, 1997; Davis and Fine-Davis, 1991).”

“It should also be noted that other measures of quality of life sometimes include health, level of activity, spirituality, social support, and satisfaction with personal accomplishments, resources, and life situation (Diener and Suh 1997).”

“This finding is also consistent with previous studies (Cao & Ettema, 2014; Diener & Suh, 1997).”

“In turn, QoL covers a number of indicators portraying various environmental, social, economic and subjective factors [49].”

“There is increasing recognition that emotions may influence or determine other human well-being dimensions such as subjective well-being or physical health (e.g. Diener and Suh 1997, Kemeny and Shestyuk 2008).”

“…and therefore questionable whether true objectivity is possible (Muckler, 1992), the terms are widely used in social indicators research (e.g. Diener & Suh, 1997; Wish, 1986; Parks, 1984; Kuz,1978), with subjective relating to citizens experiences, perceptions and evaluations of their own…”

“which is measured by questions about happiness or life satisfaction ( Diener and Suh 1997; Veenhoven 2000, 2005).”

“…for basal rather than luxury human needs; • understanding and valuing the natural environments and the interconnectedness of local and global ecosystems; • challenging and redefining quality-of-life indicators and the engineering choices that best address these (see, e.g. Diener and Suh 1997).”

“Life satisfaction is understood as the cognitive component of subjective well-being and is “primarily concerned with the respondents’ own internal [perceptional] judgment of well-being, rather than what policymakers, academics, or others consider important” (Diener & Suh, 1997, p. 201).”

“Although addressing a wide range of topics, most sustainability indicators are less subjective than the quality of life issues presented above and have quantitative measures, which permit testing ( Diener & Suh, 1997 ).”

“The concept has been measured using a variety of different scales (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985; Diener & Suh, 1997).”

“Over recent years, however, monetary indexes such as GDP or its equivalents have been widely criticized and alternative or complementary indicators have been introduced (Costanza et al., 2009; Diener and Suh, 1997; Stiglitz et al., 2009).”

“Following works and studies of scientists (Cummins, 1996; Diener & Suh, 1997, 1999; Easterlin, 1974, 1995, 2001; Hagerty et al, 2001; Layard, 2005, 2007; Veenhoven, 2000, 2005, 2009), who have analyzed quality of life and its measurement, the present article examines factors determining quality of…”

“…2001), with personal health (Kousha and Mohseni, 2000; Michalos and Zumbo, 2000; Türksever and Atalik, 2001), with educational services/facilities (Diener and Suh, 1997; Shinn, 1986; Türksever and Atalik, 2001), with crime rates and security (Michalos and Zumbo, 2000; Türksever and Atalik,…”

“Adopting constructs of quality of life developed by earlier researchers (e.g., Diener, 1984; Diener & Suh, 1997; Lawton, 1991) and recent researchers who have investigated quality-of-life components (e.g., Allen, Becker, & Swank, 1990; Oka, Gortner, Stotts, & Haskell, 1996), we selected both objective indicators of qu…”

“(cid:1) Diener and Suh (1997) assert that the major advantage of the subjective well-being measures is (cid:2) (...) That they capture experiences that are important to the individual (cid:1) (p. 205).”

“Mood is defined as a prolonged core affect (Russell, 2003) that would be assessed by the affective SWB dimensions.”