555M.J. Sirgy, The Psychology of Quality of Life: Hedonic Well-Being, Life Satisfaction, and Eudaimonia, Social Indicators Research Series 50,DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-4405-9_30, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

In this chapter, I will discuss how public policy issues can be shaped by QOL research. I will also address the issue of whether we should broaden our perspective from individual-level research on QOL to societal-level research. And if so, how it should be done?

1 Public Policy Issues

The pursuit of QOL is well-recognized as an important end goal. Government insti-tutions develop public policy and design intervention programs to enhance QOL. QOL researchers have long advocated the use of QOL concepts and indicators as performance measures (e.g., Sirgy, Samli, & Meadow, 1982 ) . Derek Bok ( 2010 ) , in his recent book The Politics of Happiness , asks the question: Should Policy-Makers Use Happiness Research ? He proceeds to answer this question by asserting that it should be for the following reasons. First, happiness as a human value is considered to be among the most important goals of living. Second, the importance of happiness as a societal goal has been af fi rmed by in fl uential scholars of ancient and modern time. Bok cites Immanuel Kant’s assertion of the good life: What are the ends which are at the same time duties? They are: one’s own perfection and the happiness of others. Third, happiness has positive consequences for society (e.g., civic engagement, kindness, and other altruistic behaviors). People who are happy also live longer and work harder.

Bok also warns us that happiness could not be the only goal of public policy. People living in miserable conditions may appear satis fi ed because of their use of

Chapter 30 Final Thoughts

556 30 Final Thoughts

survival strategies. Bok cites Amartya Sen, a philosopher and an economist who is highly regarded in public policy circles:

A person who has had a life of misfortune, with very little opportunities and rather little hope, may be more easily reconciled to deprivations than others reared in more fortunate and af fl uent conditions …. The hopeless beggar, the precarious landless labourer, the dominated housewife, the hardened unemployed or the over-exhausted coolie may all take pleasures in small mercies, and manage to suppress intense suffering for the necessity of continuing survival, but it would be ethically deeply mistaken to attach a correspondingly small value to the loss of their well-being because of this survival strategy (Sen, 1987 a, pp. 45–46).

Ed Diener and Martin Seligman ( 2004 ) have also advocated the development of a system of indicators to capture subjective well-being at the national level (cf. Diener, 2006). They argue that the national economic indicators are “out of sync” with national well-being, especially in developed countries. Economic wealth has risen signi fi cantly but subjective well-being has not. Identifying the problem areas in subjective well-being necessitates the development of a broader system of national indicators capturing subjective well-being and its many aspects and dimen-sions. Instead of making decisions based on guesses and assumptions, policymakers should use indicators of subjective well-being to assess the effectiveness of their policies.

The authors provided speci fi c examples of how economic indicators lead policy-makers of the economics persuasion to think and frame important social issues differently from policymakers of the well-being persuasion. For example, at a societal level, policymakers grounded in economics focus on questions such as “How can government stimulate economic growth?” In contrast, policymakers grounded in subjective well-being would ask: “How does economic growth in fl uence subjective well-being?” With respect to income, policymakers of the economic persuasion typically ask: “How does income inequality impact economic growth?” Policymakers of the QOL persuasion would ask: “Does income inequality in fl uence well-being? If so, how?” In relation to work, policymakers of the economics persuasion would ask: “How does pay in fl uence productivity?” In relation to physical health, policy-makers of the economics persuasion would ask: “How much is productivity reduced by illness?” In contrast, policymakers of the QOL persuasion would ask: “What illnesses most interfere with happiness?” Regarding mental health, policymakers of the economics persuasion would ask: “How do mental disorders interfere with productivity?” Policymakers of the QOL persuasion would ask: “What mental disorder in fl uence subjective well-being and how?” With respect to social relation-ships, policymakers of the economics tradition would ask: “How do couple jointly determine their participation in the labor force?” Policymakers of the QOL tradition would ask: “Are married people on average happier than the unmarried?” In other words, policymakers in every public and private sector are likely to pose very different questions if they replace their “economics lens” with a “QOL lens.”

Every fi eld of study has its own performance metrics. For example, in marketing, the performance metrics range from brand awareness to customer satisfaction and loyalty. These metrics are biased from an economics perspective—the ultimate goal is organizational pro fi tability. A QOL perspective in marketing compels marketers

5571 Public Policy Issues

to gauge marketing performance in terms of consumer well-being (Sirgy, 2001 ) . Similarly, the management performance metrics are typically biased in favor of job performance, employee productivity, and employee turnover rates. A QOL perspective in management would be job satisfaction, life satisfaction, quality of work life, and employee well-being.

Paradoxically, inherent in most economic models is the assumption that people make decisions to maximize utilities (i.e., enhance their own well-being). The prob-lem with this is the fact that people do indeed make decisions to enhance their own well-being, but these decisions are made by guesses and misconceptions of their true state of well-being. If people were to actually be educated about what truly affects their well-being, their decisions would be better grounded, and indeed the same decisions can truly lead the enhancement of their well-being. In other words, Ed Diener and Martin Seligman do not call for abandoning the economic model of decision-making. They encourage economists to improve their economic modeling by injecting the science of well-being into the science of decision-making.

We propose that a national index should employ the global questions now in use, but sup-plement them with questions targeted at speci fi c aspects of well-being, such as engagement at work, stress due to commuting, levels of depression (among adolescents), and trust in neighbours. In addition, we propose that the indicator system include both a panel component (assessing the same group of individuals repeatedly over time) and an intensive experience-sampling component (assessing individuals on a daily basis for a week or 2;…). Thus, we are proposing a national system that is much broader and deeper than the current surveys, which base their fi ndings on just a few global items (p. 208).

More speci fi cally, a system of national indicators of subjective well-being should have the following characteristics:

It should include questions that are directly relevant to national policies and • programs. It should capture the entire population and its various subgroups (especially vul-• nerable populations such as children, the elderly, minorities, single mothers, etc.). It should capture subjective well-being broadly based on the different theories of • subjective well-being. It should include measures of well-being in various life domains such as work, • leisure, family, social, spiritual, fi nancial, etc. It should be conducted periodically to help establish trends. • It should provide in-depth information about both macro- and microissues of • well-being.

Diener, Lucas, Schimmack, and Helliwell ( 2009 ) in a very well-written and persuasive book ( Well-Being for Public Policy ) have urged public policy of fi cials to measure the well-being of nations and groups using subjective and objective indicators. They made reference to the famous Heisenberg Principle that is well known in physics in an attempt to make the point that the measurement of well-being is likely to be a good thing for society because the measurement process itself is likely to make public policy of fi cials try harder to develop, implement, and

558 30 Final Thoughts

monitor the effectiveness of policies designed to enhance well-being and the QOL. Here is what they said:

Some have pointed to a psychological Heisenberg principle, the idea that measuring something often changes what is measured. If a society begins measuring well-being, it might or might not increase well-being. However, it is very likely that published measures of well-being would lead to more attempts to increase it, and of course, better information on whether these attempts are successful. If societies have national accounts of well-being, more attention and weight will be granted to it (Diener, et al., 2009 , p. 66).

2 The Need to Broaden Our View

The study of happiness is indeed worthwhile. It allows us to focus on the full range of emotions, both positive and negative. It leads to the development of strategies that improve the human condition, no doubt (cf. Norrish & Vella-Brodrick, 2008 ) . But the question is: Should we broaden our perspective? Let us examine this question closely and entertain some ideas.

2.1 Happiness Maximization Is Not Enough

In a recent book titled Happiness, Ethics and Economics , Johannes Hirata has effec-tively argued that happiness maximization is not enough (Hirata, 2011 ) . He argues against happiness maximization based on two ethical objections: teleological and deontological. The teleological argument states that happiness is not a suf fi cient criterion for a good life. For example, some cultures give prominence to happiness as a cultural value (e.g., western countries) more than others (eastern countries). Also, some people may be indoctrinated to feel happy despite their poverty-stricken circumstances. Should we accept their happiness as given and not make any attempt to improve their living conditions (cf. Duncan, 2010 ) ?

The deontological argument states that happiness alone does not help us deal with con fl icts of interest in ways that one’s happiness may not trample on the happiness of others. For example, if torturing criminals may result in a marginal increase of sum-total happiness of all (i.e., society), should we torture? Do human beings, by the virtue of their humanity, have rights (i.e., human rights)? The deontological argument forces us to think of other considerations such as justice, human rights, duties, virtues, law and order, democracy, etc. Hirata concludes as follows:

It will be more appropriate, therefore, to consider the happiness perspective as complimentary to deontological perspectives and, indeed, to other teleological aspects. After all, it does not capture a number of (teleological) objectives people might reasonably have, including such apparent ones as a long life – it does not make much sense to say that one will be more happy alive than dead. The happiness perspective alone cannot give conclusive answers to the problem of good development. It depends on additional perspectives and principles in order to make a positive contribution to good development. Once it is embedded into a comprehensive conception of good development, however, it can make a real difference (Hirata, 2011 , p. 151).

5592 The Need to Broaden Our View

2.2 The Shortfall of Happiness Research at the Country Level

Richard Eckersley made a startling and noteworthy observation (Eckersley, 2009 ) : Population measures of subjective well-being are not very useful . Eckersley argues that while subjective well-being measures have helped to broaden the focus of measuring the progress of nations beyond the traditional indicators of economic development, the measures present an overly positive view of modern western societies. Consider the following comparison of China with the USA based on research from the Pew Research Center (Pew, 2007 ) :

People classi fi ed to be satis fi ed with life: USA 65%, China 34% • People classi fi ed to be satis fi ed with the state of the nation: USA 25%, China 83% • People classi fi ed to be satis fi ed with national government: USA 51%, China 89% • People classi fi ed to be optimistic about the future: USA 31%, China 86% •

Eckersley attributes national differences in subjective well-being to cultural differences: difference in individualism versus collectivism, differences in the level of economic development, differences in terms of egalitarianism versus hierarchical society, differences among countries in terms of tolerance for contradictions, differences in holistic versus analytical thinking, and differences in relation to the valuation of personal happiness versus social functioning.

The author argues that measures of subjective well-being ignore a host of social problems such as:

Family con fl ict and breakdown • Poverty and unemployment • Job stresses and insecurity • Education pressures • Excessive materialism and individualism • Violence • Consumerism • Loss of community and social cohesion • Increase vicarious experiences • Pessimism about the global conditions and the future of the planet • Decline of religion and morality • Adverse changes in diet and food consumption • Increased incidence of chronic disease • Increased comorbidity, especially between drug use and mental illness • Environmental degradation and its adverse health effects •

He concludes by saying

…SWB [subjective well-being] is not a valid absolute measure of wellbeing because the picture it presents is partial, at best, and differs markedly from that painted by other measures, notably those of mental health, social perceptions, and “genuine progress.” … The standard human development model may be useful in evaluating earlier stages of human development, but it is less relevant in assessing so-called highly developed societies. Across all stages, but especially in the latter cases, it needs to be supplemented by

560 30 Final Thoughts

the psychosocial-dynamics model of human development.… If there is a “holy grail” of a single indicator that accurately measures how well nations and people are faring, SWB [subjective well-being] is not; the search must continue. In the meantime, we will have to use a wide variety of measures—objective and subjective, social, cultural, economic, and environmental—to guide our choices and decisions in seeking to make the most of being human and human wellbeing (Eckersley, 2009 , pp. 9–10).

2.3 The Need to Conjoin Subjective Aspects of QOL with Objective Conditions

Cummins ( 1997 ) has long contended that subjective and objective approaches to QOL are both essential, but in many instances, they may not be related to each other. Table 30.1 shows the interface between subjective well-being and objective living conditions (Rapley, 2003 ) .

True high level of well-being is the condition in which the individual experiences a high level of subjective well-being and good living conditions (actual, not perceived). Conversely, a true low level of well-being is the condition in which the individual experiences low subjective well-being and bad living conditions. The two other situations are tricky. The happy poor is the individual who experiences high subjective well-being, but his or her living conditions are bad. And the unhappy rich is the person who experiences low subjective well-being, but his or her living conditions are good. The two latter situations in which objective and subjective aspects of well-being are not aligned call for corrective action, in the same way that low levels of subjective plus objective aspects of well-being call for corrective action.

We need models of QOL that take into account both subjective and objective aspects of well-being. An example of such models is Veenhoven’s ( 1996 ) concept of happy life expectancy . Well-being, according to Veenhoven, is the degree to which an individual lives long (objective well-being) and happily (subjective well-being). He developed a measure of QOL that combines estimates of life expectancy in years with a measure of subjective well-being (a scale ranging from 0 to 1). The two scores are then multiplied with each other to produce a happy life expec-tancy (HLE) resultant score. Based on Veenhoven’s studies, HLE is highest in countries of northwestern Europe—average HLE is 60 years (the equivalent of a life expectancy of 80 years and a subjective well-being score of 0.75). In contrast, the lowest HLE scores are in Africa where the HLE is only 35 years.

Table 30.1 Subjective well-being and objective living conditions

Objective living conditions

Subjective well-being

Good Bad

Good The happy rich The unhappy rich Bad The happy poor The unhappy poor

Source : Adapted from Rapley ( 2003 , p. 31)

5612 The Need to Broaden Our View

Another model that is successful in conjoining both subjective and objective aspects of well-being is Raphael’s and his colleagues’ (Raphael, Renwick, Brown, & Rootman, 1996 ) concept of being, belonging, and becoming . That is, a person who experiences a high level of well-being is one who rates highly on being, belonging, and becoming. The being dimension re fl ects who the person is in terms of physical being (physical health, exercise, etc.), psychological being (mental health, adjustment, feelings, cognitions, etc.), and spiritual being (personal values, standard of conduct, etc.). The belonging dimension essentially re fl ects the person’s fi t with the environment in terms of physical fi t (home, workplace, neighborhood, school, community, etc.), social fi t (family, friends, neighbors, associates, etc.), and community fi t (income, employment, social services, education, etc.). The becoming dimension re fl ects purposeful activities to express one’s identity and achieve personal life goals. This can be captured more speci fi cally in terms of practical activities (day-to-day activities such as paid work, school, etc.), leisure activities (socializing, recreating, traveling, lodging, and experiencing entertainment), and growth activities (learning, mastering certain skills, volunteering, leading, etc.).

2.4 Conjoining Personal Happiness with Objective/Macrolevel Indicators of Societal Well-Being

Veenhoven ( 2009 ) posed a very interesting question in a very thought-provoking article (“Well-being in Nations and Well-being of Nations: Is There a Con fl ict between Individual and Society?”). In other words, do societies prosper at the cost of its members and conversely, can people prosper at the cost of society? The answer to this question is that the data demonstrate no inherent con fl ict between personal happiness and societal QOL. He used his Happy Life Years (HLY) data to demon-strate this point. The results indicate that countries scoring high on the HLY index also score highly on other societal QOL measures related to the position of the nation in the world system (i.e., biological capacity, economic competitiveness, military power, and integration in the world system), the functioning of public institutions in the nation (i.e., government effectiveness, regulatory quality, control of corruption, and voice/accountability), the productivity of the nation at large (i.e., ecological footprint, energy consumption, and technological achievement), and the stability of the system (i.e., political stability, ethnic fragmentation, and civil war). He provides two plausible explanations for these results: (1) modern society fi ts human nature and (2) happy citizens make a better modern society.

The New Economics Foundation recently launched the Happy Planet Index (Marks et al., 2006 ; available at http://www.happyplanetindex.org ) that is another example of developing a more integrated measure of QOL at the societal level. The measure re fl ects a ratio of the average happy life years (or essentially Veenhoven’s HLY) and per capita ecological footprint of the country in question. Ng ( 2008 ) further improved this formulation by developing the Environmentally Responsible Happy Nation Index .

562 30 Final Thoughts

3 Concluding Remarks 1

There has been a plethora of scholarly authored and edited books written on QOL and well-being in the last decade. I have been building my own library, and it is becoming increasingly impressive. It seems that I can’t keep up with the readings; the faster I read, the more I become aware of new books that hit the market (which prompts me to add to my library collection). I dare say that I am trying hard to keep up with this rapid in fl ux of new books, and frankly I am delighted to see how our specialty research topic—QOL studies—has blossomed tremendously over the last decade or so.

Being a management psychologist, my own research focuses on QOL of the individual in various settings such as community, work, and the marketplace. From a measurement point of view, I have given much advice about QOL measure-ment, not only in relation to capturing QOL for particular geographic communities but also for states and countries. Much of my advice to QOL researchers working at the state/national levels can be captured by the following: Measure QOL at the lowest possible level (individual or household level); then aggregate data to increasingly larger geographic units such as neighborhoods, towns, counties, cities, provinces, states, countries, world regions, etc. Now, it dawned on me that this is not a good advice.

You see, capturing QOL at the individual level is good when our public policy focus is the individual (i.e., interventions of social change targeting individuals and households). However, societal QOL, as a systemic and emergent concept, is greater than the sum of its parts (i.e., sum of the individuals making up the designated geo-graphic unit). Allow me to explain. Recently, I participated in a macromarketing conference. One of the sessions I attended involved the interface of materialism and QOL. A lively discussion ensued. A well-respected macromarketing scholar, Professor Sanford Grossbart, made a statement that took me by surprise. He asserted that happiness research is “dangerous” because it detracts us (as scientists) from placing emphasis on the true macroissues of our time such as protecting the environment for future generations, protecting the planet for all living things, making hard economic decisions to balance the budget to assure economic security of our next generation, etc. These macroissues cannot be addressed suf fi ciently and rigorously by strictly focusing on individual-level happiness research.

My fi rst reaction to my colleague’s bashing of happiness research was some-what defensive. I started to counterargue by pointing out the multitude of studies showing the healthful effects of happiness; however, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that we have invested so much in individual-level QOL research at the expense of the macroissues directly related to QOL (i.e., societal QOL). The vast majority of the recent books are mostly based on individual-level QOL research. The majority of the authors make inferences about macroissues based

1 This section is heavily borrowed from a book review article that was published recently in Applied Research in Quality of Life (Sirgy, 2011b ) .

5633 Concluding Remarks

on individual-level research. Please understand that I am not critical of happiness research addressing macroissues; I am critical of the lack of QOL research that is based on units of analysis larger than the individual and household.

A recent book by one of our old-time QOL gurus, Abbott Ferriss, makes this point clearly (Ferriss, 2010 ) . The title of the book is Approaches to Improving the Quality of Life: How to Enhance the Quality of Life . Ferriss has edited Social Indicators Network News for many years, and his lifetime achievements and rich contributions to QOL research have been recognized by the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies. The fi rst chapter of the book addresses a very macroissue: Survival of the Species . He points to species’ survival in terms of population factors such as the high fertility rate of people who are less endowed (e.g., those who are poor, disease stricken) and countries that are mired in political turmoil, af fl icted with corrupt institutions, and paralyzed by a host of social ills. Conversely, more-endowed people and countries are experiencing low fertility rates. How about factors leading to exhaustion of the human species such as suicide, diseases, natural disasters, wars, genocide, religious con fl ict, and tribal extinction? Note that the focus here is not happiness of individual citizens but the survival of the human species. Much of the research on these macroissues have been conducted by non-QOL researchers. It is time for QOL researchers to start addressing the most important issue: the survival of the species. Ferriss’ fi rst proposition is right on target:

The QOL may be enhanced by reducing negative survival features, such as suicide, homicides, wars, and terrorist intrusions, and by achieving a fertility rate greater than replacement, usually considered to be 2.1 lifetime births per woman (Ferriss, 2010 , p. 1).

Ferriss’ last chapter addresses the most macroissue ever: the good life in a good society. He proposes:

The social structure and social psychology of the good society may be found by identifying situations where good QOL of the people predominates. The good society will involve norms and values, social quality, structural relationships, and other qualities of societies (Ferriss, 2010 , p. 107).

In other words, although happiness of individuals is important to societal QOL, QOL researchers should also embrace other emergent concepts related to “norms and values, social quality, structural relationships, and other qualities of societies.” These are emergent concepts that are unique to a societal level of analysis, not the individual level. QOL researchers should identify the values or the normative basis of good society. For example, values related to sustainability and social cohesion are important to the social fabric of a good society. Other values may include institutional integration and regulation by government, positive family and intergenerational relations, charity and welfare to the poor and the disenfranchised, and freedom, equality, and solidarity. Again, these are emergent concepts that should be investigated by QOL researchers at the societal level. They may be related to happiness, but they are very different concepts that are emergent from the individual.

How about social quality as an emergent concept? Ferriss discusses this concept in terms of socioeconomic security (i.e., institutions responsible for welfare provisions), social inclusion (i.e., supportive infrastructures and labor conditions that minimize

564 30 Final Thoughts

exclusion of certain segments of society from reaping the bene fi ts of provisioning), social cohesion (i.e., infrastructure and processes that create and maintain social networks), and empowerment (i.e., institutions designed to help people realize their competencies to fully participate in the social, economic, political, and cultural milieu).

Other emergent concepts include institutions that promote peace and security, institutions that eradicate plagues and pandemics, institutions that encourage reli-gious membership as well as religious tolerance, institutions that regulate population growth, and fi nally institutions designed to ameliorate health, the socialization of children, community and neighborhood, and leisure time.

An exemplary measure of quality of life that incorporates many societal dimensions that I long admired is Richard Estes Index of Social Progress (Estes, 1984, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2010 ) . This is indeed a societal QOL measure par excellence (see T able 30.2 for its dimensions and indicators).

Again and again, although these concepts (and indicators) are related to individual-level happiness, they are emergent concepts that have to be studied with equal rigor—the same level of rigor directed to studying individual-level happiness.

There many other societal QOL concepts that we have not paid much attention to. Perhaps we should. Here are additional examples:

Berger-Schmitt and Noll ( • 2000 ) conceptualize societal QOL in terms of three overarching goals: (a) improvement of living conditions and QOL (e.g., employ-ment, education, standard of living, health, social protection and security, public safety and crime, transportation, and the environment), (b) strengthening of economic and social cohesion (e.g., reduction of economic and social disparities, reducing backwardness of less-developed regions, equal opportunities for women and the disabled, combating social exclusion), and (c) sustainability (e.g., promoting ef fi cient use of natural resources, developing green technologies, increasing renewable energy sources). Veenhoven ( • 2000 ) makes the distinction between quality in societies and quality of societies. Quality in societies refers to the QOL of individuals (micro), whereas quality of societies is a macroconcept focusing on the society at large. Quality of societies can be characterized in terms of stability, productivity, expression of ideals, and livability. Bernard ( • 1999 ) discusses societal well-being in terms of the democratic dialectic (inclusive, pluralist, and participatory democracy), which comprises of three pillars: liberty (opposite can lead to polarization and dislocation), equality (opposite can lead to coercion and uniformity), and solidarity (opposite can lead to press-ganging and domination). Beck, van der Maesen, and Walker ( • 1997 ) conceptualize societal QOL in terms of social quality, which has four conditional factors: socioeconomic security (e.g., fi nancial resources, housing and environment, health care, work, and education), social inclusion (e.g., citizenship rights, labor markets, public and private services, and social networks), social cohesion (e.g., trust, other integrative norms and values, social networks, and identity), and social empowerment (e.g., knowledge base, labor market, supportiveness of institutions, public space, and personal relations).

5653 Concluding Remarks

Table 30.2 The dimensions and indicators of the Index of Social Progress

Education subindex Public expenditure on education as percentage of GDP Primary school completion rate Secondary school net enrolment rate Adult literacy rate

Health status subindex Life expectancy at birth Under fi ve child mortality rate Physicians per 100,000 population Percent of population undernourished Public expenditure on health as percentage of GDP

Women status index Female adult literacy as percentage of male literacy Contraceptive prevalence among married women Maternal mortality ratio Female secondary enrolment as percentage of male enrolment Seats in parliament held by women as percentage of total

Defense effort index Military expenditure as percentage of GDP

Economic subindex Per capita gross national income (as measured by PPP) Percent growth in GDP Unemployment rate Total external debt as percentage of GDP GINI index score

Demography subindex Average annual rate of population growth Percent of population aged <15 years Percent of population aged >64 years

Environmental subindex Percentage of nationally protected area Average annual number of disaster-related deaths Per capita metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions

Social chaos subindex Strength of political rights Strength of civil liberties Number of internally displaced persons per 100,000 population Number of externally displaced persons per 100,000 population Estimated number of deaths from armed con fl icts Perceived corruption index

Cultural diversity subindex Largest percentage of population sharing the same or similar racial/ethnic origins Largest percentage of population sharing the same or similar religious beliefs Largest share of population sharing the same mother tongue

(continued)

566 30 Final Thoughts

Rioux and Hay ( • 1993 ) construe well-being in terms of self-determination, mutual recognition, interdependence, and equality. Well-being is made possible through other factors such as security, citizenship, and democratization. Dasgupta and Weale ( • 1992 ) also make the distinction between societal well-being and its determinants. Well-being is conceptualized in terms of health, welfare, freedom of choice, and basic liberties. Determinants of societal quality of life include food, clothing, shelter, clean water, legal aid, educational facilities, health care, resources for national security, and income in general.

In sum, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts . Paraphrasing, the good society is more than the sum of happiness of its citizens. The good society is societal QOL, an emergent concept that QOL researchers should invest much more time and attention to investigate.

4 Summary

This chapter addressed how public policy issues can be shaped by QOL research. The consensus among QOL scientists seems to be that, yes indeed, happiness research should play an important role in public policy. However, the same scien-tists also warn that happiness should not be the only goal of public policy. Happiness should be a major goal among other goals such as fostering human rights, upholding environmental preservation, protecting animal rights, preserving the human species, ensuring the economic well-being of future generations, eradicating political extremism, resolving political con fl icts, dismantling the nuclear arsenal, and so on.

Happiness research is likely to shift the agenda. Instead of addressing questions such as “How can government stimulate economic growth?” Public policy of fi cials should ask: “How does economic growth in fl uence subjective well-being?” Instead of asking “How does income inequality impact economic growth?” we should ask “Does income inequality in fl uence well-being? If so, how?” Instead of asking “How does pay in fl uence productivity?” and “How much is productivity reduced by illness?” we should ask “What illnesses most interfere with happiness?” Instead of asking “How do mental disorders interfere with productivity?” we should ask “What mental disorder in fl uence subjective well-being and how?” Instead of asking “How do couple jointly determine their participation in the labor force?” we should ask “Are married

Table 30.2 (continued)

Welfare effort subindex Age fi rst national law—old age, invalidity and death Age fi rst national law—sickness and maternity Age fi rst national law—work injury Age fi rst national law—unemployment Age fi rst national law—family allowance

Source : Adapted from Estes ( 2010 , pp. 366–367)

567References

people on average happier than the unmarried?” In other words, policymakers who embrace happiness research are likely to pose very different questions guiding their public policy decision-making.

Happiness research is likely to change performance metrics in a wide range of disciplines (marketing, management, economics, accounting, public administration, educational administration, travel and tourism, urban planning, architecture, political science, etc.). For example, in marketing the performance metric would change from customer retention and loyalty to customer life satisfaction. In human resource management, the performance metric would change from organizational commitment, job performance, and job satisfaction to employee well-being. In travel and tourism, a shift to QOL should lead industry of fi cials to adopt performance metrics of tourists’ well-being and residential well-being of tourist communities.

Also, we discussed the issue of whether we should broaden our perspective from individual-level research on QOL to societal-level research. And if so, how it should be done? I argued that happiness maximization is not enough. We need to broaden our happiness research from the individual level and do more research at the societal level. We should take into account that happiness is a cultural value that is more embraced in Western than Eastern cultures. We should broaden our perspective of QOL to deal with both subjective as well as objective aspects of QOL.

References

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Berger-Schmitt, R., & Noll, H. H. (2000). Conceptual framework and structure of a European system of social indicators (Euroreporting working paper #9). Mannheim: Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA).

Bernard, P. (1999). Social cohesion: A critique (CPRN discussion paper #F09). Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks.

Bok, D. (2010). The politics of happiness . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Cummins, R. A. (1997). Assessing quality of life. In R. Brown (Ed.), Quality of life for people with

disabilities (pp. 116–150). Cheltenham: Stanley Thornes. Dasgupta, P. A., & Weale, M. (1992). On measuring the quality of life. World Development, 20 ,

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Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 5 , 1–31. (Republished in E. Diener (Ed.). (2009). The science of well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (pp. 201–265). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer)

Duncan, G. (2010). Should happiness-maximization be the goal of government? Journal of Happiness Studies, 11 , 163–178.

Eckersley, R. (2009). Population measures of subjective wellbeing: How useful are they? Social Indicators Research, 94 , 1–12.

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