WELLBEING AND QOL W4

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WELLBEING AND QOLW4
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Learning outcomes
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(No Transcript)
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What is wellbeing?

• In general term well being means a contented
  state of being happy and healthy and prosperous.
• It is also synonymous to happiness
• It is used for individual being and social
  systems

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Concept of Wellbeing

• An ambiguous concept, lacking a universally
  acceptable definition and often faced with
  competing interpretations.
• Wellbeing is a notion that people and
  policymakers generally aspire to improve.

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Definition of wellbeing

• Wellbeing is generally viewed as a description of
  the state of peoples life situation (McGillivray
  2007, p. 3).

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Measurement of Wellbeing
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OBJECTIVE MEASURE of wellbeing

• OBSERVABLE HARD FACTS AND FIGURE

• Economic data income in RM
• Social data-living space in square meters.
• Environmental data- percentage of clean river

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OBJECTIVE MEASuRE

• One dimension

• Material wellbeing measured by income or GDP.
• The link between income and wellbeing rests on
  the assumption that income allows increases in
  consumption and consumption increases utility
  (preferences in meeting desires and wants).

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OBJECTIVE MEASuRE

• Multi Dimensional

• GDP does not capture all the aspects of human
  life.
• Wellbeing encompasses broader dimensions such as
  social and environmental aspects, and human
  rights.
• Since the 1970s many non-economic indicators have
  been created to complement GDP.
• Indicators in areas such as education, health and
  nutrition, environment and empowerment and
  participation have been elaborated to complement
  GDP.

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OBJECTIVE MEASuRE

• Wellbeing Index

• Composite measures that would capture the
  multidimensional aspect of wellbeing.
• Constructed using different components, weighted
  in some way to form a single index.
• Examples
• 1) Human Development Index (HDI) (1990)
  combining income per capita, life expectancy at
  birth, adult literacy and education enrollment
  ratios.
• 2) Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI)
  (1979) combined infant mortality, life expectancy
  and adult literacy

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Subjective wellbeing

• Subjective measures soft matters such as self
  reported happiness and life satisfaction,
  satisfaction with income and perceived adequacy
  of dwelling.
• Some economists use the phrase subjective
  wellbeing as a synonym for happiness but in
  psychology, happiness is a narrower concept than
  SWB.

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Definition of SWB

• Veenhoven (1984) defines subjective wellbeing as
  a degree to which an individual judges the
  overall quality of her/his life as a whole in a
  favourable way.
• McGillivray and Clarke (2006, p. 4) state that
  subjective wellbeing involves a multidimensional
  evaluation of life, including cognitive judgments
  of life satisfaction and affective evaluations of
  emotions and moods.

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SWB
Indicate a persons level of happiness
individuals perceived distance from their
aspirations

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Measures of Happiness
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Example of Dimensions of Happiness Measure

• Happiness is defined as the degree to which an
  individual judges the overall quality of her/his
  life as-a-whole favorably.
• Four main dimensions

ENVIS Centre on Human Settlement- Department Of
Environmental Planning, SPA, New Delhi
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Why QOL?

• QOL emerged and discussed for 3 concerns
• 1. The feeling on the part of modern industrial
  society, despite impressive gains in affluence,
  ease of communication and leisure, has not made
  any significant overall progress in improving
  mans lot. Mankind prospect is less attractive
  than they were 25 years ago.
• 2. The desire for an index of social well-being
  analogous to measures of economic wellbeing. This
  measurement can provide for purposes of
  government decision-making and intellectual
  interest to measure social progress.
• 3. Understanding, measurement, improvement of
  human experiences have been the major goals of
  individual, community and government.

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General meaning of QOL

• QOL represent either how well human needs are met
  or the extent to which individuals or group
  perceived satisfaction or dissatisfaction in
  various life domains.

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Method of measurement

• 1.Use quantifiable, objective measure of social/
  or economic indicators to reflect the extent to
  which human needs are met
• 2. Self reported levels of happiness, pleasure,
  fulfillment and alike which is termed well-being.

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Objective Measure

• Center on economic, social, health and
  environmental indicators.
• Economic- income, poverty level
• Social- unemployment rate, accident rate at
  workplace
• Health- life expectancy, doctor population ratio
• Environment- water quality, air quality

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Subjective Measure

• Typically focus on personal reports of life
  experiences that complement social, economic and
  health indicators.
• QOL is primarily a subjective sense of
  well-being, a proxy used for QOL

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Issues with Subjective Measure

• People judge their well-being in comparison with
  peer groups than in absolute terms
• Influence of cultural and religious norms
• May be bound by time, socio-demographic factors
  etc.

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Integrative definition of QOL

• A more complete picture of QOL at multiple
  spatial (space/places) and temporal ( time)
  scale.
• Both objective and subjective measures
  independently has some limitations.
• A combined approach of subjective and objective
  measures of QOL is proposed.

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Integrative Definition of QOL

• QOL is the extent to which objective human needs
  are fulfilled in relation to personal or group
  perceptions of subjective well-being (SWB).

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Human Needs
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SWB

• SWB is individuals or groups responses to
  questions regarding happiness, life satisfaction,
  utility or welfare.

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Relationship between variables

• The relation between specific human needs and
  perceived satisfaction with each of them is
  affected by mental capacity, cultural context,
  information, education, temperament etc in a
  complex manner.

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Relationship between variables

• The relation between fulfillment of those needs
  and overall subjective well-being is affected by
  weightage/importance individuals, groups and
  culture give to fulfilling of each of those needs
  relative to others.

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QUALITY OF LIFE
OPPOTUNITIES to meet human needs
How needs are met
HUMAN NEEDS Subsistence Reproduction Security Affe
ction Understanding Participation Leisure Creativi
ty Identity Freedom
How need fulfillment is perceived
SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING Happiness, Utility Welfare
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Opportunities

• The ability to satisfy basic human needs come
  from the opportunities available and constructed
  from social, built, human and natural capital.
• Policy and culture help allocate the four types
  of capital as a means of providing these
  opportunities

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Types of Capital

1. Social capital- network and norms that facilitate
   cooperative actions
2. Human capital knowledge and information stored
   in our brain and our labour
3. Built capital- manufactured goods and services
   such as tools, equipment, building
4. Natural capital- renewable and non renewable good
   and services provided by ecosystem

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Examples of Indicators for measuring needs at
individual and national scales
Need Individual Scale National Scale
Subsistance Self reports on calorie intake, access to clean water, air, health care National data on calorie deficiencies
Affection Self report on level of attachment to others National data on suicide, homicide
Leisure Self report on time use, activities pursued and money spent National data on time use, money spent and activities involved
Security Self report on who provide care in case of illnesses, care for elderly National data on nursing home, multigenerational household
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Conclusion

• The concept of QOL has been conceptualised
  differently by different QOL researchers.
• QOL concept can be viewed by these theoretical
  perspectives
• Ideal theories
• Personal utility theories
• QOL as happiness versus life satisfaction
• Opulence theories
• Theories of the just society
• The needs approach
• The social judgment approach

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Framework for measuring QOL

• Some international frameworks and methodology
  have set the foundation for QOL indicator
  research.
• United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human
  Rights, 1948
• Vancouver Declaration on Human Settlements,
  1976
• Habitat Agenda- Istanbul Declaration on Human
  Settlements, 1996
• Declaration on Cities and Other Human
  Settlements in the New Millennium, 2001
• Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 2001
• State of the Worlds Cities 2008/2009-
  Harmonious Cities
• United Nations Human Development Index