The Psychology of Quality of Life

The updated edition of this popular book covers up-to-date research on hedonic well-being (emotional well-being, positive/negative affect, affective dimension of happiness, etc.), life satisfaction (subjective well-being, perceived quality of life, subjective well-being, and cognitive dimension of happiness), and eudaimonia (psychological well-being, self-actualization, self-realization, growth, mental health, character strengths, etc.).  The book is divided in six major sections.  Part 1 begins with a chapter that covers much of the history and philosophical foundations of the psychology of quality of life in terms of three major pillars: hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, and eudaimonia.  This part also covers much of the research that has successfully made distinctions among these three major constructs and its varied dimensions.  To establish to the importance of the topic (the psychology of quality of life), this part also covers much of the literature on the positive benefits of hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, and eudaimonia on the individual, the community, organizations, and society at large.  Part 2 focuses on capturing much of research dealing with the effects of objective reality (objective factors grounded in real, environmental conditions) on hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, and eudaimonia.  Specifically, this part captures the quality-of-life literature related to biological and health-related effects, income effects, other demographic effects, effects of personal activities, and socio-cultural effects.  Part 3 shifts gears to focus on the effects of subjective reality on hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, and eudaimonia.  In this context, the book reviews research on personality effects, effects of affect and cognition, effects of beliefs and values, effects of goals, self-concept effects, and social comparison effects.  Part 4 focuses on quality-of-life research that is domain specific.  That is, the book covers the research on the psychology of life domains in general and delves in some depth to describe research on work well-being, residential well-being, material well-being, social well-being, health well-being, leisure well-being, and the well-being of other life domains of lesser salience.  Part 5 focuses on covering much of the psychology of quality-of-life literature dealing with specific populations such as the elderly, women, children and youth, and specific countries.  Part 6 is essentially an epilogue.  This part discusses a variety of theories proposed by quality-of-life scholars designed to integrate much of the literature on the psychology of quality of life.  The last chapter covers the author's own integrative theory.M. Joseph Sirgy is a social/consumer/organizational psychologist who has written extensively on quality-of-life research.  He is the co-founder of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS, www.isqols.org), has served as ISQOLS' executive director for many years, and is currently ISQOLS development director.  He also served as editor-in-chief of Applied Research in Quality of Life, ISQOLS' flagship journal.   ISQOLS has honored him as the Distinguished Quality-of-Life Research for research excellence and a record of lifetime achievement in quality-of-life research.