Abstract
This chapter describes a plethora of studies that have closely examined distinctions among subjective quality-of-life (QOL) concepts, such as those that were spelled out in the previous chapter. I will start out with the distinction between subjective and objective QOL; then I will move to the distinction between input and outcome indicators of QOL, followed by the distinction between inner and outer aspects of QOL. Then I will shift gears and describe studies that have focused on making a clear distinction between happiness and life satisfaction. Following this discussion, I will describe the concept of subjective well-being as an umbrella concept incorporating both affective and cognitive dimensions of QOL. Finally, I will describe studies that have distinguished between subjective well-being and eudaimonia and its variants.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
An example of an objective measure of subjective well-being is to have subjects carry with them a beeper. The experimenter would then beep subjects randomly and ask them to report on their subjective well-being during the last few hours or so.
References
Andrews, F. M., & McKennell, A. C. (1980). Measures of self-reported well-being: Their affective, cognitive, and other components. Social Indicators Research, 8, 127–155.
Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators of well-being: America’s perception of life quality. New York: Plenum Press.
Balatasky, G., & Diener, E. (1993). Subjective well-being among Russian students. Social Indicators Research, 28, 225–243.
Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The structure of psychological well-being. Chicago: Aldine.
Bradburn, N. M., & Caplovitz, D. (1965). Report on happiness. Chicago: Aldine.
Brief, A. P., & Roberson, L. (1989). Job attitude organization: An exploratory study. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 19, 717–727.
Busseri, M. A., Sadava, S. W., & Decourville, N. (2007). A hybrid model for research on subjective well-being: Examining common- and component-specific sources of variance in life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Social Indicators Research, 83, 413–445.
Cameron, P., Titus, D. G., Kostin, J., & Kostin, M. (1973). The life satisfaction of non-normal persons. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41, 207–214.
Campbell, A. C. (1976). Subjective measures of well being. American Psychologist, 31, 117–124.
Chamberlain, K. (1988). On the structure of subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 20, 581–604.
Crooker, K. J., & Near, J. P. (1995). Happiness and satisfaction: Measures of affect and cognition? In H. L. Meadow & M. J. Sirgy (Eds.), Development in quality-of-life studies in marketing (Vol. 5, pp. 160–166). DeKalb, IL: Academy of Marketing Science and the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies.
Diener, E., & Emmons, R. A. (1984). The independence of positive and negative affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1105–1117.
Diener, E., & Fujita, F. (1995). Resources, personal strivings, and subjective well being: A nomothetic and idiographic approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 926–935.
Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Seidlitz, L., & Diener, M. (1993). The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute? Social Indicators Research, 28, 195–223.
Diener, E., Smith, H., & Fujita, F. (1995). The personality structure of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 130–141.
Diener, E., Suh, E., Lucas, R., & Smith, H. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of research. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302.
Friedman, M. M. (1993). Social support sources and psychological well-being in older women with heart disease. Research in Nursing and Health, 16, 405–413.
Haller, M., & Hadler, M. (2006). How social relations and structures can produce happiness and unhappiness. Social Indicators Research, 75, 169–216.
Headey, B., Kelley, J., & Wearing, A. (1993). Dimensions of mental health: Life satisfaction, positive affect, anxiety and depression. Social Indicators Research, 29, 63–82.
Herzberg, F. (1966). Work and the nature of man. Cleveland, OH: World.
Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., Pederson, R., & Capwell, D. (1957). Job attitudes: Review of research and opinion. Pittsburgh, PA: Psychological Services.
Huppert, F. A. (2009). Psychological well-being: Evidence regarding its causes and consequences. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 1, 137–164.
Inglehart, R., & Rabier, J.-R. (1986). Aspirations adapt to situations—But why are the Belgians so much happier than the French? A cross-cultural analysis of subjective quality of life. In F. M. Andrews (Ed.), Research in the quality of life. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
Kahneman, D. (1999). Objective happiness. In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwartz (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology (pp. 3–25). New York: Russell Sage.
Kesebir, P., & Diener, E. (2009). In pursuit of happiness: Empirical answers to philosophical questions. In E. Diener (Ed.), The science of well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (pp. 59–74). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.
Kim-Prieto, C., & Diener, E. (2005). Religious affiliation as a source of cultural differences in achievement motivation. In M. L. Maehr & S. A. Karabenick (Eds.), Motivation and religion (Advances in Motivation and Achievement, Vol. 14, pp. 403–418). San Diego, CA: Elsevier, Inc.
Kozma, A. (1996, August 22–25). Top-down and bottom-up approaches to an understanding of subjective well-being. World Conference on Quality of Life, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, Canada.
Kozma, A., Stone, S., Stones, M. J., Hannah, T. E., & McNeil, K. (1990). Long- and short-term affective states in happiness: Model, paradigm and experimental evidence. Social Indicators Research, 22, 119–138.
Kozma, A., & Stones, M. J. (1992). Longitudinal findings on a componential model of happiness. In M. J. Sirgy, H. L. Meadow, D. Rahtz, & A. C. Samli (Eds.), Developments in quality-of-life studies in marketing (Vol. 4, pp. 139–142). Blacksburg, VA: Academy of Marketing Science.
Lane, R. E. (1994). Quality of life and quality of persons: A new role for government? Political Theory, 22, 219–252.
Lane, R. E. (1996). Quality of life and quality of persons: A new role for government? In A. Offer (Ed.), The pursuit of the quality of life (pp. 256–294). New York: Oxford University Press.
Liao, P.-S. (2009). Parallels between objective indicators and subjective perceptions of quality of life: A study of metropolitan and county areas in Taiwan. Social Indicators Research, 91, 99–114.
Lucas, R. E., Diener, E., & Suh, E. (1996). Discriminant validity of well-being measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 616–628.
McKennell, A. C. (1978). Cognition and affect in perceptions of well-being. Social Indicators Research, 5, 389–426.
McKennell, A. C., & Andrews, F. M. (1980). Models of cognition and affect in perceptions of well-being. Social Indicators Research, 8, 257–298.
Michalos, A. C. (1980). Satisfaction and happiness. Social Indicators Research, 8, 385–422.
Michalos, A. C. (2008). Education, happiness and wellbeing. Social Indicators Research, 87, 347–366.
Organ, D. W., & Near, J. P. (1985). Cognition vs. affect in measures of job satisfaction. International Journal of Psychology, 20, 241–253.
Parducci, A. (1995). Happiness, pleasure, and judgment: The contextual theory and its applications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rehberg, K.-S. (2000). The fear of happiness: Anthropological motives. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 479–500.
Sanjuan, P. (2011). Affect balance as mediating variable between effective psychological functioning and satisfaction with life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12, 373–384.
Saris, W. E., & Andreenkova, A. (2001). Following changes in living conditions and happiness in post communist Russia: The Russian panel. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 95–109.
Schimmack, U., Schupp, J., & Wagner, G. G. (2008). The influence of environment and personality on the affective and cognitive component of subjective well-being. Social Indicators Research, 89, 41–60.
Sumner, L. W. (1996). Welfare, happiness, and ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Veenhoven, R. (1991). Is happiness relative? Social Indicators Research, 24, 1–34.
Veenhoven, R. (1996). Happy-life expectancy: A comprehensive measure of quality-of-life in nations. Social Indicators Research, 38, 1–58.
Veenhoven, R. (2000). The four qualities of life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 1–39.
Veenhoven, R. (2005a). Return of inequality in modern society? Test by dispersion of life-satisfaction across time and nations. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 457–462.
Veenhoven, R. (2005b). The four qualities of life: Ordering concepts and measures of the good life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 1–39.
Veenhoven, R. (2009). Well-being in nations and well-being of nations: Is there a conflict between individual and society? Social Indicators Research, 91, 5–21.
Vitterso, J., Soholt, Y., Hetland, A., Alekseeva Thoresen, I., & Roysamb, E. (2010). Was Hercules happy? Some answers from a functional model of human well-being. Social Indicators Research, 95, 1–18.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sirgy, M.J. (2012). Further Distinctions Among Major Subjective QOL Concepts. In: The Psychology of Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research Series, vol 50. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4405-9_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4405-9_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4404-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4405-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)