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3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of life)
[Page last updated 23 September 2016]
I have recently been making extensive revisions in the area of Subjective Social Indicators and it now makes more sense to split the page into three sections. Previous contents of his page have now been spread across several new pages.
Quality of Life: Measurement and methodology
There has been intense (often polemical) debate over the years on methodology and measurement of the concept "Quality of Life" and there is a variety of working definitions deriving from diverse academic disciplines and political perspectives. This page lists sources of philosophical and disciplinary arguments for and against quantitative research on subjective social indicators.
Measures of psychological well-being
This page will list scales to measure psychological well-being, tried and tested in the field on general populations. Scales tested on students will not be listed, unless they have also been used on general populations. See also:
SSRC Survey Unit Quality of Life in Britain surveys 1971 - 1975
Summary information and detailed abstracts on all "Quality of Life in Britain" surveys conducted at the SSRC Survey Unit between 1971 and 1975 by Mark Abrams and John Hall. (Variables, fieldwork, sampling, facsimile questionnaires, user-manuals, data sets, publications.)
Surveys related to and/or based on the SSRC Survey Unit work were:
Quality of Life of the Elderly in Residential Care
European Value Systems Study Group
Values and Social Problem Indicators in Contemporary Europe
Surveys in schools (replicating items from QoL surveys)
Other Quality of Life surveys
See especially the 2013 article Looking back at thirty years of British Social Attitudes by Jenny Church. See also Major Survey Series, especially European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS) European Social Survey and European Values Study.
The.British Social Attitudes and NORC General Social Survey series carry questions on social and political attitudes and values (including a happiness question) and also satisfaction ratings for a range of general and specific domains of interest for social policy.
European Social Survey now has a new interactive website Well-being matters . A summary report Measuring and Reporting on Europeans’ Wellbeing: Findings from the European Social Survey.
"showcases the scope that ESS data provide for exploring the definition, distribution and drivers of subjective well-being across Europe. Academics, policymakers and students are encouraged to explore the new website and use the resource for their own research and informing policy."
Also of interest is the UK Office of National Statistics programme Measuring National well-being.which includes measures of subjective well-being (SWB) to be used in government surveys and for which there is a discussion forum National Well-being - StatsUserNet. I’ve been giving them my two penn’orth directly and indirectly, and also been doing some analysis on their recently released data, which is how I came across the public health sites North West Public Health Authority and the Centre for Public Health based at Liverpool John Moores University.
Since 1974 there has been a specialist journal Social Indicators Research [Editor: Alex Michalos] The focus of SIR is mostly conceptualization and measurement issues of QOL in various life domains, situational conditions, settings, groups, communities, etc. The journal is very well-established and is regarded as a premier journal in QOL research.
The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) is an international society whose purpose is to promote and encourage research in the field of quality-of-life (QOL) studies. The site has links to other activities and resources.
The World Database of Happiness was set up by Prof. Ruut Veenhoven (Erasmus University, Rotterdam) It is an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective enjoyment of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic work.
I have recently been making extensive revisions in the area of Subjective Social Indicators and it now makes more sense to split the page into three sections. Previous contents of his page have now been spread across several new pages.
Quality of Life: Measurement and methodology
There has been intense (often polemical) debate over the years on methodology and measurement of the concept "Quality of Life" and there is a variety of working definitions deriving from diverse academic disciplines and political perspectives. This page lists sources of philosophical and disciplinary arguments for and against quantitative research on subjective social indicators.
Measures of psychological well-being
This page will list scales to measure psychological well-being, tried and tested in the field on general populations. Scales tested on students will not be listed, unless they have also been used on general populations. See also:
SSRC Survey Unit Quality of Life in Britain surveys 1971 - 1975
Summary information and detailed abstracts on all "Quality of Life in Britain" surveys conducted at the SSRC Survey Unit between 1971 and 1975 by Mark Abrams and John Hall. (Variables, fieldwork, sampling, facsimile questionnaires, user-manuals, data sets, publications.)
Surveys related to and/or based on the SSRC Survey Unit work were:
Quality of Life of the Elderly in Residential Care
European Value Systems Study Group
Values and Social Problem Indicators in Contemporary Europe
Surveys in schools (replicating items from QoL surveys)
Other Quality of Life surveys
See especially the 2013 article Looking back at thirty years of British Social Attitudes by Jenny Church. See also Major Survey Series, especially European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS) European Social Survey and European Values Study.
The.British Social Attitudes and NORC General Social Survey series carry questions on social and political attitudes and values (including a happiness question) and also satisfaction ratings for a range of general and specific domains of interest for social policy.
European Social Survey now has a new interactive website Well-being matters . A summary report Measuring and Reporting on Europeans’ Wellbeing: Findings from the European Social Survey.
"showcases the scope that ESS data provide for exploring the definition, distribution and drivers of subjective well-being across Europe. Academics, policymakers and students are encouraged to explore the new website and use the resource for their own research and informing policy."
Also of interest is the UK Office of National Statistics programme Measuring National well-being.which includes measures of subjective well-being (SWB) to be used in government surveys and for which there is a discussion forum National Well-being - StatsUserNet. I’ve been giving them my two penn’orth directly and indirectly, and also been doing some analysis on their recently released data, which is how I came across the public health sites North West Public Health Authority and the Centre for Public Health based at Liverpool John Moores University.
Since 1974 there has been a specialist journal Social Indicators Research [Editor: Alex Michalos] The focus of SIR is mostly conceptualization and measurement issues of QOL in various life domains, situational conditions, settings, groups, communities, etc. The journal is very well-established and is regarded as a premier journal in QOL research.
The International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) is an international society whose purpose is to promote and encourage research in the field of quality-of-life (QOL) studies. The site has links to other activities and resources.
The World Database of Happiness was set up by Prof. Ruut Veenhoven (Erasmus University, Rotterdam) It is an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective enjoyment of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic work.