A

Abandonment Definition

Child Maltreatment: Neglect The Community Well-Being Index (CWB) is

a tool developed by Aboriginal Affairs and
Northern Development Canada (AANDC) to
Abilities track and compare well-being in First Nations,
Inuit, and other Canadian communities.
Capabilities

Description
Ability to Cope
AANDC (formerly known as Indian Affairs
Community Adaptation, Arctic and Northern Development Canada or INAC)
developed the CWB as a community-level
complement to its national- and regional-level
Ability to Ensure Planned Action Registered Indian Human Development Index
(Cooke & Beavon, 2007), which was based on
Program Implementation the United Nations Development Programmes
(UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI)
(Cooke & Beavon, 2007).
Aboriginal Community Well-Being The CWB is designed to monitor the
Index well-being of Canadian communities reliably
across time, to compare well-being in Aboriginal
Erin OSullivan1 and Sacha Senecal1,2 communities and other Canadian communities,
1
Strategic Research Directorate, Aboriginal to identify prosperous and challenged Aboriginal
Affairs and Northern Development Canada, communities, and to facilitate research on the
Gatineau, QC, Canada determinants of community well-being.
2
Department of Sociology, The University of Communities are defined in terms of census
Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada subdivisions (CSDs). CSDs are municipalities or
areas (such as Indian reserves) that are regarded
as the equivalent of municipalities. For purposes
Synonyms of comparison, communities are categorized as
either First Nations, Inuit communities, or other
CWBI Canadian communities.

A.C. Michalos (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research,

DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5, # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
A 2 Aboriginal Community Well-Being Index

In the context of the CWB, First Nations 100

communities comprise legal reserves as well as a First Nations
selection of other CSDs in Northern Saskatchewan, 90 Inuit Communities
the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon Territory. Other Canadian Communities
Inuit communities comprise CSDs within the four 80 77
northern regions in which Inuit have completed 72 73
71
land claims: Nunavik in Quebec, Nunatsiavut

in Labrador, Inuvialuit in the Yukon and Northwest
Territories, and the territory of Nunavut.
CSDs that are neither First Nations nor Inuit
communities are classified as other Canadian com-
munities and are also referred to in the context
of CWB research as non-Aboriginal communities.
It is important to emphasize that, as a
community-level measure, the CWB is based
on all community residents, regardless of their
ethnicity. This approach was used for both con-
ceptual and practical reasons. On the conceptual
side, researchers recognized that all community
members contribute to the economic and cultural
lives of their communities and that dividing CWB
scores along ethnic lines would be somewhat
arbitrary and artificial. On the practical side, the
small size of most First Nations non-Aboriginal
populations would preclude, on the grounds of
privacy protection, the disaggregation of their
CWB scores by ethic group. Moreover, analyses
revealed that excluding non-Aboriginal individ-
uals from Aboriginal communities CWB scores
had little impact on observed well-being patterns.
The CWB has been calculated using Canadian
Census of Population data from 1981, 1991,
1996, 2001, and 2006. Scores can range from
a low of zero to a high of 100 and are based on
the following equally weighted components:
Income: income per capita, scaled and
adjusted to account for incomes diminishing
marginal utility.
Education: (a) the proportion of community
residents aged 20+ with at least a high school
education; (b) the proportion of community
residents aged 25+ with a university degree.
These indicators are afforded 2/3 and 1/3 weight
in the education component, respectively.
Housing: (a) the proportion of community
residents whose homes are not crowded; (b) the
proportion of community residents whose homes
are not in need of major repairs.
CWB Index
70 67
62
60 61
60 57
57 57
48 55
50
51
47
40
30
1981 1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Year
Aboriginal Community Well-Being Index,
Fig. 1 Average CWB scores, 19812006 (Source: Statis-
tics Canada, 2006 census of population)
Labor Force Activity: (a) the proportion of
community residents aged 2065 who are labor
force participants; (b) the proportion of labor
force participants aged 2065 who are employed.
Research using CWB data falls into two broad
categories. The first focuses on describing
well-being patterns over time and has produced
the following key findings:
On average, the well-being scores of First
Nations and Inuit communities are markedly
lower than those of non-Aboriginal communi-
ties. These gaps narrowed between 1981 and
2001 but widened again by 2006. The largest
disparities between First Nations and non-
Aboriginal communities are observed in the
income and housing components of the index.
The disparity in housing conditions between
Inuit and non-Aboriginal communities is also
particularly large (Fig. 1).
Aboriginal community well-being varies by
region. First Nations in the Prairie Provinces
are particularly disadvantaged. Their average
CWB scores are lower than those of First
Nations in other regions and actually
decreased slightly between 2001 and 2006.
Aboriginal Community Well-Being Index 3 A
Aboriginal Community 100
Well-Being Index, First Nations
Fig. 2 Average CWB Other Canadian Communities
score by region, 2006 A
(Source: Statistics Canada, 90
2006 census of population)
82
80 79 80
80
76 76 77
73

70
CWB index

66
64
62
60 60
60

51
49 49
50

40

30
Atlantic QC ON MB SK AB BC Territories

The gaps between First Nations and non-
Aboriginal communities are also widest in
the Prairies (Fig. 2).
Well-being varies greatly across Aboriginal
communities. Illustratively, while 96 of the
bottom 100 communities in 2006 were
First Nations, so was one of the top 100
communities. The CWB scores of Inuit and
especially First Nations communities are
more variable than those of other Canadian
communities. Illustratively, non-Aboriginal
communities scores (exclusive of outliers)
fall within the 23-point range between 64 and
87. In contrast, First Nations scores (exclusive
of outliers) fall within the 38-point range
between 39 and 77 (Fig. 3).
The second category of CWB research focuses
on assessing the relationships between commu-
nity well-being and a host of other variables.
For example, studies have demonstrated that
the well-being gaps between First Nations and
non-Aboriginal communities are not a spurious
effect of the relative isolation or youthfulness of
Aboriginal communities. While much of this type
of research is conducted by or for AANDC, CWB
data are publically available.
Publications based on the CWB first
appeared in 2004 (McHardy & OSullivan,
2004; OSullivan & McHardy, 2007) and were
based on Census years 19812001. A more recent
series of publications is based on Census years
19812006 and features a slightly modified
methodology: changes to the education questions
in the 2006 Canadian Census of Population
required a reformulation of the education compo-
nent of the CWB and presented the opportunity to
fine-tune some of the indexs other indicators.
The CWB was adopted as one of AANDCs
key performance measures in 2009 (Indian and
Northern Affairs Canada, 2009).
Discussion
The CWB is one of many ways of measuring
well-being. As do all quantitative measures, the
CWB represents a trade-off between reliability
and validity. The Canadian Census of Population
(and the successor to its long form, the 2011
National Household Survey) remains the data
A 4 Aboriginal Community Well-Being Index

Aboriginal Community 40%

Well-Being Index,
Fig. 3 Distribution of 35%
communities by CWB
level, 2006 (Source: 30%
Statistics Canada, 2006

% of communities
census of population)
25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
5

30 0

35 5

40 0

45 5

50 0

55 5

60 0

65 5

70 0

75 5

80 0

85 5

90 0
95 95
00
-2

-3

-3

-4

-4

-5

-5

-6

-6

-7

-7

-8

-8

-9

-1
-
20

25

2006 CWB Score

source most capable of affording the CWB Cross-References

sufficient reliability over time. The census does
not include information on all of the indicators
that would be needed, however, to produce a
comprehensive i.e., fully valid measure of
well-being. Some commonly employed indicators
of well-being that the census does not capture
include health, cultural well-being, subjective
happiness, and environmental sustainability.
Nevertheless, most measures of well-being
include variations of the indicators that
compose the CWB (Cooke, 2005). While these
indicators are not sufficient to compose a fully
valid measure of well-being, therefore, they are
arguably necessary components of such a measure.
Moreover, there is no consensus on what variables
should and should not be included in a measure of
well-being or on the question of whether a
universal measure of well-being is a reasonable
or realistic goal (see, e.g., Phillips, 2006).
Ultimately, despite its limitations, the CWB
remains a uniquely powerful research tool when
used for its intended purposes.
Disclaimer
The research and analysis described above are
based on data from Statistics Canada, and the
opinions expressed do not represent the views of
Statistics Canada.
Education
Environmental Sustainability
Happiness
Housing and Quality of Life
Human Development Index (HDI)
Inuit Living Conditions
Marginal Utility
Nunavik
Outliers
Privacy, an Overview
Reliability
United Nations Development Programme
Validity, Statistical
Weighting Schemes
References
Cooke, M. (2005). The first nations Community
Well-Being Index (CWB): A conceptual review. Paper
prepared for the Strategic Analysis Directorate, Policy
and Strategic Direction Branch of The Department of
Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Ottawa,
ON: INAC.
Cooke, M., & Beavon, D. (2007). The Registered Indian
Human Development Index, 19812001. In J. P. White,
D. Beavon, & N. Spence (Eds.), Aboriginal well-being:
Canadas continuing challenge (pp. 5168). Toronto,
ON: Thompson Educational Publishing.
Aboriginal Peoples Survey, Canada (APS)
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and Canadian Polar
Commission. (2009). Report on plans and priorities,
20092010 estimates. Retrieved 11 April 2013 from
http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rpp/2009-2010/inst/ian/ian-
eng.pdf
McHardy, M., & OSullivan, E. (2004). First nations
community well-being in Canada: The Community
Well-Being Index (CWB), 2001. Ottawa, ON: Indian
and Northern Affairs Canada. Catalogue number R2-
344/2001E-PDF.
OSullivan, E., & McHardy, M. (2007). The
Community Well-being Index (CWB): Well-being in
First Nations communities, present, past and future.
In J. P. White, D. Beavon, & N. Spence (Eds.),
Aboriginal well-being: Canadas continuing
challenge (pp. 111148). Toronto, ON: Thompson
Educational Publishing.
Phillips, D. (Ed.). (2006). Quality of life: Concept, policy
and practice. New York: Routledge.
Aboriginal Education
Education, Traditional
Aboriginal Health
Indigenous Health Disparities
Aboriginal Inequality
Indigenous Health Disparities
Aboriginal Knowledge
Indigenous Knowledge
Aboriginal People in Australia
Australian Indigenous Peoples
5 A
Aboriginal Peoples Survey,
Canada (APS) A
Gerard Duhaime and Sebastien Levesque
Departement de Sociologie, Universite Laval,
Quebec, QC, Canada
Definition
The Aboriginal Peoples Survey (APS) is
a national survey sample conducted by Statistics
Canada among First Nations, Metis, and Inuit in
Canada. The APS was conducted for the first time
in 1991 and again in 2001, 2006, and 2012. The
survey has changed substantially in the time since
it was first administered.
Description
Inception of the APS in 1991
The purpose of the 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Sur-
vey was to establish a statistical database cover-
ing employment, education, language, mobility,
health, lifestyle, and housing among Canadas
Aboriginal peoples. In 1988, Statistics Canada
entered into a consultation process with about
500 representatives from national and provincial
Aboriginal organizations and government depart-
ments, as well as numerous research and service
organizations (Statistics Canada, 1995).
The 1991 APS population is derived from the
Canadian 1991 Census of Population, in which
Aboriginals are defined as individuals who at
the time of the census reported at least one Aborig-
inal origin and/or reported being registered under
the Indian Act. The data were gathered using two
questionnaires: one for children and the other for
adults aged 15 years and over (Statistics Canada,
1995). This survey was targeted primarily at the
population identifying with an Aboriginal group;
however, a shorter form was administered to
respondents who did not identify with an Aborig-
inal group but who were registered under the
Indian Act. For sampling purposes, each Canadian
province was divided into two domains.
A 6
Access to data was made possible by the
creation of a master file for use by Statistics
Canada researchers and the creation of a microdata
file for use by the general public and based on a
sample of data deriving from the questionnaire for
adults aged 15 years and over. The data stemming
from the 1991 survey have been used extensively
by numerous organizations.
Living Conditions the Subject of Inquiry in
2001 and 2006
In its final report, the Royal Commission on
Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), a major user of
APS data, recommended collecting data on the
social and demographic situation of Aboriginal
peoples on a regular basis. Statistics Canada was
subsequently mandated to organize a second sur-
vey in 2001 (Statistics Canada, 2003). In 2006,
a third survey having a form and objectives
similar to that of 2001 was carried out.
The objective of the second generation of the
APS was primarily to fill in information gaps
concerning Canadas Aboriginal peoples and to
identify their needs (Statistics Canada, 2006a,
2009). As part of developing both of these
surveys, the APS Implementation Committee
consulted several federal, provincial, and territo-
rial Aboriginal organizations and departments.
Resting on the expertise of Statistics Canada
and developed in partnership with the various
actors consulted, the APS was designed to
provide relevant and legitimate data to its main
stakeholders (Statistics Canada, 2003).
The 2001 and 2006 APS differed from previ-
ous versions on account of their supplements:
while a common core of the questionnaire was
administered to all respondents, a supplement
was administered to respondents on the basis of
their identity. The common core of the 2001 and
2006 surveys touched on such topics as school-
ing, language, labor activity, income, health,
communication technology, mobility, and
housing (Statistics Canada, 2003, 2007, 2009).
The first of the supplements was directed at
Aboriginal children. In 2001, this supplement
was targeted at children and youth aged 014
years and covered such topics as general health,
education, social activities, language, and child
Aboriginal Peoples Survey, Canada (APS)
care (Statistics Canada, 2003). In 2006, this
supplement was targeted at children and youth
aged 614 years and had two fewer sections
(Statistics Canada, 2009). The second of the
supplements was specifically targeted at Metis
people. The main themes covered in 2001 were
family background, household information,
cultural background, and health (Statistics
Canada, 2003). In 2006, the themes of household
information and cultural background were
replaced by those pertaining to child welfare
and social interaction (Statistics Canada, 2009).
A third supplement was developed jointly by
national and regional Inuit organizations as well
as Universite Laval and dealt with the Canadian
Arctic. The main themes of this supplement were
household and harvesting activities, individual
well-being, and community well-being and social
participation. The same themes were included in
both the 2001 and 2006 versions (Duhaime,
Searles, Usher, Myers, & Frechette, 2004; Statis-
tics Canada, 2003, 2009; Usher, Duhaime, &
Searles, 2003). In addition, the Arctic supplement
made it possible to perform some original
analyses, thanks particularly to questions about
peoples perceptions (Edouard & Duhaime,
2012; Morin, Edouard, & Duhaime, 2010).
This research was associated with the Survey of
Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA) and
provided a basis for producing international
comparisons (Kruse et al., 2008; Poppel, Kruse,
Duhaime, & Abryutina, 2007).
As was the case with the 1991 version, the
Aboriginal population was, for the 2001 and
2006 versions, determined on the basis of
responses to the Census of Population. In contrast
with the 1991 version, however, four census
questions were used to define the Aboriginal
population, which was made up of respondents
of Aboriginal ancestry presenting at least one of
the following characteristics: reporting of an
Aboriginal identity, membership in an Indian
Band or First Nation, and the status of Treaty
Indian or Registered Indian as defined by the
Indian Act (Statistics Canada, 2003, 2006b).
On a Canada-wide basis, the rate of participa-
tion was 80.1 %. Working from the 2001 APS,
a microdata file based on off-reserve adults was
Aboriginal Peoples Survey, Canada (APS)
created for use by the general public; a microdata
file concerning adults based on 2006 APS data
was also created. Several studies have been
conducted using 2001 and 2006 APS data in
particular those of Statistics Canada (2006b, c)
and the SLiCA (Duhaime et al., 2004; Morin
et al., 2010; Usher et al., 2003).
A Shift in 2012
The 2012 APS stands out from previous versions.
While it covers certain themes covered previ-
ously e.g., household composition, mobility,
language, traditional activities, income, and
health it seeks primarily to gather information
pertaining to education and employment
(Statistics Canada, 2012a). Many questions
contained in previous versions were either elim-
inated or modified, and some new questions pri-
marily concerning education and employment
were added (Statistics Canada, 2006b, 2012a).
As Statistics Canada explained:
Following the release of data from the 2006 APS,
a content review was conducted to ensure the
future relevance of existing APS questions to key
stakeholders and to identify potential data gaps.
The review brought together expertise from
a diverse group of researchers and subject matter
experts from within and outside of Statistics
Canada. (Statistics Canada, 2012b)
The 2012 APS contains only one question-
naire and has no supplement. Sampling is not
based on census data: the 2012 APS population
was made up of respondents aged 6 years and
over living off reserve and reporting an Aborigi-
nal identity during the 2011 National Household
Survey (Statistics Canada, 2012b). In contrast
with previous versions, four education groups
were targeted by sampling namely, elementary
school students, high school students, high school
graduates, and school leaves (Statistics Canada).
Data gathering also underwent modification, with
the paper-and-pencil procedure being replaced in
2012 by computer-assisted interviews. The first
data should be released in 2013.
Conclusion
The APS has made it possible to gradually improve
knowledge about certain basic characteristics of
7 A
Canadas Aboriginal peoples. It holds out the
possibility of studying transformations in these
characteristics over time, thanks to a number of A
questions that are carried over from one survey to
the next. However, the modifications made to the
2012 APS, involving for the most part the surveys
objectives and themes, have produced the opposite
effect. In particular, the 2012 questionnaire ignored
subjective dimensions, which nonetheless had
served to elucidate the foundations of social cohe-
sion among the Inuit of Canada notwithstanding the
difficult living conditions they frequently endure.
Cross-References
Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR)
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI)
Economic and Social Indicators
Economic Well-Being, Arctic
Education, Traditional
Human Development, Arctic
Income Distribution
Indigenous Child Well-being in Canada
Indigenous Health Disparities
Indigenous Knowledge
Informal Economy, Arctic
Northwest Territories
Nunavik
SLiCA, Survey of Living Conditions in the
Arctic
Subsistence in the Arctic
References
Duhaime, G., Searles, E., Usher, P., Myers, H., &
Frechette, P. (2004). Social cohesion and living con-
ditions in the Canadian arctic: From theory to mea-
surement. Social Indicators Research, 66(3), 295317.
Edouard, R., & Duhaime, G. (2012). The well-being of the
Canadian Arctic Inuit: The Relevant Weight of Econ-
omy in the Happiness Equations. Social Indicators
Research: 1720.
Kruse, J., Poppel, B., Abryutina, L., Duhaime, G., Martin,
S., Poppel, M., et al. (2008). Survey of living conditions
in the Arctic, SLiCA. In V. Mller, D. Huschka, &
A. C. Michalos (Eds.), Barometers of quality of life
around the globe (pp. 107134). Springer Social Indica-
tors Research Series. Dordrecht, The Netherlands:
Springer.
A 8 Absence of Anxiety

Morin, A., Edouard, R., & Duhaime, G. (2010). Beyond

the harsh. Objective and subjective living conditions in Absolute Individual Deprivation in
Nunavut. Polar Record, 46(237), 97112.
Poppel, B., Kruse, J., Duhaime, G., & Abryutina, L. (2007). Europe
Survey of living conditions in the Arctic: Results.
Retrieved from Anchorage, Institute of Social and Deprivation and Social Exclusion in Europe
Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage,
Alaska web-site: www.arcticlivingconditions.org/
Statistics Canada. (1995). The 1991 aboriginal peoples
survey. Microdata File Adults. Users Guide. Ottawa,
ON: Author. Absolute Subjective Well-Being
Statistics Canada. (2003). Aboriginal peoples survey (ASWB)
2001: Concepts and methods guide (Catalogue no.
89-591-XIF). Ottawa, ON: Author.
Statistics Canada. (2006a). Aboriginal peoples survey Religion and Subjective Well-being in Ghana
(APS), 2001: Users guide to the public use microdata
file (adults off reserve) (Catalogue no. 89M0020GPE).
Ottawa, ON: Author.
Statistics Canada. (2006b). Questionnaire aboriginal peo-
ples survey and survey of living conditions in the Abstention from Voting
Arctic 2006. Ottawa, ON: Author.
Statistics Canada. (2006c). Harvesting and community Voting Behavior
well-being among Inuit in the Canadian Arctic: Pre-
liminary findings from the 2001 aboriginal peoples
survey-survey of living conditions in the arctic
(Catalogue no. 89-619-XIE). Ottawa, ON: Author.
Statistics Canada. (2007). Harvesting and country Abundance
food: Fact sheet. Inuit in Canada: Findings from the
aboriginal peoples survey - survey of living conditions
in the Arctic 2001 (Catalogue no. 89-627-XIE - No. 1). Affluence
Social and Aboriginal Statistics Division. Ottawa, ON.
Statistics Canada. (2009). Aboriginal peoples survey
2006: Concepts and methods guide (Catalogue no.
89-637-X). Ottawa, ON: Author.
Statistics Canada. (2012a). Aboriginal peoples survey Abuse in Romantic Relationships
2012: Education and employment. Ottawa, ON: Author.
Statistics Canada. (2012b). Aboriginal peoples survey Dating Violence
(APS). Retrieved from http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/
imdb/p2SV_f.pl?FunctiongetSurvey&SDDS3250
&langen&dbimdb&adm8&dis2
Usher, P., Duhaime, G., & Searles, E. (2003). The household
as an economic unit in Arctic aboriginal communities Abuse of Older Adults
and its measurement by means of a comprehensive sur-
vey. Social Indicators Research, 61(2), 175202.
Elder Abuse

Absence of Anxiety Abuse, Sexual

Subjective Indicators of Well-Being Child Sexual Abuse

Absence of Psychopathology Abuse, Sibling

Subjective Indicators of Well-Being Violence in USA, Sibling

Accessibility
Academic Quality and Budgets
Institutional Quality and State Budget Cuts
Academic Satisfaction
Education, Satisfaction with
Access
Accessibility
Accessibility
Mark Harniss
Rehabilitation Medicine, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Synonyms
Access; Enabling; Matching person and
environment
Definition
Accessibility describes a state in which the
functional capacities of a person and the functional
demands of an environment are matched in such a
way that an activity can be completed. When
something is accessible (e.g., a building, website),
a person can participate in an activity (e.g., enter-
ing and navigating a building, surfing the web).
When people can participate fully in all aspects of
a society, it enhances their quality of life.
Description
Broadly defined, accessibility refers to the ability
of an individual to enter, navigate, comprehend,
9 A
and use features of an environment, including
physical, digital, and conceptual environments.
Most environments are designed for a typical A
individual who possesses a set of commonly dis-
tributed functional capacities (e.g., vision, hear-
ing, cognition, or motor function within
normative parameters). However, many people
have functional deficits in one or more of these
capacities (although they may have strengths in
others) and have difficulty accessing important
services, locations, and technologies because
they are designed with the needs of people with
typical (i.e., modal) functional capacity in mind.
When an individual cannot engage in an
activity because of a mismatch between their
functional capacity and the environmental
or personal demands of their context, they
have a disability (World Health Organization
(WHO), 2001). When changes are made to these
contextual factors that increase accessibility, an
individual can engage in the activity and disabil-
ity is reduced.
Accessibility is often thought of in physical
terms, that is, physical access to home, work, or
community as exemplified by ramps into build-
ings, doors that are wide enough for a wheelchair
to fit through, or Braille descriptions on the signs
to bathrooms. But accessibility also applies to
electronic tools and products such as computers,
cell phones, fax machines, and software and to
informational technologies and products such as
websites, assessments, or manuals.
In a society that understands the range of
human physical, sensory, and cognitive diversity
and that values the contributions of all people,
changes are made that increase opportunities for
people with disabilities to participate in meaning-
ful ways in all aspects of their home and commu-
nity. These changes increase accessibility and
can take two broad forms universal design or
reasonable accommodations.
Universal design involves planning for
broader functional diversity before developing
a system or environment. Originally, the concept
of universal design came out of the field of archi-
tecture and was applied to the design of physical
environments. Mace, Hardie, and Place (1990)
defined universal design as, The design of
A 10
products and environments to be usable by all
people, to the greatest extent possible, without
the need for adaptation or specialized design.
More recently, universal design has been applied
in other fields such as education (Universal
Design for Learning, UDL; Rose & Meyer,
2000). When environments, products, and sys-
tems are designed in advance with consideration
of the needs of a broad audience, they are more
often natively accessible without the need for
accommodation or modification. In addition,
changes in design that benefit people with dis-
abilities often benefit people without disabilities
(e.g., curb cuts are intended for wheelchair users
but are more often used by people on bicycles or
pushing baby carriages).
When environments, products, and systems
are not designed using universal design
principles, accommodations must be made.
Accommodations are changes made to support
an individual in participating in an environment
that is not accessible. They can take many
forms. For example, an accommodation
might involve providing individuals who use a
wheelchair with an adjustable keyboard tray
and monitor so they can make adjustments
based on the height of their chairs; an individual
who is blind may use assistive technology
that reads the text presented on a screen of a
computer (i.e., screenreader software) to access
information; an individual with multiple sclero-
sis who fatigues easily may be offered a work
schedule that allows for more frequent short rest
breaks rather than one long one.
Reasonable accommodations are an impor-
tant part of U.S. disability laws such as
the Americans with Disabilities Act (Pub. L.
101336) and Sections 501 of the Rehabilitation
Act (Pub. L. 93112). These laws ensure that
appropriate accommodations are made when
environments are inaccessible to people with
disabilities.
Accessibility is conceptually and empirically
related to quality of life through participation.
Inaccessible environments limit participation in
social, work, and community activities. Restricted
participation is associated with lower self-reports
of quality of life (Barker et al., 2009; McDougall,
Accessibility to Services
Wright, & Rosenbaum, 2010; Fellinghauer,
Reinhardt, Stucki, & Bickenbach, 2012).
Cross-References
Connectivity (Street Patterns and Social
Networks)
References
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Pub. L.
101336).
Barker, R. N., Kendall, M. D., Amsters, D. I., Pershouse,
K. J., Haines, T. P., & Kuipers, P. (2009). The rela-
tionship between quality of life and disability across
the lifespan for people with spinal cord injury. Spinal
Cord, 47, 149155.
Fellinghauer, B., Reinhardt, J. D., Stucki, G., &
Bickenbach, J. E. (2012). Explaining the disability
paradox: A cross-sectional analysis of the Swiss gen-
eral population. BMC Public Health.. doi:10.1186/
1471-2458-12-655 (epub ahead of print).
Mace, R. L., Hardie, G. J., & Place, J. P. (1990). Accessi-
ble environments: Toward universal design. Center for
Accessible Housing, North Carolina State University.
McDougall, J., Wright, V., & Rosenbaum, P. (2010). The
ICF model of functioning and disability: Incorporating
quality of life and human development. Developmen-
tal Rehabilitation, 13(3), 204211.
Rose, D., & Meyer, A. (2000). Universal design for learn-
ing. Journal of Special Education Technology, 15(1),
6770.
Section 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
(Pub. L. 93112).
World Health Organization. (2001). ICF: International
classification of functioning, disability and health.
Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.
Accessibility to Services
Housing and Aging
Accommodation, Adaptation,
Modification
Psychosocial Adjustment (Includes
Psychosocial Functioning and Well-Being)
Action Research 11 A
Swerdlik, 2005). The acquiescence response set
Accounting System for Societal is the tendency of a test responder to agree or say
Well-Being yes to the presented items. To the extent to A
which a test or inventory contains items that
National Accounts of Well-Being when positively endorsed will yield higher scores
on the measured domain, an acquiescent response
set will serve to artificially inflate a responders
overall test score. To control for acquiescence,
Achievement a scale will need to include both positively phrased
(saying yes to an item will increase ones total
Competence score) and negatively phrased (saying no to an
item will increase ones total score) items
(Winkler, Kanouse, & Ware, 1982).
Achievement Motivation
Cross-References
Need for Achievement
Questionnaire Design
Response Bias(es)
Achieving Results

Program Implementation References

Cohen, R. J., & Swerdlik, M. E. (2005). Psychological

testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and
measurement (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Acoustic Music Winkler, J. D., Kanouse, D. E., & Ware, J. E. (1982).
Controlling for acquiescence response set in scale devel-
opment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67(5), 555561.
Folk Music

Acting
Acquiescence Response Set
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
Ralph L. Piedmont
Pastoral Counseling Department, Loyola
University Maryland, Columbia, MD, USA Action Research

Hendrika Maltby
Synonyms Department of Nursing, University of Vermont,
Burlington, VT, USA
ARS

Definition
A response set refers to a stylistic pattern of
behavior enacted in ones replies to items on
a psychological test or inventory (Cohen &
Synonyms
Collaborative research; Community participatory
action research; Community-based collaborative
action research; Community-based participatory
research; Participatory action research
A 12
Definition
An orientation to research that involves joint deci-
sions between the researcher and the community
who is a partner (not a subject) in the research
process, to actively investigate an issue; often
used to enhance the health and well-being of
those communities (Israel, Eng, Schulz, & Parker,
2005; McIntyre, 2008; Pavlish & Pharris, 2012;
Stoecker, 2005; Stringer, 2007).
Description
Historical Roots
The term, action research, is attributed to Kurt
Lewin during the 1940s who sought to use
research to solve practical issues and problems
rather than solely for publication by academics
(Pavlish & Pharris, 2012; Wallerstein & Duran,
2003; Stringer, 2007). Wallerstein and Duran
termed this the northern tradition where
practical problem solving and developed
collaborative methodologies bring together
stakeholders, to solve problems at the small
group or system level (p. 29). During the
1970s, people in Asia, Latin America, and Africa
also called into question the dominant research
methodologies where researchers come in, study
an issue objectively and then publish the work.
Freire (1970) in his seminal work, Pedagogy of
the Oppressed, rejected this philosophy, declar-
ing that people needed to be educated so they
could develop their power to perceive critically
the way they exist in the world with which and in
which they find themselves. . .[and] gives way to
the drive for transformation and inquiry (pp. 83,
85). Wallerstein and Duran describe this as the
southern tradition, where rather than research
being neutral, participation in research is
a commitment to critical consciousness, eman-
cipation and social justice (p. 30).
The core principles of action research are that
those affected by the issue/problem should be
involved in the investigation and the resolution.
As such, action research is democratic (participa-
tion of everyone), equitable (all have worth),
Action Research
liberating (provides freedom from oppressive
conditions), and enhancing (expression of full
potential) (Stringer, 2007). Stringer also
describes the basic action research routine as
a recycling and interacting spiral of the follow-
ing: look (gather information and describe the
situation), think (analysis and interpretation),
and act (plan, implement, and evaluate).
Discussion
Since the term first became part of the research
lexicon, the field has been rapidly expanding.
A current library search of the term action
research yielded 480,300 entries in the PubMed
database across many fields and professions
including nursing, medicine, public health, social
work, psychology, and education. Action
research requires partnership with those who
own the issue/problem. There is a demand not
only from communities themselves but also
from funding agencies, such as the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) who now strongly
encourage community participation to increase
acceptability of interventions and maximize the
potential for change in knowledge, attitudes,
and behavior.
Community partnerships are the corner-
stone of action research. An excellent resource
for guidelines in establishing a community part-
nership has been developed by the Community-
Campus Partnerships for Health organization
(http://www.ccph.info/). They outline nine princi-
ples of good partnerships which also incorporate
the characteristics of action research including
balance of power, building on strengths, and
sharing resources. The foremost advantage of a
communitys participation in a partnership is the
opportunity to inform action that will affect the
health of the community (Portillo & Waters,
2004, p. 321).
Social determinates of health, how people live
and work, that affect opportunities to lead
healthy lives influence health outcomes and
community wellness. Factors such as racism
and other forms of discrimination may be primary
contributors to health outcomes and often dis-
proportionately affect communities of color
Action Research
(Baker, Metzler, & Galea, 2005). Action research
becomes the appropriate orientation to address
these issues as the best strategies for ameliorating
inequities in social determinants of health are those
that reflect local knowledge and a communitys
readiness for change, not just expert knowledge
regarding the best way to create change (Baker
et al., 2005, p. 555). An example is The National
Congress of American Indians Policy Research
Center who has developed a Research Regulation
Toolkit, an online collection of easy-to-use tools
and resources to support tribal leaders and their
communities in regulating research (http://www.
ncaiprc.org/research-regulation).
The role of the researcher is one of facilitation,
rather than director or leader. Allen, Culhane-Pera,
Pergament, and Call (2010) through their qualita-
tive research outline themes that facilitated
researcher participation in community participa-
tive action research. These include personal
attributes to cope with the complexities of commu-
nity partnerships, positive attitudes toward collab-
oration, and knowing how to build community
partnerships. Kelly (2005) and Stoecker (2005)
provide steps and suggestions for researchers in
the planning and implementation of participatory
action research projects.
Questions
Action research promises much in terms of
community success and increased wellness
and quality of life. There are, however, several
questions that must be addressed. First, who or
what is the community? A community can range
from any group with common interests to an
approach that raises questions about who defines
or represents community and makes decisions
(Jones & Wells, 2007, p. 408).
Is collaboration always a good thing?
Ansari, Phillips, and Hammick (2001) discuss
the complexity of developing an evidence base
to evaluate community collaborations and the
multifaceted choices that need to be made:
macro or micro, proximal or distal indicators,
short- versus long-term effects, and individualis-
tic and collective community level outcomes all
within the context of the issue being examined.
13 A
Another question that is raised is ethical
clearance from the Institutional Review Board
(IRB). As described by Boser (2009), IRBs A
protect human participants in research from the
dominance power of the researcher. For example,
each activity in the action research process is
negotiated among the partners so that the full
extent of the research cannot be stated in advance
by the researcher who must submit the proposal
to the IRB. Participants cannot give informed
consent nor can confidentiality be assured as
they will have a voice in determining the research
activities (Boser). Boser provides suggestions to
enhance ethical practice in participatory action
research such as being involved in developing
guidelines and strategies to ethically assess
proposed studies.
Cross-References
Collaboration
Community Participation
Community-Based Participatory Research
Health Outcomes
Quality of Life
Racism
University-Community Partnerships
Wellness
References
Allen, M. L., Culhane-Pera, K. A., Pergament, S. L., &
Call, K. T. (2010). Facilitating research faculty partic-
ipation in CBPR: Development of a model based on
key informant interviews. Clinical Translational Sci-
ence Journal, 3(5), 233238.
Ansari, W. E., Phillips, C. J., & Hammick, M. (2001).
Collaboration and partnerships: Developing the evi-
dence base. Health and Social Care in the Community,
9(4), 215227.
Baker, E. A., Metzler, M. M., & Galea, S. (2005).
Addressing social determinants of health inequities:
Learning from doing. American Journal of Public
Health, 95(4), 553555.
Boser, S. (2009). Power, ethics, and the IRB: Dissonance
over human participant; review of participatory
research. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 10601074.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. Ramos,
Trans.). New York: Continuum International.
A 14
Israel, B. A., Eng, E., Schulz, A. J., & Parker, E. A. (2005).
Methods in community-based participatory research
for health. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Jones, L., & Wells, K. (2007). Strategies for academic and
clinical engagement in community-participatory
partnered research. JAMA, 297(4), 407410.
Kelly, P. J. (2005). Practical suggestions for community
interventions using participatory action research.
Public Health Nursing, 22(1), 6573.
McIntyre, A. (2008). Participatory action research.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Pavlish, C. P., & Pharris, M. D. (2012). Community-based
collaborative action research: A nursing approach.
Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Portillo, C. J., & Water, C. (2004). Community partner-
ships: The cornerstone of community health research.
Annual Review of Nursing Research, 22, 315329.
Stoecker, R. (2005). Research methods for community
change: A project-based approach. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
Stringer, E. T. (2007). Action research (3rd ed.). Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wallerstein, N., & Duran, B. (2003). The conceptual,
historical, and practice roots of community based par-
ticipatory research and related participatory traditions.
In M. Minkler & N. Wallerstien (Eds.), Community-
based participatory research for health (pp. 2752).
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Action Systems
Faceted Action System Theory (FAST)
Active Citizenship
Bryony Hoskins
University of Southampton,
Southampton, UK
Definition
Active citizenship is a contested concept.
However, it is frequently used to describe citizens
that engage in a broad range of activities that
promote and sustain democracy. These actions
include civil society activities such as protesting
and collecting petitions, community activities
such as volunteering, and conventional political
Action Systems
engagement such as voting or campaigning for
elections. In addition to participation, there is
a normative value element to active citizenship.
Active citizenship usually refers to participation
that requires respect for others and that does
not contravene human rights and democracy.
This additional element is used to highlight that
participation per se can lead to or be a part of
nondemocratic activities that can create harm to
certain social groups.
Description
Laws and institutions are rarely sufficient for
a democracy to flourish (Honohan, 2002), and
much empirical research has demonstrated that
the quality of democratic governance relies on
the civic virtues and engagement of their citizens
(Almond & Verba, 1963; de Tocqueville, 1863;
Putnam, 1993). Democracies require active
citizens who are both inside and outside the
political system to monitor the process and to be
willing and able to act to create or resist change
(Crick, 2003). For countries without democracy,
active citizens are the bases from which
resistance can build in order to create change.
Citizenship has in the past focused on the
rights and responsibilities of the individual in
relationship to the state. The most influential of
these researchers today, Marshall (1950),
highlighted the importance of civil rights (equal
legal rights offering an individual justice and
freedom), political rights (the right to influence
decision-making such as through voting and
standing for public office), and social rights
(access to opportunity such as health care and
education). The aspects of legal rights of citizen-
ship have been the focus for liberal theories of
citizenship that stress individual freedoms and
legal equalities. However, as Marshall noted him-
self, the legal opportunities are of utmost impor-
tance but insufficient to ensure a flourishing civil
society or a system of government in which every
citizens voice is properly heard (Westholm,
Montero, & Van Deth, 2007, p. 5). Thus, research
on citizenship has begun to focus on citizens
participation in political processes and now
Active Citizenship
places a strong emphasis on individual action
with the intent to influence (Verba & Nie,
1972). What can be noted is a shift in the
understanding of citizenship towards individual
involvement in participatory democracy (Bar-
ber, 2003): Thus, the focus is more on citizens
involvement in decision-making and deliberative
democracy (Mutz, 2006) in which more people
are involved in the negotiations over policy devel-
opment. The notion of active citizenship further
highlights this shift towards examination of
individual action: By adding the word active, it
has emphasized the involvement of citizens.
The need for greater participation reflects a return
towards civic republican thought based on early
Roman and Greek reflections of democracy that
emphasizes the need for citizens to be involved in
a political community on an equal and free basis
and the need for citizens to learn the competences
for this engagement including civic virtues such as
solidarity and the responsibility to act in light of
the common good (Honohan, 2002).
Based on both liberal and civic republican
thinking, active citizenship has been defined by
researchers in a number of different ways. Some
definitions contain a political element, for exam-
ple, describing active citizenship as an eclectic
collection of participatory activities including
political participation (de Weerd, Gemmeke,
Rigter, & van Rij, 2005) in a deliberative manner
(Ivancic, Novak, Chioncel, & Jansen, 2003) and
a political literacy enabling individuals to effect
political change (Crick, 2003). Other definitions
have placed greater weight on community and
voluntary action (Irish Government Taskforce,
2007; de Weerd et al., 2005). Scholars using
concepts similar to active citizenship such as
social capital have tended to focus more on the
volunteering, community participation and
actions that support community cohesion (e.g.,
Putnam, 2000). While the researchers who have
used the concept of political participation, which
is also close to active citizenship, have focused
more on traditional forms of politics in terms of
voting and party membership (Lipset, 1959).
Researchers working with policy at a European
level (Hoskins & Mascherini, 2009) and at the
national level in England (Crick, 1998) have
15 A
combined the different facets of community and
political participation into the concept of active
citizenship. At a European level, active citizen- A
ship has been defined as Participation in civil
society, community and/or political life, charac-
terized by mutual respect and nonviolence and in
accordance with human rights and democracy
(Hoskins, 2006). It ranges from participatory
democracy, including actions that hold govern-
ments accountable, to representative democracy,
including actions such as voting, and also to
participation in the everyday life of the commu-
nities. The definition is inclusive towards new
forms of active citizenship such as one-off issue
politics and responsible consumption, as well as
the more traditional forms of membership in
political parties and nongovernmental organiza-
tions. The limitations provided by this definition
of active citizenship are set by ethical boundaries.
Activities in which persons participate should be
based on values and should not contravene prin-
ciples of human rights and the rule of law.
Although active citizenship is specified and mea-
sured on the individual level in terms of action and
values, the emphasis is on how these activities
contribute to the wider society in terms of ensuring
the continuation of or creation of democracy and
good governance and as a concept is much less
concerned with the specific benefits for the indi-
vidual. This emphasis on the common rather than
individual good helps to distinguish this concept
from the term social capital.
Active citizenship has been measured in Europe
through composite indicators (Hoskins &
Mascherini, 2009). The results highlighted a
two-speed Europe in which Northern and Western
Europe had high rates of civic participation and
Southern and Eastern Europe with considerably
less, suggesting that the years and stability of
democracy were key factors in developing civic
participation.
The relationship between quality of life and
active citizenship to the best of my knowledge
has yet to be explored. For example, does having
a large number of active citizens involved in
society benefit the quality of life for all? Running
a simple correlation between the active citizenship
composite scores and the quality of life index
A 16
suggests a strong association. However, further
research would be needed to test this relationship
further (see also entry on Democracy).
In addition, we may also wish to consider if
there is an individual benefit to such a form of
participation. Answering this question would
depend on the level of democracy and acceptabil-
ity of dissent within a country. For an individual
in a nondemocratic regime, active citizenship
may end up seriously damaging the quality of
their life and could include torture or death unless
the consequence of their actions leads towards
social transformation. In a healthy democracy,
one would hope that at least the individuals
would not be harmed by such actions and would
even be found to be associated with basic health
benefits and greater social capital.
Cross-References
Civic Engagement
Democracy
Democracy, Faith in
Social Change
References
Almond, G., & Verba, S. (1963). Civic culture. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press.
Barber, B. (2003). Strong democracy: Participatory poli-
tics for a new age. California: University of California.
Crick, B. (1998). Education for citizenship and the teach-
ing of democracy in schools: Final report of the Advi-
sory Group on Citizenship 22 September 1998.
London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
Crick, B. (2003). The english citizenship order 1999:
Context, content and presuppositions. In A. Lockyer,
B. Crick, & J. Annette (Eds.), Education for demo-
cratic citizenship (pp. 1529). Aldershot: Ashgate.
de Tocqueville, A. (1863). Democracy in America. Cam-
bridge: Sever and Francis.
de Weerd, M., Gemmeke, M., Rigter, J., & van Rij, C.
(2005). Indicators for monitoring active citizenship
and citizenship education. Amsterdam: Regioplan
Beleidsonderzoek.
Honohan, I. (2002). Civic republicanism. London:
Routledge.
Hoskins, B. (2006). Draft framework on indicators for
active citizenship. Ispra: CRELL.
Hoskins, B., & Mascherini, M. (2009). Measuring active
citizenship through the development of a composite
Active Coping
indicator. Social Indicator Research, 90, 459488.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9271-2.
Irish Taskforce on Active Citizenship. (2007). The con-
cept of active citizenship. Dublin: Secretariat of the
Taskforce on Active Citizenship.
Ivancic, A., Novak, D., Chioncel, N., & Jansen, T. (2003).
Active citizenship and governance in the Central and
Eastern European context report on critical review of
the national literature and policy analysis. Nether-
lands: University of Nijmegen (Reviewing education
and training for governance and active citizenship in
Europe A Central and Eastern European Perspective
(RE-ETGACE)).
Lipset, S. M. (1959). Some social requisites of democracy:
Economic development and political legitimacy.
American Political Science Review, 53(1), 69105.
Marshall, T. (1950). Citizenship and social class and other
essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mutz, D. (2006). Hearing the other side deliberative
versus participatory democracy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Putnam, R. D. (1993). Making democracy work.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival
of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Verba, S., & Nie, H. (1972). Participation in America:
Political democracy and social equality. New York:
Harper and Row.
Westholm, A., Montero, J., & Van Deth, J. (2007). Intro-
duction: Citizenship, involvement, and democracy in
Europe. In J. Van Deth, J. Montero, & A. Westholm
(Eds.), Citizenship and involvement in European
democracies: A comparative analysis (pp. 132).
London: Routledge.
Active Coping
Charles S. Carver
Department of Psychology, University of Miami,
Coral Gables, FL, USA
Synonyms
Approach coping; Engagement coping; Problem-
focused coping
Definition
Coping is defined as efforts to prevent or diminish
threat, harm, and loss from a given event or
to reduce the distress associated with those
Active Coping
experiences. Several distinctions are made within
this broad concept. Problem-focused coping, or
active coping, is effort directed at the stressor
itself: taking steps to remove or to evade it or to
somehow diminish its impact if it cannot be
evaded. Emotion-focused coping is aimed at min-
imizing the emotional distress that is triggered by
stressful events.
Description
A person who must deal with an adversity is
engaged in coping. Thus, the concept of coping
is inextricably linked to stress. Stress exists
whenever people confront situations that tax or
exceed their ability to manage them (Lazarus &
Folkman, 1984). Adversity takes several forms.
Threat refers to the impending occurrence of an
event that may have bad consequences. Harm
refers to the perception that bad consequences
have already occurred. Loss refers to the percep-
tion that something of value has been taken away.
People respond to perceptions of threat, harm,
and loss in a wide variety of ways, many of which
are labeled coping. Coping is defined as efforts to
prevent or diminish threat, harm, and loss or to
reduce the distress associated with those experi-
ences. Some prefer to limit the concept of coping
to voluntary responses; others include automatic
and involuntary responses, as well. In practice it
is not easy to distinguish between these response
classes. Indeed, intentional responses may
become automatic with repetition.
Distinctions
Coping is a concept with a complex history.
A great many distinctions have been made within
the broad domain (Skinner, Edge, Altman, &
Sherwood, 2003). Here are some of the more
important ones.
The first distinction was made between
problem-focused and emotion-focused coping
(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Problem-focused cop-
ing is directed at the stressor itself: taking steps to
remove or to evade it or to diminish its impact if it
cannot be evaded. Emotion-focused coping is
aimed at minimizing the distress triggered by
17 A
stressful events. Emotion-focused coping includes
responses that range from self-soothing to venting
negative emotion and to attempts to escape men- A
tally from the stressful situation.
Problem-focused and emotion-focused coping
have different initial goals. Some behaviors can
serve either role, depending on the goal. For exam-
ple, seeking support is emotion focused if the goal
is to obtain reassurance; seeking support is prob-
lem focused if the goal is to obtain advice or
instrumental help. Although they are easy to dis-
tinguish in principle, problem-focused and emo-
tion-focused coping also facilitate each other.
Effective problem-focused coping diminishes the
threat and thereby also diminishes distress. Effec-
tive emotion-focused coping diminishes distress,
making it possible to consider the problem more
calmly, often fostering problem-focused coping.
What turns out to be a particularly important
distinction is between engagement or approach
coping and disengagement or avoidance coping
(Skinner et al., 2003). Engagement coping is
aimed at actively dealing with the stressor or
stress-related emotions. Disengagement coping
entails avoiding confrontation of the threat or
the related distress. This includes responses
such as avoidance, denial, and wishful thinking.
Disengagement coping is often emotion focused,
because it typically involves an attempt to escape
feelings of distress. Some disengagement coping
is almost literally an effort to act as though the
threat does not exist, so that no reaction is needed.
Wishful thinking and fantasy can distance the
person from the stressor, at least temporarily,
and denial creates a boundary between reality
and the persons experience.
Disengagement coping has the aim of escap-
ing distress, but it is ineffective over the long
term, because it does nothing about the threats
existence and its eventual impact. Responding to
a real threat in your life by going to the movies
will allow temporary escape, but the threat will
remain in place. Eventually it must be dealt with.
Indeed, for many stressors, the longer a person
avoids dealing with the problem, the more
difficult or complex it becomes.
Some have extended the idea of disengage-
ment coping to include giving up on goals that
A 18
the stressor is threatening (Carver & Connor-
Smith, 2010). Disengaging from the threatened
goal may allow the person to avoid negative
feelings associated with the threat. Depending
on the nature of the goal being abandoned,
however, this sort of disengagement can also
have adverse secondary consequences.
Most adaptive coping is engagement coping.
Within engagement coping, distinctions also have
been made between attempts to control the stressor
itself, called primary control coping, and attempts
to adapt or adjust to the stressor, termed accommo-
dative or sometimes secondary control coping
(Morling & Evered, 2006; Skinner et al., 2003).
The term accommodative is perhaps preferable,
because it does not carry connotations of exerting
control or of being secondary to other coping efforts.
The concept of accommodative coping
derives from analyses of successful aging.
It refers to adjustments made within the self, in
response to constraints inherent in ones life
situation. In coping, accommodation applies to
responses such as acceptance, cognitive
restructuring, and scaling back of ones goals in
the face of insurmountable obstacles.
A concept related to accommodation is
meaning-focused coping (Park & Folkman,
1997). In meaning-focused coping people draw
on their beliefs and values to find benefits in stress-
ful experiences or remind themselves of positive
aspects of their lives. Meaning-focused coping
includes reordering life priorities and focusing on
positive meanings of ordinary events. The concept
of meaning-focused coping derives from evidence
that positive as well as negative emotions are com-
mon during stressful experiences and that those
positive feelings influence peoples outcomes
(Park, Lechner, Antoni, & Stanton, 2009).
Active Coping and Quality of Life
How do coping responses affect well-being?
Behind this question lie a number of thorny
methodological issues (Carver, 2007). The issues
include how to measure coping, how often to
measure it, and what time lag to assume between
coping and relevant outcomes.
Active Coping
In meta-analyses of coping and well-being,
effect sizes are typically small to moderate.
Coping generally is linked more strongly to
psychological outcomes than to physical health.
Nonetheless, most kinds of engagement coping
relate to better physical and mental health in sam-
ples coping with stressors as diverse as traumatic
events, social stress, infection with human immu-
nodeficiency virus, prostate cancer, and diabetes;
higher disengagement coping typically predicts
poorer outcomes (Carver & Connor-Smith, 2010).
One caution must be applied to conclusions
about the effects of coping. Although coping is
viewed as an ever-changing response to evolving
situational demands, most research does not reflect
this view. Many studies assess only dispositional
coping (coping styles) or one-time reports of overall
coping with some stressor. Those studies tell virtu-
ally nothing about how timing, order, combination,
or duration of coping affects outcomes. Tennen,
Affleck, Armeli, and Carney (2000) proposed that
people typically use emotion-focused coping
largely after they have tried problem-focused cop-
ing and found it ineffective. This implies
researchers should be studying whether the person
changes from one sort of coping to another across
successive assessments as a function of lack of
effectiveness of the first response used.
References
Carver, C. S. (2007). Stress, coping, and health. In
H. S. Friedman & R. C. Silver (Eds.), Foundations of
health psychology (pp. 117144). New York: Oxford
University Press.
Carver, C. S., & Connor-Smith, J. (2010). Personality and
coping. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 679704.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal,
and coping. New York: Springer.
Morling, B., & Evered, S. (2006). Secondary control
reviewed and defined. Psychological Bulletin, 132,
269296.
Park, C. L., & Folkman, S. (1997). Meaning in the context
of stress and coping. Review of General Psychology,
1, 115144.
Park, C. L., Lechner, S. C., Antoni, M. H., & Stanton, A. L.
(Eds.). (2009). Medical illness and positive life change:
Can crisis lead to personal transformation? Washing-
ton, DC: American Psychological Association.
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) 19 A
Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. daily self-care activities within an individuals
(2003). Searching for the structure of coping: A review place of residence and in outdoor environment
and critique of category systems for classifying ways of
coping. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 216269. (Krapp, 2003). A
Tennen, H., Affleck, G., Armeli, S., & Carney, M. A.
(2000). A daily process approach to coping: Linking
theory, research, and practice. American Psychologist,
55, 626636.
Description

Activities of daily living (ADL) are used in

rehabilitation as an umbrella term relating to
Active Living Communities
self-care, comprising those activities or tasks
that people undertake routinely in their everyday
Neighborhood Active Living Potential
life (Fricke, 2002). Krapp (2003) defined that
(NALP)
ADL indicates the functional status of health,
mainly related with daily self-care activities
within an individuals place of residence and in
Active Surveillance: Expectant outdoor environment.
Management, Watchful Waiting ADL is generally divided into basic ADL
(BADL) and instrumental ADL (IADL).
Low-Risk Prostate Cancer, Quality of Life and The first is related with personal care task,
Active Surveillance for most often used for measuring the functional
ability. Katz, Ford, Moskowitz, Jackson,
and Jaffe (1963) developed an early measure
Active, Shared, or Passive of BADL, called the Katz Activities of
Participation Daily Living Scale, which includes the set of
tasks such as bathing, dressing, transferring,
Decision Making using the toilet, continence, and eating.
The second was developed by Lawson and
Brody (1969) to cover the activities necessary
for independent living in the community,
Activities of Daily Living which were not fully covered by the first.
Even if not necessary for fundamental function-
Caregiver Activity Survey
ing, IADL makes the people live indepen-
dently in a domestic or community life,
including housework, taking medications
Activities of Daily Living (ADL) as prescribed, managing money, shopping
for groceries or clothing, use of telephone or
Seoyong Kim other forms of communication, using technol-
Department of Public Administration, Ajou ogy (as applicable), and transportation within
University, Suwon, South Korea the community (Bookman, Harrington, Pass, &
Reisner, 2007).
In empirical studies, ADL is mainly used
Definition for causal factors to determine the degree of
quality of life (QOL) for the elderly, disabled,
Activities of daily living (ADL) are the and patients. Those who have greater disability
functional status of health, mainly related with revealed the lower QOL (Natterlund &
A 20
Ahlstrom, 2001). QOL of the elderly patients
showed a recovery to an extent equal to or
better ADL scores (Amemiya et al., 2007).
Schilling, Wahl, and Oswald (2011) reported
that the loss in functional competence to conduct
activities of daily living (ADL) has negative
effect on the life satisfaction. Declines of
functional competence caused by disable
chronic physical functionality promote
a negative impact on well-being because they
tend not only to impede the individual life
conduct and prevent attainment of goals but
also to bring out the losses in assisting social
networks.
References
Amemiya, T., Oda, K., Ando, M., Kawamura, T.,
Kitagawa, Y., Okawa, Y., et al. (2007). Activities
of daily living and quality of life of elderly
patients after elective surgery for gastric and
colorectal cancers. Annals of Surgery, 246(2),
222228.
Bookman, A., Harrington, M., Pass, L., & Reisner, E.
(2007). Family caregiver handbook. Cambridge,
MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Fricke, J. (2002). The international encyclopedia of reha-
bilitation. Retrieved from May 1, 2012. http://cirrie.
buffalo.edu/encyclopedia
Katz, S., Ford, A. B., Moskowitz, R. W., Jackson, B. A., &
Jaffe, M. W. (1963). Studies of illness in the aged.
Journal of the American Medical Association, 185,
9499.
Krapp, K. (2003). Activities of daily living evaluation. In
K. Krapp (Ed.), Encyclopedia of nursing & allied
health. Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
Lawton, M. P., & Brody, E. M. (1969). Assessment
of older people: Self-maintaining and instru-
mental activities of daily living. Gerontologist, 9(3),
179186.
Natterlund, B., & Ahlstrom, G. (2001). Activities of daily
living and quality of life in persons with muscular
dystrophy. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 33(5),
206211.
Schilling, O. K., Wahl, H., & Oswald, F. (2011).
Change in life satisfaction under chronic physical
multi-morbidity in advanced old age: Potential and
limits of adaptation. Journal of Happiness Studies.
doi:10.1007/s10902-011-9313-3.
Activities of Daily Vision Scale
Activities of Daily Vision Scale
Jill Carlton
School of Health and Related Research,
The University of Sheffield,
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK
Synonyms
ADVS
Definition
ADVS or Activities of Daily Vision Scale is
a measure of visual function and is one of
a number of vision-related quality of life
questionnaires which can be classified under
patient-reported outcome assessments.
Description
ADVS is a condition-specific health-related quality
of life measure which was developed by Mangione
et al. (1992) for use in subjects with cataracts. The
item development originated from clinicians and
patients who identified activities that were most
difficult for people with cataracts to perform.
These were categorized into five subscales
which included night driving, daytime driving, dis-
tance vision activations that do not require driving,
near vision activities, and activities subject to glare.
The instrument in its current form consists of 21
multiple-response items which are answered on
a Likert-type scale (Table 1).
Respondents are asked if they have partici-
pated in an activity over the previous 3 months.
If they have, they are then asked to rate the level
of difficulty of that activity from extreme diffi-
culty (2), moderate difficulty (3), a little difficulty
(4), and no difficulty (5). If the respondent has not
participated in that activity in the previous
3 months, they are asked whether this is due to
Activities of Daily Vision Scale 21 A
Activities of Daily Vision Scale, Table 1 Activities of Discussion
daily living (ADVS) (With permission from Mangione
et al. (1992))
The psychometric properties of the instrument A
Degree of difficulty have been assessed in terms of internal consistency,
Activity 1 (high) to 5 (none)
test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, discrimi-
Driving at night
nant validity, and responsiveness. Although origi-
Seeing objects moving while
driving at night nally designed for use with those with cataracts,
Driving at night with oncoming the instrument has since been used in studies to
headlights measure vision-related quality of life in a number
Reading street signs at night of patient groups, including those with giant-cell
Driving during the day arteritis (Kupersmith et al., 2001), age-related
Driving in unfamiliar areas macular degeneration (Scilley et al., 2002), choroi-
Reading street signs in daylight dal melanoma (Melia, 2006), and photorefractive
Walking down steps during daylight keratectomy (Freitas et al., 1995), and in a
Walking down steps in dim light population-based study (Valbuena et al., 1999).
Seeing faces across the street in Recently, the validity of the ADVS has been
bright sunlight
reexplored using Rasch analysis techniques
Watching television
Reading numbers on the TV screen
(Pesudovs, Garamendi, Keeves, & Elliott,
Reading ordinary print in 2003). The findings of this small-scale study
newspapers indicate that a shortened version of the
Reading directions on medicine instrument could be used (15 items). However,
bottles the authors acknowledged that additional
Reading the ingredients on food cans questions may be required to capture the issues
Writing checks experienced by patients with better visual
Threading a needle without a device functions (such as those undergoing second eye
Using a ruler, yardstick, or tape cataract surgery). In a subsequent, larger-scale
measure
study, Rasch analysis techniques were also
Using a screwdriver
Preparing meals
applied to patients awaiting cataract surgery
Playing cards (Gothwal, Wright, Lamoureux, & Pesudovs,
2010). The authors reported that only one of the
five subscales possessed acceptable measurement
vision problems. If yes, this is scored as unable to properties in their study population, the near
do due to vision (1). If not, the respondent does vision subscale. The four other subscales were
not score on the activity. An ADVS overall and found to be dysfunctional. Using principal
subscale score can be calculated. A score of component analysis (PCA), the ADVS was
0 means that activities are so difficult; because found not be unidimensional. Gothwal et al.
of vision problems, they are no longer performed. (2010) therefore questioned the validity of the
A score of 100 represents no difficulty with any of original ADVS measure. They found that by
the visual activities. using the eight items within the near vision
Number of Items: 21 subscale, unidimensionality was restored.
Number of Subscales: 5
Scoring: 0100 (0 extreme difficulty and Cross-References
unable to perform; 100 no difficulty)
Item Pool Development: Clinician based Concurrent Validity
Mode of Administration: Interviewer Condition-Specific Measure
A 22 Activity Assessment

Discriminant Validity
Internal Consistency Reliability Activity Assessment
Likert Scale
Patient-Reported Outcome Measure Christina Faria
Principal Component Analysis Department of Physical Therapy, Universidade
Psychometric Analysis Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte,
Quality of Life Questionnaire Brazil
Rasch Analysis
Responsiveness to Change
Test-Retest Reliability Synonyms

Activity evaluation; Task measures

References

Freitas, C., Oliveiros, B. M., Marques, E., Leite, E. B., Definition

Freitas, C., Oliveiros, B. M., et al. (1995). Effect of
photorefractive keratectomy on visual functioning and According to the International Classification of
quality of life. Journal of Refractive Surgery, 11
Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), activity
(3 Suppl), S327S334.
Gothwal, V. K., Wright, T. A., Lamoureux, E. L., & refers to the execution of a task or action by an
Pesudovs, K. (2010). Activities of daily individual and is a component of functioning and
vision scale: What do the subscales measure? disability (World Health Organization, 2001).
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 51,
694700.
Therefore, activity measures provide information
Kupersmith, M. J., Speira, R., Langer, R., Richmond, M., regarding the ability or capacity of a person to
Peterson, M., Speira, H., et al. (2001). Visual function perform a task or action, or his/her perceived
and quality of life among patients with giant cell difficulties or limitations in performing each
(temporal) arteritis. Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology,
task or action (Portney & Watkins, 2007; World
21(4), 266273.
Mangione, C. M., Phillips, R. S., Seddon, J. M., Lawrence, Health Organization, 2001).
M. G., Cook, E. F., Dailey, R., Goldman, L. (1992).
Development of the Activities of Daily Vision
Scale: A measure of visual functional status. Medical
Care, 30, 11126.
Description
Melia, M. (2006). Quality of life after iodine 125 brachy-
therapy vs enucleation for choroidal melanoma - 5-Year Activity measures provide information by
results from the collaborative ocular melanoma study: quantifying, qualifying, or describing characteris-
COMS QOLS report no. 3. Archives of Ophthalmology,
tics which could assist scientists and clinicians to
124(2), 226238.
Pesudovs, K., Garamendi, E., Keeves, J. P., & understand, evaluate, and differentiate an individ-
Elliott, D. B. (2003). The Activities of Daily uals ability, capacity, or difficulty in the execution
Vision Scale for cataract surgery outcomes: of a task or action. Therefore, activity measures are
Re-evaluating validity with Rasch analysis. Inves-
useful to demonstrate relationships or changes; to
tigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 44,
28922899. evaluate individuals characteristics, progress, and
Scilley, K., Jackson, G. R., Cideciyan, A. V., Maguire, the effects of interventions; to make decisions,
M. G., Jacobson, S. G., & Owsley, C. (2002). Early such as the choice of the most appropriate therapy;
age-related maculopathy and self-reported visual
to draw conclusions, such as diagnoses and
difficulty in daily life. Ophthalmology, 109(7),
12351242. prognoses; and to objectively communicate
Valbuena, M., Bandeen-Roche, K., Rubin, G. S., information regarding the abilities or capacities
Munoz, B., West, S. K., Valbuena, M., et al. (1999). of the individuals to perform a task or action,
Self-reported assessment of visual function in
or their perceived difficulties or limitations in
a population-based study: The SEE project. Salisbury
Eye Evaluation. Investigative Ophthalmology & performing each task or action (Portney &
Visual Science, 40(2), 280288. Watkins, 2007; World Health Organization, 2001).
Activity Assessment
There are several available instruments, which
can be applied as activity measures. The choice of
the measures will depend upon several factors,
such as the following:
1. The types of activities
2. The purposes of the measures
3. The measurement techniques
4. The contextual issues related to the
measurements
5. The methodological quality
6. The practical feasibility
The Types of Activities to Be Measured
First of all, it is important to determine the types of
activities to be measured. Activities are classified
in different ways. According to the ICF, general
tasks and demands, communication, mobility
(e.g., walking, changing and maintaining body
positions), self-care (e.g., eating, dressing,
toileting), and domestic life (e.g., household
tasks) are examples of activities subdomains
(World Health Organization, 2001).
The term activities of daily living (ADLs) is
used in health care to refer to daily self-care
activities performed by an individual. ADLs are
classified as basic and instrumental. Basic ADLs
consist of self-care tasks, including personal
hygiene, dressing, feeding oneself, functional
transfers (e.g., getting out of bed), voluntary uri-
nary control and fecal discharge, and ambulation
(e.g., walking or using a wheelchair). Instrumen-
tal ADLs allow individuals to live independently
in a community, such as doing housework, meal
preparations, taking medications, managing
money, shopping, use of communication devices,
and care of others or of pets (Trombly, 1995).
Another frequently applied term regarding
activity is physical activity, which is defined as
any body movements produced by the contrac-
tions of skeletal muscles which require energy
expenditure, i.e., increases in energy expendi-
tures above the basal levels. According to the
US Department of Health and Human Services,
baseline activities are normal lifestyle activities
and refer to light-intensive activities of daily life,
such as standing, walking slowly, and lifting
lightweight objects. People who can only do
baseline activities are considered to be inactive.
23 A
Health-enhancing physical activities are activi-
ties which, when added to baseline levels, pro-
duce health benefits, such as dancing, brisk A
walking, and rope jumping. Considering the
type, frequency, duration, and intensity of the
estimated metabolic expenditures of the activities
usually performed by an individual, physical
activity may be classified in four levels: inactive
(no activity beyond baseline ADLs), low,
medium, and high (U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2008).
The Purposes of the Measures
Measure can be applied for discriminative, pre-
dictive, or evaluative purposes. The discrimina-
tive index allows distinctions between subjects or
groups regarding the measured characteristics.
The predictive index allows classification of indi-
viduals within a set of characteristics to predict
future outcomes, generally used for screening or
diagnostic purposes. The evaluative index
assesses the magnitude of longitudinal changes
for the characteristics of interest (Portney &
Watkins, 2007).
The Techniques to Assess the Desired Activity
Several techniques to measure the desired activ-
ities were already identified (Bussmann & Stam,
1998):
(a) Physical sciences: refer to objective, usually
laboratory-bound instruments, and their out-
come measures are generally based upon
units of the physical sciences, such as forces
and velocity. Examples of those techniques
are force plates and optoelectronic systems
(Bussmann & Stam, 1998).
(b) Clinimetry: Refers to tests with their origin
in clinical practice, sometimes with addi-
tional use of simple instruments, and com-
monly employed with a component of
subjectivity and skills. Examples of those
techniques are timed tests, such as gait
speed and the Timed Up and Go test, and
visual examinations of posture and gait
(Bussmann & Stam, 1998).
(c) Observational: refers to the registration
of subjects activities by an observer or
by other means, such as video recordings,
A 24
followed by interpretations (Bussmann &
Stam, 1998).
(d) Diaries: refer to the subjects descriptions of
their activities, mostly at predetermined time
intervals (Bussmann & Stam, 1998).
(e) Questionnaires: refer to written or spoken
lists of questions regarding performed activ-
ities. Examples of those techniques include
the Katz ADL scale, Lawton IADL scale, and
the Human Activity Profile (HAP)
(Bussmann & Stam, 1998).
(f) Actigraphy: refers to portable instruments,
generally aimed at the indirect measurement
of energy expenditure by means of motion-
sensitive sensors, a method of monitoring
human rest/activity cycles. Insight can be
obtained as to whether or not a person is
active and sometimes how active he/she
is but not the type of activities performed.
Example of those techniques is
a piezoelectric accelerometer (Bussmann &
Stam, 1998).
(g) Physiological markers: These instruments
are based upon the measurement of physio-
logical parameters (heart rate, oxygen
uptake) to determine energy expenditure.
Within these techniques, some subcategories
can be distinguished. One part is applied in
the laboratory (e.g., oxygen uptake during
walking) and therefore has many characteris-
tics of physical science techniques. Secondly,
heart rate is ambulation measured and used to
indirectly assess energy expenditure and is
thus closely related to actigraphy. Thirdly,
physiological markers (e.g., doubly labeled
water) are used as measures of energy expen-
diture during the measurement period
(Bussmann & Stam, 1998).
(h) Ambulatory activity monitor: includes porta-
ble systems to measure specific activities,
such as postures and/or movements (e.g.,
walking). This technique is characterized by
an unrestrained range of motion of the mea-
sured subject, long-term and semicontinuous
measurement, and the possibility of measur-
ing a persons environment. The instruments
range from simple and/or providing one or
few measures to complex and/or providing
Activity Assessment
several measures. It can provide information
regarding the time spent on activities (loco-
motion, standing, and active sitting) during
24 h and the intensity of body movement
during these activities (Bussmann & Stam,
1998).
Contextual Issues Related to the
Measurements
The development, selection, and evaluation of
measures are context specific. Contextual issues
refer to factors exogenous to the measurement
techniques, such as population characteristics or
those of the individuals to be measured (age,
gender, educational level, health status, recent
life experiences), cultural contexts or the cultural
appropriateness of the instrument for the individ-
uals to be measured (ethnicity, cultural traditions
and norms), historical contexts (language, knowl-
edge base, beliefs, attitudes, values, political and
historical events), clinical problems, and research
goals (content of measurement, specificity of
measurement, comparisons to normative groups)
(Switzer, Wisniewski, Belle, & Schultz, 1999).
The Methodological Quality
As pointed out by Portney and Watkins (2007), the
usefulness of a measure depends upon the extent to
which clinicians or researchers can rely on data as
accurate and meaningful indicators of behaviors or
attributes. Methodological quality is related to the
psychometrical properties of the measurement,
such as reliability, validity, and responsiveness.
Reliability is the extent to which a measurement
is consistent and free of random error. Therefore,
reliability deals with the reproducibility of mea-
surements themselves. There are different types of
reliability: internal-consistency, test-retest, inter
and intra-rater reliability. Validity is the extent
to which an instrument measures what it is
intended to measure. Therefore, validity deals
with the accuracy of inferences made from mea-
surements. There are different types of validity:
face, content, criterion and construct validity.
Responsiveness is the ability of an outcome
measure to detect clinically important changes
(sensitivity to change) (Dekker, Dallmeijer, &
Lankhorst, 2005; Portney & Watkins, 2007).
Activity Limitations at Work
Practical Feasibility
The practical feasibility is related to the measure
capability of being used or dealt with suitable suc-
cess and the measure capability of being convenient
for researchers or clinicians (e.g., simplicity of use,
possibility to determine measurement characteris-
tics, costs, and availability) and for the individuals
(e.g., comfortable, painless) (Bussmann & Stam,
1998; Portney & Watkins, 2007).
Discussion
Assessments of individuals activity levels are
important for both clinicians and researchers,
since activity is one component of functioning
and disability (World Health Organization,
2001) and is related to quality of life (Johnston
& Miklos, 2002). Furthermore, the levels of
activity performance demonstrated positive asso-
ciations with health-related quality of life mea-
sures (Johnston & Miklos, 2002; Klavestrand &
Vingard, 2009). Several instruments are available
to measure activity. However, selecting an
appropriate instrument is a difficult process
(Salter et al., 2005). Therefore, the types of
activities to be measured, the purposes of the
measures, the techniques to measure, the contex-
tual issues related to the measurements, the
methodological quality of the measures, and the
practical feasibility of the measures are factors
which should be considered to guide activity
measure selection.
Cross-References
Activities of Daily Living (ADL)
Physical Activity
Reliability
Responsiveness to Change
References
Bussmann, J. B. J., & Stam, H. J. (1998). Techniques for
measurement and assessment of mobility in rehabili-
tation: A theoretical approach. Clinical Rehabilitation,
12(6), 455464.
25 A
Dekker, J., Dallmeijer, A. J., & Lankhorst, G. J. (2005).
Clinimetrics in rehabilitation medicine: Current
issues in developing and applying measurement
instruments. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, A
37(4), 193201.
Johnston, M. V., & Miklos, C. S. (2002). Activity-related
quality of life in rehabilitation and traumatic brain
injury. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilita-
tion, 83(12 Suppl 2), S26S38.
Klavestrand, J., & Vingard, E. (2009). The relationship
between physical activity and health-related quality of
life: A systematic review of current evidence. Scandi-
navian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 19(3),
300312.
Portney, L. G., & Watkins, M. P. (2007). Foundations of
clinical research: Applications to practice (3rd ed.).
New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Salter, K., Jutai, J. W., Teasell, R., Foley, N. C.,
Bitensky, J., & Bayley, M. (2005). Issues for selection
of outcome measures in stroke rehabilitation: ICF
activity. Disability and Rehabilitation, 27(6),
315340.
Switzer, G. E., Wisniewski, S. R., Belle, S. H., &
Schultz, M. A. D. (1999). Selecting, developing,
and evaluating research instruments. Social Psychiatry
and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 34(8), 399409.
Trombly, C. A. (1995). Occupational therapy for physical
dysfunction. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2008).
Physical activity guidelines for Americans. ODPHP
Publication No. U0036 October 2008.
World Health Organization. (2001). International classi-
fication of functioning, disability and health: ICF.
Geneva: Author.
Activity Day Centers
Day Centers
Activity Evaluation
Activity Assessment
Activity Limitations at Work
Work Limitations
A 26
Activity Support, Housing and Crime quality of life (Roger, 2007; Shweikert et al.,
Impact of Housing Design on Crime
Activity Theory of Successful Aging
Multidimensional Model of Successful Aging
Actualizing Tendency
Self-Actualization
Acute Myocardial Infarction
David Morley and Crispin Jenkinson
Department of Public Health, University of
Oxford, Oxford, UK
Synonyms
Coronary thrombosis; Heart attack
Definition
Acute myocardial infarction, commonly referred
to as heart attack, is the result of insufficient
blood supply to an area of the heart muscle
(myocardium), usually as a result of a coronary
occlusion or thrombosis. It is characterized by
a number of symptoms, but in particular chest
pain.
Description
Acute myocardial infarction (MI) is a significant
component of the burden of cardiovascular
disease and a major cause of mortality and
morbidity in the Western world that can
Activity Support, Housing and Crime
have a significant impact on health-related
2009). In the United Kingdom, the overall
incidence of MI in general practice is estimated
to be 2.6 per 1,000 population per year.
MI is approximately three to four times more
frequent in men than in women of comparable
age. Of those who die of MI, one third of
men and one quarter of women between
25 and 64 years old die within 1 hour of
onset of symptoms (Birkhead et al., 1999).
Between one fifth and one quarter of all
patients admitted to hospital with acute
MI die within 30 days. The risk of MI is
three to eight times higher in those who have
already had an infarct than in those who
have not (Birkhead et al., 1999).
The onset of symptoms in MI typically
occurs over several minutes. Symptomology is
diverse, but the most common symptom is
angina pectoris (chest pain), frequently
described as a sensation of pressure or tightness.
Pain often spreads to the jaw or teeth, shoulder,
arms (most commonly the left), and back.
Dyspnea (shortness of breath) is evident
where damage to the heart restricts output from
the left ventricle. This ultimately leads to left
ventricular failure and subsequent pulmonary
edema. Additional symptoms can include nau-
sea, vomiting, weakness, diaphoresis (excessive
sweating), palpitations, and impaired cognitive
function. Syncope (loss of consciousness)
and sudden death may result (Bolooki & Bajzer,
2009; Thygesen, Alpert, White & Joint
ESC/ACCF/AHA/WHF Task Force for the
Redefinition of Myocardial Infarction, 2007).
A proportion of myocardial infarctions are silent
and not characterized by the symptoms
described. The prevalence of silent MI appears
dependent on the population studied, general or
at risk, and the methods used for its investi-
gation (Valensi, Lorgis, & Cottin, 2011).
Primary risk factors for MI include advancing
age, obesity, elevated cholesterol, diabetes,
hypertension, smoking, excessive alcohol, male
gender, and family history of coronary disease
(Boersma et al., 2003; Bolooki & Bajzer,
2009). The main interventions to reduce the risk
Adaptation-Coping Model
of a first or subsequent MI or death from MI
are educational, behavioral, pharmacological, and
surgical (Cooper et al., 2007). The effects of MI on
quality of life have been measured using both
generic instruments such as the SF-36 (Ware &
Sherbourne, 1992) and disease-specific measures
such as the Myocardial Infarction Dimensional
Assessment Scale (MIDAS-35; Thompson et al.,
2002). Studies suggest its greatest impact is in
the areas of physical functioning, emotional
well-being, and pain (Alsen, Brink, Persson,
Brandstrom, & Karlson, 2010; Dickens et al.,
2006; Shweikert et al., 2009).
Cross-References
Diabetes Mellitus Type 1
Emotional Well-Being
Mortality
Obesity, an Overview
Pain
Physical Functioning (PF)
Quality of Life
SF-36
References
Alsen, P., Brink, E., Persson, L. O., Brandstrom, Y., &
Karlson, B. W. (2010). Illness perceptions after
myocardial infarction: Relations to fatigue, emotional
distress, and health-related quality of life. Journal of
Cardiovascular Nursing, 25(2), E1E10.
Birkhead, J., Goldacre, M., Mason, A., Wilkinson, E.,
Amess, M., & Cleary, R. (1999). Health outcome
indicators: Myocardial infarction. Report of
a working group to the Department of Health.
Oxford: National Centre for Health Outcomes
Development.
Boersma, E., Mercado, N., Poldermans, D., Gardien, M.,
Vos, J., & Simoons, M. L. (2003). Acute myocardial
infarction. Lancet, 361, 847858.
Bolooki, H. M., & Bajzer, C. T. (2009). Acute myocardial
infarction. In W. D. Carey (Ed.), Current clinical
medicine (pp. 5866). Philadelphia: Saunders
Elsevier.
Cooper, A., Skinner, J., Nherera, L., Feder, G., Ritchie, G.,
Kathoria, M., et al. (2007). Clinical guidelines and
evidence review for post myocardial infarction:
Secondary prevention in primary and secondary care
for patients following a myocardial infarction.
27 A
London: National Collaborating Centre for Primary
Care and Royal College of General Practitioners.
Dickens, C. M., McGowan, L., Percival, C., Tomenson,
B., Cotter, L., Heagerty, A., et al. (2006). Contribu- A
tion of depression and anxiety to impaired health-
related quality of life following first myocardial
infarction. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 189,
367372.
Roger, V. L. (2007). Epidemiology of myocardial
infarction. Medical Clinics of North America, 91,
537552.
Shweikert, B., Hunger, M., Meisinger, C., Konig, H. H.,
Gapp, O., & Holle, R. (2009). Quality of life several
years after myocardial infarction: Comparing the
MONICA/KORA registry to the general population.
European Heart Journal, 30, 436443.
Thompson, D. R., Jenkinson, C., Roebuck, A., Lewin, R.,
Boyle, R., & Chandola, T. (2002). Development and
validation of a short measure of health status for
individuals with acute myocardial infarction:
The Myocardial Infarction Dimensional Assessment
Scale (MIDAS). Quality of Life Research, 11,
535543.
Thygesen, K., Alpert, J. S., White, H. D., & Joint ESC/
ACCF/AHA/WHF Task Force for the Redefinition of
Myocardial Infarction. (2007). Universal definition of
myocardial infarction. Journal of the American Col-
lege of Cardiology, 50, 21732195.
Valensi, P., Lorgis, L., & Cottin, Y. (2011). Prevalence,
incidence, predictive factors and prognosis of
silent myocardial infarction: A review of the
literature. Archives of Cardiovascular Diseases,
104, 178188.
Ware, J. E., Jr., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1992). The MOS
36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) I: Concep-
tual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30,
473483.
Adaptability
Resilience
Adaptation
Response Shift
Adaptation-Coping Model
Dementia and Self-Reported Purpose in Life
A 28
Adaptation-Level Theory
Nathan Bowling
Psychology, Wright State University,
Dayton, OH, USA
Definition
Adaptation-level theory describes the process by
which a person becomes insensitive to the effects
of constant stimuli.
Description
Early research on adaptation focused on sensory
stimuli, such as the effects of continual exposure to
unchanging visual, auditory, or olfactory stimuli
(Helson, 1964). This research found that the initial
effects that one experiences upon being exposed to
an unchanging sensory stimulus quickly dissipate
with time. Upon entering a bakery, for example,
a customer may immediately notice the smell of
coffee and doughnuts. After being in the bakery for
a few minutes, however, he or she will no longer
experience those initial smells. This change in the
customers sensory experiences occurred because
the smell-inducing stimulus is constant. That is,
the molecules that produced the initial sensory
experience are still present in the air, but the cus-
tomer has adapted to their constant presence.
In addition to occurring for unchanging
sensory stimuli, adaptation also occurs for
unchanging emotion-evoking stimuli (Bowling,
Beehr, Wagner, & Libkuman, 2005; Brickman,
Coates, & Janoff-Bulman, 1978). This phenome-
non is referred to as hedonic adaption. The net
result of hedonic adaptation is a hedonic tread-
mill in which initial increases or decreases in
happiness dissipate with time. A worker may
initially experience happiness upon receiving
a pay raise, for example. Over time, however,
the worker is likely to return to a baseline happi-
ness level as he or she adapts to the higher salary.
The primarily implication of hedonic adapta-
tion is that both favorable (e.g., getting married)
Adaptation-Level Theory
and unfavorable events (e.g., the death of
a spouse) have only short-term effects on ones
level of happiness. In the long run, adaptation
occurs, causing people to return to their happi-
ness baseline. As a result, objective life circum-
stances (e.g., socioeconomic status, the region
in which one lives, etc.) account for only about
10 % of the variance in general happiness
(Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005).
Despite evidence that people adapt to a wide
range of positive and negative emotional stimuli,
there is some longitudinal evidence that people
do not completely adapt to some negative stimuli,
such as divorce or job loss (Lucas, 2007). While
some of the initial negative effects of these
stimuli do dissipate with time, many people fail
to completely return to their happiness baseline.
Future research may identify positive stimuli that
produce a parallel form of partial adaptation.
Hedonic adaptation presents a challenge for
people who wish to increase their personal
happiness levels, and it has caused pessimism
among scholars regarding the feasibility of happi-
ness-inducing interventions. If people generally
adapt to unchanging life circumstances, then isnt
it reasonable to assume that they will adapt to any
efforts aimed at increasing their happiness?
Fortunately, researchers examining the potential
of creating sustained increases in happiness have
recently recognized that hedonic adaptation can be
overcome via the use of intentional activities
(IAs; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). IAs include any
behavioral or cognitive activity that one purposely
employs in an effort to increase his or her level of
happiness. Examples of IAs include keeping a daily
gratitude journal, pursing personally relevant goals,
and engaging in physical exercise. Because they are
episodic and can be easily varied (i.e., an individual
can use an array of different IAs), they are largely
immune to the effects of adaptation. As a result, the
effective implementation of IAs may be the key in
the successful pursuit of sustained happiness.
Cross-References
Affective Component of Happiness
Happiness
Addiction, An Overview
Hedonic Adaptation
Life Events
Life Satisfaction, Concept of
Quality of Life
Set-Point Theory
Top-Down QOL Models
References
Bowling, N. A., Beehr, T. A., Wagner, S. H., &
Libkuman, T. M. (2005). Adaptation-level theory,
opponent process theory, and dispositions: An integrated
approach to the stability of job satisfaction. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 90, 10441053.
Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lot-
tery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative?
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 36, 917927.
Helson, H. (1964). Adaptation-level theory. Oxford,
England: Harper & Row.
Lucas, R. E. (2007). Adaptation and the set-point model of
subjective well-being: Does happiness change after
major life events? Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 16, 7579.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005).
Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable
change. Review of General Psychology, 9, 111131.
Adapted Version of the Flanagan
Quality of Life Scale
Flanagan Quality of Life Scale
Addiction, An Overview
Jefferey J. Derevensky1, Caroline E. Temcheff2
and Henrietta Bowden-Jones3
1
International Centre for Youth Gambling
Problems and High-Risk Behaviors, McGill
University, Montreal, QC, Canada
2
Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, QC, Canada
3
The National Problem Gambling Clinic,
London, UK
Synonyms
Alcohol or drug dependence (physical or
psychological or both); Alcoholism (alcohol
29 A
dependence); Behavioral addictions; Dipsomania
(alcohol dependence); Habituation; Hidden
addiction (a term sometimes synonymously A
used for specific behavioral addictions);
Pathological gambling (disordered gambling)
Definition
Addictive behaviors have been recognized as both
a medical and psychiatric disorder. Their charac-
teristics have typically been defined by both the
behaviors accompanying the disorder and the
subsequent negative consequences.
From a medical perspective, addiction is
viewed as a primary, chronic disease of brain
reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry
(American Society of Addiction Medicine). From
a psychiatric perspective, the two predominant
organizations, the American Psychiatric Associa-
tion and the World Health Organization, have
defined the primary diagnostic criteria.
The American Psychiatric Associations
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV-TR; American
Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000), does not
use the word addiction, rather suggests criteria
for the diagnosis of substance use, abuse, and
dependence. Specific criteria are provided for sub-
stance use disorders, alcohol-related disorders,
amphetamine-related disorders, caffeine-related
disorders, and nicotine-related disorders, with
gambling disorders being currently viewed as an
impulse control disorder. The diagnosis of
substance dependence requires the presence of at
least three positive criteria among the following
over a period of the past 12 months:
The need to use increasing amounts of
a substance to achieve the desired effects or
a decreased effect with the same amount of
a substance (tolerance)
The presence of withdrawal symptoms if
use of the substance is diminished or stopped
Use of a substance in increasing amounts
and for longer periods than intended
A persistent desire to stop using the substance,
accompanied by unsuccessful attempts,
in spite of negative consequences
A 30
Prioritizing of activities aimed at obtaining the
substance, taking it, or recovering from
using it
Detrimental effects related to important
social, occupational, or recreational activities
which are given up or reduced due to the
substance
Failure to stop using the substance despite the
knowledge of its adverse physical and/or
psychological effects
Similar criteria are listed in the International
Classification of Diseases-10th edition
(ICD-10; World Health Organization
[WHO], 1993)
A cluster of behavioral, cognitive, and
physiological phenomena that develop
after repeated substance use typically include:
A strong desire to take the drug
Difficulties in controlling its use
Persisting in its use despite harmful
consequences
A higher priority given to drug or other
substance use than to other activities and
obligations
Increased tolerance
Sometimes a physical withdrawal state
The dependence syndrome may be present
for a specific psychoactive substance, for a class
of substances, or for a wider range of pharmaco-
logically different psychoactive substances.
Physical dependence suggests that the body has
adapted physiologically to the chronic use of
a substance and that withdrawal produces
a craving for a given substance.
Differentiation Between Substance
Addictions and Behavioral Addictions
Currently in both DSM-IV and ICD-10, the
behavioral addictions are not classified with sub-
stance addictions but instead fall under a category
called Impulse Control Disorders. This is
despite the fact that those with behavioural addic-
tions can mirror the behaviors, thinking patterns,
and negative consequences observed among indi-
viduals with substance addictions. However, pro-
fessionals have increasingly begun to view
gambling addiction, Internet addiction and sex
addiction as behavioral addictions and have
Addiction, An Overview
been treating them accordingly. There has been
some suggestion that gambling addiction
(or pathological gambling) may be included
with other types of addiction in the DSM-V
(Petry, 2010).
Description
Assessing Substance Use Disorders
Although substance use can be detected using
a number of physiological indices, addiction
(substance addiction or behavioral addiction) is
typically measured behaviorally and based on
the persons perceptions of the problem and
the negative consequences associated with
excessive use.
Diagnosing and Measuring Drug Use/Abuse/
Dependence. Drug abuse and dependence can
be clinically assessed using the DSM-IV or
ICD-10 criteria for substance dependence. As
well, drug use disorders can be screened using
the self-report Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST;
Gavin, Ross, & Skinner, 1989; Skinner, 1982).
Two versions of this screen are available, the
20-item (DAST-20) and the 10-item (DAST-10).
Diagnosing and Measuring Alcohol
Use/Abuse/Dependence. Alcohol use disorders
can similarly be diagnosed using the DSM-IV or
ICD-10 criteria for alcohol abuse or alcohol
dependence. Alternatively, problems with
alcohol can be screened using the Alcohol
Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT),
developed by the World Health Organization
and is designed for international use
(Babor, Higgins-Biddle, Saunders, & Monteiro,
2001; Saunders, Aasland, Babor, de la Fuente, &
Grant, 1993). The AUDIT is a 10-item question-
naire developed to screen for harmful and dan-
gerous alcohol consumption. A standard cutoff
score of eight or more is indicative of problematic
drinking behavior. The CRAFFT is a six-item
measure specifically designed to screen for
substance abuse or dependence among youth.
The CRAFFT has been shown to be a valid
means of screening adolescents for problems
and disorders related to drugs or alcohol (Knight,
Sherritt, Shrier, Harris, & Chang, 2002).
Addiction, An Overview
Diagnosing and Measuring Nicotine or
Tobacco Dependence. Nicotine abuse and
dependence can also be diagnosed using the
DSM-IV criteria for nicotine dependence. While
there is no physiological measure of nicotine
dependence, the DSM suggests that at least 3
out of the 7 criteria for substance dependence
must be present in order to reach the clinical
criteria of nicotine dependence. However, recent
data does not support the three-symptom
threshold (DiFranza et al., 2009), and the DSM
criteria are not considered a gold standard
(OLoughlin, Tarasuk, DiFranza, & Paradis,
2002). Another problem with diagnosis is that
although items can be modified for adolescents,
criteria were not designed or validated for
use with adolescents. However, in terms of self-
report questionnaires applicable for use with
adolescents, the Hooked on Nicotine Checklist
(HONC) (Wellman et al., 2005) and the Stanford
Dependence Index (SDI) have both been reported
to have excellent and good psychometric
properties.
Diagnosing and Measuring Problem
Gambling. Typically, problem gambling in
adults is measured using the DSM-IV criteria
for pathological gambling, the South Oaks
Gambling Screen (Lesieur & Blume, 1987),
or the Gamblers Anonymous 20 Questions
(GA20). At present, there exist several instru-
ments that are commonly also used to
assess adolescent problem gambling severity.
These include the South Oaks Gambling
Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA;
Winters, Stinchfield, & Fulkerson, 1993); the
DSM-IV-Juvenile (DSM-IV-J; Fisher, 1992)
and its revision; the DSM-IV-Multiple
Response-Juvenile (DSM-IV-MR-J; Fisher,
2000); and the Massachusetts Gambling
Screen (MAGS; Shaffer et al., 1994). Another
instrument that was recently developed,
the Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory
(CAGI; Tremblay, Stinchfield, Wiebe, &
Wynne, 2010), has recently undergone an
evaluation of its psychometric properties to
determine its reliability, validity, and predictive
power, although results from large-scale
studies have yet to be reported.
31 A
Prevalence Rates of Substance Use and
Dependency
Much of the prevalence data is highly specific A
depending upon the specific substance in
question, cultural factors, accessibility and
availability, the age of participants, geographi-
cal and regional differences, and the year the
research data was collected. Individuals who are
in late adolescence and early adulthood have
higher prevalence rates of use of almost every
substance. In addition, this age group has
been shown to have the highest risk for a
number of behavioral addictions.
Types of Substances
Sedatives
Alcohol. It is a central nervous system
depressant, and because of its legal status, it is
a widely used substance. Physical dependence
occurs with regular use, and tolerance
builds quickly. Several organs and physiological
functions can be severely affected by excessive
alcohol use and alcohol addiction, and drinking
during pregnancy can lead to birth defects (fetal
alcohol syndrome).
Benzodiazepines. Diazepam, lorazepam,
chlordiazepoxide, and others fall within this
category of prescribed medication that can be
abused and lead to dependency. These tablets
are used to reduce anxiety levels, but being
sedatives, they can slow down ones thinking
and reaction time and can impact memory.
If abused, they can lead to serious dependence
as tolerance is quickly reached. People find it
very difficult to stop using benzodiazepines
once they are dependent and usually require
a medically assisted detoxification program.
Opioids (Heroin, Morphine, Codeine, Opium).
Street heroin is a sedative drug and a central
nervous system depressant. The relaxation and
detachment are described as being highly
pleasurable. Tolerance builds quickly and
physical dependence occurs with regular use.
Using higher doses than one typically ingests
can lead to drowsiness and in excessive use death.
Cannabis (Hashish, Marijuana). Cannabis is
typically smoked. Most people experience the
pleasant effects of relaxation, but some people
A 32
experience significant negative effects such as
confusion, hallucinations, anxiety, and paranoia.
There is an amotivational syndrome described
in regular cannabis users which leaves the
individual lacking in motivation and energy,
resulting in a lack of interest in school or work
or recreational pursuits normally enjoyed.
Stimulants
Cocaine, Crack. Cocaine is made from the
leaves of the coca plant and can be used in
several forms. Both crack and cocaine are
stimulant drugs with short half-lives. They
increase heart rate, cause loss of appetite,
and can make individuals feel full of energy and
very confident. At higher doses, paranoia is quick
to set in and hallucinations are possible. They
act on neurotransmitters such as dopamine and
serotonin causing a feeling of stimulation
and excitement.
Amphetamines (Speed). The stimulant
effects cause tachycardia and increased breathing
rates as well as reduced appetite, while at higher
doses, pressure of thought and speech is common,
with hallucinations sometimes possible. Meth-
amphetamine use especially in crystal form can
lead to substantial psychiatric symptoms of
a paranoid nature. Tolerance builds quickly and
withdrawal is pronounced.
Nicotine. Nicotine dependence and with-
drawal can occur with use of all forms of tobacco
products (e.g., cigarettes, chewing tobacco,
cigars) and with prescription medications (e.g.,
nicotine gum and patch). The onset of effects of
nicotine is most rapid for those who smoke ciga-
rettes. This mode of administration is perceived
as highly rewarding, can lead to a more
intense pattern of use, and can therefore be diffi-
cult to stop. Tolerance builds with repeated
use and cessation results in well-documented
withdrawal symptoms which can include dys-
phoric or depressed mood, insomnia, irritability,
frustration, anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrat-
ing, restlessness, impatience, decreased heart
rate, and increased appetite and subsequent
weight gain. These symptoms are due to nicotine
deprivation and are typically most pronounced
among individuals smoking cigarettes.
Addiction, An Overview
Caffeine. Some individuals who consume
large amounts of caffeine display certain aspects
of dependence, tolerance, and withdrawal.
However, according to the DSM-IV, there has
not been sufficient data presented to suggest that
these symptoms are associated with clinically
relevant impairment that is associated with
a diagnosis of substance dependence.
Other Drugs
There are several other types of drugs in
addition to those discussed above, which can be
potentially addictive. These include the class of
hallucinogens (e.g., LSD, magic mushrooms),
inhalants (e.g., gasoline, glue, paint thinners),
and phencyclidine (e.g., angel dust), all of
which can lead to dependence and withdrawal
when terminating.
Behavioral Addictions
Pathological Gambling. It is defined by
the DSM-IV as a persistent and maladaptive
gambling behavior. People who are addicted to
gambling are constantly preoccupied with
gambling. As a result, family disruption, social,
or occupational pursuits are hindered. Individuals
frequently lose large sums of money and
chase their losses in the futile attempt to regain
what they have lost. They often lie about their
gambling and have frequently lied to others to
cover up the extent of their gambling. Criminal/
delinquent behaviors are often commonplace.
Food, Internet, Video-Gaming, and Sex
Addiction
Mental health professionals are divided on
acknowledging the existence of food, Internet,
video-gaming, and sexual addictions. Individuals
who may qualify for Internet or video-gaming
addiction may be online, surfing the web, or
playing games for many hours of the day and
night to the disruption of their regular habits.
This behavior might lead individuals to ignore
personal, occupational, and family pursuits
and commitments previously deemed important.
For some individuals who are purported to
suffer from sex addiction, the pursuit of sexual
relationships can become all consuming and,
Addiction, An Overview
after an initial euphoria, can lead to feelings of
anxiety and despair. Individuals who feel that
they suffer from food addiction suggest that the
addiction is specific to foods containing high
dosages of sugar or wheat.
Correlates and Risk Factors Associated with
Addictive Behaviors
Research has identified multiple correlates
and risk factors associated with different
types of addictions. However, it is important to
note that individuals suffering from addictions
are not a homogeneous group and there are
likely multiple potential etiological pathways.
The biopsychosocial model likely applies
when discussing etiology of addictions, as
addiction is probably the result of a variety
of individual biological, psychological, as well
as social influences. As in many mental health
disorders, the concept of equifinality, that is,
that a variety of risk constellations can combine
to set an individual on a life trajectory that leads
an individual to the outcome of an addiction,
likely applies. Conversely, very few of the
risk factors are unique to one type of addiction
or even addiction problems in general. The con-
cept of multifinality suggests that the same
risk factor can lead to multiple behavioral or
emotional difficulties, depending on the person
and the context. Understanding why certain
risk factors may lead to addictions for certain
individuals instead of other negative outcomes
remains an important question for both clini-
cians and researchers. Unpacking the complex
interplay of individual risk and protective
factors as well as environmental and family
factors in the development and maintenance of
problematic behavior is a difficult yet vital
task for clinicians dealing with individuals
who suffer from any form of addiction.
The concept of risk is inherently probabilis-
tic. Nevertheless, research has suggested some
risk factors which have been linked to addic-
tions. The personality traits of impulsivity and
sensation-seeking are highly prevalent in
substance-dependent individuals and have been
viewed as both risk factors for and sequelae of
substance abuse (Ersche, Turton, Pradhan,
33 A
Bullmore, & Robbins, 2010). Young pathologi-
cal gamblers have been found to have increased
physiological resting states, to have a greater A
propensity towards sensation-seeking, and to
be more likely aroused and excited when
gambling.
Family history has also been identified as an
important risk factor. Individuals with a positive
family history of alcohol use disorders have been
shown to be at increased risk for developing alco-
hol use disorders relative to those with no such
family history. Genetics may play a role in the
development of alcohol use disorders (Cloninger,
Bohman, & Sigvardsson, 1981; Sigvardsson,
Bohman, & Cloninger, 1996). Youth with family
histories of alcohol use disorders have been shown
to have cognitive decrements in several domains
and have neuroanatomical differences. Relatives
of drug-dependent individuals have been reported
to have an eightfold increased risk of developing
substance abuse disorders compared with the gen-
eral population (Merijangas et al., 1998).
Addictive behaviors are often comorbid
with a variety of other mental health problems
and disorders including (but not limited to) unipo-
lar depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.
Comorbidity between addictive behaviors and
other mental health disorders often complicates
treatment of both problems. Young people
suffering from addictive disorders might be at
greater risk for problems in school. For example,
individuals with gambling problems have been
shown to be more likely to experience a variety
of school-related problems including increased
truancy and poor academic performance, are
more likely to have repeated a grade in school,
and report a greater frequency of attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder and conduct-related prob-
lems. Similarly, excessive alcohol and drug use
has also been reported among individuals with
gambling problems.
Nicotine use and nicotine addiction commonly
co-occurs with alcohol use disorders. Individuals
addicted to nicotine have been shown to be two to
three times more likely to be diagnosed with
alcohol use disorders. A current diagnosis of either
increases the risk for being diagnosed with the
other disorder in the future.
A 34
Treatment
As addiction is often accompanied by a craving,
tolerance, continued use despite adverse conse-
quences, and inability to stop using a particular
substance or excessively engaging in some behav-
ior (e.g., gambling, Internet use). In between epi-
sodes, there may be long periods of abstinence.
The treatment approaches for addictions can vary
widely according to type of addiction (alcohol,
drug, gambling addiction), severity and duration
of the addiction, social situation of the addicted
individual, medical complications, cultural factors,
and theoretical orientation of the treatment pro-
vider or center. Although psychopharmacology
can help some individuals with the detoxification
process and/or cravings, in the large majority of
cases, investment in psychotherapeutic interven-
tions specific to the addictive behaviors is required
to achieve long-lasting behavioral change.
However, it should be noted that many individuals
with addictive behaviors do not seek either in-
patient or out-patient intervention and
many recover through a process referred to as
natural recovery or the result of participation in
self-help groups.
Traditional psychotherapeutic programs
tailored to the individuals needs and life situation
are the most common type of intervention. An
individuals motivation for change is required for
achieving long-lasting behavioral modification as
treatment can be an extremely arduous process. An
alternative approach engaged in by many people
focuses upon self-help groups. Such self-help
groups often include a 12-step recovery program.
Groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics
Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, and Food
Addicts or Overeaters Anonymous are examples
of such programs. Other self-help groups, based
upon principles of cognitive behavioral therapy
(e.g., SMART Recovery), also exist. At times, it
might be necessary or desirable for an individual to
be admitted to a residential or in-patient center
for the detoxification process and to isolate the
client from cues and temptations (triggers) as
well as interactions with other users during the
initial phase of therapy.
While there are ideological differences based
upon ones therapeutic approach, psychological
Addiction, An Overview
treatment for addictions typically includes
several general and important components. The
first is a comprehensive functional assessment
and consideration of all psychological mecha-
nisms involved in the addiction. Psychological
mechanisms can include positive reinforcement
(primary, from the substance itself, or second-
ary), negative reinforcement (possibly including
escape from physical and/or emotional pain),
irrational beliefs or automatic thoughts, and
associative learning (can result in the establish-
ment of cues that stimulate craving). A key
aspect of treatment is achieving understanding
of the underlying reasons for engaging in
the behavior and fostering and nurturing an
individuals motivation for change during
treatment. This therapeutic process can be very
physically difficult (detoxification) and emotion-
ally demanding. Techniques of motivational
interviewing, such as provision of personalized
feedback, shifting of responsibility of treatment
to client, empathic listening, encouragement
of self-efficacy, and presentation of several
options, may be particularly helpful in
maintaining client motivation and resolve.
Increasing behavioral competencies and enhanc-
ing coping strategies and resilience are also
key attributes in therapy. Familial, peer, and
environmental support is also advantageous. Of
particular importance is the emphasis placed on
relapse prevention. Such approaches not only
reinforce the treatment process but also help to
ensure relapse does not occur.
Cross-References
Alcohol Abuse
Gambling
Substance Abuse
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Petry, N. (2010). Pathological gambling and the DSM-V.
International Gambling Studies, 10(2), 113115.
(total of 200 questions).
Saunders, J. B., Aasland, O. G., Babor, T. F., de la Fuente,
J. R., & Grant, M. (1993). Development of Alcohol
Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT): Description
WHO collaborative project on early detection of
persons with harmful alcohol consumption II.
Addiction, 88, 791804. The ASI was developed in 1980 by A. Thomas
Sigvardsson, S., Bohman, M., & Cloninger, C. R. (1996). McLellan, along with collaborators from the
Replication of the Stockholm Adoption Study of University of Pennsylvanias Center for the
alcoholism: Confirmatory cross-fostering analysis.
Archives of General Psychiatry, 53(8), 681687.
Studies of Addiction (Cacciola, Alterman,
Tremblay, J., Stinchfield, R., Wiebe, J., & Wynne, H. Habing, & Mclellan, 2011; McLellan, Luborsky,
(2010). Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory Woody, & OBrien, 1980). It has been
(CAGI): Phase III final report. Retrieved from translated into 18 languages Japanese, French,
http://www.ccsa.ca/2010%20CCSA%20Documents/
CAGI_Phase_III_Report_e.pdf
Spanish, German, Dutch, and Russian among
Winters, K. C., Stinchfield, R. D., & Fulkerson, J. (1993). them and was designed to be administered by
Toward the development of an adolescent gambling a technician or counselor.
A 36
The interview is based on the idea that addic-
tion to drugs or alcohol is best considered
in terms of the life events that occurred, before,
during, or after the substance abuse problem.
The ASI focuses on seven functional areas that
have been widely shown to be affected by
the substance abuse: medical status, employ-
ment and support, drug use, alcohol use, legal
status, family and social status, and psychiatric
status.
Each of the seven areas is examined individ-
ually by collecting information regarding the
frequency, duration, and severity of symptoms
of problems both historically over the course of
the patients lifetime and more recently during
the 30 days prior to the interview. Within each
of the problem areas, the ASI provides both
a 10-point, interviewer-determined severity
rating of lifetime problems and a multi-item
composite score (computer-calculated) that indi-
cates the severity of the problems in the past 30
days. The higher the score is, the greater the
need for treatment in each area or immediate
intervention.
The severity ratings of lifetime problems are
based on the following 10-point scale (09):
01 No real problem, treatment not indicated
23 Slight problem, treatment probably not
necessary
45 Moderate problem, some treatment
indicated
67 Considerable problem, treatment
necessary
89 Extreme problem, treatment absolutely
necessary
Discussion
In 1980s, the ASI was the first standardized
assessment tool of its kind to measure the
multiple dimensions of substance abuse.
Today, the ASI is the most commonly used
addiction assessment tool by state agencies
and treatment providers. Its strengths are sim-
plicity of use and cost-effectiveness.
Overall, studies typically conclude that the
Addiction Severity Index is a consistent and accu-
rate tool for assessing clients and their substance
abuse issues (Carey, Correia, & Cocco, 1997;
Addiction Severity Index
Hendriks, Kaplan, Van Limbeek, & Geerlings,
1989; Kosten, Rounsaville, & Kleber, 1983). The
ASI is able to successfully identify the clients
problem area in which they are experiencing the
greatest difficulties, such as alcohol or drug addic-
tion, or legal or familial problems. Once a clients
psychosocial issues are identified, an appropriate
course of treatment may be administered.
Useful applications of the ASI related to
the treatment outcome, comparing different forms
of treatment, and the ability to match a client with
a specific treatment are described by McLellan,
Luborsky, and Cacciola (1985). The ASI is evolv-
ing with technology into self-reporting formats via
the Internet and automated telephone responses.
To further increase the usefulness of the
ASI, clinicians and researchers have added
questions to supplement the old version,
including questions about leisure time activities,
childhood religion, childhood illnesses, age of
first drug/alcohol use, sexual orientation, and
military service. Also, a T-ASI (Teen-Addiction
olescents (see Kaminer, Bukstein, & Tarter,
1991). It is an age-appropriate modification of
the original ASI with 133 questions in 7 domains:
psychoactive substance use, family function,
peer-social relationships, school-employment
status, legal status, and psychiatric status.
Cross-References
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
References
Cacciola, J. S., Alterman, A. I., Habing, B., & Mclellan,
A. T. (2011). Recent status scores for version 6 of
the addiction severity index (ASI-6). Addiction,
106, 15881602.
Carey, K. B., Correia, C. J., & Cocco, K. M. (1997).
Reliability and validity of the addiction severity
index among outpatients with severe mental illness.
Psychological Assessment, 9, 422428.
Hendriks, V. M., Kaplan, C. D., Van Limbeek, J., &
Geerlings, P. (1989). The Addiction Severity Index:
Reliability and validity in a Dutch addict population.
Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 6, 133141.
Adolescent Life Satisfaction Measurement 37 A
Kaminer, Y., Bukstein, O., & Tarter, R. E. (1991). The
teen-Addiction Severity Index: Rationale and reliability. Adolescent Drug Abuse
International Journal of the Addictions, 26, 219226.
Kosten, T. R., Rounsaville, B. J., & Kleber, H. D. (1983). A
Concurrent validity of the Addiction Severity Index. The Adolescent Substance Use
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 171, 606610.
McLellan, A. T., Luborsky, L., & Cacciola, J. (1985). New
data from the Addiction Severity Index. Reliability
and validity in three centers. The Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease, 173, 412423. Adolescent Drug Use
McLellan, A. T., Luborsky, L., Woody, G. E., &
OBrien, C. P. (1980). An improved diagnostic instru- Adolescent Substance Use
ment for substance abuse patients: The Addiction
Severity Index. The Journal of Nervous and Mental
Disease, 168, 2633.

Adolescent Life Satisfaction

Measurement
Addiction Severity Index (ASI)
Scott Huebner1 and Richard C. Gilman2
Methadone Treatment for Opiate-Dependent 1
Department of Psychology, University of South
Persons Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
2
Division of Developmental and Behavioral
Pediatrics, Cincinnati Childrens Hospital
Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Addiction, Sexual

Compulsive Sexual Behavior Inventory Definition

Social science theory and research have

historically focused disproportionate attention on
Addictive Substance Abuse the negative aspects or storm and stress of
adolescence. Research has focused on such topics
Cigarette Smoking and Drinking as the biological, psychological, and social
stressors of adolescence, risk behaviors, emotional
problems, dysfunctional parent-adolescent rela-
tionships, and so forth. A number of recent
Additional Benefit
research initiatives have countered this trend,
investigating positive aspects of the adolescent
Marginal Utility
years, such as the positive psychology, posi-
tive youth development, and quality of life
(QOL) perspectives. These perspectives assume
Additive Conjoint Measurement that the status of adolescents should not be evalu-
ated from simple dichotomous notions (e.g., high
Conjoint Measurement QOL is the absence of negative conditions, like
poverty) or loss of functions (e.g., mobility)
that impair adaptation. Within such a context,
comprehensive evaluations of adolescents, includ-
Adolescent and Parent Values ing national indexes of adolescent QOL, would
necessitate balanced considerations of intraper-
Values of Adolescents and Their Parents sonal and environmental assets along with the
A 38
traditional focus on symptoms, risk behaviors, and
deficits in general.
Although many conceptualizations of
positive youth development have been promoted,
the construct of life satisfaction or subjective
quality of life (SQOL) has frequently been used
as an overarching indicator. SQOL refers to an
individuals subjective, cognitive appraisal of the
quality of her or his life as a whole and/or with
specific domains, such as family, school, or living
environment (Diener, 1994). When measured
globally (i.e., satisfaction with life overall),
SQOL measures typically contain items that are
domain-free (e.g., I like my life) versus domain
specific (I like my life at school). The measures
typically have response options that range from
significantly below a neutral point to significantly
above a neutral point so that a wide range
of SQOL judgments can be differentiated.
For example, some scales use Andrews and
Witheys (1976) delighted-terrible response
options that provide vivid and finely nuanced
descriptions of an adolescents SQOL.
Description
SQOL is differentiated from objective indicators
of QOL. Subjective indicators involve individ-
uals perceptions of life experiences (e.g., satis-
faction with family life, living environment, life
as a whole). Objective indicators refer to
population-based measures, which represent
observable, external conditions (e.g., socioeco-
nomic status (SES) levels, recreational opportu-
nities in the community, teen pregnancies, school
dropout). The determination of key indicators or
components of adolescents objective QOL has
often been done by adults (e.g., panels of
scholars). However, research with adults and
children and adolescents reveals a degree of sep-
arability of relationships between objective and
subjective indicators (e.g., modest correlations
between SES and persons satisfaction with
their SES). Furthermore, Ben-Arieh, McDonnell,
and Attar-Schwartz (2009) demonstrated discrep-
ancies between the perceptions of elementary
school teachers and students concerning the
Adolescent Life Satisfaction Measurement
students safety at school. Specifically, they
found that teachers perceived students to be
safer at school than the students did, underscoring
the value of the childs perspective. Some
researchers have argued persuasively that objec-
tive and subjective indicators reflect distinct but
complementary QOL data (e.g., see Diener &
Suh, 1997). To the extent that this conclusion is
accurate, a comprehensive assessment of the
QOL of children and adolescents will require
multiple indicators drawn from both traditions.
Land, Lamb, and Meadows (2007) illustrate the
benefits of integrating the subjective perspective
with objective measures in the construction and
validation of the Child and Youth Well-Being
Index.
SQOL measures, in particular, have been
based on three distinct theoretical models: gen-
eral, global, and domain-specific life satisfaction.
Instruments based on general models of life
satisfaction assume that general or overall life
satisfaction is composed of bottom-up judgments
of specific life domains (e.g., family, peer, and
school domains). Thus, a general or total life
satisfaction score reflects a simple (or weighted)
sum of scores on individual life satisfaction items
across specific domains. Other SQOL instru-
ments conceptualize overall life satisfaction
based on a global model. A global model assumes
that overall life satisfaction is assessed best
through constructing items that are domain-free
versus domain specific. In contrast to measures of
general life satisfaction, in which the number and
nature of domains are predetermined by the test
developer, global life satisfaction measures
allow individual respondents to formulate their
judgments of overall SQOL based on their
own criteria and standards. Furthermore,
multidimensional scales have been developed
with the intent of eliciting respondents
judgments across multiple domain of life that
are considered to be important to most, if not
all, individuals of a particular age group. These
scales thus provide profiles of individuals SQOL
reports, offering more differentiated, contextual-
ized satisfaction judgments. With these scales, an
adolescent who has average global life satisfac-
tion, along with high peer satisfaction and low
Adolescent Life Satisfaction Measurement
school satisfaction, can be differentiated from
one who has average global life satisfaction,
along with low peer satisfaction and high
school satisfaction. Context-specific profiles
may consequently provide targeted information
relevant to the design of high quality of environ-
ments for individuals or groups of adolescents.
The development of valid SQOL measures,
appropriate for the general population of children
and adolescents, has lagged behind that of adults
(Gilman & Huebner, 2000). Nevertheless, several
measures have been developed over the past
several decades for children of ages eight and
above, including adolescents. Proctor, Linley,
and Maltby (2009) have recently reviewed
measures of SQOL appropriate for adolescents.
The measures included in the review were the
Students Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner,
1991), Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener,
Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), Perceived
Life Satisfaction Scale (Adelman, Tayler, &
Nelson, 1989), Brief Multidimensional Students
Life Satisfaction Scale (Seligson, Huebner, &
Valois, 2003), Extended Satisfaction with Life
Scale (Alfonso, Allison, Rader, & Gorman,
1996), Multidimensional Students Life Satisfac-
tion Scale (Huebner, 1994), Multidimensional
Students Life Satisfaction Scale-Adolescent
Version (Gilligan & Huebner, 2007), and
the Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale
(Cummins, McCabe, Romeo, & Gullone, 1994),
which is now the Personal Well-Being Index
(Cummins & Lau, 2005).
A central assumption of SQOL instruments
involves the importance of adolescents subjec-
tive interpretations of the quality of their life
experiences. Thus, self-report methods have
emerged as the primary source of data. SQOL
reports have shown reasonable internal consis-
tency, test-retest reliability, construct validity,
predictive validity, responsiveness to planned
and unplanned interventions, and modest social
desirability responding effects. Informant reports
(e.g., parent) also correspond significantly to ado-
lescent reports. In sum, extant research suggests
that several measures of adolescent SQOL, both
global and multidimensional, show acceptable
reliability and validity, especially for research
39 A
purposes (see Huebner, Gilman, & Suldo, 2006;
Proctor, Linley, & Maltby, 2009, for reviews).
A
Discussion
Additional research related to the refinement of
developmentally appropriate measures of SQOL
for adolescents will be useful, however. Gilman
and Huebner (2000) identified a number of issues
and directions for future adolescent SQOL mea-
surement research that remain true at present.
First, most adolescent SQOL measures lack use-
ful normative samples. Most samples are geograph-
ically, ethnically, and socioeconomically restricted.
Second, although preliminary research find-
ings have been supportive, additional research
on the psychometric properties of SQOL scales
will be useful. With respect to reliability, inves-
tigations of test-retest reliability are particularly
sparse. More studies of test-retest reliability
across differing time periods and groups (e.g.,
adolescents with special needs) are needed for
many measures. Investigations of predictive
validity have been sparse, as have longitudinal
studies of the developmental trajectory of SQOL
reports of children and adolescents. Additional
cross-group construct validity studies are also
needed to ensure the comparability of the mean-
ing of various measures across different groups.
For example, the equivalence of the factor struc-
ture of a multidimensional SQOL measure across
various groups of adolescents (e.g., nationalities)
should be evaluated empirically, rather than
assumed (see Casas et al., 2012).
Third, the nature and number of relevant
domains that should be included in multi-
dimensional measures of adolescent SQOL also
remain unclear. Although recognizing that some
domains may be important at some ages, but not
others (e.g., romantic relationships in adolescence),
some instruments, such as the Multidimensional
Students Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner,
1994), have been based on the notion that there
are some broad domains that are important across
a wide age range (e.g., ages 818). Relatedly, the
benefits and limitations of developing scales that
attempt to assess multidimensional SQOL across
a wide age range and different cultures have not
been addressed thoroughly.
A 40
Finally, the relationships between SQOL
measures and other measurement methods need
further study. Although findings overall support
the use of self-report techniques to measure
SQOL, multi-method, multi-occasion assessments
of QOL are generally recommended (Diener,
1994). Although little research has been conducted
with adolescents, research with adults reveals that
various situational factors (e.g., current mood,
setting variables) can influence SQOL reports
(Pavot, 2008). Although such effects tend to be
modest, they reflect the complex cognitive
processing that can be associated with making
SQOL judgments, and they highlight the need to
consider alternative methods of assessing SQOL.
The reports of knowledgeable others (e.g., parents,
best friends) may be a useful alternative. Other
methods show promise including physiological
indices (e.g., facial expression), in-depth inter-
views, and memories of good and bad events
(Diener, 1994). Studies of the convergence and
divergence of responding across methods should
help illuminate the benefits and limitations of
the various procedures for the measurement of
adolescent SQOL.
Cross-References
Life Satisfaction
Positive Psychology
Positive Youth Development
Quality of Life
Subjective Indicators
References
Adelman, H. S., Tayler, L., & Nelson, P. (1989). Minors
dissatisfaction with their life circumstances. Child
Psychiatry and Human Development, 20, 135147.
Alfonso, V. C., Allison, D. B., Rader, E. E., & Gorman,
B. S. (1996). The extended satisfaction with life scale:
Development and psychometric properties. Social
Indicators Research, 38, 275301.
Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators
of well-being: Americans perceptions of life quality.
New York: Plenum.
Ben-Arieh, A., McDonnell, J., & Attar-Schwartz, S.
(2009). Safety and home-school relations as indicators
Adolescent Life Satisfaction Measurement
of childrens well-being: Whose perspective counts?
Social Indicators Research, 90, 339349.
Casas, F., Sarriera, J.C., Abs, D., Coenders, G., Alfaro, J.,
Saforcada, E., & Tonon, G. (2012). Subjective indica-
tors of personal well-being among adolescents: Perfor-
mance and results for different scales in Latin-
Language speaking countries. Child Indicators
Research, 5, 128.
Cummins, R. A., & Lau, A. L. (2005). Personal well-
being index-school children (PI-PS) (3rd ed.). Mel-
bourne: School of Psychology. Deakin University.
Cummins, R. A., McCabe, M. P., Romeo, Y., & Gullone,
E. (1994). The comprehensive quality of life scale
(ComQol): Instrument development and psychometric
evaluation. Educational and Psychological Measure-
ment, 54, 372382.
Diener, E. (1994). Assessing subjective well-being: Pro-
gress and opportunities. Social Indicators Research,
31, 103157.
Diener, E., Emmons, R., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S.
(1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of
Personality Assessment, 49, 7175.
Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (1997). Measuring quality of life:
Economic, social, and subjective indicators. Social
Indicators Research, 40, 189216.
Gilligan, T. D., & Huebner, E. S. (2007). Initial develop-
ment and validation of the Multidimensional Students
Life Satisfaction Scale-Adolescent Version. Applied
Research in Quality of Life, 2, 116.
Gilman, R., & Huebner, E. S. (2000). Review of life
satisfaction measures for adolescents. Behaviour
Change, 17, 178195.
Huebner, E. S. (1991). Initial development of the Stu-
dents Life Satisfaction Scale. School Psychology
International, 12, 231240.
Huebner, E. S. (1994). Preliminary development and val-
idation of a childrens multidimensional life satisfac-
tion scale. Psychological Assessment, 6, 149158.
Huebner, E. S., Gilman, R., & Suldo, S. M. (2006).
Assessing perceived quality of life in children and
youth. In S. R. Smith & L. Handler (Eds.), The clinical
assessment of children and adolescents:
A practitioners handbook (pp. 349366). Mahwah,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Land, K. C., Lamb, V. L., & Meadows, S. O. (2007).
Measuring tends in child well-being: An evidence-
based approach. Social Indicators Research, 80,
105122.
Pavot, W. (2008). The assessment of subjective well-
being: Successes and shortfalls. In M. Eid & R. J.
Larsen (Eds.), The science of subjective well-being
(pp. 124140). New York: Guilford.
Proctor, C., Linley, P. A., & Maltby, J. (2009). Youth life
satisfaction measures: A review. The Journal of Posi-
tive Psychology, 4, 128144.
Seligson, J. L., Huebner, E. S., & Valois, R. F. (2003).
Preliminary validation of the Brief Multidimensional
Students Life Satisfaction Scale. Social Indicators
Research, 61, 121145.
Adolescent Problem Behavior
Adolescent Motherhood in Canada
Teen Motherhood in Canada
Adolescent Problem Behavior
Robert F. Valois
Health Promotion, Education & Behavior,
Arnold School of Public Health University of
South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Definition
Problem behavior is behavior that is socially
defined as a problem, as a source of concern, or
as undesirable by the social and/or legal norms of
conventional society and its institutions of
authority; it is behavior that usually elicits some
form of social control response, whether mini-
mal, such as a statement of disapproval, or
extreme, such as incarceration (Jessor, 1991;
Jessor, Donovan, & Costa, 1991; Jessor, Graves,
Hanson, & Jessor, 1968; Jessor & Jessor, 1977).
The concept of problem behavior has been
extended in the adolescent health literature to
include risk behaviors, health-risk behaviors,
health-compromising behavior, health-
enhancing behavior, prosocial behavior, and
developmental assets.
Description
The adolescent period is one of rapid and trans-
formative physical, psychological, sociocultural,
cognitive, and affective development, character-
ized by efforts to confront and surmount chal-
lenges and to establish a sense of identity and
autonomy. While the majority of adolescents
manage the sometimes turbulent transition from
childhood to adulthood to become healthy and
productive adults, there is an emerging concern
that far too many adolescents may not achieve
their full potential as employees, parents, and
41 A
productive citizens. In turn, adolescence is also
a period fraught with many threats to the health
and well-being of adolescents, many of whom A
suffer substantial premature impairment and dis-
ability. A significant contributor to the adverse
health consequences experienced by adolescents
is, to a larger extent, the result of problem/health-
risk behaviors (Valois, 2003; Dryfoos, 1991;
Ginzberg, 1991).
Trends in Adolescent Problem/Risk Behav-
iors. Trends indicate that adolescent problem/
health-risk behaviors may become increasingly
problematic in the future. The initiation of risky
behaviors is occurring at progressively younger
ages (DiClemente, Santelli, & Crosby, 2009).
Youths start using alcohol, tobacco, and other
drugs, engage in unprotected sexual intercourse,
and engage in aggressive and violent behaviors,
among other problem/health-risk behaviors, at
markedly younger ages. As a result of these
trends, many more young adults may be vulnera-
ble to experiment and initiate risk behaviors that
have deleterious consequences during adoles-
cence, and moreover, some of these behaviors
have consequences that are not readily manifest
until early adulthood. For example, HIV infection
acquired during adolescence progressing to
AIDS, or alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use
contributing to premature morbidity and mortal-
ity in later life (Irwin, Burg, & Uhler-Cart, 2002).
Estimating the Cost of Adolescent Problem/
Risk Behaviors. Accurately assessing the impact
of adolescent problem/risk behaviors can be
difficult; however, the cost associated with
preventable morbidity and mortality is equally
difficult to calculate. Estimates vary greatly;
however, it is apparent that the cost is extremely
high. For example, the cost of incarcerating
juvenile offenders in detention facilities in the
USA is estimated to be over $2 billion a year.
This is clearly a small fraction of the total costs
for providing care and services to those adoles-
cents experiencing adverse health consequences
as a result of their risk behaviors. Further, future
costs as a result of chronic or acute premature
disability or injury sustained during adolescence,
or the loss of future productivity attributable to
adolescent risk behavior are extremely difficult
A 42
to estimate with any degree of accuracy. Experts
suggest that the costs could be staggering in terms
of custodial expenditures, medical and social ser-
vices, and unfulfilled future revenues (Burt,
2002; Carnegie Council on Adolescent Develop-
ment, 1983).
Adolescent Problem/Risk Behaviors Are Inter-
related. From a unidimensional perspective,
problem/risk behaviors represent a serious threat
to adolescents health and well-being. Unfortu-
nately, adolescent risk behaviors tend to cluster
and exacerbate their associated health conse-
quences. Engaging in one risk behavior may indi-
cate an increased likelihood for engaging in other
risk behaviors or developing a pattern of problem
behavior (Dryfoos, 1990; Dryfoos, 1991;
Garrison, McKeown, Valois, & Vincent, 1993;
Valois, McKeown, Garrison, & Vincent, 1995;
Valois, Kammermann, & Drane, 1997; Valois,
Dowda, Felton, & Pate, 1998; Valois &
McKeown, 1998; Farrell, Kung, White, & Valois,
2000).
Adolescent Problem/Risk Behaviors and
Quality of Extended Life. In addition to premature
morbidity and mortality, adolescent problem/risk
behaviors are also associated with significant
indicators of social and psychological well-
being, including educational and job perfor-
mance, economic stability, quality of life, and
life satisfaction (LS; DiClemente, Hanson, &
Ponton, 1996; DiClemente et al., 2009; Valois,
2003). Frequently, the outcomes of problem/risk
behaviors on adolescents ability to effectively
function in traditional social and occupational
domains have been underemphasized. Under-
standing the pervasiveness of these problem/
health-risk behaviors as they influence
a spectrum of social, economic, and health indi-
ces is valuable, both for capturing the true
magnitude of the seriousness of adolescent prob-
lem/risk behaviors from a social perspective and
in assisting in the design of effective prevention
interventions (DiClemente et al., 1996; Valois,
2003).
Perceived Quality of Life: Life Satisfaction
Perceived quality of life (PQOL) is an important
construct for understanding psychological
Adolescent Problem Behavior
well-being and for overall mental health
promotion (Diener & Deiner, 2009; Gilman &
Huebner, 2003; Proctor, Linley, & Maltby,
2009). PQOL can include either emotional
responses to events, such as feeling positive
emotions or cognitive judgments such as LS
(Diener & Deiner, 2009). In the field of positive
psychology, LS is an important construct owing
to its close association with a wide array
of positive personal, social, behavioral, and
psychological outcomes (e.g., Diener, 2009;
Lyubomirsky, King, & Deiner, 2005). Histori-
cally, subjective well-being research in general,
and LS research in particular, has been mostly
limited to studies of adults (Diener, Suh,
Oishi, Lucas, & Smith, 1999; Huebner, 2004;
Veenhoven, 1998), while comparatively limited
research has explored LS in children and
adolescents (Gadermann, Schonert-Reichl, &
Zumbo, 2010; Huebner, 2004).
The distinction between LS and measures
of psychopathology is important because LS
measures have been found to be related to, but
distinct from, traditional measures of psychopa-
thology (Diener et al., 1999; Greenspoon &
Saklofske, 1997; Huebner, 2004; Suldo & Shaffer,
2008). Research on LS has supported the positive
psychology orientation that defines mental health
as more than the absence of psychopathological
symptoms (Huebner, Seligson, Valois, & Suldo,
2006; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
Specifically, LS is a broad construct with a wide
network of correlates, which shows discriminant
validity in relation to measures of psychopathol-
ogy. For example, although measures of LS
and depression are moderately correlated,
general or overall LS is distinguishable from
depression in that it shows different correlates
(e.g., gender) and appears to be a prodromal
indicator of depression, showing decreases before
clinical levels of depression become apparent
(Lewinsohn, Redner, & Seeley, 1991). Similarly,
LS is distinguishable from low self-esteem
(Huebner, Gilman, & Laughlin, 1999). In turn,
an adolescent can be satisfied with her or his life
but concurrently experience symptomatology
(Antaramian, Huebner, Hills, & Valois, 2010;
Suldo & Shaffer, 2008).
Adolescent Problem Behavior
Relationship Between Problem/Health-Risk
Behaviors and Perceived Quality of Life
Certain adolescent problem/risk behaviors have
been empirically demonstrated to relate nega-
tively to PQOL/LS (Huebner et al., 2004). In
turn, youth developmental assets, health-
enhancing behavior, and prosocial behavior are
positively related to PQOL/LS (Valois, Zullig,
Huebner, & Drane, 2009).
Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Substance
Abuse
Alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana remain the most
prevalent substances abused by adolescents
(CDC, 2010). In 2010, Valois, Paxton, Zullig,
and Huebner studied the relationship between
selected substances and perceived LS in 2,138
US middle school adolescents. These researchers
found that reduced LS was associated with ciga-
rette smoking, chewing tobacco, cigar smoking,
alcohol, marijuana, and inhalant use for early
adolescents for specific race/gender groups
while controlling for socioeconomic status
(SES; Valois, Paxton, Zullig, & Huebner, 2010).
In 2001, Zullig, Valois, Huebner, Oeltmann,
and Drane examined perceived global LS
and selected substance use behaviors among
American public high school students and
found that use of tobacco (i.e., cigarettes and
chewing tobacco), cocaine, alcohol, marijuana,
and steroids were all negatively related to
self-reported LS. Related to the Zullig, Valois,
Huebner, Oeltmann, and Drane (2001) findings
are those reported by Kuntsche and Gmel (2004),
who studied binge drinking among Swiss
adolescents and found that binge drinkers had
lower LS and more depression and were more
often offenders of hitting others and bullying.
More specifically, results revealed solitary
binge drinkers to be the most socially inhibited,
depressive, and victims of bullying in com-
parison to social binge drinkers, who were
socially accepted but more often offenders of
violence (Kuntsche & Gmel, 2004). Also,
Newcomb, Bentler, and Collins (1986) examined
whether alcohol use was a significant antecedent
and/or consequence of low LS and found that
early alcohol use led directly to an exacerbation
43 A
of dissatisfaction with life and perceived
environment as young adults.
A
Violence and Aggression
There is a paucity of research that has examined
the relationship between adolescent LS and
health-risk behaviors, especially those which
may lead to premature morbidity and mortality
such as violence and aggression (Valois, Paxton,
Zullig, & Huebner, 2006). The results of a study
by Valois, Zullig, Huebner, and Drane (2001)
have demonstrated that LS is negatively associ-
ated with many adolescent risk behaviors, includ-
ing physical fighting, fighting requiring medical
treatment, carrying a gun, carrying a weapon, and
carrying a weapon at school; similar results have
been reported by Valois et al. (2006). Negative
relationships have also been demonstrated
between LS and feeling unsafe while at school,
traveling to and from school, being threatened or
injured by someone with a weapon, having prop-
erty stolen or damaged, and riding in a car with an
impaired/drinking driver (Valois, Zullig,
Huebner, & Drane, 2001). Similarly,
MacDonald, Piquero, Valois, and Zullig (2005)
reported that students with increased LS were less
likely to have carried a weapon in general, or on
school property during the past 30 days, or car-
ried a gun or reported engaging in physical fights
during the preceding 12 months. Moreover, stu-
dents in the bottom quartile of LS, but in the top
quartile of cigarette smoking and sexual promis-
cuity, were found to report higher involvement in
violent behavior compared to those reporting
higher LS and not participating in such risk-
taking behaviors (Proctor et al., 2009).
Victimization
A very recent study by Valois, Kerr, and Huebner
(2011) found significant associations between
decreased LS and peer victimization among US
middle school adolescents over a 12-month
period based on religion, gender, race/ethnicity,
sexual orientation, and disability (physical or
psychological). The Valois, Kerr, and Huebner
(2011) findings also varied by race and gender
among African Americans and Caucasians and
suggest that perceived LS is related to specific
A 44
peer victimization behaviors for early adoles-
cents. A recent study by Kerr, Valois, Heubner,
and Drane (2011) found significant associations
between decreased LS and peer victimization
among US high school adolescents based on reli-
gion, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation,
and disability (physical or psychological). The
Kerr, Valois, Huebner, and Drane (2011) findings
also varied by race and gender among African
American and Caucasian study participants.
Many young people report that they have been
the victims of either physical or emotional vio-
lence during a dating relationship (Callahan,
Tolman, & Saunders, 2003). Physical and emo-
tional abuse that occurs in an adolescent relation-
ship can have a more harmful effect on
psychological well-being than it does during
adulthood, due to adolescents lack of life expe-
rience. Callahan et al. (2003) found a negative
relationship between dating violence and LS for
both boys and girls. Further, increases in dating
violence were found to contribute to increased
posttraumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and dis-
sociation. Similarly, Coker et al. (2000)
addressed the impact of severe dating violence
(SDV) and forced-sex victimization and perpe-
tration on adolescent LS. Of 5,414 adolescents
sampled, 12 % self-reported SDV as a victim or
perpetrator in the past 12 months. Overall, results
demonstrated that SDV and forced sex are asso-
ciated with poor mental and physical health, low
LS, and adverse health behaviors such as suicide
ideation/attempts in adolescent female victims
and male perpetrators (Coker et al., 2000).
Related to these findings is the negative effect
of peer victimization through bullying on ado-
lescent LS. The detrimental effect of bullying on
mental health has been suggested in various stud-
ies in many countries (e.g., Norway, Ireland,
Australia, England, and Canada) (Rigby, 2000).
Flouri and Buchanan (2002) found among ado-
lescent males living in Great Britain that psycho-
logical well-being was independently related to
the degree of bullying experienced at school.
Suicide
Adult studies have suggested a link between low
LS and suicide behavior, with similar results
Adolescent Problem Behavior
being found among adolescents (Valois, Zullig,
Huebner, & Drane, 2004a). A study by Valois
et al. (2004a) revealed negative associations
between LS and poor mental health, poor men-
tal/physical health days, serious suicide consid-
eration, planning for suicide, attempted suicide,
and suicide attempt requiring medical care
among adolescents. In a related study, Thatcher,
Valois, Reininger, and Drane (2002) reported that
several independent variables were significantly
associated with attempted suicide either directly
or indirectly though antecedent and moderating
variables. For example, for Caucasian males
global LS moderated the relationship between
the antecedent variables of threatened or harmed
at school and duration of alcohol use and
attempted suicide. Additional antecedent vari-
ables associated with global LS included physical
fighting, property stolen at school, using pills to
lose weight, beating up the person you are dating,
age of first alcohol use, use of marijuana at
school, and reduced physical activity (Thatcher,
Valois, Reininger, & Drane, 2002).
Sexual Risk-Taking Behavior
Valois, Zullig, Huebner, Kammermann, and
Drane (2002) examined the sexual risk-taking
behaviors among 4,758 American adolescents
and found negative relationships between LS
and various sexual risk-taking behaviors, includ-
ing ever having had sexual intercourse, age of
first intercourse, having had two or more lifetime
intercourse partners, having had one or more
intercourse partners (past 90 days), using alco-
hol/drugs at the last act of sexual intercourse, not
using a condom at last intercourse, not using
contraception at last intercourse, having been
forced to have sex, forcing someone to have
sex, having been beaten up by a date, and having
beaten up a date (in last 12 months). Related to
the Valois, Zullig, Huebner, Kammermann, and
Drane (2002) findings are the numerous and
interacting factors which contribute to adolescent
pregnancy and parenting which may result from
a youths decision to engage in sexual risk-taking
behavior (Stoiber & McIntyre, 2006). The ado-
lescent pregnancy and parenting literature sug-
gest two broad categories of contributing factors:
Adolescent Problem Behavior
dispositional and situational characteristics
(Stoiber & McIntyre, 2006). In general, adoles-
cent pregnancy rates are disproportionately
higher for those teens most effected by situational
factors, such as low SES. Recent research, how-
ever, has highlighted the salience of family
dynamics, structure, and dysfunction in under-
standing adolescent pregnancy among ethnic
minorities and has shown that families with
poor communication and relationship styles,
increased parentchild conflict, low goal orienta-
tion, and physical or sexual abuse have more
teens who become pregnant (Jaffee, Caspi,
Moffitt, Belsky, & Silva, 2001).
Dieting Behaviors, Perceptions of Body
Weight, and Eating Disorders
Dietary habits formed during childhood and
adolescence effect those practiced throughout
adulthood. Increases in obesity are occurring
worldwide, and many health experts are
considering this growing trend an epidemic.
A study conducted among Kuwaiti schoolchildren
(Honkala, Hondala, & Al-Sahli, 2006) has demon-
strated assessed LS variables (i.e., overall
happiness, loneliness, number of close friends)
to be associated with more-than-once-a-day
consumption of sugar products. Further, signifi-
cantly more children consuming sugar products
more than once a day where among those who
did not feel happy and/or often felt lonely
(Honkala et al., 2006). Similarly, Valois, Zullig,
Huebner, and Drane (2003) found LS to be nega-
tively related to poor perceptions of body weight,
trying to lose weight, dieting to lose weight,
vomiting or using laxatives to lose weight, and
taking diet pills to lose weight among American
adolescents. Differences in dieting behavior and
perceptions of weight were demonstrated across
gender and race for African Americans and Cau-
casians. In contrast, results of a Danish study found
a healthy diet to be significantly associated with
positive adolescent LS (Due, Holstein, Ito, &
Groth, 1991).
A long-term follow-up of childhood- and
adolescent-onset female sufferers of anorexia
nervosa in Norway showed significantly lower
LS when compared to a sample of normal
45 A
females (Halvorsen & Heyerdahl, 2006).
Although found to have similar levels of self-
esteem at follow-up, former anorexia nervosa A
patients with no present eating disorder who had
achieved normal eating attitudes had lower LS
when compared to women in a large population
study (Halvorsen & Heyerdahl, 2006).
Physical Activity/Exercise
Vilhjalmsson and Thorlindsson (1992) demon-
strated LS to be positively related to strenuous
exercise and participation in club and group sport
and to be negatively correlated with anxiety,
depression, psychophysiological symptoms,
smoking, and alcohol use among Icelandic ado-
lescents. Similar results have been reported
among American students by Maton (1990),
where LS was found to be positively related to
meaningful instrumental activity, and by Valois,
Zullig, Huebner, and Drane (2004b) where asso-
ciations were found between decreased LS and
the lack of various physical exercise behaviors.
Further, these results are consistent with those
reported by Holstein, Ito, and Due (1990)
among a nationwide sample of Danish children,
where it was found that high intensity exercise
was positively associated with increased LS.
Youth Developmental Assets
Paxton, Valois, Huebner, and Drane (2006)
investigated the relationship between adolescent
LS and bonding to adults/developing meaningful
roles in the neighborhood within a study of
slightly modified version of the CDC Middle
School Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MSYRBS)
in a southern state in the USA. Overall, 43 % of
middle school students (early adolescents)
reported that they were satisfied with their lives
overall, and 34 % reported that they experienced
positive adult relationships and meaningful roles
in their neighborhoods. After adjusting for SES
and family structure, differential associations
were found between adolescent LS and bonding
to adults/developing meaningful roles. Opportu-
nities for adult bonding and meaningful roles in
the neighborhood related to increased LS more
strongly for Caucasian students than African
American students. Post hoc analyses suggest
A 46
that the explanation for these differential rela-
tionships may involve SES.
In a 2009 study by Valois, Zullig, Huebner,
and Drane, significant (p  .05) associations were
established for perceived support by parents/
other adults for four race/gender groups, self-
and peer values regarding risk behavior for
black females, quality of other adult support for
black males and white females, and LS for public
high school adolescents (n 3,477). Significant
(p  .05) associations were also established for
perceived support by parents/other adults for
White males and Black males, accountability to
parents/other adults for White females, quality of
other adult support for White males and Black
females, and empathetic relationships for all four
race/gender groups. Results from the Valois et al.
(2009) suggest that perceived LS is related to
youth developmental assets although moderated
by gender and race differences. Further research
is necessary to identify the particular characteris-
tics of youth and specific aspects of adolescent LS
associated with youth developmental assets in
order to develop gender appropriate and cultur-
ally sensitive health promotion programs.
Discussion
This review suggests that a substantial number of
adolescents are reporting dissatisfaction with
their lives. Further, a substantial number of ado-
lescents are engaging in problem/health-risk
behaviors and lacking in developmental assets.
Most importantly, this review demonstrated
a meaningful linkage between two distinct ado-
lescent health research literatures: the problem
behavior/health-risk behavior and developmental
asset literature and the quality of life (LS) litera-
ture. Research efforts bridging the two areas have
been scarce (Huebner et al., 2004); however, this
review identified significant relationships
between self-reported LS and substance abuse,
violence, peer victimization, suicide, sexual
risk-taking, dieting/perceptions of body weight/
eating disorders, physical activity, and youth
developmental assets. Furthermore, this review
demonstrated the importance of two contextual
factors as moderators of the relationships
between LS and problem/health-risk behaviors
Adolescent Problem Behavior
and developmental assets. That is, the nature and
magnitude of the problem/health-risk behaviors
and LS associations are significantly influenced
by both adolescent gender and ethnicity (while
sometimes controlling for SES and grade).
Recent research has indicated the potential role
of LS as a buffer against negative effects of stress
and the development of psychopathological
behavior (Suldo & Huebner, 2004). Such findings
are highly significant to the promotion of positive
development in youth. In general the research
literature suggests that most youth report
a positive level of LS. However, concern must be
focused on those who fall below this average and
how what we know about the relationships
between LS, psychopathology, personality, and
the environment can aid in the development of
strategies aimed at increasing LS among these
youths (Proctor et al., 2009). For example, a survey
of 5,544 American students found that 11 % of
those sampled fell below the neutral point with 7 %
indicating a terrible or unhappy existence
(Huebner, Drane, & Valois, 2000). The impor-
tance of increasing low LS to normative levels
and further maintaining those positive levels of
LS among youth cannot be overemphasized.
Further, attention needs to be drawn to the fact
that those benefiting from rich environmental and
social resources do not necessarily display high
levels of LS, which may aid in protecting them
against the negative effects of stress and the
development of psychopathological behavior. In
line with the positive psychology movement,
learning how to build strength in order to buffer
against the development of problems is impera-
tive to the positive development of adolescents.
Youth LS is one such strength (Proctor et al.,
2009). Incorporation of LS reports in the assess-
ment, evaluation, and implementation of educa-
tional and social programs is essential in order to
provide insight into the differential effects and
impacts of such services on the quality of life of
youths, receiving them and helping them identify
where crucial changes should occur in order for
increases in LS to ensue (Proctor et al., 2009).
In general, this review has presented the extant
findings on the association between adolescent
LS and problem/health-risk behaviors and
Adolescent Problem Behavior
developmental assets. Specifically, the literature
demonstrates the need for research among chil-
dren and adolescents across continents and cul-
tures. The majority of previous research in
adolescent LS has occurred in North America
(Proctor et al., 2009). Future research is needed
to determine the differences between individual-
istic and collective cultures and with specific
populations, such as those with mental and phys-
ical challenges, those with disease or psycholog-
ical conditions, and those with exceptionally high
LS and giftedness (Proctor et al., 2009). Overall,
the adolescent LS literature suggests that LS is
a key indicator of health and well-being, inte-
grally connected to environmental, social, emo-
tional, behavioral, and psychological outcomes.
Cross-References
Anxiety
Bullying
Life Satisfaction
Obesity, an Overview
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Self-esteem
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(2004b). Physical activity behaviors and perceived life
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279288.
Adolescent Substance Abuse
Adolescent Substance Use
49 A
Adolescent Substance Use
A
Patrick S. Malone
Department of Psychology, University of South
Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Synonyms
Adolescent drug abuse; Adolescent drug use;
Adolescent substance abuse; Teen drug abuse;
Teen drug use; Teen substance abuse; Teen sub-
stance use; Youth drug abuse; Youth drug use;
Youth substance abuse; Youth substance use
Definition
Adolescent substance use is a health risk behavior
defined by the recreational consumption of (typ-
ically) mood-altering chemicals. Substances
often used by adolescents include alcohol,
tobacco, caffeine, inhalants, marijuana, and
cocaine or crack, as well as nonprescribed use
of pharmaceuticals. Use of other stimulants (e.g.,
methamphetamine), barbiturates, hallucinogens,
narcotics, etc., less commonly occurs.
Description
Introduction
Substance abuse is one of the most serious
preventable health problems among adolescents.
There is a great deal of research linking substance
abuse in adolescence with increased risk of
many negative health outcomes, including mor-
tality (from accidents, suicides, or homicides),
unintentional injuries, violence, unwanted preg-
nancies, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Substance use that does not reach the level
of abuse may still put the adolescent at risk of
adverse legal, financial, and social consequences
that have an impact on quality of life
(DiClemente et al., 2009).
The consequences associated with adolescent
substance use are a function in part of the societal
A 50
(legal and otherwise) restrictions on the sub-
stance. Caffeine, for example, is widely available
and unrestricted in the United States. Alcohol and
nicotine are commonly legal for adults, with the
restrictions on adolescent use varying by nation
and culture. Other substances, such as solvents
(abused by inhalation) or prescribed stimulants,
may be legal and available, but recreational use is
still proscribed. Some substances, of course, are
restricted to controlled medical applications or
completely unavailable through licit channels.
Other adverse or beneficial consequences
of adolescent substance use depend on the phys-
ical and psychological effects of the specific
drug, including the potential for addiction. Inhal-
ants are typically physiologically harmful, even
in modest use, but are not usually addictive.
Caffeine dependency can occur with moderate
regular use, but there are possible health benefits
to its use as well as short-term benefits of the
stimulant effect, and the consequences of with-
drawal are not usually severe. Drugs such as
heroin have a high potential for addiction and
minimal, if any, benefits beyond the immediate
emotional effects which the youth may seek.
A third class of consequences is related to the
views of different substances held by the adoles-
cents peers or family. Adolescent use of tobacco
in most Western countries, for example, may be
met by parental disapproval and peer approval,
regardless of legality or effects on health. Per-
ceived or anticipated peer approval is, of course,
a powerful motivator for adolescents.
Thus, in overview, the relation of substance
use to quality of life depends greatly on the spe-
cific substance and cultural context. Some
sequelae of use may be beneficial, or perceived
as such by the adolescent, and others harmful.
Physiological, psychological, legal, and social
consequences are each and all relevant to the
impact of substance use. In the remainder of this
entry, particular substances or classes will be
considered.
Use of Specific Substances
Caffeine
Caffeine, a psychostimulant, is the mostly
widely available and widely used mood-altering
Adolescent Substance Use
substance in the world. Caffeine, usually in bev-
erage form, is generally considered benign or
even healthful, with a primary benefit of
increased wakefulness and a secondary benefit
of reduced appetite.
Caffeine consumption has been documented
to have certain beneficial effects on physical
health in adults, though this has not yet been
extensively studied in younger populations. Caf-
feine use has been shown to contribute to hyper-
tension in adolescents, as well as to daytime
sleepiness, and to adversely affect academic per-
formance. Adolescent caffeine consumption also
often co-occurs with health risk behaviors,
including cigarette smoking. Among adolescents,
caffeine use is also strongly associated with the
presence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disor-
der (ADHD), possibly as a self-medication tool
(Scheier 2009).
Caffeine dependence is not a unique diag-
nosis in DSM-IV, but many aspects of substance
dependence can occur with caffeine. There is
a lack of large-scale morbidity studies of adoles-
cent caffeine dependence, but the popularity of
energy drinks in some cultures raises additional
concern for caffeine dependence rates in youth.
Alcohol
Alcohol, a depressant, is legal in most countries,
though typically regulated and specifically pro-
scribed for youth. In the United States, alcohol
consumption is illegal for teens but is extremely
widespread. In 2010 reports, 71 % of twelfth-
grade students (typically age 17 or 18) reported
having had more than a few sips of alcohol in
their lives, and 36 % of eighth-grade students
(typically age 13 or 14) reported the same
(Johnston et al., 2011). As with caffeine, studies
in adults have found beneficial physical health
effects of moderate use of some forms of alcohol,
but these studies have not been conducted on
large scales with adolescents.
The age of initiation of alcohol use depends
heavily on beliefs and expectancies about the
effects of alcohol (e.g., elevated mood, social
acceptance, and being adult vs. depressed mood
and hangover). These beliefs are typically formed
early in life. However, early initiation of alcohol
Adolescent Substance Use
use (before age 13) is strongly associated with
subsequent alcohol dependence and other health
risks, including injuries from accidents, motor
vehicle accidents, fights, risky sexual behavior,
and other forms of substance use and abuse,
including dependence on nicotine and other
substances (Scheier 2009).
Nicotine
Nicotine, almost always consumed in tobacco
products such as cigarettes or snuff (dip), is
a highly addictive stimulant. Similarly to caf-
feine, its popularity among adolescents is due in
large part to a combination of mood elevation
and, particularly among female youth, appetite
suppression. In addition, smoking carries
a potent air of adult sophistication in most
cultures, though that has declined over time in
Western societies (DiClemente et al., 2009).
Nicotine, along with other compounds found
in tobacco products, has a well-documented array
of adverse health effects. Cigarette use is strongly
associated with heart disease, emphysema, and
lung cancer, and the use of alternative tobacco
products such as snuff has other negative conse-
quences such as oral lesions and cancers. Hyper-
tension and associated outcomes are also
common results of nicotine use (Mathers et al.,
2006; Scheier 2009).
Cannabis
Cannabis (marijuana) is a plant containing D9-
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), among many other
active chemicals. When the chemicals are
consumed via inhalation of smoke or ingestion
the result is a complex psychoactive effect,
typically including variable effects on mood and
subjective perception. In the United States,
nationwide surveys in 2010 indicated that
adolescent reports of lifetime cannabis use were
approximately as frequent as reports of lifetime
tobacco use, making it by far the illegal drug most
commonly used by US youth (Johnston et al.,
2011).
Cannabis or THC has established medicinal
uses, particularly as an appetite stimulant and
antiemetic, as well as an analgesic and as benefi-
cial for glaucoma patients. It is legal for use,
51 A
whether generally or restricted to medicinal pur-
poses, in many jurisdictions, though most com-
monly limited to adults. A
The strongest predictor of adolescent cannabis
use across studies is peer use, specifically, and
peer social deviance more generally. Similarly,
youth report predominantly social reasons for
using cannabis, followed by mood elevation.
Cannabis is broadly perceived by adolescents as
carrying little risk of addiction or physical harm.
Accumulating evidence, however, indicates
adverse effects of sustained use on cognitive
function (e.g., memory, attention). Chronic can-
nabis use has also been associated with abnor-
malities in adolescent brain structure, including
lower gray matter volume, though causal rela-
tions and long-term implications have not yet
been conclusively established (Schweinsburg
et al., 2008).
Prescription Pharmaceuticals
Referring to a class of substances rather than
a specific substance, a notable proportion of ado-
lescents use prescription-controlled pharmaceu-
ticals outside of the direction of medical
professionals. Common classes of such sub-
stances include amphetamines (frequently pre-
scribed for attention disorders), sedatives and
barbiturates, narcotics, and tranquilizers. Adoles-
cents may acquire such medications from legiti-
mate prescriptions and use them inappropriately,
but many also report obtaining pharmaceuticals
from family medicine supplies. Abuse of this
class of drugs is of particular concern because
substantial numbers of youth believe that pre-
scription substances are less dangerous to their
health than illicit drugs, which in many instances
is false (McCabe et al., 2008).
Because of the variety of subclasses referred
to here, reasons for use necessarily vary but
are likely to focus on the psychoactive qualities.
Of particular note is the perceived benefit of
amphetamine use, commonly abused for aca-
demic performance enhancement and/or weight
control. The implications for quality of life like-
wise vary, but the potential for physiologically
consequential addiction is high, particularly
for narcotics.
A 52
Other Drugs
The above categories reflect the substances most
used and/or abused by adolescents, at least in
Western societies (and all of the substances
for which lifetime use was reported by 10 % or
more of older adolescents in a recent US-wide
survey). Other substances of abuse include
inhalants, hallucinogens, forms of cocaine,
forms of opiates, and synthesized recreational
drugs, including PCP (angel dust), MDMA
(ecstasy), and methamphetamine. Many
substances not typically considered as recrea-
tional drugs can be used and abused some in
the inhalant class, but others by ingestion,
such as Datura. It is naturally difficult to gener-
alize in this section, but, as with the substances
detailed above, use of any psychoactive sub-
stance tends to have complex determinants and
consequences.
Summary
Adolescents use and abuse psychoactive
substances for a wide variety of reasons and
with a similarly wide variety of implication.
Reasons for use may be social, whether for peer
acceptance, a sense of maturity, or a rebellion;
intrapsychic, such as for reduced self-awareness
or other buzz benefits; physiological; or simple
experimentation. Consequences can likewise be
social, physiological, or more mundanely practi-
cal, such as effects on academic performance.
Many substances subject the user to potential
dependence or addiction, though many others
are less likely to do so. Other consequences may
be societal, whether for substances that are pro-
scribed society wide or for those which represent
status offenses for minors to possess or use.
Given this variety, there is little generalizable
implication for quality of life. Physiological
dependence is by its nature constraining on
behavior and can lead to drug-seeking behaviors
and so forth. Yet many adults in many societies
may be or at least consider themselves to be
dependent on caffeine with little or no social
harm and frequently little physiological harm or
even benefit. As with other behaviors, particu-
larly risk behaviors, the implications can depend
on, not only the specific substance, but the
Adolescent Substance Use
reasons for use. Experimentation with something
novel, even if illegal, carries different implica-
tions than reliance on a habit-forming substance
for social or academic benefit. Legal ramifica-
tions vary dramatically by substance and society
but must be considered in any evaluation of harm
or potential for harm.
In sum, substance use is a risk behavior with
varied etiology, concomitants, and sequelae. The
phenomenology of the reasons for use and expe-
rience from use differs by substance and individ-
ual, as do the impacts on quality of life.
Cross-References
Addiction, An Overview
Adolescent Problem Behavior
Alcohol Consumption and Suicide in Norway
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD)
Cigarette Smoking and Drinking
Health Risk
References
DiClemente, R. J., Santelli, J. S., & Crosby, R. A. (Eds.).
(2009). Adolescent health: Understanding and
preventing risk behaviors. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Johnston, L. D., OMalley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., &
Schulenberg, J. E. (2011). Monitoring the future
national results on adolescent drug use: Overview of
key findings, 2010. Ann Arbor, MI: University of
Michigan.
Mathers, M., Toumbourou, J. W., Catalano, R. F.,
Williams, J., & Patton, G. C. (2006). Consequences
of youth tobacco use: A review of prospective
behavioural studies. Addiction, 101, 948958.
McCabe, S. E., Cranford, J. A., & West, B. T. (2008).
Trends in prescription drug abuse and
dependence, co-occurrence with other substance use
disorders, and treatment utilization: Results from
two national surveys. Addictive Behaviors, 33,
12971305.
Scheier, L. M. (Ed.). (2009). Handbook of drug use
etiology: Theory, methods, and empirical findings.
Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
Schweinsburg, A. D., Brown, S. A., & Tapert, S. F. (2008).
The influence of marijuana use on neurocognitive
functioning in adolescents. Current Drug Abuse
Review, 1, 99111.
Adolescents and Spirituality
Adolescent Well-Being
Child and Adolescent Life Satisfaction
Adolescents and Spirituality
Irma Bertran
Institut de Recerca sobre Qualitat de Vida,
Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
Synonyms
Development, spiritual; Religion in adolescents;
Sense of life, spirituality; Well-being, spiritual
Definition
Spirituality, in the broadest sense of the word, can
be defined as a way of being and experiencing
that comes about through awareness of
a transcendent dimension and that is character-
ized by certain identifiable values in regard to
self, others, nature, life, and whatever one
considers to be the Ultimate (Elkins, Hedstrom,
Hughes, Leaf, & Saunders, 1988).
The concept of spirituality is often associated
with religiousness. The literature offers several
definitions of these two concepts, from those
who propose their polarization to those who
posit a strong interrelationship between the
two, suggesting that one be considered
a subdomain of the other, or r (Reich, in Benson,
Roehlkepartain, & Rude, 2003).
Description
The search for identity during adolescence is
often seen as a period of conversion, involving
a change from the centrality of the self to
a concern for the meaning of life and the
search for a personal significance (Ream &
Savin-Williams, 2003).
53 A
Adolescent interest in religion and spirituality
has increased in some countries over recent years.
To date, however, most research into spirituality A
and religion in adolescence has focused on deter-
mining what the two concepts mean to young
people (Zinnbauer, Pargament, & Scott, 1999;
Tirri, 2006; Masson, Singleton, & Webber, 2007),
without reaching a common definition. Adoles-
cents attribute different definitions to spirituality,
from a more personal dimension, such as having
a purpose in life or self-confidence, to relational
aspects, such as positive bonds with other people,
or referring to more transcendental expressions,
such as connecting with nature or a superior being
(usually associated with religion). Thus, spiritu-
ality is often characterized as a personal and/or
subjective feeling that results from experiencing
a connection or relationship with a higher power,
such as God or Nature (Benson, 2004). At the
same time, spirituality has also been described as
the integration of ones own values and beliefs
into everyday behavior (Benson et al., 2003).
For some authors, adolescents definitions of
spirituality do not differ greatly from adults.
With respect to this, spiritual beliefs are associ-
ated with inner peace, which is derived from
reduced anxiety, increased security, personal
growth, and self-control, among other things
(Zinnbauer et al., 1999). Other authors
(Roehlkepartain, King, Wagener, & Benson,
2006) add that young people link this feeling of
well-being with joy, fulfillment, energy, and
peace, as well as the motivation to do the right
thing and live with the truth.
While some authors have failed to detect any
remarkable differences between the spiritual
beliefs of the young and older generations
(Masson et al., 2007), others argue that differ-
ences do exist (King & Benson, 2006). The latter
attribute this, among many factors, to differences
in life experiences and cognitive abilities.
However, although for many adults spirituality
and religion are similar, it is doubtful that this
relationship is also established in adolescent
populations. Tirri (2006), from the analysis
of over 700 expressions written on the concepts
of spirituality and religion, noted that most of the
meanings referring to religion were related to
A 54
an institutional dimension, while 66.2 % of the
meanings of spirituality belonged to a humanistic
dimension.
At present, it is difficult to reach a common
consensus regarding spirituality in adolescence,
due to the limited existence of internationally
comparable data on spirituality among young
people of different ages and cultures and in com-
parison with the adult population.
When the focus is on spirituality and/or
religious beliefs and well-being in adolescents,
some studies suggest a strong link between the
two (King & Benson, 2006). Several studies
highlight the importance of religion and/or
spirituality in the lives and lifestyles of adoles-
cents, suggesting that spiritual beliefs are a
resource for adolescent development, leading
to a reduction and encouraging improved
positive results in risk behaviors (Donahue &
Benson, 1995) and bringing confidence to
decision making. In line with this, inverse cor-
relations have been found between religiousness
and the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and
marijuana among adolescents (Wills, 2009),
while others also add depression and mental
disorders (Pearce, Little, & Perez, 2003),
truancy, personal violence, and the idea of
suicide (Sinha, Cnaan, & Gelles, 2007).
In most studies carried out on adolescents,
spirituality is directly related to security,
personal growth, and the ultimate meaning of
life, values positively related to subjective well-
being, and therefore the subjective components
of quality of life.
Interest in the study of spiritual beliefs has
increased considerably over recent years. Tradi-
tionally, the study of spirituality has been very
closely linked with religion, whereas more
recently academics have made an effort to try
and differentiate between these two constructs
(Zinnbauer et al., 1999; Benson et al., 2003).
However, the barrier that separates them is con-
sidered by some researchers to be so thin that they
use the two terms synonymously.
Today there is a broad consensus in consider-
ing both concepts multidimensional constructs,
consisting of beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, rituals,
personal and emotional experiences, conscience,
Adolescents and Spirituality
and personality (Benson et al., 2003; King &
Boyatzis, 2004; Sirgy, 1998). However, religion
is directly related to a particular faith or doctrine
on a divine or supernatural power, whereas spir-
ituality is defined as an intrinsic, self-
transcending capacity related to something
greater than oneself, motivated by the search for
connection and ones own significance (Benson
et al., 2003).
In parallel with this, it is important to take into
account processes of secularization in the modern
world, interpreted differently by different authors
(Norris & Inglehart, 2004). On the one hand there
is the assumption that science and technology can
come to occupy the place that until now has been
occupied by religion and spirituality, denying the
transcendence, divinity, and rationality of spiri-
tual and religious beliefs (Taylor, 2007). On the
other, there is the belief that an emphasis on
individualism and the social disintegration
found in more developed societies can bring
about a change in religiousness, bringing it ever
closer to the individual domain and the pursuit of
spirituality (Hill et al., 2000). Other authors relate
religious beliefs to security, whether economic
or social: societies with a more advanced
socioeconomic structure generally award less
importance to religious values. Thus, the lack of
a need for religion in Europe may be related to the
economic development experienced in the last
century, while in the Third World religion
remains a very important value (Inglehart &
Welzel, 2005).
In this respect, the relationship between
human needs and spiritual and/or religious beliefs
leads to spirituality being considered a domain of
subjective well-being, capable of influencing it
both positively and negatively. Numerous studies
confirm the link between spirituality and well-
being, relating it to both subjective well-being
and health problems (geriatrics, mental health,
terminal illness, among others). Various authors
in both fields highlight positive correlations
between spirituality (or religious beliefs) and
psychological well-being in adults. Specifically,
they relate it to lower levels of personal distress
(Ross, 1990) and overcoming traumatic life
events (Ellison, 1991. Belief in eternal life is
Adolescents and Spirituality
often accompanied by high levels of personal
well-being (Ellison, Boardman, Williams, &
Jackson, 2001).
That said, only few measures of subjective
well-being include spirituality and/or religious
beliefs as aspects that can influence well-being
(Kasser & Ahuvia, 2002). One such measure is
the Personal Well-Being Index (Cummins,
2003), which includes an item on satisfaction
with spirituality and religion, an item that has
been shown to add unique explained variance to
the scale in some countries. However, the item
does not work when applied to the adolescent
population in some countries; some authors
have pointed out that putting the concepts of
religion and spirituality together in one
item results in many adolescents not understand-
ing the question (Casas, Figuer, Gonzalez, &
Malo, 2009).
Thus, although studies on spirituality and
subjective well-being are increasing, very little
of this literature focuses on adolescence. What
little research has been done on the relationship
between spirituality and subjective well-being in
adolescence has focused on mental disorders,
with little analysis of young peoples values.
Cross-References
Adolescents Subjective Well-Being
Spirituality
References
Benson, P. L. (2004). Emerging themes in research on
adolescent spiritual and religious development.
Applied Developmental Science, 8(1), 4750.
Benson, P. L., Roehlkepartain, E. C., & Rude, S. P. (2003).
Spiritual development in childhood and adolescence:
Toward a field of inquiry. Applied Developmental
Science, 7(3), 205213.
Casas, F., Figuer, C., Gonzalez, M., & Malo, S. (2009).
Satisfaction with Spirituality, Satisfaction with
religion and personal well-being among Spanish
adolescents and young university students. Applied
Research in Quality of Life, 4(1), 2345.
Cummins, R. A. (2003). Normative life satisfaction:
Measurement issues and a homeostatic model. Social
Indicators Research, 64, 225256.
55 A
Donahue, M. J., & Benson, P. L. (1995). Religion and the
well-being of adolescents. Journal of Social, 51(2),
145160.
Elkins, D. N., Hedstrom, L. J., Hughes, L. L., Leaf, J. A., A
& Saunders, C. (1988). Toward a humanistic-
phenomenological spirituality. Journal of Humanistic
Psychology, 28(4), 518.
Ellison, C. G. (1991). Religious involvement and
subjective well-being. Journal of Health and Social
Behavior, 32, 8099.
Ellison, C. G., Boardman, J. D., Williams, D. R., &
Jackson, J. S. (2001). Religious involvement, stress, and
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Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, R. W.,
McCullough, M. E., Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., et al.
(2000). Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: Points
of commonality, points of departure. 30. Journal for the
Theory of Social Behavior. pp. 5177. Retrieved April
25, 2010.
Inglehart, R., & Welzel, C. (2005). Modernization,
cultural change, and democracy: The human develop-
ment sequence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-609712-X.
Kasser, T., & Ahuvia, A. (2002). Materialistic values and
well-being in business students. European Journal of
Social Psychology, 32, 137146.
King, P. E., & Boyatzis, C. J. (2004). Exploring adolescent
spiritual and religious development: Current and
future theoretical and empirical perspectives. Applied
Developmental Science, 8(1), 26.
King, P. E., & Benson, P. L. (2006). Spiritual development
and adolescent well-being and thriving. In
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spirituality of young Australians. International
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Retrieved April 25, 2010.
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and depressive symptoms among adolescents. Journal
of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32,
267276.
Ream, G. L., & Savin-Williams, R. C. (2003). Religious
development in adolescence. In The handbook of
spiritual development in childhood and adolescence.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Roehlkepartain, E. C., King, P. E., Wagener, L. M., &
Benson, P. L. (Eds.). (2006). The handbook of spiritual
development in childhood and adolescence. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
A 56
Ross, C. E. (1990). Religion and psychological distress.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 29,
236245. In Trankle, T. M. (2006) Psychological
well-being, religious coping, and religiosity in college
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ship, Thought, and Opinion Pentecost 5(3).
Sinha, J. W., Cnaan, R. A., & Gelles, R. J. (2007).
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Sirgy, J. M. (1998). Materialism and quality of life. Social
Indicators Research, 43, 227260.
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Tirri, K. (Ed.). (2006). Religion, spirituality & identity.
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Wills, E. (2009). Spirituality and subjective well-being:
Evidences for a new domain in the personal well-being
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Adolescents in Portugal
Paulo C. Dias1 and Ana Sofia Bastos2
1 a mean score ranging between 70 and 80 per-
Philosophy Faculty of the Catholic University of
Portugal, Braga, Portugal
2 value for the Portuguese population is 68.92
Philosophy Faculty of the Catholic University of
Portugal, College of Educational Sciences of
Felgueiras, Braga, Felgueiras, Portugal
Synonyms
Life satisfaction of Portuguese adolescents;
Well-being; Well-being, subjective
Definition
The Personal Well-being Index-School Children
(PWI-SC) is an instrument to measure subjective
well-being. This study examines the psychomet-
ric properties of the PWI-SC Portuguese version
in a sample of 801 students aged between 12 and
18 years old. The results demonstrated good
validity and reliability of the measure.
Adolescents in Portugal
Description
PWI is a scale originally developed by Cummins,
Eckersley, Pallant, van Vugt, and Misajon
(2003), which firstly included seven items related
to life satisfaction in different domains: health,
standard of life, achievement, feeling safe,
belonging to a group of people, security for
future, and interpersonal relationships. A new
domain of spirituality/religious beliefs was most
recently introduced (International Well-being
Group, 2006).
There are several versions of the instrument
and are numerous translations of this scale
(Cummins & Lau, 2005). In Portugal, the
Portuguese translation and adaptation of the
PWI-A version (Ribeiro & Cummins, 2008)
and PWI-ID version (Pinto & Nobre, 2011)
existed prior to our research. However,
the PWI-SC had only been translated into
Portuguese for the Brazilian population (Casas
et al., 2012).
Despite the lack of this evidence, we know
that life satisfaction in 44 countries with differ-
ent cultures and standards of living shows
centage points (Cummins, 1998), while the
points, rating below the average of western
countries (Ribeiro & Cummins, 2008). Also the
final report resulting from the Quality of Life in
a Changing Europe Project (Lippe et al., 2009)
places Portugal at the bottom of the list in over-
all life satisfaction and well-being.
These results were the special motivation
to explore PWI-SC psychometric properties
using information from a sample of Portuguese
adolescents, in order to testify and validate its
applicability for the Portuguese context. This
will provide a reliable and valid measure to
research the value of interventions on well-
being promotion.
Method
The sample comprises 801 Portuguese adoles-
cents aged from 12 until 18 years old. The
majority of the participants were females
(54.6 %), and their parents academic level
Adolescents in Portugal 57 A
Adolescents in Portugal, Table 1 PWI-SC descriptive and inter-item correlations
Variable M SD 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0. Life as a whole 73.42 20.25 A
1. Standard of living 75.81 19.92 .511(*)
2. Personal health 83.80 19.19 .390(*) .347(*)
3. Achievement in life 73.06 20.53 .491(*) .386(*) .375(*)
4. Personal relationships 80.20 19.87 .459(*) .408(*) .373(*) .508(*)
5. Personal safety 78.18 19.79 .387(*) .439(*) .351(*) .410(*) .552(*)
6. Feeling part of the 78.20 20.46 .432(*) .386(*) .299(*) .419(*) .496(*) .483(*)
community
7. Future security 72.00 20.40 .521(*) .456(*) .376(*) .514(*) .476(*) .490(*) .441(*)
PWI-SC 77.40 14.30 .644(*) .688(*) .621(*) .721(*) .767(*) .754(*) .709(*) .753(*)
*p < .01

median corresponds to the lower secondary
education, with an average of 8.32 (SD 3.257)
years of education from fathers and 8.52
(SD 3.251) from mothers.
The Personal Well-being Index-School
Children (PWI-SC) was previously translated
according to the International Well-being Group
recommendations, available on Australian Qual-
ity of Life Center. An English native speaker
translated the original PWI-SC to Portuguese
language, and a back translation was also made,
which enabled us to overcome any possible
ambiguities. So, PWI-SC was used to assess
Portuguese adolescents degree of satisfaction, in
a 010 scale, relating satisfaction with life as a
whole, with seven domains of satisfaction:
standard of living, personal health, achiev-
ing in life, personal relationships, personal
safety, feeling part of the community, and
future security. Data collected were stand-
ardized to a 0100 point scale (International
Well-being Group, 2006) and submitted to
several statistical analyses to evaluate reliability,
validity, multiple regression, and relations with
sociodemographic variables.
Results
Descriptive Statistics
SPSS software was used for data screening and
analysis. 23 cases were deleted, based on the
criteria of deleting respondents who consistently
answered the maximum or minimum scores on all
seven domains.
As we may verify on Table 1, the highest
level of satisfaction was found in personal
health (M 83.80, SD 19.19) and the lowest
in future security (M 72.00, SD 20.40).
Despite the differences in the specific domains, it
is interesting to verify that satisfaction with life
as a whole averages (M 73.42, SD 20.25),
achievement in life averages, and future
security averages are only slightly lower than
the 75 points in the western nations (Cummins
et al., 2003). With Pearson correlation, the
relation between the PWI-SC domains were
analyzed, which allowed us to verify the higher
correlation on personal relationships and
personal security (r .552, p < .01) and
lower correlation on personal health and the
other domains, specially feeling part of the
community (r .299, p < .01). PWI-SC had
presented high correlations with all specific dimen-
sions of the instrument, and life as a whole
revealed correlations from .30 to .55. These corre-
lations are both similar and noted in other studies
(International Well-being Group, 2006).
Reliability and Validity of the PWI-SC
Results obtained from Cronbach reveal a good
internal consistence (a .842). We found that the
corrected item-total correlation ranged from .508
to .670 and none of the items would significantly
improve reliability of the scale if deleted.
To evaluate PWI-SC validity, we used
an exploratory factor analysis with principal
components method and varimax rotation.
A 58 Adolescents in Portugal

Adolescents in Portugal, Table 2 Exploratory factor Adolescents in Portugal, Table 3 Multiple regression
analysis for the PWI-SC results
Item Factor loading B SE B b p
1. Standard of living .683 Constant 1.116 3.647
2. Personal health .606 1. Standard of living .243 .039 .231 .000
3. Achievement in life .718 2. Personal health .153 .039 .140 .000
4. Personal relationships .777 3. Achievement in life .187 .037 .191 .000
5. Personal safety .763 4. Personal relationships .145 .045 .137 .001
6. Feeling part of the community .706 5. Personal safety .038 .044 .036 .393
7. Future security .757 6. Feeling part of the .017 .047 .015 .724
Eigenvalue 3.607 community
Percentage of variance 51.534 7. Future security .242 .042 .235 .000
Note: F 67.611, p < .01; R .673, R .453, Adjusted
2

R2 .446

The values of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO), 0.890, SD 21.104) than boys (M 74.958,

and Bartletts test of sphericity, w2. 1765.519,
p < .01, allow us to conclude that the data are
suitable for factor analysis. According to the orig-
inal model, the eight domains loaded onto one
component with Eigenvalue of 3.607 which
explains 51.534 of the variance (see Table 2). All
domains presented strong loadings in the factor,
ranging from .613 (personal health) to .769
(feeling part of the community).
A multiple linear regression was used to
verify the extent to which the individual
domains contributed to satisfaction with life
as a whole results allow us to verify that
44.6 % of the variance in life as a whole can
be explained by PWI-SC domains, specially
standard of living and future security.
Two domains were found to have no significant
contribution to life as a whole, as personal
safety and feeling part of the community
(Table 3).
Socioeconomic Variables and the PWI-SC
Age and the PWI-SC. There were found significant
negative correlations between age and standard
of living (r  .100, p < .01) and between
age and PWI-SC (r .100, p < .01).
The correlations with the other specific domains
were nonsignificant.
Gender and PWI-SC. Statistical differences
were also found in achievement in life, females
presenting lower satisfaction (M 71.594,
SD 19.651; t(792) 2.308, p .02). Gender
differences within other specific domains and
PWI average were nonsignificative.
Parents Education and the PWI-SC. Significa-
tive differences were found between adolescents
father education in both specific domains of
standard of living (F 4.502, p < .01) and
health (F 2.853, p < .05). Tamhane post hoc
tests allowed us to verify significantly higher aver-
ages for adolescents whose fathers have
a university (M 84.00, SD 16.05 in standard
of living, and M 89.90, SD 13.89 in health)
versus both primary education (M 72.30,
SD 20.12 in standard of living, and
M 81.40, SD 19.42 in health) and basic
education (M 76.10, SD 17.57 in standard of
living, and M 81.19, SD 20.18 in health).
Also in the PWI-SC, a higher score was found
within fathers with university level (M 79.95,
SD 14.80) when compared with primary
(M 76.92, SD 12.74) or basic educational
level (M 75.29, SD 13.34). Mothers educa-
tion had a similar influence for standard of living
(F 2.723, p < .05). Tamhane post hoc tests
results indicate that adolescents whose mothers
have a university education level also have higher
averages (M 80.58, SD 20.08) in this domain
compared with those who have a primary
level (M 72.47, SD 19.66). All other
specific domains and PWI-SC differences were
nonsignificative.
Adolescents in Portugal
Discussion
We confirm that the PWI-SC in this Portuguese
version has performed well both in terms of valid-
ity and reliability in an adolescent population.
PWI-SC psychometric characteristics in this
study reveal similarities with other results from
multiple previous studies on this instrument
around the world (International Well-being
Group, 2006).
Other interesting findings are that Portuguese
adolescents rate higher on overall life satisfac-
tion (73.42 points) than Portuguese adults who
rate 68, 92 points (Ribeiro & Cummins, 2008).
This trend is also found in other countries (Casas
et al., 2012; Tomyn & Cummins, 2010) and may
be due to the developmental particularities of
this age stage, comparing to adults life concerns.
In fact, our results reveal, for example, a high
level of satisfaction on personal health in
our adolescents. However, when compared to
western countries average (75.5 %) (Cummins
et al., 2003), Portuguese adolescents rate
slightly lower (73.42). The same occurs for
specific domains: achievement in life and
future security, which may be linked to
the particular actual economic situation of the
country.
We also found that life satisfaction tends to
decrease as age increases, as also verified in Aus-
tralian adolescents (Tomyn & Cummins, 2010).
Gender results highlight differences, as girls
revealed lower satisfaction than boys in satisfac-
tion in achievement in life. Parents education
level seems to be connected to adolescent SWB,
in particular, in terms of standard of living and
personal health.
Conclusion
The psychometric properties of PWI-SC ana-
lyzed in this study revealed that this instrument
may be applied in the Portuguese context.
Further, it has enabled us to verify some relation-
ship between the PWI-SC and other variables
described.
59 A
We may conclude that this scale will be
a useful tool in the Portuguese school context.
We believe we have contributed to reach a better A
understanding on our adolescents and the way
they perceive their subjective well-being. It will
certainly drive us to improve intervention on
well-being promotion.
Acknowledgment Study supported by the PEst-OE/FIL/
UI0683/2011, strategical project of the CEFH funded by
the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.
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estudo de validacao da versao portuguesa da escala. In
I. Leal, J. Pais-Ribeiro, I. Silva, & S. Marques (Eds.),
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wellbeing of high-school students: Validating the
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A 60 Adolescents in Singapore, Body Mass Index and Health-Related Quality of Life
Adolescents in Singapore, Body
Mass Index and Health-Related
Quality of Life
Rahul Malhotra1, Seang Mei Saw2 and
Truls stbye1,3
1
Health Services and Systems Research,
Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, National
University of Singapore, Singapore
2
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and
Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National
University of Singapore, Singapore
3
Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University,
Durham, NC, USA
Definition
Body mass index, an anthropometric measure for
body fatness, is calculated as body weight in
kilograms divided by the square of body height
in meters [weight (kg)/height (m)2].
Health-related quality of life designates the
physical, psychological, and social domains of
health, seen as distinct areas that are influenced
by a persons experiences, beliefs, expectations,
and perceptions. (Testa & Simonson, 1996).
Description
Studies using various health-related quality of
life (HRQOL) measures have shown children
and adolescents with a higher body mass
to have lower HRQOL (Arif & Rohrer, 2006;
de Beer et al., 2007; Fallon et al., 2005;
Friedlander, Larkin, Rosen, Palermo, & Redline,
2003; Hamzaid et al., 2011; Hughes, Farewell,
Harris, & Reilly, 2007; Pinhas-Hamiel et al.,
2006; Sato, Nakamura, & Sasaki, 2008;
Schwimmer, Burwinkle, & Varni, 2003; Swallen,
Reither, Haas, & Meier, 2005; Tyler, Johnston,
Fullerton, & Foreyt, 2007; Williams, Wake,
Hesketh, Maher, & Waters, 2005; Zhang et al.,
2008). However, to our knowledge, very few
studies have investigated this association in
Asian populations, (Hamzaid et al., 2011;
Sato et al., 2008), and none of these are from
Singapore, an urban Asian country. Utilizing data
from 1,249 adolescents, aged 1118 years, who
participated in the annual follow-up of the Singa-
pore Cohort Study of the Risk Factors for Myopia
(SCORM) (Saw et al., 2001, 2002) in 2006, we
investigate the relationship between current body
mass and HRQOL, both self and parent-proxy
reported, among Singaporean adolescents.
HRQOL
HRQOL was assessed using adolescent
self-report (100 % response rate) and parent-
proxy report (61 % response rate) of the
Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQLTM
4.0) generic core scales (Varni, Limbers, &
Burwinkle, 2007; Varni, Seid, & Kurtin, 2001).
It provides total physical health and psychosocial
health (average of emotional, social, and school
functioning subscales) summary scores; higher
scores indicate better HRQOL.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
BMI is widely used as a measure of body mass for
children and adolescents (Lobstein, Baur, &
Uauy, 2004; World Health Organization
[WHO], 1995). However, rather than BMI itself,
the use of age- and gender-specific BMI z-scores
or percentiles is recommended in these age
groups (Flegal, Tabak, & Ogden, 2006; Lobstein
et al., 2004; WHO, 1995). We used the WHO
Reference 2007 (de Onis et al., 2007; World
Health Organization [WHO], 2007) to derive
BMI z-scores, using weight (to the nearest
0.1 kg) and height (to the nearest 1 cm) from the
2006 follow-up, for primary analyses. Study par-
ticipants were classified as thin (z < 2 S.D.),
healthy weight (2 S.D.  z 1 S.D.), overweight
(1 S.D. < z  2 S.D.), or obese (z > 2 S.D.)
(de Onis et al., 2007; World Health Organization
[WHO], 2008).
Data Analysis
Differences in mean HRQOL scores across body
mass categories were assessed using analysis
of variance (ANOVA), with Bonferroni correc-
tion. The difference in mean HRQOL score
between healthy weight and other body mass
Adolescents in Singapore, Body Mass Index and Health-Related Quality of Life
categories was quantified by the relative effect
size (small (0.20), medium (0.50), and large
(0.80) (Varni, Burwinkle, & Seid, 2006)). Effect
size was calculated by dividing the difference in
the mean HRQOL score between healthy weight
and the other body mass category by the standard
deviation for the healthy-weight category (Varni
et al., 2006). Paired t-test was applied to ascertain
differences between adolescent- and parent-
proxy-reported HRQOL within each body mass
category. Multiple linear regression models,
adjusting for demographic (child age, child gen-
der, parental ethnicity [Chinese, Malay, Indian,
other]), socioeconomic (paternal education),
child health ( asthma, diabetes, inflammatory
bowel disease, migraine, any other medical con-
ditions), and child physical activity (hours spent
in sports/day) were used to assess the body mass/
HRQOL association. SAS version 9.1 was used
for data management and analysis. The study
was approved by the Singapore Eye Research
Institutes Institutional Review Board (IRB) and
exempted from full review by the Duke IRB.
Sample Characteristics
Most of the 1,249 study participants were of
healthy weight (68.1 %) followed by those who
were overweight (15.6 %), thin (8.8 %), and obese
(7.4 %). Their mean age was 13.8 years, with
a near equal proportion of males and females.
Majority were of Chinese ethnicity (70.3 %).
Most were healthy, and very few reported asthma
(7.0 %) or other medical conditions (4.6 %).
Association Between BMI and HRQOL
Across the four body mass categories, healthy-
weight adolescents had the highest HRQOL
scores, for both adolescent-reported scores
(mean + S.D.: 84.2 + 11.7 for total summary
score, 90.8 + 11.4 for physical health summary
score, 80.7 + 13.9 for psychosocial health sum-
mary score, 76.1 + 18.6 for emotional functioning
score, 88.2 + 14.7 for social functioning score) as
well as for parent-proxy-reported scores (84.1 +
12.7 for total summary score, 88.8 + 12.4 for
physical health summary score, 81.6 + 14.4 for
psychosocial health summary score, 78.4 + 18.6
for emotional functioning score, 87.1 + 15.8 for
61 A
social functioning score, and 79.3 + 16.4 for
school functioning score). The only exception
was adolescent-reported school functioning A
scores, which were the highest for overweight
adolescents. However, the difference across
body mass categories in adolescent-reported
HRQOL was statistically significant (ANOVA
with Bonferroni correction, p < 0.05) only for
physical health summary and social functioning
scores, being lower among the obese compared to
those of healthy weight. For parent-proxy-
reported HRQOL, the difference between obese
and healthy-weight adolescents was more
marked and statistically significant (ANOVA
with Bonferroni correction, p < 0.05) for
physical health summary, social functioning,
and school functioning scores, but not for emo-
tional functioning score. Parent-proxy-reported
physical health score was also significantly
lower (ANOVA with Bonferroni correction,
p < 0.05) for overweight adolescents compared
to those of healthy weight. The effect size
corresponding to these significant differences
ranged from 0.33 to 0.36 for adolescent-reported
HRQOL and 0.27 to 0.53 for parent-proxy-
reported HRQOL. All of the body mass/
HRQOL associations observed in these bivariate
analyses were maintained after adjusting for
covariates. Significantly lower HRQOL scores,
by approximately 56 points, were observed
among obese adolescents, compared to healthy-
weight adolescents for summary and subscale
scores (except emotional functioning) for parent-
proxy-reported HRQOL. Similarly, for adolescent-
reported HRQOL, obese adolescents had
significantly lower total summary, physical health,
and social functioning scores compared to healthy-
weight adolescents. Further, significantly lower
adolescent-reported physical health for overweight
and thin adolescents, not seen in bivariate analysis,
was observed in the adjusted analysis.
Difference Between Adolescent and Parent-
Proxy-Reported HRQOL by Adolescent Body
Mass Status
Parent-proxy-reported HRQOL tended to be
lower than adolescent-reported HRQOL. This
difference was much larger and statistically
A 62 Adolescents in Singapore, Body Mass Index and Health-Related Quality of Life
significant (paired t-test, p < 0.05) for obese
adolescents for total summary score (3.5 points
difference on average), physical health (5.3
points difference on average), and school func-
tioning (5.4 points difference on average).
Discussion
Self-reported HRQOL among obese Singaporean
adolescents was significantly lower than that of
their healthy-weight peers. This is consistent with
previous studies among children and adolescents
(Arif & Rohrer, 2006; de Beer et al., 2007; Fallon
et al., 2005; Friedlander et al., 2003; Hamzaid
et al., 2011; Hughes et al., 2007; Pinhas-Hamiel
et al., 2006; Sato et al., 2008; Schwimmer et al.,
2003; Swallen et al., 2005; Tyler et al., 2007;
Williams et al., 2005; Zhang et al., 2008). The
effect size of the significant differences we
observed can be considered to be of moderate
magnitude (Varni et al., 2006). Though many
health-related outcomes of pediatric obesity man-
ifest only later in life, our finding affirms the
relevance of HRQOL as a more immediate out-
come among adolescents. Further, the consis-
tency in results between this Asian population
and those from other countries suggests that
HRQOL can be used as an outcome for pediatric
obesity across populations.
Few studies (Arif & Rohrer, 2006; Friedlander
et al., 2003; Sato et al., 2008; Swallen et al., 2005)
have assessed HRQOL among the thin/under-
weight. We observed thin adolescents, compared
to those of healthy weight, to have lower
HRQOL, though significantly lower only for
adolescent-reported physical health.
Both parents and adolescents reported signifi-
cantly lower HRQOL among the obese adoles-
cents in the physical health and social functioning
domains. Some previous studies (Fontaine &
Barofsky, 2001; Hughes et al., 2007; Williams
et al., 2005) also indicate that the physical
health domain is the one most often affected by
body mass status. Additionally, parents appear to
perceive the adolescents body mass to have an
effect on school functioning, though their children
do not report this. Increased concern over school
performance may be a reflection of the cultural
importance of education to Singaporean parents.
Parentchild discrepancy in HRQOL instru-
ments has been reported before (Hughes et al.,
2007; Pinhas-Hamiel et al., 2006; Schwimmer
et al., 2003; Upton, Lawford, & Eiser, 2008),
with parental perception of HRQOL significantly
lower than their childs report among obese
children, but not among children in other body
mass categories (Hughes et al., 2007; Pinhas-
Hamiel et al., 2006). Our findings were congruent
with these previous reports. It has been suggested
that parent-proxy reports of child HRQOL must
be interpreted with caution, especially for adoles-
cents (Chang & Yeh, 2005). The childs report
may be more important, but the parents report
provides a complementary perspective, reflecting
both what the child has difficulty reporting or
admitting, and also the parents own perceptions
and prejudices. Obesity in parents (not available
in our study) has been reported to be associated
with obesity in their children (Lobstein et al.,
2004; Quek, Koh, & Lee, 1993). It is possible
that the obese adolescents in our study had obese
or heavier parents, who brought in their own
perspectives and distress associated with
a higher body mass when judging the QOL of
their obese child. Understanding the parental per-
spective is also important as it influences health-
care utilization for the child (Campo, Comer,
Jansen-Mcwilliams, Gardner, & Kelleher, 2002;
Janicke, Finney, & Riley, 2001). The adolescent-
parent discrepancy may be reassuring to parents
excessively concerned about their childs obesity
and suggests that adolescent obesity intervention
programs should also involve the parents and
address their concerns.
The use of a generic HRQOL instrument
instead of a condition (obesity)-specific instrument
may be considered a limitation of our study.
However, PedsQLTM generic core scales have
been used before among Asian populations to
assess adolescent HRQOL (Ismail, Campbell,
Ibrahim, & Jones, 2006) and in previous studies
assessing the body mass-HRQOL association
(de Beer et al., 2007; Hughes et al., 2007;
Pinhas-Hamiel et al., 2006; Schwimmer et al.,
2003; Tyler et al., 2007; Williams et al., 2005).
Another possible limitation is the choice of an
international reference population, as advocated
Adolescents in Singapore, Body Mass Index and Health-Related Quality of Life
by WHO, based on multi-country data for classi-
fying body mass status of children and adolescents.
The use of the cutoffs based on this reference
population (de Onis et al., 2007) may not be appro-
priate for Asian populations since a higher risk of
obesity-related complications is observed at lower
BMI levels among Asian adults (WHO Expert
Consultation, 2004). Given that our analyses are
primarily cross-sectional, we cannot conclude that
higher body mass leads to lower HRQOL.
Although less likely, the reverse association is
possible, i.e., lower HRQOL leads to weight
gain/obesity through behavioral or psychological
pathways. In fact, obesity and lower HRQOL
may well negatively reinforce each other.
Our study has several strengths. To our knowl-
edge, this is the first study investigating the body
mass-HRQOL association in ethnically diverse
Asian adolescents. Our school-based sample is
also more generalizable than clinic-based sam-
ples; few previous pediatric body mass/HRQOL
association studies have included community-
based samples (Arif & Rohrer, 2006; Friedlander
et al., 2003; Pinhas-Hamiel et al., 2006; Swallen
et al., 2005; Tyler et al., 2007; Williams et al.,
2005; Zhang et al., 2008), and even fewer have
focused only on adolescents (Swallen et al., 2005;
Tyler et al., 2007). Further, our sample encom-
passes a broad range of body mass, from the
underweight to the obese. Our sample size was
much larger than most previous studies of the
pediatric body mass/HRQOL association (de
Beer et al., 2007; Fallon et al., 2005; Friedlander
et al., 2003; Hughes et al., 2007; Pinhas-Hamiel
et al., 2006; Schwimmer et al., 2003; Tyler et al.,
2007; Zhang et al., 2008). Several previous stud-
ies reporting worse HRQOL ratings by heavier
children or adolescents have either not accounted
for (Fallon et al., 2005; Hughes et al., 2007;
Pinhas-Hamiel et al., 2006; Tyler et al., 2007)
or have adjusted for limited confounders
(Arif & Rohrer, 2006; de Beer et al., 2007;
Friedlander et al., 2003; Schwimmer et al.,
2003; Williams et al., 2005; Zhang et al., 2008),
while we were able to adjust for several demo-
graphic, socioeconomic, and health variables and
observed the association to be maintained even
after adjustment.
63 A
Conclusion
Reduced HRQOL overall and in all its dimen-
sions is one more consequence of obesity and A
another reason to prevent and treat this public
health problem, which is becoming epidemic
not only in Europe and the United States but
increasingly also in Asia. Awareness of the
impact of obesity on not only adverse physical
health but also reduced HRQOL in adolescents is
important for health professionals, teachers, par-
ents, and even peers so they can better understand
and support these young individuals. Focusing on
HRQOL domains that cause distress, such as
physical health and social participation, may
motivate change towards a healthier weight.
(The findings presented here are based on
Ostbye, Malhotra, Wong, Tan, and Saw (2010)).
Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge
Hwee-Bee Wong and Say-Beng Tan, who were coauthors
on the original article that presented these findings.
Thanks to Mohamed Dirani, Terri Young, Liang Goh,
Dana Hornbeak, and Qiao Fan for helpful comments relat-
ing to overall study design or specific measurement issues.
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Adolescents in Spain, Application of
the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
Ferran Casas
Institut de Recerca sobre Qualitat de Vida,
Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
Synonyms
Adolescents life satisfaction in Spain; Adoles-
cents subjective well-being in Spain; Interna-
tional well-being group; Personal well-being
index
Definition
First reports of the PWI being used with adoles-
cents in Spain appeared in several publications in
2007. Casas, Figuer, Gonzalez, and Malo (2007a)
reported including items from the adult version
of the PWI (Cummins, Eckersley, Pallant, Van
Vugt, & Misajon, 2003) on a list of 19 items
related to satisfaction with different aspects and
domains of life as part of a questionnaire adminis-
tered to a sample of N 1,618 adolescents aged
1216 in Catalonia in 2003. Also in 2007b, Casas
et al. published a report on the use of television and
other audiovisual media among a representative
sample N 5,140 of Catalan 1117-year-olds in
65 A
secondary education, collected during the
20052006 academic year and including results
from the PWI. Data from this second survey were A
adopted as normative for Catalan adolescents. Fur-
ther instances of data collection have also been
reported.
Description
Casas (2011) reported different instances of
data being collected from 12 16-year-old
adolescents in Catalonia in 2003, 2006, and 2007
and another from 12 18-year-olds in 2008, dem-
onstrating that PWI scores decreased with age for
this age range in all samples. A similar decrease
has been reported with samples of these ages using
other scales in different countries (Casas, 2011).
In all samples, PWI has shown a unique
component; correlation among items and with
a single-item scale measuring overall life satis-
faction (OLS) have been similar as shown
in Table 1; also unique and shared explained
variance when regressing PWI items on OLS
have been similar, as shown in Table 2.
Normative data for Catalan 1216-year-old
adolescents were adopted from the only represen-
tative sample available up to now, collected by
Casas et al. (2007b), and are shown in Table 3.
With confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), good
fit statistics of the PWI with 7 items has been
demonstrated with Catalan samples of adolescents
in several publications (Casas et al., 2011b, 2012d)
and also with adults who are parents of adolescents
(Casas et al., 2011a). The item on satisfaction
with religion or spirituality was shown not to
function well with Catalan adolescents by
Casas, Gonzalez, Figuer, and Malo (2009), and
the item on satisfaction with community has
always been substituted by satisfaction with
groups of people I belong to, because original
testing showed that adolescents in urban areas in
Catalonia do not understand the concept of
community as expected. With structural
equation modeling (SEM), the latent variable
PWI7 has shown high standardized estimates on
OLS in different Catalan samples, like shown in
Fig. 1 and in Casas et al. (2011b, 2012d).
A 66 Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)

Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI), Table 1 Correlations between items
of the PWI-7 and OLS. Catalan adolescents sample (N 2,900)
Health S living Achiev Safety Groups Secur. Relat. OLS
Satisfaction with health 1
Satisfaction with standard of living .499** 1
Satisfaction achievements in life .353** .508** 1
Satisfaction with personal safety .331** .396** .459** 1
Satisfaction groups you belong to .256** .295** .319** .348** 1
Satisfaction with security for the future .307** .368** .413** .442** .289** 1
Satisfaction with relationships .314** .351** .374** .390** .449** .340** 1
Overall life satisfaction (OLS) .351** .458** .433** .444** .315** .385** .383** 1
PWI-7 .623** .695** .715** .725** .624** .677** .668** .581**
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two tailed)

Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI), Table 2 Regressions on OLS and
unique explained variances by item (PWI-7). Catalan adolescents sample (N 2,900)
b sr2
Satisfaction with health .086 .005
Satisfaction with standard of living .235 .031
Satisfaction achievements in life .123 .009
Satisfaction with personal safety .117 .009
Satisfaction groups you belong to .073 .004
Satisfaction with security for the future .087 .005
Satisfaction with relationships .151 .015
Total .078
Adjusted R2 Total variance Unique variance Shared variance
.379 37.9 % 7.1 % 30.8 %
b standardized regression coefficients; sr2 squared semi-partial correlations

Several studies have been published that focus
on some aspect of well-being and use the PWI on
samples of Catalan adolescents. This is the case
with the study by Gonzalez, Casas, Figuer, Malo,
and Vinas (2012) focusing on present safety, future
security, PWI, and other psychological constructs
and that conducted by Casas, Figuer, Gonzalez,
and Malo (2008), exploring the relationship
between materialistic aspirations and PWI. It is
also the case with the study by Casas et al.
(2009), which explores the relationship between
satisfaction with religion, satisfaction with spiritu-
ality, the PWI, and other psychological constructs.
A different kind of data analysis can be found in
the article by Gonzalez, Coenders, Saez, and Casas
(2010), where items from the PWI and 2 additional
items were used within the framework of complex-
ity theories to explore how different levels of
satisfaction with life as a whole may be explained
by combining levels of satisfaction in different life
domains. Two approaches were tested: the con-
stant elasticity of the substitution model and the
model with quadratic terms and interaction effects.
In order to avoid obtaining false nonlinear relation-
ships, they were each analyzed twice, the first time
taking into account the limited measurement of
satisfaction with life as a whole and the second
not. Results showed that (a) any of the two
nonlinear models fitted better than the linear one,
(b) any of the models failing to take into account
limited measurement fitted worse, and (c) the
nonlinear model with quadratic terms and interac-
tion effects fitted better than Rojas constant elas-
ticity of substitution model (Rojas, 2006).
Only one piece of research seems to have
used the Personal Well-Being Index - School
Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI) 67 A
Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI), Table 3 Normative data for Catalan
12- to 16-year-old adolescents (total) Normative ranges calculated from individual data (constant extreme answers
deleted)
Mean SD 2 SD +2 SD N
A
PWI (scored 080) 59.51 11.88 35.75 83.27 4,254
PWI (scored 0100) 74.39 14.85 44.69 104.09 4,254
Standard of living 82.2 19.3 43.6 120.8 4,254
Health 80.9 21.9 37.1 124.7 4,254
Life achievements 77.7 20.1 37.5 117.9 4,254
Relationships 81.0 20.6 39.8 122.2 4,254
Personal safety 73.5 22.4 28.7 118.3 4,254
Community connection 78.2 20.7 36.8 119.6 4,254
Future security 73.2 22.2 28.8 117.6 4,254
Spirituality/religion 48.4 35.9 23.4 120.2 4,254
Life as a whole 78.4 22.2 34 122.8 4,240
By gender Boys Girls
Survey Mean SD N Mean SD N
PWI (scored 080) Total 59.02 12.15 2,118 60 11.58 2,137
PWI (scored 0100) Total 73.78 15.19 2,118 75 14.48 2,137
Standard of living Total 81.7 19.88 2,118 82.8 18.7 2,137
Health Total 81.1 22.02 2,118 80.8 21.85 2,137
Life achievements Total 76.8 20.55 2,118 78.6 19.6 2,137
Relationships Total 76.5 21.37 2,118 79.8 19.92 2,137
Personal safety Total 75.3 21.25 2,118 71.6 23.24 2,137
Community connection Total 79.5 21.01 2,118 82.5 20.02 2,137
Future security Total 73 22.69 2,118 73.4 21.76 2,137
Spirituality/religion Total 46.4 36.45 2,118 50.4 35.17 2,137
Life as a whole Total 78.7 21.92 2,112 78.2 22.51 2,127
By age (Personal Well-being Index scored 080)
Age Mean SD 2 SD +2 SD Range N
12 61.21 12.41 36.39 86.03 49.64 798
13 59.82 12.23 35.36 84.28 48.92 953
14 59.95 11.34 37.27 82.6 45.33 1,068
15 58.41 11.21 35.99 80.83 44.84 1,106
16 56.53 12.65 31.23 81.83 50.6 256
By age (Personal Well-being Index scored 0100)
Age Mean SD 2 SD +2 SD Range N
12 76.51 15.51 45.49 107.54 62.05 798
13 74.78 15.29 44.2 105.35 61.15 953
14 74.94 14.18 46.59 103.25 56.66 1,068
15 73.01 14.01 44.99 101.04 56.05 1,106
16 70.66 15.81 39.04 102.29 63.25 256

Children (PWI-SC) version (Cummins & Lau,
2005a, b) with children and adolescents in Spain,
namely, a survey on food satisfaction conducted
by Vaque, Gonzalez, and Casas (2009, 2012) on
371 children aged 1012 in a county of Catalonia.
Paired data from three different surveys on the
subjective well-being of Catalan 12 16-year-
olds and their parents have been analyzed using
the PWI. In all three studies, adolescents reported
higher subjective well-being than their parents
A 68 Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)

Adolescents in Spain,
Application of the health e07
Personal Well-being
Index (PWI), ,54 ,28
Fig. 1 Standardized
estimates for the latent Res1 stand I e06
variable PWI with 7 items. ,65
Catalan adolescents sample ,15
(N 2,900) w2 88.12;
df 17; p .000; Normed achiev e05
,65
Fit Index (NFI) .987;
Comparative Fix Index
(CFI) .989; Root Mean OLS
,68
PWI
,67
safe e04
Square Error of
Approximation (RMSEA) ,50
.038(.030.046)
groups e03
,61

,60
fut sec e02 ,23

relations e01

did. In Casas et al. (2007a), results from a 2003
sample of N 723, parents and childrens
answers were compared, highlighting outstand-
ing differences in well-being between genera-
tions: few satisfaction domains showed
significant correlation between parents and chil-
dren, and over 20 % of the population studied
showed high discrepancies in their answers in
four domains. In Casas et al. (2008), another
sample of N 266 pairs was analyzed and
a significant but low (.19) parentchild relation-
ship appeared for the PWI, whereas no significant
correlation appeared when using a single-item
scale on overall life satisfaction (OLS). In Casas
et al. (2011a), the PWI was used on a much larger
sample (N 1,250) together with 2 other multi-
ple-item and six single-item scales related to sub-
jective well-being. The PWI showed good fit
statistics with confirmatory factor analyses and
with restricted loadings, but no scale fit with
restricted intercepts, suggesting it is not possible
to compare factor means between parents and
children. However, because the model fitted
with restricted loadings, it was possible to
compare factor correlations for parents and their
children, which were very low for all scales
(.16 for the PWI).
There is evidence of only one comparative
study using the PWI to measure adolescents
well-being between different autonomous
Spanish regions. This is reported in an article by
Casas et al. (2012c) in which interlinguistic
and intercultural comparability of subjective
well-being is analyzed using an overall sample
of 2,519 adolescents aged 1518. Employing con-
firmatory factor analysis models, the PWI shows
good fit for both samples, supporting the compa-
rability of results between the two populations.
Results of adolescents subjective well-being
using the PWI on Catalan samples have also
been reported in several international compara-
tive studies using SEM. Data from specific
regions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and
Spain (Catalonia) were compared in Casas
et al. (2012d) on an overall sample of 2,900
adolescents aged 1216. The PWI was tested
with two new items (satisfaction with oneself
and satisfaction with time use) in Brazil,
Chile, and Spain by Casas et al. (2011a); it was
tested on 1216-year-olds in Brazil (N 1,587)
Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
and Spain (N 2,899) and 1416-year-olds
in Chile (N 842).
In Casas, Baltatescu, Bertran, Gonzalez and
Hatos (2012), the PWI was used with a new item
on satisfaction with my life as student to compare
the responses of N 3,552 adolescents aged
1118 from Romania and Spain.
The only study using the PWI on a
representative sample of Spanish adolescents
was published in 2012 (N 5,934) and is limited
to students in the first year of secondary education
(mainly aged 11 or 12, with 19.5 % repeating
13- and 14-year-olds; mean age 12.09). This
sample was clustered by schools and stratified by
autonomous regions and cities (17 + 2); by rural,
semi-urban, or urban context; and by public,
mixed funding, or private schools (Casas et al.,
2012b).
Results from this representative sample show
much higher PWI scores than any previous
Spanish research on adolescents (related to the
fact that the mean age is much younger): 89.59
out of 100 (89.10 for boys and 90.07 for girls).
This survey used three more scales to evaluate
subjective well-being, which together with the
PWI summed 26 items. Results provide some
very interesting new findings, the most surprising
of which is probably that children, despite
their extremely high scores, seem to discriminate
pretty well between answers, although probably
in a different way than adults would. When
the scores of the 26 items are summed up
and converted to a 0100 scale, only 1.7 % scored
100 (N 102), with 51 % scoring between 90
and 99.9 and only 1.8 % scoring under 50. When
deleting these 102 children, mean overall scores
of the PWI only slightly decreased: 89.40 for
the overall sample (88.92 for boys and 89.88
for girls). When deleted N 834 children
scoring 100 on 100 on the PWI, the overall
mean score was 87.88 (87.39 for boys and 88.37
for girls).
Furthermore, the results were very coherent
in showing significant differences between
other variables (Casas et al., 2012e). Children
who display significantly higher subjective
well-being (compared to those that do not) are
those that:
69 A
1. Feel greater personal safety, whether at home,
in the area where they live, or at school
2. Feel they are listened to, whether at home, by A
the local authorities, or by their teachers
3. Have experienced fewer important changes
in their lives, whether changes of parents or
carers, of home, or of the city they live in
4. Consider that other people treat them well,
whether parents, friends, schoolmates, or
teachers
5. Have been told children have rights and have
heard of the UN Convention on the Rights of
the Child
6. Aspire to more relational values (as opposed
to more materialistic ones)
7. Do physical exercise or sport every day
8. Report that they do daily activities together
with their family
9. Consider they have a space at home of their
own
10. Consider there are enough spaces to play and
enjoy themselves in the area where they live
11. Have not missed school recently because of
illness
12. Have more material and cultural belongings
at home
13. Have parents with higher levels of education
14. Live in populations of between 2,000 and
20,000 inhabitants
15. Live in only one home, with both parents
present
16. Report two adults living at home who are
earning money working
17. Never worry about money
18. Have had at least one weeks holiday away
from home in the last year
19. Feel their time is well organized
20. Receive regular pocket money (weekly or
monthly) from their parents
21. Perceive that they are well treated when
going to the doctor
22. Do not have to repeat a school year
23. Were born in Spain
By contrast, children with significantly lower
levels of subjective well-being are those that (in
no relevant order):
(a) Are in the public child protection system
(b) Are repeating a school year
A 70 Adolescents in Spain, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
(c) Do not receive regular pocket money
(d) Have parents who did not finish primary
education
(e) Were not born in Spain
(f) Report that at home no adult is earning
money working
(g) Do not have access to ICTs (information and
communication technologies), whether
a computer, the Internet, or a mobile phone
(h) Perceive their family as less or much less
wealthy than other families
(i) Do not feel safe, particularly at home or at
school
(j) Feel they cannot participate in decisions
taken at home
(k) Have changed parents or carers during the
last year
Discussion
To date, published results show that several large
samples of data have been obtained and analyzed
using the PWI in Spain since 2003 for a range of
ages from 11 18. Additionally, one small sam-
ple has been obtained using the PWI-SC on
1012-year-olds.
Most of these samples have been collected in
the autonomous region of Catalonia. However,
only the 2007 sample is representative of the
entire adolescent Catalan population between
12- and 16-year-olds. On the other hand,
a sample has also been reported for the autono-
mous region of Asturias, and a large representa-
tive Spanish sample has also been collected
recently, although it only includes students in
the first year of secondary education.
Data analyses of these different samples
published until now are rather diverse and include
a CFA of the PWI, international comparisons,
one interregional comparison, parent-children
comparisons, analyses of specific topics (such as
spirituality, materialistic aspirations, and safety),
use of SEM to test relationships with other vari-
ables, and testing for nonlinearity of data.
The following results stand out most: (a) evi-
dence of subjective well-being decreasing by age
in all studied samples of these age ranges in
Spain, (b) evidence of a weak relationship
between parents and their childrens subjective
well-being, and (c) evidence of significant differ-
ences in subjective well-being between different
groups and living circumstances of adolescents,
shown in the Spanish representative sample
(Casas et al., 2012b).
Compared to other countries, Spain has
collected far more samples of adolescents
using the PWI. The limitations are obvious,
however, and much more work must be done
to obtain more data from representative samples
of all age ranges and from the different Spanish
regions. No longitudinal study has been identi-
fied using the PWI, and this is therefore also a
pending task.
Cross-References
Child Well-Being
Parent-Child Relationship(s)
Personal Well-Being Index (PWI)
References
Casas, F. (2011). The well-being of young people and their
parents amid tough times: Views from Spain. The
American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81, 461467.
doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.2011.01112.x.
Casas, F., Baltatescu, S., Bertran, I., Gonzalez, M., &
Hatos, A. (2012a). School satisfaction among adoles-
cents: Testing different indicators for its measurement
and its relationship with overall life satisfaction and
subjective well-being in Romania and Spain. Social
Indicators Research. doi:10.1007/s11205-012-0025-9.
Casas, F., Bello, A., Gonzalez, M., Aligue, M., Bertran, I.,
Montserrat, C., et al. (2012b). Calidad de Vida
y bienestar infantil subjetivo en Espana. Que afecta
al bienestar de ninos y ninas espanoles de 1 de ESO?
Madrid. UNICEF Espana.
Casas, F., Coenders, G., Gonzalez, M., Malo, S., Bertran,
I., & Figuer, C. (2011a). Testing the relationship
between parents and their own children subjective
well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13, 1031
1051. doi:10.1007/s10902-011-9305-3.
Casas, F., Fernandez-Artamendi, S., Montserrat, C.,
Bravo, A., Bertran, I., & Fernandez del Valle, J.
(2012c). El bienestar subjetivo en la adolescencia:
Estudio comparativo de dos Comunidades
Autonomas. Anales de Psicologa, en prensa.
Casas, F., Figuer, C., Gonzalez, M., & Malo, S. (2007a).
The values adolescents aspire to, their well-being and
the values parents aspire to for their children. Social
Indicators Research, 84, 271290.
Adolescents Life Satisfaction 71 A
Casas, F., Figuer, C., Gonzalez, M., & Malo, S. (2008). Rojas, M. (2006). Life satisfaction and satisfaction in
Las aspiraciones materialistas y su relacion con el domains of life: Is it a simple relationship? Journal
bienestar psicologico y otros constructos psicosocials of Happiness Studies, 7, 467497.
en dos muestras de adolescentes catalanes. Revista de Vaque, C., Gonzalez, M., & Casas, F. (2009). School, A
Psicologa Social, 23, 229241. nutrition and 10 to 12 year-old childrens personal
Casas, F., Gonzalez, M., Figuer, C., & Malo, S. (2009). well-being. IX Conference of the International Society
Satisfaction with spirituality, satisfaction with religion of Quality of Life Studies, July 1923. Firenze.
and personal well-being among Spanish adolescents Vaque, C., Gonzalez, M., & Casas, F. (2012). Food indi-
and young university students. Applied Research in cators and their relationship with 10 to 12 year-olds
Quality of Life, 4, 2345. subjective well-being. Child Indicators Research, 5,
Casas, F., Madorell, L., Figuer, C., Gonzalez, M., Malo, S., 735752.
Garca, M., et al. (2007b). Preferencies i expectatives
dels adolescents relatives a la televisio, a Catalunya.
Barcelona. Consell Audiovisual de Catalunya (CAC).
Casas, F., Sarriera, J. C., Abs, D., Coenders, G., Alfaro, J.,
Saforcada, E., et al. (2012d). Subjective indicators of
personal well-being among adolescents. Performance
Adolescents Personal Well-Being
and results for different scales in Latin-language
speaking countries: A contribution to the international Personal Well-being Index: School Children
debate. Child Indicators Research, 5, 128.
doi:10.1007/s12187-011-9119-1.
Casas, F., Bello, A., Gonzalez, M., & Aligue, M. (2012e).
Personal well-being among Spanish adolescents.
Journal of Social Research & Policy, 3(2), 1945. Adolescents Life Satisfaction
http://www.jsrp.ro/content/JSRP-Vol3_Iss2_CASAS.
Casas, F., Sarriera, J. C., Alfaro, J., Gonzalez, M., Malo, S.,
Kimberly Hills, Michael Lyons and
Bertran, I., et al. (2011b). Testing the personal wellbeing
index on 1216 year-old adolescents in 3 different Scott Huebner
countries with 2 new items. Social Indicators Research, Department of Psychology, University of South
105, 461482. doi:10.1007/s11205-011-9781-1. Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Cummins, R., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., Van Vugt, J., &
Misajon, R. (2003). Developing a national index of
subjective wellbeing: The Australian unity wellbeing
index. Social Indicators Research, 64, 159190. Synonyms
Cummins, R. A., & Lau, A. (2005a). Manual: Personal
wellbeing index school children. (3rd ed.). Resource
Happiness and adolescents; Perceived quality of
document. Melbourne: Australian Centre on Quality of
Life, Deakin University. http://www.deakin.edu.au/ life; Quality of life, subjective; Well-being,
research/acqol/auwbi/index-translations/wbi-school- subjective
english.pdf
Cummins, R. A., & Lau, A. (2005b). Manual: Personal
wellbeing index school children, Cantonese transla-
tion. (3rd ed.). Resource document. Melbourne: Definition
Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin Univer-
sity. http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/instru- Life satisfaction or subjective quality of life is
ments/wellbeing-index/pwi-sc-chinese-cantonese.pdf
a multidimensional concept that refers to an
Gonzalez, M., Casas, F., Figuer, C., Malo, S., & Vinas, F.
(2012). Satisfaction with present safety and future individuals subjective perception of overall
security as components of personal well-being among fulfillment and satisfaction in spheres of every-
young people: Relationships with other psychosocial day life, including physical, psychological,
constructs. In D. Webb, & Wills-Herrera (Eds.), Sub-
social, and vocational/educational domains (The
jective well-being and security (Vol. 46, pp. 253290).
Social indicators research series. Springer. World Health Organization Quality of Life
Gonzalez, M., Coenders, G., Saez, M., & Casas, F. (2010). assessment (WHOQOL Group), 1995). More
Non-linearity, complexity and limited measurement in specifically, life satisfaction refers to a cognitive
the relationship between satisfaction with specific life
judgment of the positivity of ones life as a whole
domains and satisfaction with life as a whole. Journal
of Happiness Studies, 11, 335352. Publicado on-line: and/or with specific domains, such as satisfaction
DOI 10.1007/s10902-009-9143-8. with schooling (Diener, 1984). Such subjective
A 72
well-being indicators contrast with objective
indicators, like material affluence and various
other objective circumstances (e.g., infant mor-
tality, teen pregnancy) thought to reflect quality
of life in a given nation, culture, or community.
The hallmark of objective, social indicators of
well-being is that they are based on quantitative,
population-based statistics rather than on individ-
uals subjective perceptions of their lives and
environments. The basic premise of life satisfac-
tion research with adolescents is that in order to
understand their subjective well-being, it is
important to directly measure their self-reports
of the quality of their lives.
Description
The purpose of this entry is to summarize the
extant research on adolescents life satisfaction,
within the particular developmental context of
adolescence. First, we highlight the developmental
tasks of adolescence to provide a backdrop to
understanding the research investigating changes
in life satisfaction over the course of adolescence.
Then, we summarize the literature on the key
antecedents and consequences of global life satis-
faction as they relate to the course of adolescent
development. In this entry, the focus will be on
global life satisfaction judgments, although key
contributors to adolescents global life satisfaction
reports are referenced in places (e.g., satisfaction
with family, friends, and school).
Research on adolescent life satisfaction has
been slow to emerge relative to research with
adults. Nevertheless, research interest has been
increasing, particularly during the last decade
(for comprehensive reviews, see Huebner,
Gilman, & Ma, 2012; and Proctor, Linley, &
Maltby, 2009). Research on the psychometric
properties of adolescent life satisfaction measure-
ment instruments has also been reviewed
(Proctor, Linley, & Maltby, 2009).
The nature and course of adolescent develop-
ment reflects fundamental age-related changes in
individuals neurobiological and physiological
processes that coincide with a series of age- and
gender-specific challenges as adolescents navigate
Adolescents Life Satisfaction
new developmental tasks. This developmental
period, which spans the period of physical and
psychological development from the onset of
puberty to maturity, can present considerable chal-
lenges to adolescents values and priorities as they
strive to create and maintain a stable identity and
take on more responsibility in their environments.
Adolescents are provided with more indepen-
dence, choice, and responsibility as they get older
due to increased expectations for autonomy,
responsibility, and other adaptive behaviors
(Havighurst, 1953); however, the nature of these
expectations may vary across cultures. For exam-
ple, choosing school subject options and being
allowed greater freedom to spend time with peers
away from home are common in many Western
cultures. As adolescents begin to negotiate these
new boundaries and expectations, life satisfaction
often depends on the extent to which this process is
consistent with their expectations. The changing
nature of this developmental period suggests that
the number and relative importance of various
domains that contribute to global life satisfaction
may differ in comparison to children and adults.
For example, the domain of romantic relationships
may assume more importance during adolescence
compared to childhood. Although much more
research is needed, changes in priorities, values,
and environmental access throughout adolescent
development may also lead to changes in the way
each domain is satisfied.
Although international studies of adolescents
life satisfaction have been sparse, the extant
research suggests that like adults, most adoles-
cents are satisfied with their lives overall. Fur-
thermore, studies have suggested that adolescents
report relatively high levels of satisfaction with
major domains, such as family, peers, school, and
community. Nevertheless, some studies suggest
variability across the domains. For example,
some US studies indicate that a substantial
number of adolescents report significant dissatis-
faction with their school experiences relative to
other domains.
Although inconsistent findings have been
reported, a number of studies in several countries
suggest that levels of life satisfaction vary
as a function of age during adolescence.
Adolescents Life Satisfaction
For example, a significant decrease in global life
satisfaction during adolescence has been found in
English, German, Australian, Jamaican, US, and
cross-national European samples. The majority of
the studies reflect a decrease in global life satisfac-
tion starting around the ages of 1112 and
culminating around the ages of 1516. Although
speculative, given that school satisfaction also
appears to decline as children move into the ado-
lescent years, the onset of secondary level school-
ing experiences and associated demands may
contribute to the declines in global life satisfaction.
In the past decade a significant amount of
research has identified correlates of adolescent
global life satisfaction; however, the bulk of this
research has largely been atheoretical. In con-
trast, Lent (2004) has proposed a broad theoreti-
cal framework to explain the antecedents of
individual differences in life satisfaction in
adults; this framework may also have applicabil-
ity to adolescents. In this model, personality/tem-
perament variables (e.g., dispositional positive
and negative affect, extraversion) and environ-
mental experiences (e.g., acute negative life
events, chronic family conflict) are exogenous
factors that directly and indirectly influence life
satisfaction. In addition to direct influences, cog-
nitive (e.g., self-efficacy) and motivational
(e.g., hope, goal achievement) variables mediate
the relationships between the personality and
environmental variables and life satisfaction.
Given presumed genetic contributions to person-
ality differences, Lents model may be construed
as a bio-socio-cognitive model of life satisfac-
tion, reflecting the wide array of variables that
potentially relate to adolescents satisfaction
reports. Given that some research supports the
relationships between global life satisfaction
and the personality characteristics, environmen-
tal experiences, and the mediators described by
Lent (2004), the following sections are organized
based on this theoretical model.
Antecedents
Personality Factors
Research has consistently demonstrated moderate
correlations between adolescent life satis-
faction and the broad-based personality traits of
73 A
extraversion and neuroticism. Similarly, research
has demonstrated moderate correlations between
adolescent life satisfaction and dispositional affect A
variables, that is, the relative frequencies of posi-
tive and negative emotions experienced over time.
Studies of mediating pathways between the affec-
tive and personality traits have been scarce; how-
ever, some research suggests that adolescents
causal attributions serve as a cognitive mediator,
linking personality to life satisfaction. For exam-
ple, adaptive attribution style has been shown to
partially mediate the relationship between neurot-
icism and global life satisfaction, and perceived
social self-efficacy has been shown to mediate the
relationship between extraversion and life satisfac-
tion. A variety of cognitive variables, such as
global self-esteem, internal locus of control,
and hopeful thinking, have displayed strong corre-
lations with adolescents life satisfaction.
Environmental Events and Experiences
Research has revealed that negative and positive
acute life events (e.g., parental divorce, getting
a good grade in school) and ongoing, daily life
experiences (chronic family conflict, talking with
friends) all display modest to moderate correla-
tions with adolescents global life satisfaction.
However, positive daily events predicted global
life satisfaction more strongly than positive acute
events and negative acute and ongoing experi-
ences. Consistent with Lents (2004) theory, ado-
lescents internal locus of control has been shown
to mediate the relationships between acute and
ongoing life experiences and life satisfaction.
More specifically, research has investigated
the associations between major life contexts and
adolescents global life satisfaction, including
family relationships, peer experiences, schooling,
and community factors.
Despite the increasing importance of peers
during adolescence, research has consistently
demonstrated that satisfaction with family rela-
tionships continues to be the most important con-
tributor to global life satisfaction from childhood
through late adolescence. Research examining
the specific variables that determine high-quality
family relationships indicates that authorita-
tive parenting behavior (emotional support,
A 74
autonomy promotion, and consistent monitor-
ing), lack of parental conflict, positive relation-
ships with siblings, and high levels of trust among
family members are key variables.
Studies also have also revealed a persistently
high contribution to life satisfaction from experi-
ences with friends and a growing contribution of
romantic partnerships and sexuality. Like rela-
tionships with family members, positive, sup-
portive relationships with peers are strong
determinants of individual differences in global
life satisfaction over the course of adolescence.
However, the nature and importance of these
relationships may differ among males and
females at different ages, with some work
suggesting that quality peer relationships for
females (but not males) mediate the relationship
between parent attachment and life satisfaction in
early adolescence.
Experiences in school also appear to relate
significantly to adolescent global life satisfaction.
Research has consistently revealed that school
climate factors, such as perceptions of teacher
support, safety at school, and parent involvement
in schooling, are major components of adoles-
cents life satisfaction. Furthermore, some
research suggests that the effects are indirect in
that students attachment to school and personal
beliefs about their academic and behavioral per-
formance in school mediate the relationship
between school climate and life satisfaction.
Finally, a positive community environment
contributes to individual differences in adoles-
cents global life satisfaction. Specifically, living
in a safe residential neighborhood and having the
opportunity to experience positive relationships
with non-related adults are central factors in high
life satisfaction. The opportunity to participate in
structured extracurricular activities (e.g., clubs,
sports) at school and in the community is also
related to higher global life satisfaction.
Cross-cultural research is badly needed. Pre-
liminary findings support the notion that as with
adults, broader sociocultural factors such as eth-
nicity, religion, and social class likely play some
role in adolescents life satisfaction. For example,
studies have revealed differences in mean levels
of life satisfaction across nations and cultures, as
Adolescents Life Satisfaction
well as ethnic differences that were independent
of socioeconomic and health status. The relative
importance of contextual factors may also vary
across cultures. For example, satisfaction with
school experiences may be more central to stu-
dents global life satisfaction in some collectivis-
tic countries than individualistic countries.
Consequences
The majority of the existing research has focused
on understanding the origins of individual differ-
ences in adolescents judgments of life satisfac-
tion. As with adults, researchers have begun to
turn their attention to the possible consequences
of differences in life satisfaction among adoles-
cents. Cross-sectional research has yielded sig-
nificant associations between lower levels of life
satisfaction and a variety of important presumed
outcomes, including physical and mental health
problems, including internalizing and externaliz-
ing behavior problems, as well as risk behaviors,
such as alcohol and drug use and sexual risk
taking. Adolescents with low life satisfaction
are also more likely to misbehave in school and
receive lower grades. Longitudinal studies have
been sparse, but recent studies have shown that
lower levels of life satisfaction predict decreases
in adolescents levels of school engagement,
less parental emotional support, and an increased
risk of relational victimization. Moderating
effects of global life satisfaction have also been
suggested, with one longitudinal study revealing
that adolescents experiencing high life satisfac-
tion showed fewer externalizing behaviors in the
face of adverse life events. Again, although much
additional research is needed, these studies sug-
gest that differences in life satisfaction among
adolescents matter for their future well-being
and that of others.
Conclusion
Adolescent perceptions of the quality of their lives
must be understood in the context of the develop-
mental processes and associated ecological sys-
tems inhabited by adolescents. Consistent with
integrative models of life satisfaction,
adolescents judgments appear to be shaped by
a variety of interrelated factors such as
Advocacy Networks 75 A
personality/dispositional characteristics, environ-
mental experiences, and cognitive-motivational Adolescents Life Satisfaction in
variables. Spain A
The current literature base investigating ado-
lescent life satisfaction is growing, but much Adolescents in Spain, Application of the
additional research is needed to explain fully the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
development and consequences of life satisfac-
tion in adolescents in and across different nations,
cultures, etc. Longitudinal studies that span the
developmental periods before and after adoles- Adolescents Sexual Relationships
cence are particularly crucial to understand the
developmental course of individual differences Premarital Sex, Young Peoples
across the life span.

Adolescents Subjective Well-Being

Cross-References
Personal Well-being Index: School Children
Hope and Quality of Life
Life Events
Life Satisfaction
Locus of Control Adolescents Subjective Well-Being
Personality, an Overview in Spain
Quality of Life
School Engagement Adolescents in Spain, Application of the
Self-Efficacy Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
Self-Esteem
Subjective Well-being Indicators

Adult Equivalence Scale

References
Household Equivalence Scale
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological
Bulletin, 95, 542575.
Havighurst, R. J. (1953). Human development and educa-
tion. Oxford, UK: Longmans, Green. Adult Sex Offender
Huebner, E. S., Gilman, R., & Ma, C. (2012). Subjective
life satisfaction. In K. Land, J. Sirgy, & A. C.
Michalos (Eds.), Handbook of social indicators and
Sex Offender(s)
quality of life research (pp. 355373). Dordrecht:
Springer.
Lent, R. W. (2004). Toward a unifying theoretical and
practical perspective on well-being and psychosocial Advertising
adjustment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51(4),
482509. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.51.4.482.
Proctor, C., Linley, P. P., & Maltby, J. (2009). Youth life Reading Newspaper Articles
satisfaction: A review. The Journal of Positive
Psychology, 4, 128144. doi:10.1080/
17439760802620816.
WHOQOL Group. (1995). The World Health Organiza-
tion Quality of Life assessment (WHOQOL): Position
Advocacy Networks
paper from the World Health Organization. Social
Science & Medicine, 41(10), 14031409. Policy Networks
A 76 Advocacy Planning

Advocacy Planning Aesthetic Value

Community-Based Planning Levno Plato and Aaron Meskin

School of Philosophy, Religion and History of
Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

ADVS
Synonyms
Activities of Daily Vision Scale
Aesthetic merit; Aesthetic quality; Artistic value;
Beauty

Aerobic Training
Definition
Behavioral Conditioning
Aesthetic value is the value that an object, event,
or state of affairs (most paradigmatically an art-
work or the natural environment) possesses in
virtue of its capacity to elicit pleasure (positive
Aesthetic Embodiment
value) or displeasure (negative value) when
appreciated or experienced aesthetically.
Dance and the Quality of Life

Description
Aesthetic Merit Everything that is valuable is valuable in a variety
of ways. Art objects often have sentimental value,
Aesthetic Value historical value, or financial value. Wilderness
can have economic value as well as recreational
value. But great artworks are thought to possess
a distinctive sort of noninstrumental and
Aesthetic Preferences Concerning nonutilitarian value that is of central concern
Animals when they are evaluated as artworks. It might be
thought that this value is beauty, but many
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions artworks are not beautiful. So it is more plausible
that beauty is a particular species of aesthetic
value. The aesthetic value that a work of art
possesses (and most would extend this to the
Aesthetic Quality natural environment) has to do with the sort
of experience it provides when engaged with
Aesthetic Value appropriately. If it provides pleasure in virtue
of our experience of its beauty, elegance, grace-
fulness, harmony, proportion, unity, etc., we
say that it has positive aesthetic value. If it pro-
Aesthetic Ranking of Animals vides displeasure in virtue of ugliness, deformity,
or disgustingness, we may say that it has negative
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions aesthetic value. One important thing to note is
Aesthetic Value
that the pleasure or displeasure underwriting
aesthetic value is best thought of as directed at
the object in question rather than being merely
caused by it (Stecker, 1997).
The term aesthetic (which is derived from
the Greek word aesthesis, meaning sensory
perception) only gained philosophical currency
in the eighteenth century after British Enlighten-
ment theorists, such as Shaftesbury (1711),
Hutcheson (1725), and Hume (1757), had devel-
oped influential theories of the sense of beauty
and the faculty of taste capacities that allegedly
enable us to make judgments of beauty or
ugliness. Baumgartens (1750) introduction of
the term aesthetics emphasized the sensory,
rather than intellectual, nature of such judgments.
This then evolved into Kants (1790) conception
of aesthetic judgments as nonconceptual and
rooted entirely in pleasure or displeasure. Kant
distinguishes a subcategory of aesthetic judg-
ments (viz., judgments of the beautiful) that he
characterizes as disinterested, that is, indepen-
dent of any interest in the existence or practical
value of the object. This Kantian conception of
a disinterested judgment rooted in hedonic expe-
rience is the foundation of many contemporary
theories of aesthetic value.
The emphasis on pleasure and displeasure
has always appeared to pose a challenge to the
objectivity of aesthetic value and aesthetic value
judgments. But although some believe aesthetic
value to be a matter of pure personal preference,
there has always been strong philosophical resis-
tance against such radical subjectivism. After all,
we do dispute about aesthetic matters, and our
disputes seem coherent. If aesthetics were just
a matter of personal preference, such disputes
would appear to be unmotivated and irrational.
Kant, for instance, considers aesthetic judgments
subjective in that they are rooted in pleasure or
displeasure, but he also holds that judgments of
the beautiful involve a claim to universality; that
is, the judgment that something is beautiful (and,
hence, aesthetically valuable) involves the claim
that others should agree. And, as Hume empha-
sizes, we do not treat all judgments of taste as
equally valid. Furthermore, the ability of some
works of art to pass the test of time seems to
77 A
provide reason for thinking that aesthetic value is
not simply relative to individuals or cultures. So,
radical subjectivism or anything goes relativism A
about aesthetic value seems implausible. Never-
theless, while many philosophers reject relativism
altogether, some believe that a degree of relativism
is characteristic of the domain of aesthetic value
(Hume, 1757; Goldman, 2001; Eaton, 2001).
Inspired by Kants dissociation of aesthetic
judgments from practical judgments, aesthetic
attitude theorists of the twentieth century
(Bullough, 1912; Stolnitz, 1960) defended the
view that a particular, characteristically
nonpractical mode of contemplating an object
(disinterestedness or distance) allows one to
recognize the aesthetic features of objects and,
hence, their aesthetic value. Yet the idea of
a specifically aesthetic attitude has been
criticized (most notably by Dickie, 1964) both
on grounds of psychological implausibility and
because it excessively dissociates the aesthetic
from cognitive and moral value.
Current developments have therefore involved
an expansion of the category of the
aesthetic. Aesthetic value is thus not restricted
to the formal features of artworks but increas-
ingly tends to be thought of as dependent on, or
interacting with, a variety of other aspects, most
notably contextual, cognitive, and moral factors
(Danto, 1981; Walton, 1970; Gaut, 2007).
Another trend is the development of virtue aes-
thetics, which explores the psychological and
behavioral dispositions that are most conducive
to the recognition and production of aesthetic
value (Goldie, 2008; Kieran, 2010). The emerg-
ing fields of environmental aesthetics and
everyday aesthetics expand the scope of aesthetic
value far beyond the arts so as to include virtually
any object (Carlson, 2000; Saito, 2007). Far from
being a mere theoretical enterprise, a central con-
cern of these recent developments is to maximize
the understanding of the role that aesthetic value
may play in environmental policy (Brady, 2006,
but see Loftis, 2003 for some skeptical consider-
ations) and the way in which aesthetic value
contributes to our well-being and a good life
( quality of life) (Eaton, 1989; Brady, 2006;
Goldie, 2008; Irvin, 2010).
A 78 Aesthetics

Cross-References Shaftesbury, A. A. C., & Third Earl of. (1711/2001).

Characteristics of men, manners, opinions, times. In
D. den Uyl (Ed.), Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.
Beauty Stecker, R. (1997). Artworks: Definition, meaning, value.
Harmony University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University
Pleasure(s) Press.
Quality of life (QOL) Stolnitz, J. (1960). Aesthetics and philosophy of art criti-
cism. A critical introduction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Virtues Walton, K. (1970). Categories of art. Philosophical
Review, 79, 334367.

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(P. Guyer & E. Matthews, Trans.) Cambridge, UK: Definition
Cambridge University Press.
Kieran, M. (2010). The vice of snobbery: Aesthetic The Affect Balance Scale is a multidimensional
knowledge, justification, and virtue in art appreciation.
The Philosophical Quarterly, 60, 243263. construct for measuring certain components of
Loftis, J. R. (2003). Three problems for the aesthetic quality of life in national and international
foundations of environmental ethics. Philosophy in
the Contemporary World, 10, 4150.
Saito, Y. (2007). Everyday aesthetics. Oxford, UK: This work was supported by a generous grant from the
Oxford University Press. Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK.
Affect Balance Scale
contexts. It is a 10-item rating Subjective
Well-Being Scale including five statements
reflecting positive feelings and five statements
reflecting negative feelings. The answers to the
questions are offered without differentiation in
a yes or no format, and there is no possibility USA
of grading the feelings.
Description
The affect balance scale is used for analyses of the
state of affect of more or less broad populations.
It was developed in the 1960s within a psycholog-
ical investigation of quality of life (Bradburn,
1969). In various studies, the Bradburn scale was
used in different population groups (Harding, 1982;
Moriwaki, 1974; Perry & Warr, 1980; Pinquart,
2001; Warr, 1978). The World Values Survey of
the year 1990 includes Bradburns Affect Balance
Scale, and empirical results for about 42 countries
are available. They can be requested on
Veenhovens World Database of Happiness. In
this scale, respondents are asked to report about
feelings which they have experienced during the
past few weeks (Bradburn, 1969, p. 56).
The questions reflecting positive feelings are:
Pleased about having accomplished something?
That things were going your way?
Proud because someone complimented you on
something you had done?
Particularly excited or interested in something?
On top of the world?
The questions reflecting negative feelings are:
So restless, that you couldnt sit long in a chair?
Bored?
Depressed or very unhappy?
Very lonely or remote from other people?
Upset because someone criticized you?
A score on the Positive Affect Scale is
obtained by summing scores for the five positive
affect questions; the score for the Negative Affect
Scale is obtained by summing scores for the
five negative affect questions. The Affect
Balance Scale score is computed by subtracting
negative affect scores (NAS) from positive
affect scores (PAS). Scores range from 5
(lowest affect balance score) to +5 (highest affect
79 A
Affect Balance Scale, Table 1 Affect balance scores
19901991 in selected countries (Diener & Suh, 1999,
p. 436; World Values Study Group, 1994)
A
Population
(1990) in Hedonic Positive Negative
Country million level affect affect
249 2.21 3.49 1.27
China 1,130 1.26 2.34 1.08
Brazil 149 1.18 2.85 1.68
India 849 0.33 1.41 1.09
Russia 148 0.29 1.69 1.41
Source: World Development Report/World Values Study
Group
balance score). The list of items makes clear that
the concern is more about psychological well-
being than societal features. The items are more
related to psychosocial processes than to the
evaluation of living conditions. Public goods
such as social security or social safety are not
addressed immediately (Table 1).
The average score on the Affect Balance Scale
for the selected countries is at the top 2.21 for the
USA and at the bottom 0.29 for Russia. China and
Brazil scored 1.26 and 1.18, respectively. The
leading position of the USA with its score of
2.21 is due to the much higher positive affect of
3.49. If the index is examined with respect to its
separate positive and negative parts, it is evident
that in the USA, people have on average much
higher positive affect but the negative affect is
similar to other countries. The Affect Balance
Scale shows that the negative burden of life and
the positive side of life vary rather independently.
The absence of negative feelings does not
lead necessarily to the presence of positive
feelings. The different patterns that Bradburns
Affect Balance Scale shows in international
comparisons reflect different cultures.
Reliability
The reliability estimates of Bradburns original
study showed acceptable reliability coefficients
(Bradburn, 1969: 75 ff). The short-run changes of
the responses of the feeling states were small. In a
sample of 200 over a 3-day period, Bradburn
examined test-retest reliability. There, the reliabil-
ities for positive affect ranged between 0.55 and
0.73, and for negative affect scores ranged between
A 80
0.61 and 0.73. The conclusion is that changes
which are observed over a long period of time are
real changes and not a result of the unreliability of
the measuring instrument (Bradburn, 1969: 79).
Validity
The hypothesis that positive and negative scales
are distinct dimensions is supported by the gamma
associations. Positive affect scores correlated with
single-item indicators of happiness from 0.34 to
0.38 and with corresponding values for negative
affect at 0.33 and 0.38 (Bradburn, 1969: 63). The
relationship of affect to other variables of well-
being is according to expectations.
Discussion
There is no correlation between the positive and
negative scores of the Affect Balance Scale.
This was shown in factor analyses. Nevertheless,
the index is formed by subtracting the negative
affect scores (NAS) from positive affect scores
(PAS). This paradox has been justified by showing
that the two single cumulative scales, PAS and
NAS, taken together form one unidimensional
unfolding scale (Van Schuur/Kruijtbosch, 1995).
But it is also argued that looking separately at the
scales would lead to greater power in understand-
ing happiness (Diener, Sandvic, & Pavot, 2009).
Kyung and Mueller have the opinion that the idea
of balancing (positive affect-negative affect)
appears to be without merit. So balancing in their
point of view is not more useful than summing up
(positive affect score + inversely keyed negative
affect score) or interpreting the scales separately
(Kyung & Mueller, 2001).
Cross-References
Happiness
References
Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The structure of psychological
well-being. Chicago: Walter de Gruyter.
Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (1999). National differences in
subjective well-being. In: Kahneman, D., Diener, E., &
Schwarz, N. (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of
Hedonic psychology. New York: Russel Sage foundation.
Affection
Diener, E., Sandvic, E., & Pavot, W. G. (2009). Happiness is
the frequency, not the intensity of positive versus nega-
tive affect. Social Indicators Research, 39, 213231.
Harding, S. D. (1982). Psychological well-being in Great
Britain: An evaluation of the Bradburn Affect Balance
Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 3,
167175.
Kyung, A. K., & Mueller, D. J. (2001). To balance or not to
balance: Confirmatory factor analysis of the affect-
balance scale. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 289306.
Moriwaki, S. Y. (1974). The Affect balance scale:
A validity study with aged samples. Journal of
Gerontology, 29, 7376.
Perry, G., & Warr, P. (1980). The measurement of
mothers work attitudes. Journal of Occupational Psy-
chology, 53, 245252.
Pinquart, M. (2001). Age differences in perceived positive
affect, negative affect, and affect balance in middle
and old age. Journal of Happiness Studies, 2, 375405.
Van Schuur, W. H./Kruijtbosch, M. (1995). Measuring
subjective well-being: Unfolding the bradburn affect
balance scale. Social Indicators Research, 36, 4974.
Veenhoven, R., World database of happiness, http://
worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl. Accessed 8 May 2012.
Warr, P. (1978). A study of psychological wellbeing.
British Journal of Psychology, 69, 11121.
World Values Study Group. (1994). World values survey,
(19811984) and (19901993) (Computer file). ICPSR
version. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research
(producer), Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consor-
tium for Political and Social Research (distribution).
Affection
Love
Affective Component of Happiness
Ruut Veenhoven
Erasmus Happiness Economics Research
Organization, Erasmus University Rotterdam,
Potchefstroom, The Netherlands
Optentia Research Group, NorthWest
University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Synonyms
Affect balance; Hedonic level of affect; Mood
Affective Component of Happiness
Definition
Hedonic level of affect is how well one feels most
of the time. In other words, the degree to which
positive affect typically outweighs negative
affect. Estimates of how well we usually feel
figure prominently in the evaluation of our life
as a whole and as such hedonic level is
a component of happiness.
Description
Happiness is commonly understood as the sub-
jective enjoyment of ones life as a whole. When
estimating how much we like the life we live, we
tend to use two more or less distinct sources of
information: our affects and our thoughts. One
can observe that one feels fine most of the time
and one can also judge that life seems to meet
ones (conscious) demands. These appraisals do
not necessarily coincide. We may feel fine gen-
erally but nevertheless be aware that we failed to
realize our aspirations. Or we may have
surpassed our aspirations but nevertheless feel
miserable. Using the word happiness in both
these cases would result in three different kinds of
happiness, the overall judgment as commonly
denoted with the term and these two more spe-
cific appraisals of life. To mark these differences,
Veenhoven (1984, 2009) distinguishes between
overall happiness and components of happiness
and among the latter an affective component
called hedonic level of affect and a cognitive
component called contentment. This conceptu-
alization is at the basis of the World Database of
Happiness. In this lemma, the affective compo-
nent of happiness is described in more detail. The
cognitive component of happiness is described in
the lemma contentment.
Concept
Hedonic level of affect is the degree to
which various affects that someone experiences
are pleasant in character. Pleasantness or
hedonic tone is an experiential quality that
exists in all human affects and probably also
in animals. We experience both positive and
81 A
negative affects, the former typically more
often than the latter. Hedonic level is the
degree to which positive experiences dominate A
over negative experiences. In that sense, the
concept is close to Benthams (1789) famous
definition of happiness as the sum of pleasures
and pains.
A persons average hedonic level of affect
can be assessed over different periods of time:
an hour, a week, a year, as well as over
a lifetime. The focus is mostly on characteris-
tic hedonic level. That is so to say, the average
hedonic level of affect over a long time
span such as a month or a year. The concept
does not assume subjective awareness of that
average level.
Measures
Measurement of hedonic level of affect requires
an estimate of how well a person feels most of the
time.
Self-Estimates
This is mostly done using self-estimates; typi-
cally a respondent answers a single question
such as How is your mood these days? Very
good, good, not too good, or bad?
Affect Balance Scales
Another way of questioning is to ask people
whether they have experienced particular affects
in the recent past, both positive and negative
affects. For example, Did you feel . . . proud
(yes/no) and Did you feel . . . rejected
(yes/no). Then a balance score is computed on
the basis of the responses, which indicates the
degree to which an individuals positive experi-
ences outweigh negative ones. Examples of such
sets of questions are the 10-item Bradburns
(1969) Affect Balance Scale (ABS) and Watson,
Clark, and Tellegen (1988) 20-item Positive and
Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). All these mea-
sures require the respondent to have the ability of
retrospection, and for that reason, these methods
are not suited for use with young children and the
demented elderly. Even among able respondents,
these measures are vulnerable to bias in recall,
such as the peak-end effect.
A 82
Average of Multiple Moment Assessments
Recall of earlier experience is not required in
multi-moment assessment of affective experi-
ence, such as the experience sampling method
(ESM), in which people record their mood of
the instant when sent a signal to do so at random
times. Recall of at least the previous day is
required in dairy methods, such as Kahnemans
et al. (2004) Day Recall Method (DRM). In this
method, people first reconstruct what they did
yesterday and next rate how they had felt during
each of the activities. All methods involving
multi-moment assessments measure hedonic
level using the average of affect ratings during
a particular period.
Behavioral Indications
Unlike cognitive contentment with life,
hedonic level can also be measured using nonver-
bal cues, such as frequency of smiling and body
posture. This requires systematic and repeated
behavioral observation, preferably in different
situations. Behavioral observation also forms
the basis of peer ratings of affect.
All measures of hedonic level of affect are
listed with code A (for Affect) in the collection
Measures of Happiness (Veenhoven, 2012a) of
the World Database of Happiness, which
provides full details of questions or rater
instructions.
Findings
The above-mentioned collection of Happiness
Measures also provides links to studies that
have used particular measures of hedonic level
of affects and to the findings obtained with these
measures. Two types of findings are discerned:
distributional findings, that is, how well people
feel, and correlational findings, that is, factors
that go with feeling more or less well.
Distributional Findings
Many of these studies draw on representative
samples of the general public in nations, and the
results are gathered in the collection Happiness
in Nations (Veenhoven, 2012b) of the World
Database of Happiness. To date, the largest set
of findings covers 133 nations using a 14-item
Affective Component of Happiness
scale of affect balance for the previous day
(Veenhoven, 2012c).
Affect balance appears to be above neutral in
all of todays nations, though not equally much
so everywhere. In Ethiopia, positive feeling
outweighs negative ones by 14 %; in Iceland,
it is by 66 %. Hedonic level is currently highest
in Western nations and in Latin America and
low in African nations and in former communist
nations. Hedonic level of affect in nations is
not always paralleled by cognitive contentment,
for example, in Africa, contentment is low,
but the affect level is medium (Rojas &
Veenhoven, 2012).
Correlational Findings
Hedonic level typically goes with the same fac-
tors as overall happiness and contentment do.
Correlations are more pronounced with health
and with social participation. Some studies
show a slight negative correlation of hedonic
level with age, while the correlation with content-
ment is mostly positive (Veenhoven 2012d). The
correlations between hedonic level of affects and
overall happiness are not equally strong in all
nations; in striking the balance of their life,
Americans give more weight to how they feel
than Asians currently do (Suh, Diener, Oishi, &
Triandis, 1998).
Explanation
Why do we feel good or bad? Probably because
that informs us about how well we are doing.
Affects are an integral part of our adaptive reper-
toire and seem to be linked to the gratification of
human needs. In this context, needs are seen as
vital requirements for functioning, such as eating,
bonding, and exercise, without which we cannot
survive. Nature seems to have safeguarded the
meeting of these necessities with affective signals
such as those of hunger, love, and zest. In this
view, a positive mood signals that all needs are
sufficiently met at the moment. In this theory,
needs are distinct from wants and are
assumed to be inborn and universal, while
wants are seen as acquired and will therefore
vary across cultures. However, wants can coin-
cide more or less with needs.
Affective Connection to Nature
Function
We experience various specific affects all the
time, much of which generalizes in mood. Spe-
cific affects are typically linked to specific things,
such as hunger is to eating, but in the case of
mood, there is no clear object; we feel good or
bad without knowing why. As such, hedonic level
can be seen as an affective meta-signal that tell us
how we are doing on the whole. In this view,
negative and positive moods function as red and
green lights on the human machine, indicating
either that there is something wrong or that all
systems are functioning properly. If so, this is
likely to have behavioral consequences, with
a negative mood urging to caution and
a positive mood encouraging one to go on.
There is lot of research to support this prediction.
Cross-References
Contentment
Happiness
Happiness Measures
Need Theory
References
Bentham, J. (1789). An introduction to the principles of
morals and legislation. London: T. Payne.
Bradburn, N. M. (1969). The structure of psychological
wellbeing. Chicago: Aldine.
Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D. A.,
Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2004). A survey method
for characterizing daily life experience: The Day
reconstruction method. Science, 306, 17761780.
Rojas, M., & Veenhoven, R. (2012) Contentment and
affect in the estimation of happiness. Social Indicators
Research (in press).
Suh, M. E., Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Triandis, H. C. (1998).
The shifting basis of life satisfaction judgments across
cultures: Emotions versus norms. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 482493.
Veenhoven, R. (1984). Conditions of happiness.
Dordrecht/The Netherlands: Reidel/Springer Press.
Veenhoven, R. (2009). How do we assess how happy we
are? In A. Dutt & B. Radcliff (Eds.), Happiness,
economics and politics (pp. 5469). USA: Edward
Elgar Publishers.
Veenhoven, R. (2012a). Measures of happiness, World
Database of Happiness. Rotterdam: Erasmus University.
83 A
Available at: http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/
hap_quer/hqi_fp.htm
Veenhoven, R. (2012b). Happiness in nations, World
Database of Happiness. Rotterdam: Erasmus University. A
Available at :http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/
hap_nat/nat_fp.php
Veenhoven, R. (2012c). Overview of happiness surveys
using measure type: 14-item yesterdays affect
balance. World Database of Happiness. Rotterdam:
Erasmus University. Accessed on 1-1-2012 at: http://
worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/hap_nat/desc_qt.php?
desc103
Veenhoven, R. (2012d). Correlates of happiness. World
Database of Happiness. Rotterdam: Erasmus
University. Accessed on 1-1-2012 at: http://
worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/ha-_cor/cor_fp.htm
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Devel-
opment and validation of a brief measure of positive
and negative affect. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 54, 10631070.
Affective Concordance or Similarity
Affective Contagion
Affective Connection to Nature
Elisabeth Kals
Social and Organizational Psychology, Catholic
University of Eichstatt-Ingolstadt, Eichstatt,
Germany
Synonyms
Emotional affinity toward nature; Emotional
commitment to nature; Inclusion of nature in
self; Nature relatedness
Definition
Affective connection is not derived from just one
single theory, and there is not one accepted theory
or definition on it. Instead, in the various models
and studies on this construct, slightly different
names have been used, such as emotional
A 84
commitment to nature, emotional affinity toward
nature, nature relatedness, or inclusion of nature
in self. It is a rather broad and multifaceted con-
struct, which has developed into a new paradigm
within environmental psychology with extensive
and differentiated active research on it.
Affective connection to nature can be defined
as a positive emotional bond with nature which is
more or less consciously experienced by the
subject. It requires positive experiences with
nature, whereas negative experiences, like fear
of nature phenomena or disgust, will not result
in the same form of connection to nature.
Affective highlights that the connection is
primarily focused upon the subjective feeling
component of emotions and not on their cognitive
or behavioral component. Connection refers to
the mutual relationship between human and
nature, based upon a common essence or
source which both share, as all living species
(plants, animals, humans) follow some same
principles, like the tendency to grow and the
need of special circumstances for this growth.
This essence is independently from the fact if
human beings are seen as part of nature or not.
Nature denotes the natural environment of
humans (in comparison to the artificial or built
environment which is introduced or created by
humans), varying from green spaces in cities to
natural landscapes and untouched wilderness.
Natural resources (like air, water, and soil) are
part and prerequisites of these ecological
systems.
Description
Affective connection to nature has not gained
attention in empirical literature until recently,
although it has long been used as a strategic
approach within environmental education. It is
closely related to the development of an environ-
mental identity (Clayton, 2003; Hinds & Sparks,
2008). This identity, which has been approached
from various disciplines (e.g., philosophy, soci-
ology, education), describes the relationship
between humans and nature, including the way
people perceive nature as being a part of their
Affective Connection to Nature
identity and an important part of their selves. This
connection can become so close that the bound-
aries between humans and nature dissolve. This is
captured by the following item from Claytons
(2003) Environmental Identity Scale: I think of
myself as a part of nature, not separate from it.
In its first measurement, four components of
affective connection to nature were differenti-
ated: feelings of love toward nature, of free-
dom in nature, of security in nature, and of
oneness with nature (Kals, Schumacher, &
Montada, 1999). All items were assembled into
a single factor which was termed emotional
affinity, stressing the emotional bond from peo-
ple to nature (items start, e.g., with I feel. . .),
instead of a mutual connection which also
embraces some cognitive emotional components
(items may also start with I think. . . or other
cognitive statements). In the course of research,
the number of measurement instruments
increased, capturing affective connection to
nature slightly differently. In most cases, the con-
cept is measured by various statements which
people can agree or disagree with (e.g., I am
not separate from nature, but a part of nature,
Nisbet, Zelenski, & Murphy, 2009, or I see
myself as part of a larger whole in which every-
thing is connected by a common essence;
Dutcher, Finley, Luloff, & Johnson, 2007).
Although sometimes substructures of the con-
struct have been posited, in all reported cases,
the items were highly internally consistent and
formed one factor. Even a single-item measure-
ment successfully captured connectedness
(Mayer & Frantz, 2004). Some measurement
instruments use a variety of Venn diagrams, of
which people can choose the image which best
describes their individual relationship with
nature. These images are implemented alone as
measurement instruments (e.g., Schultz, 2001) or
in addition to a scale (Dutcher et al., 2007).
Writers in environmental ethics have argued
that humans can be considered a part of nature, an
argument that has led to the new environmental
paradigm (NEP) (Dunlap & Van Liere, 1978).
They argue with the metaphor of the mother
earth or the spaceship earth metaphor. From
a psychological point of view, however,
Affective Connection to Nature
the connectedness of humans to nature goes
beyond this rational-cognitive perspective, as it
is based on affective experiences in nature. This
argument has been well integrated into the envi-
ronmental identity models, developed much later,
by assuming that people feel and experience
nature as a part of their identity.
The most traditional schools of thought within
environmental psychology are represented by the
psychoanalytic approach and they also use the
metaphor of mother earth. Connection is also
sometimes based on Wilson and Kellerts
biophilia hypothesis (Kellert, 1997). Biophilia
(meaning love of nature) draws on Erich
Fromms psychoanalytic tradition and assumes
that humans have an innate need to be part of
nature and the rest of life and that the deep
connection with nature that people experience is
rooted in human biology. It is assumed that the
human-nature bond is a natural and general
need of humans. The majority of research on
affective connection to nature assumes that this
need is represented in a relatively stable trait that
varies among individuals and has differential
effects on the individuals well-being as well
on their behavior. It is therefore analyzed in the
context of the personality structure and the big
five as well as other traits. Existing research on
the embedding of connection within other tradi-
tional personality traits shows that there seem to be
quite clear correlations with openness and self-
transcendence (Clayton, 2003; Nisbet et al., 2009).
Affective connection to nature is predomi-
nantly understood as a resource of restoration
and other positive experiences, which is in line
with the biophilia assumption. A growing body of
research has proved that being immersed in or
in contact with nature has a large number of
positive effects, such as the restoration of atten-
tion, vitality, and well-being. These findings are
quite robust and have been cross-validated
by many studies (cf., Kaplan, 1995; Mayer &
Frantz, 2004).
One of the relevant theories explaining these
findings is Kaplans Attention Restoration
Theory (Kaplan, 1995). He argues that being in
nature can have restorative impacts concerning
four different components:
85 A
1. The feeling of being away. This component
describes the feeling of being freed from men-
tal activities. A short walk in a park or even A
a view of nature through a window may be
sufficient to evoke this feeling. An outdoor
adventure or travel to distant wilderness is
not necessarily required.
2. Fascination with nature. Feeling fascinated by
nature primarily has the effect of drawing
attention without effort.
3. Feelings of greatness. These feelings often
accompany experiences in nature. Again, this
is not necessarily provoked by big events,
such as being in breathtaking wilderness but
can also be experienced in everyday situations
like smelling a flower in the garden.
4. Compatibility between nature and human
inclinations, so that the environment is com-
fortable and appropriate for ones purpose.
This compatibility component can also lead
to a positive valuing or appreciation of nature
for human beings.
Affective connection to nature has strong
motivational effects on behavior. Environmental
issues can create a dilemma or conflict in which
people must choose between short-term individ-
ual and long-term societal interests. One of the
crucial questions within environmental psychol-
ogy is as follows: How can people overcome this
socio-ecological dilemma and behave construc-
tively for the sake of the natural environment? By
externalizing most ecological costs, environmen-
tally risky decisions become a rational choice
in cases where an alternative environmentally
relevant behavior could be chosen as well. This
is not to say that every activity with negative
ecological side effects is necessarily irresponsi-
ble or selfish. Instead, measures to protect the
environment may interfere with other highly val-
ued social goals, like the preservation of jobs.
This is reflected in a shift from the term envi-
ronmental protection to the fuzzy term of
sustainability, which embraces ecological,
economical, as well as social aims, in
a balanced way, to stabilize the complex state of
welfare within society (cf., Schmuck & Schultz,
2002). It has been shown that experiencing moral
obligations, taking over ecological responsibility,
A 86
and perceiving ecological (in)justices form
a strong motivational base for sustainable behav-
ior (for an overview, see Stern, 2000) and help to
overcome the socio-ecological dilemma. This is,
however, not a purely cognitive process but is
flanked by responsibility- and justice-related
emotions, such as blame or indignation about
insufficient sustainable behavior.
Affective connection to nature is a completely
different category of emotions which is not linked
to the established behavior models. As the most
strongly experienced and intimate of feelings, it
is most distinct from the rational choice theory
and its motivational functions can also not be
explained by the concept of the social trap.
Empirically, it explains rather distinguished
parts of the criterion variances that can neither
be traced back to the various cognitions nor to
other emotions. It predicts, for example, together
with indignation and interest in nature, up to 47 %
of the criterion variance in pro-environmental
behavior (Kals et al., 1999).
In the same way, environmental identity has
proved to be a strong source of motivation for
engagement with the natural environment: If
nature has become part of the individuals entity,
nature is valued as something that has to be
protected. This also includes identification with
environmentalists as a group (Clayton, 2003).
Environmental problems, on the other hand,
may be traced back to the lack of connectedness
to nature and the estrangement of humans from
nature. If people identify with nature and nature
conservation movements, they should ultimately
feel personally threatened by the destruction of
and threat to nature, and as a result they might be
prone to react to this threat, for example, by
political commitment for the protection of nature.
Consequently, nature destruction and exploita-
tion would be perceived as a sort of self-
destruction.
This human-nature connection underpins an
interesting, alternative way to overcome the gap
between short-term self-interests and long-term
interests of society, by developing affective con-
nection to nature, feelings of empathy toward,
and identification with it. The findings on affec-
tive connectedness can be interpreted as similar
Affective Connection to Nature
to pro-social behavior, which some researchers
have explained as based on the emotional reac-
tion of empathy with a person in need. Here,
nature is the entity in need.
This leads to the question of how affective
connection to nature can be fostered. As
described above, connection to nature is not
a constant that is the same for everyone, but
rather a trait that varies between individuals.
This trait can be traced back to present and past
experiences in nature (Muller, Kals, and Pansa
2009). It seems to develop in early stages of life
and remains relatively stable throughout adult-
hood, even if the frequency of contact with nature
is decreased. Data from questionnaire surveys
have shown that the time spent in nature in child-
hood as well as positive experiences in nature are
strong predictors of the emotional connection to
nature (Kahn & Kellert, 2002; Kals et al., 1999).
In this respect, young people living in highly
industrialized areas are not as emotionally
connected to nature as people living in rural
areas with a lot of nature surrounding them
(cf., Hinds & Sparks, 2008; Muller et al., 2009).
This is in line with many other findings, showing
that the mere exposure effect might account for
the fact that direct and repeated exposure to an
attitude object (such as nature) can contribute to
the development of a positive affective attitude
toward that object.
Affective connection is primarily instigated
by direct experiences in nature, such as viewing
and experiencing wilderness, observing phenom-
ena of weather, or perceiving the change of the
seasons (Lyons & Breakwell, 1994). Most
authors agree that this relatedness to nature
becomes stronger the more concretely nature is
experienced, and that it is based on affective
experiences rather than solely cognitive
appraisals (Nisbet et al., 2009). Within environ-
mental education, this assumption was made long
before the theoretical construct of affective con-
nection to nature was introduced within environ-
mental psychology. This can also be explained by
the still dominant cognitivist approach within
environmental psychology and the development
of theories that aim to explain sustainable behav-
ior and its promotion as a responsibility-related
Affective Connection to Nature
task. In environmental education programs, pro-
viding nature experiences is a well-established
way to promote sustainable behavior. For exam-
ple, knowledge of nature is transferred by using
natural exhibits or outdoor experiences, to make
conscious use of ones five senses in nature, to
visit a park, a zoo, or a natural history museum in
order to let practical knowledge become more
concrete (Kaplan, 2001). Long-used interven-
tions now have a theoretical basis and can be
grounded in the concept of affective connection.
This is especially the case when nature expe-
riences are shared with significant others
(Kals et al., 1999). These joint experiences seem
to facilitate the integration of this experience into
ones own self-concept and identity (Clayton,
2003). These significant others (at first, ones
parents) as a moral imperative take on the role
of transmitting nature values and enjoyment. The
significant others change over ones life span
so that family members are replaced more and
more by peers. Therefore, the fostering of posi-
tive experiences with nature, preferably shared
with significant others, is, even in environmental
education programs for adults, a potential way to
provoke interest and affective connection to
nature and to overcome the interest conflicts
between short-term self-interest and long-term
ecological interest of the society as a whole.
However, this intervention strategy should not
be used in isolation but be integrated into respon-
sibility- and norm-focused approaches. Thereby,
a discourse on ecological as well as economical
and social responsibilities should take place. This
could be done first in family and early building
institutions (like kindergarten and school) and
later in higher schools, universities, and broader
intervention programs.
Affective connection to nature can help
directly and indirectly to promote the individual
and general quality of life: Directly, it gives emo-
tional support to the individual who experiences
these positive feelings. This is in line with
the biophilia hypothesis, claiming that the
well-being of humans depends to a great extent
on their relationships with the surrounding natu-
ral world (Kellert, 1997). As these feelings
become especially strong when nature is directly
87 A
experienced (e.g., when the individual is
outdoors), people who feel connected with nature
will actively seek such outdoor experiences, which A
further promotes the individual quality of life,
which will in turn foster the connection to nature.
On an indirect level, affective connection to nature
increases the general quality of life by promoting
sustainable behavioral decisions that are in the
interests of nature, especially when they are in
conflict with other norm-related and well-accepted
aims in society, such as economical growth.
Cross-References
Economic Development
Emotions, Sociology of
Five Factor Model of Personality
Love
Motivation
Museums and Galleries: Their Social Worth
Nature and Well-being
Nature Relatedness and Subjective Well-Being
Need Theory
Outdoor Environment
Personality, an Overview
Person-Environment Fit Theory
Positive Affect
Prosocial Behavior
Rational Choice Theory
Sustainability
References
Clayton, S. (2003). Environmental identity: A conceptual
and operational definition. In S. Clayton & S. Opotow
(Eds.), Identity and the natural environment. The psy-
chology of nature (pp. 4565). Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
Dunlap, R. E., & Van Liere, K. D. (1978). The new
environmental paradigm: A proposed instrument and
preliminary results. The Journal of Environmental
Education, 9, 1019.
Dutcher, T. S., Finley, J. C., Luloff, A. E., & Johnson, J. B.
(2007). Connectivity with nature as a measure of envi-
ronmental values. Environment and Behavior, 39(4),
474493.
Hinds, J., & Sparks, P. (2008). Engaging with the natural
environment: The role of affective connection and iden-
tity. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28, 109120.
A 88
Kahn, P. H., Jr., & Kellert, S. R. (Eds.). (2002). Children
and nature: Psychological, sociocultural and evolu-
tionary investigations (pp. 117151). Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press.
Kals, E., Schumacher, D., & Montada, L. (1999). Emotional
affinity toward nature as a motivational basis to protect
nature. Environment and Behavior, 31(2), 178202.
Kaplan, S. (1995). The restorative benefits of nature:
Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environ-
mental Psychology, 15, 169182.
Kaplan, R. (2001). The nature of the view from home:
Psychological benefits. Environment and Behavior,
33(4), 507542.
Kellert, S. R. (1997). Kinship to mastery: Biophilia in
human evolution and development. Washington, DC:
Island Press.
Lyons, E., & Breakwell, G. M. (1994). Factors predicting
environmental concern and indifference in 13-to
16-year-olds. Environment and Behavior, 26, 223238.
Mayer, F. S., & Frantz, C. M. (2004). The connectedness
to nature scale: A measure of individuals feeling in
community with nature. Journal of Environmental
Psychology, 24, 503515.
Muller, M., Kals, E., & Pansa, R. (2009). Adolescents
emotional affinity towards nature: A cross-societal
study. Special Issue: Children and Nature. Journal of
Developmental Processes, 4, 5969.
Nisbet, E. K., Zelenski, J. M., & Murphy, S. A. (2009).
The nature relatedness scale: Linking individuals con-
nections with nature to environmental concern and
behaviour. Environment and Behavior, 41, 715740.
Schmuck, P., & Schultz, P. W. (Eds.). (2002). Psychology
of sustainable development. Norwell, MA: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
Schultz, P. W. (2001). Assessing the structure of environ-
mental concern: Concern for self, other people, and the
biosphere. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21,
113.
Stern, P. C. (2000). Toward a coherent theory of environ-
mentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues,
56(3), 407424.
Affective Contagion
Jamila Bookwala
Department of Psychology, Lafayette College,
Easton, PA, USA
Synonyms
Affective concordance or similarity; Emotional
concordance; Emotional contagion; Mood con-
vergence or concordance; Socially induced affect
Affective Contagion
Definition
Affective or emotional contagion refers to the
tendency for individuals to catch the emotional
state or mood of another and thereby converge in
their affective experience.
Description
The phenomenon of emotions being contagious
that emotions can transfer from one person to
another and that people converge in their experi-
ence of emotional states can be said to have its
bases in the human capacity to experience empa-
thy. Hutman and Dapretto (2009) define empathy
as the interpersonal sharing of emotional states
brought about by knowledge or observation by
one person of the other persons experience or
emotional state [p. 367]. They point out that
such emotion matching (or emotional contagion)
is a lifelong process that can be seen as early as in
infancy when a caregivers smile elicits a smile in
the infant. Much of our understanding about emo-
tional contagion has been spurred by the work of
Elaine Hatfield and her colleagues (Hatfield,
Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1992, 1993, 1994). They
describe emotional contagion as operating either
at the conscious or subconscious (primitive) level
and propose three mechanisms that approximate
a three-step process whereby individuals affec-
tive states converge with those of others:
1. Mimicry People imitate and synchronize
their own facial expressions, gestures, and
other nonverbal behaviors of others through
processes that are automatic and continual.
2. Feedback Such mimicry and imitation, in
turn, receive feedback from others continu-
ously which subsequently triggers conscious
self-perception processes that result in infer-
ences about ones own subjective experience
of emotion.
3. Contagion The mimicry and feedback result
in people catching the emotions of others
around them.
Neuroimaging and brain-lesion studies (see
Shamay-Tsoory, 2011; Shamay-Tsoory, Aharon-
Peretz, & Perry, 2009) indicate that emotional
Affective Contagion
contagion and the related processes of emotion
recognition and shared pain involve a neural net-
work that includes the inferior frontal gyrus and
the inferior parietal lobule. A specific hypothesis is
that the mirror neuron system may be responsible
for emotional contagion whereby mirror neurons
may be involved in the mimicry of facial expres-
sions that then form the basis of emotional
contagion. The network that is involved in emo-
tional contagion (or emotional empathy) is viewed
to be distinct from that involved in cognitive
empathy (the ventromedial prefrontal cortex,
temporoparietal junction, and the medial temporal
lobe). In women, who have been found to display
greater emotional contagion than men (Doherty,
1997; Doherty, Orimoto, Singelis, Hatfield, &
Hebb, 1995), researchers have found increased
activation of brain areas containing mirror neurons
relative to that found in men during engagement in
face-to-face empathy-related tasks requiring focus
on ones own or the targets emotions (Schulte-
Ruther et al., 2008).
In keeping with Coynes (1976) interactive
explanation for depression, a common focus in
studies of affective contagion has been on the
person-to-person transmission of negative emo-
tional states such as negative mood and depres-
sive symptoms (Gump & Kulik, 1997; Joiner,
1994; Joiner & Katz, 1999). Other studies have
shown, however, that convergence also can occur
in the case of positive affective states such as life
satisfaction, happiness, cheerfulness, and mean-
ing in life (e.g., Bookwala & Schulz, 1996;
Papousek, Freudenthaler, & Schulter, 2008).
Interest also remains in identifying moderators
of affective contagion under what conditions
is affective contagion stronger or more likely to
occur? Research has focused on a wide variety
of possible moderators including individual
difference variables (e.g., level of independence
or interdependence in ones self-concept, emo-
tional expressiveness, capacity for emotional
perception, and regulation), relationship-specific
variables (e.g., the extent of liking toward or
similarity of the target individual, relationship
closeness, relationship length, role relationship),
and situational stress or threat levels. Efforts
also have been made to assess individuals
89 A
susceptibility to others emotions, conceptualized
as a trait variable or attribute. The emotional
contagion scale, developed by R. William A
Doherty (1997) is a 15-item unidimensional mea-
sure that assesses individuals tendency to mimic
five basic emotions (love, happiness, fear, anger,
and sadness). Doherty found that high scorers on
emotional contagion susceptibility are more
likely to score high on sensitivity to others, self-
esteem, and social functioning and low on self-
assertiveness and alienation.
Affective contagion has been examined in
diverse interpersonal contexts. Studies have
found similarity in the affective well-being of
spousal dyads in large probability-based samples
(Bookwala & Schulz, 1996; Butterworth &
Rodgers, 2006) and convenience samples
(Goodman & Shippy, 2002) alike. An emerging
area of research in family processes examines
the day-to-day transmission of emotions from
one person to another using diary or experiential
sampling methods (Larson & Almeida, 1999).
These studies have found strong evidence for
mood convergence between romantic partners
and mothers and their adolescent children
(Larson & Gillman, 1999; Thompson & Bolger,
1999). Emotional contagion also is proposed to
be an influential factor in workplace affect
(Dasborough, Ashkanasy, Tee, & Tse, 2009).
Teachers who are more susceptible to emotional
contagion have been found to report higher posi-
tive affect and lower negative affect at work when
their principal displayed higher positive affect at
work (Johnson, 2008), and within organizational
teams of students, each individual team members
affect is similar to that of the teams aggregate
level of affect (Ilies, Wagner, & Morgeson, 2007).
The topic of affective contagion is not without
controversy. Some research has found no evi-
dence of mood convergence between individuals
who share the same environmental context such
as dating individuals or roommates (Segrin,
2004; Segrin, Powell, Givertz, & Brackin,
2003). Others posit that convergence of affect
may not be the natural response in certain inter-
personal situations. Instead, in some situations
(such as when in the presence of a disliked or
dissimilar other), it may be more typical to
A 90
experience the opposite emotion to that being
expressed by the target individual (Epstude &
Mussweiler, 2009). Even Hatfield and her col-
leagues conceded that the experience of discordant
affective states (or countercontagion) is possible.
Social comparison processes are theorized to
determine whether affective contagion or
countercontagion occurs: when individuals focus
on similarities between themselves and the target
person, concordance of affect has been found to
occur, whereas a focus on dissimilarities results in
discordance (Epstude & Mussweiler, 2009).
Finally, due to the general lack of longitudinal
research, especially when studying affective con-
tagion between spouses, critics have argued that
affect similarity occurs not due to the transmission
of emotion from one individual to another but
instead due to assortative mating (i.e., individuals
form intimate relationships with those who are
similar to them in terms of how they feel and
their propensity to experience certain emotions)
or shared environmental and life contexts. The
increasing number of experimental studies finding
support for emotional contagion (e.g., Wild,
Erb, & Bartels, 2001), however, confirms that
emotional contagion is a verifiable phenomenon.
Cross-References
Emotional Contagion
Emotional Well-Being
Facial Displays and Emotion
Mood
Negative Affect
Positive Affect
Quality of Life
Quality of Life Research
Social Comparison
Spousal Concordance/Similarity
Subjective Well-Being
Well-Being
References
Bookwala, J., & Schulz, R. (1996). Spousal similarity in
subjective wellbeing: The cardiovascular health study.
Psychology and Aging, 11, 582590.
Affective Contagion
Butterworth, P., & Rodgers, B. (2006). Concordance in the
mental health of spouses: Analysis of a large national
household panel survey. Psychological Medicine, 36,
685697.
Coyne, J. C. (1976). Toward an interactional description
of depression. Psychiatry, 39, 2840.
Dasborough, M. T., Ashkanasy, N. M., Tee, E. Y. J., &
Tse, H. H. M. (2009). What goes around comes
around: How meso-level negative emotional conta-
gion can ultimately determine organizational attitudes
toward leaders. The Leadership Quarterly, 20,
571585.
Doherty, R. W. (1997). The emotional contagion scale:
A measure of individual differences. Journal of Non-
verbal Behavior, 21, 131154.
Doherty, R. W., Orimoto, L., Singelis, T. M.,
Hatfield, E., & Hebb, J. (1995). Emotional contagion:
Gender and occupational differences. Psychology of
Women Quarterly, 19, 355371.
Epstude, K., & Mussweiler, T. (2009). What you
feel is how you compare: How comparisons
influence the social induction of affect. Emotions,
9, 114.
Goodman, C. R., & Shippy, R. A. (2002). Is it contagious?
Affect similarity among spouses. Aging & Mental
Health, 6, 266274.
Gump, B. B., & Kulik, J. A. (1997). Stress, affiliation, and
emotional contagion. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 72, 305319.
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1992).
Primitive emotional contagion. In M. S. Clark (Ed.),
Emotions and social behavior: Review of personality
and social psychology (Vol. 14, pp. 151177).
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1993).
Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psycho-
logical Sciences, 2, 9699.
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Rapson, R. L. (1994).
Emotional contagion. New York: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press.
Hutman, T., & Dapretto, M. (2009). The emergence of
empathy during infancy. Cognition, Brain, Behavior,
13, 367390.
Ilies, R., Wagner, D. T., & Morgeson, F. P. (2007).
Explaining affective linkages in teams: Individual dif-
ferences in susceptibility to contagion and individual-
ism-collectivism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92,
11401148.
Johnson, S. K. (2008). I second that emotion: Effects of
emotional contagion and affect at work on leader and
follower outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 19,
119.
Joiner, T. E. (1994). Contagious depression: Existence,
specificity to depressed symptoms, and the role of
reassurance seeking. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 67, 287296.
Joiner, T. E., & Katz, J. (1999). Contagion of depressive
symptoms and mood: Meta-analytic review and expla-
nations from cognitive, behavioural, and interpersonal
Affluence
viewpoints. Clinical Psychology: Science and Prac-
tice, 6, 149164.
Larson, R. W., & Almeida, D. M. (1999). Emotional
transmission in the daily lives of families: A new par-
adigm for studying family process. Journal of Mar-
riage and the Family, 61, 520.
Larson, R. W., & Gillman, S. (1999). Transmission of
emotions in the daily interactions of single-mother
families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61,
2137.
Papousek, I., Freudenthaler, H. H., & Schulter, G.
(2008). The interplay of perceiving and regulating
emotions in becoming infected with positive
and negative moods. Personality and Individual
Differences, 45, 463467.
Schulte-Ruther, M., Markowitsch, H. J., Shah, N. J., Fink,
G. R., & Piefke, M. (2008). Gender differences in brain
networks supporting empathy. NeuroImage, 42,
393403.
Segrin, C. (2004). Concordance on negative emotion in
close relationships: Emotional contagion or assortative
mating? Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology,
23, 815835.
Segrin, C., Powell, H. L., Givertz, M., & Brackin, A.
(2003). Symptoms of depression, relational quality,
and loneliness in dating relationships. Personal Rela-
tionships, 10, 2536.
Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2011). The neural bases for empa-
thy. The Neuroscientist, 17, 1824.
Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., Aharon-Peretz, J., &
Perry, D. (2009). Two systems for empathy:
A double dissociation between emotional and
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617627.
Thompson, A., & Bolger, N. (1999). Emotional transmis-
sion in couples under stress. Journal of Marriage and
the Family, 61, 3848.
Wild, B., Erb, M., & Bartels, M. (2001). Are emotions
contagious? Evoked emotions while viewing emotion-
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109124.
Affective States
Emotions, Sociology of
Affliction
Disability and Health
91 A
Affluence
A
Nicole Fuentes
Department of Economics, Universidad de
Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Synonyms
Abundance; Prosperity; Wealth
Definition
The word affluence is associated with an abundant
amount of something, most often money and
material goods. Affluence is also a synonym of
wealth, and it has been found to have a positive
relationship with Happiness or subjective
well-being and overall Quality of Life.
Description
Economic development is one of the main
goals around countries in the world, and eco-
nomic success is sought-after by individuals.
Consequently, personal and national success is
often measured in terms of ability to generate or
raise the amount of available wealth. Wealth is
associated with positive outcomes in life. Diener
(2009) summarizes some of the positive effects
of wealth found in the literature. For instance,
affluent people live longer (Wilkison, 1996) and
have better health, and their children are less
likely to become school dropouts or to become
pregnant as teens (Mayer, 1997). Affluent
people also benefit from wealth intangibles
such as social status, feelings of control, and
respect (Diener, 2002).
The literature on the relationship between
affluence and subjective well-being can be
summarized around three main questions. First,
is subjective well-being higher in wealthier
nations? Findings from research at the national
level consistently show large correlations
between the wealth of nations and the average
A 92
reported subjective well-being or happiness in
them. National wealth is one of the strongest
predictors of life satisfaction in societies
(Diener, 2002; Inglehart, Foa, Peterson, &
Welzel, 2008; Ouweel & Veenhoven, 1991).
National income has been shown to have
a curvilinear relationship with happiness
(Veenhoven, 1993). The impact of income incre-
ments on happiness is large at low national
wealth levels but fades as national affluence
rises. Veenhoven (1993) concludes that the
declining hedonic return on national income
reflects the law of diminishing returns. One
explanation for the high correlations between
national wealth and subjective well-being is
that affluent societies have additional positive
characteristics such as democracy, human right
protections, greater equality, and a larger
amount of social welfare protections (Diener &
Biswass-Diener, 2009). In less affluent nations,
meeting basic needs for food and shelter can be a
challenge and hence the greater effect of income
on subjective and objective well-being. The poor
in more affluent nations are better off than
their counterparts in less developed countries.
As Lane (2000) explains, the particular afflic-
tions of the poor, such as the high rates of infant
mortality area reduced by the public health
provisions brought by collective wealth. Along
the same lines, rich countries have better welfare
systems than poor countries. This increased
collective wealth buys both objective and
subjective well-being for the poor (p. 63).
Second, within nations are the affluent happier
than the poor? Mostly small correlations have been
found within nations between wealth and measures
of subjective well-being, happiness, and life sat-
isfaction (Diener & Oishi, 2000; Fuentes & Rojas,
2001; Heady, 1991). Correlations between income
and subjective well-being are stronger in
poorer nations where the meeting of universal
basic needs can be a challenge; income contributes
to subjective well-being to the extent that it allows
people to meet basic needs (Veenhoven, 1991).
Within affluent countries, where the majority
can afford lifes necessities, increasing affluence
adds surprisingly little to happiness. Very wealthy
people those in the Forbes 100 wealthiest
Affluence
Americans are slightly happier than average
(Diener, Horwitz, & Emmons, 1985). Diener
(2009) examined data from Bradburns (1969)
data from large US cities and data from the
World Values Survey II (1994) and found that
the poor had about a sevenfold greater risk of
suffering from unhappiness compared to the
wealthiest category in Bradburns data and almost
a threefold greater likelihood of a negative affect
balance in the World Values Survey II data
(Diener & Biswass-Diener, 2009, p. 124) and con-
clude that the risk ratios for unhappiness among the
poor versus wealthier individuals are considerable.
Third, over time, does subjective well-being
rise with growing affluence? At the national
level, economic growth in the last decades in
most developed countries, for instance, the
United States and Japan, has been accompanied
by little rise in average reported happiness
(Diener & Biswass-Diener, 2009). This phe-
nomenon is known as the income paradox. One
reason why income might not strongly predict
higher subjective well-being, explains Diener, is
that most people must earn their income, and
wealthier people thus might be required to spend
more time at work, and have less time available
for leisure and social relationships (Diener,
2002, p. 121). He additionally suggests wealthy
people might adapt to their conditions and have
rising expectations and desires that counteract the
effects of the desirable circumstances of their
lives (p. 121). Income increments have short-
term positive effects on happiness that tend to
disappear in the long term due to the peoples
process of adaptation.
Affluence can have a negative effect on sub-
jective well-being. In a recent study, Weiting and
Diener (2009) found a relationship between afflu-
ence and stress; one possibility, they explain, is
that people who have lots of money and material
conveniences may be stressed by trying to main-
tain their lifestyle, not having enough time for
social activities, meeting family expectations, or
trying to juggle many tasks simultaneously (p.
259). Weiting and Diener (2009) concluded that
although wealth is associated with a higher sub-
jective well-being, it is also related to higher
perceived stress due to a hectic lifestyle.
Affluence, Stress, and Well-Being
Conclusions
Comparing the countries, there is a clear tendency
for wealthy nations to have happier and more
satisfied people. National wealth is one of the
stronger predictors of reported happiness in them.
Individuals in wealthy nations benefit from
additional positive characteristics such as better
welfare systems, democracy, and higher educa-
tion. For this reason, the less rich in affluent
societies are better off than their counterparts in
poor nations. Correlations between income and
subjective well-being are smaller within countries;
however, these correlations are stronger within
poor countries where meeting lifes necessities
can be a challenge. Wealth increments over time
are not accompanied by substantial increments in
reported happiness. It has been found that people
rapidly adapt to additional wealth and the benefits
of additional wealth are often offset by their risings
expectations and material needs.
Cross-References
Adaptation
Gross National Product (GNP)
Happiness
Life Satisfaction
Quality of Life
Stress
Subjective Well-Being
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Swets and Zeitlinger.
Veenhoven, R. (1991). Is happiness relative? Social
Indicators Research, 24, 134.
Veenhoven, R. (1993). Happiness in nations: Subjective
appreciation of life in 56 nations, 19461992 (p. 127).
Rotterdam: Erasmus University Press, Center for
Socio-Cultural Transformation, RISBO.
Weiting, N., Diener, E., Raksha, A., & Harter, J. (2009).
Affluence, feelings of stress, and well-being.
Social Indicators Research, 94, 257271.
Wilkison, R. G. (1996). Unhealthy societies: The
afflictions of inequality. London: Routledge.
World Value Survey Group. (1994). World values survey,
19811984 and 19901993. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute
for Social Research, ICPSR.
Affluence Hypothesis and WTP
Willingness to Pay for Private Environmental
Goods
Affluence, Stress, and Well-Being
Weiting Ng
SIM University, Singapore, Singapore
Synonyms
Cognitive transactional model of stress; Eustress;
Feelings of stress; Perceived stress; Physiological
stress; Psychological stress; Scarcity hypothesis
A 94
Definition
The broad construct of stress subsumes various
lower-level categories, such as time stress, per-
ceived stress (feelings of stress), and physiologi-
cal stress. According to the cognitive
transactional model of stress that highlights how
cognitive appraisal of a situation/stimulus is nec-
essary before any stress can be induced, psycho-
logical stress (which refers to negative cognitive
and emotional states) is elicited when people do
not have the ability to cope with the demands
placed on them (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).
Perceived stress is associated with affluence
and subjective well-being (SWB). SWB com-
prises both affective (positive and negative
affect) and cognitive ( life satisfaction and sat-
isfaction with important life domains) compo-
nents. Affluence, which is synonymous with
wealth or economic prosperity, is positively
related to SWB. Nations that have higher GDP
or income show higher SWB, and similarly, indi-
viduals with higher income have higher SWB,
even though the relations are much weaker at the
individual level (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002).
Description
Data from a representative survey, the Gallup
World Poll, found that perceived stress is related
to lower SWB or happiness, as assessed by
lower positive affect, life satisfaction, and
domain satisfaction, and higher negative
affect. Yet increased perceived stress is also asso-
ciated with greater affluence, in terms of higher
household income and possession of more mod-
ern luxury conveniences (Ng, Diener, Arora, &
Harter, 2009). As affluence/economic prosperity
also predicts higher levels of well-being, espe-
cially life satisfaction (Diener & Biswas-Diener,
2002; Diener, Ng, Harter, & Arora, 2010), how
can the paradoxical findings that perceived stress
is related to both higher affluence and lower well-
being be reconciled?
To better understand the relation between
affluence and perceived stress, one must first
consider the role of time stress/time pressure.
Affluence, Stress, and Well-Being
Increased time pressure is a corollary of eco-
nomic prosperity. This stems from the fact that
societies driven by money emphasize continuous
production and consumption, and in tandem with
technological progress, they define moderniza-
tion (Garhammer, 2002). People in modern, afflu-
ent societies have less leisure time, and yet
further exacerbating this time crunch is the use
of modern conveniences (such as the Internet,
computer, and mobile phone) and the phenome-
non of multitasking, causing people to feel
rushed. Hence, modernization accelerates the
pace of life. Modernization exerts opposing
effects on the quality of life (Veenhoven,
2000). On the one hand, it improves the liv-
ability of the environment, but on the other, the
accompanying time pressure diminishes peoples
enjoyment of life (i.e., their happiness or SWB).
Long work hours and work-related stress,
markers of todays advanced economies, also
contribute to time stress. In other words, time
pressure mediates the positive association
between affluence and perceived stress. The
mediating role of time pressure coheres with the
scarcity hypothesis, which states that individuals
and societies place more value on things that are
relatively scarce (Inglehart, 1997). This means
that the lack of (or scarcity) of important
resources (e.g., time or money) can add to per-
ceived stress.
Other than time stress, there are two other
mechanisms that may explain how wealth may
lead to increased perceived stress. Although
SWB is associated with greater wealth, there is
diminishing marginal utility of income. Further-
more, with higher income, more choices abound.
Having too many choices could increase stress as
people are overloaded with information and
worry about making the optimal choice or expe-
rience regret (or dissatisfaction) about their
rejected (or chosen) options (Fischer & Boer,
2011; Schwartz, 2004). Additionally, the mod-
ern, affluent lifestyle creates a situation where
people tend to evaluate the material standards
they have achieved with others, and such social
comparisons can lead to dissatisfaction and lower
feelings of well-being. The affluent lifestyle also
contributes to the treadmill phenomenon as
Affluence, Stress, and Well-Being 95 A
+
Time pressure/stress

+ + A
+
Affluence Perceived stress OR Eustress/arousal

+ + or - +
+
Standard of living Subjective wellbeing

At nation level, net effect: +

At individual level, net effect:

Affluence, Stress, and Well-Being, Fig. 1 The relations between affluence, stress, and subjective well-being

people continuously hanker after more material
goods and higher status. These processes further
explain how greater wealth lowers well-being
and increases perceived stress.
A closer examination of the relations between
perceived stress and the various forms of
well-being reveals that these relations differ at the
national versus the individual level. At the national
level, perceived stress is associated with higher
negative affect but, paradoxically, also with
higher positive affect, life satisfaction, and domain
satisfaction. In contrast, at the individual level,
perceived stress relates to higher negative affect,
lower positive affect, and life and domain
satisfaction (Ng et al., 2009). Negative affect, how-
ever, shows similar relations at the national and the
individual level it is negatively related to positive
affect and satisfaction with overall life and impor-
tant domains. This reinforces the notion that despite
a common usage of stress referring to a negative
affective state, perceived stress is not equivalent to
negative affect but is a separate construct.
One explanation for how perceived stress can
be associated with higher SWB (higher positive
affect, life satisfaction, and domain satisfaction)
at the national level may be due to its relations
with affluence. People living in richer nations
enjoy better infrastructure, more modern ameni-
ties, and superior health care. Life expec-
tancy, which is indicative of standard of living
because it is affected by quality and availability
of healthcare, sanitary systems, and living condi-
tions, is also higher in these affluent nations.
Consequently, a higher standard of living,
which is highly valued and important to people,
may compensate for the faster pace of life in these
nations (i.e., increased time stress) and outweigh
the detrimental effects. This leads to enhanced
well-being.
Another explanation can be sought by exam-
ining the components of stress separately. The
positive stress component eustress arising
from challenges is akin to arousal. Arousal serves
as the precursor to the experience of flow,
motivating people to utilize their resources to
cope with challenges (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Flow experiences boost peoples sense of mas-
tery and satisfaction and usually involve eustress.
Hence, eustress/arousal improves subjective
well-being despite being associated with an
accelerated sense of time (Garhammer, 2002).
Figure 1 illustrates how the relationships between
affluence, stress, and subjective well-being can
be summed up.
Conclusion
Stress is a multifaceted construct and comprises
both positive and negative components. Though
commonly perceived as having adverse effects on
physical and mental health, its effects on SWB
act via multiple pathways, and as elucidated
above, stress is not necessarily always associated
with diminished well-being but can also increase
well-being. Eustress, the positive component of
A 96 Affordable Housing

stress, is also desirable, as it motivates people to

face challenges and can increase productivity and African-American Youth
performance. The positive association between Informational Support
affluence and stress, though may initially seem
unexpected, is actually unsurprising in view of Social Support and Self-Worth Among
modern day market economies. African-American Youth

References
Age Discrimination
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of
optimal experience. New York: Harper Collins.
Ferran Casas
Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2002). Will money
increase subjective well-being? A literature review Institut de Recerca sobre Qualitat de Vida,
and guide to needed research. Social Indicators Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain
Research, 57, 119169.
Diener, E., Ng, W., Harter, J., & Arora, R. (2010). Wealth
and happiness across the world: Material prosperity
predicts life evaluation, while psychosocial prosperity Synonyms
predicts positive feeling. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 99, 5261. Ageism
Fischer, R., & Boer, D. (2011). What is more important
for national well-being: Money or autonomy?
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101,
164184. Definition
Garhammer, M. (2002). Pace of life and enjoyment of life.
Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 217256.
Age discrimination refers to people being treated
Inglehart, R. (1997). Modernization and postmoder-
nization: Cultural, economic, and political change in or considered differently or unequally strictly on
43 societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University the basis of their age. It generally has negative
Press. connotations, occurring in situations where the
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal,
and coping. New York: Springer.
acknowledgement and respect of a groups
Ng, W., Diener, E., Arora, R., & Harter, J. (2009). human rights based on the age of its members
Affluence, feelings of stress, and well-being. Social does not meet the standards established by inter-
Indicators Research, 94, 257271. national treaties.
Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice: Why more is
less. New York: Ecco Press.
Veenhoven, R. (2000). The four qualities of life: Ordering
concepts and measures of the good life. Journal of Description
Happiness Studies, 1, 139.
International treaties on human rights state that
no fundamental rights of human beings may be
respected less on the basis of personal character-
Affordable Housing istics, conditions, or beliefs. It is for this reason
that they are also referred to as universal human
Housing Affordability rights. On a more specific geographical level, the
Public Housing European Unions Charter of Fundamental
Rights establishes the right to protection from
any discrimination, stating that any discrimina-
tion based on any ground such as (. . .) age, shall
African Ethics be prohibited.
For some time now, studies have shown that
Ubuntu: The Good Life negative discrimination against the elderly exists
Age Discrimination
in many societies, often due to the fact that they
are not seen as productive beings or because
they are seen as a burden on society who need to
be cared for. In 1968, Robert Neil Butler pro-
posed the term ageism to refer to a range of
beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values used to jus-
tify age-based prejudice, discrimination, and sub-
ordination (Wikipedia, 2011). It has been pointed
out that the elderly are at times treated like
infants, unjustifiably considered incompetent,
and not asked for their opinion on issues affecting
them, with others taking decisions for them,
which seriously affects their self-esteem and
self-confidence. Some research suggests that this
discrimination is at times serious in the field of
health, for example, a study by the University
of Sheffield suggesting that inherent age
discrimination in NHS palliative care services pre-
vents many older people from having a dignified
death (retrieved on 31st August 2011 from http://
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4575641.stm) and that
terminally ill younger people get much better
care than older counterparts.
In more recent decades, studies on psychology
in the workplace have highlighted that age dis-
crimination can also exist in the workplace. In
some areas of work, it affects younger people due
to their lack of experience; in others, it affects
older workers due to their supposedly being less
productive. A review of the research literature
related to age stereotypes in the workplace has
been conducted by Posthuma & Campion (2009).
Some countries, like the United States (1967),
have specific legislation related to age discrimi-
nation in employment.
In recent years, however, debate surrounding
the issue of age discrimination has witnessed
a spectacular increase on the international stage,
centering on the underage population, often refer-
ring to childhood and adolescence, but legally
referred to as childhood in terms of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(United Nations, 1989).
The debate arose out of the wording of article
2 of the CRC, which reads:
1. States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights
set forth in the present Convention to each child
within their jurisdiction without discrimination
97 A
of any kind, irrespective of the childs or his or
her parents or legal guardians race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opin-
ion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, A
disability, birth or other status.
2. States Parties shall take all appropriate mea-
sures to ensure that the child is protected against
all forms of discrimination or punishment on the
basis of the status, activities, expressed opin-
ions, or beliefs of the childs parents, legal
guardians, or family members.
To many peoples surprise, in this detailed list
of circumstances stating that there can be NO
distinction or discrimination in the rights of chil-
dren, age is not mentioned.
Studies conducted in different countries have
pointed out that many adults believe children
cannot have the same rights as adults. This
idea is consistent with the social representation
(Casas, 1996, 1997a) held by the majority in
many countries that children are the not-yets
(not yet adults, not yet competent enough, not yet
responsible, not yet citizens, not yet complete
people, etc.) (Casas, 1996; Qvortrup, 1991;
Verhellen, 1994). However, defenders of this
idea overlook the fact that no one is questioning
that some rights must be different according to
age group: The invisible core of the controversy
relates to the fact that many universal human
rights are equal for all human beings regardless
of age (the right to life, to a name, to health,
to a family, to not be abused, to education, to
welfare benefits, etc.). To consider children
not to have some of these universal human
rights means not to consider them members of
the category human beings. However, surpris-
ing this may seem, it is what has happened
throughout most of human history, and we
humans often resist change, above all psycholog-
ical and psychosocial change. In international
law, the CRC recognizes all children as legal
subjects and as holders of universal human
rights. The historical and representational change
this brings has generated and continues to gener-
ate many subtle resistances. For many, children
cannot yet be as much legal subjects
(as human) as adults.
Childrens human rights are seldom linked to
their well-being and quality of life (Casas, 1996,
1997a, 1998). On an individual level, when people
A 98
feel respected, it is more likely that they will have
higher self-esteem and subjective well-being than
if they do not feel respected. On a macrosocial
level, it would seem obvious that if human rights
are respected in a country, the well-being of its
inhabitants will be higher than those of a country
where they are not respected, and therefore, this
must affect the human development and quality of
life in the country.
Discussion
Despite the logic of human rights being consol-
idated with the approval of the CRC, in practice
many countries and societies are still found
where there is much adult resistance to
accepting the fundamental human rights of
children, particularly those labeled participa-
tion rights. These rights are considered in,
among others, articles 1216 of the CRC, and
various authors have commented that they begin
with small everyday activities found in interper-
sonal relationships: being listened to, being
consulted, being taken into account, sharing
decisions, etc. (Casas, 1998).
The social representation of children as the
not-yets is so historically deep-rooted in western
countries that it even extends to adolescence and
to a certain extent young people (Casas, 2010).
These psychosocial phenomena, which run so
deep in society, change only very slowly.
Authors who have stated that not only basic
human rights but many other childrens rights
must be equal to those of adults (the same rights
as adults) have at times been called liberationists
(for an extensive debate, see Purdy, 1992). An
area of conflict has appeared between said liber-
ationists and those against the idea in which it is
difficult to make any progress due to a lack of
consensus: the concept of best interest of the
child proposed by the CRC. Is it necessary to
annul or place limits on certain human rights of
children in order to avoid danger, that is, in their
best interest?
There are also authors who relate not discrim-
inating by age to the concept of citizenship (Earls,
2011; Winter, 1997). Said authors observe that
Age Discrimination
children are commonly seen as the citizens of
tomorrow when they will become adults.
Verhellen (1994) points out that this means
some of their rights are kept in a form of social
suspension (or moratorium) due to their age.
They all question whether children should not
also be considered citizens of the present.
This debate leads on to another related to practi-
cal and political consequences: Some question
whether states should be concerned only with
childrens well-becoming or also their well-
being (Ben-Arieh, 2008). It would seem that the
traditional stance of the state has been to protect
children and ensure that they become decent
adults (i.e., to be concerned for their well-
becoming), leaving the present (well-being) in
the hands of families.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that for some
authors and also various international bodies,
respect for the basic and universal human
rights of children, free from age discrimination,
and a commitment to their being respected
(see the project Commitment to Children
Audit proposed by the Global Movement for
Children (2011), http://www.gmfc.org/ca/compo-
nent/content/article/3/938) should involve the
use of indicators that allow international compar-
ison of the issue. Such indicators would be incor-
porated into measures for aspects of human
development and quality of life in populations.
To not take the child population into account in
the social indicator systems used in many inter-
national comparisons is already a first type of
discrimination which, in addition, subjects this
subgroup of citizens to a statistical and social
invisibility (Casas, 1997b; Qvortrup, 1991).
This in itself has an impact on their well-being
and quality of life.
Cross-References
Adolescents Subjective Well-Being
Childrens Participation and Adolescents
Participation
Childrens Rights
Childrens Subjective Well-Being
Human Rights
Agenda 21 99 A
References
Age-Friendly Communities
Ben-Arieh, A. (2008). The child indicators movement: Past,
present and future. Child Indicators Research, 1, 316. A
Healthy Communities
Casas, F. (1996). Social representations of childhood.
Annali dellInstituto di Diritto e Procedura Penale,
1, 7589. Salerno: Italia.
Casas, F. (1997a). Childrens rights and childrens quality
of life: Conceptual and practical issues. Social Indica-
tors Research, 42, 283298.
Ageism
Casas, F. (1997b). Quality of life and the life experience of
children. In E. Verhellen (Ed.), Understanding childrens Age Discrimination
rights (pp. 141149). Ghent: University of Ghent. Aging Workers and the Quality of Life
Casas, F. (1998). Infancia: Perspectivas psicosociales.
Attitudes Towards Aging
Barcelona: Paidos.
Casas, F. (2010). Representaciones sociales que influyen Housing and Aging
en las polticas sociales de infancia y adolescencia en Objective and Subjective Nearness to Death
Europa. Revista Interuniversitaria de Pedagoga Workplace Discrimination Among Older
Social, 17, Marzo, 1528.
American Workers
de Winter, M. (1997). Children as fellow citizens. Partic-
ipation and commitment. Oxford: Radcliffe.
Earls, F. (Ed.) (2011). Children: From rights to citizenship.
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science 2011 633, 6. http://ann.sagepub.com/
content/633/1/6 Retrieved August 31st, 2011
Agency
Global Movement for Children. (2011). Commitment to
children audit. http://www.gmfc.org/ca/component/ Personal and Institutional Accountability
content/article/3/938
Posthuma, R. A., & Campion, M. A. (2009). Age Stereo-
types in the Workplace: Common Stereotypes in the
Workplace: Moderators, and Future Directions.
Journal of Management, 35(1), 158188. Agency Perspective
Purdy, L. M. (1992). In their best interest? The case
against equal rights for children. New York: Cornell
Perspectives of Social Agents
University Press.
Qvortrup, J. (1991). Childhood as a Social Phenomenon A
Series of National Reports. Eurosocial Report Series, 36.
United Nations. (1989). Convention on the rights of the
child. Adopted and opened for signature, ratification
and accession by General Assembly resolution 44/25
Agenda 21
of 20 November 1989. Entry into force 2 September
1990, in accordance with article 49. http://www2.ohchr. Jochen Jesinghaus
org/english/law/crc.htm Retrieved August 31st, 2011 JJ, European Commission, Ispra, Italy
Verhellen, E. (1994). The convention of the rights of the
child. Ambers: Garant.
Wikipedia. Retrieved August 31st, 2011, from http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageism Definition

Agenda 21 was launched at the 1992 United

Age Distance to Death Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
Objective and Subjective Nearness to Death 314 June 1992) as a comprehensive plan of
action to be taken globally, nationally, and
locally by organizations of the United
Aged Nations System, Governments, and Major
Groups in every area in which human
Brazil, Quality of Life impacts on the environment (United Nations
A 100 Agentic Versus Communal Needs

Department of Economic and Social Affairs References

[UN DESA] 2009). Agenda 21 has been
updated at major follow-up conferences, in
particular at the 2002 Johannesburg World
Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio +
10) and the 2012 Rio de Janeiro United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development
(Rio + 20, Earth Summit 2012). It serves
also as blueprint for numerous Local Agenda 21
(LA21) initiatives, of which many are
organized in the International Council for
Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI,
founded 1990).
Information for Decision-Making. Retrieved October 25,
2012, from http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/
res_agenda21_40.shtml
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development
(CSD). Retrieved October 25, 2012, from http://
sustainabledevelopment.un.org/csd.html
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UN DESA). (2009). Retrieved October 25, 2012, from
http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/index.shtml
Agentic Versus Communal Needs

Independent/Interdependent Self
Description

Agenda 21 is divided in four sections (Social

and Economic Dimensions, Conservation and Age-Sex Pyramid
Management of Resources for Development,
Strengthening the Role of Major Groups, Population Age Pyramid
Means of Implementation) and 40 chapters, the
latter structured by basis for action, objectives,
activities, and means of implementation.
Especially Section I (Social and Economic Aggregate Measures
Dimensions) and Section III (Major Groups)
touch many dimensions of human well-being Composite Indicator(s)
(combating poverty, human health, children
and youth, workers and their trade unions),
always seen through the lenses of sustainable
development.
Of particular relevance has been Chapter 40,
Aggregate Social Indicators
Construction
Information for Decision-Making, which served
as the basis for developing a set of indicators of
Composite Index Construction
sustainable development that shaped many later
indicator initiatives. Since the 2000 Millennium
Summit, however, the focus has shifted towards
the Millennium Development Goals and their asso-
ciated indicator set, reflecting growing demand Aggregated Governance Indicators
from developing countries to give more focus to
human well-being. Robert Neumann
Institute for Sociology/ Technische Universitat
Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Cross-References

Sustainable Development Synonyms

United Nations Commission on Sustainable
Development Composite governance indicators
Aggregated Governance Indicators
Definition
The term governance covers a broad range of
characteristics of the state and government ser-
vices; mostly it relates to the efficacy, integrity,
and probity of a government and to the quality of
the provision of public goods and services for
citizens. Governance gains importance for the
study of quality of life through the widely
shared view that features of good governance,
e.g., low levels of corruption, political
accountability, the securitization of property
rights by rule of law, and high regulatory quality,
represent the key ingredients for prosperity
and long-term economic growth (as either
cause or consequence) as well as societal and
subjective well-being. Recent discussion on
the direction of causality between measures of
governance and economic indicators has pro-
voked a debate about the measurement validity
of these indicators, both from a conceptual and
empirical perspective.
Description
The introduction of governance indicators and
subsequent empirical research on the causes
and effects of good governance are only recent
developments. Since the seminal work of
Douglass North (1990) on the influence of insti-
tutions on economic performance, especially the
field of economics has been rediscovering its
interest in the role of political, social, and eco-
nomic institution given up decades ago. Along
with this new development, attempts were made
to quantify a countrys institutional quality to
enable cross-country analyses and to derive pol-
icy advice. Similar to the study of quality of life
and well-being, this process of quantification is
based on the assumption that governance repre-
sents a phenomenon that cannot be observed
directly. Instead it needs to be measured indi-
rectly through different instruments or indices,
derived from data assembled mostly at the
microlevel through expert interviews or survey
questionnaires. Most data stem from interviews
with managers, country experts, and NGOs and in
101 A
parts from surveys with citizens. Hence, based on
a prior theoretical reasoning about what is sup-
posed to be measured when individuals are asked A
about a certain component of governance (e.g.,
law and order, administrative hurdles to start
a business, their perception of corruption, risk of
expropriation by the government), the criteria of
reliability and the validity of the measurements
should represent standard requirements for the
assessment of the unobserved phenomena related
to good governance or institutional quality. The
subjective assessments by respondents of the fea-
tures of governance from each country then result
in different measures or indices which match
more or less these criteria. In a last step, these
measures may be aggregated or combined with
other sources to form sets of government
indicators.
Most prominently, the Governance Indicator
Project (GIP) headed by Daniel Kaufmann and
colleagues (see, e.g., Kaufmann, Kraay, &
Mastruzzi, 2006) was introduced at the World
Bank to provide scientists, donors, politicians,
and investors with a broad database on the level
of governmental quality around the world. Since
its introduction in 1996, the authors have used
a range of up to more than 20 surveys or
subindices to construct a set of six indicators
that cover different domains of governance,
assigning a country score ranging from -2.5 to
2.5 for each one of the following six domains:
control of corruption, rule of law, regulatory qual-
ity, government effectiveness, political stability,
and voice and accountability (for definitions and
technical details, see Kaufmann et al., 2006).
Other organizations have created similar indices
for certain phenomena related to good gover-
nance, like the Corruption Perception Index
(CPI) established by Transparency International
in 1995 or the Polity IV database. Furthermore,
risk ratings have been proposed to reflect the qual-
ity of the institutional framework in a country.
Examples are the International Country Risk
Guide and several Political Risk Service indices
provided by the private organization PRS Group.
For most of these organizations, the emphasis has
so far been put on establishing a broad database
that covers all parts of the world, thus increasing
A 102
the number of valid cases and providing higher
degrees of freedom within empirical cross-
country studies.
The broad availability of the data has produced
often cited articles in the field of economics and
political economy (see, e.g., Johnson et al., 1998;
La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, & Vishny,
1999; Rodrik, Subramanian, & Trebbi, 2004,
Treisman, 2007). Within in these studies, gover-
nance indicators have been used as both depen-
dent and independent variables, and the research
questions have mostly dealt with the relationship
between measures for good governance and vari-
ables such as income per capita, literacy rates,
stock of human capital, or economic growth
rates. The recent economic success of countries
like China along with contradicting evidence on
the direction of the causality between, e.g., eco-
nomic growth and measures of good governance
has enhanced a debate about the concept of gov-
ernance and the way governance should be mea-
sured. As the most comprehensive and broadest
source for data on governance, the discussion
hereafter about the promises and pitfalls of mea-
suring governance will focus on the World Banks
GIP dataset of Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi
(KKM hereafter). In a nutshell, questions about
the validity of these governance indicators have
been raised within the scientific community by
(1) addressing the vagueness of some the defini-
tions related to the latent phenomena of gover-
nance (content or concept validity) and by
(2) scrutinizing the measurement properties of
the indicators regarding the mode of data collec-
tion and aggregation. Additionally, (3) researchers
have questioned the construct validity of gov-
ernance indicators. The main challenge concerns
the strategy of combining and aggregating several
indices of the same phenomena of interest into
a single indicator (validity vs. reliability).
(4) This aggregation of different data sources
into a single score sacrifices the capability to
differentiate between indicators. With a high
degree of dimensionality, one will remain unable
to discriminate from other constructs closely
related to features of governance that are still
theoretically distinct ( discriminant validity).
Unfortunately, KKM seldom address these
Aggregated Governance Indicators
standards with regard to measuring governance
in their publications on the GIP; even worse, the
broad acceptance and usefulness of these
measurement criteria are sometimes openly put
into question by them (see the discussion in
Thomas 2010 and Kaufmann et al., 2007, 2010).
The problems will be discussed in order.
Discussion
1. The issue of weak content validity starts with
a lack of definitional clarity and conceptual
ambiguity in the literature on governance.
These problems are best addressed in Kurtz
and Schrank (2007a, 543, 2007b) and also
laid out by Glaeser et al. (2004, 9): The former
underline the importance of the contextuality
of concepts and definitions of traits like cor-
ruption or government effectiveness. They
state that governance may be too broad of
a term to be measured across the globe in
uniform fashion. Sticking to a uniform con-
cept of governance for measurement purposes
most likely introduces a normative element
by contrasting private or decentralized provi-
sion of common goods as positive and the
centralized, hierarchical provision as ulti-
mately negative (see UNESCO, 1998 for
a discussion). Furthermore, the authors as
well as Glaeser et al. (2004) clarify that cur-
rent governance indicators, although follow-
ing the footsteps of North and his ideas on the
long-term impact of institutions as constraints
of social, political, and economic life, do not
measure the variation of constraints but rather
assess the outcomes of these constraints. This
is first and foremost a result of missing con-
ceptual clarity, as Kurtz and Schrank have
argued (2007, 563564). By relying on micro
data of respondents perceptions of govern-
mental quality, KKM claim to measure the
variation in institutional constraints but
more likely end up assessing the perception
of short-run outcomes of different levels of
governmental effectiveness.
2. Hawken and Munck (2011) emphasize
that the KKMs measure of control of
Aggregated Governance Indicators
corruption violates one basic requirement:
A measurement itself must not be related to
the way one arrives at the measured score.
They show how the levels of reported percep-
tion of corruption are systematically related to
the source of the data, with expert ratings
(such as risk agencies) perceiving countries
as more corrupt than the countrys citizens or
representatives from multilateral development
banks. If evaluations are influenced by raters
or evaluators, it will represent nonrandom,
systematic measurement error (King et al.,
1994, 155156; Bollen, 2009, 370371). Sum-
marizing the points (1) and (2), studies that use
governance indicators as independent vari-
ables to explain variation in, e.g., income per
capita or economic growth rates without
caution face criticism for being either tauto-
logical (see Kurtz & Schranck, 2007b, 567 or
Langbein and Knack, 2010, 351352) or are
biased by method effects.
3. There are also doubts on whether governance
indicators measure the construct that is sup-
posed to be measured and thus whether the
indicators possess measurement validity at
all. It remains unclear whether governance
indicators have construct validity which
. . .assesses whether a measure relates to
other observed variables in a way that is con-
sistent with theoretically derived predictions
(Bollen, 1989, 188). KKM suggest that the
combination of different subindices of the
same phenomena will cancel out these mea-
surement errors and will simultaneously
assure validity (see the comments in
Kaufmann, Kraay, & Mastruzzi, 2007, 559).
As several authors have made clear, this strat-
egy rather improves the reliability of the
respective governance indicator only if mea-
surement errors are uncorrelated (see for
instance TIs technical report (Lambsdorff
2008, 2) or the remarks in Brewer et al.,
(2009). Empirical evidence cited here and
therein suggests that this assumption appears
to be violated. Hence, several authors have
now come forward with the claim that by
aggregating different subindices that correlate
highly with each other, index makers may
103 A
improve reliability but will simultaneously
reduce construct validity (see Brewer,
Choi, & Walker, 2007, 214, Neumann & A
Graeff, 2010). The weighting procedures
applied in the process of aggregating the
subindices add to these problems instead of
solving them (Hawken & Munck, 2011, 13).
4. Finally, consider the subcomponents of con-
struct validity, convergent and discriminant
validity (Campbell & Fiske, 1959). The for-
mer refers to the characteristic of an indicator
that theoretically derived relationships
between two constructs (e.g., corruption and
growth per capita) can be tested by indicator
IM (e.g., the CPI) and this relationship can
later be confirmed by other indicators IN6M
of the same construct (e.g., with the CCI of
the World Bank). The latter refers to the
requirement that an indicator I of a construct
S that has convergent validity needs to dis-
criminate from other constructs distinctly
from S. The evidence assembled over the
years can be summarized as follows: First,
the ever increasing conflicting results in stud-
ies that apply diverse governance indicators to
test predictions about the causes or effects
of governance call the convergent validity of
these indicators into question. Second and
more importantly, due to the strategy of aggre-
gating numerous subindices mentioned above,
indicators appear unable to discriminate
among concepts that are theoretically distinct.
Langbein and Knack (2010) state that the six
subdimensions of governance as proposed by
KKM and captured in the WGIs cannot be
distinguished empirically. Neumann and
Graeff (2010, 861) have proposed that the
aggregation of several indices with the aim
of improving reliability and establishing con-
vergent validity will create a trade-off
between the measurement properties: The
more dimensions an indicator captures either
due to broad definitions or by its calculation
from numerous subindices, the higher the like-
lihood the index will abandon the discriminat-
ing feature an indicator should possess to
prevent it from being a catch all variable in
cross-country analyses.
A 104
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Bollen, K. A. (1989). Structural equations with latent
variables (Wiley Series in Probability and Mathemat-
ical Statistics). New York: Wiley.
Bollen, K. A. (2009). Liberal democracy series I,
19721988: Definition, measurement, and trajectories.
Electoral Studies, 28, 368374.
Brewer, G. A., Choi, Y., & Walker, R. M. (2007).
Accountability, corruption and government effective-
ness in Asia: An exploration of World Bank gover-
nance indicators. International Public Management
Review, 8(2), 200217.
Campbell, D. T., & Fiske, D. W. (1959). Convergent and
discriminant validation by the multitraitmultimethod
matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56(2), 81105.
Glaeser, E., La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F., &
Shleifer, A. (2004). Do Institutions Cause Growth?
National Bureau of Economic Research Working
Paper 10568, 154.
Hawken, A., Munck, G.L. (2011). Does the evaluator
make a difference? Measurement validity in corrup-
tion research. Political Concepts Working Paper
Series, 48, IPSA Committee on Concepts and
Methods.
Johnson, S., Kaufmann, D., Zoido-Lobaton, P. (1998).
Regulatory discretion and corruption. American
Economic Review, 88(2), 387392.
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2006).
Governance Matters V: Aggregate and Individual
Governance Indicators for 19962005. The World
Bank.
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2007).
Growth and governance: A reply. Journal of Politics,
69(2), 555562.
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2010).
Response to what do the worldwide governance indi-
cators measure? European Journal of Development
Research, 22, 5558.
King, G., Keohane, R.O., & Verba, S. (1994). Designing
social inquiry: scientific inference in qualitative
research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Kurtz, M.J., & Schrank, A. 2007a. Growth and
governance: models, measures, and mechanisms.
The Journal of Politics, 69(2), 538554.
Kurtz, M.J., & Schrank, A. (2007b). Growth and gover-
nance: a defense. The Journal of Politics, 69(2),
563569.
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R. (1999). The quality of government. The Journal of
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corruption perceptions index 2008. Transparency
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multimethod approach to pinpoint the validity of
Aggregation Problem
aggregated governance indicators. Quality and Quan-
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national Social Science Journal, 50, 155.
Aggregation Problem
Giuseppe Munda
Department of Economics and Economic
History, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona,
Barcelona, Spain
Definition
From a formal point of view, a composite indicator
is an aggregate of all dimensions, objectives,
individual indicators, and variables used for its
construction. This implies that what defines
a composite indicator is the set of properties under-
lying its mathematical aggregation convention.
Description
Composite indicators are more and more popular;
many international organizations propose their
use in search of evidence-based policy (Nardo
et al., 2008). They are very common in fields
such as economic and business statistics and are
used in a variety of policy domains such as indus-
trial competitiveness, sustainable development,
quality of life assessment, globalization, innova-
tion, or academic performance. From a formal
point of view, a composite indicator is an aggre-
gate of all dimensions, objectives, individual
indicators, and variables used for its construction.
Aggregation Problem
This implies that what defines a composite indi-
cator is the set of properties underlying its aggre-
gation convention.
The discrete aggregation problem can be
described in the following way (Munda, 2008):
A is a finite set of N objects to be evaluated; M is
the number of different individual indicators gm
m 1, 2,. . ., M considered relevant in a policy
problem, where the object a is evaluated to be
better than object b (both belonging to the set A)
according to the m-th point of view if gm(a) > gm
(b); and W is a set of individual indicator weights
PM
W {wm}, m 1,2,. . ., M, with wm 1,
m1
which can be importance coefficients or trade-
offs. In synthesis, the information contained in
the impact matrix are:
Intensity of preference (when quantitative
indicator scores are present)
Number of indicators in favor of a given object
(country, region, city, etc.) to be ranked
Weight attached to each single indicator
Relationship of each single object with all the
other objects to be ranked
Combinations of this information generate
different aggregation conventions, that is, manip-
ulation rules of the available information to arrive
at a preference structure generating the compos-
ite indicator. The aggregation of several indica-
tors implies taking a position on the fundamental
issue of compensability. Compensability refers to
the existence of trade-offs, that is, the possibility
of offsetting a disadvantage on some indicators
by a sufficiently large advantage on another
indicator, whereas smaller advantages would
not do the same. Thus, a preference relation is
non-compensatory if no trade-off occurs and is
compensatory otherwise. The use of weights with
intensity of preference originates compensatory
aggregation methods and gives the meaning of
trade-offs to the weights. On the contrary, the use
of weights with ordinal indicator scores origi-
nates non-compensatory aggregation procedures
and gives the weights the meaning of importance
coefficients (Bouyssou & Vansnick, 1986).
Trade-offs can be evaluated only if one knows
the quantitative scores of the indicators involved
105 A
without any uncertainty. On the contrary, the
concept of importance is connected to the crite-
rion itself and NOT with its quantification. If A
protected species are considered more, equal, or
less important than GDP, this is a quality of the
indicators which is independent from any mea-
surement scale one may use. As clearly shown by
Anderson and Zalinski (1988), when weights
depend on the range of variable scores, such as
in the context of a linear aggregation rule, the
interpretation of weights as a measurement of the
psychological concept of importance is always
completely inappropriate. The concept of impor-
tance I am using here can be classified as sym-
metrical importance, that is, if we have two non-
equal numbers to construct a vector in R2, then it
is preferable to place the greatest number in the
position corresponding to the most important cri-
terion (Podinovskii, 1994, p. 241).
Although various functional forms for the
underlying aggregation rules of a composite
indicator have been developed in the literature, in
the standard practice, a composite indicator is very
often constructed by using a weighted linear aggre-
gation rule applied to a set of variables. However,
Munda and Nardo (2009) analyze the case of
aggregation rules in the framework of composite
indicators and conclude that the use of nonlinear/
non-compensatory aggregation rules to construct
composite indicators is compulsory for reasons of
theoretical consistency when weights with the
meaning of importance coefficients are used or
when the assumption of preferential independence
does not hold. Moreover, in standard linear com-
posite indicators, compensability among the
different individual indicators is always assumed;
this implies complete substitutability among the
various components considered. For example, in
a hypothetical sustainability index, economic
growth can always substitute any environmental
destruction or inside, for example, the environ-
mental dimension; clean air can compensate for
a loss of potable water. From a normative point of
view, such a complete compensability is often not
desirable. A search for alternative mathematical
aggregation rules is then needed. Here, I try to
revise the theoretical debate on aggregation rules
A 106 Aggregation Problem

by looking at contributions from both voting the- Aggregation Problem, Table 1 An original
ory and multi-criteria decision analysis. This Condorcets numerical example (Source: Condorcet,
1785)
cross-fertilization helps in clarifying many ambig-
uous issues still present in the literature and allows Number of indicators 23 17 2 10 8
discussing the key assumptions that may change a b b c c
the evaluation of an aggregation rule easily, when b c a a b
c a c b a
a composite indicator has to be constructed.
Vansnick (1990) showed that the two main
approaches in mathematical aggregation conven-
Aggregation Problem, Table 2 A frequency matrix
tions, that is, the compensatory and non- derived from Table 6.4
compensatory ones can be directly derived from
Objects
the seminal work in social choice of Borda (father
Ranking a b c Points
of the compensatory approach) and Condorcet
1st 23 19 18 2
(father of the non-compensatory approach). 2nd 12 31 17 1
The debate on the relative merits of Borda and 3rd 25 10 25 0
Condorcet consistent voting rules is a very old
one. Indeed, according to McLean (1990), these
rules were already known in the medieval age, Aggregation Problem, Table 3 Outranking matrix
when Ramon Lull (12351315) proposed derived from Table 6.4
a Condorcet method (1785) and Nicolas Cusanus a b c
(14011464) proposed a Borda method (1784). a 0 33 25
A first topic to start with is no doubt Arrows b 27 0 42
impossibility theorem (Arrow, 1963). c 35 18 0
A legitimate question arises: does this paradoxi-
cal result apply to the discrete aggregation prob-
lem too? Arrow and Raynaud (1986, pp. 1723)
answer this question in the affirmative: transitive property, a cycle exists, and no object
a consequence of this theorem is that no perfect can be selected. Let us then try the application of
aggregation convention can exist. Reasonable Condorcet consistent rules.
aggregation procedures must then be found. At From this example, we might conclude that the
this point, the question arises: in the framework Borda rule (or any scoring rule) is more effective
of composite indicators, can we choose between since an alternative is always selected, while the
Borda and Condorcet aggregation rules on some Condorcet one sometimes leads to an irreducible
theoretical and/or practical grounds? indecisiveness. It seems appropriate then to know
Lets consider a numerical example with 60 more about the properties hold by the Borda rule.
indicators and three objects; this example showed Let us examine again the outranking matrix
in Table 1 is due to Condorcet himself. presented in Table 3. From this matrix, we can
The corresponding frequency matrix is realize that 33 indicators are in favor of object a,
showed in Table 2. while only 27 are in favor of object b. So
By applying Borda scoring rule, the following a legitimate question is why the Borda rule
results are obtained: ranks b before a? This is mainly due to the fact
a 58, b 69, c 53; thus, object b is univo- that the Borda rule is based on the concept of
cally selected. intensity of preference, while the Condorcet rule
Lets now apply the Condorcet rule. The only uses the number of indicators. In the frame-
corresponding outranking matrix is the one work of Borda rule and all scoring methods in
showed in Table 3. general, the intensity of preference is measured
In this case, the concordance threshold is 31. by the scores given according to the rank posi-
They are aPb, bPc, and cPa; thus, due to the tions. This implies that compensation is allowed.
Aggregation Problem 107 A
Aggregation Problem, Table 4 Fishburn numerical seen, a basic problem inherent in the Condorcets
example on Borda rule approach is the presence of cycles. Condorcet
Number of indicators 3 2 2 himself was aware of the problem of cycles in A
c b a his approach; he built examples to explain it (as
b a d the one shown in Table 1), and he was even close
a d c to find a consistent rule able to rank any number
d c b of alternatives when cycles are present. Attempts
of clarifying, fully understanding, and
axiomatizing Condorcet approach for solving
Moreover, the rank position of a given object cycles have been mainly done by Kemeny
depends on the number of objects considered. (1959), who made the first intelligible description
This implies that the mutual preference relation of the Condorcet approach, and by Young and
of a given pair of objects may change according Levenglick (1978) who made its clearest exposi-
to the objects considered. As a consequence, pref- tion and complete axiomatization. For this rea-
erence reversal phenomena may easily occur, son, I call this approach the Condorcet-Kemeny-
and of course the axiom of independence of irrel- Young-Levenglick ranking procedure, in short
evant alternatives is not respected. This problem the C-K-Y-L ranking procedure.
has been extensively studied by Fishburn (1984). Its main methodological foundation is the max-
Let us examine the numerical example presented imum likelihood concept. In fact, the C-K-Y-L
in Table 4. ranking procedure may be considered one of its
By applying Borda scoring rule, the following earliest applications. The maximum likelihood
results are obtained: ranking of alternatives, in a composite indicator
a 13, b 12, c 11, d 6; thus, object a is framework, is the ranking supported by the maxi-
chosen. Let us now suppose that object d is mum number of indicators for each pair-wise com-
removed from the analysis. Since d was at the parison, summed over all pairs of objects. By
bottom of the ranking, nobody should have any applying the C-K-Y-L ranking procedure to the
reasonable doubt that object a is still the best numerical example of Table 1, the following six
alternative. By applying Borda scoring rule, the possible rankings with the corresponding scores
following results are obtained: a 6, b 7, are obtained:
c 8; thus, object c is now chosen! Unfortu-
nately, Borda rule is fully dependent on irrele-
a b c 100
vant alternatives, and preference reversals can b c a 104
happen with an extreme high frequency. c a b 86
At this point, we need to tackle the issue of b a c 94
when, in a composite indicator framework, it is c b a 80
better to use a Condorcet consistent rule or a a c b 76
scoring method. Given that there is a consensus
in the literature that the Condorcet theory of The ranking b -> c -> a is the final result. The
voting is non-compensatory while a Borda one original Condorcet problem has been solved in
is fully compensatory, a first conclusion is that a satisfactory way.
when one wishes to have weights as importance Saari and Merlin (2000) explicitly state that
coefficients, there is a need for a Condorcet the C-K-Y-L ranking procedure (cited by them as
approach while a Borda one is desirable when the Kemenys rule) enjoys remarkable proper-
weights are meaningful in the form of trade- ties, one of these being consistency in societal
offs. Moreover, a Condorcet approach is useful rankings when candidates are dropped. . .. To
for generating a ranking of the available objects, underscore this kemenys rule property, recall
while a Borda one is more useful for isolating one how dropping candidates can cause the Borda
object considered the best. However, as we have count societal ranking to radically change . . .
A 108
The unexpected, troubling fact is that Kemenys
rule achieves its consistency by weakening the
crucial assumption about the individual rational-
ity of the voters (Saari & Merlin, 2000, p. 404).
Thus, they conclude that The Kemenys rule
structure and the consistency of the Kemenys
rule words are impressive; the reasons why they
occur are worrisome (Saari & Merlin, 2000,
p. 431). Indeed, the argument given by Saari
and Merlin against the C-K-Y-L ranking proce-
dure is a serious one. Lets then investigate it
more deeply. First of all, lets understand what
is meant by individual rationality. In Saaris
words (Saari, 2000, p. 35), Transitivity is
a sequencing condition which requires the pair-
wise rankings to mimic the ordering properties of
points on the line. For instance, if a voter prefers
X to Y and Y to Z, then the voter must prefer X to
Z. A voter with transitive preferences is called
rational; a voter with non-transitive preferences
is called irrational. The underlying assumption
of this definition is the identification of human
rationality with consistency, and this can be crit-
icized from many points of view. Simon (1983)
notes that humans have at their disposal neither
the facts nor the consistent structure of values nor
the reasoning power needed to apply the princi-
ples of utility theory. In microeconomics, where
the assumption that an economic agent is always
a utility maximize is a fundamental one, it is
generally admitted that this behavioral assump-
tion has a predictive meaning and not
a descriptive one. In particular, Luce (1956)
noted that a down-to-earth preference modeling
should imply the use of indifference and prefer-
ence thresholds; this implies exactly the loss of
the transitivity property of at least the indiffer-
ence relation. Surprisingly enough, we can con-
clude that an appropriate preference modeling
should be based on the weakening the crucial
assumption about the individual rationality, and
this is highly desirable! Moreover, one has to
have clear why a C-K-Y-L ranking procedure is
needed; it answers to a precise problem of the
original Condorcet proposal, that is, the issue of
cycles. It is then clear that we have to evaluate
this procedure in the framework of the cycle
issue. As we know, cycles are originated exactly
Aggregation Problem
by the transitivity of the preference relations;
thus, it is clear that any attempt to solve cycles
has to weaken this property. The point is to do this
by the less arbitrariness as possible, and this is
exactly what the C-K-Y-L ranking procedure
does.
Discussion
The following conclusions can be drawn. Scoring
methods present the advantage of always
selecting one final solution (but not a final rank-
ing); thus, their degree of decisiveness is very
high. However, one has to accept that a scoring
method always implies to transform (arbitrarily)
an original ordinal scale of measurement into
a quantitative one, and this implies to always
have a compensatory aggregation rule. Compen-
sability, which is based on the concept of inten-
sity of preference, causes a high probability of
preference reversal phenomena. Weights should
always be in the form of trade-offs. A strong
argument in favor of a Borda scoring rule is that
transitivity of the preference relation is never
weakened; thus, the assumption of individual
rationality always applies.
Condorcet consistent rules are adequate for
finding rankings of objects. They present
a lower probability of rank reversal than any
scoring method. They are not compensatory;
thus, weights can be treated as importance coef-
ficients. A weak point is the high probability of
presence of cycles; their solution normally
implies ad hoc rules of thumb. By means of the
C-K-Y-L approach, cycles can be tackled in
a general way with no arbitrariness. The indepen-
dence of irrelevant alternatives axiom is not ful-
filled but the C-K-Y-L rule. This rule is anyway
much more stable than any Borda count; how-
ever, the cost of this stability is the weakening of
the individual rationality assumption (this loss of
the transitivity assumption might seem a wild
approach if considered by a purely social choice
theoretical point of view; however, it can be
justified on the light of empirical grounds, as
shown, e.g., by Luce and Simon). Moreover,
sometimes feasible rankings are lost. In the
framework of composite indicators, sometimes
compensability should be limited and rankings
Aging and Institutionalization
should be supplied; furthermore, transitivity rela-
tion can be weakened, and neutrality should in
principle always be kept. Scoring methods are
then sometimes less adequate than Condorcet-
based approaches to rank feasible objects.
However, an important problem to be solved is
the computation of the C-K-Y-L ranking scores
when many objects are present. One should note
that the number of permutations can easily
become unmanageable; for example, when 10
objects are present, it is 10! 3,628,800. Moulin
(1988, p. 312) clearly states that the Kemeny
method (that I call the C-K-Y-L approach) is
the correct method for ranking objects and
that the only drawback of this aggregation
method is the difficulty in computing it when the
number of candidates grows. Indeed, this com-
putational drawback is very serious since the
Kemeny median order is NP-hard to compute.
Cross-References
Composite Index Construction
Composite Indicator(s)
Weighting Schemes
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17, 403438.
Simon, H. A. (1983). Reason in human affairs. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press.
Vansnick, J. C. (1990). Measurement theory and decision
aid. In C. A. Bana e Costa (Ed.), Readings in multiple
criteria decision aid (pp. 81100). Berlin: Springer.
Young, H. P., & Levenglick, A. (1978). A consistent
extension of Condorcets election principle. SIAM
Journal on Applied Mathematics, 35, 285300.
Aggression Against Children
Child Sexual Abuse
Aggression, Sibling
Violence in USA, Sibling
Aging and Institutionalization
Housing and Aging
A 110
Aging Population
Christelle Garrouste
Laboratoire dEconomie dOrleans (LEO), previous 200 years. Most developed countries
Orleans University, Orleans, France
Definition
Population ageing (or population aging) occurs
when the median age of a country or region rises,
i.e., when people live longer and have fewer
children. With the exception of 18 countries
termed by the United Nations demographic
outliers (United Nations, 2005), this process is
taking place in every country and region across
the globe. There are, however, significant varia-
tions across countries in terms of the degree, and
the pace, of these changes (United Nations
Population Division [UNDP], 2002).
Description
Population aging is a shift in the distribution
of a countrys population towards older ages.
This is usually reflected in an increase in the
populations mean and median age, a decline in
the proportion of the population composed
of children, and a rise in the proportion of
the population that is elderly. Population aging
is widespread across the world. It is most
advanced in the most highly developed countries.
However, research by the Oxford Institute of
Ageing (http://www.ageing.ox.ac.uk/), one of
the top institutions looking at global population
aging, has concluded that population aging has
slowed considerably in Europe and will have the
greatest future impact in Asia, especially as Asia
is in stage five of the demographic transition
model (Fig. 1).
The demographic transition (DT) is the
transition from high birth and death rates to low
birth and death rates as a country develops from
a preindustrial to an industrialized economic
system. The theory is based on an interpretation
of demographic history developed in 1929 by
Aging Population
the American demographer Warren Thompson
(18871973) (Thompson, 2003). Thompson
observed changes, or transitions, in birth and
death rates in industrialized societies over the
are in stage 3 or 4 of the model; the majority
of developing countries have reached stage 2
or 3. The model predicts a life expectancy ceiling
at stage 4, which is consistent with other
findings (Oeppen & Vaupel, 2002).
Although this model predicts ever-decreasing
fertility rates, recent data show that beyond
a certain level of development, fertility rates
increase again (Myrskyla, Kohler, & Billari,
2009). This corresponds to the hypothesis drawn
by Manton (1982) of a dynamic equilibrium.
Asia and Europe are the two regions where
a significant number of countries will face severe
population aging in the near future. In these
regions within 20 years, many countries will
face a situation where the largest population
cohort will be those over 65 and average age
will be approaching 50. Among the international
surveys addressing this new demographic chal-
lenge are the Survey on Health Ageing and
Retirement in Europe (SHARE) (http://www.
share-project.org/), the US Health and Retire-
ment Study (HRS) (http://hrsonline.isr.umich.
edu/), and the English Longitudinal Study of
Ageing (ELSA) (http://www.natcen.ac.uk/elsa/).
These three harmonized surveys collect social,
financial, and demographic data alongside medi-
cal data, including biomarkers.
They all reveal the existence of an effort-
reward imbalance (i.e., the imbalance between
high efforts spent at work and low rewards
received in terms of money, esteem, career
prospects, and job security) which predicts
intentions to retire early, both within and across
countries, as well as the existence of an unused
work capacity among 5064-year-olds with no
health problems limiting their ability to work.
They also reveal the existence of enormous
differences in income adequacy after retirement
across and within countries, and finally, they
also inform about volunteering activities, inter-
generational support, and health inequalities.
These findings are particularly important for
Aging Workers and the Quality of Life 111 A
Aging Population,
Fig. 1 A diagram of the Stage 1 2 3 4 5
demographic transition
model, including stage 5 Birth rate A
(Source: http://upload. 25 40
wikimedia.org/wikipedia/

Death rate per 1000 population

Birth rate per 1000 population

commons/8/8c/Stage5.jpg)
20
30

15 Death rate

20

10

10
5
Total population

0 0
Time

policy making as they provide evidence for the

estimation of the expected financial burden of Aging Workers and the Quality
this aging population. of Life

References
Manton, K. G. (1982). Changing concepts of morbidity and
mortality in the elderly population. The Milbank Memo-
rial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society, 60(2), 183244.
Myrskyla, M., Kohler, H. -P., & Billari, F. C. (2009).
Advances in development reverse fertility
declines. Nature, 460, 741743. Retrieved March 28,
2013, from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/
v460/n7256/abs/nature08230.html
Oeppen, J., & Vaupel, J. W. (2002). Broken limits to life
expectancy. Science, 296(5570), 10291031.
Thompson, W. (2003). Encyclopedia of population
(2nd ed., pp. 939940). New York: Macmillan
Reference. ISBN 0-02-865677-6.
United Nations. (2005). UN human development
report 2005. United Nations Development
Programme. Retrieved March 28, 2013, from
http://web.archive.org/web/20080527203423/http://
hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr05_complete.pdf
United Nations Population Division. (2002). World
population ageing: 19502050. New York: Author.
Aging Workers
Aging Workers and the Quality of Life
Nadia Steiber
Department Socioeconomics, Institute for
Sociology and Social Research, Vienna
University of Economics, Vienna, Austria
Synonyms
Ageism; Aging workers; Elderly workers QoL
Definition
The definition of older persons or older workers
for this matter varies across countries and con-
texts. According to the United Nations, for exam-
ple, older persons are those aged 60 and over.
EUROSTAT defines older workers as persons
aged 5564 in employment. This definition is
also used in the Lisbon agreements which had
set a target of increasing the average EU employ-
ment rate among older workers to 50 % by 2010.
In the occupational health literature, earlier ages
of 45 or 50 years tend to be used as the base
A 112
criterion for inclusion in studies of aging
workers because the inclusion of younger
aging workers is important for studying the
effect of prevention measures (see Ilmarinen,
2001).
This entry reviews research on the quality of
life (QoL) of older workers.
Description
This entry is concerned with the quality of life
(QoL) of older workers, focusing on their sub-
jective well-being, their life satisfaction and
happiness, as well as the quality of their jobs
and the quality of their social relations ( social
integration, social well-being) as indicators of
their QoL. In surveying the QoL among older
workers, we need to be aware that they represent
a select group of older persons, that is, those who
have not yet left the active labor force. Older
persons with poorer health or less rewarding
work experiences are more likely to have already
retired (Lumsdaine & Mitchell, 1999; Nicoletti &
Peracchi, 2001; Lund & Villadsen, 2005;
Siegrist, Wahrendort, von dem Knesebeck,
J
urges, & Borsch-Supan, 2006; Kubicek,
Korunka, Hoonakker, & Raymo, 2010) an
instance which is likely to introduce an upward
bias in estimates of older workers quality of
work and life.
The entry is structured as follows: It starts with
the outline of the state of knowledge as concerns
the factors typically assumed to shape the QoL,
that is, the quality of paid work, social relations,
and health. The second part of the entry is then
concerned with the QoL of older workers in terms
of their overall well-being, life satisfaction, and
happiness.
Age and the Quality of Work
The quality of jobs and work environments is an
important factor contributing to worker well-
being in all age groups (Bonsang & Van Soest,
2012). Comparing older workers quality of work
with that of younger workers, we need to be
aware of compositional differences across age
Aging Workers and the Quality of Life
groups. Older workers tend to have lower formal
educational credentials, they are overrepresented
among the self-employed, and they are more
likely to engage in agricultural work. Moreover,
they less commonly work in temporary jobs than
younger workers (Zissimopoulos & Karoly, 2007;
Villosio, Di Pierro, Giordanengo, Pasqua, &
Richiardi, 2008).
Surveys of working conditions in Europe (see
Villosio et al., 2008) show that workers aged over
55 are less likely to be exposed to physical risks at
work when compared to their younger counter-
parts. The relation with age is not linear, how-
ever. The highest levels of exposure fall to the
intermediate age group (age 4555, especially
among women). Also job anxiety has been
found to be highest in the middle years (e.g.,
Warr, 1992). In terms of the quality of work,
older workers in Europe (here defined as those
aged 55 and over) have been found to enjoy
a higher degree of autonomy ( task discretion)
and control over their working time arrangements
as well as lower levels of work intensity and
job insecurity than younger workers (Villosio
et al., 2008; see also Pailhe, 2005; Felstead,
2010). Moreover, older workers tend to be more
satisfied with their possibilities to reconcile work
activities with family and social commitments
( work-life balance, see Villosio et al., 2008).
In part, the reported findings that point to
comparatively more favorable working condi-
tions among older workers may merely be due
to selectivity. That is, those who used to be
exposed to physical risks at work, those who
worked in jobs that involved high levels of men-
tal strain, or those who had less rewarding jobs in
intrinsic terms (e.g., lower task quality and job
control) are more likely to have already retired
(e.g., Blekesaune & Solem, 2005. For this reason,
the quality of work of older workers (i.e., those
who have not yet retired) might be overstated in
survey research. In part, the comparatively higher
levels of job control ( task discretion) among
older workers are due to the age-graded compo-
sition of the labor force with older workers being
overrepresented in the agricultural sector and in
self-employment. To some degree, the relatively
Aging Workers and the Quality of Life
favorable working conditions among older
workers may also reflect a successful adaptation
of the world of work to an aging workforce. To
date, it is unclear which of these explanations
weighs strongest because we lack consistent evi-
dence from empirical models that control for
sample selectivity.
At all events, older workers appear to be dis-
advantaged in other respects. For instance, the
incidence of Sunday work and of long working
hours increases with workers age, in most part
owing to the fact that older workers are often self-
employed or employed in the agricultural sector.
Moreover, and most central to notions of work
quality, older workers receive less job-related
training than younger workers, and they partic-
ipate in lifelong learning to a lesser extent
(Villosio et al., 2008; see also OECD, 2006;
Felstead, 2010). The hiring rates of older workers
also tend to be much lower than those of their
younger counterparts. Once older workers lose
their job, they face immense difficulties of find-
ing a new job (poor job projects), especially in
employment systems that combine strict employ-
ment protection (high firing costs) with steep age-
wage profiles (seniority wages, e.g., Hirsch, Mac-
Pherson, & Hardy, 2000; Daniel & Heywood,
2007; Heywood, Jirjahn, & Tsertsvardze, 2010)
and a social security system that foresees options
for early exit (DAddio, Keese, & Whitehouse,
2010; OECD, 2011).
Age and Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction can be viewed either as
a subjective indicator of peoples overall quality
of work or rather as the outcome of high-quality
work, that is, well-being at work as
a subdimension of the QoL. What has been
shown for the general population is also true for
the specific group of older workers, namely, that
aspects of jobs that are typically defined as char-
acteristics of high-quality jobs tend to increase
workers satisfaction with their jobs (see entry in
this volume on job satisfaction). Bonsang and
Van Soest (2012), for instance, show that for
workers aged 5064 the level of job satisfaction
is associated with opportunities to develop new
113 A
skills, job security, adequate support in difficult
situations, advancement opportunities, and rec-
ognition for the job. The most important of A
these factors is found to be recognition.
A negative relation with older workers job satis-
faction is found for heavy workloads.
Comparing the level of job satisfaction
between younger and older workers, prior
research tends to suggest that the relationship of
age with the level of well-being at work is
U-shaped (Warr, 1992; Cunningham, de la
Rosa, & Jex, 2008) or that it even takes the
shape of a J (with greater job satisfaction among
older workers than among youth, see, e.g., Clark,
Oswald, & Warr, 1996; see also Ducharme &
Martin, 2000). This pattern is also confirmed by
Bonsang and Van Soest (2012) who find that
among 5064-year-old workers, job satisfaction
increases with age. Yet again, selection processes
need to be borne in mind in which less satisfied
workers tend to retire earlier, while the more
satisfied continue working (Schnalzenberger,
Schneeweis, Winter-Ebmer, & Zweimuller,
2011). Part of the association of job satisfaction
with age (e.g., Clark et al., 1996) may also be the
result of cohort effects. Birth cohorts may differ
in their socialization with regard to work values
(Smola & Sutton, 2002; Macky, Gardner, & For-
syth, 2008). Those who have experienced times
of economic hardship when they entered the labor
market (e.g., during the Great Depression), for
instance, may have lower expectations with
regard to job rewards and may for this reason
express greater satisfaction with similar jobs.
Another mechanism that may explain higher
levels of job satisfaction at higher ages or later
in workers careers is experience. That is, over
time, the match between workers expectations
and the attributes of the jobs that they obtain can
be expected to improve, either because job expec-
tations get more moderate at higher ages (thus
leading to greater satisfaction with the same job)
or because those with more years of work expe-
rience are more likely to have moved to jobs that
better fit their needs (thus leading to greater sat-
isfaction due to job change; for review of these
theses, see Barnes-Farrell & Matthews, 2007).
A 114
The Health Status of Older Workers
Older persons health status has improved
over time. The life expectancy of both men
and women has risen. As a result of this devel-
opment, rising numbers of older persons are
physically able to engage in paid work. Since
health status is among the central factors con-
tributing to (early) retirement, those who partic-
ipate in paid work older workers tend to be
healthier than their non-employed counterparts.
For this reason, survey research tends to find
higher levels of health among workers in their
60s than among workers in their 50s at an age
when positive selectivity is not yet strong
(healthy worker effect, see Siegrist &
Wahrendorf 2008). A recent study using data
from the 4th European Working Conditions Sur-
vey, fielded in 2005, confirms the strong healthy
worker effect (Jones, Latreille, Sloane, &
Staneva, 2011). The raw data suggest that older
workers (age 5565) report no worse health out-
comes than those of prime age (age 3654). Yet,
after accounting for selection out of the labor mar-
ket based on poor health, older workers are found
to be significantly more likely to experience
adverse work-related health.
Whether or not the continued engagement in
paid work at older ages has a positive effect on
the health status of older persons is still debated.
Calvo (2006), for instance, finds that paid work
during the ages 5969 improves persons sub-
jective health (controlling for prior health status
in a longitudinal study). Yet, the interactive
relations between age, work, and health are
complex, and the causal chain of effects difficult
to test.
There is a growing interest in understanding
the relation between working conditions and the
health status of workers. Unfavorable working
conditions may accelerate the age-related deteri-
oration of peoples health (Ilmarinen, 2001).
Using data from the 2004 Survey of Health and
Retirement in Europe (SHARE), Debrand and
Lengagne (2008) find that the health status of
older workers is negatively associated with levels
of job demand (e.g., work pressure and stress
due to a heavy workload), a lack of support and
feelings of job insecurity, while it is positively
Aging Workers and the Quality of Life
associated with job rewards (e.g., pay adequacy,
development opportunities at work, receipt of
recognition) and in the case of women also with
job control ( task discretion).
Social Integration of Older Workers
Social integration is an important factor deter-
minant of social well-being and the QoL, espe-
cially among older people who are commonly said
to be at risk of social isolation (see Cornwell,
Laumann, & Schumm, 2008; Kohli, Hank, &
Kunemund, 2009; Sirven & Debrand, 2008).
Social connectedness at older ages has been
found to have beneficial effects on a variety of
QoL outcomes including health, subjective well-
being, and life expectancy (see entry in this vol-
ume on social integration; see also Sirven &
Debrand, 2008). Social connectedness via
employment and social relations at the workplace
are thus often argued to benefit the QoL of older
adults. Social interactions in work groups and
especially social support received from coworkers
have been shown to significantly contribute to
job satisfaction (Ducharme & Martin, 2000).
Involuntary job loss (displacement), by contrast,
has been shown to have negative, long-term
effects on the involvement with various forms of
social participation (Brand & Burgard, 2008).
The Overall Well-Being of Older Workers
The final section focuses on two indicators of the
general well-being and QoL of older workers, that
is, their life satisfaction and happiness. The
findings on the relationship between age and life
satisfaction are inconsistent. There is some agree-
ment across recent studies that life satisfaction
drops at very high ages, however (for review, see
entry in this volume on Oldest Old, Life Satis-
faction, and Health). One of the core factors shap-
ing life satisfaction is health, especially subjective
health, while the more objectively measured health
status appears to play a minor role (e.g., Berg,
Hassing, McClearn, & Johansson, 2006; cf. entry
on Oldest Old, Life Satisfaction, and Health).
There is abundant research on the life satis-
faction of older people. Yet, we have hardly any
information on the life satisfaction of the spe-
cific group of older people who are (still)
Aging Workers and the Quality of Life
gainfully employed. The scarce available evi-
dence suggests that high job quality (e.g., in
terms of task discretion) is associated with
higher life satisfaction among older workers
(age 5564, see Herzog, House, & Morgan,
1991). Whether or not gainful employment per
se has any beneficial effects on the life satis-
faction at higher ages is still debated. Warr,
Butcher, Robertson, and Callinan (2004), for
instance, found no significant differences in the
level of life satisfaction between employed and
retired people aged 5074. The impact of paid
work on affective well-being, however, was
found to differ depending on whether or not the
conventional retirement age has been reached.
While retirement appears to have a positive
impact on affective well-being below that age,
those who work beyond that age appear to feel
better than their retired counterparts (ibid.).
Concerning the relation of age with happiness,
Yang (2008) finds strong age effects suggesting
rising happiness over the life course as well as
cohort effects showing particularly low levels of
happiness in the baby-boomer cohorts.
An aspect not considered in this entry so far is
the impact of (relative) income on happiness.
Insofar as a high income relative to the social
comparison group positively affects happiness at
the individual level (e.g., Clark, Frijters, & Shields,
2008), we may assume that in labor markets with
steep age-wage profiles (seniority wages) older
workers are happier with their income than youn-
ger workers. In a similar vein, in countries where
retirees are economically much less well off than
their employed counterparts, retirement may be
associated with lower happiness. For more detail
on research concerned with the overall well-being,
life satisfaction, and happiness of older workers
when compared to older people who have already
left the active labor force.
Cross-References
Happiness
Job Satisfaction
Quality of Life
Retirement Effects, Quality of Life
115 A
Social Integration
Social Well-Being
Subjective Well-Being A
Task Discretion
Well-Being at Work
Work and Employment, Quality of
Work Life and Retirement Planning, Quality of
Work-Life Balance
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tics and role preference. British Journal of Psychology,
95, 297324.
Yang, Y. (2008). Social inequalities in happiness in the
United States, 1972 to 2004: An age-period-cohort
analysis. American Sociological Review, 73, 204236.
Zissimopoulos, J. M., & Karoly, L. A. (2007). Transitions
to self-employment at older ages: The role of wealth,
health, health insurance and other factors. Labour
Economics, 14, 269295.
Agnosticism
Religious Nonbelievers Psychological
Distress
AIDS Caregiver Scale
AI/AN Child Health Indicators
American Indian/Alaska Native Child Health
Indicators
AIDS Caregiver Scale
Patrick R. Ireland
Department of Social Sciences, Illinois Institute
of Technology, Chicago, IL, USA
Definition
The AIDS Caregiver Scale is an instrument to
assess self-reported emotional reactions among
caregivers.
Description
The AIDS Caregiver Scale was developed by
Joseph R. Ferrari and Josephine Pantano of
Cazenovia College and William McCown of
the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric
Research in New York State. During their first
months of working with a person with AIDS,
342 physicians, nurses, and therapists, all
experienced at providing AIDS patients with
interpersonal and social support (Ferrari,
McCown, & Pantano, 1993, p. 299), were
recruited at a large medical university center in
the US Northeast. They filled out a set of 16
items that examined their emotional experi-
ences and were rated along a 7-point Likert-
type scale that ranged from strongly agree to
strongly disagree. Anecdotal reports by
health providers of chronically ill individuals
generated the items. Two of them were subse-
quently dropped from the final set of questions.
Factor analysis yielded two 7-point subscales,
which were labeled satisfaction, measuring
personal fulfillment from helping others, and
distress, measuring negative affect or depres-
sion from doing the same:
117 A
Satisfaction Items
1. Helping people with HIV disease is worth-
while to me personally. A
4. My work with people with AIDS has helped
me feel I am fighting back.
6. My work with persons with HIV disease has
been psychologically or spiritually fulfilling.
7. Helping people with HIV disease can prolong
their lives.
9. I feel that through my efforts, I have genuinely
helped someone with HIV disease.
12. My work with HIV disease has added to
other areas of my life (such as career rela-
tionship, spirituality, family or friends or
psychological well-being).
13. Working with HIV-infected persons is
adding meaning to my life.
Stress Items
2. Helping someone with AIDS has burned
me out.
3. Working with someone with HIV has
exhausted me.
5. I get depressed because of my work with per-
sons with AIDS.
8. I am feeling moody or depressed because of
the intensity of work with persons with HIV
disease.
10. It is not worth the personal commitment or
emotional cost to help someone with HIV
disease.
11. I have seen so much suffering from HIV
disease that I feel I cannot help anyone else
with the virus.
14. I have seen too much suffering with AIDS for
me to effectively help anyone else.
Six months after they had volunteered, a subset of
251 participants (74 %) completed the scale
again. Results suggested that over time health-
care workers with AIDS patients reported greater
stress. No significant gender difference was
obtained for the total score. The scale had
a coefficient of .74 and a test-retest reliability
over 6 months of .68, indicating acceptable inter-
nal consistency and temporal stability. A second
study extended its utility with 51 male and 40
female AIDS caregivers in a buddy program,
which matched a volunteer with an AIDS patient,
A 118
from across upstate New York. Buddies experi-
enced personal joy, fulfillment, and pleasure from
providing social support. They reported discom-
fort, distress, and sorrow as the illness
progressed, however. The researchers concluded
that the AIDS Caregiver Scale appeared to be
a reliable inventory for research purposes.
One of 19 disease-specific instruments
pertaining to caregiver well-being identified by
Brown Universitys Center for Gerontology and
Health Care Research (http://www.chcr.brown.
edu/pcoc/ familyburden.htm), the AIDS Care-
giver Scale, has been adapted and validated for
use in many other settings, such as with health
providers of people with other diseases, fire-
fighters, seniors, and participants in service learn-
ing projects. Related instruments include the
Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale, the Caregiver
Activity Survey, the Caregiver Burden Inventory,
Caregivers Stress Scales, the Care-Giving Burden
Scale, the Caregiving Hassles Scale (Kinney &
Stephens 1989), the Caregiving Hassles and
Uplifts Scale, the Caregiving Self-Efficacy Scale,
Finding Meaning Through Caregiving, the
Frustration Scale, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory
Caregiver Distress Scale, the Screen for Caregiver
Burden, and the Subjective Burden Scale.
References
Ferrari, J. R., McCown, W., & Pantano, J. (1993).
Experiencing satisfaction and stress as an AIDS care
provider: The AIDS caregiver scale. Evaluation & the
Health Professions, 16(3), 295310.
Kinney, J. M., & Stephens, M. A. P. (1989). Caregiving
hassles scale: Assessing the daily hassles of caring for
a family member with dementia. The Gerontologist,
29(3), 328332.
Ailments
Disability and Health
Air Pollutant (AP)
Air Quality
Ailments
Air Pollution Index (API)
Air Quality
Air Quality
Dionisis Philippas
European Commission, Joint Research Centre,
Unit of Econometrics and Applied Statistics,
Ispra, Italy
Synonyms
Air pollutant (AP); Air Pollution Index (API); Air
Quality Health Index (AQHI); Air Quality Index
(AQI); Atmo Index; Comprehensive Air-Quality
Index (CAI); Indice di Qualita dellAria; Indice
Metropolitano de la Calidad del Aire
Definition
Air quality (AQ) is a measurement of the condi-
tion of air relative to the requirements of one or
more biotic species or to any human need or
purpose (European Commission Air Quality,
2011). The major air substances of pollutant are
ozone (O3), particulate matter (PM), carbon mon-
oxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen
dioxide (NO2) (United States Environmental Pro-
tection Agency [USEPA], 1999). Air quality
indicators (AQI) are published by government
public agencies to characterize the quality of the
air at a given location.
Description
The industrial, commercial, and domestic sources
are the main sources of air pollution in urban
and/or nonurban areas. In the last decades,
several countries have adopted various evaluation
methods and air quality indicators to measure the
air quality condition for their regional population.
Air Quality 119 A
The Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in Air Quality, Table 1 AQ numerical scale (USEPA)
every country are obligated to report air quality Air Quality
indicators for their region. However, towns and index Air Quality Condition Color
A
cities with 350,000 or fewer inhabitants are not 050 Good Green
required to report the air quality. An air quality 51100 Moderate Yellow
report must contain the reporting area and period, 101150 Unhealthy for sensitive Orange
groups
the substances of the pollutants, and the regional
151200 Unhealthy Red
Air Quality Index. When the AQ levels are not
201300 Very Unhealthy Purple
sufficient, then the air can lead to potentially
301500 Hazardous Marron
severe adverse health effects to a number of
sensitive groups of population and a large
percentage of the general population.
The AQI was developed by the US Environ- Air Quality, Table 2 Air pollutants and sensitivity of
mental Protection Agency (USEPA) with its latest population
version in 1999. Afterwards, many countries have Ozone People with lung disease, children, and old people
followed the AQI proxy. Cited examples are the PM People with heart or lung disease, older adults,
Atmo index formulated and made operational by and children
the French Environment Ministry, the Indice di CO People with heart disease
Qualita dellAria (IQA) index in Italy, the Air SO2 People with asthma
Quality Health Index (AQHI) in Canada, the Air
Pollution Index (API) reported by the Ministry of
Environmental Protection (MEP) in China, the
AQI by IMECA (Indice Metropolitano de la
Calidad del Aire) in Mexico, and the Comprehen- reference and a color code, in order to report
sive Air-Quality Index (CAI) by the Ministry of immediately and extensively the level of risk for
Environment in South Korea. the human health. The AQ by USEPA uses
These air quality indicators are similar in pat- a numeric scale from 1 to 500 and the chromatic
tern, taking into account the major air pollutant scale, as follows in Table 1:
concentrations on scale and provide general The scale for each pollutant is nonlinear as the
information on the overall air condition. final index score. A double score of AQI does not
The AQ is measured by a function which indicate twice the pollution or twice harmful for
converts the air pollutant concentration compo- the population.
nents to AQI weights of pollutant. Given the Air pollutant substances cause harm to
pollutants concentration values, the USEPA has humans and the environment. They can be
composed the AQI in 1999 as piecewise linear classified as natural or human-made and indoor
function, given as air pollutants quality and outdoor air pollutants.
Moreover, the air pollutants substances can be
IH  IL classified as primary (directly emitted from
AQI BH  BHL IL
BHH  BHL a process like vehicles gas) and secondary
(not emitted directly from a process like ground
Here, the notation is used: AQI is the air level ozone).
quality indicator, BH is the pollutant concentra- The major air pollutant substances are ozone
tion with breakpoints BHL for lower values and (O3), particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide
BHH values than BH, and the values IH and IL are (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen dioxide
the index breakpoints corresponding to BHH and (NO2) (USEPA, 1999). These air pollutants
BHL, respectively. have main effects to sensitive groups of popula-
Air quality indicators are divided into ranges tion, as follows (Table 2) (European Commission
and each range is assigned with a numeric scale Legislation, 2011):
A 120
Discussion
Air quality is a major component of human health
and quality of living. Therefore, the AQ reports
and, in general, the air quality indicators are
designed to inform the sensitive groups and the
general population about their risk exposure to
certain levels and types of air pollution (New Air
Quality Directive, European Commission, 2005).
The AQ reports and the air quality indicators
are useful toolbox to indicate the air quality
management objectives based on the lowest
achievable emissions rates, provide advices
on how to protect the human health, and improve
air quality by proposing behavioral changes,
regionally or globally. The information and
the forecast of these reports must be in time for
the public in order to make its choice. Some pol-
lutants (e.g., ozone) are changing rapidly during
the day, thus it is critical the air quality reports to
be accurate and timely.
References
European Commission Air Quality. (2011). Air quality.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/index.htm
European Commission Legislation. (2011). Air quality
standards. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/qual-
ity/standards.htm. Accessed May 2011.
New Air Quality Directive, European Commission.
(2005). New air quality directive. The communication
on thematic strategy on air pollution and the directive
on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/air/quality/legislation/
directive.htm. Accessed November 21, 2005.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (1999).
Guideline for reporting of daily air quality Air qual-
ity index. EPA-454/R-99-010, North Carolina: EPA.
www.epa.gov. Accessed May 2006.
Air Quality Health Index (AQHI)
Air Quality
Air Quality Index (AQI)
Air Quality
Air Quality Health Index (AQHI)
Aircraft Noise
Airport Noise
Airport Noise
Paul Goldschagg
University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Synonyms
Aircraft noise; Noise; Noise abatement
Definition
Noise is defined as unwanted sound. Typically,
noise can be irritating and annoying; can
interfere with normal everyday activities such
as rest and sleep, conversations, recreation,
and work; and if loud enough and long
enough can have health effects including hear-
ing loss, elevated blood pressure, and increased
heart rate.
Airport noise is noise pollution caused
by aircraft and usually refers to aircraft opera-
tions during takeoff and landing, in the vicinity
of airports. Contrary to the name, airport noise
affects surrounding neighborhoods, particu-
larly those lying under approach and departure
flight routes.
Description
Airports play a critical role in rapidly
transporting people and goods around the world,
contributing to social and economic develop-
ment and providing thousands of jobs (Kazda &
Caves, 2007). Demand for air travel is strong
and growing worldwide, significantly enhancing
social and economic benefits. The benefits of
airports come with costs, and the burden of
Airport Noise
these costs, one of which is health and well-being,
is borne by communities located close to
airport approach and departure flight routes.
The World Health Organization defines health
as a state of complete physical, mental, and
social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease and infirmity (World Health Organiza-
tion, 1999). The inclusion of well-being in the
definition expands the concept of health beyond
clinical significance, to encompass a number of
the effects of aircraft noise that are well known,
namely, annoyance, sleep disturbance, interfer-
ence with speech communication, and cognitive
and performance effects. The quality of life of
communities is negatively impacted by noise
from aircraft to which these communities are
exposed.
The amount of disturbance caused by aircraft
is related to the type of aircraft, the number of
flights, the loudness of the aircraft, the time of
flights, and the number of people disturbed.
Community reactions to noise can range from
irritation and annoyance to vigorous litigation
resulting in significant changes to an airports
operations and consequent efficiency.
Over the past six decades, substantial
changes to aircraft engine and airframe technol-
ogy have been made resulting in aircraft
becoming noticeably quieter as a result of
efforts by industry and regulatory agencies.
The United Nations body that regulates the
civil aviation industry is the International
Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAOs
responsibility extends to providing the regula-
tory framework within which aircraft noise is
controlled on a global scale. Older aircraft,
commonly referred to as Chapter 2 aircraft
based on ICAO classifications, have been
replaced in airline fleet renewal programs by
newer, more modern, and quieter aircraft,
referred to as Chapter 3 and (even quieter) 4
airplanes. Chapter 2 aircraft were equipped with
narrow-diameter low-bypass-ratio engines.
To produce the required thrust, these engines
accelerate relatively smaller amounts of air
to high velocities. The mixing of hot, fast-
moving exhaust gases with surrounding cold air
causes turbulent interactions resulting in high
121 A
acoustic energy. Newer Chapter 3 aircraft
and aircraft, certified to recently adopted and
appreciably quieter Chapter 4 standards, A
have relatively large-diameter high-bypass-ratio
engines. Aircraft certified according to Chapter 4
standards comply with the most stringent noise
certification requirements. The engines on
Chapter 3 and 4 aircraft have a large fan in
front, and most of the air drawn through the
engine to produce thrust bypasses the combustion
process taking place in the core of the engine.
The reduction in noise is a result of relatively
more air being accelerated to a lower velocity,
combined with the screening effect of the bypass
air, producing a less vigorous mixing with
exhaust air from the core of the engine.
While there is no doubt that aircraft have
become much quieter, a corresponding decrease
in the number of people affected by aircraft
noise has not necessarily been seen. It is widely
expected that the rate of traffic growth projected
in the future will more than offset the gains
made by more modern technology. The loudness
of noisy aircraft will be replaced by quieter but
more frequent disturbances. Airport regulatory
authorities, anti-aviation groups, and residential
communities, once they become beneficiaries
of technologically advanced modern quieter air-
craft, will increasingly find themselves locked
into conflict again over noise and associated
flight routes, frequency of flights, and times
of operation.
In an attempt to deal with the problem, ICAO
in 2001 endorsed the balanced approach
to aircraft noise control (International Civil
Aviation Organization [ICAO], 2001). This
approach consists of identifying the noise
problem at an airport and then analyzing the
various measures available to reduce noise
through the exploration of four principal but
interrelated elements:
Reduction of noise at source
Land use planning
Noise abatement operational procedures
Operating restrictions on aircraft, including
the potential for precluding the use of
a specific category of noisier aircraft at
a particular airport.
A 122
Many regulators and airport authorities
follow ICAOs balanced approach or use it as
a basis for addressing specific noise problems
caused by their operations. Nevertheless,
following the approach does not necessarily
guarantee that the problems will be solved
(Goldschagg, 2007). It is not surprising that the
effectiveness of aircraft noise contours and
aircraft noise regulation limiting noise levels to
certain values may provide the appearance
rather than the substance of a solution to
problems of community reaction to aircraft
noise (Fidell, 1999).
In 2007 the balanced approach guidance was
expanded to include people issues, intended to pro-
vide information on communication strategies, and
enhanced information for public access (ICAO
2007). This addition reflected a shift from technical
solutions to encouraging policymakers to interpret
the meaning of health and well-being more broadly
so that the effects of airport noise are considered as
a major issue in developing an aircraft noise man-
agement strategy.
Resolving ongoing existing and future airport
noise issues will involve all stakeholders in a sub-
stantial way. Airport developments will be subject
to environmental review, in order to determine and
understand the severity of the noise and to expedite
the implementation of quality of life-enhancing
ameliorative interventions (Horonjeff, McKelvey,
Sproule, & Young, 2010).
Cross-References
Noise
Traffic Noise Abatement
References
Fidell, S. (1999). Assessment of the effectiveness of air-
craft noise regulation. Noise & Health, 1, 3.
Goldschagg, P. L. (2007). Airport noise in South Africa
prediction models and their effect on land-use
planning. Stellenbosch.
Horonjeff, R., McKelvey, F. X., Sproule, W. J., & Young,
S. B. (2010). Planning and design of airports. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Alaska, Living Conditions of the Inupiat
International Civil Aviation Organisation. (2001).
Balanced approach to aircraft noise management.
Resource document. http://www.icao.int/icao/en/env/
noise.htm. International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Accessed 27 Feb 2011.
International Civil Aviation Organisation. (2007). The
balanced approach to aircraft noise management.
Resource document. http://www.icao.int/env/
Guidance_BalancedApproach_Noise.pdf. International
Civil Aviation Organisation. Accessed 15 March 2011.
Kazda, A., & Caves, R. E. (2007). Airport design and
operation. Oxford: Elsevier.
World Health Organisation. (1999). Guidelines for
community noise. Geneva: Author.
Alaska, Living Conditions of the
Inupiat
Peter P. Schweitzer
Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
University of Vienna, Wien, Austria
Synonyms
Inuit living conditions; Inupiat living conditions;
Last frontier, Alaska; Russian America
Description
Alaska, the self-stylized last frontier of the
United States, did not put a lot of emphasis on
issues of quality of life during its early colonial
years. When Russians showed up first in the
eighteenth century, the expansion was fueled by
the quest for fur-bearing sea mammals in Alaskan
waters. When the United States purchased
Russian America in 1867, Sewards Icebox
seemed of little economic interest to the new
owners. This changed dramatically with the
various gold rushes of the late nineteenth century,
which set in motion cycles of economic boom
and bust based on unsustainable exploitation of
natural (and mostly nonrenewable) resources
(Naske & Slotnick, 1987). It seems as if most of
the immigrants who made it north considered
life in Alaska as a cold nightmare, made
Alaska, Living Conditions of the Inupiat
somewhat tolerable by the prospect of striking it
rich (and moving south).
World War II changed the face of Alaska
forever. With the influx of military personnel,
the territory of Alaska had a majority of
nonindigenous population for the first time in
1940 and experienced dramatic population
growth until 1952 (Naske & Slotnick, 1987:
297, 301). In 1959, Alaska became a state after
being admitted to the United States as the 49th
state. The most important event of the twentieth
century for the indigenous peoples of Alaska
was the passage of the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971 (Mitchell,
2001). The topic of indigenous land claims in
Alaska had never been resolved, neither during
the days of Russian America nor after the United
States purchase of the territory. Now, triggered
by the discovery of oil on the North Slope in
the 1960s, legal clarity about land rights in
Alaska became a precondition for building the
trans-Alaska pipeline. The final settlement led
to native title to 40 million acres of land and
almost 1 billion dollars of cash compensation
to be administered by regional and village
corporations.
These developments and the resulting oil
boom of the 1970s and onward led to a surge in
interest in the impacts of resource development
and other aspects of modernisation (Proceedings
1983). It does not seem to be a coincidence that
these developments parallel a first spike in qual-
ity of life research in the United States and else-
where. In the Alaskan case, these concerns were
primarily directed toward the native peoples of
the young state, who seemed to be facing dra-
matic changes in culture and lifestyle. In the
following paragraphs, I will discuss a few of
these studies geared toward the indigenous peo-
ple of Alaska. There will be a particular emphasis
on the Inupiat, the aboriginal residents of
Alaskas North Slope where most of Alaskas
oil is being extracted. The Inupiat represent the
Inuit speakers of Alaska (Inupiaq is the adjective
form of the word, while Inupiat is plural) and,
together with various Yupik groups further
south, constitute the Eskimo groups of the north-
ernmost U.S. state (see Map 1).
123 A
Inupiaq People and Well-Being
One of the first comprehensive attempts
to assess impacts of resource development on A
the coastal areas of Alaska was provided by the
Environmental Studies Program (ESP) of the
U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals
Management Service (MMS), which had off-
shore oil and gas leasing in the Outer Continental
Shelf (OCS) as its mission. Started in 1973 and
extended to include a human dimension compo-
nent in 1976, the ESP has produced more
than 200 reports dealing with social research
(Braund & Kruse, 2009).
One of the overarching questions of many
reports was the integration of subsistence activi-
ties and wage employment. As Kruse (1991) has
documented for the North Slope Inupiat, sub-
sistence did not just disappear with rising
incomes and increased wage employment oppor-
tunities. The gradual understanding that sub-
sistence activities were not just born out of
necessity led to the realization that these activi-
ties played an important role in individual and
community well-being. Not surprisingly, this
concern for well-being and life quality issues
led to the development of a social indicators
system, the Alaska OCS Social Indicators System
(AOSIS) (Braund, Kruse, & Andrews, 1985).
Starting from a list of social concerns from
non-arctic countries, Alaskan researchers
developed four goal families, ranging from
continued existence of traditional culture to
social opportunities and participation (Kruse,
2006: 911). From these, a large number of
potential indicators were identified, and a subset
of them were deemed acceptable in terms of data
availability and coverage; still, these indicators
were not necessarily useful in predicting
and monitoring the effects of petroleum develop-
ment (Kruse, 2006: 13).
The next major initiative to address issues of
quality of life and well-being among the indige-
nous peoples of Alaska was the Survey of Living
Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA). Initiated by
Statistics Greenland, SLiCA Alaska was
conducted in 20022003 among 700 indigenous
residents (Inupiat und Yupiit) of northern Alaska
with a response rate of 84 %. Jack Kruse, who had
A 124
Alaska, Living Conditions of the Inupiat, Map 1 Indigenous languages of Alaska (Source: Krauss, Holton, Kerr, &
West, 2011)
been a driving force for the MMS impact and
indicator studies of the 1980s, lent his expertise
to SLiCA Alaska as well. Major attempts at
analyzing the data collected by SLiCA Alaska
were made by Martin (2005) and Turcotte-
Seabury (2011). Martin (2005) approached the
issue of well-being among the Inupiat and Yupiit
of Alaska through the outcome measures of
subsistence participation, individual employ-
ment, and satisfaction. Her results highlight
the importance of family ties and social support
for quality of life. Individual employment, on the
other hand, lowers satisfaction. Likewise, there
is no correlation between subsistence partici-
pation and satisfaction, which may be caused by
the fact that subsistence was narrowly defined as
individual participation and did not include
broader community participation (Martin, 2005:
133). Martins title question, Do Communities
Matter? was answered in the affirmative by
Alaska, Living Conditions of the Inupiat
pointing out that communities are critical
arenas for individual satisfaction because they
provide the resources that matter to people
(Martin, 2005: 132). Turcotte-Seaburys analysis
of SLiCA data (combined with interviews from
Northwest Alaska) addresses similarities and
differences among rural villages and regional
centers regarding subsistence participation,
wage employment, migration considerations,
and lifestyle aspirations. Results show that plans
for participation in the mixed economy differ by
place, residents of regional centers indicating
more desire toward wage employment and
having thought about moving elsewhere.
More recently, the Arctic Social Indicators
(ASI) project (Larsen, Schweitzer, & Fondahl,
2010) attempted to come up with domains
health, material well-being, education, cultural
well-being, contact with nature, fate control
and indicators geared toward the specific living
Alaska, Living Conditions of the Inupiat
conditions of the Arctic, including Alaska. Jack
Kruse (2010) has combined data collected on
the North Slope in the 1970s with the SLiCA
Inupiaq interviews and organized them along
the domains identified by ASI. Contrary to expec-
tations, the diachronic comparison demonstrated
that, on most measures, Inupiat were as well or
better off in 2003 than they were in 1977 (Kruse,
2010: 71). Large-scale nonlocal resource devel-
opment turned out to be more positive than
expected, possibly because of a high degree of
local control over certain aspects of the
development.
The second part of the ASI project Arctic
Social Indicators: Implementation was
published most recently (Larsen, Schweitzer, &
Petrov, 2013). It contains a chapter on the Inuit
Regions of Alaska, which compares three dif-
ferent Inupiaq regions of northern Alaska
(Schweitzer, Barnhardt, Berman, & Kaplan,
2013). One of them is the oil-rich North Slope
Borough with Barrow at its center, one is North-
west Arctic Borough with Kotzebue, and one is
the Nome Census area. Some of the preliminary
results indicate that some of the advantages that
the North Slope region held in earlier decades
e.g., regarding per capita income, employment,
and post-secondary education are disappearing.
Nome, which used to be the poorest of the
regions, seems to be overtaking Barrow in terms
of the modernity indicators mentioned above.
While it is premature to offer a comprehensive
explanation, both too little or too much develop-
ment could be responsible for recent trends.
As mentioned above, most of the published
work on quality of live in Alaska has been more
or less confined to the indigenous groups within
the state. We only can hope that at some point,
there will be a SLiCA-like survey geared toward
the documentation and analysis of well-being
among the various immigrant groups of Alaska.
Cross-References
Arctic, Quality of Life
Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR)
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI)
125 A
Circumpolar Indigenous Peoples
Climate Change, Arctic
Community Adaptation, Arctic A
Economic Well-Being, Arctic
Globalization, Arctic
Human Development, Arctic
Income Distribution
Informal Economy, Arctic
Material Well-being, Arctic
Migration, Arctic
Resource-Based Communities
SLiCA, Survey of Living Conditions in the
Arctic
Subsistence in the Arctic
References
Braund, S. R., Kruse J., Andrews, F. (1985). A social
indicators system for OCS impact monitoring. Report
submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior
Mineral Management Service. Anchorage, Alaska.
Braund, S. R., & Kruse, J. (Eds.) (2009). Synthesis: Three
decades of research on socioeconomic effects related
to offshore petroleum development in coastal Alaska.
Mineral Management Service, Alaska OCS Region,
Study Number 2009006.
Krauss, M., Holton, G., Kerr, J., & West, C. T. (2011).
Indigenous Peoples and Languages of Alaska.
Fairbanks and Anchorage: Alaska Native Language
Center and UAA Institute of Social and Economic
Research.
Kruse, J. (1991). Alaska inupiat subsistence and wage
employment patterns: Understanding individual
choice. Human Organization, 50(4), 317326.
Kruse, J. (2006). Indicators of social, economic, and
cultural cumulative effects resulting from petroleum
development in Alaska: A review. Report. Anchorage,
Alaska.
Kruse, J. (2010). Sustainability from a local point of view:
Alaskas North slope and oil development. In
G. Winther (Ed.), The political economy of Northern
regional development Yearbook 2008. Copenhagen:
Nordic Council of Ministers.
Larsen, J., Schweitzer, P., & Fondahl, G. (Eds.). (2010).
Arctic social indicators. Copenhagen: Nordic Council
of Ministers.
Larsen, J., Schweitzer, P., & Petrov, A. (Eds.) (2013)
Arctic social indicators, ASI-II: Implementation.
Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers.
Martin, S. (2005). Determinants of well-being in Inupiat
and Yupiit Eskimos: Do communities matter? Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Texas, Dallas, TX.
Mitchell, D. (2001). Take my land, take my life: The story
of congresss historic settlement of Alaska native land
A 126
claims, 19601971. Fairbanks, AK: University of
Alaska Press.
Naske, C., & Slotnick, H. (1987). Alaska: A history of the
49th state (2nd ed.). Norman, OK: University of
Oklahoma Press.
Proceedings. (1983). Proceedings of the Alaska
Symposium on the Social, Economic, and Cultural
Impacts of Natural Resource Development (Alaska
Pacific University, Anchorage: August 2527, 1982).
Department of Conferences and Institutes, University
of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK.
Schweitzer, P, Barnhardt, R, Berman, M., & Kaplan, L.
(2013). Inuit Regions of Alaska. In: Larsen, J.,
Schweitzer, P., Petrov, A. (Eds.) Arctic social indica-
tors, ASI-II: Implementation. Copenhagen: Nordic
Council of Ministers.
Turcotte-Seabury, C. (2011). Wage employment,
traditional subsistence, and aspirations among Inupiat
and Yupik in the mixed economy of Northwest Alaska.
Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Hampshire.
Albanian/Serbian Intermarriage
Ethnic Intermarriage and Social Cohesion in
Yugoslavia
Alberta Survey
Gillian Stevens1 and Dave Odynak2
1
Department of Sociology, University of Alberta,
Edmonton, AB, Canada
2
Sociology (PRL), University of Alberta,
Edmonton, AB, Canada
Synonyms
Area studies; Community studies; Community
surveys
Definition
The Population Research Laboratory (PRL)
on the University of Alberta campus has
been conducting numerous surveys of various
populations in the province of Alberta for almost
40 years. Every year between 1977 and 1986, the
Albanian/Serbian Intermarriage
PRL conducted the Edmonton Survey, which was
modeled on the Detroit Area Study, using face-
to-face interviews to gather information from
about 400 adults in the city of Edmonton. The
purpose of the first Edmonton Area Survey was to
gather information about the quality of life of
the citys residents with additional questions
appearing in later surveys. In 1987, the survey
expanded beyond Edmonton to include a general
telephone survey of the remainder of Alberta.
Description
Every year but one since 1990, the Alberta Sur-
vey has contacted about 1,200 adults annually,
split evenly across the metropolitan area of
Edmonton, the metropolitan area of Calgary,
and the remainder of the province, via telephone.
Over the last two decades, the Alberta Survey has
been supported by the PRL, the Department of
Sociology at the University of Alberta, scholars
and researchers working in various universities,
government departments and agencies, and by
other sponsors who take advantage of the oppor-
tunity to obtain high-quality information from
a provincial sample in a cost-effective manner.
The PRL has ensured that the annual Alberta
Survey always includes a small standard set of
demographic questions such as age and gender of
the respondent. The other questions on the survey
are placed by the sponsors and so the topics range
widely. Recent topics have included attitudes
towards death and dying, opinions about interna-
tional immigrants, use of cell phones, observations
of racist behaviors, access to healthcare, and
knowledge of scientific endeavors. In many
years, the Alberta Survey and the Winnipeg
Area Study used common demographic questions.
Generally speaking, sponsors place questions
on the Alberta Survey because they are interested
in timely information about, for example, the
level of concern among adults in Alberta about
access to healthcare. However, because some
sponsors repeat questions from year to year and
because some issues are of enduring interest,
many questions have appeared multiple times.
Table 1 shows some of the questions that have
Alberta Survey 127 A
Alberta Survey, Table 1 Selected series of topics and The number of times that many of the ques-
questions on the Alberta Surveys, 19872010 tions on these issues have been repeated over the
Range of Total number years means that the Alberta Survey data have A
Topic Wording years of repetitions become a rich (and underexploited) resource of
Financially Exact 19872010 22 insights to changes over time in the characteris-
better off this
year
tics and attitudes of the Alberta population (see
Financially Exact 19872010 22 also General Social Survey). Moreover,
better off next because some of the data contain some disjunc-
year tures in question wording for example, the
Crime Exact 20092010 2 wording of the item on strength of religious belief
increased
changed slightly between 1989 and 1990 and then
Crime feeling Varies 19872010 6
again between 1996 and 1997 it is possible for
of safety
Religion Exact 19902010 20
survey methodologists to investigate the extent to
Varies 19871989 3 which question wording matters in these types of
Strength of religious belief surveys.
Version (a) Exact 19871989 3 In addition to providing up-to-date data for use
Version (b) Exact 19901996 7 in academic research and social policy, the
Version (c) Exact 19972010 13 annual Alberta Survey serves as a vehicle for
Ethnic identity Exact 19992010 11 the training of scholars in applied social research.
Varies 19871998 11 Every year, courtesy of the financial support pro-
Education self Exact 19892010 19 vided by the PRL and the Society of Edmonton
Demographers, the PRL awards a graduate stu-
dent and a faculty member the opportunity to
been repeated often enough to constitute a long include a set of questions on the survey on
and rich series of data. The first entry in the table a topic of their choice. Graduate assistants in the
refers to a question that has appeared on the lab work on the survey under the supervision of
survey 22 times since 1987 (every year but 1996 the senior PRL staff.
and 2001) and that has used the exact same word- The data from each survey generally become
ing every time: Would you say that you (and publicly available six months after the data are
your family) are BETTER OFF, just the SAME, collected. As soon as the data become publicly
or WORSE OFF financially than you were a year available, they are stored in the Rutherford Data
ago? The corresponding question about how Library at the University of Alberta. Because the
well they expect to feel financially next year has PRL staff work with the sponsors to refine the
also been asked every year with exactly the same questions, the survey is pretested every year, and
wording each year. the interviewers are well trained and are super-
Since 1987, respondents have been asked 18 vised during the data collection; the data are high
times about their attitudes or encounters with quality. The data are therefore often used in gov-
crime. Of these crime-related questions, seven ernment departments and agencies to shape pub-
have asked respondents how safe they feel in lic policy in the province of Alberta and often
their neighborhood although the wording has var- appear in Canadian and international academic
ied somewhat across the years of the survey. journals (see also Canadian Research Data
A question about religious identity has been Centre Network).
included every year that the survey has been Scholars (and others) can access the full
fielded. Since 1990, the wording of the question series of annual Alberta Surveys, the Edmonton
What is your religion, if any? has remained Area study data, and a searchable index of
constant. The question on religion has always the questions on the surveys at http://nesstar.
been attended by a question on the strength of library.ualberta.ca/webview. Data from the
the respondents religious belief. more recent Alberta Surveys, the questionnaires,
A 128
codebooks, and methodology reports are
available on the PRL website (http://www.prl.
ualberta.ca/AlbertaSurvey.aspx) at the University
of Alberta.
Cross-References
Canadian Research Data Centre Network
Data Liberation Initiative (DLI)
General Social Survey
Winnipeg Area Study
References
General Social Survey
The Canadian Research Data Centre Network
The Data Liberation Initiative
Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator
Mark Anielski
School of Business, University of Alberta, AB,
Canada
Synonyms
Genuine progress index; Index of sustainable
economic well-being
Definition
The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) was
originally developed by economists in the United
States in 1995 as an alternative measure of
economic progress to replace or to supplement
the gross domestic product (GDP) with a more
genuine measure of economic well-being. The
Alberta GPI System of Sustainable Well-being
Accounts was developed by a group of economists
with the Pembina Institute led by Anielski et al.
(2001) to add greater value and utility to the
original US GPI by developing a more
Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator
comprehensive accounting tool for measuring
overall economic, social, and environmental
well-being. The purpose of this new GPI account-
ing system was to serve as a tool for governments
in planning and budgeting for a resilient and sus-
tainable economy.
Description
The GDP and money-based measures of pro-
gress fail to measure those things that really
matter in our lives. According to the GDP,
the more we spend, consume, and produce, the
more the GDP rises. Such a meter of economic
progress makes no distinction between produc-
tion that contributes to genuine improved
well-being and activities that degrade personal,
community, and environmental conditions.
Simon Kuznets (1965), the original architect of
the American GDP measurement and System of
National Accounts and winner of the 1971 Nobel
Prize in economics, warned the US Congress
that The welfare of a nation can scarcely be
inferred from a measurement of national income
as defined (by the GDP). Goals for more growth
should specify of what and for what.
To measure the total health and well-being of
the economy, society, and the environment,
a more comprehensive system of accounting for
the physical conditions of total well-being or
total wealth is needed (Anielski & Soskolne,
2001). The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) Sys-
tem of Sustainable Well-being Accounts was
developed by Anielski et al. (2001) and applied
to the province of Alberta, Canada, but is applica-
ble to any state or nation as a comprehensive
well-being accounting and reporting system.
The Alberta GPI Accounts project represented
a significant first step towards a holistic and
integrated system for measuring well-being and
sustainability. The project has two major parts:
(1) a conceptual accounting blueprint for
measuring sustainability and well-being and
(2) a set of accounts that reveals the physical
and monetary values of human, social, natural,
and produced capital or wealth. This requires
a comprehensive set of accounts to track the
Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator 129 A
Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator, Table 1 Alberta Genuine Progress Indicators
Economic well-being Social well-being Environmental well-being
Economic growth Poverty Oil and gas reserve life A
Economic diversity Income distribution Oil sands reserve life
Trade Unemployment Energy use intensity
Disposable income Underemployment Agriculture sustainability
Weekly wage rate Paid work time Timber sustainability
Personal expenditures Household work Forest fragmentation
Transportation expenditures Parenting and eldercare Fish and wildlife
Taxes Free time Parks and wilderness
Savings rate Volunteerism Wetland
Household debt Commuting time Peatland
Public infrastructure Life expectancy Water quality
Household infrastructure Premature mortality Air quality-related emissions
Infant mortality Greenhouse gas emissions
Obesity Carbon budget deficit
Suicide Hazardous waste
Drug use Waste to landfills
Auto crashes Ecological footprint
Divorce
Crime
Problem gambling
Voter participation
Educational attainment

physical and qualitative conditions of well-being recognizes the positive contributions of

that may be aligned with what citizens value
most. The GPI Accounts give citizens a big
picture perspective on the genuine state of
their well-being, in accordance with their values
and life experiences.
The main features of the GPI Sustainable
Well-being Accounting System include:
GPI balance sheet. This is a set of measures
or indicators that describe the many facets
(physical, qualitative, monetary) of the state
of well-being of individuals, communities,
and the environment over a specified period
of time. The GPI balance sheet is similar to
a traditional accounting framework in that it
shows assets, liabilities, and shareholder
(citizen) equity of all capital or wealth.
GPI net sustainable income statement. This is
a national or provincial income statement
that differs fundamentally from the GDP in
that it subtracts from GDP the human, social,
ecological, and natural resource costs that
were incurred to generate that income. It also
unpaid work, such as volunteering, childcare,
and housework, that lie outside the market
yet contribute to well-being. Finally, it recog-
nizes that not all expenditures in the economy
represent positive contributions to our well-
being; some things like automobile crashes
and suicide should be treated as costs, not
revenues as they are in current national
income accounts and GDP.
The GPI Accounts for Alberta consisted of
an integrated set of 51 indicators of well-being
based on raw data drawn from various statistical
sources including Statistics Canada, the Alberta
Government, and other sources (Table 1).
The Genuine Progress Indicators track the
changes in the condition of all capital for roughly
40 years, from 1961 to 1999, showing longitudi-
nal trends and the interrelationship between
a change in economic performance (GDP) and
other indicators of well-being. The choice of
indicators was based, in part, on existing Alberta
Government performance measures and societal
A 130 Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator

1.75

GDP Index
1.56
Index, 1971=1.00

1.35

1.15

Genuine Progress Index

0.95

0.75
61

63

65

67

69

71

73

75

77

79

81

83

85

87

89

91

93

95

97

99
19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19
Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator, Fig. 1 Alberta GPI Well-being Index vs. Alberta GDP Index, 19611999.
(Source: Anielski et al. (2001))

well-being indicators, augmented with other
sustainability indicators identified through an
extensive literature review of sustainability indi-
cators initiatives internationally.
GPI Accounts allow decision-makers to
diagnose the total health and well-being at the
individual, household, societal (community),
and the environmental scale. GPI Accounts pro-
vide meaningful indicators of the condition and
sustainability of living capital (human, social,
and natural environmental) and produced capital
(manufactured and financial).
Discussion
Figure 1 shows that Albertas GDP (in constant
1998 dollars) increased by over 400%, or 4.4%
per annum, over 19611999, while the Alberta
GPI Well-being Index (a composite index of the
remaining 50 indicators, each given equal
weight) declined at an annual rate of 0.5% per
year. The GPI Index was highest in the 1960s
then declined to reach a plateau in the 1990s
despite continued economic growth. The best
GPI Index was recorded in 1961 and the lowest
in 1998. In the 1990s, GDP per capita grew at
2.4% per annum, while GPI per capita was virtu-
ally stagnant, growing an average of 0.43% per
annum.
An integrated portrait of sustainability and
well-being is shown by the 51 Genuine Progress
Indicators in a Sustainable Well-being Circle
Index for 1999 (Fig. 2). This could be compared
to a balance sheet where the condition of each
type of living and produced capital is reported
as an index relative to historical conditions. The
figure shows the condition of all capital in
Alberta in 1999, with each indicator having
a score. The scores were derived by converting
the original data for each indicator to an index
using a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 set as
the best condition of the indicator during the
time period for the study, here 1961 to 1999.
Deviations from that year were measured as
a movement toward zero. In Fig. 2, the higher
Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator 131 A
Ecological footprint Economic grown Economic diversity
Landfill waste
Hazardous waste Trade
Disposable income
Carbon budget deficit
Weekly wage rate
GHG emissions
Personal expenditures
A
Air quality Transportation
Expenditures
Water quality Taxes

Peatlands Savings rate

Wetlands Household debt

Fish and Wildlife Public infrastructure

Parks and wilderness Household infrastructure

Forest fragmentation Poverty

Timber sustainability Income distribution

Agricultural sustainability Unemployment

Energy use Underemployment

Oilsands reserve life Paid work time

Oil and gas resrve life Household work

Educational attainment Parenting and eldercare

Voter participation Free time

Problem gambling Volunteerism

Crime Commuting time
Family breakdown Life expectancy
Auto crashes Premature mortality
Drug use (youth) Suicide Obesity Infant mortality

Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator, Fig. 2 The Alberta GPI Sustainable Well-being Circle Index for 1999.
(Source: Anielski et al. (2001))

the score, the closer its point is to the outside
edge of the circle. For example, in the years
between 1961 and 1999, GDP per capita was
highest in 1999; thus the score for economic
growth in that year was 100, and this point is at
the outside edge of the circle. In contrast, suicide
rates were high in 1999 compared with 1964,
which had the lowest rate and was thus assigned
the best or target score of 100. Therefore,
relative to the best year in the study, the 1999
score for this indicator was lower, and its point on
the circle is closer to the center.
The GPI Circle Index is a powerful visual
image of the overall condition of economy, soci-
ety, and environment that could be applied from
the local to the national level. It provides
an alternative to trend lines and shows clearly
the contrast between the conditions of the factors
that contribute to quality of life. For example,
health indicators such as life expectancy,
premature mortality, and infant mortality are
high; their scores are close to 100 points. Many
social and environmental indicators, on the other
hand, were in an unhealthy condition in 1999
compared with the previous 40 years. While indi-
vidual indexed Genuine Progress Indicators
shown on the GPI Circle Index cannot be com-
pared directly with each other (e.g., timber sus-
tainability cannot be compared with agricultural
sustainability), they do show relative conditions
for any point in time. Moreover, each indicator
can be shown as a trend in condition using either
indexed data or raw data.
Alberta GPI Income Statement
The Alberta GPI accounting system includes a full
cost and benefit assessment, identifies and itemizes
regrettable environmental and social costs, and
then deducts these costs against GDP to yield
an adjusted net sustainable economic welfare
A 132
income statement. The GPI income statement also
adds benefits such as the value of unpaid work
(housework, parenting, volunteerism) and the
value of services from public and household infra-
structure that are not considered as benefits in
the GDP and national income accounts. The meth-
odology for deriving a GPI net sustainable income
statement is similar to the Index for Sustainable
Economic Welfare (Daly & Cobb, 1994) and the
next generation of the ISEW, the U.S. GPI (Cobb,
Halstead, & Rowe, 1995).
The GPI income statement begins with gross
personal consumption expenditures by house-
holds, because it is the economic well-being of
the households of the nation with which we are
concerned, including the unaccounted benefits
and social and environmental costs that affect
welfare. Consumption expenditures are adjusted
by the change in income distribution, using an
index derived from the Gini coefficient for
the after-tax income distribution. Next, the esti-
mated monetary value of unpaid work, the value
of services (less depreciation) of public and
private infrastructure, and the value of net cap-
ital formation (growth in capital stock per
worker) is added. Then, estimates of human
and social capital erosion due to unemployment,
underemployment, auto crashes, commuting,
crime, family breakdown, suicide, and problem
gambling are deducted. Several environmental
costs are deducted to account for the depletion
of natural capital (oil, gas, unsustainable timber
resource use, unsustainable agricultural prac-
tices) as well as the costs of environmental
pollution and degradation (greenhouse gas
emissions, air pollution, loss of wetlands, toxic
waste liability costs, and estimates of municipal
landfill liabilities). The resulting GPI net
sustainable income estimate for 1999 is esti-
mated at roughly $37.0 billion (net of household
debt servicing costs) or $43.4 billion (without
household debt servicing costs), compared with
$52.8 billion in personal consumption expendi-
tures (the starting point in the GPI net sustain-
able income statement) and $109.7 billion in
GDP (Anielski et al., 2001).
Expressing genuine progress in monetary
terms has its shortcomings. Estimating social and
Albertas Genuine Progress Indicator
environmental costs can be problematic where
market prices or real opportunity costs are difficult
to identify or measure. The monetized GPI can be
criticized for the components that are assumed to
constitute sustainable economic welfare such as
the adjustment to consumption spending by
changes in income inequality to proxy the cost of
reduced social cohesion.
Nevertheless, the exercise of identifying unac-
counted monetary benefits, such as unpaid work,
and estimating social and environmental degrada-
tion costs as regrettable is an important exercise
for public policy and budgeting decision-making.
The process helps to expand the debate about
what contributes to a societys economic growth
or prosperity and asking Is this a desirable
trend? The GPI net sustainable income state-
ment, no matter how crude and preliminary,
points to the need for more research into full
cost accounting of social issues like crime, auto
crashes, and the value of ecosystem services in
providing clean air and water. These are impor-
tant challenges for both economists and accoun-
tants and could become a significant agenda for
academic research.
Conclusion
The GPI System of Sustainable Well-being
Accounting developed by the Pembina Institute
is a practical tool for measuring the sustainable
well-being of communities and nations. It pro-
vides a holistic management tool for human,
social, and natural and produced capital for the
purpose of fulfilling the spirit and goals of sus-
tainable development. GPI accounting repre-
sents the next stage in developing a more
holistic measurement framework for assessing
the qualitative and monetary dimensions of eco-
nomic, social, and environmental well-being as
envisioned by Daly and Cobb (1994).
Cross-References
Composite Indicator(s)
GPI
Net Economic Welfare
Social Welfare
Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index
Sustainable Development
Sustainable Society Index, Tool for Measuring
Well-Being
Utah Genuine Progress Indicator
Well-being and Progress Measurement
References
Anielski, M. (2001). GPI: Sustainability trends 2000,
Alberta. In P. N. Nemetz (Ed.), Bringing business on
board: Sustainable development and the B-school cur-
riculum: Vols. 2729, 19992001 (pp. 595614).
Vancouver: JBA Press.
Anielski, M., Griffiths, M., Pollock, D., Taylor, A., Wil-
son, J., & Wilson, S. (2001). Alberta sustainability
trends 2000: The genuine progress indicators report
1961 to 1999. Edmonton, Canada: The Pembina Insti-
tute for Appropriate Development.
Anielski, M., & Soskolne, C. (2001). Genuine progress
indicator (GPI) accounting: Relating ecological integ-
rity to human health and well-being. In P. Miller & L.
Westra (Eds.), Just ecological integrity: The ethics of
maintaining planetary life (pp. 8397). Lanham, MA:
Rowman and Littlefield.
Cobb, C., Halstead, T., & Rowe, J. (1995). The genuine
progress indicator: Summary of data and methodol-
ogy. San Francisco: Redefining Progress.
Daly, H., & Cobb, J. B. (1994). For the common good:
Redirecting the economy toward community, the
environment, and a sustainable future (2nd ed.). Bos-
ton: Beacon.
Kuznets, S. (1965). Economic growth and structure. In S.
Kuznets (Ed.), Towards a theory of economic growth.
New York: W.W. Norton.
Alcohol Abuse
Substance Abuse
Alcohol Consumption and Suicide in
Norway
Social Integration and Suicide in Norway
Alcohol or Drug Dependence
Addiction, An Overview
133 A
Alcoholism
A
Addiction, An Overview
Substance Abuse
Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index
Habib Tiliouine
Psychology and Educational Sciences,
Laboratory of Educational Processes & Social
Context, University of Oran, Oran,
Algeria
Synonyms
Algeria, well-being; Happiness in Algeria;
Quality of life, subjective; Well-being, subjective
Definition
Since 2003, the Laboratory of Educational
Processes and Social Context (Labo-PECS),
a research group based at the University of
Oran, has initiated the Algerian Well-being
Research Project aiming at monitoring the
populations satisfaction with a diverse range
of life domains at an equal interval of 18-month
period. Up to July 2011, six (6) surveys
were completed. One of the regular measures
of these surveys was the Personal Well-being
Index (PWI) (IWG, 2006). But because the
first two surveys were based in the local
region of Oran (Tiliouine, Cummins, & Davern,
2006; Tiliouine, 2009), the present entry
will focus only on the results of the last
four (4) surveys which represent to some extent
of the whole Algerian population. In the
beginning, I briefly describe the Algerian social
and economic context and then present the
psychometric performance and the normative
ranges of PWI.
A 134 Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index

Description Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index,

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of surveys sample
(N 11,147)
The Algerian Context
Algeria is the largest country of the African conti- N %
nent. Its population reached 37.1 million inhabi- Gender Male 5,554 49.8
tants in the 1st of January 2012 (http://www.ons. Female 5,593 50.2
Age 1825 4,741 42.5
dz/ consulted on 14.06.2012). They are mostly
2635 3,578 32.1
Arabs and Muslims. It was ranked 81 (out of 111
3645 1,485 13.3
countries) by Economist Quality of Life Index
4655 740 6.6
of 2005 (http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/
56+ 603 5.4
QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf), whereas Human Education No schooling 1,131 10.1
Development Index (HDI) gives it a rank of 96 Primary 829 7.4
out of 187 countries and puts it above the regional Medium 1,855 16.6
average of the Arab states (http://hdrstats.undp. Secondary 3,568 32.0
org/images/explanations/DZA.pdf). This indicates University 3,760 33.7
that Algeria has yet a long way to cross in order to Missing 4
reach the standards of a fully developed country. Marital status Single 7,059 63.3
However, the effects of French colonization Married 3,615 32.4
and the wounds of the subsequent period are yet Divorced 246 2.2
palpable among the population. The country went Widowed 227 2.0
in the 1990s through a multifaceted crisis while
moving toward a plural democratic system of
governance. The death toll was more than 2,000 northern region, represented in the county
lives (Tiliouine & Meziane, 2012). In the same (Wilaya) of Oran; the Hauts-Plateaux midland
time, the country was near to bankruptcy. For county of El-Bayedh; and the southern Saharan
instance, average foreign government debt to county of Adrar. These regions vary in terms of
GDP was estimated at 94.30% in December of weather and social developments which echo well
1995. Starting from the year of 2000, and due to the diversity of the country. Trained interviewers
increases in the hydrocarbon sector prices inter- were instructed to distribute questionnaires to con-
nationally, which represent more than 96 of the venient samples. In all cases, no sampling guide-
exports, some courageous steps were taken lines were given to them, but were urged to
leading to gradually restoring security and stabil- diversify their interviewees who must be 18+ of
ity. Government debt to GDP is now as low as age. Table 1 indicates that both gender groups are
1.2% (www.tradingeconomics.com, accessed equally represented. The distributions of age and
02.02.2012), with a large amount of foreign education levels generally fit with the characteris-
exchange reserve. This moderate financial ease tics of the whole population (see Office National
encouraged the government to launch huge infra- des Statistiques (http://www.ons.dz/)). One of the
structure workshops (highways, houses. . .). It limitations of the method is that no quotas in terms
could also tackle employment which went down of regions representation were set in advance,
from more than 30% to less than 10% (www. which ended in somewhat different sample sizes
tradingeconomics.com). These relatively positive out of the total (north, 30.5%; midlands, 31.4%;
figures may explain why Algeria has escaped the and south, 38.1%). Similarly, one cannot identify
ongoing devastating Arab Spring turmoil. Our who are the respondents who repeatedly partici-
research project accompanied this recovery period. pated across surveys.

The Survey Methodology Personal Well-being

Since 2006, each of the last four surveys covered In line with the International Well-being Group
three main regions: the coastal Mediterranean (IWG) recommendations, the PWI was put on the
Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index 135 A
top of all the questionnaires, and the wording was Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index,
kept the same across the last four surveys. Table 2 Loadings on the one extracted factor through
principal components factor analysis of PWI items
Respondents were asked to rate their degree of A
satisfaction on a 010 scale with eight domain 2006 2008 2010 2011
items which when averaged they form the Index. Standard of life 0.646 0.667 0.662 0.717
These are standard of living, health, achieving in Health 0.533 0.509 0.488 0.582
Achieving 0.688 0.697 0.701 0.722
life, personal relationships, personal security,
Personal relations 0.608 0.614 0.653 0.660
community connectedness (belongingness),
Personal safety 0.648 0.618 0.630 0.684
future security, and spirituality/religiosity. Each
Belonging 0.701 0.687 0.717 0.752
survey also included demographic questions and
Future security 0.710 0.736 0.736 0.734
another number of additional items and measures Religiosity 0.505 0.546 0.517 0.594
that change from one survey to the next and serve Explained variance 40.18% 40.75% 41.43% 46.67%
other purposes (see the present authors list of
publications).

Psychometric Performance of PWI Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index,

Table 3 Contribution of individual domains to satisfac-
Internal Reliability: Cronbach alpha of the eight tion with life as a whole (standardized beta weights)
items was high, ranging between .79 and .84.
2006 2008 2010 2011
Similarly, all item-total correlations and domain
Standard of life 0.381*** 0.344*** 0.399*** 0.330***
intercorrelations were significantly at a high
Health 0.108*** 0.096*** 0.091*** 0.121***
level.
Achieving 0.154*** 0.169*** 0.152*** 0.192***
Factor Analysis: The factorization of the eight
Pers. relations 0.079*** 0.080*** 0.032* 0.119***
items of PWI proved that the measure is homo- Pers. security 0.039* 0.048** 0.007 0.016
geneous, with a consistent one factor solution Belongingness 0.095*** 0.084*** 0.086*** 0.108***
(Table 2). On average, the domains of future Fut. security 0.107*** 0.093*** 0.107*** 0.065***
security, community belongingness, and achieve- Religiosity 0.058*** 0.062*** 0.100*** 0.062***
ments show loadings higher than .70, whereas Adjusted R2 0.485 0.444 0.471 0.503
health and religiosity are around .50. P < 0.05; **P < 0.005; ***P < 0.001
*

Regression Analyses: PWI has been conceived

as a first-level deconstruction of the general life
satisfaction (GLS) question. So, each component
item is expected to contribute unique variance
when all items are regressed on GLS (Cummins,
Eckersley, Pallant, Van Vugt, & Misajon, 2003).
Table 3 confirms to a large extent that with the
exception of personal security, all items have
a consistent and high significant contribution as
expected. Security item was proved weak in
many other countries. Additionally, the recently
added item of religiosity behaved in the desired
direction in Algeria, unlike Western countries
such as Australia (Cummins, 2012).
Normative PWI Range in Algeria
Regarding the importance of calculating norma-
tive response ranges in comparative approaches,
an attempt is made here with relation to PWI and
its domains (Fig. 1). When the four surveys
individual mean scores are used as data, they
show a remarkable stability. A modest variation
of 14.7% difference between the top of the
highest range (personal relationships, 74.23) to
the bottom of the lowest range (future security,
59.54) is registered. The ranges slightly differ in
magnitude, from the largest (personal relation-
ships, 7.4 points, followed by safety, 5.66 points)
to the smallest (health, 1.87 points, followed by
standard of living, 1.9 points).
When compared to their counterpart norma-
tive ranges of Australia (Cummins, 2012), the
domain of community connectedness shows
a similar trend; health is very close, but achieve-
ments in life and future security are much lower.
Meanwhile, safety and personal relationships
seem to have a much larger magnitude in the
Algerian case (Fig. 1). It could be concluded
A 136 Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index

Algeria, Personal Australian normative range

Well-Being Index, Algerian minimum
Fig. 1 Normative ranges 85 Algerian maximum
of PWI and domains 81,6 81,9
80,0
80
76,7 76,1 75,5 77,3

Strength of satisfaction
75 75,4 72,7 73,6
75,3 74,0 74,3
72,4
73,7 72,4
72,1
73,6 71,9
70 69,9 69,8
68,8
67,2 68,8 68,3 67,2
66,4 66,9 66,7
65 65,3 64,3
62,5
61,9
60 59,5

55
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that the sense of community belongingness R
comparisons. In Algeria, more surveys will be
remains similarly high in both countries, but conducted using PWI in the nearest future.
problems linked to underdevelopment impinge
on Algerians perceptions of their future and
have a cost on their personal relationships. How- Cross-References
ever, one should not exclude the presence of
a cultural bias effect, leading people to differ in Australian Unity Well-being Index
their response style to survey questionnaires International Well-being Group
(Lau, Cummins, & McPherson, 2005). For Personal Well-being Index
instance, Davey and Rato (2011) report a PWI Subjective Well-being
normative range of 61.267.1 in China, which is
much lower than in Australia (73.776.7). The
Algerian range is somewhat in-between but References
narrower (66.468.8).
Similarly, the PWI means across surveys since Cummins, R.A. (2012). Personal Wellbeing Index in Aus-
tralia. Encyclopedia of quality of life research.
2006 in Algeria are interesting. Unlike the earlier
Springer (in press).
survey of 2003 (Tiliouine et al., 2006), higher Cummins, R. A., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., Van Vugt, J., &
means prove that Algerians perceptions of their Misajon, R. (2003). Development a national index
lives are much better. This can be attributed to the of subjective wellbeing: The Australian Unity
Wellbeing Index. Social Indicators Research, 64,
net improvements in security and economic
159190.
prospects. Davey, G., & Rato, R. (2012). Subjective wellbeing in
From a theoretical point of view, the results China: A review. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13,
bring further support to the Subjective Well-being 333346. doi:10.1007/s10902-011-9266-6.
Lau, A. L. D., Cummins, R. A., & McPherson, W. (2005).
Homeostasis theory (Cummins et al., 2003). The An investigation into the cross-cultural equivalence of
mean scores not only lie within the upper half of the the personal wellbeing index. Social Indicators
0100 scale but also fall on the theorized range for Research, 72, 403430.
non-Western populations (6080). Tiliouine, H., & Meziane, M. (2012). The quality of life in
Muslim populations: The case of Algeria. In K. C.
The high psychometric performance makes PWI
Land, A. C. Michalos, & M. J. Sirgy (Eds.), Handbook
a valuable instrument for monitoring populations of social indicators and quality of life research
well-being and a good tool for cross-cultural (pp. 499527). Dordrecht: Springer.
Algerian Secondary School Students, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
Tiliouine, H. (2009). Stability and change in National and
Personal Wellbeing in Algeria: A developing country
in transition. In V. Moller & D. Huschka (Eds.), Qual-
ity of life and the millennium challenge (pp. 115138).
Dordrecht: Springer.
Tiliouine, H., Cummins, R. A., & Davern, M. (2006).
Measuring wellbeing in developing countries: The
case of Algeria. Social Indicators Research, 75, 130.
Algeria, Well-Being
Algeria, Personal Well-Being Index
Algerian Secondary School Students,
Application of the Personal
Well-being Index (PWI)
Habib Tiliouine
Psychology and Educational Sciences,
Laboratory of Educational Processes & Social
Context, University of Oran, Oran, Algeria
Synonyms
Happiness of Algerian secondary school students;
Life satisfaction of Algerian secondary school
students; Well-being; Well-being, subjective
Definition
The data presented here are taken from a
university-based research project aiming at
exploring the difference between successful and
less successful secondary schools on the basis of
a diverse range of objective and subjective indica-
tors in the county (Wilaya) of Oran, Algeria. One
of the main subjective measures was Personal
Well-being Index (PWI). This entry tests the use-
fulness of PWI in a school setting of a developing
country in comparison with its use in the general
population in the same context. The background of
the research is briefly introduced, and then psycho-
metric properties and results of PWI are described,
to end with a discussion of the findings.
137 A
Description
The Algerian School System A
Algeria is a developing country which has so far
achieved big steps toward guaranteeing free edu-
cation at all levels for its youth. Since 1976,
education is compulsory from the age of 616.
Between 1980 and 2011, Algerias mean years of
schooling and also expected years of schooling
increased, respectively, by 5.3 years. The popu-
lation with at least secondary school in 2011 for
females was 36.3 %, and its equivalent for males
was 49.3 % (http://hdrstats.undp.org/images/
explanations/DZA.pdf), which represents
a substantial progress. In 2010, 8,624,871 stu-
dents were at schools and universities, i.e., more
than 25 % of the total Algerian population
(http://www.ons.dz/IMG/pdf/Eleve_inscrit2006-
2010.pdf). This size puts a lot of pressure on the
government budget.
Since the last reform of 2003, regulated
through the new Education Act of 2008 (La loi
dorientation de leducation nationale, www.
jora.dz), primary level is completed in 5 years,
college in 4 years, and secondary, in which spe-
cialization begins, in 3 years. At the end of this
latter, the national exam of baccalaureate is
held. This exam is very important in the life of
youth because it exclusively allows them to gain
access to higher education and hence enjoy
a better social status. The performance in this
exam is also considered a main criterion on
which secondary schools effectiveness is intui-
tively judged. Our research explores, among
other things, whether the baccalaureate candi-
dates belonging to highly successful and least
successful schools in this exam enjoy similar
subjective well-being levels.
The Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted in May 2011 with a
questionnaire containing PWI at the top. It
concerned only the region of Oran, a Mediterra-
nean coastal area counting in 2011 56 general and
technical secondary schools. The schools sample
(N 24) was chosen on the basis of the rate of
success in the baccalaureate exam from the year
2005 to 2011. Two groups of secondary schools
A 138 Algerian Secondary School Students, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI)
were identified: those with a rate of success close
to 70 % and those with the same rate lower than
50 %. Its equivalent nationally was in 2011
62.45 % and gave Oran a slightly higher rate of
67.17 %. In both groups, main subjects of study
(natural sciences, languages, arts, economics,
mathematics, and experimental sciences) were
variably represented.
As recommended in the PWI manual
(International Well-being Group [IWG], 2006),
16 students were identified as outliers and there-
fore excluded leaving a total sample of 638
students (266 males and 372 females). Two
hundred ninety-one (45.6 %) belong to the
successful schools, and 347 (54.4 %) belong to
less successful schools. One to two classes were
randomly selected from the schools samples.
Gender is equally represented in both groups.
In terms of age, the mean in the former was
18.61 (SD 0.96) and 18.77 (SD 1.01) in the
latter (p 0.04).
The questionnaires were administered to stu-
dents in classrooms at their normal teaching time.
Students voluntarily adhered in the research and
followed the instructions of the survey.
Personal Well-being Index
The PWI was put on the top of all the question-
naires, and the clarity of the wording underwent
a careful verification beforehand. Respondents
were asked to rate their degree of satisfaction on
a 010 scale with eight domain items which when
averaged they form the Index and then standard-
ized to a 0100 scale (IWG, 2006). The domains
are standard of living, health, achieving in life,
personal relationships, personal security, com-
munity connectedness (belongingness), future
security, and spirituality/religiosity.
Ratings of PWI
No significant differences are noticed in PWI,
and its domains between the two groups of
schools and hence the ratings of students have
been aggregated to represent one single group in
subsequent calculations.
Furthermore, within this group, only one
marginal difference attributable to gender is
found in favor of females (future security:
t(256, 371) 2.17, p 0.03). Figure 1 shows
that with the exception of this latter domain, all
other means of students are beyond 70 and
reached 85 in the case of health. However, in
comparison with the means of the general Alge-
rian population (N 11,147, collected in four
surveys from 2006 to 2011) (Tiliouine, 2013),
students mean ratings are consistently higher in
the general item of general life satisfaction ques-
tion (GLS), as well as PWI and its domains. It is
interesting to note also that the largest difference
is in the domain of health (12.25 points), followed
by standard of living (10.41 points), whereas the
smallest discrepancy is in future security (3.09
points) and then personal safety (4.39).
Psychometric Performance of PWI
Internal Reliability: Cronbach alpha of the eight
items was high (0.78). Similarly, all item-total
correlations and domain intercorrelations were
significant at a high level (Table 1).
Factor Analysis: The factorization of the eight
items of PWI proved that the measure is homo-
geneous, with a consistent one factor solution
(Table 1, column 2). The domain of achieving
in life shows the highest loading on the one
factor (0.711), whereas religiosity and health are
successively the lowest (0.518 and 0.542).
Regression Analyses: PWI has been conceived
as a first-level deconstruction of the general life
satisfaction (GLS) question. So, each component
item is expected to contribute unique variance
when all items are regressed on GLS (Cummins,
Eckersley, Pallant, Van Vugt, & Misajon, 2003).
The last column in Table 1 shows that the largest
contribution in satisfaction with life (GLS) is
made by standard of life, followed by achieve-
ments in life and then comes religiosity. All other
domains showed no significant contribution.
Discussion
The present research explored the use of PWI in
a specific population, the students in their final
year of secondary school at late adolescence.
Such an explorative research is important in
a country where a quarter of the population are
Algerian Secondary School Students, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI) 139 A
Algerian Secondary 90 Students
School Students, Adult General Population
Application of the
80
Personal Well-being A
Index (PWI), Fig. 1 PWI
and domain means in 70
students (N 638) and
general population 60
(N 11,147) (Source:
Tiliouine (2013)) 50
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C
Algerian Secondary School Students, Application of the Personal Well-being Index (PWI), Table 1 Loadings
on the one extracted factor, inter-item correlations, and beta weights of the regressed items on SWL
Loadings SWL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Beta
Satisfaction with life Dependant
1-Standard 0.611 0.597 0.428***
2-Health 0.542 0.297 0.312 0.021
3-Achieving 0.711 0.510 0.381 0.310 0.225***
4-Personal relations 0.614 0.344 0.305 0.264 0.374 0.047
5-Personal safety 0.657 0.332 0.287 0.283 0.283 0.280 0.057
6-Belonging 0.699 0.364 0.288 0.278 0.351 0.343 0.490 0.059
7-Future security 0.642 0.356 0.308 0.224 0.411 0.191 0.382 0.403 0.048
8-Religiosity 0.518 0.322 0.174 0.13 0.370 0.293 0.242 0.243 0.246 0.107***
Explained variance 39.38 % Adj.R2 0.48
PWI-8 0.621 0.606 0.539 0.684 0.626 0.667 0.692 0.640 0.540
All correlations sig. at P < 0.001; ***P < 0.001

students. Furthermore, this country belongs to
the Arab world where the youth are leading the
change (Arab Spring) while facing enormous
challenges on the way to modernize. The results
would help in gaining understanding on how
these youth perceive their lives and hence may
inform policy makers.
The findings are interesting in many ways.
They show that students rate higher all aspects
of PWI compared to the general population and
even fall within the normal range of developed
countries (Cummins, 2013; Tiliouine, 2013).
This may mean that youths subjective well-
being in this particular context remains strong
compared to older adults. This is in congruence
with previous research. For instance, in Brazil,
Spain, and Chile, PWI-7 mean was as high as
80.86 (SD 13.16, N 4,916) with all items
obtaining a mean higher than 75 (Casas et al.,
2012: 466). Tomyn and Cummins (2011) found
high ratings too. This universal trend of SWB,
regardless of cultural and economic contexts,
maybe attributed to the fact that youth at schools
enjoy better health because of their age and are
not yet facing problems of employment and
adults life pressures.
Nonetheless, relatively lower means of future
security and achieving in life domains in the
present research may reflect that Algerian adoles-
cents hold realistic views of their living condi-
tions. Furthermore, standards of living, then
achievements in life, and religiosity are the
main determinants of their general satisfaction
(Table 1, last column). Being healthy and having
access to social relationships and less exposed to
security risks lead them not to assess these latter
A 140
as important components of their overall satisfac-
tion. Other possible differences in response style
remain to be explored when cross-cultural com-
parisons are undertaken.
Finally, PWI has performed well in terms of
both validity and reliability with this adolescent
population. The results are comparable to those
reported in many other countries. However, the
PWI adult version used here failed to detect dif-
ferences in well-being of successful and less suc-
cessful schools. This corroborates the attempts to
produce a specific version of PWI to be used in
schools (e.g., Tomyn & Cummins, 2010; Casas
et al., 2012).
Cross-References
Australian Unity Well-being Index
International Well-being Group
Personal Well-being Index
Subjective Well-being
References
Casas, F., Sarriera, J., Alfaro, J., Gonzalez, M., Malo, S.,
Bertran, I., Figuer, C., Cruz, D., Bedin, L., Paradiso, A.,
Weinreich, K., & Valdenegro, B. (2012). Testing the
personal wellbeing Index in 1216 year-old adolescents
in 3 different countries with 2 new items. Social
Indicators Research, 105, 461482.
Cummins, R. A. (2013). Personal Wellbeing Index in
Australia. Encyclopedia of quality of life research.
Springer (in press).
Cummins, R. A., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., Van
Vugt, J., & Misajon, R. (2003). Development a
national index of subjective wellbeing: The Australian
Unity Wellbeing Index. Social Indicators Research,
64, 159190.
IWG (International Wellbeing Group). (2006). Personal
Wellbeing Index Adult Manual, 4th version. Mel-
bourne: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin
University. http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/
instruments/well-being_index.htm.
Tiliouine, H. (2013). Personal wellbeing index in algeria.
Encyclopedia of quality of life research. Springer
(in press).
Tomyn, A. J., & Cummins, R. A. (2011). The subjective
wellbeing of high-school students: Validating the
personal wellbeing index-school children. Social
Indicators Research, 101, 405418.
Alienation
Alienation
John Robinson
Department of Sociology, University of
Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Description
Alienation is a QOL concept with a long and
diverse history in the social sciences, initially
influenced by the 1844 writings of Karl Marx in
his Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. The
idea of alienation was developed by the young
Marx and later expanded upon in his fuller critique
of political economy in Capital. Marx saw creative
self-realization in ones work and favorable
relations with ones work colleagues as a central
feature of ones humanity and reason for existence.
To the extent that workers felt exploited by
employers and having little sense of control, their
sense of powerlessness and self-estrangement
led to this state of alienation. The origin of alien-
ation is also linked to commodity fetishism the
belief that inanimate things (commodities) have
human powers (i.e., value) able to govern the
activity of human beings.
In terms of translating this subjective state into
empirical measures of alienation, Seeman (1991)
reviewed almost 30 separate scales, or a multi-item
set of survey questions, covering terms like isola-
tion, cultural estrangement, and purpose in life.
Most prominent among the 30 was a set of six
general multi-item measures or scales of power-
lessness, with items like I have the feeling that
other people are using me, or Sometimes I feel
I am being pushed around in life. Seeman also
developed his own specific work alienation scale,
with sample items like Do you have the chance to
make independent decisions in you work, or is it
rather routine work? for which extensive national
norms for comparison were generated.
Seeman also identified five other related
multiple-item scales that he grouped under the
heading of normlessness, measures that derived
more from the writings of Emile Durkheim on the
societal condition known as anomie. Perhaps the
Alienation 141 A
Alienation, Table 1 GSSanomia national sample scale responses: 19732006

Frequency Distribution
A
Cells contain: YEAR
-Column percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976
TOTAL
32.9 28.6 33.1 31.6
1: AGREE 490.8 421.6 495.2 1,407.5

ANOMIA1 2: DISAGREE 67.1 71.4 66.9 68.4

1,001.8 1,050.2 999.8 3,051.7

COL TOTAL 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

1,492.5 1,471.8 1,495.0 4,459.3

Color coding: <2.0 <1.0 <0.0 >0.0 >1.0 >2.0 Z

N in each cell: Smaller than expected Larger than expected

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset
WONDER IF ANYTHING IS
Row ANOMIA2 1-2 0,8,9 1
WORTHWHILE
GSS YEAR FOR THIS
Column YEAR 1972-2010 1
RESPONDENT

Weight COMPWT Composite weight = WTSSALL* 1927-

1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976
TOTAL
40.5 43.8 41.0 41.7
1: AGREE 601.2 643.3 605.9 1,850.4

ANOMIA2 2: DISAGREE 59.5 56.2 59.0 58.3

885.0 825.6 873.0 2,583.7

COL TOTAL 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

1,486.2 1,469.0 1,478.9 4,434.0

Color coding: <2.0 <1.0 <0.0 >0.0 >1.0 >2.0 Z

N in each cell: Smaller than expected Larger than expected

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset
NO RIGHT & WRONG WAYS TO
Row ANOMIA3 1-2 0,8,9 1
MAKE MONEY
GSS YEAR FOR THIS
Column YEAR 1972-2010 1
RESPONDENT

Weight COMPWT Composite weight = WTSSALL* 1927-

1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976
TOTAL

(continued)
A 142 Alienation

Alienation, Table 1 (continued)

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976
TOTAL
25.6 21.6 27.3 24.8
1: AGREE
375.9 312.6 399.4 1,087.9

ANOMIA3 2: DISAGREE 74.4 78.4 72.7 75.2

1,095.2 1,133.1 1,066.4 3,294.7

COL TOTAL 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

1,471.1 1,445.7 1,465.8 4,382.6
CSM, UC Berkeley
SDA 3.5: Tables

GSS 1972-2010 Cumulative Datafile

Nov 21, 2012 (Wed 12:48 PM PST)

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset

Row ANOMIA4 LIVE ONLY FOR TODAY 1-2 0,8,9 1

GSS YEAR FOR THIS

Column YEAR 1972-2010 1
RESPONDENT

Weight COMPWT Composite weight = WTSSALL* 1927-

1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976
TOTAL
42.9 44.0 47.2 44.7
1: AGREE
639.5 644.6 702.1 1,986.2

ANOMIA4 2: DISAGREE 57.1 56.0 52.8 55.3

852.2 821.5 786.5 2,460.3

COL TOTAL 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

1,491.6 1,466.2 1,488.6 4,446.4

Color coding: <2.0 <1.0 <0.0 >0.0 >1.0 >2.0 Z

N in each cell: Smaller than expected Larger than expected

CSM, UC Berkeley
SDA 3.5: Tables

GSS 1972-2010 Cumulative Datafile

Nov 21, 2012 (Wed 12:48 PM PST)

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset
LOT OF THE AVERAGE MAN
Row ANOMIA5 1-2 0,8,9 1
GETTING WORSE
GSS YEAR FOR THIS
Column YEAR 1972-2010 1
RESPONDENT

Weight COMPWT Composite weight = WTSSALL* 1927-

1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

(continued)
Alienation 143 A
Alienation, Table 1 (continued)

Frequency Distribution
A
Cells contain: YEAR
-Column percent
-Weighted N ROW
1973 1974 1976 1977 1980 1982 1984 1985 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994
TOTAL

55.4 60.9 61.3 56.6 68.4 67.2 55.0 49.9 62.7 62.0 59.3 57.7 60.7 68.8 68.5 60.9
1: AGREE
808.6 874.8 889.6 833.0 981.8 1,187.9 786.7 741.6 1,119.5 579.6 592.1 501.6 575.6 702.0 843.2 12,017.5
ANOMIA5

44.6 39.1 38.7 43,4 31.6 32.8 45.0 50.1 37.3 38.0 40.7 42.3 39.3 31.2 31.5 39.1
2: DISAGREE
652.1 562.0 561.1 639.0 454.6 578.9 643.3 744.6 665.5 355.7 406.5 367.9 373.2 318.9 387.9 17,711.2

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
COL TOTAL
1,460.6 1,436.8 1,450.7 1,471.9 1,436.5 1,766.8 1,430.0 1,486.3 1,785.0 935.2 998.6 869.5 948.8 1,020.9 1,231.1 19,728.7

Color coding: <2.0 <1.0 <0.0 >0.0 >1.0 >2.0 Z

N in each cell: Smaller than expected Larger than expected

CSM, UC Berkeley
SDA 3.5: Tables
GSS 1972-2010 Cumulative Datafile
Nov 21,2012 (Wed 12:48 PM PST)

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset
NOT FAIR TO BRING CHILD INTO
Row ANOMIA6 1-2 0,8,9 1
WORLD
GSS YEAR FOR THIS
Column YEAR 1972-2010 1
RESPONDENT
Composite weight = WTSSALL * .1927-
Weight COMPWT 1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column percent
-Weighted N ROW
1973 1974 1976 1977 1980 1982 1984 1985 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994
TOTAL

37.2 36.2 43.9 38.8 48.8 35.2 38.5 33.4 39.4 37.6 37.0 36.3 36.4 40.7 44.0 38.9
1: AGREE
546.5 522.2 633.6 577.5 686.4 621.2 556.5 502.5 702.5 359.4 373.8 318.7 350.4 422.8 544.0 7,718.0
ANOMIA6

62.8 63.8 56.1 61.2 52.0 64.8 61.5 66.6 60.6 62.4 63.0 63.7 63.6 59.3 56.0 61.1
2: DISAGREE
922.3 921.1 809.9 909.7 744.9 1,145.6 890.5 1,000.1 1,080.2 596.5 635.5 558.8 612.2 616.1 692.0 12,135.3

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
COL TOTAL
1,468.3 1,443.3 1,443.4 1,487.2 1,431.2 1,766.8 1,447.0 1,502.7 1,782.6 955.9 1,009.3 877.4 962.6 1,038.9 1,236.0 19,853.2

CSM, UC Berkeley
SDA 3.5: Tables
GSS 19722010 Cumulative Datafile
Nov 21,2012 (Wed 12:48 PM PST)

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset
OFFICIALS NOT INTERESTED IN
Row ANOMIA7 1-2 0,8,9 1
AVERAGE MAN

Column YEAR GSS YEAR FOR THIS RESPONDENT 1972-2010 1

Composite weight = WTSSALL * .1927-

Weight COMPWT 1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

(continued)
A 144 Alienation

Alienation, Table 1 (continued)

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column
percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976 1977 1980 1982 1984 1985 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1993 1994 2006
TOTAL

1: AGREE 58.9 66.2 66.4 64.8 71.0 68.0 69.7 65.3 69.8 66.7 65.7 68.8 69.8 74.8 74.7 65.4 67.7
863.8 955.2 970.7 959.5 1,010.7 1,211.9 994.8 983.5 1,241.2 625.6 653.8 602.8 665.2 778.8 928.8 965.3 14,410.8
ANOMIA7

2: DISAGREE 41.1 33.8 33.6 35.2 29.0 32.0 30.3 34.7 30.2 33.3 34.3 31.2 30.2 25.2 25.2 34.6 32.3
602.3 488.6 492.2 521.8 413.4 570.4 431.8 521.8 536.5 312.3 341.7 273.6 287.3 261.7 313.9 511.3 6,880.4

100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
COL TOTAL
1,466.1 1,443.8 1,462.9 1,481.3 1,424.1 1,782.3 1,426.6 1,505.3 1,777.7 937.9 995.5 876.4 952.5 1,040.5 1,241.9 1,476.5 21,291.3

Color coding: <2.0 <1.0 <0.0 >0.0 >1.0 >2.0 Z

N in each cell: Smaller than expected Larger than expected

CSM, UC Berkeley

SDA 3.5: Tables

GSS 19722010 Cumulative Datafile

Nov 21, 2012 (Wed 12:48 PM PST)

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset

Row ANOMIA8 DONTKNOW WHOM TO TRUST 1-2 0,8,9 1

GSS YEAR FOR THIS

Column YEAR 1972-2010 1
RESPONDENT

Weight COMPWT Composite weight = WTSSALL* 1927-

1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976
TOTAL
64.6 75.1 75.8 71.8
1: AGREE
956.8 1,103.9 1,121.8 3,182.4
35.4 24.9 24.2 28.2
ANOMIA8 2: DISAGREE
525.3 365.1 359.1 1,249.4
100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
COL TOTAL
1,482.1 1,469.0 1,480.9 4,431.9

(continued)

most recognized and used of these five measures
was Sroles (1956) nine-item scale of anomia, with
items like Its hardly fair to bring children into
the world the ways things look for the future.
Table 1 shows national responses to nine of these
items that had been included in the General Social
Survey (GSS) in the 1970s, three of which were
asked for more than 20 years until 1994 (and one
until 2006) to provide national norms and
trends. While these three items generally showed
a 510 % increased agreement since their
first application in 1973, they have not been
replicated since. Nor does there seem to have
been much recent interest in updating them or
expanding their implications, perhaps because of
greater reliance on more direct measures of social
malaise now available of trust in government
and confidence in institutions. These newer
items are also freer of the limitation agreement
response set.
Altruism 145 A
Alienation, Table 1 (continued)

Datasets
1 /html/D3/GSS10
A
2 /html/Npubvars/G SS10

Nov 21, 2012 (Wed 12:48 PM PST)

Variables
Role Name Label Range MD Dataset
MOST DONT CARE WHAT
Row ANOMIA9 1-2 0,8,9 1
HAPPENS TO OTHERS
GSS YEAR FOR THIS
Column YEAR 1972-2010 1
RESPONDENT

Weight COMPWT Composite weight = WTSSALL* 1927-

1
OVERSAMP * FORMWT 11.1290

Frequency Distribution

Cells contain: YEAR

-Column percent ROW
-Weighted N 1973 1974 1976
TOTAL
47.5 58.7 59.4 55.2
1: AGREE
701.9 857.5 880.8 2,440.1
52.5 41.3 40.6 44.8
ANOMIA9 2: DISAGREE
775.2 602.2 601.6 1,978.9
100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
COL TOTAL
1,477.1 1,459.7 1,482.3 4,419.0

References
Alternative/Flexible Work
Marx, K. (1844) Economic and philosophical manuscripts. Arrangements
Marx, K. (1869) Capital
Seeman, M. (1991). Alienation and anomie. In Temporary Employment
J. Robinson, P. Shaver, & L. Wrightsman (Eds.),
Measures of personality. San Diego: Academic Press.
Srole, L. (1956). Social integration and certain corollaries.
American Sociological Review, 21, 709716.

Altruism

Alpha Reliability Anne Birgitta Pessi1 and Emilia Saukko2

1
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies,
Cronbachs Alpha University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
2
Department of Social Sciences, University of
Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

Alternative Development in Mexico

and Chile
Synonyms
Democracy and Development in Mexico and
Chile Prosociality; Selflessness
A 146
Definition
Altruism refers in general to actions that take other
human beings into consideration, actions
concerned with the well-being of others. The con-
cept was brought into social sciences by Auguste
Comte (17981857) in the middle of
the nineteenth century as the antonym of selfish-
ness. The earliest use of the word egoism
(considered as the opposite to altruism) is recorded
in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1722,
whereas altruism appeared for the first time in
1853. The term derives from the Latin word alter
(other). The word altruism however refers to
two different things: the motives of the altruist
or to the consequences of the action (Hardin,
1993, p. 225). Macaulay and Berkowitzs classic
definition of altruism defines it as behaviour car-
ried out to benefit another without anticipation of
rewards from external sources (1970, p. 3).
Description
Sociocultural explanations of altruism focus on
its demographic correlations (religion, age,
gender, wealth, education, political views,
etc.). Economic explanations, on the other
hand, consider altruism as a commodity and
stress the role of its rewards (material or
psychological). Evolutionary biology and
psychology base their explanations on very sim-
ilar grounds to economic explanations. Biolo-
gists stress kin and/or group selection and
emphasize elements such as birth order and
community size. Psychologists prefer to empha-
size developmental matters (socialization,
level of cognitive development, etc.) as well as
more contextual elements such as norms and
culture (e.g., habits of reciprocity, moral judge-
ments) in their explanations of altruism.
Empirically oriented studies have two
main trends in the field of altruism research.
First, numerous researchers have analyzed heroes
and people who have lived exceptionally altruistic
lives such as Gandhi or Mother Teresa. In a classic
study of individuals who rescued Jewish
people during the Nazi era, Oliners (1988)
Altruism
indicated that the rescuers were marked by exten-
sity, being more attached and committed to peo-
ple in their social relationships and having
empathy as well as an inclusive sense of obligation
toward various groups. In other words, both
the propensity to attach oneself to others and the
propensity toward inclusiveness in respect of
individuals and groups are critical to altruism.
Organ and blood donation research forms the sec-
ond main area, most of which has studied
the donors motivation. Also donating time or
money to charities can be considered as altruistic
behavior.
Various scholars have provided evidence
supporting the theory that altruism is learned and
can be further developed by teaching and learning.
Hunt (1990) has summed up three elements that
are characteristics of altruists, particularly altruis-
tic children: to be (1) happy, well adjusted, and
socially popular, (2) sensitive and emotionally
expressive, and (3) having high self-esteem.
Although teaching by parents, schools and civil
society agents, among others, support these three
elements, these can also support the development
of altruism. According to Gintis (2003), altruism
transfers socially in three ways: (1) vertically from
parents to their children, (2) as a result of
a horizontal peer-group interaction, and (3) through
cultural transmission of norms humans internalize,
such as school, mass-media, or religious rituals
(Gintis, 2003, pp. 156157.).
An ongoing debate concerns whether altru-
ism really exists; what is the relation between
selfishness and non-selfishness in helping
behavior? To demonstrate logically that helping
can be altruistic and not always inherently
a selfish act can be difficult. For instance,
those who personally value altruism most likely
gain positive feelings from altruistic behavior.
Thus, a cynic can always claim that there is
always a selfish gain. It may be true that helping
others brings one pleasure, yet this is by no
means the same as showing that one has helped
in order to primarily please oneself. Similarly,
as noted by Felscher and Worthen (2007),
pleasure, as such, is never an end motive in
itself but something that causes one pleasure.
The fact that altruism brings joy particularly
American Demographics Index of Well-Being 147 A
indicates that there are true altruistic motives
that biological and cultural evolutions, both Ambivalent Prejudice
nature and nurture, have provided us with. A
Additionally, a continuum perspective from Prejudice
pure egoism to pure altruism can be utilized as
a key to this dilemma: the problem with theories
of motivation, based on self-interest, is not that
they are false but that they are only partly true. In
other words, neither egoism nor altruism is Ambivalent Sexism
adequate explanations on their own. Considering
the pure form of thinking and acting (egoism and Gender Inequality and Subjective Well-Being
altruism) as extremely rare, and assuming that Religion and Sexism
most of human thinking and behavior include ele-
ments of both these poles, leads us to understand
that helping others and gaining joy from it (or the
increased social respect and status) are two sides of
the same coin. Ambulation and Disability

Mobility Issues for People with Disabilities

Cross-References

Motivation
Norms
Peer Group Comparisons
Ambulatory Addessment with Daily
Reciprocity in Exchange
Diaries

References Daily Diary Methodology

Felscher, A. E., & Worthen, D. L. (2007). The altruistic

species: Scientific, philosophical, and religious
perspectives of human benevolence. New York:
Templeton Foundation Press.
Gintis, H. (2003). Solving the puzzle of prosociality. American Demographics Index
Rationality and Society, 15(2), 155187. of Well-Being
Hardin, G. (1993). Living within limits: Ecology, econom-
ics, and population taboos. New York: Oxford
University Press. Elia Kacapyr
Hunt, M. (1990). The compassionate beast. What science Department of Economics, Ithaca College,
is discovering about the humane side of humankind. Ithaca, NY, USA
New York: William Morrow.
Macaulay, J., & Berkowitz, L. (1970). Altruism and helping
behavior: Social psychological studies of some anteced-
ents and consequences. New York: Academic Press.
Oliner, S. P., & Oliner, P. M. (1988). The altruistic Definition
personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe.
New York: Free Press.
The American Demographics Index of Well-
being was an attempt to monitor the quality of
life in America by combing 11 statistical indi-
Alzheimers Type Dementia cators covering five broad categories. The Index
was updated each month and covered the period
Global Deterioration Scale (Individuals) from April 1990 to December 1998.
A 148
Description
Although gross domestic product (GDP) is often
used as a measure of a nations standard of
living, economists have long recognized its
deficiencies as a measure of the quality of life.
Basically, GDP measures production. However,
it also measures income since everything that is
produced for market consumption generates
income.
GDP does not consider what is produced.
If a nation is crime ridden and spends a lot of
its resources on antitheft goods and services,
this spending increases GDP. In addition, GDP
does not consider the amount of leisure
enjoyed by a typical citizen, how the goods
and services that are produced are distributed
among the citizenry, or whether the amount
and type of production is sustainable. In short,
GDP may be a starting point, but it is a poor
measure of social welfare.
In order to overcome the deficiencies of GDP
as a measure of social welfare, economists
have offered amalgamations with other statis-
tics. Nordhaus and Tobin (1972) developed a
measure of economic welfare (MEW)
Slowly Getting Better
Americans well-being has been generally rising for the last
(American Demographics Index of well-Being, April 1990-September 1995)
American Demographics
Index of Well-Being,
Fig. 1 American
demographics index
of well-being, April 1990 1991
1990September 1995
American Demographics Index of Well-Being
accounting for household and volunteer work,
leisure, and pollution. However, they concluded
that GDP and MEW did not significantly differ
over time and that both were increasing. The
Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen (1973, 1987)
has offered insights into measuring the quality
of life in a nation. However, none of these
hybrids has gained popularity with the media
or scholars.
The American Demographics Index of
Well-Being is yet one more attempt to gauge
the quality of life in a nation by combining
measures of economic progress with social
and environmental indicators. The Index was
commissioned by American Demographics in
1996. Since the magazine was monthly, all of
the statistical indicators had to be monthly as
well. This is somewhat peculiar given that
aggregate social welfare is suspected to change
slowly over the years.
GDP could not be used since it is quarterly.
Economic progress is measured by disposable
income per capita adjusted for inflation and
the unemployment rate. The five sectors and the
indicators included in each are given in the
following table:
two years.
103
101
(April 1990 baseline)=100
99
97
95
1992 1993 1994 1995
Source: American Demographics
American Demographics Index of Well-Being 149 A
American Demographics American Trends
Index of Well-Being, Three indices agree that things went downhill in 1991,
Fig. 2 Annual percent but more recent measures disagree.
change in three measures of (annual percent change in three measures of U.S. living standard, 199194) A
U.S. living standard,
American Demographics Index GDP Per Capita Genuine Progress Indicator Per Capita
199194
2.97% 4%
1.83%
1.45%
0.81% 2%
0.36%

0.40% 0.02% 0%

1.82% 2%
2.19%

4%

6%
7.06%
7.56%
8%
8.74%
10%
1991 1992 1993 1994
Source: American Demographics; Bureau of Economic Analysis: Redefining Progress, San Francisco, CA

Income and employment opportunity a weighted average was used where the weights
Disposable income per capita adjusted for inflation were inversely proportional to each indicators
Employment rate deviation from a long-term trend line. In this
Leisure sense, each indicator got the weight it deserved.
168 minus average weekly hours worked The American Demographics Index of Well-
Spending on recreation per capita adjusted for inflation Being showed that GDP tended to over exagger-
Productivity and technology ate the changes in American well-being in both
Industrial production per unit of labor directions: When the American economy
Industrial production per unit of energy advanced, overall progress lagged behind, and
Consumer attitudes when the American economy fell into recession,
Consumer confidence index overall progress did not fall as much. The Index
Consumer expectations index
suggested that American well-being grows by
Social and physical environment
less than 1 % a year (Fig. 2).
Number of endangered species
Crime rate
Cross-References
Divorce rate (Fig. 1)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Happiness

The Index was reviewed upon its inception,
first by Edward Diener in SIGNET (1996) and
then in the Monthly Labor Review (1996).
Hagerty et al. (2001) reviewed the Index in
a compilation volume.
A key feature of the Index was the weighting
scheme. The raw data were seasonally adjusted
and then rescaled to equal to 100 in the base
month (April 1990). Some indicators were more
volatile than others. It would be inappropriate to
simply average them all together. Instead,
Quality of Life
Well-Being
References
Hagerty, M. R., Cummins, R. A., Ferriss, A. L., Land, K.,
Michalo, A. C., Peterson, M., et al. (2001). Quality of life
indexes for national policy: Review and agenda for
research. Social Indicators Research, 55, 196.
Nordhaus, W., & Tobin, J. (1972). Is growth obsolete? In
National Bureau of Economic Research (Ed.), Eco-
nomic growth, General Series No. 96E, NBER.
A 150
Sen, A. K. (1973). On the development of basic income
indicators to supplement GNP measures. United Nations
Bulletin for Asia and the Far East, 24(2-3), 111.
Sen, A. K. (1987). Standard of living. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
American Indian and Alaska Native
Child Health Indicators
American Indian/Alaska Native Child Health
Indicators
American Indian and Alaska Native
Child Well-Being Indicators
Well-Being Indicators for Native American
Children
American Indian and Alaska Native
Children and Youth Well-Being
Indicators
Well-Being Indicators for Native American
Children
American Indian/Alaska Native
(AI/AN) Child Health Indicators
American Indian/Alaska Native Child Health
Indicators
American Indian/Alaska Native Child
Health Indicators
Angela A. A. Willeto
Department of Sociology and Social Work,
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff,
AZ, USA
Synonyms
AI/AN child health indicators; American Indian
and Alaska Native child health indicators;
American Indian and Alaska Native Child Health Indicators
American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) child
health indicators; N.A. child health indicators;
Native American child health indicators
Definition
American Indian child health indicators are sta-
tistics that aim to gauge various health measures
for the Indigenous Native North American child
and youth population of the United States.
Description
Until recently, American Indian (AI) and
Alaska Native (AN) statistics on child health
indicators were extremely rare, and this was the
case with practically any sort of data on AI/ANs
(Sandefur & Liebler, 1996). Instead, their data
were subsumed within the total US population
or reported in the other racial-ethnic category.
Reasons for this oversight include methodologi-
cal issues due to proportionately small population
and resulting small sample sizes and the prohib-
itively extreme expense of oversampling a
population dispersed between urban and rural
locations (Barth, 2000; Owings & Peng, 1999;
Sandefur, Rindfuss & Cohen, 1996). Even when
data on AI/AN health indicators are produced,
they are often problematic owing to concerns
regarding racial misclassification and accuracy
(Willeto, 2007; Swan et al., 2006).
One source of AI/AN child health indicators is
primarily due to established treaty obligations
between Native nations and the US federal gov-
ernment. Housed within the Department of the
Interior, Indian Health Services (IHS) provides
health care to federally recognized Indian tribes.
As such, they have collected various health sta-
tistics on AI/AN children and release information
in two reports, Trends in Indian Health and
Regional Differences in Indian Health, the earli-
est editions in 1997 and the most recent in
20022003 (U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, 1997a, b, 2003a, b). Trends in
Indian Health reports statistics on their service
population, meaning the 60 % of AI/AN who are
American Indian/Alaska Native Child Health Indicators
in the patient registration system of IHS. The
Regional Differences reports use the bureau-
cratic organizational scheme of IHS which has
little to do with how tribal reservations and/or
states are organized (see http://www.ihs.gov/
PublicAffairs/IHSBrochure/Map.asp); hence
these statistics serve the purposes of IHS. Specif-
ically, AI/AN child health indicators included in
these reports concern natality and infant/maternal
mortality statistics, such as various birth rates and
leading causes of neonatal death.
Since 2000, other governmental and private
organizations have begun reporting on some
Native American child health indicators at the
national level, but statistics are still quite rare
for any specific geographical locale or group,
such as tribal reservation or state, or for any
particular tribal affiliation. In 2000, two promi-
nent Indian childrens welfare advocacy groups,
the National Indian Child Welfare Association
(NICWA) and Casey Family Programs (CFP),
together aimed to address the lack of AI/AN
child well-being indicator data by contracting
with Willeto and Goodluck to investigate the
feasibility of producing AI/AN child well-being
indicator data. Given the lack of child indicator
data on Native Americans, there was uncertainty
whether this was achievable or not. However,
over a 4-year period, a number of report publica-
tions by Willeto and Goodluck (Willeto &
Goodluck, 2003a; Willeto, 2002; Goodluck &
Willeto, 2000, 2001) were produced that effec-
tively demonstrated that a number of AI/AN child
health indicators at the national level and for 13
and 14 states could be estimated and released for
the use of Native communities, advocates, and
researchers. This represented the elimination of
a gap in the field of well-being indicators, partic-
ularly those based on survival, objective, or def-
icit-based models for Native American children,
youth, and families (Ben-Arieh, 2000). These
efforts set in motion the increased production
and release of health data on AI/AN children in
the coming years. For example, the US Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services (USDHHS)
(USDHHS, 2010) houses the Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA) which pro-
duces Child Health USA annual reports which
151 A
has a select number of child health indicators on
American Indian and Alaska Natives located in
their 2010 edition which is available on their A
website (http://mchb.hrsa.gov/mchirc/chusa/). In
addition, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF,
2010) in their annual Kids Count reports AI/AN
statistics on their ten key indicators which includes
five child health statistics at the national level.
In general, at the national level, AI/AN children
and youths demonstrate higher rates of infant
mortality, teen births, child deaths, and teen deaths
by accident, homicide, and suicide. Analysis of
14 states AI/AN data on health indicators shows
significant variability. Kids Count had tradition-
ally used 10 key indicators; but in 2012 expanded
their key indicators of well-being to 16.
Consistent with the holist worldview of Indig-
enous North Americans that emphasizes the con-
nectedness between the body, mind, and spirit;
a more balanced collection of child health indi-
cators would contribute enormously to the field.
While the reduced gap is appreciated by AI child
advocates, the production of more resiliency-
based, positive indicators would address ques-
tions aimed at discerning how Native Americans
demonstrated resiliency in the face of oppressive
colonialist policies enacted by the federal gov-
ernment since contact. Some work has begun
using these sorts of frameworks, most notably in
the area of education where LaFramboise, Hoyt,
Oliver, and Whitbeck (2006) examined resilience
among American Indian adolescents in the Mid-
west, while HeavyRunner (2003) discusses how
cultural resilience is an ancient concept to Indig-
enous Peoples, and Strand and Peacock (2002)
identified factors that promote resilience in young
Natives. However, currently the field of Ameri-
can Indian child health indicators includes little
to no coverage on positive indicators in any sys-
tematic fashion, though some preliminary work
by Goodluck (2002) identified ten themes and
three domains of Native American strengths.
Discussion
The field of child health indicators for American
Indians and Alaska Natives reflects a specific
A 152
population subgroup in the United States which
presents challenges for data preparers. As such,
this field lags behind the general US child health
indicators arena. Others might argue that there is
no lag at all because US All Races statistics
include AI/AN data. However, given that AI/AN
are about 1 % of the US population and are
disproportionately young and that they have
high rates of poverty (Willeto, 2007), it is imper-
ative that more efforts are directed at reducing the
health disparities so evident between the AI/AN
population and the mainstream population.
Cross-References
American Indian and Alaska Native Child
Well-Being Indicators
Child Indicators Research
Indigenous Health Disparities
Indigenous Knowledge
References
Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2010). 2010 KIDS COUNT
data book: State profiles of child well-being. Balti-
more: Annie E Casey Foundation.
Barth, R. P. (2000). National Survey of Child and Adoles-
cent Well-Being (NSCAW): Whats in it for you In:
Making It Work: Supporting Child Welfare with Infor-
mation Technology and Data. Symposium conducted
at the 3rd National Child Welfare Data Conference
(June 2123, 2000), sponsored by the Childrens
Bureau/USDHHS, Arlington/Crystal City, VA.
Ben-Arieh, A. (2000). Beyond welfare: Measuring and
monitoring the state of children New trends and
domains. Social Indicators Research, 52, 235257.
Goodluck, C. (2002). Native American children and youth
well-being indicators: A strengths perspective. Seattle/
Flagstaff, AZ: Casey Family Programs & Northern
Arizona University.
Goodluck, C., & Willeto, A. A. A. (2000). Native
American kids 2000: Indian child well-being indica-
tors. Seattle/Flagstaff, AZ: Casey Family Programs &
Northern Arizona University.
Goodluck, C., & Willeto, A. A. A. (2001). Native Amer-
ican kids 2001: Indian child well-being indicators.
Seattle/Flagstaff, AZ: Casey Family Programs &
Northern Arizona University.
HeavyRunner, I., & Marshall, K. (2003). Miracle
survivors: Promoting resiliency in Indian students.
Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher
Education, 14, 1518.
American Indian/Alaska Native Child Health Indicators
LaFramboise, T. D., Hoyt, D., Oliver, L., & Whitbeck, L.
(2006). Family, community, and school influences on
resilience among American Indian adolescents in the
upper Midwest. Journal of Community Psychology,
34, 193209.
Owings, J., & Peng, S. (1999). Sharing of analyses.
National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988
(NELS: 88) presented at the Database Training Semi-
nar, Washington, DC.
Sandefur, G. D., & Liebler, C. A. (1996). The demography
of American Indian families. In G. D. Sandefur, R. R.
Rindfuss, & B. Cohen (Eds.), Changing numbers,
changing needs: American Indian demography and
public health. Washington, DC: National Academy
Press.
Sandefur, G. D., Rindfuss, R. R., & Cohen, B. (1996).
Introduction. In G. D. Sandefur, R. R. Rindfuss, &
B. Cohen (Eds.), Changing numbers, changing
needs: American Indian demography and public
health. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Strand, J. A., & Peacock, T. D. (2002). Nurturing resil-
ience and school success in American Indian and
Alaska Native students. ED471488. Charleston, WV:
ERIC Clearinghouse on rural education and small
schools.
Swan, J., Breen, N., Burthansstipanov, L., Satter, D. E.,
Davis, W. W., McNeel, T., et al. (2006). Cancer
screening and risk factor rates among American
Indians. American Journal of Public Health, 96,
340350.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1997a).
1997 Regional differences in Indian health. Rockville,
MD: Indian Health Services.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1997b).
1997 Trends in Indian health. Rockville, MD: Indian
Health Services.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003a).
20022003 Regional differences in Indian health.
Rockville, MD: Indian Health Services.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003b).
20022003 Trends in Indian health. Rockville, MD:
Indian Health Services.
USDHHS, Health Resources and Services Administration,
Maternal and Child Health Bureau. (2010). Child
health USA 2010. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.
Willeto, A. A. A. (2002). Native American kids 2002:
Indian childrens well-being indicators data book for
13 states. Seattle/Flagstaff, AZ: Casey Family Pro-
grams & Northern Arizona University.
Willeto, A. A. A. (2007). Native American kids: American
Indian childrens well-being indicators for the nation
and two states. Social Indicators Research, 83,
149176.
Willeto, A. A. A., & Goodluck, C. (2003a). Native
American kids 2003: Indian childrens well-being
indicators data book for 14 states. Seattle/Flagstaff,
AZ: Casey Family Programs & Northern Arizona
University.
American National Election Studies
Willeto, A. A. A., & Goodluck, C. (2003b). Overview of
American Indian/Alaska natives. In Annie E. Casey
Foundation (Ed.), Kids count pocket guide: American
Indian children state level measures of child well-
being from the 2000 census. Baltimore: Annie E.
Casey Foundation.
American Indian/Alaska Native
Cultural Competence
Well-Being Indicators for Native American
Children
American National Election Studies
Matthew DeBell
Institute for Research in the Social Sciences,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Synonyms
National Election Study (NES)
Definition
The American National Election Studies is the
worlds longest-running series of public opinion
surveys about voting. It produces high-quality
survey data about electoral opinion and behavior
in the United States.
Description
ANES in a Nutshell
Since 1948 the American National Election Stud-
ies (ANES) have conducted representative sam-
ple surveys of the US population to enable data
analysts to understand voting behavior in
American presidential elections. The key
aims of the surveys are to understand voter turn-
out and candidate choice, both in terms of the
dynamics of the current election and in compar-
ison to past elections.
153 A
The ANES is one of the longest-running
public opinion surveys in the world and its
data have been the basis for more than 5,000 A
articles, books, and conference papers in political
science and allied disciplines. Data and documen-
tation are available for free from www.
electionstudies.org
Background
The ANES began with a series of surveys
conducted by the University of Michigan,
starting in 1948. From 1952 to 1976 surveys
were conducted in every presidential election
year and almost every off-year election (in
even-numbered non-presidential years), forming
a series of 13 related surveys spanning 28 years.
Initial directors of the study included Angus
Campbell and Warren Miller. The project was
constituted as the American National Election
Studies by the National Science Foundation in
1977 with a mandate to provide data to the
research community. Since 2006 the ANES has
been jointly administered at the University of
Michigan and Stanford University.
The ANES conducts pilot studies to test new
survey methods and conducts occasional panel
surveys or other special studies, but its core pro-
ject is the ANES Time Series of repeating surveys
concerning national elections.
Collection Methods
The ANES Time Series is a series of sample
surveys conducted in every presidential election
year since 1948. The characteristic design fea-
tures of the studies are a face-to-face interview
before the presidential election followed by a
reinterview of the same respondents after the
election. In addition, surveys were conducted in
most congressional elections between 1956 and
2002.
The samples are limited to US citizens and
have used stratified cluster sampling to make
samples representative of the population without
being cost prohibitive for face-to-face
interviewing. This kind of sampling involves
sampling in stages. First, the study draws samples
of geographic areas, such as counties or census
tracts, and then draws samples of households
A 154
within those sampled areas before selecting an
individual in each household. Clustering respon-
dents geographically makes it possible for inter-
viewers to interview several respondents in the
same area, which makes in-person surveys much
less expensive to conduct than if respondents
were uniformly scattered across the entire
country. The complex sample design of the
ANES requires analysts to use design-consistent
analysis procedures, specifically weighting and
tests of statistical significance that are appropri-
ate for survey data (DeBell, 2010).
Themes and Constructs
Many of the same questions have been asked
repeatedly over time, allowing the ANES to be
used to identify and analyze changes in public
opinion over time. The main dependent variables
that the ANES is designed to explain are voter
turnout and candidate choice for president, but
the studies incorporate many variables that make
it possible to conduct other analyses. Many of the
measures on the survey relate directly to well-
being, including the respondents trust in govern-
ment ( political trust), general interpersonal
trust, political alienation, feelings of personal
political efficacy, satisfaction with political
incumbents job performance, emotional responses
to government, health, and income. Some of the
additional repeating core content of the studies is
described below.
All the ANES surveys have featured questions
about voter turnout and candidate choice as focal
outcome variables.
The ANES has consistently measured party
identification by asking, Generally speaking,
do you think of yourself as a Republican,
a Democrat, an independent, or what? Respon-
dents who answer Republican or Democrat sex, race/ethnicity, religion, veteran status, union
are asked, Would you call yourself a strong
[Republican/Democrat] or a not very strong
[Republican/Democrat]? while respondents
who do not choose a party are asked, Do you
think of yourself as closer to the Republican Party
or to the Democratic Party? Responses to this set
of questions place the respondent on a seven-
point scale of party ID that is among the most
commonly used variables in political opinion
American National Election Studies
research because this variable is among the stron-
gest predictors of vote choice and policy
preferences.
Other repeated questions related to partisan-
ship include questions asking what the respon-
dent likes and dislikes about each political party,
feeling thermometers for the parties (which ask
respondents to rate objects on a 101-point ther-
mometer scale where low numbers indicate cold
or unfavorable feelings and high numbers indi-
cate warm or favorable feelings), and whether
there are important differences between what
the parties stand for.
Respondents rate candidates for public office
and other public figures using feeling thermome-
ters, report their emotional responses to public
officials (such as whether the official makes the
respondent angry, hopeful, afraid, or proud), and
rate incumbents job performance.
Controversial political issues are covered,
including respondents attitudes toward abortion,
health care, government spending, taxes, for-
eign policy, public assistance programs, and the
environment (environment, public concern with).
Values- and personality-related questions
include moral traditionalism, authoritarianism,
racial stereotyping, and cognitive style.
Participation in politics and civic life is a major
theme, including the voting questions noted above
as well as other political activities, attention to
politics, interest in politics, political knowledge,
contact with campaigns, volunteering, and use
of news media.
Demographic questions describe the back-
ground of the respondent on multiple dimensions:
education, employment, income, marital sta-
tus, home ownership, household size, the pres-
ence of children in the home, social class, age,
membership, and others.
References
DeBell, M. (2010). How to analyze ANES survey data
(ANES Technical Report No. nes012492). Palo Alto,
CA/Ann Arbor MI: Stanford University/University of
Michigan. http://electionstudies.org/resources/papers/
nes012492.pdf. Accessed 7 April 2012.
Amsterdam, Quality of Life
Amsterdam, Quality of Life
Jeroen Boelhouwer
The Netherlands Institute for Social
Research|SCP, The Hague, The Netherlands
Definition
Amsterdam is the largest city and also the capital
city of the Netherlands.
Description
Some Figures on the City of Amsterdam
Amsterdam has 767.773 inhabitants (January 1,
2010) and is the largest city in the Netherlands.
Of them, 51 % are females. Looking at the age
distribution, 21 % is younger than 20 years, and
11 % is older than 65 years. Of the households,
29 % is a single-person household, and 9 % are
couples with children.
There are 178 different nationalities living in
the city. Almost 25 % of the inhabitants are from
the four biggest ethnic minority groups (Turkish,
Moroccans, Surinamese, and Antilleans). Just
over 50 % is indigenous.
Average income was a bit more than 31.000
Euros (per person with an income 2008). For
ethnic minorities, this was just under 30.000
Euros.
Amsterdam has a lot of small houses (30 %
have one or two rooms, 10 % has five rooms or
more); the average number of persons per house
was 1.96 (2010). Twenty-six percent of the
houses in Amsterdam are owned; almost 50 %
is social (subsidized) rent.
Survey on Quality of Life
From 1998 onwards, the city of Amsterdam
decided to carry out its local social policy in
a more structured and integrated way (Schyns &
Boelhouwer, 2004). At that time, the local gov-
ernment looked for a coherent approach for urban
social policymaking and implementation pro-
cesses. This approach was called the Social
155 A
Structure Plan (SSP). One of the main reasons
for setting up a SSP was that both the information
and policy system in the city of Amsterdam were A
heavily fragmented in 1998 because of the citys
division into 15 autonomous city boroughs, all
with their own government and administration
(they cut down this number to 7 in 2010, and
the national government now want to get rid of
them all by 2014).
At the SSPs heart was the Social Agenda,
which included eight selected policy themes,
which was agreed upon that needed most urgent
action. These themes were:
1. Debt release for people in debts
2. Neighborhood health care
3. Extracurricular school facilities
4. The transition from school to work
5. Help for the youth
6. Elderly citizens care
7. Social activation of unemployed people
8. Special care for 05-year-olds
Besides fact sheets to describe the status quo
situation of the specific topic, quick scans were
conducted to get all the information necessary to
set up a scheme of initiation. This, in its turn, is
a prelude to the policy monitor, which was about
to monitor the social domain.
To get the figures for this monitor, every 2
years, a survey is conducted by Statistics
Amsterdam, under a random sample of about
3,000 persons each time. The researchers start
with an Internet survey, followed by a paper and
pencil survey. When people do not react, they are
phoned, and the survey is taken by telephone.
Also (and especially among ethnic minorities)
face-to-face interviews are held.
Statistics Amsterdam wants to draw conclu-
sions for the 7 (formerly 15) boroughs too, so the
sample is stratified to burrows. In addition, for
four selected ethnic groups (Surinamese, Turk-
ish, Moroccan people, and people from nonindus-
trialized countries), a sample of 200 people was
aimed at.
Defining the Social Domain: Participation
What then is the social domain, what are its
important indicators, and, above all, how could
it be measured? After consultation with people
A 156
from the University of Amsterdam and from the
Netherlands Institute for Social Research, it was
decided that there was a need for a central
concept and preferably less vague than the
social domain concept. The central concept
chosen was participation. This fitted well in
the national development at the time that local
governments moved from doers to facilitators:
the local government was no longer solely an
institute that provided services such as cleaning
the streets or handing out passports but was also
an institute that helped people facilitated
them to achieve what they needed and wanted
to achieve in their lives.
Participation is an active way to look at the
citizens involvement in society. Participation
was defined as the ability of people to play an
active role in society. Amsterdam distinguished
between seven different areas of participation:
participation in education, in work, in wealth, in
the society (also known as social participation or
civic involvement), in culture, in politics, and in
the livability of the neighborhood. This means
that the concept of participation is used in
a rather broad sense. Defining the notion as
above has a clear relation with general quality
of life research in the social indicators and social
reporting tradition.
Quality of Life in Amsterdam, Using the SCP
Life Situation Index
With regard to the survey design, Amsterdam did
not want to reinvent the wheel again, so it was
decided to make use of existing instruments that
already had gained their credits and had practical
use for policymakers (who after all would have
to make decisions based on the outcomes
of the monitor) and that could be used for
benchmarking. More and more, cities in the
Netherlands are being compared to each other in
terms of performances, and hence an instrument
that could tell how well or how poor we were
doing compared to other large cities, and the
Netherlands as a whole would be preferred.
The SCP Life Situation Index (SLI) was
able to fulfill this triple role: it has been used
since the 1970s, was constructed out of eight
policy-relevant domains, and would enable us to
Amsterdam, Quality of Life
make comparisons with performances of the four
biggest cities in the Netherlands and the nation as
a whole. The SLI is an integrative monitoring
instrument, combining indicators from several
domains into one single index (Boelhouwer,
2010).
Besides, the SLI is described in a national
report called the Social State of the Netherlands,
which gives insight in developments of quality of
life of the Dutch. In Amsterdam, it was decided to
have the results of the survey reported in
a Participation Monitor, which is called The
State of the City. Developments in participation
and life situation and has central elements of the
national report.
As it is a monitor, developments are the most
important aspect of the report. Developments in
a number of areas are described: population,
health, participation in education, economy, par-
ticipation in the labor force, participation in pros-
perity, societal participation, social participation
(sport, culture, hobbies), political participation,
liveability and safety, cumulation, and spatial
distribution of participation. In the report, various
aspects of well-being and prosperity are also
combined, using the SCP Life Situation Index.
Next to a number of descriptive indicators,
a selection of evaluative indicators is presented
(see Table 1).
Based on a scale ranging from 1 (the least
satisfied) to 10 (the most satisfied).
There is a positive relation between the (objec-
tive) life situation of the inhabitants of Amster-
dam and their satisfaction with life (Table 2).
Greater satisfaction with life is accompanied by
a better life situation.
Not only developments for Amsterdam as
a whole are monitored. Also several social groups
and the various buroughs and boroughs are
described. These borough developments are
used by the burough governments for overall
views about quality of life in their particular
part of the city compared to other parts.
As is stated in the State of the City VI: Impor-
tant questions that are answered with the monitor
are: with for which groups the situation is
improving, which are lagging behind and what
are the developments (O+S Amsterdam, 2011).
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) 157 A
Amsterdam, Quality of Life, Table 1 Satisfaction with a number of aspects of society and the own life situation, 2010
percentages, and mean score
<5 6 7 8 910 2010 2008
A
Dutch society 2 7 31 51 7 6,5 (6,3)
Dutch government 13 19 40 19 2 5,0 (5,4)
Amsterdam society 2 5 27 56 8 6,8 (6,4)
Friends and acquaintances 1 2 8 51 36 8,0 (7,8)
Education 2 5 16 52 21 7,3 (7,2)
Financial resources (household) 4 7 22 52 13 6,8 (6,6)
Own life 1 3 14 57 22 7,6 (7,3)
Source: O+S Amsterdam (2011)

Amsterdam, Quality of Life, Table 2 Life situation Schyns, P., & Boelhouwer, J. (2004). The state of the city
score (index scores, mean 100 in 2004) and satisfaction Amsterdam monitor: Measuring quality of life in
with life (in report grades between 1 (very unhappy) and Amsterdam. In M. J. Sirgy, D. Ratz, & D.-J. Lee
10 (very happy)) (Eds.), Community quality-of-life indicators. Best
cases (pp. 133153). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
2004 2006 2008 2010
Publishers.
Very unhappy (1 or 2) 87 86 86 90
Unhappy (3 or 4) 90 88 90 91
Not happy/not unhappy 94 95 94 93
(5 or 6)
Happy (7 or 8) 103 104 104 105 Amusement
Very happy (9 or 10) 102 106 106 106
Source: O+S Amsterdam (2011) Play Behavior

The results are also used in other monitoring
reports, like on minorities or on the development
of disadvantaged areas.
Cross-References
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)
Dionisis Philippas
European Commission, Joint Research Centre,
Unit of Econometrics and Applied Statistics,
Ispra, Italy

Life as a Whole, Satisfaction with

Neighborhood
Perceived Quality of Life
Satisfaction with Life as a Whole
SCP Life Situation Index
References
Boelhouwer, J. (2010). Measuring wellbeing. The SCP
life situation index since 1974. The Hague:
The Netherlands Institute for Social Research.
O+S Amsterdam. (2011). De Staat van de stad VI
[The state of the city VI]. Amsterdam: Gemeente
Amsterdam.
Definition
The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) is
a technique that merges the analysis of variance
(ANOVA) and the linear regression. The
ANCOVA analyzes grouped data having
a response (the dependent variable) and two or
more predictor variables (called covariates)
where at least one of them is continuous (quanti-
tative, scaled) and one of them is categorical
(nominal, non-scaled).
The ANCOVA technique allows analysts to
model the response of a variable as a linear
A 158
function of predictor(s), with the coefficients of
the line varying among different groups. Briefly,
the main idea is the inclusion of additional factors
(covariates) as a statistical control to explain
variation on the dependent variable, reduce the
error variation, and increase the statistical power
(sensitivity) of the underlying design. Thus, it
differs from the analysis of variance (ANOVA)
which is used to determine whether differences
among test samples might be caused by random
variation.
Description
A fundamental analysis of variance was proposed
by Ronald A. Fisher, in his paper The Correla-
tion between Relatives on the Supposition of
Mendelian Inheritance, in 1918. Analysis of
variance became widely known in 1925, after
being included in Fishers book Statistical
Methods for Research Workers (Fisher, 1918,
1925).
The ANCOVA is a general linear model that
contains one or more covariates, usually in
addition to one or more categorical factors. The
ANCOVA is typically used to adjust or control
for differences between the groups based on
another, typically interval level and covariate(s).
The ANCOVA is an extension of ANOVA that
provides a way of statistically controlling for the
effects of continuous or scale covariates that
are not the focal point or independent variable(s)
in the study (Leech, Barrett, & Morgan, 2005;
Huck, 2004). The inclusion of additional
covariates can increase the statistical power of
the analysis because it accounts some of the vari-
ance in the dependent variable. Thus, it increases
the ratio of variance explained by the independent
variables (Vogt, 1999). Adding a covariate into
ANOVA also reduces the degrees of freedom.
The ANCOVA assumes that the response has
a linear relation to the covariate(s) and the
variance is divided into three basic components:
the effect or response (Y), the covariate(s) (X),
and the error term (e). Thus, the models for
ANCOVA take the formulation (Doncaster &
Davey, 2007):
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)
Response Factors error;
or else
YXe
Here the notation is:
The response (Y) is the continuous variable
to be tested for sources of variance.
The factor(s) (X) is the explanatory variable
contributing to the observed pattern of varia-
tion on the response, or else, it is the source of
variance in the response. A categorical factor
is measured in categorical levels, whereas
a covariate factor is measured on a scale of
continuous or ordinal variation. The factor can
influence the response as a sole explanation or
as one of many factors variously crossed
with each other or nested within each other.
A factor can vary as a constant factor (a factor
fixed by design) or as a random factor (a
factor that sample at random from a defined
population).
The error term (e) represents the residual
variation.
There are a number of assumptions that under-
lie the interpretation of ANCOVA:
The response must have the same variance in
each category of the independent variable. In
the case of more than one independent
variable, the variance must be homogeneous
in nature.
The data, upon which the test of significance is
conducted, must be obtained by random
sampling.
Since ANCOVA assumptions are combined
with the assumption of linear regression, the
relationship between the dependent and
independent variables must be linear in the
parameters. This also states that the deviations
from the regression equation across the differ-
ent levels of the independent variable have (a)
normal distributions with means of zero and
(b) homoscedasticity.
The homogeneity of regression coefficients
which is based on the fact that the regression
coefficient for every group present in the data
of the independent variable should be same.
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) 159 A
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Table 1 ANOVA design
One-way ANCOVA One-way repeated measures ANCOVA
One independent variable (between subjects) One independent variable (within subjects) A
One dependent variable One dependent variable
One or more covariates One or more covariates
Two-way ANCOVA Two-way repeated measures ANCOVA
Two independent variables (between subjects) Two independent variables (one or both within subjects)
One dependent variable One dependent variable
One or more covariates One or more covariates

P P  2
If this assumption is violated, the ANCOVA
SST j1;::k i1;::nj y ij  y , where;
test will be misleading.
P P  
In the analysis of covariance, the degrees of y j1;::k i1;::nj yij =n ; is the over-
freedom for the within-group variance are P  
all mean and n j1;::k nj :
Nk1, where k is the number of groups and N
The sum of squares between groups is
is the total number of subjects. The number of P P  2
within-group degrees of freedom is reduced by SSB j1;::k i1;::nj yj  y ; where
one comparing to basic analysis of variance, and yj is an estimate of mean for each group j.
this accommodates the fact that the covariance The sum of squares within groups is
portion of within-group variability has been P P
SSW j1;::k i1;::nj yij  yj 2
removed from the analysis. Finally, Table 1
The SS (total and within groups) values for the
presents the basic ANCOVA designs.
covariates whose effects upon the dependent var-
iable one wishes to bring under statistical control:
Analysis of Covariance
The total sum of squares for the covariate(s) is:
The ANCOVAs null and alternative hypotheses P P
are similar to those for ANOVA. However, SSTX j1;::k i1;::nj xij  x2
the population means have been adjusted for the The sum of squares within groups is:
P P
covariate(s). SSWX j1;::k i1;::nj xij  xj 2
The SC (total and within groups) values for the
H0 : m1 m2 . . . mk covariance of covariates and dependent
variable:
Ha : mi 6 mj , i 6 j for at least one pair of (i,j) The total sum of squares is:
P P 2
The ANCOVA requires four steps of calcula- SCT j1;::k i1;::nj xij yij  xy
tions. On the first step, the analyst will clearly The sum of squares within groups is:
recognize the analysis of variance aspect of P P
SCW j1;::k i1;::nj xij yij  xj yj 2
ANCOVA. The two middle steps are aimed at
On the final step, the analyst calculates the
the covariance aspect. Finally, the last step ties
mean square values and the F-ratio test statistic
the two aspects together. Consider that the
for ANCOVA which is the ratio of the adjusted
acronym SS which refers to the sum of squared
between-group mean squares (MSB) to the
deviates and the acronym SC refers to the sum of
adjusted within-group mean square (MSW), and
co-deviates. Thus, the following items are
it shows the proportion of the variability (total
calculated:
and within groups) of the dependent variable
The SS (total, within and between groups) values
attributable to its covariance with covariates.
for the dependent variable in which one is
Then, the analyst adjusts all the SS deviations
chiefly interested. The total sum of squares
by removing from it this proportion of covariance.
for the dependent variable is
A 160
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA), Table 2 ANCOVA design
Source of variation Sum of squares (SS) Degrees of freedom (df)
Covariate SSC 1 MSCov
Between SSB k1
Within SSW Nk1
Total SST N1
The format of the summary table for ANCOVA
is similar to that for ANOVA (Levene, 1960). The
difference is that the values for the SS and degrees
of freedom have been adjusted for the effects of the
covariate(s). For the case of one-way ANCOVA,
the summary table of ANCOVA has the form
(see Table 2):
Using the adjusted values, the final step in
the analysis of covariance involves the test of
homogeneity of regression. The analysis of
covariance assumes that the slopes of the regres-
sion lines, for each of the groups considered
separately, do not significantly differ from the
slope of the overall within-group regression.
Thus, the procedure for rigorously determining
the assumption of homogeneity of regression is
given by the Levenes test.
Levenes Test for the Homogeneity
of Variance
A problem with F-ratio test is the sensitivity to
the assumption of normality. A less sensitive
and more robust test to the normality assump-
tion is the Levenes test. The Levenes test is
used to verify the assumption of homogeneity
of variance (equal variances across samples)
for k groups or samples. The test is carried out
as follows:
Consider a sample size of N observations for
a variable which is divided in k subgroups and Ni
is the size of every ith subgroup. Thus, the null
and alternative hypotheses for Levenes test are
written as follows:
H0 : s1 s2 . . . sk for k subgroups
Ha : si 6 sj , i 6 j for at least one pair of (i,j)
Here, the notation is:
si is the variance of ith subgroup of the
sample.
k is the number of subgroups.
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)
Mean squares (MS) F-ratio
F MSCov/MSW
MSB SSB/k1 F MSB/MSW
MSW SSW/Nk1
Therefore, the Levenes test statistic is
defined as
X
W N  K Ni  Zi  Z 2 =k  1
j1;::k
X X
Zij  Zi 2
j1;::k i1;::Nj
Here, the notation is:
Zij is defined as Zij jYij  Y i? j, when Y*i?
can be the mean, the median, or the 10 %
trimmed mean of the ith subgroup.
Zi* are the group of means of Zij.
Z** is the overall mean of Zij.
The above Zij definitions determine:
The robustness of the test, the ability of the
test to not falsely detect unequal variances
when there is no normality of the underlying
data
The power of the test, the ability of the test to
detect unequal variances when they actually
are
The Levenes test rejects the hypothesis that
the variances are equal is
W > Fa;k1;Nk ;
where Fa;k1;Nk is the upper critical value of the
F-distribution with k1 and Nk degrees of
freedom at the significant level of a.
A simple example is demonstrated below. Let
us assume two samples or subgroups. Using devi-
ations from the sample/subgroup means, the
Levenes test is carried out as follows:
Compute the means in the two samples
x1 and x2.
Let di1 jxi1  x1 j and di2 jxi2  x2 j
represent the absolute deviations of the sample/
subgroup values around the respective mean.
Analysis of Residuals
Compute the sample means d1 and d2, the
sample variances s12 and s22 of the previous
absolute deviations, and the polled variance of
two samples sp2.
Finally, the Levenes test statistic is computed
as Lev.test  F(1,N2).
Discussion
The ANCOVA allows the analyst to make
comparisons between groups, with respect to
a number of covariates. This is accomplished by
making an adjustment that based on a fitting
regression line. When the imbalance between
the groups is not high, the ANCOVA can be
used bearing in mind that the technique is done
through a particular statistical model. In addition
to allowing imbalances, the technique removes
variation due to the covariate and allows the
analyst to compensate for systematic biases
among analysts samples, providing a more
precise analysis.
There are two cases where researchers use the
ANCOVA. The most widely accepted case is on
the experimental design where participants have
been randomly assigned to treatment conditions.
The covariate is measured in order to control for
individual differences related to the sensitivity of
analysis. This strategy reduces the within-group
variance and it increases the sensitivity of
analysis. The second one is that the ANCOVA
is also used as a way to control for preexisting
group differences in quasi-experimental designs
(Huitema, 2011).
Nevertheless, the use of ANCOVA has been
widely criticized. Glass, Peckham, and Sanders
(1972) have argued that the assumption of
homogeneity of regression coefficients is only
important if the regression coefficients are signif-
icantly different. Another argument is that if the
dependencies among the response variable and
the covariates are not adequately modeled, the
ANCOVA can be biased. Some cited examples
are as follows: the case when important
covariates are excluded from the model, the
covariates are measured with error, multiple
covariates are added and make the nature of the
bias more complex (Cook & Campbell, 1979;
Huitema, 2011), etc.
161 A
Cross-References
Analysis of Variance A
Variance Component Modeling
References
Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (1979). Quasi-experimen-
tation: Design and analysis for field setting. Chicago,
IL: Rand McNally.
Doncaster, C. P., & Davey, A. J. H. (2007). Analysis of
variance and covariance: How to choose and construct
models for the life sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. (http://www.southampton.ac.uk/
cpd/anovas/datasets/). Accessed on 22 August 2007
Fisher, R. A. (1918). The correlation between relatives
on the supposition of Mendelian Inheritance
(Vol. 52, pp. 399433). Edinburgh: Royal Society
of Edinburgh.
Fisher, R. A. (1925). Statistical methods for research
workers. Cosmo Publications.
Glass, G. V., Peckham, P. D., & Sanders, J. R. (1972).
Consequences of failure to meet assumptions
underlying the fixed effects analysis of variance and
covariance. Review of Educational Research, 42(3),
237288.
Huck, S. W. (2004). Reading statistics and research
(4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Huitema, B. (2011). The analysis of covariance and
alternatives: Statistical methods for experiments,
quasi-experiments, and single-case studies (Vol. 2).
Hoboken: Wiley.
Leech, N. L., Barrett, K. C., & Morgan, G. A. (2005). SPSS
for intermediate statistics: Use and interpretation
(2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Levene, H. (1960). In I. Olkin et al. (Eds.), Contributions
to probability and statistics: essays in honor of
Harold hotelling (pp. 278292). Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Vogt, W. P. (1999). Dictionary of statistics and method-
ology: A nontechnical guide for the social sciences
(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Analysis of Quality of Life (QOL)
Models
Top-Down QOL Models
Analysis of Residuals
Robust Statistical Tests
A 162
Analysis of Variance
Michaela Saisana
Econometrics and Applied Statistics, Joint
Research Centre, European Commission, Ispra,
Italy
Synonyms
ANOVA; Variance
Definition
The analysis of variance (ANOVA) aims at
partitioning the observed variance in a
particular variable into components attributable
to different sources of variation. In its simplest
form, ANOVA provides a statistical test of
whether or not the means of several groups
are all equal and therefore generalizes t test to
three or more groups. Depending upon the type
of analysis, it may be important to determine
(a) which factors have a significant effect on
the response and (b) how much of the variability
in the response variable is attributable to each
factor.
There are different types of ANOVA:
One-way ANOVA used when there is only
a single categorical factor (e.g., country of
origin or income level or other).
Multifactor ANOVA used when there is more
than one categorical factor, arranged in
a crossed pattern. When factors are crossed,
the levels of one factor appear at more than
one level of the other factors.
Variance components analysis used when
there are multiple factors, arranged in a
hierarchical manner. In such a design, each
factor is nested in the factor above it.
General linear models used whenever there
are both crossed and nested factors, when
some factors are fixed and some are random,
and when both categorical and quantitative
factors are present.
Analysis of Variance
Description
The analysis of variance has been studied from
several statistical models, the most common of
which uses a linear model that relates the
response to different groups. Even when the
model is nonlinear, it can be approximated by a
linear model for which an analysis of variance
may be appropriate.
One-way ANOVA is a simple special case of
the linear model. The one-way ANOVA form of
the model is
yij a:j eij
where
yij is a matrix of observations in which each
column represents a different group.
a.j is a matrix whose columns are the group
means.
eij is a matrix of random disturbances.
The model assumes that the columns of y are
a constant plus a random disturbance. One wants
to know if the constants are all the same.
The fundamental technique is a partitioning of
the total sum of squares, SS, into components
related to the effects used in the model. For
example, the model for a simplified ANOVA
with one categorical factor at different levels:
STotal SError STreatments (1)
So, the number of degrees of freedom f can be
partitioned in a similar way and specifies the
chi-square distribution which describes the asso-
ciated sums of squares.
The F-test is used for comparisons of the
components of the total deviation. For example,
in one-way or single-factor ANOVA, statistical
significance is tested for by comparing the F-test
statistic:
variance between items  MSTR
F ;F (2a)
variance within items MSE
where
SSTR
MSTR (2b)
I1
Analysis of Variance 163 A
and I is the number of treatments and Analysis of Variance, Table 1 Example of one-way
ANOVA
SSE 24 14 11 7 19
MSE (2c) A
nT  I 15 7 9 7 24
21 12 7 4 19
and nT is the total number of cases to the 27 17 13 7 15
F-distribution with I  1, nT  I degrees of 33 14 12 12 10
freedom. Using the F-distribution is a natural 23 16 18 18 20
candidate because the test statistic is the ratio of
two scaled sums of squares, each of which
follows a scaled chi-square distribution. One should note that if all the means are the
same, and if there is a 5 % chance of incorrectly
Example: One-Way ANOVA concluding that there is a difference in one pair,
Imagine analyzing the earnings per hour of five then the probability of making at least one incor-
different groups of workers (Table 1). Do some rect conclusion among all 10 pairs is much larger
groups have higher earnings than others? than 5 %. In other words, doing multiple two-
The standard ANOVA result includes the sample t tests would result in an increased chance
sums of squares, degrees of freedom, mean of committing a type I error (a false positive, i.e.,
squares (SS/df), F statistic, and p value (Table 2). telling a patient he is sick, when in fact he is not).
One can use the F statistic to do a hypothesis Multiple comparison procedures are designed to
test to find out if the earnings are the same. The compensate for multiple tests.
p value from this hypothesis test is about 0.0001,
a very small value. This is a strong indication that Example: Multiple Comparisons
the earnings in the different groups are not the Each row in Table 3 above represents the result
same. An F statistic as extreme as the observed F from a pairwise comparison (10 in total with
would occur by chance only once in 10,000 times respect to the data in Table 3 with the earning of
if the earnings were truly equal. The p value in an workers above). For example, the second row has
ANOVA depends on assumptions about the the values [1 3 4.1619 12.1667 20.1714] indicating
random disturbances eij in the model equation. that the mean of group 1 minus the mean of group 3
For the p value to be correct, these disturbances is estimated to be 12.1667, and a 95 % confidence
need to be independent, normally distributed, and interval for this difference is [4.1619, 20.1714].
have constant variance (homoscedasticity). This interval does not contain 0, so one can con-
One may further need to determine not just clude that the means of groups 1 and 3 are different.
whether there are any differences among the Some popular designs use the following types
means, but specifically which pairs of means are of ANOVA:
significantly different. It is tempting to perform Factorial ANOVA is used when the experi-
a series of t tests, one for each pair of means, but menter wants to study the interaction effects
this procedure has a pitfall. In a t test, you com- among the treatments.
pute a t statistic and compare it to a critical value. Repeated measures ANOVA is used when the
The critical value is chosen so that when the same subjects are used for each treatment
means are really the same (any apparent differ- (e.g., in a longitudinal study).
ence is due to random chance), the probability Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
that the t statistic will exceed the critical value is is used when there is more than one responsible
small, say 5 %. When the means are different, variable.
the probability that the statistic will exceed the
critical value is larger. In this example, there Discussion
are five means, so there are 10 pairs of means to Sir Ronald Fisher proposed a formal analysis of
compare. variance in a 1918 article The Correlation
A 164 Analysis of Variance

Analysis of Variance, Table 2 ANOVA results

Source of variance Sum of squares Degrees of freedom (df) Mean square F P value (Prob > F)
Groups (across columns) 803 4 200.75 9.01 0.0001
Error 557.17 25 22.287
Total 1360.17 29

Analysis of Variance, Table 3 An example of multiple analysis can assist in study design by determining
comparison what sample size would be required in order to
1 2 2.4953 10.5000 18.5047 have a reasonable chance of rejecting the null
1 3 4.1619 12.1667 20.1714 hypothesis when the alternative hypothesis is true.
1 4 6.6619 14.6667 22.6714 Several standardized measures of effect gauge
1 5 2.0047 6.0000 14.0047 the strength of the association between a
2 3 6.3381 1.6667 9.6714 predictor (or set of predictors) and the dependent
2 4 3.8381 4.1667 12.1714 variable. Effect-size estimates facilitate the
2 5 12.5047 4.5000 3.5047 comparison of findings in studies and across
3 4 5.5047 2.5000 10.5047 disciplines. Common effect-size estimates
reported in univariate-response ANOVA and
multivariate-response MANOVA include the fol-
Between Relatives on the Supposition of Mende-
lowing: eta-squared, partial eta-squared, omega,
lian Inheritance (Fisher, 1918). His first applica-
and intercorrelation.
tion of the analysis of variance was published in
2 ( eta-squared ): Eta-squared describes the
1921. Analysis of variance became widely known
ratio of variance explained in the dependent var-
after being included in Fishers, 1925 book
iable by a predictor while controlling for other
Statistical Methods for Research Workers
predictors. Eta-squared is a biased estimator of
(Fisher, 1925). To test the hypothesis that all
the variance explained by the model in the popu-
treatments have exactly the same effect, the
lation (it estimates only the effect size in the
F-tests p values closely approximate the permu-
sample). On average, it overestimates the vari-
tation tests p values: the approximation is par-
ance explained in the population. As the sample
ticularly close when the design is balanced
size gets larger, the amount of bias gets smaller.
(Hinkelmann & Kempthorne, 2008).
Such permutation tests characterize tests with STreatment
maximum power against all alternative hypothe- 2 (3a)
STotal
ses, as observed by Rosenbaum (2002). The
ANOVA F-test (of the null hypothesis that all Partial 2 (Partial eta-squared): Partial eta-
treatments have exactly the same effect) is squared describes the proportion of total
recommended as a practical test, because of its variation attributable to the factor, partialling
robustness against many alternative distributions out (excluding) other factors from the total
(see; Moore & McCabe, 2005). The Kruskal- non-error variation (Pierce, Block, & Aguinis,
Wallis test is a nonparametric alternative that 2004). Partial eta-squared is often higher than
does not rely on an assumption of normality. eta-squared.
The Friedman test is the nonparametric alterna-
tive for one-way repeated measures ANOVA. STreatment
Partial 2 (3b)
Power analysis is often applied in the con- STreatment SError
text of ANOVA in order to assess the probability
of successfully rejecting the null hypothesis if we Cohen (1992) suggests effect sizes for various
assume a certain ANOVA design, effect size in indexes, including f (where 0.1 is a small effect,
the population, sample size, and alpha level. Power 0.25 is a medium effect, and 0.4 is a large effect).
Analysis of Variance
He also offers a conversion table (see Cohen,
1988) for eta-squared where 0.0099 constitutes a
small effect, 0.0588 a medium effect, and 0.1379
a large effect. Though, considering that eta-
squared are comparable to R-squared when the
degrees of freedom of the numerator equals
1 (both measures proportion of variance
accounted for), these guidelines may overestimate
the size of the effect. If going by the r guidelines
(0.1 is a small effect, 0.3 a medium effect, and 0.5
a large effect), then the equivalent guidelines for
eta-squared would be the square of these, i.e., 0.01
is a small effect, 0.09 a medium effect, and 0.25
a large effect, and these should also be applicable
to eta-squared. When the degrees of freedom of the
numerator exceed 1, eta-squared is comparable to
R-squared (Levine & Hullett, 2002).
Omega2 (omega-squared): An estimator of the
variance explained in the population is omega-
squared (see Bortz, 1999; Tabachnick & Fidell,
2007):
STreatment  dfTreatment  MSError
^2
o (4)
STotal MSError
Cohens f2: This measure of effect size repre-
sents the square root of variance explained over
variance not explained.
SMCV: This effect size is the ratio of mean to
standard deviation of a contrast variable for con-
trast analysis in ANOVA. It may provide
a probabilistic interpretation to various effect
sizes in contrast analysis (Zhang, 2011).
A statistically significant effect in ANOVA is
often followed up with one or more different
follow-up tests. This can be done in order to
assess which groups are different from which
other groups or to test various other focused
hypotheses. Follow-up tests are often distin-
guished in terms of whether they are planned (a
priori) or post hoc. Planned tests are determined
before looking at the data and post hoc tests are
performed after looking at the data. Post hoc tests
such as Tukeys range test most commonly com-
pare every group mean with every other group
mean and typically incorporate some method of
controlling for type I errors. Comparisons, which
are most commonly planned, can be either simple
165 A
or compound. Simple comparisons compare one
group mean with one other group mean.
Compound comparisons typically compare two A
sets of groups means where one set has two or
more groups (e.g., compare average group means
of group A, B, and C with group D). Comparisons
can also look at tests of trend, such as linear and
quadratic relationships, when the independent
variable involves ordered levels.
Cross-References
Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA)
F-Ratio
Mean Differences
Robust Statistical Tests
Univariate Tests
References
Bortz, J. (1999). Statistik fur Sozialwissenschaftler.
Berlin/Heidelberg/New York: Springer.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behav-
ior sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cohen, J. (1992). Statistics a power primer. Psychology
Bulletin, 112, 155159.
Fisher, R. (1918). The correlation between relatives on the
supposition of Mendelian Inheritance. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 52,
399433.
Fisher, R. A. (1925). Statistical methods for research
workers. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.
Hinkelmann, K., & Kempthorne, O. (2008). Design and
analysis of experiments. New York: Wiley.
Levine, T. R., & Hullett, C. R. (2002). Eta-squared, partial
eta-squared, and misreporting of effect size in commu-
nication research. Human Communication Research,
28, 612625.
Moore, D. S., & McCabe, G. P. (2005). Introduction to the
practice of statistics. New York: Freeman.
Pierce, C. A., Block, R. A., & Aguinis, H. (2004). Cau-
tionary note on reporting eta-squared values from mul-
tifactor ANOVA designs. Educational and
Psychological Measurement, 64, 916924.
Rosenbaum, P. R. (2002). Observational studies.
New York: Springer.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivar-
iate statistics. Boston: Pearson International Edition.
Zhang, X. H. D. (2011). Optimal high-throughput screen-
ing: practical experimental design and data analysis
for genome-scale RNAi research. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press.
A 166
Anamnestic Comparative
Self-Assessment (ACSA)
Peter Theuns1, Joeri Hofmans2 and
Jan L. Bernheim3
1
Methods in Psychology, Vrije Universiteit
Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
2
Work and Organizational Psychology, Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, Brussel, Belgium
3
Human Ecology, End-of-Life Care Research
Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel,
Belgium
Synonyms
Bernheims ACSA
Definition
The Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment
(ACSA) is a self-anchoring rating scale for
subjective well-being (SWB) which was origi-
nally developed by Jan Bernheim (1983) as
a simple method to measure quality of life con-
secutively in the patient-physician relationship in
cancer patients. It differs from the conventional
single-item scales of SWB because it uses bio-
graphical experiential scale anchors: the best and
the worst periods in the respondents life experi-
ence. These are internal standards, which tend to
reduce relativity of responses to external stan-
dards. The life review performed by respondents
may also discourage casual responses.
Description
Originally, the Anamnestic Comparative Self-
Assessment (ACSA) was developed in a clinical
setting, taking a cue from cancer patients who,
faced with their potentially life-threatening illness,
spontaneously reported to have gone through
a review of their life, identifying their best and
worst periods. Thus, they had defined the anchor
points of an experiential personal scale of SWB,
Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA)
with concrete, not imaginary anchor points. For
ACSA, respondents are invited to identify the
best and worst periods in their life experience and
to assign the anchor rating +5 to the former and 5
to the latter (in a few severely suffering cases, the
worst period was the current one). These extreme
periods serve as references to which they can com-
pare their current and subsequent quality of life.
Respondents are then encouraged to rate their
SWB during the period just preceding the inter-
view in comparison with their personal best (+5 on
the rating scale) and worst (5 on the scale)
periods in life (Bernheim, 1983, 1999). This is
the original ACSA, as suited for punctual measure-
ments, for example, in cross-sectional studies.
Such ACSA ratings were shown to be quite sensi-
tive to inter-patient differences and correlated with
the objective clinical situation (Bemheim &
Buyse, 1984). ACSAs sensitivity probably also
allowed to detect a minority of Locked-in patients
who were miserable, the first clear departure from
the disability paradox where with conventional
measures of SWB severely disabled patients are
consistently found equally happy as healthy con-
trols (Bruno et al., 2011).
When ACSA was used in consecutive consul-
tations, for longitudinal or intervention studies,
ACSA ratings were shown to be more sensitive
also to intra-patient differences, with major fluc-
tuations over time (Bemheim & Buyse, 1984;
Bernheim, 1999; Bernheim et al., 2006). In such
longitudinal settings, there have been several
instances where patients wanted to express rat-
ings beyond the 5 of their previously self-
defined scale, for example, when their disease
took them to a quality of life level that they
experienced as worse than ever before. Similarly,
people may feel better than ever before. Conse-
quently, it seems useful to keep the 5 to +5 scale
(with anchors 5 as bad as the worst period in
my previous life and +5 as good as the best
period in my previous life) as anchors but to
extend the scale on both ends with another
3 scale points allowing respondents to express
their feelings of better or worse than ever.
This format is recommended for consecutive
usage, as in ongoing clinical practice or longitu-
dinal studies, where respondents are encouraged
Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA)
to continue using the same anchors throughout
the entire study.
Note that in single-shot or cross-sectional
studies, respondents will use ACSA only once,
and the 8 to +8 scale is inappropriate and con-
fusing. It is then recommended to use the 5 to
+5 scale, reserving the 8 to +8 version for
longitudinal studies.
In earlier research conducted in several Euro-
pean sites, the best periods of life typically
concerned experiences of love, the birth of
a child, career milestones, or other personal
achievements. The worst periods in life were
typically bereavements, divorce, abuse, impris-
onment, bankruptcy, and experiences of war or a
serious disease. A formerly disadvantaged South
African population reported similar anchors, but
financial and survival-related anchor points were
more prominent (Mller et al., 2008). Since hav-
ing such highs and lows is likely universal, ACSA
ratings are believed to circumvent cultural and
subcultural relativities.
Research in clinical settings found that ACSA,
besides differentiating better than conventional
subjective well-being instruments, was less sen-
sitive to trait-like variables (Bernheim et al.,
2006). Insensitivity to trait-like variables such
as most sociodemographic variables was to be
expected since the respondents use internal bio-
graphical standards.
Advantages and Limitations
Because of its biographical seriousness discour-
aging casual responses, sensitivity, responsivity,
and probable circumvention of cultural and other
relativities, ACSA is proposed as an alternative to
the conventional global (i.e., single item) mea-
sures of subjective well-being. Because ACSA
appears to be more responsive than conventional
measures of subjective well-being to objective
changes in the respondents lives (Bernheim
et al., 2006), it is particularly suited for longitudi-
nal or intervention studies. However, to study the
determinants of SWB in the respondents, ACSA
must be complemented by (a) multi-item,
multidimensional instrument(s). The determinants
of SWB can then be computed by logistic regres-
sion against ACSA ratings. It should also be noted
167 A
that when traits or sociodemographic variables are
the primary interest of studies, ACSA is not the
instrument of choice. Finally, in some research A
settings, for example clinical, ACSA interviews
promote an empathic interaction between observer
and respondent.
In sum, the main distinguishing features of the
ACSA measure are as follows:
The frame of reference against which subjec-
tive well-being is assessed is made explicit
and personalized; the frame of reference is
a concrete biographical one, which discourages
superficial or socially desirable responses.
ACSA appears to be less sensitive to trait-like
sociodemographic variables and therefore
probably to personality traits. Therefore, it
may be expected that ACSA is less sensitive
to cultural differences as well.
ACSA can be used in interview or survey
formats.
The figures below show the recently adjusted
format of the ACSA for use in surveys.
Figure 1 is the multiple choice format for the
anchoring procedure for the BEST period in life,
not to be just a moment, a day, or a week but
a longer period in life. The 13 offered domains
accommodated all detailed descriptions of scale
anchors received so far. If more detailed scale
anchors were presented for checking, or, if the
anchoring (especially the anchoring for the
WORST period in life) was presented in an
open-ended format, some respondents were
found reluctant to divulge what they considered
too personal or intimate. However, if the research
setting permits, users of ACSA are encouraged to
allow for more detailed anchor descriptions,
subdividing the 13 offered domains, or to in addi-
tion allow participants to respond in free text in
an open box.
The same procedure where BEST is replaced
by WORST is required to complete the anchoring
(Fig. 2).
Figure 2 is the multiple choice format for the
anchoring procedure for the WORST period in
life, not to be just a moment, a day, or a week but
a longer period in life.
As for the best periods, the same 13 offered
domains accommodated all detailed descriptions
A 168 Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA)

Anamnestic
Comparative
Self-Assessment (ACSA),
Fig. 1 Multiple choice
format for the self-
anchoring procedure for the
Anamnestic Comparative
Self Assessment (ACSA)
(Part 1: Best period in life)

Anamnestic
Comparative
Self-Assessment (ACSA),
Fig. 2 Multiple choice
format for the self-
anchoring procedure for the
Anamnestic Comparative
Self Assessment (ACSA)
(Part 2: Worst period in life)

of scale anchors received so far. When more
detailed scale anchors were presented for
checking, or, especially when presented in a open
ended format, some respondents were found reluc-
tant to divulge what they considered too personal
or intimate. However, if the research setting per-
mits, users of ACSA are encouraged to allow for
more detailed anchor descriptions, subdividing the
13 offered domains, or allowing free text.
After completing the scale-anchoring proce-
dure for both the best and worst period in life, the
actual rating of subjective quality of life is
performed using the scale presented in Fig. 3
(recommended format for use in single-shot sur-
veys) and in Fig. 4 (recommended format for
clinical use and repeated measurement in longi-
tudinal or intervention studies).
It must be remarked that in its original paper-and-
pencil format, the rating scale for ACSA was shown
upright. However, it was found that changing the
orientation of a rating scale does not affect the
responses (Mazaheri & Theuns, 2009).
Andean and Amazonian Native Conceptions of Well-Being 169 A
Anamnestic
Comparative
Self-Assessment (ACSA),
Fig. 3 Anamnestic A
Comparative Self-
Assessment (ACSA) main
question, survey format

Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment (ACSA), use and for repeated measurements in longitudinal or
Fig. 4 Anamnestic Comparative Self-Assessment intervention studies
(ACSA) main question, format recommended for clinical

Cross-References Mazaheri, M., & Theuns, P. (2009). Effects of varying

response formats on self-ratings of life-satisfaction.
Social Indicators Research, 90, 381395.
Self-anchoring Rating Scale Mller, V., Theuns, P., Erstad, I., & Bernheim, J. (2008).
The best and worst times of life: Narratives and assess-
References ments of subjective well-being by Anamnestic Com-
parative Assessment (ACSA) in the Eastern Cape,
South Africa. Social Indicators Research, 89, 122.
Bemheim, J. L., & Buyse, M. (1984). The anamnestic
comparative self-assessment for measuring the
subjective quality of life of cancer patients. Journal
of Psychosocial Oncology, 1, 2538.
Bernheim, J. L. (1983). Lauto-evaluation anamnestique
comparative (ACSA). I. Description dune methode de
mesure de la qualite subjective de la vie des malades Andean and Amazonian Native
cancereux. Psychologie Medicale, 15(9), 16151617. Conceptions of Well-Being
Bernheim, J. L. (1999). How to get serious answers to the
serious question: How have you been?: Subjective
Jorge Yamamoto
quality of life (QOL) as an individual experiential
emergent construct. Bioethics, 13(34), 272287. Psychology Department, Pontificia Universidad
Bernheim, J. L., Theuns, P., Mazaheri, M., Hofmans, J., Catolica del Peru, Lima, Peru
Fliege, H., & Rose, M. (2006). The potential of Anam- Department of Social & Policy Sciences,
nestic Comparative Self Assessment (ACSA) to
reduce bias in the measurement of subjective well-
University of Bath, Bath, UK
being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7(2), 227250.
Bruno M. A., Bernheim, J., Ledoux, D., Pellas, F.,
Demertzi, A., & Laureys, S. (2011). A survey on Synonyms
self-assessed wellbeing in a cohort of chronic locked-
in syndrome patients: happy majority, miserable
minority. British Medical Journal - Open. Happiness in the Amazonas; Happiness in
doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2010-000039. the Andes
A 170
Definition
Amazonian and Andean native conceptions of well-
being are referred to as different well-being patterns
found in traditional communities in the Cordillera
of the Andes and the Amazonian rainforest. The
adaptation to modernity of these cultures and its
impact in well-being is also discussed.
Description
Studies in the Amazonian and Andean regions
report high levels of subjective well-being
found in more isolated, more traditional
communities. As modernization influences the
social system, a systematic reduction of subjective
well-being is reported. Reyes-Garca et al. (2010)
analyzing longitudinal data in Bolivian Amazon
reported that individuals who live under the
Tsimane culture compared to those who live
under other influences like modern thought
showed a negative association with distress,
a positive association with psychological well-
being, and a positive association with
psychological health. Godoy et al. (2010) reported
additional negative associations between moder-
nity and well-being in the Tsimanes. Measures of
trading were positively associated to regret at buy-
ing durable assets and were also positively associ-
ated with development of addictions. In the same
direction, empowerment, a characteristic com-
monly associated to well-being in western socie-
ties, was not associated to well-being among the
Tsimane (Godoy et al., 2006). Furthermore, in the
Peruvian Amazonas, factor analyses evidence of
cultural conflict between modernity and
well-being were reported. Analysis of emic needs
raised a factor of Salaried Job versus Tranquility
(Yamamoto & Meza, 2004). Also in the Peruvian
Amazonas, Izquierdo (2005) reported that
Matsigenka natives perceive that their health and
well-being declined severely during the past
2030 years. Objective measures indicate the
opposite. This discrepancy points to the definition
of health, which includes the experience of well-
being for the Matsigenka. The decrease of health is
attributed by the Matsigenka to outside influences
Andean and Amazonian Native Conceptions of Well-Being
and morality institutionalized by missionaries,
school teachers, health personnel, oil company
employees, and government officials. Using
longitudinal qualitative and quantitative data,
Izquierdo provided evidence that increases in
acculturation result in an alarming decrease in
health and well-being. In the opposite direction,
Godoy et al. (2009) find little support for the
Doom and Gloom hypothesis which proposes
adverse effects of forces such as globalization,
the opening of trade, market exposure, accultura-
tion, and the like on native Amazonians. Godoy
et al. use measures of well-being related to
wealth as monetary income and perceived access
to credit in an emergency. Therefore, this contra-
dictory result can be explained by the use of indi-
cators that are not sensitive to subjective
well-being.
In the Peruvian Andes, high levels of
well-being in more traditional communities are
also reported. Yamamoto (2008) analyzing
ethnographic data and a large sample of
open-ended interviews found high well-being
levels in Peruvian Andean traditional communi-
ties. This subjective well-being is explained by
a highly competitive and highly cooperative
society system. Every day routine is based in
high levels of cooperation in case of necessity.
However, simultaneously, high competition
for wealth among families is observed. The
competition did not go beyond a break point
of both ecological and equity equilibrium.
After a yearly period, the wealthiest families
finance the fiesta, a festivity of several days of
immense amounts of drinks, foods, and partying:
a system of festival redistribution. As the corridor
gets closer to modernity, festival redistribution is
reduced, and both individualism and competitive
accumulation against others are elevated.
There is consistent evidence of a different
well-being conception and different well-being
pattern in the Amazonas and the Andes compared
to modern cultures. This Amazonian and Andean
well-being conception resembles ancestral
lifestyle and cohabitates with the influence of
modernity, showing intermediate patterns
between tradition and modernity. Emic needs
analysis in Peruvian Amazonas reported
Andean and Amazonian Native Conceptions of Well-Being
factors of traditional culture as Nuclear Family,
Community, Self-Consumption Lifestyle, and
Physical and Spiritual Health (Yamamoto &
Meza, 2004). These needs are opposed to auton-
omy and competition widely reported in Western
Cultures (e.g., see Self-Determination Theory).
The same study analyzed native (emic) develop-
ment conceptions. A variety of expectations, from
entrepreneur colonization to tranquility and close-
ness to family, were reported. This evidence
suggests that part of the cultural conflict is not
necessarily related to a modern invasion but to an
interest in modernization in some groups of the
Amazonian population, despite their negative
effects. Furthermore, the same study found that
the factor that explains the highest variance of the
characteristics of the ideal place to live is Educa-
tion and Market Economy, which is related to
modernity. The factor that explains the least of
the variance of the ideal place to live is Family
and Natural Resources which relates to traditional
places. In the Bolivian Amazon, based on free
listings, surveys, and ethnographic observations,
Reyes-Garcia (in press) found that happiness in
the Tsimane culture is centered in two related
topics: social interaction and success in subsis-
tence activities. Personal goals are not listed as
reasons for happiness. People further away
from town associated happiness with social rela-
tions and success in hunting more commonly than
people living close to town. Evidence of the impor-
tance of sorcery on ill-being can be found.
Izquierdo reported that the natives attribute their
sickness and suffering to sorcery.
Different well-being conceptions compared to
modern thought are also reported in the Andes. In
an emic, qualitative, and quantitative study in the
Peruvian Andes, confirmatory factor analysis
yielded three factors of needs: a Place to Live
Better, Raise a Family, and Improvement with
a Secure Base. The needs solution differs from
those considered as universal needs in Western
inspired theories as Self-Determination Theory
but are coherent with Evolutionary Theory. In
relation to the support to evolutionary theory, the
study discusses that there is ample evidence of
ancestral and modern migrations in human and
nonhuman species related to the quest for a better
171 A
place to live; it is widely documented the
importance of lineage in all living species;
finally, fitness can be understood as improvement A
with a secure base. Using structural equation
modeling, the study finds confirmatory evidence
of a multilevel well-being model where
Resources mediate the relation between Goals
and Perception of Goal Achievement; Values
as a cultural dimension influence Goal setting,
availability of some Resources, and the Percep-
tion of Goal Achievement; Personality as an
individual level variable also influences goal set-
ting, resources, and Goal Achievement Percep-
tion. This model is proposed as an alternative for
the theoretical and societal western well-being
tradition (Yamamoto, Feijoo, & Lazarte, 2008).
Magic-religious practices are reported as core
resources for well-being in Qero communities
in Cusco, Peru. In isolated communities, rituals
are perceived as the main source for good harvest
and fortune. Ironically, in Qero migrants to
Cusco, the same rituals are a main resource for
wealth, as tourists are interested to pay them to
participate in the ancestral rituals (Diaz, 2011).
Convergent evidence of collective behavior in
the Andes in contrast to individual orientation in
Western countries is reported. In the Andes of
Ecuador, Clark, Cherney, and Ashton (2009), in
a case analysis of the Podocarpus National Park,
reported that villagers look for well-being in
a social process based in the goal of the common
interest. Argumedo and Pimbert (2010) analyze
non-monetized barter markets in the Peruvian
Andes. Using a social anthropology approach,
they found a social process of reciprocity
and ecological equilibrium. There is also
evidence from economic experimental games of
collective action in Colombian villagers
(Camilo Cardenas & Ostrom, 2004). Neuroimage
and neuroendocrinological evidence shows that
collective behavior is positively related to well-
being. It is suggested that this positive relation is
a product of the ancestral human history as
a social species: excluded individuals will
dramatically reduce the possibilities of survival
(MacDonald & Leary, 2005; Taylor & Gonzaga,
2007). Therefore, evolution could have wired the
brain structure of happiness.
A 172
In methodological terms, in addition to the
globally used well-being research practices,
Andean and Amazonian investigation shows the
use of a novel emic, inductive, and multi-method
approach. Observations, ethnography, and in-
depth interviews develop the basic understanding
of the singularity of the Andean and Amazonian
cultures. Quantitative methods based on the qual-
itative approaches brought precision and gener-
alizability. Triangulation methods produce an
iterative process between qualitative and quanti-
tative investigation.
The literature reviewed considers the impact
of these studies for international development
and social policy. Institutions and policy
should help traditional cultures to meet the goal
of common interest (Clarks et al., 2009). Little
attention has been given to subsistence
populations, understanding how people value
their own quality of life will contribute to
a more informed public policy debate (Reyes-
Garcia, in press). Reciprocity and ecological
equilibrium can inspire the systems based in
greed for a change to solidarity, a model for
a new economy (Argumedo & Pimbert, 2010).
A reduction of cross-cultural ingenuity is
required, in other words, to take distance to the
idea that a decalogue can summarize the com-
plexity and variance of the development concep-
tions of the planet (Yamamoto, 2011).
Cross-References
Collective Action
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)
Distress
Evolutionary Threat Assessment System
(ETAS) Theory
Factor Analysis
Happiness
Longitudinal Data Analysis
Longitudinal Structural Equation Modeling
Personality, an Overview
Psychological Well-Being
Qualitative Methods
Quality of Life
Reciprocity in Exchange
Andean and Amazonian Native Conceptions of Well-Being
Self-Determination Theory
Social Policy
Subjective Well-Being
Values
References
Argumedo, A., & Pimbert, M. (2010). Bypassing global-
ization: Barter markets as a new indigenous economy
in Peru. Development, 53(3), 343349. doi: 10.1057/
dev.2010.43.
Camilo Cardenas, J., & Ostrom, E. (2004). Que traen las
personas al juego? Experimentos de campo sobre la
cooperacion en los recursos de uso comun. (Spanish).
Desarrollo y Sociedad, 54, 87132.
Clark, S. G., Cherney, D. N., & Ashton, M. S. (2009).
Development and environmental challenges, Podocarpus
National Park, Ecuador. Journal of Sustainable Forestry,
28(6/7), 597613. doi: 10.1080/10549810902922268.
Daz, C. (2011). Bienestar subjetivo en pobladores de
Qero y sus migrantes en la ciudad del Cusco. Tesis
de licenciatura en psicologa social. Lima, Peru:
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru.
Godoy, R., Patel, A., Reyes-Garca, V., Seyfried, C. F.,
Leonard, W. R., McDade, T., et al. (2006). Nutritional
status and spousal empowerment among native Ama-
zonians. Social Science & Medicine, 63(6),
15171530. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.03.048.
Godoy, R., Reyes-Garca, V., Gravlee, C. C., Huanca, T.,
Leonard, W. R., McDade, T. W., et al. (2009). Moving
beyond a snapshot to understand changes in the well-
being of native Amazonians. Current Anthropology,
50(4), 563573. doi: 10.1086/599983.
Godoy, R., Zeinalova, E., Reyes-Garca, V., Huanca, T.,
Kosiewicz, H., Leonard, W. R., et al. (2010). Does
civilization cause discontentment among indigenous
Amazonians? Test of empirical data from the
Tsimane of Bolivia. Journal of Economic Psychol-
ogy, 31(4), 587598. doi: 10.1016/j.joep. 2010.04.001.
Izquierdo, C. (2005). When health is not enough: Soci-
etal, individual and biomedical assessments of well-
being among the Matsigenka of the Peruvian Amazon.
Social Science Medicine, 61(4), 767783. doi:
10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.08.045.
MacDonald, G., & Leary, M. R. (2005). Why does social
exclusion hurt? The relationship between social and
physical pain. Psychological Bulletin, 131(2), 202223.
Reyes-Garcia, V. (in press). Happiness in the Amazon:
Folk explanations of happiness in a hunter-
horticulturalist society in the bolivian amazon. In H.
Selin & D. Gareth (Eds.), Happiness across cultures.
Views of happiness and quality-of-life in Non-Western
Cultures. The Netherlands: Springer.
Reyes-Garca, V., Gravlee, C. C., McDade, T. W.,
Huanca, T., Leonard, W. R., & Tanner, S. (2010).
Cultural consonance and psychological well-being.
Estimates using longitudinal data from an Amazonian
Andorka, Rudolf
Society. Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 34(1),
186203. doi: 10.1007/s11013-009-9165-z.
Taylor, S., & Gonzaga, G. (2007). Affiliative responses to
stress: A social neuroscience model. In E. Harmon-
Jones & P. Winkielman (Eds.), Social neurscience.
Integrating biological and psychological explanations
of social behavior (pp. 454473). New York: The
Guilford Press.
Yamamoto, J. (2008). Un regard alternatif sur la
subjectivite: le bien etre des communautes andines.
Connexions, 89, 147170.
Yamamoto, J. (2011). Necesidades universales, su
concrecion cultural y el desarrollo en su contexto:
Hacia una ciencia del desarrollo. In M. Rojas (Ed.),
La medicion del progreso y del bienestar. Propuestas
desde America Latina (pp. 93102). Ciudad de Mex-
ico: Foro Consultivo Cientfico y Tecnologico.
Yamamoto, J., Feijoo, A. R., & Lazarte, A. (2008).
Subjective wellbeing: An alternative approach. In J.
Copestake (Ed.), Wellbeing and development in Peru.
Local and universal views confronted (pp. 61101).
New York: Palgrave McMillian.
Yamamoto, J., & Meza, R. (2004). Concepciones nativas
de desarrollo y bienestar analisis intercultural de
conflictos. Iquitos, Peru: Consorcio Focal Bosques -
Instituto de Investigacion de la Amazona Peruana.
Andorka, Rudolf
Wolfgang Glatzer1 and Zsolt Speder2
1
Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Odra,
Germany
2
Demographic Research Institute, Budapest,
Hungary
Birth, Education, Work History, and
Main Contributions
Rudolf Andorka (March 30, 1931June 30, 1997)
born in Budapest carried a challenging life in post-
war Hungary. His father, a liberal politician, was
imprisoned several times because he fought
against fascism and against communism. The fam-
ily was forced to leave Budapest in 1951 and had to
settle on a farm in the country. Rudolf attended the
best clerical gymnasium in Budapest, but was
unable to attend the university because of the status
of his family. He began to earn money as an
unskilled worker (1949) and trained himself in
social and economic sciences. In 1960, he started
173 A
working for the Central Statistical Office, as
a demographer and social statistician, and he grad-
ually rose to become the director of the Division of A
Social Statistics. In 1980, he was elected president
of the Hungarian Sociological Society. In 1984,
he got a chair in sociology at the Budapest
University of Economic Science and later became
rector of that University, the latter position he held
until his death.
In 1990, he was appointed chair of the Hungar-
ian Research Foundation and was founder of the
new profession- and achievement-based system.
He was very active in the International Sociologi-
cal Association, serving as a member of the
Governing Council and as cochair of the Program
Committee of the Working Group on Social Indi-
cators and Social Reporting from the first meeting
of the Group in the early 1980s. He was not only
a famous researcher and organizer but was also
concerned with cultural and religious issues, serv-
ing as a president in the Lutheran Church.
Rudolf spoke several languages and published
research at the intersection of sociology, demog-
raphy, and social statistics. He was a devoted
scholar of empirical investigations in social sci-
ence not only in Hungary but participated at
comparative European social researches in social
mobility and time use. He always tried to under-
stand the Hungarian social issues, trends using
current theoretical approaches and within
a European comparative context. His research
results on the fields of social mobility and social
inequalities, poverty, deviant behavior (alcohol-
ism and anomie), and fertility became corner-
stones in sociology coursebooks but are also
present at scientific and public debates.
In addition to the well-known objective indica-
tors, he introduced subjective indicators (satisfac-
tion and alienation scale) in the study of long-term
social change in Hungary. He was the founder of
social reporting in Hungary and evaluated the
societal transition from communism to market
democracies from several angles. Just after the
societal transition of the 1990s, he stressed the
role of dissatisfaction, illegitimacy, and anomie
as important factors of transitional change. He
also analyzed selected localities using parish reg-
isters and advanced quantitative methods. Among
A 174
his important works, there is a 650-page introduc-
tion to sociology (in Hungarian and in German)
published shortly before his death that is concep-
tualized as a west European approach with east
European data and examples.
Cross-References
International Sociological Association
Working Group/Research Committee on
Social Indicators
References
Selections in Hungarian/English and German
Andorka, R. (1978). Determinants of fertility in advanced
societies. London: Methuen.
Andorka, R. (1982). A tarsadalmi mobilitas valtozasai
Magyarorszagon. [Changes in social mobility in
Hungary]. Budapest: KJK. 326 p.
Andorka, R. (1994). Social changes and social problems in
Hungary since the 1930s. Economic, social and polit-
ical causes of the collapse of the socialist system.
Comparative Social Research, 14, 4996.
Andorka, R. (2001). Einf uhrung in die soziologische
Gesellschaftsanalyse. Ein Studienbuch zur
ungarischen Gesellschaft im europ aischen Vergleich.
Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Andorka, R., & Speder, Z. (2001). Poverty in Hungary in
19921995. In G. Lengyel & Z. Rostovanyi (Eds.), The
small transformation (pp. 126159). Budapest:
Akademiai Kiado.
Andrews, Frank M.
Alex C. Michalos
University of Northern British Columbia,
Prince George, BC, Canada
(residence) Brandon, MB, Canada
Birth, Education, Work History, and
Main Contributions
Frank Andrews (19351992) was a pioneer in
studies of social indicators of well-being or
quality of life research. He received a bache-
lors degree from Dartmouth College in 1957 and
a doctorate from the University of Michigan in
Andrews, Frank M.
1962. In 1959, he joined the Institute for Social
Research at the University of Michigan, was
named Research Scientist there in 1976, and in
1990 he received the Universitys Distinguished
Research Scientist Award.
His magnum opus with Steven Withey (1976)
is a frequently cited classic in the field and the
Andrews and Withey Delightful-Terrible Scale
has been a basic building block for other standard-
ized measures (e.g., see Michalos, 1991). The lead
article in the first issue of Social Indicators
Research was written by Andrews and Withey
(1974) and it was the most frequently cited citation
classic in the 19742003 period (Michalos, 2005).
Remarkably, in the first 30 years of publication of
that journal, Andrews coauthored no less than 7
papers out of 34 that became citation classics, i.e.,
besides Andrews and Withey (1974), Andrews and
McKennell (1980), Abbey and Andrews (1985),
Andrews (1974), Andrews and Crandall (1976),
Andrews and Inglehart (1979), and McKennell
and Andrews (1980). In Michalos (2005), a cita-
tion classic was defined as an article with a total
citation rate in the top 2.4 % of all cited articles
in the journal, i.e., with a rate of about 3 standard
deviations above the mean of all articles in
the journal.
By the end of his relatively short life (57 years),
he was the author or editor of more than a dozen
books and monographs, and 55 journal articles
and book chapters. He was a member of the edito-
rial board of Social Indicators Research from 1979
until his death, and his manuscript assessments
were always carefully and constructively written.
He was known as a warm and helpful teacher at
Michigan, and was an active participant in the
development and maintenance of the ISRs
Summer Institute in survey research. The Frank
M. Andrews Summer Institute Fellowship was
established in 1992 to recognize his scholarly
achievements and devotion to teaching.
In the announcement of his death in Social Indi-
cators Research, the editor wrote that his friends
shared his excitement with our research field, his
keen insights and warm personality in our confer-
ences over the past 20 years. I am, in Franks terms,
delighted to have been able to know him, and to
lose him now is indeed terrible (Michalos, 1993).
Anger
Cross-References
Michalos-Zumbo Well-Being Index
Subjective Indicators of Well-being
Subjective Well-being
References
Abbey, A., & Andrews, F. M. (1985). Modeling the
psychological determinants of life quality. Social Indi-
cators Research, 16, 134.
Andrews, F. M. (1974). Social indicators of perceived life
quality. Social Indicators Research, 1, 279299.
Andrews, F. M., & Crandall, R. (1976). The validity of
measures of self-reported well-being. Social Indica-
tors Research, 3, 119.
Andrews, F. M., & Inglehart, R. F. (1979). The structure of
subjective well-being in nine western societies. Social
Indicators Research, 6, 7390.
Andrews, F. M., & McKennell, A. C. (1980). Measures of
self-reported well-being: Their affective, cognitive
and other components. Social Indicators Research, 8,
127155.
Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1974). Measures of
perceived life quality: Results from several national
surveys. Social Indicators Research, 1, 126.
Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators
of well-being. New York: Plenum Press.
McKennell, A. C., & Andrews, F. M. (1980). Models of
cognition and affect in perception of well-being.
Social Indicators Research, 8, 257298.
Michalos, A. C. (1991). Global report on student well-
being (Life satisfaction and happiness, Vol. 1).
New York: Springer.
Michalos, A. C. (1993). Announcement. Social Indicators
Research, 29, v.
Michalos, A. C. (Ed.). (2005). Citation classics from
social indicators research. Dordrecht: Springer.
Anger
Georges Steffgen
Research Unit: INSIDE, University of
Luxembourg, Walferdange, Luxembourg
Definition
Novaco (1975) considers anger as an affective
stress reaction which occurs after a provocation.
In this view, anger as an emotional state is a
175 A
consequence of an experienced physiological
arousal and its cognitive interpretation. Thus,
anger as a multidimensional construct is associated A
with cognitive distortions (e.g., misappraisals and
attributions of blame), physiological changes (e.g.,
hypertension), and behavioral reactions (e.g.,
facial expressions, verbal/behavioral anger expres-
sion strategies; Kassinove & Sukhodolsky, 1995).
Anger is not only an emotional state, varying
across time, situation, and intensity, but is also
a stable personality trait, reflecting a persons ten-
dency to experience anger frequently or intensely
(Spielberger, Reheiser, & Sydeman, 1995).
Averills (1982) social constructive approach
is based on the assumption that anger is a holistic
reaction to social situations and a complex syn-
drome. Thus, anger serves a function in social
contexts. Anger here is a conflict-relevant emo-
tion, which inherits the monitoring of those mis-
behaviors and violations of norms to which
official norm sanctions have no access. Two
rules come into conflict: On the one hand there
is a perceived misbehavior. On the other hand,
there exists a social prohibition to aggress inten-
tionally. Because the aggressive reaction occurs
in passion and the victim has provoked the
aggressor, the behavior of the aggressor which
implies a violation of a social norm is justified.
Description
In a process-orientated framework, four different
phases of the evolution and progression of an
anger episode can be described: anger activation,
anger appearance, anger regulation, and anger
stabilization (see Fig. 1; Steffgen & Pfetsch,
2007; see also Eckhardt & Deffenbacher, 1995;
Kassinove & Eckhardt, 1995). These phases do
not evolve like a one-way street, but rather, stand
in a transactional relationship.
Anger Activation
Important situational release conditions of anger are
the following: action-blocking of unpleasant stim-
uli, blocking of goal attainment, non-fulfillment of
A 176
Anger, Fig. 1 Process
orientated framework of
anger from Steffgen and
Pfetsch (2007)
Anger activation
Anger appearance
and
anger regulation
Anger stabilization
a need, personal attacks and offenses, interruption
of concentration-requiring tasks, frustrations,
impairment of self-value feelings by the words or
actions of a person, and provocations or provocative
stimuli. The level of person-specific anger is
determined through biological vulnerabilities,
e.g., characteristics of the autonomic nervous
system or the endocrine system, and dispositional
constructs. It is difficult to distinguish situational
and person-specific parameters from cognitions
or subjective evaluations of a situation. Within
cognitive approaches, this dilemma is solved, as
the emergence of anger is explained by relevant
emotion-specific evaluation patterns.
Anger
Situational release conditions
blocking or impairment of Person-specific anger level
actions and goal biological vulnerability,
attainment, frustrations, dispositional constructs
personal attacks,
provocations and offenses
Cognitive evaluation of the situation
Perception of obstacles as impairment of blocking actions
Subjective importance of goal
Weighing of alternatives
Attribution of responsibility
Which personal standards, norms or obligations are violated?
Are there excusing or justifying reasons for impairment?
Anger state
Perception of physiological Forms of anger expression
arousal (as ways to regulate anger)
Cognitions of irritation, aggressive reactions
frustration, rage suppression
Behavior (facial expression control
and gestures, verbal or reflexivity
physical attacks)
Cognitive evalution of the situation
Cognitions concering intention and effectiveness of anger coping,
oncoming competence or helplessness expectations of situation
Development of anger coping styles
Chronification, anger stress
The process of primary evaluation covers
a) the perception that an action goal is blocked,
as b) cognitions of attribution of responsibility
concerning the obstruction or handicap of the
goal attainment and the attribution of guilt in
responding to the question of whether personal
standards, requirements, or obligations were
violated (Averill, 1982). Cognitions concerning
the intention and effectiveness of anger coping
and competence or helplessness expectations
within an anger situation can be regarded as com-
ponents of the secondary evaluation. The three
components of person, situation, and evaluation
are in direct connection with each other.
Anger
Anger Appearance and Anger
Regulation
Anger appearance and anger regulation processes,
can be separated with difficulty. The actual
anger state can be differentiated with regard to
the physiological, cognitive, and behavioral
components of experience. The mutual influence
of cognitions and excitation is strengthened
through rumination. During high excitation,
cognitive control is decreased, and among other
factors, this favors the occurrence of aggressive
automatisms.
With regard to anger processing, forms of
anger regulation can be differentiated. Anger
coping can be aligned as both intra- and interper-
sonal. Within the domain of anger research,
the distinction of different forms of expressive
coping components is seen as particularly
important (Spielberger, 1988). These different
forms of anger regulation indicate that
a multiplicity of coping reactions can arise with
anger. Deffenbacher, Oetting, Lynch, and Morris
(1996) have identified 14 different ways on how
to express anger.
In the phases of anger appearance and anger
regulation secondary and tertiary evaluation pro-
cesses can evolve. Among other purposes, they
play a substantial role in facilitating the transition
to the next phase, anger stabilization.
Anger Stabilization
Depending upon adjustment and frequency of
coping success or failure, anger reactions are
either stabilized or destabilized. Coping forms
of anger, which are in the short term successful
and/or socially strengthened, have the tendency
to be maintained and to be used in future
anger situations. However, if a behavior arises
chronically and does not yield to other new
reaction forms, this leads to a substantial restric-
tion of behavior repertoire and, in the long run,
to negative social consequences (e.g., in cases
where there are constant situational maladjusted
anger outbreaks).
177 A
Assessment and Treatment
Despite the importance of anger as a theoretical and A
socially relevant construct, only a few strong mea-
sure of anger are available (e.g., State Trait Anger
Expression Inventory, STAXI; Spielberger, 1988;
see Eckhardt, Norlander, & Deffenbacher, 2004).
Anger can present serious problems (also for
the quality of life) when intense or expressed in
dysfunctional ways. Since there has been no
conceptualization of problematic anger until
today, there are no disorders where anger is
a necessary or defining condition (Eckhardt &
Deffenbacher, 1995). Actually, four indication
areas for the modification of anger could be
differentiated (Steffgen & Pfetsch, 2007):
Social indication: It is assumed that the anger
experience leads to aggression and acts of vio-
lence, and primarily damages other persons.
Increased aggressive, violent behavior is to be
reduced by changing the anger experience.
Interventions have been carried out and evalu-
ated for the following target groups: Offenders
(adults and adolescents), violent criminals, cou-
ples with aggressive pair relations and/or vio-
lent marriage partners, violent parents,
aggressive children and adolescents, groups of
psychiatric patients and aggressive road users.
Health-related indication: Anger is a risk fac-
tor for psychosomatic diseases and can lead to
health damage. Anger can either directly
cause psychological and physiological
health-endangering changes to the organism,
or can have indirect effects through chronic
health-endangering behaviors (e.g., smoking,
consumption of alcohol), which represent risk
factors. Interventions have been carried out
and evaluated for the following target groups:
Patients with essential hypertonia, patients
with coronary heart diseases or pronounced
type-A-behavior, chronic pain patients, per-
sons with posttraumatic stress disorders,
persons with brain damage, persons with
mental (cognitive) retardation and learning
disorders, and drug addicts.
Occupational and activity-related indication:
It is assumed that anger reactions impair
A 178
the execution of activities, which are to be
implemented in respect to work and/or in the
execution of an occupational role. Occupa-
tions, in which conflict arise frequently or
represent a main component of the work con-
tent, are to be considered in particular. Thus
far, interventions have been carried out and
evaluated for different target groups (e.g.,
police officers, military staff, personal in help-
ing occupations, teachers, and drivers).
Subjective well-being-related indication: It is
assumed that anger reactions lead to an
impairment of subjective well-being. Target
groups are persons who notice increased excit-
ability, frequent aggressive-expressive,
extrapunitive anger outbreaks, or constant
anger suppression as ineffective forms of
anger coping with negative effects on their
well-being. Thus far, interventions have been
carried out and evaluated for students and
participants in courses of adult education.
Anger treatment programs start at three poten-
tial change levels of anger experience and
expression:
Modification of physiological arousal: These
programs include systematic desensitization
and relaxation treatment that are intended to
reduce physiological arousal associated with
anger and to prevent unpleasant feelings and
unfavorable behavior.
Modification of cognitive processes: These are
cognitive treatments that intend to modify
cognitive processes such as hostile appraisals
and attributions, irrational beliefs, and inflam-
matory thinking. Alternative cognitions are
developed and rehearsed. The experience of
anger will be reduced so that anger intensity
will remain at a level that allows adaptive
behavior, and in consequence the expression
of anger will also be changed.
Modification of behavior (social interaction):
These treatments consist of social skills train-
ings. In order to arrange interpersonal commu-
nication appropriately, the procedures in this
area are based on the assumption that some
people have social deficits. Anger cannot be
expressed in a socially appropriate way, e.g.,
resistance to provocations or violations of
Anger
justified requirements without hurting the
feelings of others. Social skills training
teaches clients appropriate skills for handling
anger in social situations.
Modification of several psychological pro-
cesses: The cognitive-relaxation treatments
combine the effect of cognitive processes and
physiological arousal. In problem-solving treat-
ments, social skills trainings are combined with
elements of cognitive reorganization. The pur-
pose of this form of treatment is to find appro-
priate strategies to resolve anger-provoking
situations. Additionally, multicomponent pro-
grams are also used, in order to bring changes
to the three regulation levels: psychophysiolog-
ical processes, cognitive processes, and social
interaction processes.
All in all, a treatment package of anger should
include the following components: address moti-
vation, cultivate the therapeutic alliance, manage
physiological arousal, foster cognitive change,
implement behavioral change, provide environ-
mental supports for change, teach relapse-
prevention skills, and initiate restitution and rein-
tegration (Feindler, 2006).
The evaluation of the effectiveness of (coping
via) anger turns out to be difficult. Here, both
the functions (Novaco, 1976) as well as the
intentions of anger and coping behavior seem
relevant. Both clarify the fact that a generally
valid evaluation of the (in?)effectiveness of an
anger-coping mechanism is hardly possible.
Studies in which the effectiveness of individ-
ual programs was evaluated, in particular, meta-
analysis on the effectiveness of anger treatments
permits a few more far reaching conclusions
(DiGuiseppe & Tafrate, 2007). Thus, meta-
analytic reviews show medium to large effect
sizes and the results demonstrate that effective
interventions are available for the treatment of
anger problems in different populations. Most of
the research focuses on cognitive and behavioral
interventions. The use of multicomponent proce-
dures has especially demonstrated being appro-
priate for global anger interventions. However,
there is little or no evidence supporting the rela-
tive efficacy of one treatment over another
(Steffgen & Pfetsch, 2007).
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions
Conclusions
Anger and its expression represent an important
public health problem. Despite some strong
measures of anger, most of the measures developed
to assess anger are based on unclear definitions,
inadequate psychometric properties, or insufficient
valid data (Eckhardt et al., 2004). The research
findings suggest that psychological treatments are
generally effective in treating maladaptive anger.
Altogether, more research on the causes, assess-
ment, experiences, and consequences of anger
is needed.
Cross-References
Big Five Personality Traits
Coping, an Overview
Goal Achievement
Meta-Analysis
Quality of Life
Social Consequences of Insecure Jobs
References
Averill, J. R. (1982). Anger and aggression. An essay on
emotion. New York: Springer.
Deffenbacher, J. L., Oetting, E. R., Lynch, R. S., &
Morris, C. D. (1996). The expression of anger and its
consequences. Behavior Research and Therapy, 34(7),
57590.
DiGuiseppe, R., & Tafrate, R. C. (2007). Understanding
anger disorders. Oxford: University Press.
Eckhardt, C. I., & Deffenbacher, J. L. (1995). Diagnosis of
anger disorders. In H. Kassinove (Ed.), Anger
disorders: Definition, diagnosis, and treatment. Wash-
ington, DC: Taylor and Francis, p. 2747.
Eckhardt, C. I., Norlander, B., & Deffenbacher, J. (2004).
The assessment of anger and hostility: A critical
review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 9, 1743.
Feindler, E. L. (Ed.). (2006). Anger-related disorders.
New York, NY: Springer.
Kassinove, H., & Eckhardt, C. I. (1995). An anger model
and a look to the future. In H. Kassinove (Ed.),
Anger disorders: Definition, diagnosis, and treatment.
Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis, p. 197204.
Kassinove, H., & Sukhodolsky, D. G. (1995). Anger dis-
orders: Basic science and practice issues. In
H. Kassinove (Ed.), Anger disorders: Definition, diag-
nosis, and treatment. Washington, DC: Taylor and
Francis, p. 126.
179 A
Novaco, R. W. (1975). Anger control: The development
and evaluation of an experimental treatment. Lexing-
ton, MA: Heath.
Novaco, R. W. (1976). The functions and regulation A
of the arousal of anger. Journal of Psychiatry, 133,
1248.
Spielberger, C. D. (1988). Professional manual for the
state-trait anger expression inventory. Odessa, FL:
Psychological Assessment Resources.
Spielberger, C. D., Reheiser, E. C., & Sydeman, S. J.
(1995). Measuring the experience, expression, and
control of anger. In H. Kassinove (Ed.), Anger
disorders: Definition, diagnosis, and treatment.
Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis, p. 4967.
Steffgen, G., & Dusi, D. (2006). Argerbewaltigung-
straining. In F. J. Schermer & A. Weber (Eds.),
Methoden der Verhaltensanderung: Komplexe
Interventionsprogramme. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer,
p. 3764.
Steffgen, G., & Pfetsch, J. (2007). Does anger treatment
reduce aggressive behaviour? In G. Steffgen &
M. Gollwitzer (Eds.), Emotions and aggressive behav-
ior. Gottingen: Hogrefe, p. 92111.
Angst
Anxiety
Animal Attractiveness
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural
Perceptions
Daniel Frynta, Eva Landova and Silvie Liskova
Department of Zoology, Charles University of
Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
Synonyms
Aesthetic preferences concerning animals;
Aesthetic ranking of animals; Animal attractive-
ness; Biophilia theory
A 180
Definition
The concept of animal beauty explicates
human cognitive abilities (cross-culturally in
agreement) to subjectively perceive, evaluate,
and categorize animals. The perception is deter-
mined by objective animal qualities such as size,
shape, color, pattern, similarity to humans or
familiar objects, and behavior. The perception
of animal beauty projects into the qualities of
human life, such as recreation activities (bird-
watching, fishing, hunting, attending zoos and
wildlife reserves), happiness, friendship, and pet
keeping, as well as animal welfare and
conservation.
Description
Living animals evoke higher attention in humans
than inanimate objects (New, Cosmides, &
Tooby, 2007), because they might have
represented predatory threat or suitable prey for
our ancestors. Thus, humans have evolved
universal cognitive abilities to perceive, rank,
and categorize animals, which allowed them
quick and adequate reactions to these animals.
People possessing very distant cultures and
different levels of scientific knowledge are able
to name and categorize animal species in a very
similar way (Berlin, 1992), using universal
principles. People also inherently tend to affiliate
with other species (e.g., the biophilia theory,
Wilson, 1984) and employ aesthetic judgments in
their attitude to animals (Thornhill, 1993). These
subjective abilities of priority attention devoted
to animals, employing aesthetic judgments
towards them and their categorization together
with biophilia, allowed us to measure the animal
beauty reliably by asking human respondents.
The biodiversity of animals (even when
counting just vertebrates) is too vast for humans
to know or imagine (Frynta et al., 2009); people
of illiterate hunter-gatherer societies are able to
name only about 600 genera of animals (up to 773
species, Berlin, 1992). People of the industrial
world encounter as much animals, with maybe
some more, thanks to their access to media such
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions
as books and the Internet. It is therefore needed to
select a partial set of species for the purpose of
animal beauty measurement. The respondents are
able to evaluate both living animals and their
pictured representatives; both methods of presen-
tation usually provide similar results (Landova,
Maresova, Simkova, Cikanova, & Frynta, 2011).
In most cultures, the respondents tend to discuss
the pictured animals in a way that indicates that
they viewed the animals as living creatures rather
than just colorful images (Frynta et al., 2011).
It is important to note that regardless of the
existing interindividual differences which may
be caused by personality, individual experience,
mistakes, gender, or other factors not controlled
for, the respondents agreement in the ranking of
beauty is still highly significant. There is general
agreement in beauty of many studied animal
groups: parrots ( Frynta, Liskova, Bultmann, &
Burda, 2010), various bird families (Frynta et al.,
2009; Liskova & Frynta, 2013), mammals,
and reptiles (Frynta et al., 2009), especially snakes
(Frynta et al., 2011; Landova et al., 2011; Maresova
& Frynta, 2008; Maresova, Krasa, & Frynta, 2009;
Maresova, Landova, & Frynta, 2009).
There might be agreement in the subjective
beauty evaluation because it is linked to objective
features of the evaluated animals. Which animal
characteristics are perceived as beautiful? It was
hypothesized by Morris (1967) that it is the
presence of anthropomorphic features that makes
the animal attractive, for example, flat face,
no/small tail, facial expression ability, or tool use.
One such textbook example is the baby schema
presented as early as in 1943 by Konrad Lorenz,
which says that humans prefer animal characteris-
tics that resemble children: large eyes, bulging
cranium, or retreating chins (Lorenz, 1943, 1950/
1971). It has been shown that Mickey Mouse, the
well-known and favorite Disney character,
evolved through years accordingly to this scheme
to meet the preferences of human beholders
(Gould, 1979). Portmann (1979) postulated that
the brain size of an animal, in the meaning
of animal intelligence, might also affect the
perceived attractiveness positively, which links
the animal attractiveness to similarity with humans
as well.
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions 181 A
Animals also possess physical characteristics
that are preferred by humans. The most promi-
nent one is the body size. The larger the animal, A
the stronger is the sensory stimulation of human
subject (sensory bias), which affects the attrac-
tiveness judgment, usually, but not necessarily, in
a positive way. This can explain the phenomenon
of charismatic megafauna (e.g., popularity of
large mammals such as elephants, rhinos, and
gorillas; Entwistle & Dunstone, 2000). Czech
respondents ranked giant pandas, large cats,
bears and giraffes as the most beautiful mammals
(Frynta, Simkova, Liskova, & Landova, 2012).
Nevertheless, smaller animals may sometimes be
preferred because of other prominent character-
istics like fluffy hair and big eyes, which form
the quality of cuteness, as perceived by
humans. Pikas, bush babies, red pandas, and
wombats placed among such preferred but
small- to medium-sized mammals. Body size
can also be linked by a specific meaning to the
observer. For example, children of various age
groups preferred differently sized animals: very
young children preferred big mammals, which
Morris (1967) interpreted as their need to bond Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions,
Fig. 1 An example of the most preferred species within
with a parent (a guardian), while older children particular higher taxa according to Czech respondents.
preferred smaller mammals to get themselves Red panda (Ailurus fulgens), Laurasiatheria, Ailuridae
into the role of a parent (Figs. 1 and 2).
Another important collection of animal fea- only enhances the respondents decision, which
tures considered by humans when ranking animal heeds coloration just partially and mainly focuses
attractiveness is shape, pattern, and color. The on overall coloration. Among all colors, only one
mutual connections of these characteristics seems to consistently and positively affect human
which together form human preferences have preferences, and that is the blue color. Blue birds
been demonstrated on birds. The beauty of birds were repeatedly placed on top positions within
is mainly determined by their body shape: short various contexts (in various bird groups,
neck, long legs and tail, and large eyes are per- tested independently): blue-and-white flycatcher,
ceived as attractive. This was demonstrated by an indigo-banded kingfisher, hyacinth macaw, and
experiment in which human respondents evalu- Indian roller (Frynta et al., 2009; Frynta et al.,
ated only black silhouettes of birds, freed of the 2010; Liskova & Frynta, 2013) (Fig. 3).
information about pattern and color, and the The evaluation of beauty is complex due to the
resulting evaluation was comparable to that of fact that animals possess various characteristics
fully colored and patterned pictures of birds of appearance, as noted above; however, the
(Liskova & Frynta, 2013). In the absence of complexity might rise even more due to the various
body shape variation, pattern becomes dominant aesthetic criteria across human cultures. It has been
over colors in the determination of human pref- reported that the aesthetics of commercial products
erences, as seen on morphologically similar often significantly vary between cultures (Limon,
example of pittas, the exotic Old World colorful Kahle, & Orth, 2009; Pearce, Harvey, & Jamieson,
songbirds (Frynta & Liskova, 2012). Coloration 2010). A contrary hypothesis of evolutionary
A 182
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions,
Fig. 2 Forty-three pictures of pittas from the family
Pittidae were evaluated by Czech respondents according
to preferences, both in full color and gray scale. In both sets
of pictures, the male blue pitta (Pitta cyanea; depicted)
placed within the top five. The scattered, spotty pattern
showed to be a significant factor determining human pref-
erences. The blue color is another factor that is preferred by
psychology states that our ancestors have devel-
oped an adaptive sense of animal attractiveness
and preference to animal species that became part
of human mind before geographic and cultural
diversification of our kind (Barkow, Cosmides, &
Tooby, 1992). Various stimuli may contribute both
to aesthetic differences and agreement in human
evaluation of beauty. Thus, experiments were
performed to assess the possible aesthetic cross-
cultural differences using animal pictures as
a substitute of real animals, as evolutionarily rele-
vant stimuli for humans. Non-surprisingly, the
agreement in preferences of English-speaking peo-
ple evaluating the beauty of bird families using an
Internet survey based on the Likert scale
(1 pointing to the most beautiful bird; Liskova &
Frynta, 2013) was consistent with such evaluation
of central European people from the Czech Repub-
lic and Slovakia. It was of great interest to compare
the European aesthetic preferences with those of
a more distant culture, both culturally and geo-
graphically, and thus, villagers from Papua New
Guinea were asked to evaluate the beauty of boid
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions
human respondents on birds, which has proven significant
in other bird sets of pictures: blue-and-white flycatcher
(passerines), indigo-banded kingfisher (nonpasserine ter-
restrial birds), blue-and-yellow macaw (parrots).The com-
mon wombat (Vombatus ursinus) represents the most
preferred species within a group of basal mammals. The
preferred features of mammals are fluffy ears, dense fur,
and short nose, all resembling fuzzy bear cubs
snakes (Frynta et al., 2011): Papuans have entirely
different cultural background compared to Euro-
peans, and moreover, they live in much closer
contact with wild animals, especially snakes. In
the Australian zoogeographical area, most local
snake species belong to the family Elapidae and
are highly poisonous (OShea, 1996). Therefore, it
was expected that the aesthetic apprehension of
the tested boid snakes would significantly
differ between people from Europe and Papua
(Maresova, Krasa, & Frynta, 2009). Interestingly
enough, regardless of the different attitude towards
snakes, the Papuans aesthetic preferences tightly
correlated with the Europeans, with only six spe-
cies (out of 32) differing slightly. Moreover, the
disparity in ranking was not explicable by personal
experience and/or the role of the particular species
in the local culture, as four of the tested species
with New Guinean distribution did not contribute
to the ethnic differences (Fig. 4).
The considerable cross-cultural agreement in
preferences towards snake species was further
supported when people from another three
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions,
Fig. 3 The family Falconidae, represented by the
orange-breasted falcon (Falco deiroleucus) in the set of
97 nonpasserine and 5 passerine bird families, placed as
the most preferred one. The key feature determining
continents were included in the comparison: the
villagers from Bolivia (South America),
Philippines (Southeastern Asia), Rajasthan and
Delhi in India (South Asia), and Malawi
(sub-Saharan Africa), and Morocco (North
Africa). The agreement of these cultures and
Papuans appeared even closer than those
between Papuans and Europeans, although the
experience with the presented species differed
in each of the societies the local snake faunas
of each region differ, the human societies
encounter the fauna with different frequency,
and also the attitude of people towards media
such as television differs greatly.
Discussion
The above-mentioned cross-cultural agreement
applies not only to the evaluation of snakes but
also to other animals such as lizards, turtles,
birds, and mammals, as tested in Eastern Indone-
sia and Europe (unpublished results). These find-
ings may be explained either by the hypothesis
183 A
human preferences towards bird families rich in morpho-
logical variability was the shape of the bird, as shown on
a set of black bird silhouettes correlating closely with the
full-colored bird pictures
that human preferences are determined by pri-
mordial sensory mechanisms shared by all people
(and possibly our primate relatives) or by
processing rules specific to animal objects that
evolved in a response to selection pressures
affecting human ancestors in the past. Neverthe-
less, cross-cultural congruence in the evaluation
of animal beauty is a phenomenon of extreme
importance. This may be an example of the
so-called universals, the traits that are shared by
all human beings across every population and
culture (Brown, 2004). Within various realms
cultural, social, lingual, behavioral, etc. these
include, for example, myths and legends, ethno-
centrism, dancing, color naming rules, wariness
around, or fear of snakes. In ethology, this
phenomenon has been known as species-specific
typical behavior for a long time. Species-specific
typical behavior is somehow predetermined
either genetically or ontogenetically, and it is
present in most (usually all) individuals of the
given species, when reacting to a specific
A 184
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions,
Fig. 4 Relationship between mean measures of perceived
beauty of the pooled data (Bolivia, Delhi, Malawi,
Morocco, Philippines, and Rajasthan) and corresponding
values obtained in Papua New Guinea. Please note that the
higher value, the less preferred the species is. Species
abbreviations are as follows: Adum, Acrantophis
dumerili; Anch, Antaresia childreni; Asme, Aspidites
melanocephalus; Bcim, Boa constrictor imperator;
Canu, Corallus annulatus; Ccan, C. caninus; Ccoo, C.
cookii; Chor, C. hortulanus; Clre, Calabaria reinhardtii;
stimulus or situation (Bolhuis & Verhulst, 2009).
The finding that all people prefer the same ani-
mals is not so trivial; in fact, imagine a similar
situation with other human universals, for exam-
ple, the dancing. All people around the world
and across all cultures like dancing, but every
society performs a dance specific to their culture.
If these societies were given a choice and would
be taught and presented to all other existing
dances, would they all prefer just samba?
The phenomenon of wildly shared preference
for certain animal types within a given group of
species might lead to selective protection/
neglecting of some species in global conservation
network, and thus contribute to the species com-
position of future biota. In present situation,
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions
Caas, Candoia aspera; Eang, Epicrates angulifer; Efor, E.
fordi; Eino, E. inornatus; Emau, E. maurus; Estr, E.
striatus; Erja, Eryx jaculus; Erjo, Eryx johnii; Erta, Eryx
tataricus; Eumu, Eunectes murinus; Gcon, Gongylophis
conicus; Gmue, G. muelleri; Lsav, Liasis savuensis;
Lmac, L. mackloti; Litr, Lichanura trivirgata; Mboe,
Morelia boeleni; Mvir, M. viridis; Pret, Python
reticulatus; Pbiv, P. molurus bivittatus; Preg, P. regius;
Pseb, P. sebae; Ptim, P. timoriensis; Smad, Sanzinia
madagascariensis (Adapted from Frynta et al., 2011)
endangered species of many taxa compete with
one another for financial and political support pro-
vided within conservation projects, and the win-
ners are the attractive animals: the numbers of
individuals of animal species kept in zoos world-
wide is highly correlated with human preferences,
as reported in various groups of reptiles, birds, and
mammals (Frynta et al., 2009; Frynta et al., 2010;
Maresova & Frynta, 2008). Human aesthetic
preferences seem to be a new ecological factor,
which influences animal lives, diversity, and
survival, in this modern, human-changed world.
Last but not least, the proximity of beautiful ani-
mals per se positively affects human well-being,
happiness, friendship, contentment, and other
factors that enlighten the quality of human life.
Animal Beauty, Cross-Cultural Perceptions
Cross-References
Aesthetic Value
Affective Connection to Nature
Beauty
Consumer Society
Cross-Cultural Validation
Gene-Environment Interaction
Illiteracy, an Overview
Media Literacy
Parent-Child Relationship(s)
Subjective Well-Being (SWB)
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A 186
Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF)
KIDS COUNT
Annual Reports of European
Industrial Relations
Observatory (EIRO)
Hugo Gomes
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
Definition
Reviews produced by the European Industrial
Relations Observatory offering current informa-
tion on industrial relations and the world of work
in the European Union.
Description
Since 1997, EIRO, as part of the Network
of European Observatories (NEO) of the
European Foundation for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound)
( Living Conditions: European Foundation
for the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/
about/index.htm), has used its annual reports to
map changes in industrial relations in the Euro-
pean Union (EU), its member states, selected
candidate countries, and Norway. The knowl-
edge and analysis contained in the reports are
produced by EIROs national centers and are
initially coordinated and synthesized by an
EU-level center; they are then fed to a central
unit at Eurofound and made available through
(EIROnline, 2011). European Foundation for
the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions (Eurofound) also publishes informa-
tion from the European Working Conditions
Observatory (EWCO) and the European
Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC).
Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF)
The structure of the reports has changed sig-
nificantly over the years. The first annual report
was elaborated as a single document that
included an introduction, a main body of text
where key topics were tackled, and an outlook
section. The 2000 annual report (Eurofound,
2000a) introduced separate subreports for devel-
opments in both EU countries and those taking
place at the EU level, as well as a comparative
review with Japan and the USA (Eurofound,
2000b) focusing on key aspects of industrial rela-
tions (e.g., minimum wages, dispute preven-
tion, and strikes). Each subreport included
a comprehensive mapping of the given topic
through extensive use of national quantitative
data and EIRO documents. The 2004 annual
report (Eurofound, 2004), which included
a comparative review of industrial relations in
the EU, Japan, and the USA, was the first to
abandon the single document format; it consisted
of separate subreports with no overall introduc-
tion or conclusion. The reports include informa-
tion about training and lifelong learning, health
and safety, work time, and new forms of work
(e.g., part-time work, teleworking). In 2005
and 2008, Brazil and China were considered
alongside Japan and the USA in the comparative
review (Eurofound 2005, 2008).
Since 2007, the reports have paid special
attention to developments in working time and
pay. Working time subreports have focused on
collectively agreed and actual weekly hours,
statutory maximum and actual working weeks
and days, annual leave, and annual working
time (Eurofound 2011a, 2011b, 2011c). Pay
subreports have focused on collectively agreed,
nominal and real pay, minimum wages (including
youth rates), gender pay differentials, and
average earnings. The annual reviews have also
paid continued attention to industrial action,
including absolute and relative industrial action
levels, reasons for industrial action and govern-
ment intervention, and to developments in the
political situation of countries concerned. Other
aspects of industrial relations studied include
developments in trade union membership; orga-
nization, role, and views of social partners;
legislative developments at the national level;
Annual Reports of European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO) 187 A
and equal opportunities. The mapping of EU- eurofound.europa.eu/docs/comparative/tn1105040s/
level developments has a political and legislative tn1105040s.pdf. Accessed 11 November 2011.
Eurofound. (2011b). Working time developments
focus, but it also considers the role of suprana- 2010. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/docs/eiro/ A
tional social partner organizations and social dia- tn1106010s/tn1106010s.pdf. Accessed 11 November
logue, among others. 2011.
Eurofound. (2011c). Pay developments 2010. http://
www.eurofound.europa.eu/docs/eiro/tn1109060s/
TN1109060S.pdf. Accessed 11 November 2011.
Cross-References European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and
Working Conditions (Eurofound). http://www.
eurofound.europa.eu/about/index.htm. Accessed 4
Annual Reports of European Working January 2011.
Conditions Observatory (EWCO)
Employee Satisfaction
European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS)
Gender Discrimination
Gender Equality Annual Reports of European
Job Satisfaction Working Conditions Observatory
Living Conditions: European Foundation for (EWCO)
the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions Hugo Gomes
Minimum Wages School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
Part-Time Work Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
Training
Unionization Rate
Work Time Definition

Reviews that propose to examine four key dimen-

sions in working conditions and quality of work
References and employment in European Union countries.
The dimensions are career and employment,
EIROnline. (2011). http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/
health and well-being, skills development, and
eiro/eirobserver.htm. Accessed 4 January 2011.
Eurofound. (2000). Annual review for the European work-life balance.
Union level. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/
2000/12/feature/eu0012297f.htm. Accessed 4 January
2011.
Eurofound. (2000). Industrial relations in the EU, Japan
Description
and USA, 2000. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/
eiro/2001/11/feature/tn0111148f.htm. Accessed 4 Since June 2004, the European Working
January 2011. Conditions Observatory (EWCO), as part of the
Eurofound. (2004). Industrial relations developments in
European Foundation for the Improvement of
Europe 2004. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/
other_reports/ef0572en.pdf. Accessed 4 January 2011. Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound)
Eurofound. (2005). Key themes in global industrial rela- ( Living Conditions: European Foundation for
tions: Minimum wages and relocation of production the Improvement of Living and Working Condi-
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2005/138/en/
1/ef05138en.pdf. Accessed 4 January 2011.
tions http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/about/index.
Eurofound. (2008). Working time in the EU and other htm), has used its annual reports to map changes
global economies Industrial relations in the EU and in the world of work in the European Union (EU).
other global economies 20062007. http://www. Each of the existing seven reports was published
eurofound.europa.eu/docs/eiro/tn0804058s/tn0804058s.pdf.
Accessed 4 January 2011.
in the second of the 2 years it analyzes.
Eurofound. (2011a). Industrial relations and working con- European Foundation for the Improvement of
ditions developments in Europe 2010. http://www. Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) also
A 188 Annual Reports of European Working Conditions Observatory (EWCO)
publishes information from the European Indus-
trial Relations Observatory (EIRO) and the Euro-
pean Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC).
Each report consists of an introduction, a main
body split into several sections, and a conclusion
or commentary. The main body of each report
offers a roundup review of relevant EU level
legislation, other reports, recommendations, and
debate, including data analysis presented in rele-
vant reports by other organizations. The annual
reports follow the respective years Quality of
work and employment in Europe: Issues and
challenges paper of the same foundation
(Eurofound, 2002).
From 2004 to 2010 (Eurofound, 2004, 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), the report structure
underwent several changes; namely, since 2009
(Eurofound, 2009), the legislative developments
section has been replaced by a labor market pol-
icies section, and flexicurity and corporate social
responsibility and equal opportunities sections
have been introduced. The section focusing on
social partners stopped being featured in 2007
(Eurofound, 2007), though social partners contin-
ued to be referenced to in the reports conclusions,
and the section on trends in the workplace stopped
being featured in 2009 (Eurofound, 2010).
The two main focuses of the reports are
gender equality, which is commented upon in
all reports, and work-life balance. The reports
note that though employment and participation in
lifelong learning is increasing among women,
the gender pay gap is closing slowly. The reports
make repeated references to the European Com-
missions Roadmap for Gender Equality but
deplore the male terminology used in the Com-
missions papers (Eurofound, 2005). The issue of
gender equality is also linked to that of
work-life balance.
The reports comment on a number of other
issues, namely, work-related health problems, in
particular musculoskeletal disorders and those
pertaining to mental health; a decline in serious
and fatal accidents at work due to an improve-
ment in working conditions; an increase in
lifelong learning (with the exception of infor-
mation technology (IT) learning); migration pol-
icies; flexicurity (since the 2007 report); and
the management of the economic crisis (2010 and
2011 reports) (Eurofound, 2010; Industrial rela-
tions and working conditions developments in
Europe, 2010).
The Roadmap for Gender Equality and the
Lisbon Strategy are the two strategies most con-
sistently mentioned and used in analysis. Repeated
references are also made to developments regard-
ing the Working Time Directive.
Cross-References
Annual Reports of European Industrial
Relations Observatory (EIRO)
Flexicurity
Gender Equality
Lifelong Learning
Living Conditions: European Foundation for
the Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions
Migration, an Overview
Quality of Life
Work-Life Balance
References
Aumayr, C., Broughton, A., Cabrita, J., Curtarelli, M.,
Sweeney, B., & Vargas, O. (2010). Industrial
relations and working conditions developments
in Europe. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/docs/
comparative/tn1105040s/tn1105040s. Accessed 23
November 2011.
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and
Working Conditions (Eurofound). http://www.
eurofound.europa.eu/about/index.htm. Accessed 4
January 2011.
Eurofound. (2002). Quality of work and employment
in Europe: Issues and challenges. http://www.
eurofound.europa.eu/pubdocs/2002/12/en/1/ef0212en.
pdf. Accessed 4 January 2011.
Eurofound. (2004). Annual review of working conditions
in the EU: 20032004 http://www.eurofound.europa.
eu/ewco/reports/EU0406AR01/EU0406AR01.pdf.
Eurofound (2005). Annual review of working conditions
in the EU: 20042005 http://www.eurofound.europa.
eu/ewco/reports/EU0502AR01/EU0502AR01.pdf.
Accessed 4 January 2011.
Eurofound. (2006). Annual review of working conditions
in the EU: 20052006 http://www.eurofound.europa.
eu/ewco/reports/EU0603AR01/EU0603AR01.pdf.
Accessed 4 January 2011.
Anonymous Iamblichi
Eurofound. (2007). Annual review of working conditions
in the EU 20062007 http://www.eurofound.europa.
eu/docs/ewco/tn0702028s/tn0702028s.pdf. Accessed
4 January 2011.
Eurofound (2008). Annual review of working conditions
in the EU 20072008 http://www.eurofound.europa.
eu/docs/ewco/tn0802038s/tn0802038s.pdf. Accessed
4 January 2011.
Eurofound. (2009). Annual review of working conditions
20082009 http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/docs/
ewco/tn0908040s/tn0908040s.pdf. Accessed 4 January
2011.
Eurofound. (2010). Annual review of working conditions
20092010 http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/docs/ewco/
tn1008048s/tn1008048s.pdf. Accessed 4 January 2011.
Anonymous Iamblichi
Alex C. Michalos
University of Northern British Columbia,
Prince George, BC, Canada
(residence) Brandon, MB, Canada
Birth, Education, Work History, and
Main Contributions
Some of the most astute observations about the
relations of conventional laws and justice
(NOMOI) to the laws of nature (PHYSIS) may
be found in fragments attributed to a relatively
obscure author known as Anonymous Iamblichus
(c.400 BCE). Simply put, he claimed, first, that
because human beings are naturally disposed to
pursue their own interests and pleasure and that
the strong would naturally serve themselves at the
expense of the weak, the latter have a natural
interest in forming political communities and
subjecting their activities to a set of laws which,
by common consent, were supposed to provide
justice for all participants. Secondly, however, he
claimed because nobody would be strong enough
to guarantee his or her own protection, let alone
justice, in the presence of great masses of people,
however weak they might be individually,
even the very strong have a natural interest in
living in communities governed by rules of jus-
tice. In short, conventional laws are firmly rooted
in human nature, and they are neither unnecessary
189 A
nor artificial. Iamblichus believed that the impli-
cations of living in communities that have good
laws and law-abiding people (i.e., communities A
characterized by EUNOMIA) are quite different
from those characterized by the opposite qualities
(i.e., by ANOMIA). The following passages
describe the sorts of social capital he envisioned:
In the first place, trust arises from EUNOMIA, and
this benefits all people greatly and is one of the
great goods. For as a result of it, money becomes
available and so, even if there is little it is sufficient
since it is in circulation. . .Fortunes and misfor-
tunes in money and life are managed most suitably
for people as a result of EUNOMIA. For those
enjoying good fortune can use it in safety and
without danger of plots, while those suffering ill
fortune are aided by the fortunate. . .Through
EUNOMIA. . .the time people devote to
PRAGMATA [a word which can mean govern-
ment, public business, or troubles] is idle, but
that devoted to the activities of life is productive. In
EUNOMIA people are free from the most unpleas-
ant concern and engage in the most pleasant, since
concern about PRAGMATA is most unpleasant
and concern about ones activities is most pleasant.
Also, when they go to sleep, which is a rest from
troubles for people, they go to it without fear and
unworried about painful matters, and when they
rise from it they have other similar experien-
ces. . .Nor. . .do they expect the day to bring
poverty, but they look forward to it without fear
directing their concern without grief towards the
activities of life, . . .And war, which is the source of
the greatest evils for people. . .comes more to those
who practice ANOMIA, less to those practicing
EUNOMIA. (McKirahan, 1994, pp. 406407)
Social indicators researchers will be struck
by the fact that Iamblichus cited trust as the
very first benefit to members of societies charac-
terized by EUNOMIA, since measures of trust are
probably the most frequently used indicators of
social capital today (Van de Walle, Van
Roosbroek, & Bouckaert, 2005). Following
trust, many familiar observable and unobservable
features of a good life appear in the quotation,
i.e., money and financial security, personal
safety, freedom to pursue and enjoy the plea-
sures of ones special interests and activities,
absence of worries and fears, peaceful and restful
sleep, hopefulness for the future, and freedom
from war.In passages following the above quota-
tion, Iamblichus described the implications of
living in communities characterized by ANOMIA,
A 190 Anonymous Sex

which are essentially the opposites of those above.

Besides being populated by people living with Anorexia Nervosa
mistrust, fear, and insecurity, such communities
are the seedbeds for tyranny because those people Caregivers of Patients with Eating Disorders,
have desperate needs for relief and turn to appar- Quality of Life
ently strong but often unscrupulous leaders. In the Eating Disorder(s) and Health-Related Quality
end, as he remarked in the beginning, Iamblichus of Life
was sure that nobody would ever be strong enough
to prevent the great masses of people from casting
out tyrants and bringing justice for all.
ANOVA
Cross-References
Analysis of Variance
Aristotle
Plato
Trust
Antenatal Depression
References Depression and Pregnancy

Annas, J. (1993). The morality of happiness. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.
Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean ethics (2nd ed., T. Irwin,
Trans.). Indianapolis: HackettPublishing.
Dover, K. J. (1974). Greek popular morality in the time of
Antenatal Period
Plato and Aristotle. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Kahn, C. H. (1998). Pre-platonic ethics. In S. Everson Pregnancy, an Overview
(Ed.), Ethics (Companions to ancient thought,
Vol. 4). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McKirahan, R. D. (1994). Philosophy before socrates: An
introduction with texts and commentary. Indianapolis:
Hackett Publishing.
Van de Walle, S., Van Roosbroek, S., & Bouckaert, G. Antepartum Depression
(2005). Data on Trust in the Public Sector, OECD, Public
Goverance and Territorial Development Directorate, Depression and Pregnancy
Public Governance Committee, 10 November 2005.

Anthropology
Anonymous Sex
Neil Thin
Casual Sex and the Quality of Life School of Social and Political Science,
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Anorectic Behavior Observation Synonyms

Scale (ABOS)
Cultural studies; Cultural/cross-cultural
Caregivers of Patients with Eating Disorders, psychology; Cultural/social history; Ethnography;
Quality of Life Ethnology; Folklore; Sociology
Anthropology
Definition
Anthropology is the comparative, multidis-
ciplinary, and holistic study of humanity. Though
practiced in many disciplines and organizations
in and beyond academia, its core reference is to
more specific academic disciplines and institu-
tions such as ethnology in mainland Europe,
social anthropology and physical anthropology
in the UK, or the four fields of anthropology in
the USA (sociocultural, biological, linguistic,
and archaeological) (Barth et al., 2006). These
include numerous thematic and specialist subdis-
ciplines, such as development anthropology,
medical anthropology, and cyberanthropology.
This article focuses mainly on sociocultural
anthropology, which is the default meaning in
most parts of the world. This has the following
four defining features:
An empirical basis in long-term fieldwork
supported by wide-ranging secondary
research (Bernard, 1998; Kottak, 2010:13)
A strong interest in culture and society in
how behavior, values, and experiences are
influenced by cultural learning and by social
relations and institutions
Holistic analysis exploring how various beliefs
and practices interact (Otto & Bubandt, 2010)
A cross-culturally comparative perspective
seeking to transcend the taken-for-granted
assumptions that prevail in any one context
(Fox & Gingrich, 2002)
Anthropological approaches, principles, and
methods are to be found in many disciplines includ-
ing sociology, social and cultural history, cultural
studies, and cultural or cross-cultural psychology.
Most professionally trained anthropologists work
outside academia, applying their skills in busi-
nesses and development organizations.
Description
Anthropology of Well-Being: Potentials and
Limitations
The anthropology of well-being has only recently
begun emerging as a minority subdiscipline.
Many anthropologists have produced relevant
191 A
knowledge (Thin, 2010), but engagement with
other disciplines has been limited (Thin, 2012).
Critical constraints have been the relativist reluc- A
tance to deploy universalistic criteria in cross-
cultural evaluation; the isolation of sociocultural
anthropology from evolutionary and biological
anthropology and hence from efforts to explore
the intertwining of cultural and biological adap-
tation and the ways in which contemporary
environmental arrangements facilitate or inhibit
well-being (Grinde, 2002; Gluckman & Hanson,
2006); and the anti-positivism which deters anthro-
pologists from using psychometric, sociometric,
anthropometric, and experimental methods, in
favor of much looser, more flexible interpretive,
discursive, and narrative approaches.
Consequently, numerous major anthropologi-
cal subthemes which would seem to require
explicit discussion of well-being and goodness
are routinely addressed without such evaluative
considerations: inequality; religion; selfhood and
biography; intimacy and love; health, emotion,
and motivation; ethics and values; and develop-
ment are some of the more subdomains where
well-being is most surprisingly neglected. Except
for a very few recent collections (Gough &
McGregor, 2007; Corsin Jimenez, 2008;
Mathews and Izquierdo, 2009; Berthon, 2009),
anthropology has no substantial tradition in the
study of well-being, and most introductory
anthropological texts and encyclopedias avoid
all mention of well-being or quality of life.
The key source of anthropologys best poten-
tial contributions to quality of life studies lies in
the intimacy of primary research encounters.
In theory at least, these promote a strong sense
of empathy with research subjects, a humane
respect for subjective viewpoints, and a capacity
for observing how life narratives and aspirations
emerge from sociocultural contexts. As Edgerton
has argued (1990), longitudinal ethnographic
research allows us to understand better how
well-being emerges over time in relational
ways. Anthropological intimacy and empathy,
when they are emphasized, put anthropology
in stark contrast to the conscious avoidance
of these in experimental psychology and
behavioral economics and to the less deliberate
A 192
intimacy-inhibiting use of survey tools by social
psychologists and sociologists.
The prototypical anthropologist seeks to
understand cultural and social learning, to
develop a holistic sense of how lifes domains
interact, and to make cross-cultural comparisons
on the basis of strong subjective immersion in the
lives of the people being researched. This is
a very different approach to those who study
quality of life objectively by enumerating either
environmental conditions, bodily conditions, or
satisfactions. Indeed, anthropologists work hard
to maintain this distinctiveness in part by
avoiding the use of numbers, even if they are
not prone to any principled numerophobia.
Cultural Relativism and Principled Objections
to Evaluation
Evaluation has never become a clear feature of
anthropology. The disciplines origins in western
culture and in unequal colonial power relations
have made anthropologists rightly suspicious
of evaluations that derive from assumptions of
western superiority. The result, however, has been
an unfortunately persistent reluctance of anthropol-
ogists (particularly western ones) to develop com-
mon analytical approaches to the assessment of
whether and how cultural and social processes and
outcomes are good or bad for the people concerned.
Anthropological evaluations of nonwestern
contexts have typically been either neutral or
navely celebratory and have lacked any system-
atic attempt to justify evaluation in terms of
criteria or approaches. Rare attempts at system-
atic evaluation on a global scale have been unre-
mittingly pathological (see, e.g., Edgerton, 1992;
Desjarlais et al., 1995). Anthropological evalua-
tions of western life quality have shared with
sociology and psychology a strong bias towards
pathologism, focusing on the injustices, harms,
deviancies, and deficits of modernity, with little
or no interest in well-being. Positive anthropo-
logical evaluations of cultural sources of
well-being have largely been navely romantic
and unsystematic celebrations of the delights of
premodern simplicity. Sahlins, for example,
has famously entertained many generations of
undergraduates with his original affluent society
Anthropology
essay which invites us to consider hunter-
gatherers as affluent despite their objectively low
standard of living which he loosely describes as
the Zen road to affluence. Unrealistically but also
irresponsibly, Sahlins was drawing an analogy
between the involuntary poverty of hunter-
gatherers and the voluntary asceticism of elite
religionists (Sahlins1968/1974).
Anthropologys sporadic engagements with
social inequality themes illustrate well the restric-
tions that cultural relativism imposes on the disci-
pline. Though often displaying overt disapproval
of inequalities associated with colonialism, glob-
alization, or racism in western countries (Blim,
2005), anthropologists have until recently tended
to downplay entrenched inequalities and racism
within nonwestern cultures or to treat them without
either moral evaluation or systematic comparative
attention (Bowles et al., 2010). Anthropology has
produced little by way of systematic knowledge
about how opportunities to achieve decent quality
of life are in most cultural contexts systematically
skewed by birth, age, gender, and ethnicity. Even
when they have written about inequalities (e.g.,
relating to gender, age, class, or geopolitical com-
parisons), anthropologists have rarely supported
their analysis with systematic identification of the
indicators and values by which various kinds of
inequality can usefully and fairly be judged.
Quality, Cross-Cultural Epistemology, and
Narrative
Perhaps anthropologys most salient contribution
to quality of life studies will come from an
insistence on the need to meet quality with
quality that is, to explore life qualities mainly
via qualitative data and analysis rather than via
numerical reductionism. Most anthropologists
steadfastly avoid the obsession with quantification
that pervades other disciplines (Edgerton,
1990:149); specializing in qualitative analysis, nar-
ratives, and philosophical debate, they rarely per-
ceive a need to resort to numbers. Their starting
point for conversations with numerophilic scholars
would be to insist that numbers are useless without
discussion of the cultural values and concepts on
which the meaning of quantification depends.
Indeed, the questions they raise are arguably so
Anthropology
fundamental that they threaten to destabilise the
whole quality of life project (Schmidt &
Bullinger, 2007:222).
Cross-cultural comparative research on
quality of life would depend on three basic
kinds of conceptual clarification:
What is good? (ethical and evaluative
questions)
What is self? (questions of identification and
consciousness)
What is life? (existential and narrative
questions)
Each of these is subject to significant cultural
variation and uncertainty. Since cultural values and
individual preferences strongly influence our
understanding of what is good, objective criteria
cannot offer adequate guides in assessing peoples
life quality. The use of subjective self-evaluation
seems to get around this problem by allowing
assessments to be guided by individuals own
values and preferences. Yet, individual subjectivity
is itself highly dependent on enculturation that is,
on how people learn to conceptualize and evaluate
their personal identity, their sense that they have a
life over which they may or may not be expected to
exert some degree of control and responsibility, and
their understanding of how these selves and lives
should be experienced and transformed over time
and in collusion with other people.
People in some parts of the world may, for
example, exhibit a strongly interdependent sense
of self and consequently be disposed to evaluate
collective rather than individual well-being and to
expect significant others to make their critical life
choices for them. Life phases such as childhood,
midlife, and post-parenting old age may or may not
be associated with strong expectations concerning
emotional experience and life quality. Even the
sociological, biological, or chronological defini-
tion of these phases is subject to cultural variation.
And these differences are further complicated by
cultural variety in the salience, definition, and life-
phase specificity or gender-specificity of different
domains or criteria of life quality such as bodily
health, environment, employment, finance, family,
and friendships (Rojas, 2007).
Our conceptions of self vary from complex
narrative selves, whereby we identify with
193 A
a long-term plot or story line, to time-bound
momentary selves or periodic role-related selves
such as workplace versus domestic identities. For A
many people worldwide, the self is by no means
confined to a unique body but exists also through
souls, animals, previous or future humans, spirits,
or dream-travels. Aristotles term eudaimonia,
which is often translated as happiness but which
literally means having a good spirit, reminds us
that it is not by any means necessary or even
normal for humans to locate happiness in
a discrete body-bound individual. And when we
evaluate our lives, we may think primarily of our
current life, of a particular life phase (such as the
largely planned phase of adult maturity), or of an
extended existence relating to previous lives and/
or some kind of post-death existence.
All of these uncertainties are strongly
influenced by enculturation (learning beliefs,
values, and cognitive frames that are passed
down the generations and/or transferred across
geographical or demographic regions) and by
socialization (building a sense of self and life
story through relationships with other people
and participation in institutions). Perhaps, the
most significant potential contribution from
anthropologists to quality of life studies would
be to promote more sophisticated analysis of
these cultural influences on happiness.
Conclusion
There are incipient signs of growing recognition
among both anthropologists and well-being
researchers of the need for ethnographic, cultur-
ally relativistic approaches to enrich the appreci-
ation of the diverse ways in which people can
lead various kinds of good lives in radically
diverse cultural and physical contexts. When
this potential is realized, the following kinds of
emphasis are likely to be paramount:
Epistemologically, objectivist accounts of the
good life will be balanced and compared with
subjective viewpoints, the key recognition
being that life quality is endlessly debatable,
a matter of experience and persuasion (includ-
ing self-persuasion) rather than a mere matter of
A 194
fact. Cultural relativism will ensure that unre-
alistic universalism in portrayals of the ideal
life is offset by respect for the diverse plausible
accounts of goodness and by a healthy interest
in debates about cultural values.
Methodologically, to elucidate the rhetorical
processes from which our sense of lifes
quality emerges, qualitative research methods
will complement quantitative methods.
Expressively, ethnographic portrayals of lives
will be interpretive, narrative, illustrative, and
evocative, complementing the positivistic and
numerophilic representations through which
other disciplines present versions of the quality
of life, including self-reported happiness and
life satisfaction, as if these were a matter of fact.
Meta-analytically, anthropologists will develop
ethnographic accounts of the cultural beliefs
and practices associated with the rapidly
growing interest in quality of life in modern
academic, media, and political movements.
Cross-References
Cultural Capital
Cultural Evaluation
Cultural Values
Cultural Well-Being
Ethnocentrism
Evolutionary Psychology
Life Course Transitions
Meaning in Life
Self-Concept
Social Well-Being
Well-Being
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Anxiety
Anticipation of Possible Public
Conflicts
Program Planning
Antisocial Behavior
Deviance
Family Features and Violent Behavior
Anxiety
Melanie ONeill and Jennifer Sorochan
Department of Psychology, Vancouver Island
University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada
Synonyms
Angst; Apprehension; Concerns; Disquiet;
Distress; Doubt; Dread; Foreboding; Fretfulness;
Nervousness; Panic; Restlessness; Stress;
Suffering; Suspense; Tension; Uncertainty;
Unease; Watchfulness; Worry
Definition
Anxiety is an uncontrollable, diffuse, unpleasant,
and persistent state of negative affect, character-
ized by apprehensive anticipation regarding
unpredictable and unavoidable future danger,
and accompanied by physiological symptoms
of tension and a constant state of heightened
vigilance (Barlow, 2002).
Description
Anxiety and anxiety disorders are among the
most prevalent mental health concerns, with
29 % of the population suffering from at least
one anxiety disorder (Kessler et al., 2005).
Significantly higher lifetime incidence is dem-
onstrated in females than males, and the early
195 A
age of onset (11 years; Kessler et al.) has
a substantial impact on the individual as well
as society. Anxiety has numerous consequences, A
causing significant impairments in social,
occupational, and physical functioning, as well
as resulting in a notable economic burden to
society, with anxiety and related issues costing
the USA an estimated $42.3 billion in 1 year
(Greenberg et al., 1999).
According to the DSM-IV-TR (4th ed., text
rev.; American Psychiatric Association, 2000),
anxiety disorders include General Anxiety
Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder (PD), Agorapho-
bia, Specific Phobias, Social Phobias/Social
Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder (OCD), Acute Stress Disorders,
PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Separation
Anxiety, and Childhood Anxiety Disorders, each
with its own course, impact, and diagnostic
criteria. Individuals with varying levels and
types of anxiety report impairment in overall func-
tioning, lowered levels of well-being, and lowered
levels of life satisfaction (Wittchen, Carter, Pfister,
Montgomery, & Kessler, 2000). Comorbidity with
related anxiety and other psychiatric disorders
magnifies these often devastating effects.
Economic burden, including occupational
dysfunction, lost work productivity, and impair-
ment days, is another significant consequence
(Hoffman, Dukes, & Wittchen, 2008). Economic
burden is also associated with medical costs,
including outpatient services, hospitalization,
diagnostic procedures, and medications (Hoff-
man et al., 2008). Anxiety may also limit an
individuals ability to leave their home and
engage in successful employment (Quilty,
Ameringen, Mancini, Oakman, & Farvolden,
2003). Individuals with varying levels and types
of anxiety report impairment in overall function-
ing, lowered levels of well-being, and lowered
levels of life satisfaction (Wittchen et al., 2000).
One of the most commonly reported impairments
in anxiety disorders is a decrease in role
functioning including substantial impairments in
family, social, occupational, physical, and emo-
tional roles (Revicki, Brandenburg, Matza,
Hornbrook, & Feeny, 2008). These limitations
are often due to physical and psychiatric
A 196 Anxiety

symptoms, general health, pain and disability, Cross-References

socioeconomic status, and decreased vitality and
social functioning (Hoffman et al., 2008). Dis-
tress resulting from anxiety symptoms, avoidance
behavior, and the stigma attached to mental ill-
ness compound with role functioning and limita-
tions to impact the quality of life of anxiety
sufferers (Schneier & Pantol, 2006).
Given the complex interplay of potential bio-
logical, genetic, psychological, and environmental
factors, the causes of anxiety are diverse and mul-
tifaceted. The most commonly implicated psycho-
logical risk factors include neuroticism, low self-
efficacy, anxiety sensitivity, cognitive biases,
perfectionism, and intolerance of uncertainty
(Barlow, 2002). Common social and familial risk
factors include childhood sexual abuse or neglect,
early separation from parents, familial history
of anxiety, and both acute and chronic stress
(Breslau, Chilcoat, Kessler, & Davis, 1999). Our
understanding of protective factors in the develop-
ment of anxiety is less understood and in need of
further empirical attention; however, documented
resiliency factors include perceived control, social
support, emotion regulation skills, optimism, and
intelligence (Breslau, Lucia, & Alvarado, 2006).
The neurobiology of anxiety is equally signifi-
cant and includes brain circuits and neurotransmit-
ter systems, such as the GABA-benzodiazepine
system, noradrenergic system, serotonergic
system, and the corticotrophin-releasing factor
(CRF) system (Dunn & Berridge, 1990;
Nemeroff, 2003; Weiss et al., 1981). Cortisol
increases in the CRF system activate the hypotha-
lamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, a stress
and anxiety processing circuit relying on feedback
between the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal
gland, which in turn influence the limbic system
an area of the brain closely associated with anxiety
(Chrousos, 1998).
Because anxiety is so widespread in society,
the gravity with which it impacts a persons life
may not always be recognized. Increased aware-
ness and attention by health and mental health
professionals could considerably mitigate the
suffering of those struggling with anxiety as
well as lessen significant interpersonal and eco-
nomic burden.
Anxiety Disorders
Beck Inventory
Brief Derogatis Psychiatric Rating Scale
(BDPRS)
Cognitive Behavior Therapy with Children
Emotional Well-Being
Fears
Health-Related Quality of Life
Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL)
Health-Related Quality of Life Measures
Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire
Readability
HRQoL
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale
Mental Illness
Perceived Stress
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Psychiatric Disorders
Psychological Adjustment to Illness Scale
(PAIS)
Psychological Distance
Psychological Distress
Psychological Empowerment
Psychological General Well-Being Index
(PGWB)
Psychological Well-Being Inventory
Psychophysiological Measures
Psychosocial Adjustment (Includes
Psychosocial Functioning and Well-Being)
QOL Measurement, QOL Definition
Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY)
Quality of Life for Older Adults, an Integrated
Conceptual Model
Resilience
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
Stress
Stressful Life Events
Worries (Global Measure)
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic
and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.,
text rev.). Washington, DC: Author.
Barlow, D. H. (2002). Anxiety and its disorders: The
nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (2nd ed.).
New York: Guilford Press.
Anxiety Disorders
Breslau, N., Chilcoat, H. D., Kessler, R. C., & Davis, G. C.
(1999). Previous exposure to trauma and PTSD effects
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Breslau, N., Lucia, V. C., & Alvarado, G. F. (2006).
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responses? Brain research. Brain Research Reviews,
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Greenberg, P., Sisitsky, T., Kessler, R., Finkelstein, S.,
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(1999). The economic burden of anxiety disorders in
the 1990s. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 60(7),
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Hoffman, D. L., Dukes, E. M., & Wittchen, H. (2008).
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(10914269).
Kessler, R. C., Berglund, P., Demler, O., Jin, R.,
Merikangas, K. R., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Lifetime
prevalence and Age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV
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Nemeroff, C. (2003). The role of GABA in the pathophys-
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pharmacology Bulletin, 37(4), 133146.
Quilty, L. C., Ameringen, M., Mancini, C., Oakman, J., &
Farvolden, P. (2003). Quality of life and the anxiety
disorders. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 17(4),
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197 A
Wittchen, H., Carter, R. M., Pfister, H. H.,
Montgomery, S. A., & Kessler, R. C. (2000). Disabilities
and quality of life in pure and comorbid generalized
anxiety disorder and major depression in a national A
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15(6), 319328.
Anxiety Disorders
Gordon J. G. Asmundson and
Katherine A. McMillan
Department of Psychology, University of Regina,
Regina, SK, Canada
Synonyms
Anxiety neurosis
Definition
Any of various psychological disorders charac-
terized by extreme anxiety or fear that is of
sufficient duration and intensity as to signifi-
cantly interfere with daily functioning and qual-
ity of life (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder,
generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety dis-
order, panic disorder).
Description
Anxiety is a ubiquitous experience that has
survival value in situations where there is uncer-
tainty regarding the source of threat and what
may happen. Fear, on the other hand, is
a response to identifiable and imminent threat
(Barlow, 2000). The anxiety response is typically
characterized by feeling of apprehension,
dysphoria, or dread accompanied by a variety of
physiological sensations (e.g., heart palpations,
rapid breathing, tremors, perspiration, difficulty
breathing, chills/hot flashes) as well as avoidance
behavior. Unfortunately, when anxiety is grossly
out of proportion to the situation, interferes
A 198
substantially with social or work/academic
functioning, or is associated with significant
emotional distress, it may require clinical inter-
vention. The Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Text
Revision (DSM-IV TR; American Psychiatric
Association [APA], 2000) describes eight core
anxiety disorders. These include agoraphobia,
panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia),
specific phobia, social phobia, obsessive-
compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disor-
der, acute stress disorder, and generalized anxiety
disorder. The anxiety disorders can be differenti-
ated, in large part, by the focus of the anxiety as
well as the number and pattern of symptoms.
Anxiety may be directed at specific situations
(as in social phobia or agoraphobia), objects (as
in specific phobia), physiological sensations
associated with arousal (as in panic disorder),
memories of traumatic events (as in acute stress
disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder), or
unusual/disturbing thoughts (as in obsessive-
compulsive disorder or generalized anxiety
disorder). Anxiety disorders can be severely
debilitating, with both clinical and epidemiolog-
ical evidence indicating that they are associated
with a significant reduction in quality of life
and an increased risk of substance use, suicide,
and physical health concerns (e.g., arthritis,
neurological conditions) (Bolton et al., 2008;
Mendalowitz & Stein, 2000; Sareen, Cox,
Clara, & Asmundson, 2005; Swendesen et al.,
2010). There are also considerable economic
costs (e.g., lost productivity, direct health care,
social welfare) associated with the anxiety disor-
ders; indeed, as a group, the anxiety disorders
account for a third of the economic costs attrib-
uted to psychiatric disorders in the United States
(Kessler et al., 1999).
The lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders as
a group is approximately 29 %, with women being
approximately 1.6 times more likely than men to
meet criteria for an anxiety disorder at some point
in their lives (Kessler et al., 2005). Specific
phobia, social phobia, and post-traumatic stress
disorder are the most common of the anxiety
disorders, having lifetime prevalence rates of
approximately 13 %, 12 %, and 7 %, respectively
Anxiety Disorders
(Kessler et al.). Although anxiety disorders may
present for the first time at any age and there are
some sex differences in age of onset (APA, 2000),
analysis of age of onset data from a nationally
representative sample of American citizens indi-
cates an increased relative risk for specific disor-
ders with increased age (Kessler et al., 2005). With
median age of onset shown in brackets, the earliest
anxiety disorder to develop is generally specific
phobia (7 years), followed by social phobia
(13 years), obsessive-compulsive disorder (19
years), agoraphobia (20 years), post-traumatic
stress disorder (23 years), panic disorder (24
years), and generalized anxiety disorder (31 years).
The anxiety disorders do not appear to stem
from one shared diathesis; however, there are
many commonalities in their etiology. Results
from a meta-analysis of twin study research have
provided substantial evidence implicating the role
of genetics, with heritability estimates across the
anxiety disorders ranging from 30 % to 40 %
(Hettema, Neale, & Kendler, 2001). Genetic con-
tributions interact with shared environmental influ-
ences to produce familial risk or recurrence risk,
reflecting the likelihood that a disorder present in
one family member will appear in other members
of the same lineage. Research indicates a strong
familial link among the anxiety disorders, with
first-degree family members of an individual with
an anxiety disorder experiencing a 4 to 6 times
greater risk of developing an anxiety disorder than
family members of individuals without an anxiety
disorder (Hettema et al., 2001). The strongest
recurrence risk has been observed among first-
degree family members of individuals with panic
disorder, who are up to 8 times more likely to
develop panic disorder. This recurrence risk is ele-
vated to 20 times among people diagnosed before
age 20 (APA, 2000). Other factors implicated in
the development of anxiety disorders include
a limited corpus of effective coping strategies,
economic poverty, personality factors such as
heightened anxiety sensitivity (i.e., fear of
arousal-related sensations; Reiss, Peterson,
Gursky, & McNally, 1986), history of abuse,
classical and operant conditioning, maladaptive
early learning experiences, and selective
attention to threatening stimuli (Bar-Haim, Lamy,
Anxiety Disorders
Pergamin, Bakermans-Kranenburg, & IJzendoorn,
2007; Barlow, 2008; Sareen, Afifi, McMillan, &
Asmundson, 2011). These factors constitute vul-
nerabilities which, individually, may or may not
increase ones risk of developing an anxiety disor-
der; however, according to Barlows (1988) triple
vulnerability model, when biological vulnerability
(e.g., genetic predisposition) interacts with
a generalized psychological vulnerability (e.g.,
ineffective coping strategies) and a specific psy-
chological vulnerability (e.g., maladaptive early
learning experiences, heightened anxiety sensitiv-
ity), the risk of developing an anxiety disorder is
increased.
Regardless of the specific anxiety disorder
diagnosis, clinically significant anxiety is thought
to be maintained through a combination of mal-
adaptive/negative thinking patterns and avoid-
ance of feared stimuli (e.g., thoughts,
physiological sensations, objects, situations).
Avoidance and maladaptive thinking patterns
maintain anxiety (and its disorders) in two
ways. First, avoidance strengthens the associa-
tion between the avoidance behavior and tempo-
rary feelings of relief and safety, increasing the
likelihood that the avoidance behavior will be
maintained as a means of coping with future
anxiety. Second, avoidance behaviors maintain
anxiety by precluding exposure to experiences
that disconfirm beliefs that feared stimuli signal
potentially harmful consequences while concur-
rently reinforcing the maladaptive belief that the
anxiety cannot be endured. For example, by
avoiding common house spiders, one cannot
learn that these spiders are harmless or that the
negative emotional event precipitated by their
presence will dissipate naturally over time.
Evidence-based psychological interventions for
the anxiety disorders generally involve identifying
and modifying maladaptive thinking patterns
(cognitive restructuring), eliminating avoidance
behaviors through gradual exposure to anxiety-
provoking stimuli, increasing participation in
pleasurable activity, and, in some cases, mindful-
ness-based strategies. Evidence-based psycholog-
ical interventions are available for each of
the anxiety disorders, and, more recently, there
has been a movement towards the development
199 A
and systematic evaluation of transdiagnostic
approaches which take into account the consider-
able comorbidity present among the anxiety disor- A
ders (Barlow, 2008). Pharmacotherapy for the
anxiety disorders is another treatment option that
has shown substantial therapeutic benefit
(Bandelow et al., 2008). Several classes of medi-
cations are used in the management of anxiety
symptoms. These include tricyclic antidepres-
sants, beta-adrenergic blockers, benzodiazepines,
monoamine oxidase inhibitors, selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin and norepi-
nephrine uptake inhibitors (SNRIs), azapirones,
antipsychotics, and anticonvulsants. Unfortu-
nately, most individuals with clinically significant
anxiety disorders remain either untreated or poorly
treated for their condition (Kessler et al., 1999;
Wang et al., 2005).
Cross-References
Anxiety
Anxiety Disorders
Fears
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
References
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and statistical manual of mental disorders. (4th ed.
text rev.). Washington, DC: Author.
Bandelow, B., Zohar, J., Hollander, E., Kasper, S., Moller,
H., & WFSBP Task Force on Treatment Guidelines for
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Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP). Guidelines for the
pharmacological treatment of anxiety, obsessive-
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Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-
Kranenburg, M. J., & IJzendoorn, M. H. (2007).
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nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study.
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A 200 Anxiety Neurosis

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and its disorders from the perspective of emotion the- Anxiety Neurosis
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ical disorders (4th ed.). New York: The Guilford Press. Anxiety Disorders
Bolton, J. M., Cox, B. J., Afifi, T. O., Enns, M. W.,
Bienvenu, O. J., & Sareen, J. (2008). Anxiety disorders
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Hettema, J. M., Neale, M. C., & Kendler, K. S. (2001).
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Applied Psychophysiology
Applied Psychophysiology
Liana Mattulich1 and David M. Paperny2
1
Inner Key Center, Jefferson, CO, USA
2
University of Hawaii School of Medicine,
Honolulu, HI, USA
Synonyms
Biofeedback; Neuroscience; Neurotherapy;
Psychosomatics
Definition
Applied psychophysiology is the study of and
intervention into the physiological bases of
psychological processes (Association of Applied
Psychophysiology and Biofeedback). It is related
to neuroscience, which evaluates relationships
between psychological events and brain responses.
Psychophysiology is closely related to the field of
psychosomatics. It is at the intersection of psycho-
logical and medical science, and its importance
has increased with the realization of the interrelat-
edness of mind and body.
Description
Applied psychophysiology is the study of the
interrelationships between the mind and the
body. Psychophysiology impacts the whole living
system, since the mind and body are not two
separate fields, and their multiple interactions
define a healthy human being. Psychophysiology
is a specialty operating between the psychologi-
cal and medical sciences in a holistic manner.
By optimizing the mind-body immune system
and associated energies utilizing feedback mech-
anisms, one can maximize function and optimize
performance, allowing the individual to develop,
self-reinforce, self-restore, and self-modify both
the human physiology and the dominate thinking
(the two components of training used in behav-
ioral medicine). Therefore, psychophysiologists
201 A
evaluate the impact of physiological states and
systems on psychological processes. Psycho-
physiology initially dealt with the physiological A
responses of the autonomic nervous system and
now includes working with the central nervous
system, including cortical brain wave potentials,
using newer technology such as functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), PET
(positron emission tomography) scans, and other
new neuroimaging techniques.
Quality of life reflects an individuals healthy
pathways in the physical brain including not only
the chemistry of the mind but also involves
self-image and the internal values one utilizes in
everyday situations. Feedback of psychophysiol-
ogy as part of behavioral medicine (Brady, 1979)
is usually done with computerized instrumenta-
tion providing electrical and biological signals
from organs and systems (e.g., heart rate reso-
nance, respiratory optimization, brain wave
amplitudes specific to applications for achieving
personal goals). Equipment monitors internal
physiologic functions and, through the use of
visual or auditory signals, provides feedback for
training a person to control processes that are not
normally within ones conscious awareness.
These devices do not stimulate or entrain the
body, but simply act as mirrors, providing results
when used with proper professional coaching by
specialists in each field (biofeedback,
neurofeedback, etc.). Most individuals of any
age can utilize these psychophysiological
training approaches, producing sustainable states
of improved mind-body immune response and
functionality as well as self-regulation, and in
a relatively short time. Higher quality of life for
the individual is the result of improved health,
well-being, self-perception of capability, and
enhanced successes.
Standard forms of biofeedback are the
mainstay of applied psychophysiology, but there
are other applications in the community, in
school, in sports, and in the workplace. Optimal
performance in these environments is achievable
with appropriate training. Large organizations
and many employers now demand increased
work efficiency, decreased accidents, and
increased morale while lowering stress-related
A 202
absences, disorders, and conflicts in order to
control the impact of stress on the workforce.
A wide variety of behavioral medicine/psycho-
physiological interventions have been effective
in enhancing and optimizing performance in
many settings. Results include increased endur-
ance and accuracy very valuable in sports and in
the military.
Neuromuscular reeducation is kinesthesia
movement training when control of movement
is affected by different clinical conditions. Such
training may include improvements in posture,
motor control, and coordination. Poor posture
and improper muscle motion and levels of tension
create pain problems such as tension headaches
and low back pain. Applied psychophysiology
uses EMG (electromyographic) biofeedback and
other techniques. Pelvic floor disorders (urinary
incontinence, fecal incontinence, and muscle
tension-related pelvic and vaginal pain) as well
as sexual dysfunctions are also treated with
psychophysiological and behavioral medicine
interventions.
Respiratory Training and Breathing
Empowerment
Various biofeedback devices can facilitate train-
ing the breathing, which is helpful for problems
such as asthma, anxiety, and stress, but can also
facilitate both optimal and peak performance.
Efficient breathing techniques (e.g., diaphrag-
matic breathing, hearth resonance training,
CO2 measurement), when integrated into daily
life, can transform and improve the quality of
endurance and efficiency.
Capnometry measures carbon dioxide concen-
tration in the expired breath. In optimal breathing
training, it is used to assess and correct degrees of
hyperventilation, overbreathing, and hypocapnia.
In many pulmonary diseases, the lungs are dam-
aged and the oxygen is not received by the blood
to be transported to tissues. Capnometry biofeed-
back helps the individual to better self-regulate
gas circulation physiology. The ability of training
to facilitate oxygen availability to the tissues pro-
vides cells optimal uptake of this vital gas for
better health and performance. Oxygen levels in
the blood can be measured by sensors applied to
Applied Psychophysiology
the fingers, and this allows self-regulation train-
ing for specific situations. In sports, breathing
training/respiratory empowerment separates suc-
cess from failure. For any sport, from simple
home practices to Olympic training, knowing
how to breathe efficiently is a major component
of success for an athlete.
One approach to optimal breathing is focusing
the mind on the simple act of breathing and
becoming aware of the heartbeat in resonance
with the breath. Just a few moments of noticing
how the breath comes into the body, where it
goes, how long it remains, where and how it is
released really focusing attention on those
physiological parameters can be a powerful
short-term tool to reduce stressors. And it is
free and always available! Some people call this
developing inner awareness (Inner Key Interna-
tional). Others call it calming the mind, and
others say it is an essential step to becoming
fully conscious. At very least, it is supportive of
healthy body, emotion, and mind.
Stress Management
The role of stress in illness and disease is well
known. Many disorders are stress-induced, and
learning self-regulation with biofeedback is a fast
path to attain a healthier psychophysiology and
achieve goals, with exceptional performance in
daily life. Biofeedback allows one to quickly gain
mastery in self-regulation of inner states
according to his or her personal stress reduction
goals. The equipment presents precise, objective
physiological data in real time and facilitates
effective communication between ones mind
and body, achieving the desired efficiency state
and self-regulation of the autonomic nervous
system. The feedback reflects physiological
states and energies (blood circulation, rhythm of
heart, brain waves, muscle fibers firing, immune
responses, etc.), giving guidance to inner work by
focusing the mind on states of efficient function-
ing, with visual monitoring, and allowing real-
time inner adjustments accordingly (review
Biofeedback).
Self-regulation training empowers the individ-
ual to release unwanted emotional baggage,
become more aware of emotional states, and
Applied Psychophysiology
make optimal life choices, facilitating emotional
health and self-acceptance.
Effective stress management programs not
only utilize behavioral and cognitive reframing
but they must also empower the individual
using some of the modalities of biofeedback
listed below to enhance psychophysiological
self-regulation of the mind-body-immune system
as well as the subtle energies.
EMG (electromyographic feedback) to relax
tense muscles that waste energy and, in some
cases, produce pain.
EDR (electrodermal response feedback) to
reduce sweat in palms a stress-related sign.
TBF (thermal biofeedback) to enhance the
circulation of blood in finger capillaries, which
has been shown to reduce levels of corticosteroid
hormones in the body associated with stress.
Capnometry (blood carbon dioxide measure-
ment) a feedback method found to have better
results than diaphragmatic breathing alone for
training self-regulation of the respiratory system.
HRR (heart rate resonance, HRV) training
integrates breathing and heart rhythm; HRV has
been found to be one of the best measures of
states of stress.
Perhaps the most effective method of adjusting
physiology to optimal efficiency and health
(unknown to many) is simply engaging awareness
of the five physical senses sight, smell, taste,
hearing, and touch. The senses create not only
physical sensations but also psychological (mental
and emotional) experiences. Such sensory experi-
ence is a form of psychophysiology which is con-
sciously perceivable and adjustable. Perhaps more
importantly, intense communication among at least
three senses at the same time has been shown to
facilitate the creation of new pathways of brain
plasticity (important in stress management, facili-
tating more focus and internal self-acceptance).
An advanced form of this sensory training
where the experience of one sense triggers a simul-
taneous experience of another sense (for which
there is no stimulus) is a sensorial crossover
which is called synesthesia (Mattulich & Paperny,
2008) (http://www.innerkeys.info/).
Synesthetic experiences are natural occurrences
for some people with nervous system physiology
203 A
allowing such facile connections among sensory
areas of the brain. Many accomplished people
such as visionaries, musicians, artists, scientists, A
and geniuses have exhibited the capacity for synes-
thesia, using multiple senses simultaneously. The
synesthesia technique is useful for those who intend
to excel beyond their current level of function and
become aware of information that transcends com-
mon physical, emotional, and mental sensory
boundaries.
Heart Rate Resonance (HRR, HRV)
Heart rate resonance (HRR) (aka heart rate vari-
ability, HRV) has been found to be one of the best
measures of physiological resilience and emo-
tional flexibility. It measures the beat-to-beat
changes in the time intervals between heartbeats.
With tension, anxiety, and anger, the heart rhythm
becomes irregular (incoherent), and with positive
relaxed, harmonious states, it becomes more
orderly (coherent). This feedback modality allows
coherence training which synchronizes the breath
and the rhythm of the heart. The more they syn-
chronize in a slow relaxed rhythm, the greater is
the release of tension and stress in the body-mind
(www.heartmath.com). Formerly, it was believed
that the normal rhythm of the heart was similar to
how a clock works, with each beat occurring in
consistently spaced time intervals like the ticking
of mechanical clocks. Recent studies have shown,
however, that the healthy heart is a pump with
a very special quality of rhythm; when one inhales,
the electric circuits in the muscle fibers of the heart
fire a bit faster, subtly increasing the rhythm. Dur-
ing exhalations, the speed slows down somewhat.
This subtle variability of the heart rate is moni-
tored by feedback devices for the trainees to self-
adjust and enhance, clearly improving personal
well-being and even longevity.
The resonance part of the name relates to the
pattern of breathing. Most typical breathing
patterns are shallow and only involve the upper
part of their lungs. (Fast, shallow breathing is
associated to stressful situations). Consequently,
the lungs never completely fill, nor do they fully
empty, thereby they receive only a limited
amount of oxygen with each breath and never
adequately expel carbon dioxide and other waste
A 204
gasses. Most people are unaware of their unused
breathing capacity. Such breathing patterns strain
the entire physiological system, making effective
and efficient performance of any task more diffi-
cult, as energy is wasted with tense muscles,
sustained sympathetic nervous system states, an
immune system in acidic intra- and extracellular
ionic states, and the endocrine glands producing
stress hormones such as corticosteroids.
A key learning of any stress management pro-
gram is guidance in lower-belly, diaphragm
breathing. Results are immediately felt in the
body and are observable on psychophysiologic
feedback monitors. Breathing becomes deeper
and slower, and the muscles are more relaxed in
the chest, neck, face, and shoulders, quickly gen-
eralizing a letting go self-will state throughout
the body. Unnoticed tensions may seem to melt
away, and the entire rhythm of breathing changes.
Exhalation time is often increased to many times
that of inhalation, assuring that the lungs
empty more fully, and a perceptible state of
self-relaxation usually occurs with each slow exha-
lation. A natural letting go of thoughts and intru-
sive negative emotions occurs because the mind
and the body are synchronized. This collaborative
improvement of mental patterns and physiology
improves oxygenation, blood chemistry, and
many aspects of the immune system, facilitating
health and wellness. When a capnometer (feed-
back instrument measuring exhaled CO2) is used
in combination with an HRV device, improvement
in respiratory self-regulation is expedited.
Trainees of sports endurance (training to be in
the zone) and others who train to reach advanced
meditative states (for greater mental clarity and
discernment) learn to lengthen their exhalation
more than 2 seconds longer than their inhalations,
approaching a heart rate resonant state. This has
become a standard for sports training that requires
high performance and is also used in many cardi-
ology centers for the treatment and prevention of
heart disease. Heart rate resonance (heart rate var-
iability coherence training) is the foundation of
psychophysiological techniques used to manage
the stress of modern life. However, obtaining max-
imal results requires tailoring and combining HRV
with other biofeedback approaches specific to the
Applied Research in Quality of Life
individual situation and goals of each individual
trainee (Moss & Gunkelman, 2002) (review
Biofeedback).
Cross-References
Biofeedback
Neurotherapy
References
Association of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeed-
back: www.aapb.org
Brady, J. (1979). Learning and conditioning. Behavioral
medicine: Theory and practice. Baltimore: The
Williams & Williams.
Inner Key International: www.innerKey.org
Mattulich, L. M. D., Paperny, D. M. D. (2008) Journey to
awareness and beyond with modern technology and
ancient wisdom: Paving your path to empowerment
and transformation with brainwave biofeedback and
your inner keys. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN13
Softcover: 978-1-4363-4464-7. (www.innerkeys.info).
Moss, D., & Gunkelman, J. (2002). Task force report on
methodology and empirically supported treatments:
Introduction and summary. Applied Psychophysiology
and Biofeedback, 27(4), 261262. Copublished in
Journal of Neurotherapy, 6(4), 710.
Applied Research in Quality of Life
M. Joseph Sirgy1, Richard J. Estes2 and
Alex C. Michalos3,4
1
Department of Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic
Institute & State University, Blacksburg,
VA, USA
2
School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2),
University of Pennsylvania,
Narberth, PA, USA
3
University of Northern British Columbia,
Prince George, BC, Canada
4
(residence) Brandon, MB, Canada
Definition
Applied Research in Quality of Life (ARQOL):
http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/well-
being/journal/11482.
Applied Research in Quality of Life
ARQOL is a scientific journal devoted to pub-
lishing research on quality of life and well-being
with an emphasis on studies from the applied
social and behavioral sciences.
Description
ARQOL is the official journal of the Interna-
tional Society for Quality of Life Studies
(ISQOLS). It is published quarterly by Springer
Publishers. It was launched in 2005 as
a collaborative effort between Springer
Publishers and ISQOLS. The cofounding editors
of ARQOL are Alex C. Michalos, M. Joseph
Sirgy, and Richard Estes. This essay is designed
to familiarize the reader with how the journal
was first introduced in 2005, its aim and scope,
how its articles are abstracted, the journals
impact factor, examples of popular downloads,
and ARQOLs articles availability through
Open Choice.
Aim and Scope
ARQOL focuses on publishing conceptual
and methodological papers dealing with quality
of life studies in the applied disciplines of
the social and behavioral sciences. The field
of quality of life studies is an interdisciplinary
program of research focusing on the conceptu-
alization and measurement of concepts related
to quality of life and social indicators. Examples
of concepts directly related to quality of life
and social indicators include happiness,
subjective well-being, life satisfaction,
the good life the good society, economic well-
being, family well-being, quality of work life,
community quality of life, spiritual well-being,
leisure well-being, social well-being, emo-
tional well-being, psychological well-being,
and quality of home life, among others.
These concepts are applied to specific geo-
graphic populations (e.g., quality of life of
specific countries, regions, states, provinces,
and trading blocks) and demographic groups
(e.g., child well-being, quality of life of
the elderly, quality of life of the poor, quality
of life of the homeless, quality of life of the
205 A
disabled, and quality of life of women).
The same concepts are applied to specific
institutional sectors (e.g., travel and tourism, A
hospitality, sports and recreation, food and
nutrition, clothing and textiles, architecture,
landscape design, education, transporta-
tion, telecommunications, healthcare, busi-
ness administration, public administration, social
work, management, marketing, agricultural eco-
nomics, environmental science, and economic
development). ARQOL focuses on application
of quality of life concepts to institutional sectors
as described above.
Recognition of the Field
The field of quality of life studies and social
indicators has grown over the past 30 years.
Quality of life studies are regularly published
in many disciplines of basic and applied social
sciences. A testament of the recognition of
the field is the establishment of two professional
societies the International Society for Quality
of Life Studies (ISQOLS) and the Inter-
national Society for Quality of Life Research
(ISOQOL) and their growing membership.
Both societies were founded in 1995. Further-
more, the Social Indicators Working Group of
the International Sociological Association has
served to bring together many sociologists over
the past 30 years or so. There are four journals
widely recognized in the field of quality of life
studies, namely, Social Indicators Research
(SIR), Quality of Life Research (QOLR),
Journal of Happiness Studies (JOHS), and
Applied Research in Quality of Life (ARQOL).
The growing success of these journals is evi-
dence of the increased recognition of the field
of quality of life studies.
Goals and Rationale
The objective of ARQOL is to fill a major gap
in the growing field of quality of life studies.
This gap is the lack of a journal that focuses on
applied social and behavioral sciences. The goal
is to fill a growing niche in applying quality of
life concepts, models, methods, and indicators
to impact decision makers. Decision makers
are typically professionals influenced by
A 206
knowledge produced and disseminated in their
own professional disciplines. For example,
there are many quality of life conceptual and
methodological studies that can influence com-
munity planners decision makers operating in
towns, cities, counties, and rural regions
within every country. ARQOL should appeal
to these decision makers through a track on
community planning and development. Another
example involves social workers decision
makers housed in institutions of social welfare
and social services. The journal targets these
decision makers through another track on
social welfare and social services. In other
words, ARQOL fills a huge void in the
literature translating and transforming
many of the quality of life concepts (as well as
creating new ones) for use by various segments
of decision makers. Evidence of the need
for applied science of quality of life studies
includes the 2002, 2004, and 2005 community
indicator conference (Williamsburg, Virginia;
Reno, Nevada; and Burlington, Vermont) that
attracted hundreds of participants most of
them were community developers, community
planners, and community indicator specialists
working at the community level. These
conferences were sponsored primarily by the
Community Indicators Consortium, a
network of professional associations, govern-
ment agencies, and foundations (e.g., ISQOLS,
Community Statistical Systems Network,
International Sustainability Indicators Network,
Alliance of Regional Stewardship, Association
for Community Health Improvement, Urban
League, Center for Disease Control and Preven-
tion, Brookings Institution, Fannie Mae Foun-
dation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Sloan
Foundation, Ford Foundation, and United Way
of America). Another example includes
the conferences sponsored by ISOQOL on
health-related quality of life research.
ISOQOL conferences attract a significant seg-
ment of decision makers in health-related spe-
cialties. Many of them are medical researchers
working in pharmaceutical firms and research
hospitals worldwide.
Applied Research in Quality of Life
Other QOL Research Journals
Currently, there are four journals that focus on
quality of life studies as a scientific field of study.
These are Social Indicators Research (SIR),
Journal of Happiness Studies (JOHS), Quality
of Life Research (QOLR), and this journal
(ARQOL). SIR seems to attract studies
focusing on measurement of QOL in a variety
of settings in relation to various population
groups. JOHS focuses on studies dealing with
subjective well-being, happiness, and life satis-
faction. In contrast, QOLR focuses on health-
related quality of life studies.
ARQOL also has three other features,
namely, special issues reflecting hot topics
within the various tracks, a book review section,
and an oral history section. With respect to
the special issues, each section editor will
propose issuing a call for papers on a special
topic regarded as attracting media attention.
These special issues should attract additional
visibility in the professional discipline of the
respective track.
Articles Abstracted and Indexed in 2012
ARQOLs articles are abstracted and indexed in
SCOPUS, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, Academic
OneFile, Gale, OCLC, and Summon by Serial
Solutions.
ARQOL and Springers Open Choice
Once a manuscript is accepted for publication in
ARQOL, the authors are provided the opportu-
nity to publish as an open article. This means
that the article is made available to anyone free of
charge to anyone, at any time in exchange for
payment of an open access publication fee (US$
3000/EUR 2000; excl. VAT).
Conclusion
We believe that the emerging field of study of
quality of life and well-being is now better served
with ARQOL among our midst. The journal is
likely to make a significant impact on the science
of well-being by encouraging and nurturing well-
being scientists to disseminate their best work in
this publication outlet.
Appraisal of Caregiving Scale
Appraisal of Caregiving Scale
Silvia Bigatti1 and Jennifer L. Steiner2
1
Social & Behavioral Sciences, Fairbanks School
of Public Health Indiana University,
Indianapolis, IN, USA
2
Department of Psychology, Indiana University
Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis,
IN, USA
Definition
The Appraisal of Caregiving Scale is a paper and
pencil self-report instrument that assesses indi-
viduals perceptions of their experience as
caregivers.
Description
The Appraisal of Caregiving Scale (ACS),
developed by Marilyn Oberst and published for
the first time in 1989, is a self-report measure
uniquely designed to assess perceptions of the
illness-caregiving situation (Oberst, Thomas,
Gass, & Ward, 1989). Oberst asserts that the
ACS is actually a measure of reappraisal as
several the items focus on secondary appraisals
and perceived effectiveness of coping strategies
in addition to primary appraisals (Oberst, 1991).
Based on this, she suggests it is best to use the
scale after coping efforts have been initiated
(Oberst, 1991). This focus on appraisals sets this
measure apart from other scales used with care-
givers, which typically measure caregiver burden
in terms of actual behaviors caregivers need to
perform in order to care for the patient.
The 1989 version of the scale has 53 items,
and the meaning of the illness-caregiving situa-
tion is measured for four different dimensions of
appraisal (Oberst et al., 1989). These dimensions
are harm/loss (I feel a sense of loss at the things
Ive had to give up), threat (Im afraid my
health will begin to suffer), challenge (I feel
confident that I can find ways to manage my
207 A
situation), and benign (The situation doesnt
affect my lifestyle) (Oberst et al.). Each of the
dimensions is comprised of 15 items, with the A
exception of benign which is composed of only
eight items, for a total of 53 items for the entire
scale. The intensity of each item is ranked using
a 5-point Likert scale ranging from very untrue
(1) to very true (5). In addition to structuring
the items around the four dimensions of
appraisal, the items of the ACS were written to
reflect stressors in five different areas: caregiving
tasks, relationships and interpersonal support,
lifestyle, emotional and physical health, and
overall personal impact (Oberst et al.).
In 1991, Oberst published a revised version of
the ACS. The revised version is comprised of
27 items which address only three dimensions.
The dimensions include two stressful appraisals:
threat and general stress, and one dimension of
non-stress appraisal: benefit (Oberst, 1991). The
threat subscale is the largest of the four consisting
of 13 items. The general stress subscale has eight
items, and the benefit subscale is made up of six
items. The items are still meant to reflect the five
areas that may be impacted by the stress of
caregiving. The 5-point Likert scale remains the
response method, but the anchors were changed
to (1) very false to (5) very true. In spite of its
strengths in content and psychometrics, this scale
is seldom used, probably because of the difficulty
that any interested researcher would have in
locating a copy of the instrument.
Bakas and Champion (1999) revised the scale
by changing the anchors to strongly disagree to
strongly agree, removing two items, clarifying
the wording, and shortening the instructions.
Bakas has used this revised version to study care-
givers of stroke victims.
Psychometrics
The 53-item version of the ACS was content
validated by a panel composed of 6 experts in
the field. These individuals were reported to
have correctly identified 51 of the items; the
remaining two items were rewritten to better
reflect their intended content (Oberst et al.).
Internal consistency for each of the 4 original
A 208
subscales is adequate; coefficient a ranges from
0.72 (challenge subscale) to 0.91 (threat
subscale). Inter-item correlations for each sub-
scales range from r 0.14 (challenge subscale)
to r 0.41 (threat subscale). Subscale intercor-
relations indicate a strong positive correlation
(r 0.85) between harm/loss and threat subscales
and a moderate correlation between challenge
and benign subscales (r 0.64). A small negative
correlation between the benign and threat sub-
scales was reported as well. Other subscale inter-
correlations were weak and nonsignificant. All
subscale intercorrelations make sense from
a theoretical perspective (Oberst et al.).
The 27-item, 1991 version of the ACS
(the ACS-revised) was also content validated by
a panel. The panel consisted of clinical experts,
experts on the theory, and individuals that actu-
ally serve as caregivers (Oberst, 1991). Six items
were eliminated from the original ACS based on
poor item performance. A factor analysis
was conducted on the remaining 47 items, and
following this 16 more items were eliminated due
to extensive collinearity of threat items and
harm/loss items. A principal components factor
analysis resulted in 4 clear factors: threat, general
stress, benign, and challenge. The challenge
factor was eliminated due to poor reliability
(a 0.58), resulting in the final three subscales
mentioned above. Correlations between the sub-
scales were all significant, ranging from
r 0.12 to r 0.50. The internal consistency
for the benign and general stress subscales is
adequate (a 0.74; 0.73), and the internal con-
sistency for the threat subscale is high (a 0.90).
Inter-item correlations on each subscale ranged
from r 0.25 (general stress) to r 0.42 (threat).
Construct validity was assessed by establishing
convergent and divergent validity with a number
of variables, all of which performed according to
theory (Oberst).
Scoring
Scoring for the 27-item ACS-revised version is
based on subscales which correspond to the dif-
ferent dimensions. Responses on the Likert scales
are totaled for each subscale, but no total score is
derived. With reverse scoring required for all the
Appraisal of Caregiving Scale
items of the general stressfulness subscale, higher
scores on any of the three subscales indicate
greater intensity of that appraisal dimension.
Items for Threat: 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 15, 17, 18, 21,
22, 24, 26
Items for General Stress: 2, 5, 8, 9, 13, 14, 19, 27
Items for Benign: 1, 11, 16, 20, 23, 25
Oberst (1991) reported means for 2.24
(SD 0.86) for the threat subscale, 2.86
(SD 0.83) for the general stress subscale, and
3.58 (SD 0.81) for the benefit subscale.
Theoretical Background
The scale was developed within the framework
of transactional theories of stress and coping.
Lazarus and Folkman (1984), who developed
one of these theories, proposed that mental
appraisals were made when confronted with
a stressful situation. Appraisal is a process
whereby individuals categorize stressful situa-
tions as threats to their well-being or not
(primary appraisals), and then determine how
to encounter the stressor if the determination of
threat has been made (secondary appraisals).
The construct of appraisal helps explain
how stressful situations may lead to adverse
health outcomes in some individuals but not in
others. The authors of the ACS believe these
appraisals may explain individual differences
better than other intrapersonal and interpersonal
variables (1984).
Cross-References
AIDS Caregiver Scale
Bakas Caregiving Outcomes Scale
Burden of Illness
Caregiver Activity Survey
Caregiver Burden
Caregiver Burden Scale: Zarit interview
Caregiver Perceived Burden Scale
Caregiver Quality of Life
Caregiver, Self-Efficacy
Caregiving
CarerQOL Instrument
Family Caregiving
Architecture and Meaning 209 A
References
Approval Sex Motives
Bakas, T., & Champion, V. (1999). Development and
psychometric testing of the Bakas Caregiving A
Relationship Contingency and Sexual
Outcomes Scale. Nursing Research, 48(5), 250259.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, Satisfaction
and coping. New York: Springer.
Oberst, M. T. (1991). Appraisal of caregiving scale
(ACS-revised). Website.
Oberst, M. T., Thomas, S., Gass, K., & Ward, S. (1989).
Caregiving demands and appraisal of stress among AQLQ
family caregivers. Cancer Nursing, 12, 209215.
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire

Appraisal of Life Questionnaire

Aquarium
Life Domain Satisfaction in Portugal and
Museums and Galleries: Their Social Worth
France

Architecture and Meaning

Appraisals and Response Shifts
Benyamin Schwarz
Response Shift Architectural Studies, University of Missouri,
Columbia, MO, USA

Apprehension Definition

Anxiety Meaning is a notoriously vague concept, used in

various senses and applied to a plethora of issues.
When it comes to architecture, meaning comes
mostly from our visual perception. The assump-
Approach Coping tion is that what is seen is what is meant.
Experiencing architecture is expected to bring
Active Coping us joy. When we recognize that the cause of that
feeling is a space or an architectural object, it
enlarges our power to live and to continue living
in accord with our most authentic nature. In
Approach Motives, Social architectural discourse, meaning has been
described as that which one intends to or is com-
Sexual Motives and Quality of Life municated and that which a symbolic act or
object refers to or signifies in a socially agreed
context. While in language, meaning is derived
from orderly use of arbitrary signs, architectural
Approaches to Identifying IER meaning depends on independently significant
symbols, which can be linked in any order. In
Survey Responses with Insufficient Effort other words architecture differs from language
A 210
in its absence of grammatical structure.
We are responsible for interpreting the built
environment without a finite set of rules.
We may distinguish between natural and
unnatural meaning. Natural meaning stems
from our ability to make connections between
the features that signify the use of a building
and its socially and historically accepted visible
form. Unnatural meaning is the devised and
intended meaning that the architect wishes the
spectator to grasp (Hill, 1999, p. 113). We may
also perceive meaning as an attribute of an object
or idea that arouses in peoples emotions or cer-
tain associations, cognitions, or affects.
Description
Architecture is essentially an art of utility.
Placed between art and practicality, its existence
as an environment for practical use and an artistic
expression delineates its particular essence.
Architecture enriches life and enhances it with
meaning. We expect a work of architecture, when
it fulfills its functional and aesthetic objectives, to
be capable of creating a profound set of emotions
within the people who experience it. Defined by
its intentions, architectural meaning resides in
human experience.
Architecture begins to matter when people real-
ize that buildings have some purpose other than
sheltering their occupants. Paul Goldberger writes,
architecture is what happens when people build
with an awareness that they are doing something
that reaches at least a little bit beyond the practi-
cal (2009, p. ix). A building can elicit emotional
reactions. It can represent social ideals and can be
a cultural or political icon. But how does a piece of
architecture communicate the message it may have
beyond its functional use or its physical form?
If intended architectural meaning is a form of
communication, what is entailed in the communi-
cation process between the sender (encoder)
and the receiver (decoder)? Do buildings have
the same meaning for everyone? Who is the
intended audience, in other words, meaning for
whom? Do meaning change over time, even for
the same person?
Architecture and Meaning
Architecture and Language
Language is at the core of making, using and
understanding buildings. Through it, a community
is able to articulate its feelings and thoughts about
them, to share its experience of meaning (Markus,
1993, p. 4). Concerns about the meaning of form in
architecture had been an age-old problem and the
search for a communication tool an architectural
language that can share ordinary meanings among
people has been an ongoing intellectual challenge.
However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
desire to see architecture as a kind of language
became one of the most prevalent aesthetic
theories in the discourse in architecture. Attempts
to make these theories scientifically rigorous are
evident in the works of theorists such as Barthes
(1970), Bonta (1979), Broadbent, Bunt, and Jencks
(1980), Jencks (1977), Jencks and Baird (1969),
and Preziosi (1979), to name just few. Captivated
by structuralism, these scholars made efforts to
explain the meaning of architecture through semi-
ology and semiotics the science of signs. These
theories originated with the Swiss linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure (18571913) whose work
lies at the very heart of structuralism. A sign,
according to Saussure, is comprised of two parts,
the signifier and the signified. The signified is the
mental representation of an object, rather than the
object itself. It is not the referent of a spoken word
but is the concept to which the word is attached by
convention. One of the most important points in
Saussures argument is that the sign is entirely
arbitrary. But the arbitrary nature of signs does
not imply that the choice of a signifier can be left
to the individual. In common language, once the
relationship between a signifier and its signified
has become established, it cannot be changed at
will because it is part of a social contract which is
one of the essentials of a language (Broadbent,
1969). Thus, the initial choice of sign in a language
is arbitrary until the social contract has been agreed.
At that point particular signifiers are attached to
particular signifieds. The idea that every sign
in a language is motivated just like any form in
architecture has been the fundamental impetus for
semiology and meaning in architecture.
Another influential source for the develop-
ment of this line of inquiry in architecture was
Architecture and Meaning
the American philosopher Charles Sander Peirce
(18391914) who proposed his semiotic, which
holds a different view about the theory of signs.
In Peirces theory, meaning depends not only
upon a sign or a referent but also upon an
interpretant a representation of the world in
which the relationships between a sign and its
referent are continually mediated. Charles W.
Morris (1939) elaborated Peirces theory by
dividing the field of linguistic analysis into three
realms: syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.
Morris made another distinction, which later
contributed to the architectural circles. He
divided semantic signs into three groups of
indices, icons, and symbols. Accordingly,
indexical signs indicate their meaning; icons
display characteristics of content of object they
refer to; and symbols are arbitrary or culturally
established signs (Mallgrave & Goodman, 2011).
Morriss treatment of signs was more profound
and attractive to architectural scholars because it
was concerned not just with the signs themselves
but with their relationship to the interpreter and
his or her disposition.
In his article Function and Sign: Semiotics of
Architecture, Umberto Eco addresses the special
case of architecture and the built environment in
the context of the general semiotic theory. He
remarks that architecture often intends to be more
functional rather than communicative. Nonethe-
less, architecture often serves as a form of mass
communication, which combines meaning and
use. Leach (1997) explains that Eco distinguishes
between the primary function architecture as
functional object and the secondary function
architecture as symbolic object. He notes that in
both categories there is potential for losses, recov-
eries and substitutions. Eco concludes that archi-
tects must design structures for variable primary
functions and open secondary functions (Leach,
1997, p. 181). At the heart of this argument is
Ecos notion that the oscillation between the con-
ventional use of an environment and its elementary
meaning on one hand, and the related meaning that
is based on cultural conventions, on the other hand,
establishes the environment as a system of signs.
Structuralism as a system started to decline
when its limitations became exposed, and as
211 A
structuralism fell out of favor so did the semiotic
approach to the study of meaning in architecture.
In spite of its values, semiotics proved to have A
several weaknesses in its applicability to the built
environment. While architecture contains many
similarities to written and spoken languages, it
became obvious that symbols in the built
environment must be interpreted in ways that
account for the material quality, human use, and
historical significance of the physical object
itself. If architecture was a language, logic
follows that we would have been able to under-
stand every building and its significance would
not have been in question. However, this has not
been the case. It became apparent that the
linguistic analogy that has inundated architec-
tural theory is an obscure and uncertain analogy,
and contains no theoretical insight that would
enable us to apply it in an illuminating way to
architecture (Scruton, 1979, p. 178). Despite the
disappointing attempts to develop a comprehen-
sive system of architectural linguistic semantics,
language will continue to be an inspiring source
of ideas to architecture as it has ever been.
Buildings as Social Objects with Meaning
So far we touched mainly upon the visual aspects of
architectural meaning. Meaning and architecture,
however, have many more layers when we address
the social and cultural roles of a building. We may
analyze a building by means of three of its compo-
nents: form, function, and space. While form and
space are relatively permanent (unless they are
modified), function is not. Function is the social
practice of use that is inscribed into the building.
Buildings with different forms and spatial struc-
tures can be used for the similar purposes albeit
each of which may signify a different social rela-
tions. In other words they are independent and they
do not correspond with Louis Sullivans dictum
form follows function. Buildings come into exis-
tence through actions of owners, investors,
designers, builders, and many more accomplices.
They, with the buildings users, create their own
historical society. The social relations among all
these people and their interaction with the building
create a web of meanings (Markus, 1993). Thus,
function contributes to the meaning of architecture.
A 212
The form of a building is perhaps its defining
quality for its users as well as for the critics, the
scholars, and the media. The analysis of
architecture through its form is rooted the
tradition of art history. Buildings are analyzed
in this tradition based on their style, articulation,
iconography, and perception. Implicit in the
discourse about the relations between form and
function in modernism was the assumption that
buildings influence the members of society
who inhabit them. Since the 1960s, the problem
was one of describing either the action of the
social environment upon the form of building or
the action of a building upon society (Forty,
2000). The problem with function is its tempo-
rary nature over time, which affects the meaning
of a building. We may ask who defined the
first function of a building. Who and by what
authority transforms it? What physical changes
were made in the building? And how has the
buildings meaning changed over time? Space is
the third constituent for analysis of buildings as
social objects with meaning. Buildings spaces
house people who are engaged in purposeful
activities. People attend services in churches,
study in libraries, and enjoy music and other
forms of entertainment in spaces loaded with
a variety of meanings. The spaces may have
meaning to the reflective individual, as well as
to the general public who interact inside
them. Spaces produce an entire social web within
which institutions are created and shared goals
are achieved.
Several architects and theoreticians have
addressed the social role of buildings in their
writings and in the design of their buildings.
Among them we can list Christopher Alexander
(Alexander, Ishikawa, & Silverstein, 1977), Her-
man Hertzberger (1991), and Bill Hillier (1996).
While Alexander and his colleagues focused
on their pattern language, Hertzberger discussed
strategies for improving social space to enhance
human interaction. He claims that it takes
a conscious intention on the part of the designer
to imbue buildings with social spaces that invite
short or long stays for official or informal pur-
pose. Hillier (1996) is wholly committed to the
concept of buildings as social objects. He argues
Architecture and Meaning
that buildings can both receive information from
society and influence the way we configure
spaces and also transmit effects back to society
through these spatial configurations. To take an
example of a church as a social institution, we
find it difficult to separate between the parish-
ioners with their liturgical rituals and the building
they occupy. The linkage between the setting and
its users is inseparable. However, a church
building without its social content is no longer
a real church. The symbiotic relationships
between the congregation members and the
building give meaning to both. The relationships
transform the building into more than a stage or
a background for peoples activities, and at the
same time, the inhabitant discovers insightful
meaning through the buildings spatial and phys-
ical form. The case of the church is particularly
expressive because the entire form of a church
building is designed to provide a place for spiri-
tual, religious rituals. If successful, the building
becomes a vehicle for enhancing these particular
rituals by perpetuating them to the future and
adding a powerful meaning through its architec-
ture. Eero Saarinens words are poignant:
I think architecture is much more than its utilitarian
meaning-to provide shelter for mans activities on
earth. It is certainly that, but I believe it has much
more fundamental role to play for man, almost
a religious one. Man is on earth for a very short
time and he is not quite sure what his purpose is.
Religion gives him his primary purpose. The per-
manence and beauty and meaningfulness of his
surroundings give him confidence and a sense of
continuity. So, to the question what is the purpose
of architecture, I would answer: to shelter and
enhance mans life on earth and to fulfill his belief
in the nobility of his existence. (1959/1968)
Cross-References
Arts and Quality of Life
Cultural Influences on Self-Reported
Happiness
Cultural Values
Enjoyment
Material and Nonmaterial (Family, Social,
Leisure) Values
Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) 213 A
Social Cohesion Saarinen, E. (1968). In A. B. Saarinen (Ed.), Eero
Social Ecology Saarinen on his work: A selection of buildings dating
from 1947 to 1964 with statements by the architect.
Social Institutions New Haven: Yale University Press. A
Social Integration Scruton, R. (1979). The aesthetics of architecture.
Social Interaction Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

References
Arctic Adjustment
Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., & Silverstein, M. (1977). A
pattern language: Towns, buildings, construction. Community Adaptation, Arctic
New York: Oxford University Press.
Barthes, R. (1970). Elements of semiology. Boston:
Beacon.
Bonta, J. P. (1979). Architecture and its interpretation:
A study of expressive systems in architecture. London: Arctic Human Development
Lund Humphires. Report (AHDR)
Broadbent, G. (1969). Meaning into architecture. In
C. Jencks & G. Baird (Eds.), Meaning in architecture.
New York: George Braziller.
Nels Einarsson
Broadbent, G., Bunt, R., & Jencks, C. (Eds.). (1980). Signs, Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland
symbols and architecture. Chichester: John Wiley.
Eco, U. (1997). Function and sign: Semiotics of architec-
ture. In N. Leach (Ed.), Rethinking architecture:
A reader in cultural theory. New York: Routledge.
Synonyms
Forty, A. (2000). Words and buildings: A vocabulary of
modern architecture. New York: Thames & Hudson. Arctic, quality of life; Human well-being in the
Goldberger, P. (2009). Why architecture matters. Arctic; Living conditions in the Arctic
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hertzberger, H. (1991). Lessons for students in architec-
ture. Rotterdam: Uitgeverij 010 Publishers.
Hill, R. (1999). Designs and their consequences. Definition
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Hillier, B. (1996). Space is the machine. Cambridge, MA:
Cambridge University Press.
The Arctic Human Development Report,
Jencks, C. (1977). The language of post-modernist published in 2004, was an assessment of the
architecture. New York: Rizzoli. state of human development in the Arctic.
Jencks, C., & Baird, G. (Eds.). (1969). Meaning in
architecture. New York: George Braziller.
Leach, N. (Ed.). (1997). Rethinking architecture: A reader
in cultural theory. New York: Routledge. Description
Mallgrave, H. F., & Goodman, D. (2011). An introduction
to architectural theory: 1968 to the present. A major aim of the report was to make a
New York: Wiley-Balckwell.
Markus, T. A. (1993). Buildings & power: Freedom and
direct contribution toward strengthening
control in the origin of modern building types. London: the Arctic Councils (AC) work on sustainable
Routledge. development.
Morris, C. W. (1939). Foundations of the theory of signs. At an early stage the Arctic parliamentarians
In International encyclopedia of unified science
(Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 91, 99, 108). Chicago: University
became involved in the project, and the Standing
of Chicago Press. Committee of Parliamentarians of the Arctic
Peirce, C. S. (1960). Collected papers of Charles Sanders Region (SCPAR) assumed a leading role, calling
Peirce (Vol. 2). Cambridge, MA: Harvard for preparation of an AHDR at conferences in
University Press.
Preziosi, D. (1979). The semiotics of the built environ-
2001 and 2002. The Arctic Council then
ment: An introduction to architectonic analysis. approved in Inari in October 2002 the preparation
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. of an AHDR with the goal of developing a
A 214
comprehensive knowledge base for the work of
the AC Sustainable Development Program.
The report became an Icelandic priority project
during the 20022004 chairmanship of the Arctic
Council.
The preparation of the AHDR went forward
under the supervision of a Report Steering
Committee (RSC) including representatives of
all the members of the Arctic Council, all
the Permanent Participants, and a number of
the accredited observers. The two chairs of the
RSC were Niels Einarsson, appointed by
Iceland, and Oran Young designated by the
University of the Arctic. They formed a
four-member Executive Committee with
Ingvild Broch of the University of Troms and
Rune Fjellheim of the Saami Council. Joan
Nymand Larsen was recruited as project
manager and head of the AHDR Secretariat,
located at the Stefansson Arctic Institute in
Akureyri, Iceland. Annika Nilsson later joined
the project as science writer and member of the
editorial team.
The AHDR is a document that consists of 11
substantive chapters together with a summary
of major findings, an introduction, and a con-
clusion. Each of the substantive chapters was
prepared by one or more lead authors who
benefited in every case from input provided by
a number of contributing authors. Nonetheless,
the report is a coherent document with
chapters structured to provide an integrated pic-
ture of the state of human development in the
circumpolar Arctic.
The report articulates a number of policy-
relevant conclusions, lifts out success stories
relating to human development in the Arctic,
and identifies gaps in knowledge needing
attention in the future. The report emphasized
the need to revisit topics addressed in the
AHDR at regular intervals, to provide the basis
for tracking trends in human development in the
Arctic and evaluating the performance of policies
designed to address issues of human development
from a regional perspective.
The AHDR has received wide recognition as
a valuable contribution to understanding human
Arctic Living Conditions Survey
development issues in the circumpolar Arctic
and is used by the United Nations Development
Program as a Regional Report. The AHDR
is also used by the University of the Arctic
as a curriculum textbook on Arctic societies.
The report has been translated into Russian
and Finnish and is available online at www.
svs.is/ahdr.
As this is written in autumn of 2012, the sec-
ond Arctic Human Development Report is under-
way under the auspices of the Arctic Council.
Project leader for AHDR II is Joan Nymand
Larsen from the Stefansson Arctic Institute, for
Iceland, and co-leads are Gail Fondahl, Univer-
sity of Northern British Columbia, for Canada,
and Henriette Rasmussen, for Greenland. This
report is be finished in 2014 and promises to
bring together the state-of-the-art knowledge,
covering Arctic societies and their welfare in
a global context.
Cross-References
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI)
Climate Change, Arctic
Community Adaptation, Arctic
Globalization, Arctic
Human Development, Arctic
Material Well-being, Arctic
Migration, Arctic
Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic:
Inuit, Saami, and the Indigenous Peoples of
Chukotka and the Kola Peninsula
References
AHDR (Arctic Human Development Report). (2004).
Akureyri: Stefansson Arctic Institute.
Arctic Living Conditions Survey
SLiCA, Survey of Living Conditions in the
Arctic
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI)
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI)
Joan Nymand Larsen1 and Todd C. Edwards2
1
Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland
2
Department of Health Services, Seattle Quality
of Life Group, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA, USA
Definition
Arctic social indicators (ASIs) refers to the
circumpolar project (20062011) designed to fill
a gap in knowledge identified by the Arctic
Human Development Report (AHDR, 2004) to
devise a suite of Arctic specific social indicators.
Description
Arctic social indicators (ASIs) refers to the
circumpolar project (20062011) designed to fill
a gap in knowledge identified by the Arctic
Human Development Report (AHDR, 2004)
to devise a suite of Arctic specific social indica-
tors. ASI was an IPY (International Polar Year)
project, and is endorsed by the Arctic Council and
prepared under the auspices of the Sustainable
Development Working Group (SDWG) (http://
www.svs.is/asi/asi.htm). The AHDR (2004)
provided a snapshot of human development in
the Arctic but did not present a set of quantifiable
social indicators. The goal of the ASI project
was to move toward filling this gap. ASI followed
up on the AHDR and devised indicators that
reflect key aspects of prominent features of
human development and well-being in the
North as identified by Arctic residents. ASI
indicators have been devised to provide the
basis for the long-term monitoring of changes in
human development and quality of life in the
Arctic at different scales and levels. The results
of the ASI indicator work, including its regional
applications, provide important contributions
to help inform the assessment work of the
follow-up to the Arctic Human Development
215 A
report, AHDR-II (20102014) as well as subse-
quent future volumes of the AHDR. ASI has
made significant progress toward the develop- A
ment of an Arctic social indicator system.
The work of the ASI constitutes a large step
forward in moving toward an ability to track
trends in key elements of human development
in the Arctic and, as a result, guiding discussions
regarding questions of policy in the SDWG
and in the Arctic Council more generally (Arctic
Social Indicators [ASI], 2010).
ASI devised a limited set of indicators that
reflect key aspects of human development in
the Arctic, that are tractable in terms of
measurement, and that can be monitored over
time at a reasonable cost in terms of labor and
material resources. The development of indica-
tors fall within six domains: fate control and
or the ability to guide ones own destiny;
cultural well-being or belonging to a viable
local culture; contact with nature or interacting
closely with the natural world; material well-
being; education; and health and population
(ASI, 2010).
The first report on Arctic social indicators was
published in 2010 and was directed at a broad
audience, including the science community,
inhabitants of the Arctic, policymakers at all
levels, and the Arctic Council and its SDWG.
The second ASI report (forthcoming 2012)
presents six ASI applications: Yamal-Nenets,
Inuit World (SLiCA, Survey of Living Condi-
tions in the Arctic) (http://www.arcticliving-
conditions.org), West-Nordic, Sakha-Yakutia,
North West Territories, and Alaska Inuit. These
case studies will contribute to testing the strength
of the ASI suite of indicators.
To device ASI indicators, broad categories
(domains), which ought to be covered by indica-
tors, were selected. Six domains were identified,
three of which are the UN domains for devising
the Human Developing Index (material well-
being; education; and health and population),
and then three additional domains (fate control;
cultural well-being; and contact with nature)
were identified as reflecting important aspects of
well-being in the Arctic. Identification and
A 216
selection of indicators was made for each
domain. A small suite of indicators was identi-
fied. Additional indicators were also identified,
but among those were several that did not
meet all of the criteria used for selection. The
ASI suite of indicators include the following:
infant mortality; net-migration; consumption or
harvest of local foods; per capita household
income; the ratio of students successfully com-
pleting postsecondary education; and language
retention. ASI indicators were identified and
selected based on a set of criteria including ease
of measurement, affordability, robustness, data
availability, degree of unambiguity, interest of
stakeholders, measurability at different levels,
internal validity, and applicability to and reported
separately for, indigenous and nonindigenous
populations (ASI, 2010). ASI encountered a
number of data challenges. The measurement
of several ASI indicators requires primary data
collection (e.g., harvest and consumption of
local resources).
ASI recommendations include: to design
the Arctic Social Indicator monitoring system;
to encourage national statistical agencies to
participate in development of a metadata base
identifying ASI indicators that are already
monitored by a national agency and published
in hard copy or electronic form; to encourage
establishment of an international task force com-
posed of national statistical agency analysts and
Arctic researchers to identify the special tab-
ulations required to produce comparable ASI
indicators and to recommend approaches to
produce these special tabulations (ASI, 2010).
Cross-References
Aboriginal Peoples Survey, Canada (APS)
Alaska, Living Conditions of the Inupiat
Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR)
Community Adaptation, Arctic
Economic Well-Being, Arctic
Education, Traditional
Human Development Index (HDI)
Human Development, Arctic
Income Distribution
Arctic, Quality of Life
Indigenous Health Disparities
Indigenous Knowledge
Informal Economy, Arctic
Level of Education
Material Well-being, Arctic
Migration, Arctic
Northwest Territories
Nunavik
SLiCA, Survey of Living Conditions in the
Arctic
Subsistence in the Arctic
Sustainable Development Working Group,
Arctic Councils
References
Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR). (2004).
Arctic human development report. Akureyri: Stefans-
son Arctic Institute.
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI). http://www.svs.is/asi/asi.
htm
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI). (2010). A follow-up to the
arctic human development report. TemaNord
2010:519. Copenhagen: Nordic Council of Ministers.
Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA).
http://www.arcticlivingconditions.org
Arctic, Quality of Life
Mark Nuttall
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Synonyms
Circumpolar North; Indigenous peoples of
Alaska; Indigenous peoples of Canada;
Indigenous peoples of Finland; Indigenous
peoples of Greenland; Indigenous peoples of
Norway; Indigenous peoples of Russia; Indige-
nous peoples of Sweden
Definition
The Arctic is a polar region that includes the Arctic
Ocean, numerous islands and archipelagos, and the
Arctic, Quality of Life
northernmost parts of the mainland areas of North
America and Eurasia. The largest Arctic land
areas are in Canada, Alaska, Greenland,
Fennoscandia, and Russia.
Description
The Arctic has been a homeland for indigenous
peoples for millennia, but the regions of the
global North are also inhabited by more recent
settlers making for a diverse social and cultural
landscape. The indigenous peoples of the worlds
high latitudes include the Inupiat, Yupiit, Alutiit,
Aleuts, and Athapaskans of Alaska; the
Inuit, Inuvialuit, Athapaskans, and Dene of
northern Canada; the Kalaallit and Inughuit of
Greenland; the Sami of northern Fennoscandia
(northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland) and
Russias Kola Peninsula; and the Chukchi,
Even, Evenk, Nenets, Nivkh, Yukaghir, and
many other groups of the Russian Far North
and East and Siberia. Arctic peoples have
inhabited northern coasts, tundra, mountains,
and forests, depending for thousands of years on
the living resources of land and sea, as hunters,
fishers, and reindeer herders. Today, harvesting
living terrestrial, marine, and freshwater
resources, for example, marine mammals such
as seals, walrus, narwhals, beluga, fin and minke
whales, and polar bear; land mammals such as
caribou, reindeer, and musk ox; and fish such as
salmon, Arctic char, northern pike, and other
species, such as coregonids (whitefishes),
continue to be of critical importance for many
indigenous communities across the Arctic. Many
of these species are used as food, for clothing, and
other products, but they are important economic
resources for sustaining indigenous livelihoods
and figure prominently in the cash economy
of local households and communities
(Nuttall et al., 2005).
The colonization of Arctic peoples, spaces,
and places and the accompanying exploitation
of circumpolar resources occurred mainly
from the sixteenth century but especially during
the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
This resulted in more frequent contact between
217 A
indigenous peoples and outsiders and in the
transformation of Arctic societies. Over the
past 50100 years in particular, indigenous cul- A
tures have been affected by far-reaching social,
economic, and political changes. Yet despite
these changes to indigenous societies, and
although new occupations make for a diversity
of livelihoods, indigenous peoples throughout
the North continue to rely in many places on
terrestrial and marine resources and maintain
a strong connection to the environment through
customary or traditional activities.
The Arctic regions are not remote, despite
popular images that suggest otherwise. They
are tightly tied politically, economically, and
socially to the national mainstream and are
inextricably linked to the global economy
(Heininen & Southcott, 2010). Rapid social,
economic, and demographic change (including
urbanization); resource development; wildlife
management and conservation initiatives
(such as the creation of national parks and
protected places); and animal-rights campaigns
have all had their impacts on hunting, herding,
fishing, and gathering activities, but traditional
activities are also being challenged in recent
years by environmental changes such as
climate variability and change. These changes
challenge traditional and local knowledge and
understanding of the environment and make
prediction, travel safety, and resource access
more difficult as well as threatening food secu-
rity (AMAP, 2011; Krupnik & Jolly, 2002).
Inuit in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland,
for example, like most indigenous groups
who live from procuring marine and terrestrial
resources, rely on their ability to predict
environmental phenomena such as snow and
ice conditions, the weather, and the movement
and migration of animals. For Inuit, as is
increasingly reported throughout the Arctic
by many other peoples, seasons have become
less consistent, new species are appearing in
places where they have been previously
unknown, and local people observe and
comment on how weather has become
less predictable in recent years (ACIA, 2005;
AMAP, 2011).
A 218
Across the Arctic, indigenous peoples have
demanded the right to self-determination and
self-government based on the historical and
cultural rights to the occupancy of lands
and customary use of resources. Most Arctic
states have recognized the claims of indigenous
peoples for land and self-government, and
a number of significant settlements have been
negotiated and reached over the past three
decades. Notable are the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, Greenland
Home Rule in 1979 and Self-Government
in 2009, and in Canada the James Bay and
Northern Quebec Agreement (1975), the
Inuvialuit Final Agreement (1984), the compre-
hensive land claims agreements with the
Gwichin and Sahtu Dene in the early 1990s,
and the creation of the new territory of Nunavut
in 1999. These political changes have often
included changes in the ways that living and
nonliving resources are managed. A greater degree
of local involvement in resource-use management
decisions has been introduced in many Arctic
regions, particularly in Alaska and Canada, includ-
ing in some cases the actual transfer of decision-
making authority to the local or regional level. In
addition, significant steps have been taken with
innovative comanagement regimes that allow for
the sharing of responsibility for resource manage-
ment between indigenous and other users and the
state. Comanagement projects involve greater rec-
ognition of indigenous rights to resource use and
emphasize the importance of decentralized,
nonhierarchical institutions, and consensus
decision-making. This presents tremendous oppor-
tunities for collaboration between indigenous peo-
ples, scientists, and policy-makers concerned with
the sustainable use, management, and conservation
of living resources.
The most complex and unresolved issues
relating to the autonomy and self-determina-
tion of the Arctics indigenous peoples are to be
found in Russia. Although indigenous minorities
of the Russian North were given certain rights
and privileges under the Soviets, these rights
have not always been recognized and many
indigenous groups are demanding forms of
self-government and regional autonomy.
Arctic, Quality of Life
Changes in world energy markets and
technology have led to major and rapid expan-
sion of oil and gas exploration and development
in several regions of the Arctic during the
past 30 years. The Arctic may well contain the
worlds largest remaining untapped gas reserves
and some of its largest undeveloped oil reserves.
A significant proportion of these reserves lie
offshore, in the Arctics shallow and biologi-
cally productive shelf seas. One recent study
by the United States Geological Survey
suggests that 25 % of the worlds untapped
reserves in areas known to contain oil are
found in the Arctic, making the Arctic attractive
to the oil and gas industry as the final
frontier for hydrocarbon development. Most
activity to date involves oil onshore along
the North Slope of Alaska and in western
Siberia and offshore in the Barents and Beaufort
Seas. However, the Alaskan North Slope,
the Mackenzie Delta of Canada, the Yamal
Peninsula of Russia, and their adjacent offshore
areas hold enormous natural gas deposits
that are projected to be developed during
the next decade. Furthermore, exploration
for oil continues off west and north Greenland.
Current developments and further exploration
will likely continue throughout the Arctic as
climate change contributes to reductions in
sea ice, opening of new sea and river routes,
and reducing exploration, development, and
transportation costs.
Cross-References
Alaska, Living Conditions of the Inupiat
Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR)
Arctic Social Indicators (ASI)
Circumpolar Indigenous Peoples
Climate Change, Arctic
Globalization, Arctic
Human Development, Arctic
Informal Economy, Arctic
Material Well-Being, Arctic
Nunavik
SLiCA, Survey of Living Conditions in the
Arctic
Area Under the Curve (AUC)
References
ACIA. (2005). Arctic climate impact assessment: Scientific
report. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
AMAP. (2011). Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the
Arctic (SWIPA): Climate change and the cryosphere.
Oslo: Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.
Heininen, L., & Southcott, C. (Eds.). (2010). Globaliza-
tion and the circumpolar. North Fairbanks: University
of Alaska Press.
Krupnik, I., & Jolly, D. (Eds.). (2002). The earth is faster
now: Indigenous observations of arctic environmental
change. Fairbanks: ARCUS.
Nuttall, M., Berkes, F., Forbes, B., Kofinas, G.,
Vlassova, T., & Wenzel, G. (2005). Hunting, herding,
fishing and gathering: Indigenous peoples and renew-
able resource use in the arctic. In ACIA (Ed.), Arctic
climate impact assessment: Scientific report. Cam-
bridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Area Studies
Alberta Survey
Winnipeg Area Study
Area Under the Curve (AUC)
Stephen Walters
School of Health and Related Research,
The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Definition
The AUC is a useful way of summarizing the
information from a series of repeated measure-
ments on one individual (Matthews, Altman,
Campbell & Royston, 1990). The AUC can also
be used to summarize repeated quality of life
(QoL) scores over time into a single measure of
health for each patient.
Description
Calculating the AUC
The area (see Fig. 1) can be split into a series
of shapes called trapeziums. The areas of the
separate individual trapeziums are calculated
219 A
and then summed for each patient. The mean
AUC in each group can then be calculated.
Let Yij represent the QoL response variable
A
observed at time tij, for observation j 1, . . .ni
on subject i 1, . . .,m.
The set of repeated QoL outcomes for subject i
can be collected into a single row or row vector
matrix of length ni, i.e., Yi (Yi1, Yi2, . . .,Yini). The
AUC is for the ith subject that is calculated by
  
AUCi 0:5  Sj1 to ni tj1  tj Yj Yj1 :
The units of AUC are the product of the units
used for Yij and tij and may not be easy to under-
stand, since QoL outcomes have no natural units.
So it may be useful to divide the AUC by the total
time to get a weighted average level, of QoL, over
the time period. We can calculate the
AUC even when there are missing data, except
when the first and final observations are missing.
In the RCT of acupuncture compared to usual
care, the patients QoL was assessed four times,
at baseline (0), 3, 12, and 24 months using the
SF-36 (Thomas et al., 2006). The AUCs calcu-
lated from the acupuncture study were based on
24 months or 2 years of follow-up. If the time tij
for each QoL assessment is represented as a frac-
tion of a year, then the AUCs represent the
weighted average level of QoL over the 2-year
period. An AUC of 200 corresponds to good
health over the year; conversely, an AUC of
0 corresponds to poor health over the period.
If we divide by the total time (of 2 years), then we
get back to the 0 to 100 scale of the original SF-36
measurement which may make interpretation of
the results easier.
Consider a patient in the acupuncture study,
with SF-36 pain scores of 33.3, 44.4, 55.6, and
77.8 at baseline (0), 3, 12, and 24 months.
The AUC for this patient is calculated as
n  
AUC 0:5  0:25  33:3 44:4
  
0:75  44:4 55:6
  o
1  55:6 77:7
113:9:
A 220
Area Under the Curve 1.0
(AUC), Fig. 1 Summary (full health)
measure of QoL: the area
under the curve (From
Walters, 2009) Utility
(death) 0.0
0 0.25
Utilities and QALYS
Some QoL instruments have been designed to
measure the utility or preference for, or desir-
ability of, a specific level of health status or
a specific outcome. Utilities can be measured or
valued for various possible health states. This can
be done by questioning patients who are in that
particular health state at the time of measurement
and asking them to value or express a preference
for the particular health state. Alternatively, you
can describe the health states to subjects who may
or may not have had personal experience of the
health state being valued and asking them to
value or express a preference for the particular
health state. The health state utility or preference
value is usually a number between 0.0 (death) and
1.0 (full health or functioning with no adverse
symptoms). There are three main methods for
valuing or assessing the preferences of subjects
for health states: the visual analogue rating scale,
the time trade-off, and standard gamble
method. These methods are beyond the scope of
this entry and are described in Brazier, Ratcliffe,
Salomon and Tsuchiya. (2007). Examples of
preference-based QoL instruments include the
Quality of Well-Being Scale, Health Utilities
Index, EQ-5D, and SF-6D.
The conventional way of using these utilities
is to combine them with the length of time in that
particular health state to produce a single index
number called the quality-adjusted life year
(QALY). This is done by multiplying the utility
Area Under the Curve (AUC)
AUC
0.5 0.75 1.0
Time (years)
value by the time (in years) spent in that health
state. For example, 2 years in health state with
a utility value of 0.5 would result in 1 QALY (i.e.,
equivalent to 1 year of perfect health). An impor-
tant point to note is that health state utilities
values do not have any natural units. However,
if the utilities are multiplied by the amount of
time spent in that particular health state, then
they become QALYs (and are measured in units
of time).
QALYs allow for varying times spent in
different health states by calculating an overall
score for each patient. Hence if a patient
progresses through four health states that have
estimated utilities U1, U2, U3 and U4, spending
time ti (i 1 to 4) in each state, then
QALY U1 t1 U2 t2 U3 t3 U4 t4 :
This is analogous to the area under the curve
(AUC).
Calculation of a QALY for an Individual
Patient
In the acupuncture study (Thomas et al., 2006),
QoL was measured at four time points (0, 3, 12,
and 24 months) over a 2-year period using the
SF-6D preference-based utility measure.
Consider a patient with SF-6D utility scores of
0.70, 0.80, 0.85, and 0.85 at baseline (t1 0 years),
3 (t2 0.25), 12 (t3 1), and 24 (t4 2) months,
respectively.
Argyle, Michael
The QALY for this individual is given by
n
    
0:5 0:25  0  0:70 0:80 1  0:25
     o
 0:80 0:85 2  1  0:85 0:85
1:66;
i.e., the patient has a QALY of 1.66. These
individual QALYs can then be averaged across
each group and then compared using standard
methods (such as the two independent samples
t-test).
Most people place greater value upon
QoL benefits that are immediate rather than
those that may arise 1 or 2 years in the
future. Therefore, it may be relevant to discount
future QoL gains by converting or reducing
the future value of the utility score to their
present-day value.
Cross-References
Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY)
Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)
SF-36
Units of Analysis
Utility
References
Brazier, J., Ratcliffe, J., Salomon, J. A., & Tsuchiya, A.
(2007). Measuring and valuing health
benefits for economic evaluation. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Matthews, J. N. S., Altman, D. G., Campbell, M. J., &
Royston, P. (1990). Analysis of serial measurements in
medical research. British Medical Journal, 300,
230235.
Thomas, K. J., MacPherson, H., Thorpe, L., Brazier, J.,
Fitter, M., Campbell, M. J., et al. (2006). Randomised
controlled trial of a short course of traditional acu-
puncture compared with usual care for persistent
non-specific low back pain. British Medical Journal,
333(7569), 623629.
Walters, S. J. (2009). Quality of life outcomes in clinical
trials and health care evaluation: A practical
guide to analysis and interpretation. Chichester,
UK: Wiley.
221 A
Argyle, Michael
A
Adrian Furnham
University College London, London, UK
Birth, Education, Work History, and
Main Contributions
Michael Argyle, 19262002
Michael Argyle was a British, social psychol-
ogist who taught at Oxford University for
50 years. He had a steady output of unique and
impactful papers and books and continued
researching till his untimely death in
a swimming accident.
Argyle supervised over 50 Ph.D.s (D.Phil in
Oxford) and was always very proud of their suc-
cess all around the world. He wrote around
25 books on a variety of topics including body
language, relationships, money, leisure, work,
social class, and religion. He loved to tell people
about his secret list of topics that psychologists
had ignored but that he was interested in study-
ing. These included happiness, cooperation, and
money. He also wrote as a psychologist about
social class. It is perhaps his books on happiness
and positive psychology that he will be best
remembered for.
He also wrote around 250 papers on a variety
of topics including body language, religion,
money, happiness, and work; it was possible to
see clear threads and themes which he pursued.
He believed that social behavior, even the most
ephemeral aspects like eye contact, was lawlike
and that one could be taught the rules of social
etiquette to improve communication.
He had no interest in depth psychology,
psychoanalytic speculation, or grand theories.
Nor did he rely on advanced multivariate
statistics to reveal hidden patterns in data. His
experimental work was novel: he designed
simple, but illuminating studies. His survey
work was also characterized by innovation.
He preferred not to rely on standardized question-
naires but designed his own to measure the sort of
things that interested him. Indeed, there were no
A 222
existing measures of the sort of thing that most
interested him like happiness.
Argyle never bothered with disciplinary dis-
tinctions and could happily move from anthro-
pology to zoology when investigating a topic. His
books were always distinctive. They always
brought together material in a unique way and
offered a new way to look at old ideas. Many
remain best sellers.
There were many things rather unique about
Argyle. For instance, he advised doctorate stu-
dents not to read too much initially because it
limited their creativity and channeled their think-
ing into too well-plowed furrows. He was not
attracted to theory building often dismissing
those he saw as theoretical baggage that
imprisoned rather than liberated.
He was not interested in forming a school of
thought but was very interested in forming and
maintaining a social group. For nearly 30 years he
presided over a very active but heterogeneous
group of social psychologists at Oxford. The
social group was social in what they studied and
how they studied it. In many ways, like all PhD
students, they were marked by their doctoral
experience and very loyal to Argyle and no
doubt to his memory.
Through his books, his students, and his
research collaborations, he made people think
differently about social behavior. His optimism
was infectious. When psychologists spent all
their efforts on depression, he studied happiness.
When they became obsessed by work, he
published a book on leisure. When colleagues
studied competitiveness, he studied cooperation.
His ideas were popularized by himself and
others such that it is difficult to remember how
people thought about topics before his work. His
work on nonverbal behavior, social skills train-
ing, and latterly happiness have indeed bubbled
down into lay consciousness.
There were many sides to Argyle, at one stage
the fourth most cited British psychologist. On the
other hand, he was the epitome of the English
gentleman: polite, slightly formal, and kind. He
knew about social rules and obeyed them care-
fully. But he was also a fun loving maverick. He
described his hobbies as utopia speculation and
Ariaal (Kenya), Quality of Life
playing the goat. He was almost childlike in his
playfulness and love of schoolboy jokes and
humor.
Cross-References
Happiness
Religion
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
Spirituality
Ariaal (Kenya), Quality of Life
Benjamin Campbell
Department of Anthropology, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Definition
Quality of life of Ariaal in Northern Kenya is
a single study of subjective well-being among
Ariaal pastoral nomads in Marsabit District,
Kenya, using a modified version of the World
Health Organization quality of life assessment
(WHOQOL).
Description
Quality of life was investigated among Ariaal
pastoral nomads of Northern Kenya using the
World Health Organization quality of life
assessment (WHOQOL) to determine the impact
of social support and physical status on
subjective well-being in a population with a
subsistence economy. We hypothesized that
the increasing herd size, number of marriages,
and social prestige with age among men might
lead to an increase in perceptions of well-being.
At the same time, declining physical status might
be related to declines in well-being because
of the importance of physical activity for
subsistence activities. In addition, we compared
subsets of nomadic and settled Ariaal men
Ariaal (Kenya), Quality of Life
to explore the impact of settlement on quality
of life.
The Ariaal inhibit the uplands and lowlands
around the Ndoto Mountains in Marsabit District.
In the uplands the Ariaal herd cattle and tend
crops, mostly maize. In the lowlands they herd
camels. The Ariaal emerged as a separate ethnic
group in the 1880s drawing together groups
of poor Rendille and Samburu nomads working
to build up their herds in the mountains. Culturally
the Ariaal exhibit features of both the Samburu
(age-sets) and the Rendille (animal blessings)
(Fratkin, 1998).
The existence of male age-sets is critical to an
understanding of the Ariaal male life course.
Every 14 years young men are initiated as an
age-set of morans (warriors) whose sole respon-
sibility is to guard the livestock and raid the
animals of other groups. The men spend much
of their time together with the animals in satellite
camps away from the main camp. During this
period, the morans may have girlfriends but
cannot marry them. With the initiation of the
next age-set, men lose the status of moran and
are now eligible to marry and join back into the
community as elders. The period of being
a moran is said to be the best time of a mans life.
Subjects for this study were drawn for the
nomadic encampment of Lowogosa, about 3 h
from the town of Logologo on the Kaisut Plateau
as well as the village of Songa about 45 min from
the district capital of Marsabit. One hundred three
nomadic men and 102 settled men took part,
stratified into 10-year age groups: 2029, 3039,
4049, 5059, and 60+. Quality of life
was assessed using a modified version of WHO
quality of life assessment (WHOQOL). The
WHOQOL was designed to be used in various
cultures and has been validated cross-culturally
(World Health Organization [WHO], 1995,
1998). We included those sections that seemed
directly relevant to the Ariaal and that would not
pose too much of burden on the respondents. This
included overall quality of life, energy, sleep,
mobility, activities of daily living, sexual little attention (see Cliggett, 2005 for an
satisfaction, positive emotions, negative
emotions, and self-esteem. Social support was
measured by the number of current wives a man
223 A
had, as well as the number of kin who had contact
with or provided emotional or material support to
the individual. Only three of the 203 men A
mentioned female kin, so this is a measure of
male kin support. Age was determined using the
local 14-year cycle of age-set initiations and
a local event calendar. Physical measures of
aging included handgrip strength and % body fat.
To obtain a composite measure of quality of
life, factor analysis was performed using the
nine components of the WHOQOL. A single fac-
tor was extracted. Likewise factor analysis was
used to obtain a composite measurement of social
support. Again a single factor was extracted. To
determine the relationship of quality of life to
age, social support, and physical aging, GLM
models were run with the quality of life score as
the outcome variable and age, social support,
marital status, grip strength, and % body fat as
predictors.
The results indicate that quality of life was
consistently higher for the nomads across all age
groups. Furthermore the age pattern of quality of
life differed between the two groups. Among the
settled males, quality of life declined monotoni-
cally with age group. Among the nomadic males,
quality of life was highest among men in the 20s,
declined substantially in the 30s, and peaked
again in the 40s before declining into the 60s.
Similarly male social support was higher at all
ages among the nomads compared to the settled
men. Among nomads social support reached
a peak in the 40s and then declined into the 60s,
while among settled males, social support
showed no clear pattern across the age groups.
Significant predictors of quality of life
included residence (settled/nomadic) age group,
percentage of body fat, and social support. Grip
strength and numbers of wives were not
significant predictors in any of the models run.
In a final multivariate model, quality of life was
best predicted by residence (nomad/settled)
and social support.
Aging in rural Africa has received relatively
exception). This is one of the first quantitative
studies of aging and quality of life in
a subsistence society and the first we are aware
A 224
of in African pastoral nomads. Our original
hypotheses (1) increasing access to social
resources with age would lead to an age related
increase in quality of life and (2) decline in phys-
ical capacity with age would lead to poorer quality
of life were only partially borne out. Overall,
quality of life did increase as a result of increased
social support, but only into the 40s. Rather than
continuing to increase from that point, male social
support began to decline as did our measures of
physical status and self-reported quality of life.
Our results are consistent with the literature from
other populations indicating that social support is an
important determinant of quality of life (Litwin,
2006). For anthropologists this is expected given
that kin networks provide social structure in subsis-
tence societies. On the other hand, our finding that
grip strength does not predict quality of life differs
from earlier results from industrialized populations
(Sayer et al., 2006). This finding is somewhat
surprising given the importance of physical compe-
tency for subsistence activities. It may represent the
fact that maximum grip strength is about two third
that reported for industrialized populations leaving
less variance for an association of grips strength
with fragility. Alternatively, this result may reflect
the relationship of grip strength to mortality
(Rantanen et al., 2000). Among the Ariaal, who
have limited health care, frailty be more highly
associated with mortality than an extended period
of reduced quality of life during aging.
The finding that nomadic men reported higher
quality of life across the life course is consistent
with the strong value that nomads associate with
the nomadic life (Barkey, Campbell, & Leslie,
2001). Even though upland Ariaal are settled in
a village, they still herd animals and maintain
nomadic cultural practices such as age-sets,
leaving little doubt about their identification as
nomads. The fact that the nomadic and settled
men did not differ in percentage of body fat or
grip strength suggests that differences in quality of
life are not related to a decline in nutritional status
with settlement, though we cannot rule out the
possibility that the settled group may experience
higher rates of infectious disease than the nomads.
Greater levels of reported male social support
among the nomads also reflect difference in the
Ariaal (Kenya), Quality of Life
subsistence economy between the two groups.
Herding camels in the lowlands requires multiple
individuals working together and access to kin
networks controlled by older men to acquire ani-
mals. In the upland areas, land is easier for young
men to acquire and farm, reducing the size of
work groups and the power of older men to con-
trol the means of subsistence (Smith, 1998,
1999). The age pattern of quality of life reflects
these differences in the male life cycle. Our
results show the highest quality of life in the 20s
for both settled and nomadic males bearing out
the claim that this is the best time of a mans life.
From that age group, quality of life among the
nomads declines in the 30s, while men are acquir-
ing animals and getting married, and peaks again
the 40s with the highest amount of social support
and integration. Decline in the quality of life after
40 is related to declines in social support and
physical condition. On the other hand, no discern-
ible pattern is evident for the settled males, con-
sistent with reduced control of subsistence
resources by older men and greater variation in
individual trajectories over the male life course.
The fact that quality of life is not associated with
the number of a mans current wives is notable. It
may be that more wives lead to more disputes
among co-wives increasing tension and reducing
subjective well-being in the household. Or it may
reflect the reduced strength of conjugal bonds
thought to characterize pastoral nomads more gen-
erally. As mentioned earlier only three of 203 men
named their wives when asked to names individuals
from who they received support. So it may be that
men do not find their wives emotionally supportive
or they may take such support for granted.
References
Barkey, N. L., Campbell, B. C., & Leslie, P. W. (2001).
A comparison of health complaints of settled and
nomadic Turkana men. Medical Anthropology
Quarterly, 15, 391408.
Cliggett, L. (2005). Grain from grass: Aging, gender and
famine in rural Africa. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press.
Fratkin, E. (1998). Ariaal Pastoralists of Kenya: Surviving
drought and development in Africas arid lands.
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Aristotle
Litwin, H. (2006). Social networks and self-rated health:
A cross-cultural examination among older Israelis.
Journal of Aging and Health, 18, 335358.
Rantanen, T., Harris, T., Leveille, S. G., Visser, M.,
Foley, D., Masaki, K., et al. (2000). Muscle strength
and body mass index as long-term predictors of mor-
tality in initially healthy men. Journal of Gerontology
A: Biological Science and Medical Science,
55, M168M173.
Sayer, A. A., Sydall, H. E., Martin, H. J., Dennison, E. M.,
Roberts, H. C., & Cooper, C. (2006). Is grip strength
associated with health-related quality-of-life?
Findings from the Hertfordshire Cohort Study. Age
and Aging, 35, 409415.
Smith, K. (1998). Farming, marketing, and change in the
authority of elders among pastoral Rendille and Ariaal.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 13, 309332.
Smith, K. (1999). Economic transformation and changing
work roles among pastoralist Rendille and Ariaal of
Northern Kenya. Research in Economic Anthropology,
20, 135161.
World Health Organization. (1995). The World Health
Organization Quality-of-Life Assessment (WHOQOL):
Position paper from the World Health Organization.
Social Science and Medicine, 41, 14031409.
World Health Organization. (1998). The World Health
Organization Quality-of-Life Assessment (WHOQOL):
Development and general psychometric properties.
Social Science and Medicine, 46, 15691585.
Aristotle
Alex C. Michalos
University of Northern British Columbia,
Prince George, BC, Canada
(residence) Brandon, MB, Canada
Birth, Education, Work History, and
Main Contributions
Judged by the impact of his works on scholars
across many centuries and continents, it is argu-
able that Aristotle of Stageira (384322 BCE)
was the most influential philosopher who ever
lived. He was the son of a Macedonian physician
named Nicomachus, who served King Philip,
father of Alexander the Great, a sometime student
of Aristotle. Since Aristotle studied and worked
with Plato for 22 years (367347 BCE) at the
latters academy in Athens, they shared some
views. However, when Plato died in 347 BCE,
225 A
the leadership of his academy passed to his
nephew, Speusippus, not to Aristotle. The latter
moved on and in 334 established his own school A
in Athens called the Lyceum. According to Irwin
in Aristotle (1999, p.xiv), the nearly complete
modern English translation of Aristotles extant
works (in [The Revised Oxford Translation]) fills
about 2,450 pages, though many works are lost.
Discussions of the good life appear promi-
nently in five treatises, namely, Eudemian Ethics,
Nicomachean Ethics, Magna Moralia, Rhetoric,
and Politics. The Eudemian Ethics and
Nicomachean Ethics are the first couple of rela-
tively long and systematic theoretical treatises
ever written on ethics. While they are attrib-
uted to Aristotle, in both cases, the texts were
apparently assembled from students notes and
present problems of internal coherence. The
Eudemian Ethics is generally regarded as the
earlier of the two volumes, and three of its
Books, 46, are identical to Books 57 in the
Nicomachean Ethics. The Magna Moralia
seems to be genuinely Aristotelian, but of lesser
importance, and it is not considered here. Some
of the most frequently quoted passages in the
history of philosophy come from the
Nicomachean Ethics and concern our topic
directly. For example,
Every craft and every line of inquiry, and likewise
every action and decision, seems to seek some
good; that is why some people were right to
describe the good as what everything seeks. But
the ends [that are sought] appear to differ; some are
activities, and others are products apart from the
activities. Wherever there are ends apart from
the actions, the products are by nature better than
the activities. Suppose, then, that the things achiev-
able by action have some end that we wish for
because of itself, and because of which we wish
for the other things, and that we do not choose
everything because of something else for if we
do, it will go on without limit, so that desire will
prove to be empty and futile. Clearly, this end
will be the good, that is to say, the best good.
What is the highest of all the goods achievable in
action? As far as the name goes, most people
virtually agree; for both the many and the culti-
vated call it happiness [EUDAIMONIA], and they
suppose that living well and doing well are the
same as being happy. But they disagree about
what happiness is, and the many do not give the
same answer as the wise. (Aristotle, 1999, p. 3)
A 226
The situation was even more complicated than
Aristotles remarks suggest, for the wise had
significantly different views among themselves.
However, it is clear from Aristotles phrase that
living well and doing well are the same as being
happy that he is not talking about a mere
extended feeling of pleasure. In fact, shortly
after the passages quoted above, he wrote:
The many, the most vulgar, would seem to con-
ceive the good and happiness as pleasure, and
hence they also like the life of gratification.
In this they appear completely slavish, since the
life they decide on is a life for grazing animals.
(Aristotle, 1999, p. 4)
Regarding views of the many, Aristotles
best account is given in the Rhetoric and runs as
follows:
...for the sake of illustration, let us ascertain what
happiness, generally speaking, is, and what its parts
consist in; ...Let us then define happiness
[EUDAIMONIA] as well-being combined with
virtue, or independence of life, or the life that is
most agreeable combined with security, or abun-
dance of possessions and slaves, combined with
power to protect and make use of them; for nearly
all men admit that one or more of these things
constitutes happiness. If, then, such is the nature
of happiness, its component parts must necessarily
be: noble birth, numerous friends, good friends,
wealth, good children, numerous children, a good
old age; further bodily excellences, such as health,
beauty, strength, stature, fitness for athletic
contests, a good reputation, honour, good luck,
virtue. For a man would be entirely independent,
provided he possessed all internal and external
goods; for there are no others. Internal goods are
those of mind and body; external goods are noble
birth, friends, wealth, honour. To these we think
should be added certain capacities and good luck;
for on these conditions life will be perfectly secure.
Let us now in the same way define each of these in
detail. Noble birth.... (Aristotle, 1926, pp. 4749)
These passages are merely the beginning of
several pages of more detailed definitions of com-
ponents and/or conditions of a happy life or of
a life of someone living well and doing well.
Logically speaking, Aristotle was not as tidy as
one would have preferred in constructing his def-
initions, and he was no more adept than we are at
sorting out components or constituents from con-
ditions or determinants of happiness. However,
Aristotle
he certainly provided an excellent list of candi-
dates for components and conditions of happi-
ness. Whats more, as a report of the common
views of his contemporaries (i.e., the many), he
gave us a gem of sociological and psychological
observation. For present purposes, one should
notice especially that there are relatively
few items in his list that most people today
would exclude from our list, for example, slaves
certainly, and possibly noble birth and numerous
children. In the latter cases, most people today
might list some children and perhaps at least
a middle-class birth. Presumably only relatively
young people would be interested in fitness for
athletic contests. Regarding slaves, although
most of us today reject while Aristotle and most
of his contemporaries accepted the institution of
slavery, From Homer on, being captured into
slavery was a paradigm of human disaster,
a brutal form of bad luck (Williams, 1993,
pp. 197198). I suppose this would not be an
extraordinary view today and that, therefore,
the idea of being a slave has been universally
unattractive across all these years. Aristotle was
by all accounts one of the most conventional of
all ancient philosophers, always respectful
of previous and current thinkers and mindful of
the need to appropriately contextualize his own
contributions. For example, in Book 1 of the
Nicomachean Ethics, he tells his readers that
the facts harmonize with a true account of any
particular subject and that all the features that
people look for in happiness appear to be true of
the end described in our account (Aristotle,
1999, p. 10). Nevertheless, his own views were
not entirely consistent with conventional
wisdom. Let us, then, briefly review Aristotles
post-reflective, philosophical views about the
good or happy life. Following conventional
wisdom, he seems to have accepted the notion
that some sort of independence is necessary
for a good life. He introduced two technical
terms to capture this idea, completeness and
self-sufficiency, using the following defini-
tions. Aristotle apparently believed that, in the
first place, one chooses to live a particular way
of life because one regards that way as not requir-
ing anything beyond itself. Today we might say
Aristotle
that it is both sustainable and worthy of being
sustained; for example, we choose understanding
because it is good in itself but also because
it contributes to our general well-being, to
living well and doing well. If someone asked,
But why do you choose to live well and do
well? we might wonder if the questioner under-
stood English because the question seems to pre-
suppose that the alternative of preferring to live
poorly and do poorly is reasonable. It is, after all,
a logical truism that living well and doing well
is better than living poorly and doing poorly,
just as breathing well is better than breathing
poorly. Granting this, Aristotle recognized
that the formal conditions of completeness and
self-sufficiency lacked content and that we still
need a clearer statement of what the best good is
for a human being. He provided this content, as
Plato did before him, essentially by assuming that
just as every part of a human being has some
characteristic function which may be performed
well or poorly, so human beings themselves may
be said to have some function, and their
best good would be obtained by performing
that function excellently. Unfortunately, in the
Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics,
there is a significant discrepancy between the
position offered in the last Books and all
the others. In the last Books of each of these
volumes, the best sort of life is one of contempla-
tion. In Book 8 of the Eudemian Ethics, it is
contemplation of God, that is,
any mode of choice and acquisition that either
through deficiency or excess hinders us from serv-
ing and from contemplating God that is a bad
one...Let this, then, be our statement of what is the
standard of nobility and what is the aim of things
absolutely good. (Aristotle, 1952, p. 477)
In Book 10 of the Nicomachean Ethics, it is
intellectual contemplation.
If happiness is activity in accord with virtue, it is
reasonable too for it to accord with the supreme
virtue, which will be the virtue of the best thing.
The best is understanding, or whatever else seems to
be the natural ruler and leader, and to understand
what is fine and divine, by being itself either divine
or the most divine element in us. Hence complete
happiness will be its activity in accord with its
proper virtue; and we have said that this activity is
227 A
the activity of study..For this activity is supreme,
since understanding is the supreme element in us,
and the objects of understanding are the supreme
objects of knowledge. Further, it is the most contin- A
uous activity, since we are more capable of contin-
uous study than any continuous action. Besides, we
think pleasure must be mixed into happiness; and it
is agreed that the activity in accord with wisdom is
the most pleasant of the activities in accord with
virtue...Moreover, the self-sufficiency we spoke of
will be found in study more than in anything else.
For admittedly the wise person, the just person, and
the other virtuous people all need the good things
necessary for life. Still, when these are adequately
supplied, the just person needs other people as part-
ners and recipients of his just actions; and the same is
true of the temperate person, the brave person, and
each of the others. But the wise person is able, and
more able the wiser he is, to study even by himself;
and though he presumably does it better with
colleagues, even so he is more self-sufficient than
any other [virtuous person].... (Aristotle, 1999,
pp. 163165)
These passages clearly reveal several respects
in which some sort of intellectual activity, trans-
lated as the activity of study and identified with
the activity of understanding here, satisfies
Aristotles conditions for a good or happy life.
Perhaps it would be even more accurate to say
that it is excellence (i.e., virtue or ARETE) in
study and/or understanding that gives the happiest
life according to these passages. Compared to all
other kinds of virtue activity, study and/or
understanding is relatively more complete, self-
sufficient, continuously sustainable, engaged in for
their own sake across the whole of ones life, and
most closely related to the essential feature of
human beings. The idea that a happy or good life
would involve a complete span of life or life as
a whole was central to most ancients views.
There is, however, a difference in the connotation
of life as a whole for the ancients and us. For the
ancients, the phrase is used to provoke reflection
on the whole of ones life from birth to death, while
for us, it is used primarily to provoke reflection on
all the salient domains or features of ones life as
currently lived. In Michalos (1985) and later pub-
lications, for example, the life satisfaction question
asked How do you feel about your life as a whole
right now?, and the assumption of the simple
linear, bottom-up explanation of responses to this
question was based on the idea that respondents
A 228
would reflect on the satisfaction currently obtained
from the specific domains or features of their lives
(e.g., satisfaction obtained from jobs, friends, fam-
ily relations, and so on) and somehow calculate an
answer that appropriately takes all the salient
domains or features into account.
Contrary to the somewhat academic, contem-
plative good lives sketched in the final chapters of
the Nicomachean Ethics and Eudemian Ethics, the
preceding chapters of both treatises sketch good
lives requiring considerably more variety. In Book
1 of the former, readers are told that a human
being is a naturally political animal (Aristotle,
1999, p. 8). In Book 6, one finds that Political
science and prudence are the same state, but their
being is not the same (p. 92). A few pages earlier,
It seems proper to a prudent person to be able to
deliberate finely about things that are good and
beneficial for himself, not about some restricted
area...but about what sorts of things promote living
well in general (p. 89). In Book 1 of the Politics,
Aristotle provided a naturalistic account of the
origin of city-states that runs from the natural
unions of men and women for the sake of
procreation and natural rulers and natural slaves
for the sake of survival, to households to satisfy
everyday needs and to villages promising still
greater security and finally to city-states for the
sake of living well. City-states are characterized
as complete communities displaying total self-
sufficiency (Aristotle, 1998, pp. 23). An ordi-
nary human being cannot flourish outside of a city-
state. Anyone who cannot form a community
with others, he says, or who does not need to
because he is self-sufficient, is no part of a city-
state he is either a beast or a god (p. 5). Clearly,
then, Aristotles requirement for self-sufficiency in
a good or happy life is not absolute, but relative to
a community which would be absolutely self-
sufficient. Being able to live in such a community
constitutes an important external good. The simi-
larities between his and Platos views on commu-
nity and individual interdependence are striking.
Several times in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
insisted on the necessity of external goods for
a completely happy life. For example, after noting
that happiness is. . . activity in accord with vir-
tue, he wrote,
Aristotle
Nonetheless, happiness evidently also needs external
goods to be added, as we said, since we cannot, or
cannot easily, do fine actions if we lack the resources.
For, first of all, in many actions we use friends,
wealth, and political power just as we use instru-
ments. Further, deprivation of certain [externals]
for instance, good birth, good children, beauty mars
our blessedness. For we do not altogether have the
character of happiness if we look utterly repulsive or
are ill-born, solitary, or childless; and we have it even
less, presumably, if our children or friends are totally
bad, or were good but have died. And so, as we have
said, happiness would seem to need this sort of pros-
perity added also. (Aristotle, 1999, p. 11)
A few pages later, he asked Why not say that
the happy person is one whose activities accord
with complete virtue, with an adequate supply of
external goods, not for just any time but for
a complete life? (Aristotle, 1999, p. 14). Aris-
totle recognized that people naturally have some
virtue, for example, from birth people may be
more or less brave, temperate, and just. But the
sort of virtue that concerned him most was that
because of which a persons actions might be
regarded as praiseworthy or blameworthy, that
is, typically actions for which one is personally
responsible or actions voluntarily and freely
chosen. He thought that if one adds understand-
ing in the form of prudence to natural virtue, one
may obtain full virtue. For example, one might
be naturally bright and admired for that, but if
a naturally bright person has sufficient prudence
to study hard enough to become wise beyond
natures gift, such a person would be praisewor-
thy. It is this sort of excellence or virtue (ARETE)
realized in and through an agents deliberately
chosen activity that Aristotle regarded as neces-
sary for a good life. The development of such
virtue was described as similar to the develop-
ment of a skill or craft (TECHNE) insofar as one
becomes a skilled craftsperson by deliberately
engaging in some activities, with ones under-
standing of them increasing as ones skill
improves. Thus, a fully virtuous person would
do the right thing fully understanding that and
why it is right, all things considered. He distin-
guished the possession or state of virtue from
using or the activity of virtue and insisted
that the former or mere capacities for action
could not be sufficient for a good or happy life.
Arizona Indicators
After all, he remarked, someone may be in
a state that achieves no good if, for instance,
he is asleep or inactive in some other way
(Aristotle, 1999, pp. 1011). In his view, the
good life was a life of unimpeded action
proceeding from certain appropriate states and
appropriately enjoyed.
For actions in accord with the virtues to be done
temperately or justly it does not suffice that they
themselves have the right qualities. Rather, the
agent must also be in the right state when he does
them. First, he must know [that he is doing virtuous
actions]; second, he must decide on them, and
decide on them for themselves; and, third, he
must also do them from a firm and unchanging
state (Aristotle, 1999, p. 22).
All things considered, Aristotles characteri-
zation of a good or happy life is the clearest
example we have from the ancients of the view
that the quality of a persons or of a communitys
life is a function of the actual conditions of that
life and what a person or community makes of
those conditions. Conceptually, he could clearly
distinguish real paradise and hell from a fools
paradise and hell. A good or happy life is not
simply given by nature, God, or gods. It requires
internal and external gifts and good luck beyond
our control, but it also requires individual and
communal initiative. For example, individuals
naturally have the capacity to reason and to act
bravely and justly more or less. With the right
education, training, and hard work, one may
come to exercise these capacities excellently.
A good or happy life, according to Aristotle, is
achieved exactly insofar as one deliberately
engages in the unimpeded excellent exercise of
ones capacities for the sake of doing what is fine,
excellent, or noble (KALON), provided that the
deliberation and activities are undertaken from
a developed disposition (i.e., a virtuous charac-
ter) and accompanied by an appropriate amount
of external goods and pleasure. In short, a good
or happy life consists of a harmonious mixture of
internal and external goods in the first place, and
regarding the former, an equally harmonious
mixture of reason, appetite, and emotion. From
his perspective, a discordant or inactive life
would not be worth living, and the idea of
a happy scoundrel would be an oxymoron.
229 A
Cross-References
Hesiod A
Homer
Multiple Discrepancies Theory
Plato
References
Annas, J. (1993). The morality of happiness. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Aristotle. (1926). The Art of rhetoric (J. H. Freese,
Trans.). Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard
University Press.
Aristotle. (1952). The Athenian constitution, the eudemian
ethics, on virtues and vices (H. Rackham, Revised
Trans.). Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard
University Press.
Aristotle. (1998). Politics (C. D. C. Reeve, Trans.).
Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Aristotle. (1999). Nicomachean ethics (T. Irwin, 2nd ed.
Trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Dover, K. J. (1974). Greek popular morality in the time of
Plato and Aristotle. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Kahn, C. H. (1998). Pre-platonic ethics. In S. Everson
(Ed.), Ethics (Companions to ancient thought, Vol.
4). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McKirahan, R. D. (1994). Philosophy before Socrates: An
introduction with texts and commentary. Indianapolis:
Hackett Publishing.
Michalos, A. C. (1985). Multiple discrepancies theory
(MDT). Social Indicators Research, 16(4), 347413.
Williams, B. (1993). Pagan justice and christian love. In
T. Irwin & M. Nussbaum (eds.), Virtue, love and form:
Essays in memory of Gregory Vlastos (pp. 195208).
Edmonton: Academic Printing and Publishing.
Arizona Indicators
Andrea Whitsett
Morrison Institute for Public Policy, Arizona
State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Definition
Arizona Indicators is a Web-based community
indicator project that centralizes data showing
Arizonas quality of life, competitive position,
and trajectory with the goal of promoting
A 230
informed decision-making in the state. Key indi-
cators are presented in 11 broad content areas:
economy, public finance, education, health,
human services, sustainability, innovation, cul-
ture, criminal justice, transportation, and demo-
graphics. Information is presented primarily in
the form of interactive data visualizations,
including spatial analyses, and policy briefs.
Description
Arizona Indicators is part of a long-term trend
toward utilization of quality of life indicators to
measure social progress. In many countries, gov-
ernment entities and community groups are striv-
ing to increase transparency and accountability
while promoting evidence-based decision-making.
For example, in the United States, the Affordable
Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) authorized a congres-
sionally appointed commission and the National
Academy of Sciences (NAS) to oversee the devel-
opment of a key national indicator system. To
inform this undertaking, the US Government
Accountability Office (GAO) conducted a study
of diverse indicator systems and concluded that the
following elements are important to the develop-
ment of a comprehensive indicator system: (1)
consulting experts and stakeholders about the pur-
pose and design of the system, (2) using relevant
indicators based on reliable data, and (3) providing
disaggregated and comparative data where feasi-
ble. In addition, GAO found that sustaining indi-
cator systems can present a constant challenge,
depending on stable and diversified funding and
the continued interest of key stakeholders. Thus,
a participatory process for developing and revising
the system is important.
In Arizona, the effort to develop a comprehen-
sive indicators system began when community
leaders identified a need for a centralized reposi-
tory to house Arizona-specific data and improve
public access to information. A partnership devel-
oped between major sponsors, Arizona State
University and the Arizona Community Founda-
tion, and with the support of numerous stake-
holders, Arizonaindicators.org was launched in
2007. The site, managed by Morrison Institute for
Arizona Indicators
Public Policy at Arizona State University, orga-
nizes quality of life indicators in 11 broad content
areas ranging from public finance and the econ-
omy to health and human services. Data are drawn
from reputable, public sources, such as the US
Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention, and are presented through
interactive visualizations, including spatial ana-
lyses. Significant emphasis is placed on user expe-
rience and ease of Website navigation since the
intended audience includes everyday citizens as
well as community leaders and elected officials.
One common challenge that community indi-
cator efforts face is how to move from numbers to
knowledge to action. As Kate Besleme and
Megan Mullin assert in their article, Community
Indicators and Health Communities, Indicators
do not substitute for action, and they also should
not be expected to cause change in and of them-
selves. Indicators are simply measurements
showing time-series data that reflect trends in
community conditions. . .Indicators are nothing
more, nor should they be anything less, than the
information base for a larger advocacy and action
strategy that utilizes existing resource in
a community. Although Arizona Indicators
does not engage in advocacy, it does catalyze
civic engagement in critical issues. It accom-
plishes this by bringing data to life through timely
policy briefs, public opinion surveys, interactive
mapping tools, and public policy roundtables. For
example, Arizona Indicators recently partnered
with the Association of Arizona Food Banks to
publish a policy brief on poverty and food inse-
curity and then cohosted a public policy roundta-
ble to engage the community in this important
issue.
Furthermore, Arizona Indicators promotes
evidence-based decision-making at both the indi-
vidual and policy level. For instance, data on the
rate of obesity may be used by an individual to
inform dietary choices and exercise habits, while
a policymaker may use the same data to inform
school-lunch regulations or funding allocations
for community parks and bike paths. Similarly,
data on issues such as childhood poverty, student
achievement, and housing affordability may be
used by nonprofit organizations to identify needs
Art Galleries 231 A
and design effective service programs, while the References
philanthropic community may use the same data
to inform strategic grant-making. What really Besleme, K., & Mullin, N. (1997). Community indicators and
health communities. National Civic Review, 86, 4352. A
matters is that comprehensive indicator projects,
Dluhy, M., & Swartz, N. (2006). Connecting knowledge and
like Arizona Indicators, provide quality data that policy: The promise of community indicators in the
are objective and nonpartisan so that the indica- United States. Social Indicators Research, 79(1), 123.
tors serve as a common source of information for U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2011). Key indi-
cator systems: Experiences of other national and
civic dialogue. Credibility and transparency are
subnational systems offer insights for the United States
paramount. [Online Document]. Accessed July 6, 2011, from
An inclusive approach that invites public feed- http://www.gao.gov/Products/GAO-11-396
back and citizen participation is shown to be an
important feature of successful indicator projects.
According to Milan Dluhy and Nicholas Swartz in
Arousal, Sexual
their article, Connecting Knowledge and Policy:
The Promise of Community Indicators in the
Sexual Functioning
United States, You want the public to be enlight-
ened but you also want them to be involved in
social action. The more recent community projects
have almost all emphasized ownership and ARS
participation. . .A participatory community can
become a change agent rather than an acquiescent, Acquiescence Response Set
estranged group of people. In addition to hosting
public forums, Arizona Indicators accomplishes
this by inviting public input, conducting frequent
Art
outreach to community groups, and working
directly with scholars, practitioners, business
Art Ownership as Wealth Accumulation
leaders, nonprofits, philanthropists, and elected
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
officials to guide the selection of indicators and
Index of Arts and Arts-Related Activities as
provide important context and interpretation.
Ends in Themselves
Arizona Indicators has an advisory committee
Museums and Galleries: Their Social Worth
to guide its signature annual report and strives to
achieve balance among numerous stakeholders.
Arizona Indicators also works closely with The
Arizona Republic, the largest paper in the state Art and Investment
and region, and other media outlets to engage
residents with key indicators and stimulate solu- Art Ownership as Wealth Accumulation
tion-oriented thinking. While the project con-
tinues to expand and evolve, the key elements
of nonpartisanship, community inclusiveness,
Art for Arts Sake
and citizen-friendly products and events that con-
nect the data with on-the-ground issues will
Index of Arts and Arts-Related Activities as
remain fundamental to the projects success.
Ends in Themselves

Cross-References
Art Galleries
Community Indicators
Social Indicators Museums and Galleries: Their Social Worth
A 232
Art Museums/Galleries
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
Art Ownership as Wealth
Accumulation
Patricia A. Banks
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley,
MA, USA
Synonyms
Art; Art and investment
Definition
Art collecting is a cultural practice characteristic
of elite lifestyles. One mechanism through
which art collecting nourishes membership in
the elite is that it maintains and builds wealth.
Description
Art as a Financial Asset
As a fundamental dimension of lifestyle,
consumer goods play an important role in class
position. Goods such as art, clothing, and cars
signify class membership. However, fine art is
often distinguished from other consumables
because it not only signals wealth, but it is
also appropriated as a financial asset that
will appreciate over time (Banks, 2010b). For
example, from the perspective of some art collec-
tors while consumer goods such as cars are likely
to lose value over time, art is expected to appre-
ciate in value over time (Banks, 2010b, p. 338).
While investment is considered when weighing
the benefits of purchasing art in comparison to
other consumer goods, it is also taken into
account when weighing the benefits of purchas-
ing art in comparison to other financial assets.
Art Museums/Galleries
Investment collectors view art as a complement
and alternative to other assets such as stocks and
bonds. For example, some collectors note cases
where art that they own has gained more in
value than stocks and bonds that they have
invested in (Banks, 2010b, p. 338). Art is also
an attractive financial asset to some collectors
because it provides aesthetic along with financial
benefits.
In recent years, there has been a growing lit-
erature comparing investments in art to more
traditional investments such as stocks and
bonds. These studies compare the performance
of art indexes to other financial indexes, such as
Standard & Poors (S&P) 500 Stock Index, as
well as corporate bonds and government treasury
bills. Outcomes of interest include the returns
and volatility of these assets as well as the corre-
lation of art indexes to other assets. Findings are
mixed. For example, while Mei and Moses
(2002) find that art outperforms government
bonds and treasury bills, Pesando (1993) finds
that modern prints underperform these financial
assets. Similarly, Mei and Moses (2002) suggest
that art may be important for portfolio diversifi-
cation because of their finding that it has lower
volatility and correlation with other assets.
In contrast, Goetzmann (1993) finds a high
correlation between paintings and the London
Stock Exchange.
An important difference between art versus
more traditional forms of investment assets
such as stocks and bonds is that the latter, unlike
the former, does not generally produce regular
income. Instead, art collections generally
produce income on less frequent occasions such
as when it is sold or loaned.
Collecting Art as an Investment
For some art collectors, purchasing art is pursued
with an eye to maintain and accumulate wealth.
However, not all collectors place the same
emphasis on investment. For some, investment
is just one of many factors that are considered
when buying and selling works. In contrast, for
others investment is the guiding principle that
organizes their collecting. For example, while
some collectors purchase art that they hope will
Art Ownership as Wealth Accumulation
appreciate in value, work only enters their collec-
tions if it has other attractive characteristics such
as mastery of technique and emotional resonance
(Banks, 2010b; Moulin, 1987). Moreover, while
they may hope that work will increase in value
over time, barring financial calamity, they do not
ever expect to sell it (Banks, 2010b).
Collectors in this category are also distin-
guished by their focus on not losing money rather
than making money through art ownership.
In his ethnography of the St. Louis art market,
Stuart Plattner (1996) describes how some art
enthusiasts have a wall paper theory of
collecting (p. 173). This perspective notes that
even if a high price is paid for wallpaper, it
depreciates in value once it is hung on the wall.
Applying this point of view to art, collectors seek
to avoid purchasing art that will not at least hold
its purchase price once it is hung on their walls.
To that end, these collectors focus on whether
or not they are buying work at a fair market
value at the time of purchase (Plattner, 1996).
While for some collectors investment is not at
the forefront of their collecting practices, for
others it is the dominant principle guiding what
work enters and exits their collections. For them,
factors such as personal taste have little to no
significance in influencing their acquisitions.
Moreover, they have no plans for the art that
they collect to have a lifetime home in their
collections. Instead, when art has appreciated to
a particular level, they sell to make a profit, and
when it depreciates in value, they sell to avoid
losses. For example, in her research on the
French art market, Raymonde Moulin (1987)
describes how speculators closely monitor the
market to calculate optimal times to sell work to
maximize profits and minimize losses.
Diana Cranes (1987) research on the contem-
porary art market also casts light on the invest-
ment collector by contrasting them with the
patron-protector of the arts (p. 38). Whereas
the former has a short-term commitment to artists
and works and sells when the price is right at
auctions or to museums, the latter has long-term
commitments to genres and styles and donates
collections. In his research on art prices,
Olag Velthuis (1995) also notes this difference
233 A
among collectors. In his discussion of art dealers
perspectives about the right and wrong
motives for acquiring art, buying and selling it A
for a quick return is frowned upon, while donating
it to a museum or founding a museum is respected
(Velthuis, 1995).
When considering works of art to acquire, the
investment collector looks at their potential to
hold or increase in economic value. To gain
insight about what art fits into these categories,
collectors engage in practices such as consulting
art history, art criticism, and art market literature
as well as consulting with experts such as curators
and financial art advisors (Banks, 2010b;
Horowitz, 2011; Plattner, 1996). For example,
Plattner (1996) describes how collectors look to
experienced gallerists for insight about promising
sectors of the art market when making
acquisitions.
To protect from losses and to maximize
profits, the investment collector focuses pur-
chases on specific sectors of the art market. As
Moulin (1987) describes, old masters are sought
out by investors with the belief that they are
safe investments that will likely increase in
value rather than lose value over time. In contrast,
while contemporary art is seen as a more risky
investment because its aesthetic value and eco-
nomic value are not firmly grounded, investors
seek it out because of the potential to win big and
receive a large return for a small investment.
Investors also seek out genres of art that have
been underappreciated in the past, but are gaining
in popularity. For example, in his research com-
paring auction prices of oil paintings by African
American and White artists, Richard Agnello
(2010) finds that while prices for African Amer-
ican artists are lower, the price gap between both
groups is narrowing.
Strategies of the art investor to maximize their
economic interests do not include just anticipat-
ing and reacting to changes in taste in the art
market but also actively managing the art market.
Some art investors attempt to monopolize
the artistic production of emerging artists by pur-
chasing all of their work from galleries or by
paying them a stipend for new works in exchange
for ownership. Once the artists reputations have
A 234
been established and prices have risen, the inves-
tors release the work into the art market (Moulin,
1987). Loaning art for exhibition is another strat-
egy aimed to increase the price of art by translat-
ing the rising aesthetic value that accompanies
exhibition into rising economic value (Becker
116117).
Art Collecting and the Intergenerational
Transfer of Wealth
Some collectors view art as not only an economic
asset that can build and maintain wealth within their
own generation, but also as an economic asset that
can protect and build the wealth of their family
intergenerationally (Banks, 2010b; Moulin, 1987,
p. 98). In this way the intergenerational transfer
of art, like the intergenerational transfer of other
financial assets, is a mechanism of class reproduc-
tion or the inheritance of class position across gen-
erations. Among families whose estates include art,
passing on art to children and other younger
relatives is not just a way to preserve cherished
family heirlooms but also a financial asset that can
preserve family wealth.
Art Investment Funds
In recent years, collecting art as an investment
has become a more structured activity. One espe-
cially important development is growth in art
investment funds. In his research on contempo-
rary art, Noah Horowitz (2011) describes how art
investment funds have taken on a more prominent
presence in the global art market. Underlying
growth in these funds is increasing belief in the
idea that art is a viable asset class. With art
funds investors purchase shares in a diversified
portfolio of art works which is managed
by professionals who have expertise in finance
and the arts.
Art funds are a departure from the more
traditional approach to art collecting and
investing in that instead of investors having own-
ership of entire art works they own shares of
works of art. Moreover, since investors do not
choose the works that will be included in the
portfolio, there is a more tenuous connection
between their aesthetic tastes and the works that
they have invested in. Horowitz notes that
Art Ownership as Wealth Accumulation
investors in some art funds have the opportunity
to borrow art in the fund for a small fee. However,
insurance and tax complications make this rare.
(Horowitz, 2011).
Investing in art in the more traditional way
versus art funds also shifts the class signaling
dynamics of art collecting. For example, when
collectors invest in art and hang the work on
the walls of their homes, their wealth is on dis-
play. Their economic assets are communicated to
others via concrete objects. However, when they
invest in art funds, they have no concrete objects
to display that will signify their wealth. Another
important difference between these forms of art
investment is that whereas art funds are expected
to produce regular income from yearly dividends,
art collections are generally expected to produce
income less frequently such as when work is
sold or loaned.
Art consultants, how-to investment guides,
and art market reports are also part of the grow-
ing institutionalization of art investing in the
contemporary art world. For example, art advi-
sory companies and art advisory units affiliated
with banks provide clients with services such as
art financing and reports about the condition and
authenticity of art works (Horowitz, 2011).
Discussion
While social science research on wealth and
art collecting has articulated how art collectors
seek out art as an investment as well as the strength
of art as a financial asset, more research is needed
on how different groups approach wealth and art
collecting as well as how it is linked to broader
processes of culture and class reproduction.
Research on race and wealth demonstrates that
even holding social class constant, wealth differs
across racial and ethnic groups. For example,
white families across all class levels have more
wealth than their black counterparts (Oliver &
Shapiro, 1995). It is also the case that across
social class segments, blacks inherit less wealth
(Oliver & Shapiro, 1995). However, research on
wealth inequality has focused on more traditional
forms of wealth, such as home ownership, and
largely neglected the study of art. As art invest-
ment becomes more institutionalized, it becomes
Art Ownership as Wealth Accumulation
more important to take account of art ownership
in order to gain a broader understanding of wealth
inequality. This requires comparative study of art
ownership and inheritance across different racial
and ethnic groups.
Comparative research on the genres of art that
different racial and ethnic groups invest in is also
necessary to gain a more comprehensive under-
standing of wealth accumulation and art. While
scholarship on social class and culture has often
emphasized that engagement with high art is an
elite characteristic (Bourdieu, 1984), growing
research emphasizes how different racial and eth-
nic segments of the elite are engaged with differ-
ent genres of high art. For example, historical and
contemporary research on the black upper-
middle and upper class illustrates the importance
of supporting black art to some members of this
group (Banks, 2010a; Fleming & Roses, 2007).
Comparative research is needed to investigate
whether or not art investors from different racial
and ethnic groups are more or less likely to invest
in different genres of art.
Research is also needed to better understand the
types of collectors for whom investment is a less
and more salient dimension of their collecting.
Research on culture and worth suggests that how
individuals approach value shifts depending on the
structural positions that they occupy and the cul-
tural repertoires that they have access to. For
example, in her research investigating valued
social characteristics, Michele Lamont (1992)
finds that in comparison to upper-middle class
men in the United States who are employed in
social and cultural occupations, those who are
employed in for-profit occupations place more
emphasis on socioeconomic traits. In contrast,
those employed in social and cultural jobs place
more emphasis on cultural characteristics. Lamont
also finds that socioeconomic characteristics are
more emphasized by upper-middle class men in
the United States than in France. This research
suggests that occupation as well as nation may be
associated with the degree to which investment is
a salient dimension of art collecting.
Finally, investigating the role of family social-
ization in shaping the disposition to value art as a
form of wealth can cast light on class reproduction.
235 A
Research on cultural capital argues that one of
the most important mechanisms through which the
middle and upper class learn to appreciate and A
understand fine art is early family socialization
(Banks, 2012; Bourdieu, 1984; Bourdieu &
Passeron, 1979; Bourdieu, Darbel, & Schnapper,
1991). Since aesthetic values are transferred across
generations, this perspective posits that cultural
socialization contributes to class reproduction.
Research addressing class reproduction and art
should investigate not only class differences in
the inheritance of art itself but also whether or
not the eye to perceive art as an economic asset
and the financial skills and knowledge to appropri-
ate it as such are passed down from generation to
generation.
Art is an important dimension for the quality
of life. Along with providing aesthetic and social
benefits, it is also appropriated as a financial asset
that maintains and builds wealth. As the institu-
tionalization of art as a financial asset has grown, it
is increasingly important to build knowledge about
the role of art in creating and preserving wealth.
Cross-References
Cultural Diversity
Wealth Index
References
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Banks, P. A. (2010a). Represent: Art and identity among
the black upper-middle class. New York: Routledge.
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A 236
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a global financial market. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
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Lamont, M. (1992). Money, morals, and manners: The
culture of the French and American upper-middle
class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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underperformance of masterpieces. The American
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view (trans: Goldhammer, A.). Arthur Goldhammer.
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Arthritis
Inflammatory Arthritis, EQ-5D, and SF-6D
Arthritis Impact Measurement
Scales (AIMS)
Megan Davidson
School of Physiotherapy, La Trobe University,
Bundoora, VIC, Australia
Definition
AIMS is a multidimensional, self-report measure
designed for evaluating physical, mental, and
social aspects of health in persons with arthritis.
Arthritis
Description
The AIMS is a multidimensional, self-report
measure designed for evaluating physical,
mental, and social aspects of health in persons
with arthritis.
The original AIMS had 45 items derived from
the Rand Health Insurance test batteries and
Bushs Index of Well-being (Meenan, Gertman,
& Mason, 1980). The AIMS2 was expanded to 78
items with 57 items grouped into 12 health status
scales: mobility, walking and bending, hand and
finger function, arm function, self-care, house-
hold tasks, social activities, social support, pain,
work, tension, and mood (Meenan, Mason,
Anderson, Guccione, & Kazis, 1992). Items
58 and 59 ask the respondent to rate each domain
with respect to satisfaction and arthritis impact,
and item 60 to nominate three domains that are
priorities for improvement. The remaining items
ask about current and future health, global
arthritis impact, comorbidities, medication
and health-care utilization, and demographic
information. Each of the 12 scales yields a total
score between 0 and 10, with a higher score
indicating worse health status. The 12 scales are
grouped into five domains: Physical, Symptoms,
Role, Social Interaction, and Affect. The AIMS2
and supporting materials can be downloaded
from: http://ompo.info/arthritis_impact_measur-
ement_scale.html. A 26-item short-form version
(AIMS2-SF) is also available (Guillemin et al.,
1997). The AIMS2 scales have been modified for
ankylosing spondylitis (Guillemin, Challier,
Urlaacher, Vancon, & Pourel, 1999) and osteo-
porosis (Randell et al., 1998).
The AIMS2 has been translated and validated in
Brazilian-Portuguese (Brandao, Ferraz, & Zerbini,
1998), Chinese (Chu, Chiu, Wong, Tang, &
Lau, 2004), Dutch (Riemsma et al., 1996),
French (Pouchot, Guillemin, Coste, Bregeon, &
Sany, 1996), German (Rosemann & Szecsenyi,
2007), Hebrew (Neumann, Dudnik, Bolotin, &
Buskila, 1999), Italian (Salaffi et al., 2000),
Finish (Arkela-Kautiainen et al., 2003), Persian
(Mousavi et al., 2009), Spanish (Abello-Banfi,
Cardiel, Ruiz-Mercado, & Alarcon-Segovia,
1994), Swedish (Archenholtz & Bjelle, 1997),
Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales (AIMS)
and Turkish (Atamaz, Hepguler, & Oncu, 2005).
The AIMS2-SF can be found in Dutch (Taal,
Rasker, & Riemsma, 2003) French (Guillemin
et al., 1997), German (Rosemann, Korner,
Wensing, Schneider, & Szecsenyi, 2005), and Per-
sian (Askary-Ashtiani, Mousavi, Parnianpour, &
Montazeri, 2009).
Reliability
Three-week test-retest reliability coefficients for
the AIMS2 scales ranged from ICC 0.78 (work
scale) to 0.94 (hand function scale) in 45 people
with rheumatoid or osteoarthritis (Meenan et al.,
1992). A review of the literature (Swinkels,
Dijkstra, & Bouter, 2005) reported a pooled
value of 0.86.
For the Persian AIMS2, the ICC range was
0.850.96 (Mousavi et al., 2009) and 0.830.93
for the AIMS2-SF (Askary-Ashtiani et al., 2009).
For the German version, the ICC was greater than
0.90 except for the social activities scale (0.87)
(Rosemann & Szecsenyi, 2007) and for the SF
version the ICC exceeded 0.85 except for the
affect scale (0.72) (Rosemann et al., 2005). The
Turkish AIMS2 (Atamaz et al., 2005) reliability
coefficient range was 0.750.98, the Brazilian-
Portugese 0.870.98 (Brandao et al., 1998), the
Finish version 0.720.97 (Arkela-Kautiainen
et al., 2003), and the Chinese version 0.770.95
(Chu et al., 2004). For the Italian version,
reliability coefficients exceeded 0.80 for 8 of the
12 scales (Salaffi et al., 2000).
Validity
AIMS scales have been shown to correlate vari-
ably with measures of health perceptions, impair-
ments, activities, other questionnaires, and
measures of disease severity (Finch, Brooks,
Stratford, & Mayo, 2002). Correlations with
other scales are consistent with construct validity
of the AIMS2 (Poole, Gallegos, & OLinc, 2000;
Raven et al., 2008; Roorda et al., 2004; Van
Genderen et al., 2004).
Initial factor analysis of the AIMS2-SF
suggested that the original five domains
be retained (Guillemin et al., 1997). Another
study (Ren, Kazis, & Meenan, 1999) supported
a five-factor solution with the physical domain
237 A
split into upper body and lower body. A three-
factor (physical, psychological, and social)
solution has been reported for the Dutch (Taal A
et al., 2003) and German (Rosemann et al., 2005)
AIMS2-SF versions. Confirmatory factor analy-
sis (ten Klooster, Veehof, Taal, van Riel, &
van de Laar, 2008) of the Dutch AIMS2 from
data of 279 patients with RA supported the factor
validity of the AIMS2-SF and the use of separate
upper and lower body limitation scales.
Head-to-Head Comparisons with Other
Scales
AIMS2 and AIMS2-SF had the same responsive-
ness and correlated similarly with other instruments
(Haavardsholm, Kvien, Uhlig, Smedstad, &
Guillemin, 2000) when tested in a large sample of
persons with RA. The AIMS2 scales have been
reported as having similar responsiveness to the
SF-36 and modified Health Assessment Ques-
tionnaire (Hagen, Smedstad, Uhlig, & Kvien,
1999) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Taal,
Rasker, and Riemsma (2004) reported that the
Dutch AIMS2-SF was more sensitive to change
than the modified Health Assessment Question-
naire and VAS-pain scales in patients with
rheumatoid arthritis.
A review by Swinkels et al. (2005) compared
19 instruments and concluded that the AIMS was
the preferred instrument for assessing personal
care disabilities in people with rheumatic diseases.
Another review (Alviar, Olver, Brand, Hale, &
Khan, 2011) found that the 45-item AIMS1 had
greater coverage of WHO ICF content
than seven other patient self-report outcome mea-
sures relevant to hip and knee arthroplasty patients.
Stamm et al. (2006) concluded that the AIMS2-SF
had better coverage of ICF categories than five
other questionnaires for measuring function in
people with hand osteoarthritis.
Strengths
Extensive content
Limitations
Lengthy and time-consuming to complete and
score
Fatigue not covered
A 238
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Van Genderen, F. R., van Meeteren, N. L., van der Bom,
J. G., Heijnen, L., De Kleijn, P., van den Berg, H. M., In its broadest sense, art can be defined as the
et al. (2004). Functional consequences of haemophilia ability to make or do something. More specifi-
in adults: The development of the Haemophilia cally, art can be defined as making or doing that
Activities List. Haemophilia, 10, 565571. displays or involves creativity, skill, and/or imag-
ination. Art differs from craft because while both
involve ingenuity in execution, the term craft is
most often used to describe those artistic objects
Artic Qol that are made by hand but may have a functional
purpose and which require less ingenuity, skill, or
Human Development, Arctic creative thought in their execution.
A 240
As a noun, art has multiple meanings in the
English language and can be used to denote:
1. Skill or creative power (i.e., creativity,
artistry, craftsmanship, imagination)
2. The study and creation of beauty (i.e., styles
or schools of art including abstract, modern,
contemporary, representational, realist,
expressionist, surrealist, cubist, impressionist,
baroque, medieval, renaissance)
3. The product or activity of art that is created to
be beautiful or to express ideas (i.e., works of
art, architecture, dance, decorative arts,
literature, music, theater, drama, painting,
sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photogra-
phy, film, video, ballet, opera)
4. The study of the humanities (i.e., liberal arts,
philosophy, music, fine arts, history,
literature, language)
Description
Aristotle claimed that art is an imitation of life,
and while art may not always imitate life, it both
reflects and is reflected in life. As Williams
(1991) stated, Together, the arts and humanities
convey the very essence of what it means to be
a human being (p. 1). Throughout history, the
presence of the arts has been simply assumed,
providing the foundation and framework of our
culture. As the universal language of civilization,
the arts help foster both an understanding and
appreciation for the cultures of others, allowing
us to express our dreams, desires, hopes, frustra-
tions, ideas, and feelings.
It is through the arts that the stages of history
are marked, celebrated, and remembered. It is the
arts that reaffirm our humanity and develop and
hold our society together. A study by the Creative
City Network of Canada (2005b) found Cities
that support the arts and culture contribute many
elements to quality of life: civic involvement,
tolerance of diversity, life-long learning, and
accessibility to social services (p. 4). The arts
have been shown to be instrumental in creating
positive change in communities as they (1) are
one of the primary means of public dialogue,
(2) contribute to the development of creative
Arts and Quality of Life
learning communities, (3) help create healthy
communities, (4) serve as a powerful tool for
community mobilization and activism, and
(5) build community capacity and leadership
(Creative City Network of Canada, 2005a, p. 2).
A recent study by the Environics Research
Group (2010) for the Ontario Arts Council exam-
ining the arts and quality of life found that when
individuals think of the arts, they most commonly
think of music and concerts, or drama, plays, or
theater followed by the visual arts, dance, and
ballet. The study also found that only 6 % of
Ontarians associate the arts with literature, writing,
or books. Survey respondents indicated that the
personal benefits they received from participating
in or attending the arts included (1) entertainment
or fun (36 %), (2) learning or experiencing some-
thing new (22 %), (3) emotional, spiritual, or intel-
lectual stimulation (16 %), (4) exposure to different
cultures (14 %), and (5) providing the opportunity
to socialize with friends (11 %).
The arts demand self-direction, expressiveness,
and a sense of personal authenticity as they utilize
and aid in the development of a range of skills and
competencies (Ivey & Kingsbury, 2008). While
the way art is experienced is highly personal, the
performing arts, including theater, music, and
dance, involve collaboration and working in
groups allowing participants to develop increased
affiliations with others (Ivey & Kingsbury). The
arts provide opportunities for engagement,
participation, openness, and experience, thereby
encouraging a sense of awareness of ourselves
and our environments. The arts encourage living
in the moment, allowing us to experience the world
around us both emotionally and intellectually.
Cross-References
Aesthetic Value
Architecture and Meaning
Art Ownership as Wealth Accumulation
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
City Culture Maps
Creative Class (Richard Florida)
Creativity and Quality of Life
Cultural Capital
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
Cultural Capital and Quality of Life in Korea
Cultural Consonance and Psychological
Well-being
Cultural Goods and Services (Consumption of)
Cultural Indicators
Dance and the Quality of Life
Design, an Overview
Folk Music
Index of Arts and Arts-Related Activities as
Ends in Themselves
Index of Arts as Community Builders
Index of Arts as Self-Developing Activities
Index of Arts as Self-Health Enhancers
Index of Arts as Spirit-Building
Music
References
Belfiore, E., & Bennett, O. (2008). The social impact of the
arts: An intellectual history. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Creative City Network of Canada. (2005a). Arts and
positive change in communities. Making the case for
culture series. Vancouver, BC: Creative City Network
of Canada. Retrieved from www.creativecity.ca/data-
base/files/library/arts_positive_change(1).pdf
Creative City Network of Canada. (2005b). Quality of life,
quality of place. Making the case for culture series.
Vancouver, BC: Creative City Network of Canada.
Retrieved from www.creativecity.ca/database/files/
library/quality_of_life_and_place(1).pdf
Dewey, J. (1980). Art as experience. New York: Perigee
Books.
Environics Research Group. (2010). The arts and the
quality of life: The attitudes of Ontarians. Toronto,
ON: Ontario Arts Council. Retrieved from http://
www.arts.on.ca/AssetFactory.aspx?did 6235
Fischer, E. (2010). The necessity of art. London: Verso.
Ivey, B., & Kingsbury, P. (2008). Happiness and a high
quality of life: The role of art and art making, The
Pocantico Gathering. Nashville, TN: The Curb Center
for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy. Retrieved
from www.vanderbilt.edu/curbcenter/files//HAPPI-
NESS-REPORT_web1.pdf
Kim, S., & Kim, H. (2009). Does cultural capital matter?:
Cultural divide and quality of life. Social Indicators
Research, 93, 295313.
Tepper, S. J., & Ivey, B. (2008). Engaging art: The next
great transformation of Americas cultural life.
New York: Routledge.
Williams, H. M. (1991). The language of civilization:
The vital role of the arts in education. Washington,
DC: Presidents Committee on the Arts and the
Humanities.
241 A
Arts and Self-Development
A
Index of Arts as Self-Developing Activities
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
Alex C. Michalos
University of Northern British Columbia,
Prince George, BC, Canada
(residence) Brandon, MB, Canada
Synonyms
Acting; Art; Art museums/galleries; Community
festivals; Concerts; Dancing; Embroidery/needle-
point; Figure skating; Films; Flower arranging;
Gardening; Gourmet cooking; Historic/heritage
sites; Knitting/crocheting; Museums other than
art; Music; Novels/literature; Painting/drawing;
Pottery/ceramics; Public libraries; Quilting; Sculp-
ture; Singing; Textiles; Theater
Description
There have been two major surveys in British
Columbia focused on arts-related activities and
the quality of life, namely, one designed to mea-
sure the impact of arts-related activities on the
perceived quality of life of a representative sample
of 708 British Columbians aged 18 years or more in
the spring of 2007 (Michalos & Kahlke, 2010) and
another to compare the findings of that study with
those of a sample of 1,027 adults drawn from five
B.C. communities (Comox Valley, Kamloops,
Nanaimo, Port Moody and Prince George) in the
fall of 2006 (Michalos & Kahlke, 2008). Seven
different overall life assessment variables were
used to operationalize ideas of the perceived
quality of life. These were (1) single-item self-
reported general health, (2) single-item happi-
ness, (3) single-item life satisfaction (Lsat),
(4) single-item satisfaction with the overall quality
of life (qolsat), (5) 5-item index of satisfaction with
A 242 Arts in British Columbia, Canada

Arts in British Columbia, Canada, Table 1 Comparisons between province-wide (2007, N 708) and five-
community (2006, N 1,027) results
Province-wide sample Five-community sample
Top 5 arts-related hours per week activities: listening to Same
music; reading novels, short stories, plays, or poetry;
watching films on DVD; singing alone; reading to others
Top 5 arts-related hours per week activities: average hours 7.0
per week engaged 6.9
Top 5 arts-related hours per week activities: average levels Same
of satisfaction 5.9
Top 5 arts-related times per year activities: go to movies, Same
concerts, community festivals, historic sites, art museums
Top 5 arts-related times per year activities: average times 3.9
per year going 3.8
Top 5 arts-related times per year activities: average levels Same
of satisfaction 5.8
First thoughts about arts painting, drawing Same
Most important arts music Same
Place where first learned about arts school Same
Mean age when first learned 12 12.7
Mean level of satisfaction with access to activity, 5.3
information, place, access to place, price 5.1
Mean level of satisfaction with support from city, Same
provincial, federal government, and others 4.0
Index of Arts as Self-Health Enhancers a 0.87 0.88
Index of Arts as Self-Developing Activities a 0.86 0.89
Index of Arts as Community Builders a 0.82 0.86
Index of Arts as Ends in Themselves a 0.71 0.77
Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) a 0.90 0.89
Contentment with life assessment scale (CLAS) a 0.87 0.86
Subjective well-being index ( SWB) a 0.87 0.88
Average level of satisfaction on 30 domain/aspect 5.4
items 5.3
Average level of satisfaction with life as a whole, standard Same
of living, quality of life, and happiness 5.8
Top 2 discrepancy items have/want, have/others have Same
Demographic variable with highest average correlation r 0.20
with 7 life assessment variables household income,
r 0.12
Hours per week arts-related variables with highest and Satisfaction obtained from playing a musical instrument,
second highest average correlations with 7 life assessment r 0.25; satisfaction obtained from singing in a group,
variables: satisfaction obtained from arranging flowers, r 0.17
r 0.25; satisfaction obtained from taking kids to arts-
related activities, r 0.17
Life assessment variable with largest number of significant Satisfaction with the overall quality of life
associations with hours per week arts-related variables:
satisfaction with the overall quality of life tied with
happiness
Times per year arts-related variables with highest and Satisfaction obtained from going to nonart museums,
second highest average correlations with 7 life assessment r 0.14; satisfaction obtained from going to amateur
variables: satisfaction obtained from going to amateur theater performances, r 0.13
theater performances, r 0.27; satisfaction obtained from
going to professional theater performances, r 0.22
(continued)
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
Arts in British Columbia, Canada, Table 1 (continued)
Province-wide sample
Life assessment variable with largest number of significant
associations with times per year arts-related variables:
satisfaction with the overall quality of life
Domain/aspect satisfaction items with highest and second
highest average correlations with 7 life assessment
variables: satisfaction with ones own health, r 0.60;
satisfaction with ones self-esteem, r 0.59
Percent of variation explained in General Health scores by
all predictors 20.0 %, with most influential
predictor respondents satisfaction with their recreation
activities, b 0.25
Percent of variation explained in satisfaction with life as
a whole scores (Lsat) by all predictors 66.0 %, with most
influential predictor respondents satisfaction with their
own health, b 0.25
Percent of variation explained in happiness scores by all
predictors 45.0 %, with most influential
predictor respondents satisfaction with their own self-
esteem, b 0.35
Percent of variation explained in satisfaction with the
overall quality of life scores (qolsat) by all
predictors 60.0 %, with most influential
predictor respondents satisfaction with their treatment
by local residents, b 0.22
Percent of variation explained in satisfaction with life scale
scores (SWLS) by all predictors 51.0 %, with most
influential predictor respondents satisfaction with their
own self-esteem and sense of meaning in life, b 0.21
Percent of variation explained in contentment with life
assessment scale scores (CLAS) by all
predictors 50.0 %, with most influential
predictor respondents satisfaction with their own self-
esteem, b 0.26
Percent of variation explained in subjective well-being
index scores (SWB) by all predictors 75.0 %, with most
influential predictor respondents satisfaction with their
financial security, b 0.20
Average percent of variation explained in 7 life assessment
variables by all domain/aspect predictors 52.0 %
Average percent of variation explained in 7 life assessment
variables by 7 MDT predictors 44.0 %
Source: Michalos & Kahlke (2010)
life scale (SWLS), (6) 5-item index of content-
ment with life assessment scale (CLAS), and
(7) subjective well-being (SWB). Sixty-seven
different kinds of arts-related activities were
named, and respondents were asked to indicate
the average hours per week or the average number
of times per year they engaged in such activities
and the average levels of satisfaction they obtained
243 A
Five-community sample
General health A
Satisfaction with ones own health, r 0.64; satisfaction
with ones self-esteem, r 0.57
Percent of variation explained in General Health scores by
all predictors 32.0 %, with most influential
predictor respondents satisfaction with their recreation
activities, b 0.28
Percent of variation explained in satisfaction with life as
a whole scores (Lsat) by all predictors 71.0 %, with most
influential predictor respondents satisfaction with their
own health, b 0.24
Percent of variation explained in happiness scores by all
predictors 51.0 %, with most influential
predictor respondents satisfaction with their own health,
b 0.33
Percent of variation explained in satisfaction with the
overall quality of life scores (qolsat) by all
predictors 63.0 %, with most influential
predictors respondents satisfaction with their own
health, financial security, and sense of meaning in life, each
b 0.19
Percent of variation explained in satisfaction with life scale
scores (SWLS) by all predictors 48.0 %, with most
influential predictor respondents satisfaction with their
financial security, b 0.22
Percent of variation explained in contentment with life
assessment scale scores (CLAS) by all
predictors 71.0 %, with most influential
predictor respondents satisfaction with their financial
security, b 0.19
Percent of variation explained in subjective well-being
index scores (SWB) by all predictors 79.0 %, with most
influential predictor respondents satisfaction with their
financial security, b 0.25
Average percent of variation explained in 7 life assessment
variables by all domain/aspect predictors 57.0 %
Average percent of variation explained in 7 life assessment
variables by 7 MDT predictors 48.0 %
from that engagement on a 7-point scale. Data from
these measures were submitted to bivariate and
multivariate analyses with the seven overall life
assessment variables, 30 measures of domain/
aspect satisfaction (e.g., satisfaction with ones
financial security, friendships, life accomplish-
ments) and the seven core measures of multiple
discrepancies theory (MDT). The latter include the
A 244 Arts-Related Activities

perceived gap between what a respondent wants Michalos, A. C., & Kahlke, P. M. (2010). Arts and the
and has, has and relevant others have, has and perceived quality of life in British Columbia. Social
Indicators Research, 96, 139.
needs, has and deserves, has and the best one has National Endowment for the Arts (Ed.). (2003). 2002
ever had, has and expected to have 3 years ago, and survey of public participation in the arts. Washington:
has and expects to have after 5 years. Speaking Nancy Hanks Center.
quite generally, about 62.0 % of the results for the
two samples were very similar. More precisely,
results are summarized in Table 1.
Arts-Related Activities
There were two striking features of both sur-
veys. First, it was found that correlations among
Index of Arts and Arts-Related Activities as
the average number of hours per week and times
Ends in Themselves
per year engaged in arts-related activities and
Index of Arts as Community Builders
levels of satisfaction obtained from each activity
Index of Arts as Self-Developing Activities
were generally modest, running from r 0.09 to
Index of Arts as Self-Health Enhancers
r 0.33 (p < 0.05). For one reason or another, the
Index of Arts as Spirit-Building
time spent by respondents in arts-related activi-
ties was not highly correlated with the amount of
satisfaction they obtained from such activities.
Second, it was found that there was great variety Ascriptive Inequalities
among the correlations between the time engaged
in arts-related activities and the satisfaction Social Inequalities
obtained from that engagement on the one hand
and the seven overall life assessment variables on
the other. This was clear evidence indicating that
explorations of the perceived quality of life based ASI
on a single life assessment measure can be very
misleading. Such explorations should always use Addiction Severity Index
more than one such measure.

Cross-References Asia, Quality of Life

Domain Satisfaction Takashi Inoguchi
University of Niigata Prefecture, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo, Japan
References

Belfiore, E. (2002). Art as a means of alleviating social

exclusion: Does it really work? A critique of instrumen-
Synonyms
tal cultural policies and social impact studies in the UK.
International Journal of Cultural Policy, 8, 91106. AsiaBarometer
DiMaggio, P., & Pettitt, B. (1999). Surveys of public
attitudes toward the arts: What surveys tell us about
the arts political trials and how they might tell us
even more. Arts Education Policy Review, 100, 3237. Description
Michalos, A. C. (2005). Arts and the quality of life: An
exploratory study. Social Indicators Research, 71, Asia is characterized both by diversity and dyna-
1159.
Michalos, A. C., & Kahlke, P. M. (2008). Impact of arts-
mism. Asia includes five of the eight civilizations
related activities on the perceived quality of life. Social as Samuel Huntington identifies in his Clash
Indicators Research, 89, 193258. of Civilizations and the Remaking of World
Asia, Quality of Life
Order (1996): Hindu, Chinese, Islamic, Christian,
and Japanese. In terms of per capita income level,
Brunei and Afghanistan are miles apart. In terms of
population size, Brunei, Bhutan, and the Maldives
are miniscule compared to China and India. But
they are all Asian states. If we define Asia as space
including East, Southeast, South, and Central Asia,
but not including the Caucasus, the Middle East,
and South Pacific, it includes 31 countries. To
gauge quality of life in Asia, the AsiaBarometer
survey (Inoguchi & Fujii, 2008) is the most com-
prehensive survey in the world. The AsiaBarometer
survey covers 29 of them. It does not cover the
Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and
Timor Leste. The AsiaBarometer survey further
has expanded to include Asias adjacent countries,
namely, Russia, Australia, and the United States.
The AsiaBarometer survey is carried out by nation-
wide random surveys of each society with sizes
ranging from 800 to 2,000. Those societies with
many islands, many hills, and wide space such as
China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam carry out
surveys by initially focusing on cities. Later, that
is, in 2005 onward, it has become normal nation-
wide random survey based. This entry describes
some of the findings found in the AsiaBarometer
survey especially concerning the quality of life
(Inoguchi & Fujii, forthcoming).
First, one of the questions asked the respon-
dents to prioritize life domains or aspects such as
health, home, diet, job, and family. The order of
the above five domains is the order of items for
these 29 societies. In other words, this is Asias
average order. This order makes sense: first come
the physical conditions covering health, home,
and diet. Then comes job. Once these conditions
are more or less met, family comes the third.
Table 1, top five lifestyle aspects, focuses on the
following three domains to see which societies
are most similar to each other. The three domains
of family, job, and being devout tap the family
dimension, the occupational dimension, and the
spiritual dimension, respectively. Since health,
home, and diet are among the top four domains
for Asia on average, they are more or less com-
mon to the 29 societies. In order to elucidate
a more differentiated picture of Asias quality of
life, we choose these three aspects.
245 A
The family dimension is underlined most clearly
by Japan and South Korea. Then it is emphasized
by Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. A
Japan and South Korea belong to the Ural-Altaic
group of races and to the language groups which
includes Turkish, Magyar, Finnish, Mongolian,
Manchu, Korean, and Japanese. To Japan and
Korea, family does matter more than to most
other Asians. Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore
belong to the Malayo-Polynesian group of races,
while Sri Lanka belongs to the Dravidian group of
races. In these societies, being located in maritime
regions, immigrant people of different races often
cohabit. Under these circumstances, family remains
the key small unit of human subsistence.
The occupational dimension is highlighted by
Vietnam and Kazakhstan most strongly and by
China and Japan next strongly. Their common
feature except Kazakhstan is that they are North-
east Asians. They are noted for being diligent.
Another way of looking at the commonality is
that they, barring Japan, are communist or ex-
communist: Vietnam, China, and Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstani speaks the language derived from
the Turkish language group. Yet one third of
residents are ethnic Russians and more recently
ethnic Chinese migrants from the Autonomous
Xinjiang-Uyghur province or Eastern Kazakh-
stan. In public places like school and the bureau-
cracy, Russian is more commonly used.
The spiritual dimension is stressed in those
societies by Myanmar (Buddhism) and Bangladesh
(Islam) strongly and by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and
Indonesia (all Islam). It is highly correlated with the
relatively low-level per capita income regardless of
whether religion is Buddhism or Islam.
Turn now from life priorities to the self-
assessment of happiness. If beauty is in the eye
of a beholder, happiness is in the mind and heart
of a beholder. Happiness is a difficult concept to
define in the first place. Further, it is a difficult
concept to measure. It is a far more difficult
concept to express in different languages in an
approximately similar fashion.
The question used here to ask respondents to
provide a self-assessment of happiness in English
was as follows: On the whole, do you think you
are very happy, quite happy, neither happy nor
A 246 Asia, Quality of Life

Asia, Quality of Life, Table 1 Top five lifestyle aspects

Country/region 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Afghanistan Diet Health Home Being devout Job
Bangladesh Health Medical care No crime Being devout Home
Bhutan Health Home Diet Job Work
Brunei Health Home Diet Family Job
Cambodia Diet Health Home Job Income
China Health Home Job Medical care No crime
India Health Home Diet Job Family
Indonesia Health Diet Home Being devout Job
Japan Health Family Job Home Others
Kazakhstan Health Job Home Medical care Income
Kyrgyzstan Health Diet Job Home Income
Laos Health Diet Home Job Family
Malaysia Health Home Diet Family Job
Maldives Diet Medical care No crime Health Job
Mongolia Health Home Diet Job Medical care
Myanmar Health Diet Being devout Home Job
Nepal Health Diet Job Work No crime
Pakistan Health Diet Home Being devout Income
Philippines Diet Health Home Job Family
Singapore Health Home Job Family Diet
South Korea Health Home Family Job Income
Sri Lanka Health Diet Home Family Job
Tajikistan Health Diet Home Job Income
Thailand Health Diet Home Job Family
Turkmenistan Diet Health Income No crime Home
Uzbekistan Health Home Income Job Diet
Vietnam Health Job Diet Home Work
Asia Health Home Diet Job Family
Source: Inoguchi and Fujii (forthcoming)

unhappy, quite unhappy, or very unhappy? If the
first two positive responses are added and the if
fourth and fifth negative responses are added,
then subtract the latter from the former, one gets
what may be called the percentage difference
index (PDI). Each society gets an average PDI.
As you can see in Table 2, a number of important
observations can be made. First, the five happiest
countries in Asia are Brunei, the Maldives,
Malaysia, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. The five
unhappiest countries are Tajikistan, Kazakhstan,
Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghanistan. Com-
mon to the five happiest are that their territories
face the sea, except Bhutan, and that their reli-
gions are Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or some
mixture. Common to the five unhappiest are that
they are landlocked, except Cambodia, and they
are located in Central Asia with water resources
very limited. Geographically, Southeast Asia
tends to be happy, and South Asia follows South-
east Asia. Similarly, East Asia tends to be
unhappy, and Central Asia follows East Asia.
Comparing Human Development Index scores
and Percent Difference Index scores, one can
see that South Asia and Southeast Asia register
higher PDIs than HDIs suggest and that Central
Asia and East Asia register lower PDIs than HDIs
suggest. For South and Southeast Asians,
a good portion of the self-assessment of happi-
ness seems to derive from religiosity, in this case,
Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. For East Asians,
according to neuroscientists (Chiao & Blizinsky,
2010), anxiety is a predominant trait of East
Asians, seeking social harmony and stressing
Asia, Quality of Life 247 A
Asia, Quality of Life, Table 2 Self-assessments of happiness (%)
Country/region Very happy Quite happy Neither happy nor unhappy Not too happy Very unhappy PDI
Brunei 51.2 43.5 3.9 1.4 0.0 93.3 A
Maldives 41.3 45.9 7.3 3.8 1.7 81.7
Malaysia 26.6 57.5 10.5 5.1 0.3 78.7
Bhutan 35.2 47.6 12.6 4.3 0.3 78.2
Sri Lanka 24.6 59.5 9.5 5.5 1.0 77.6
Singapore 27.7 51.9 14.4 4.9 1.1 73.6
Philippines 35.0 45.1 12.7 6.2 1.0 72.9
Thailand 18.7 58.2 16.9 5.5 0.8 70.6
India 37.4 36.2 20.3 5.0 1.2 67.4
Indonesia 14.1 61.1 16.4 7.8 0.5 66.9
Bangladesh 15.2 59.8 14.4 7.7 2.9 64.4
Laos 14.3 57.1 18.4 9.7 0.5 61.2
Vietnam 35.9 25.4 37.0 1.5 0.2 59.6
China 18.2 44.0 31.5 4.7 1.6 55.9
Japan 14.9 47.1 31.4 6.0 0.7 55.3
Myanmar 14.4 48.7 25.6 9.4 1.8 51.9
Mongolia 4.4 56.5 29.3 9.4 0.4 51.1
Hong Kong 6.6 44.0 46.1 2.2 1.0 47.4
Nepal 9.1 54.8 15.9 11.9 8.3 43.7
Taiwan 16.5 33.7 40.5 7.2 2.2 40.8
South Korea 9.5 44.2 32.1 12.8 1.4 39.5
Pakistan 14.2 39.2 29.8 13.3 3.6 36.5
Turkmenistan 14.7 35.7 35.5 8.0 6.2 36.2
Uzbekistan 13.0 43.7 21.2 18.6 3.6 34.5
Afghanistan 16.5 24.0 48.2 9.6 1.7 29.2
Kyrgyzstan 12.6 40.8 12.8 22.3 11.5 19.6
Cambodia 4.6 20.1 64.0 10.0 1.3 13.4
Kazakhstan 5.8 33.5 20.4 29.7 10.5 0.9
Tajikistan 3.1 29.8 30.8 29.1 7.1 3.3
Total 19.9 45.1 25.0 8.1 1.8 55.1
Source: Inoguchi and Fujii (forthcoming)

collectivism. For Central Asians, especially
nomadic tribes like Pashtuns and Balochistanis,
suspicion tends to be predominant due in part to
scarce water and grass resources (Matsui, 2011).
Synthesizing lifestyle and priorities, one can
portray the multilayered structure of each society
by factor analysis. The three types that emerge from
such systematic empirical analysis can be used to
understand each Asian society better. They are
(1) materialist society focusing on individual
subsistence (M), (2) post-materialist society appre-
ciating human interactions (PM), and (3) society in
which in the public sphere the state provides
relatively many goods and services (P).
Depending on two largest from three factors
extracted for each society, the following five
types emerge: (a) materialist, post-materialist,
and public in this order of importance registered
by eigenvalues of each factor. In other words,
first, individual subsistence is stressed; next,
community and other human interactions are
deemed important; and then the public sphere
comes last. Representatives of this type are
Japan, Indonesia, and Taiwan in maritime East
and Southeast Asia. (b) Materialist, public, and
post-materialist in this order. In other words,
individual subsistence comes first. Next, comes
the public sphere. Lastly, community and other
A 248
human interactions are in this order. Representa-
tives of this type are China, India, Mongolia,
South Korea, and Myanmar. These societies
have experienced conquests or revolutionary
takeovers by different ethnic or religious groups.
In these societies human interactions are predom-
inantly based on blood, geography, caste, reli-
gion, and any individuals who can bring
subsistence benefits. (c) Post-materialist, materi-
alist, and public in this order. In other words,
human interactions and community maintenance
are regarded highly, next comes individual sub-
sistence, and lastly comes the public sphere. Rep-
resentatives of this type are Vietnam and
Thailand. Both are societies developed recently
and rapidly in the last two to three centuries. (d)
Public, post-materialist, and materialist in this
order. In other words, the public sphere domi-
nates the other two. Representative of this type
are Singapore and Afghanistan. The capital city
is critical. In Singapore, the state is dominant,
while in Afghanistan, the state is dominant
merely in the capital city, Kabul, outside
of which tribal group-based life dominates.
(e) Public, materialist, and post-materialist in
this order. In other words, the state dominates
human life where natural resource endowment
or paucity is a key component. Representatives
of this type are Kazakhstan and Brunei with rich
natural resource endowment, while the Philip-
pines and Pakistan are poor in natural resource
endowment. Numerically, big in numbers are
(a) materialist, post-materialist, and public type
to which Japan, Indonesia, and Taiwan belong
and (b) materialist, public, and post-materialist
type to which China, India, Myanmar, Mongolia,
and South Korea belong. To simplify the picture,
there are two major types of society in Asia:
maritime East/Southeast Asian societies where
the state does not dominate so much and conti-
nental Asian societies where the state tends to
dominate. In addition to these major types are
new settler societies (Vietnam and Thailand),
resource-rich or resource-poor societies (Kazakh-
stan and Brunei, on the one hand, the Philippines
and Pakistan, on the other), and societies in which
the capital city occupies the dominant or isolated
place (Singapore and Afghanistan).
AsiaBarometer
Cross-References
China, Quality of Life
Human Well-being in India
India, Quality of Life
Japan, Quality of Life
References
Chiao, Y. J., & Blizinsky, K. (2010). Culture-gene coevo-
lution of individualism -collectivism and the serotonin
transporter gene. Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
Biological Sciences, 277(1681), 529537.
Huntington, S. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the
remaking of world order. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
Inoguchi, T., & Fujii, S. (2008). The AsiaBarometer: Its
aim, its scope and its development. In V. Mller, D.
Huschka, & A. C. Michalos (Eds.), Barometers of
quality of life around the globe: How are we doing?
(pp. 187232). Dordrecht: Springer.
Inoguchi, T., & Fujii, S. (forthcoming). Quality of life in
Asia: A comparison of the quality of life in 29 Asian
countries and societies. Springer.
Matsui, K. (2011). Seinan Ajia no Sabaku Bunka
(Desert Culture in Southwest Asia). Kyoto: Jinbun
Shoin.
AsiaBarometer
Asia, Quality of Life
Japan, Quality of Life
Asian Versus Western Views
Yukiko Uchida1 and Vinai Norasakkunkit2
1
Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University,
Kyoto, Japan
2
Department of Psychology, Gonzaga
University, Spokane, WA, USA
Definition
Cultural psychological research has suggested that
exactly what constitutes the good and the valuable
Asian Versus Western Views
in life varies substantially across cultures, espe-
cially between Asians and Western views.
Description
Recent cross-cultural evidence suggests cultural
variations in quality of life as well as subjective
well-being, according to the findings in meanings
of good life and happiness. It is likely satisfaction (Diener & Diener, 1995). Other
that exactly what constitutes the good and the
valuable in life varies substantially across
cultures. As a consequence, we may expect con-
siderable cross-cultural variations in meanings of
happiness and quality of life (Kitayama &
Markus, 2000).
In Western cultures, especially in North
American and European cultural contexts, peo-
ple qualified their happiness and meaning of life
in terms of personal achievement. Individuals
engaging in these cultures are motivated to
maximize the experience of positive affect.
Individuals are therefore highly motivated to
find and affirm the positivity in themselves or
their life circumstances. In contrast, in Asian
cultures, especially in East Asian cultural
contexts such as Japanese culture, happiness
and good quality of life tend to be defined in
terms of interpersonal connectedness or balance
between self and others. The personal form of
happiness in individual life is often perceived
to be tainted and incomplete, and, as a
consequence, there is not as strong a desire to
pursue personal happiness at the expense of
social harmony as in Western cultures (see
Uchida, Norasakkunkit, & Kitayama, 2004 for
a review).
Of course there are cross-cultural similarities.
For example, the same structure of quality of
life, according to the medical literature, has been
identified in Japanese culture as well as in
European and American cultures, such as having
a good quality of physical and mental function-
ing, being in good physical condition, and being
satisfied with ones social life. In addition, people
everywhere are likely to prefer the desirable over
the undesirable and the pleasant over the
unpleasant.
249 A
Empirical Findings
Individual Achievement or Social Harmony in A
East and West
Consistent with the idea that American lifestyle
emphasizes personal aspects of happiness and
quality of life, numerous studies conducted
in North America indicate that individual
self-esteem is highly correlated with life
similar factors such as achievement of indepen-
dent goals (Oishi & Diener, 2001) and positive
but non-relational emotional experiences
(Kitayama, Mesquita, & Karasawa, 2006) have
been found to strongly predict happiness, subjec-
tive well-being, and life satisfaction in
European-American cultural contexts.
In contrast, more interpersonally related
factors such as adapting to social norms and
fulfilling relational obligations increase life
satisfaction in East Asian cultural contexts.
Other factors such as attainment of interpersonal
goals (Oishi & Diener, 2001), positive relational
emotional experiences (Kitayama et al., 2006),
receiving emotional support (Uchida, Kitayama,
Mesquita, Reyes, & Morling, 2008), and rela-
tional harmony (Kwan, Bond, & Singelis, 1997)
are highly predictive of happiness and well-being
among Asians, on average.
Indeed, Uchida and colleagues (2008) exam-
ined both self-esteem and perceived emotional
support from close others as potential predictors
of well-being. These researchers found that in
two different Asian cultures (Japan and the
Philippines) both self-esteem and perceived
emotional support were equally predictive of
happiness. As predicted, however, in the USA,
happiness was reliably predicted only by self-
esteem. It is likely that in European-American
cultural contexts, on average, emotional supports
such as encouragement, compassion, and sympa-
thy often carry ambivalent meanings, which may
signify both the worthiness of the self and the
weakness of the self. As a consequence,
emotional supports may contribute to happiness
only to the extent that they do not threaten self-
esteem. Quite consistent with this line of analysis,
Uchida and colleagues (2008) found that, in the
A 250
American sample, the effect of perceived
emotional support on happiness was entirely
mediated by self-esteem. They confirmed this
effect both for college students sample and an
adult sample who were in their midlife.
With respect to patient quality of life, recently,
Ikeda and her colleagues (2011) suggested that
the perceived emotional support is quite effective
for Japanese diabetes patients to have a higher
compliance rate with treatment protocol and
to cope with their disease in general, while the
effect of emotional support was found to be
weaker among American diabetes patients.
For American patients, focusing on ones compe-
tence to cope with the disease was instead found
to be a more effective way to enhance quality of
life. This finding corresponds with cultural dif-
ference in the dominant strategy for perceiving
control over ones life (Morling, Kitayama, &
Miyamoto, 2002), where primary control
(influencing the environment or situation) is
dominant in the North American cultural context,
while secondary control (adjusting the self to the
environment or situation) is dominant in the East
Asian cultural context.
Thinking Styles, Quality of Life, and
Happiness in East and West
Empirical evidence to date suggests some impor-
tant differences between the East and West view of
thinking styles which are related to how people
define their quality of life. Lu (2001) and Lu
and Gilmour (2004) conducted a content analysis
of essays of lay American and Chinese about
happiness. The authors suggested that Chinese
are more likely than Americans to define
happiness as experiencing harmonious social rela-
tions and experiencing unhappiness dialectically
(i.e., in balance) with happiness, since both happi-
ness and unhappiness are a part of life. This lay
theory of happiness among Chinese, which can be
referred to as a holistic view of happiness (Uchida,
2011), is also shared widely in the Japanese cul-
tural context as well because Japanese people
generally believe that having too many positive
experiences is a sign of negative things to come.
People in European-American cultural con-
texts, unlike those in East Asian cultural contexts,
Asian Versus Western Views
are also likely to assume that happiness will lead to
more happiness. Ji, Nisbett, and Su (2001), for
example, presented Chinese and American partic-
ipants with graphs representing either a linear or
nonlinear trend and asked them to indicate which
graph might best represent the change of happiness
over the lifespan. Whereas Chinese respondents
were likely to choose a nonlinear graph, Ameri-
cans were likely to choose a linear one. In addition,
participants were shown several points of a trend
within a graph (e.g., economic performance in
January and February) and then asked to predict
what would happen next. The results showed that
Chinese participants predicted more deviations
from the initially presented trend than the Ameri-
cans did. This style of thinking is called dialectic
thinking, and it has been found to be more prev-
alent among East Asians in general relative to
Americans in several studies of cultural variation
in dialecticism.
A similar point has been made in recent stud-
ies that examine cross-culturally different expe-
rience of emotion (Leu, Wang, & Koo, 2011;
Mesquita & Leu, 2007). Miyamoto, Uchida, and
Ellsworth (2010) show that Japanese experience
mixed (positive and negative) emotions more
often in their happy situation than Americans do.
Uchida and Kitayama (2009) suggested that
Americans believe happiness is a relatively
enduring positive state that is to be personally
pursued, whereas East Asians are likely to
believe that happiness is a relatively transitory
interpersonal moment that is positive and, yet,
also fraught with numerous negative conse-
quences. In the first part of their study, both
American and Japanese participants were asked
to describe features, effects, or consequences of
happiness (either positive or negative) up to five.
After describing these features, the participants
were asked to rate each feature in terms of
general desirability. The results showed that
over 98 % of Americans descriptions were
reported as positive, whereas approximately
67 % of Japanese descriptions were reported as
positive. In the second part of their study, a large
number of features collected in the first part of the
study were printed on separate index cards.
A stack of cards was then presented to a
Asian Versus Western Views
Asian Versus Western 2
Views, Fig. 1 The
Independence
multidimensional scaling
1.5
solution for happiness in
the USA (Uchida &
Kitayama, 2009) 1 -It does not last long
0.5
0 Positive
Interdependence
0.5
1 Social disruption
1.5
2
2.5
new group of participants from each culture.
These participants were asked to sort the cards
according to perceived similarities of the descrip-
tions. On the basis of this data, the likelihood of
each pair of descriptions being classified into the
same pile was calculated. This likelihood
(an index of perceived similarities among the
features of happiness) was used to compute
a multidimensional scaling solution. In both
cultures, three types of descriptions were com-
monly found: general hedonic states (e.g., joy,
excitement, and positive attitude), personal
achievement (e.g., getting a good grade, getting
a job), and interpersonal harmony (e.g., getting
along with others, having a party for a friend). In
addition to these cultural similarities, however,
they also obtained two other clusters of negative
features of happiness from the Japanese
group. One such negative feature was transcen-
dental reappraisal, which includes avoidance
(e.g., letting people avoid reality), nihilism (e.g.,
not lasting long), and transcendental realization
(e.g., elusive, difficult to identify). The other
cluster was social disruption, which includes
negative social consequences (e.g., envy and
jealousy) and inattention (e.g., failing to pay
enough attention to ones surroundings). These
negative clusters were largely absent in the
American sample (see Figs. 1 and 2).
251 A
Personal achievement
Transcendental
reappraisal -I feel it when I get something I want
-I feel it when I achieve something
A
-I am not aware of it when I am
really happy
hedonic
experience
Social harmony
-I become king to others
-I elicit the envy of others if -I want to share
I express it in a wrong way happiness with others
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
Negative Positive
Indices of Quality of Life
At the macro level, the indices of quality of life
that different cultures use also suggest different
conceptions of quality of life across cultures.
For example, according to Hill (2010), the
indices of quality of life that the United
States employ include gross domestic product
( GDP Growth), average income, tax rates,
and unemployment. These indices suggest that
quality of life is equated somewhat narrowly
with buying power and standard of living in
the United States. In contrast, Europe tries to
measure quality of life in more comprehensive
ways. Their indices include Index of Economic
Well-Being, Weighted Index of Social Devel-
opment, United Nations Human Poverty Index,
Genuine Progress Indicator, the Ecological
Footprint, and Mothers Index (ranking the best
and worst places to be a mother and child).
Other indices that European societies often
use are income inequality, access to health
care, life expectancy, poverty levels, crime
rate, ecological sustainability, family/social
networks, democracy/political participation,
and personal security, among others. Thus, the
different indices that are used even among
Western societies suggest that conceptualiza-
tions of happiness and quality of life can vary
A 252 Asian Versus Western Views

Asian Versus Western 1.5

Views, Fig. 2 The Personal achievement Positive hedonic experience

Independence
multidimensional scaling
1.0 - I have a strong sense of self
solution for happiness in
- I have a sense of
Japan (Uchida &
achievement
Kitayama, 2009)
0.5

0.0

Negative
0.5
Interdependence

- I take it for
granted Social harmony
1
- I goes out - It makes a person friendly
quickly
- I am surronded by
1.5 pepople who love me

2.0
2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
Negative Positive

systematically across political systems even
among societies that prioritize individual goals
over group-oriented goals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while at the abstract level, concep-
tions of happiness and quality of life can be
universal in terms of being in good health and
being satisfied with ones accomplishments and
relationships, the degree to which each of these is
emphasized and serve as predictors of quality of
life can vary substantially from culture to culture,
depending on the dominant social orientation and
political systems that infuse a particular culture.
Furthermore, the degree to which happiness and
quality of life is perceived to be in the control of
the individual can also vary substantially across
cultures. In cultural contexts where the predomi-
nant mode of being in the world is to adjust to
existing relationships and circumstances, as is the
case in East Asian cultural contexts, happiness
and quality of life are perceived as being more or
less infused with the changing circumstances of
life. On the other hand, in cultural contexts where
the predominant mode of being in the world is to
influence circumstances to make them aligned
with ones individual goals, as is the case in the
American cultural context, happiness and quality
of life are perceived as largely residing in the
control of the individual. Thus, the construction
of happiness and quality of life largely depends
of how individual selves and their cultural
context mutually and constructively constitute
each other.
Cross-References
Diabetes Mellitus Type 1
Emotional Support and Self-Worth
GDP Growth
Life Satisfaction
Quality of Life
Self-Esteem
Subjective Well-Being
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Hill, S. (2010). Europes promise: Why the European way
is the best hope in an insecure age. Berkeley, CA:
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Aspiration Theory 253 A
Ikeda, K., Fujimoto, S., Uchida, Y., Takahara, S.,
Carroll, A., Morling, B., et al. (2011). Impact of cul- Aspiration Spiral Theory Applied to
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piness and the realization of sympathy: Cultural patterns
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Aspiration Theory
(pp. 113161). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Kitayama, S., Mesquita, B., & Karasawa, M. (2006). Alois Stutzer and Thorsten Henne
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Leu, J., Wang, J., & Koo, K. (2011). Are positive emotions ancies theory; Perceived value; Possession satis-
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Miyamoto, Y., Uchida, Y., & Ellsworth, P. C. (2010). The theory incorporates the fact that human beings
Culture and mixed emotions: Co-occurrence of posi-
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are unable and unwilling to make absolute judg-
Emotion, 10, 404415. ments. Rather, they constantly draw comparisons
Morling, B., Kitayama, S., & Miyamoto, Y. (2002). Cul- with their environment, with the past, or with
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States and adjustment in Japan. Personality and Social
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Description
than in the United States. Psychologia, 53, 236245.
Uchida, Y., & Kitayama, S. (2009). Happiness and unhap- Historical Background
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Uchida, Y., Norasakkunkit, V., & Kitayama, S. (2004).
levels into psychology or, more generally, into
Cultural constructions of happiness: Theory and social sciences literature is credited to Dembo
evidence. Journal of Happiness Studies, 5, 223239. (1931) (see, e.g., Lewin, Dembo, Festinger &
Uchida, Y., Kitayama, S., Mesquita, B., Reyes, J. A. S., & Sears, 1944). It was not until 1944 that Lewin
Morling, B. (2008). Is perceived emotional support
beneficial? Well-being and health in independent and
et al. developed the first comprehensive concep-
interdependent cultures. Personality and Social tual framework for (the level of) aspiration theory
Psychology Bulletin, 34, 741754. or, as termed by Michalos (1986, p. 66),
A 254
goal-achievement gap theory, which comprises
theoretical considerations on how goals are set
together with considerations of the consequences
for the individual when these goals are not
achieved. Basically, each positive or negative
discrepancy between a goal and its achievement
or nonachievement is translated into the two
emotional categories of success (achieving
ones goal) and failure (not achieving ones complement processes of hedonic adaptation.
goal) or into positive and negative well-being.
Moreover, a theory of decision-making is devel-
oped in which aspirations are deliberately set in
a probabilistic process of active choice. Thereby,
individuals are assumed to evaluate each possible
level of aspiration with respect to how it would feel
if they reached it (valence of success) and how it
would feel if they failed to do so (valence of
failure). After assigning a subjective probability
of success to each level of achievement and
the counter-probability of failure the actual aspi-
ration level is chosen such that the
probability-weighted net valence is maximized,
a process similar to classical expected utility
theory. A first attempt to introduce the level
of aspiration into economic theory was undertaken
by Starbuck as early as 1963. Based on aspiration
levels and six other gap theories, Michalos (1985,
1986) developed his multiple discrepancies the-
ory, in which aspiration theory figures promi-
nently as a direct and also a mediating influence
on subjective well-being (Michalos, 1985).
Aspiration Formation
Recent conceptualizations of aspiration (level)
theory motivated by research on subjective
well-being also emphasize the dynamic
process of aspiration formation, but not in
a self-contained way as in previous work.
According to these studies, there are two main
processes that form individuals aspirations and
create the relativity in peoples well-being judg-
ments. First, there are individuals adaptations
to the repeated stimuli they receive via their
consumption habits: for example, while addi-
tional material goods and services initially
provide extra pleasure, individuals grow weary
of them over time. Thus, people get used to
Aspiration Theory
their consumption and income levels (cf.
hedonic adaptation). Second, there are the
social comparisons that individuals make with
relevant others (cf. social comparison theory).
It is not the absolute level of income, for exam-
ple, that matters most, but rather ones position
relative to other individuals. Social comparisons
or even competitive processes in consumption
Together, they make people strive for ever
higher aspirations (see Easterlin, 2003; Stutzer,
2004; Frey & Stutzer, 2005, for references).
However, the question of who is actually rel-
evant in social comparisons must still be con-
sidered unresolved (e.g., Clark & Senik, 2010).
Empirical Research
One of the most challenging aspects of empirical
research on aspiration theory is the operationa-
lization of the aspiration level, since it is, as
pointed out by Michalos (1985, 1986) among
others, not objectively observable. If aspirations
cannot be reliably induced in laboratory settings
(as, e.g., in McBride, 2010), single- or multi-item
self-reports have to be used. In an economics set-
ting, where income and consumption figure prom-
inently in explaining peoples well-being, Stutzer
(2004), based on work by the Leyden School,
summarized in van Praag and Frijters (1999),
suggested using the response to an income eval-
uation question, which is readily available in at
least some large population surveys as a proxy
for individual income aspirations.
This latter approach has been applied in
Stutzer (2004) to Swiss, and in Frey and
Stutzer (2005) to German data, to put forward
evidence in support of aspiration theory.
They find that higher income aspirations relative
to actual income are negatively related to peo-
ples reported satisfaction with life as a whole.
Field evidence that social comparisons and
hedonic adaptation, respectively, affect
individual aspirations is provided in Stutzer
(2004) and Stutzer and Frey (2004). Experimen-
tal evidence for the two processes is provided by
McBride (2010), who uses intentional condition-
ing of aspirations to identify their effect.
Aspiration-Achievement Gap 255 A
Cross-References van Praag, B. M. S., & Frijters, P. (1999). The measure-
ment of welfare and well-being; the Leyden approach.
In D. Kahneman, E. Diener, & N. Schwarz (Eds.),
Consumption Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology A
Decision Making (pp. 413432). New York: Russell Sage.
Expected Utility Theory
Hedonic Adaptation
Income Evaluation Question
Leyden School Aspiration-Achievement Gap
Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT)
Quality of Life (QOL) James Copestake
Satisfaction with Life as a Whole University of Bath, Bath, UK
Social Comparison Theory
Subjective Well-being (SWB)
Synonyms

References Goal satisfaction

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well-being: A challenge for economic theory and
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191231. standing of how they vary is potentially more
A 256
insightful for policymakers than understanding
satisfaction and frustration relative to an exter-
nally dictated list of needs or goals. Comparing
aspirations and satisfaction with their achievement
across multiple domains provides insights
into both synergies and trade-offs between them.
Understanding of impact of migration on QoL,
for example, is deepened by recognizing the
way it confronts those who move with difficult
choices over competing life goals as well as
possibilities.
Sharp differences persist in the normative goals
that people associate with QoL. For example, the
last few decades has seen some movement away
from a narrowly economic vision of well-being to
a broader vision of multidimensional needs
embodied in the UNDP Human Development
Reports and the Millennium Development Goals.
One response to this is to adopt various forms of
participatory appraisal through which shared goals
of a group (how their life together could be) are
identified through a facilitated process of reflection
on current reality (how their life is). However, the
political process of securing such collective agree-
ment is likely to compromise deeper individual
aspirations (how things should be). A common
objection to asking individuals about their individ-
ual aspirations is that these may be restricted by
ignorance, blinkered by circumstance, and manip-
ulated by others: a problem variously referred to as
response shift within health-related quality of life
research (e.g., Sprangers & Schwartz, 1999), adap-
tive preference, and false consciousness (Clark,
2007). However, systematically eliciting individ-
ual views does not necessarily entail accepting
their validity, nor abandoning the search for shared
visions of life quality. If people are prone to biases
and shifts in their aspirations and the standards
they use to decide whether these have been
achieved, then it is important to understand why
and how.
Building measures of aspirations and satisfac-
tion with their achievement present familiar
psychometric problems of domain identification,
scale definition, and aggregation of results
(e.g., Yamamoto, Feijoo, & Lazarte, 2008). Iden-
tification of aspiration domains relies on open-
ended inquiry into well-being in particular
Aspiration-Achievement Gap
localities from which native scales can be identi-
fied. This is done using various forms of textual
analysis that aim to be relatively untainted by the
prior categories of the researcher. There is then
scope for cross-cultural empirical analysis into
the extent to which scales derived from such
qualitative data as well as data generated by
their use reveal congruence between different
populations or reflect deep local differences.
More finely grained studies can use scales that
incorporate more context-specific items (such as
participation in festivals). In contrast, broader
studies aiming at consistent comparisons across
a larger population require identification of
a more general list of shared items. What this
opens up is the possibility of exploring univer-
sal-local differences in aspirations and perception
of their achievement through a systematic empir-
ical process to complement philosophizing about
them.
With gap analysis, there is also scope for anal-
ysis of the extent to which the factor structure of
aspirations and satisfaction with their achieve-
ment mirror each other. There are three good
reasons for believing they will: first, people are
likely to expend more effort to achieve satisfac-
tion in relation to goals or aspirations that they
value highly; second, unattainable aspirations
may be downgraded in importance; third, ques-
tions about specific QoL domains may elicit the
same emotional response regardless of whether
they are framed in relation to goals or their
achievement. It follows that it is particularly
interesting to identify domains where the gap
between aspirations and their achievement across
specified groups of people appear to be relatively
wide. In Peru, for example, there is evidence that
poor people retain a strong aspiration to achieve
more secure and higher status professional
employment despite the presence of huge obsta-
cles to its achievement (Copestake & Camfield,
2010).
There is a close link between gap approaches
to measuring QoL and ethnographic research into
cultural aspects of poverty and low self-esteem.
For example, Appadurai (2004) argues that fram-
ing research using externally defined gaps of
social, economic, or personal development risks
ASPIRES
undermining or even demeaning peoples own
sense of agency. This is not to suggest that poorer
people necessarily have lower aspirations than
richer people, nor is it necessary to pre-judge
the importance of culture relative to structural
factors in the perpetuation of poverty (Small,
Harding, & Lamont, 2010). Rather, it is to
acknowledge that the range of means and ends
that poor people have experience of managing are
constrained by access to more limited resources,
which also restricts their navigational capacity
(Appadurai, 2004: 69). This emphasis on the
importance of a range of aspirations points to
the limitations of empirical work based on aspi-
ration gaps in just one domain.
A final point concerns the scope for combining
attainment-aspiration gap analysis of individuals
with analysis of congruence and disjuncture in
aspirations and perceptions of their achievement
across groups and between different organizations.
Ineffective aid, for example, can be attributed as
much to the cross-cultural disconnects underpin-
ning interactions of development agencies as it can
to differences in their material interests or political
priorities. Achievement-aspiration gap analysis
can help to expose such problems.
Cross-References
Culture
Development
Life Satisfaction
Poverty
Response Shift
References
Appadurai, A. (2004). The capacity to aspire: Culture and
the terms of recognition. In V. Rao & M. Walton
(Eds.), Culture and public action. Washington, DC:
Stanford University Press/World Bank.
Calman, K. C. (1984). Quality of life in cancer patients: An
hypothesis. Journal of Medical Ethics, 10, 124127.
Clark, D. A. (2007). Adaptation, poverty and well-being:
some issues and observations with special reference to
the capability approach and development studies
(Working Paper 081). Global Poverty Research
Group/University of Manchester.
257 A
Copestake, J., & Camfield, L. (2010). Measuring
multidimensional aspiration gaps: A means to under-
standing cultural aspects of poverty. Development Pol-
icy Review, 28(5), 617633. A
Michalos, A. (1985). Multiple discrepancies theory.
Social Indicators Research, 16, 347413.
Rojas, M. (2007). The complexity of wellbeing: A life-
satisfaction conception and a domains-of-life
approach. In I. Gough & J. Allister McGregor (Eds.),
Wellbeing in developing countries: From theory to
research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ruta, D., Camfield, L., & Donaldson, C. (2007). Sen and
the art of quality of life maintenance: Towards
a working definition of quality of life. Journal of
Socioeconomics, 36(3), 397423.
Small, M. L., Harding, D. J., & Lamont, M. (2010).
Reconsidering culture and poverty. The Annals of the
American Academy of Political and Social Science,
629, 627.
Sprangers, M. A. G., & Schwartz, C. E. (1999). Integrating
response shift into health-related quality of life
research: A theoretical model. Social Science & Med-
icine, 48, 15071515.
Yamamoto, J., Feijoo, A. R., & Lazarte, A. (2008). Sub-
jective Wellbeing: An alternative approach, in
Copestake. In J. Copestake (Ed.), Wellbeing and devel-
opment in Peru: Global and local views confronted.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Aspirational Qualities, Children and
Parents
Values Aspired to by Adolescents and by
Adolescents Parents in Relation to Their
Childrens Future
Aspirational Values, Children and
Parents
Values Aspired to by Adolescents and by
Adolescents Parents in Relation to Their
Childrens Future
ASPIRES
Assessment of Spirituality and Religious
Sentiments (ASPIRES) Scale
A 258
Assessing Sustainability
Assessments
BellagioSTAMP
Assessment of Family Functioning in
Chinese People
Chinese Version of Self-Report Family
Inventory
Assessment of Spirituality and
Religious Sentiments (ASPIRES)
Scale
Ralph L. Piedmont
Pastoral Counseling Department, Loyola
University Maryland, Columbia, MD, USA
Synonyms
ASPIRES
Definition
The Assessment of Spirituality and Religious
Sentiments (ASPIRES) Scale assesses spiritu-
ality as a universal, psychological dimension that
concerns how individuals create a broad sense of
personal meaning for their lives knowing that
they are going to die.
Description
The ASPIRES is a 35-item scale that was devel-
oped by Piedmont (2010) and is designed to mea-
sure two major dimensions of numinous
functioning: Religious Sentiments (RS) and
Spiritual Transcendence (ST). The RS component
is composed of two domains: The first, Religious
Assessing Sustainability Assessments
Involvement, reflects how actively involved
a person is in performing various religious rituals
and activities. The second domain, Religious
Crisis, examines whether a person may be
experiencing problems, difficulties, or conflicts
with the God of their understanding and/or faith
community.
The second dimension measured by the
ASPIRES is Spiritual Transcendence (ST). ST
represents a motivational construct that reflects an
individuals efforts to create a broad sense of
personal meaning for his/her life. Those high
on transcendence are able to find a larger sense of
meaning and purpose to life that goes beyond their
immediate sense of time and place. There are three
correlated facet scales to ST: Prayer Fulfillment,
the ability to create a personal space that enables
one to feel a positive connection to some larger
reality; Universality, the belief in a larger meaning
and purpose to life; and Connectedness, feelings of
belonging and responsibility to a larger human
reality that cut across generations and groups.
Although very similar to Adlers concept of social
interest, the Connectedness facet scale includes the
idea that death does not stop emotional relation-
ships one has with others.
The dimensions of ASPIRES have been shown
to represent psychological dimensions indepen-
dent of the personality constructs defined by the
Five-Factor Model (FFM). Further, scores on
these scales evidenced predictive validity over
and above the FFM in explaining a number of
psychosocial outcomes, including interpersonal
style, coping ability, sexual attitudes, psycholog-
ical maturity, and well-being. The ASPIRES is an
empirically robust measure having been shown to
be valid across cultures, languages, and religious
traditions (Piedmont, 2009). It is also the only
measure of spirituality that has a validated
observer version, which enables the use of multi-
ple information sources.
Cross-References
Health-Related Quality of Life and Reliance
on Gods Help
Mortality and Meaning in Life in Old Age
Assets Mapping 259 A
Pleasure, Engagement, Meaning, and
Happiness Assets Mapping
Religion, Psychological Well-Being, and A
Health Cath Fenton
Religion/Spiritual Fulfillment, Satisfaction Public Health, CRIPACC, University of
with Hertfordshire Public Health England,
Religious Beliefs and Psychiatric Symptoms North Central London, UK
Spirituality

Synonyms
References Asset-based community development; Assets-
oriented community assessment; Mapping com-
Piedmont, R. L. (2009). The contribution of religiousness
and spirituality to subjective wellbeing and satisfac- munity capacity
tion with life. In M. de Souza, L. J. Francis, J.
OHiggins-Norman, & D. G. Scott (Eds.), Interna-
tional handbook of education for spirituality, care
and wellbeing (pp. 89105). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Definition
Springer.
Piedmont, R. L. (2010). Assessment of Spirituality and
Religious Sentiments technical manual (2nd ed.).
Assets mapping is a capacity focused method of
Timonium, MD: Author. identifying the strengths of an individual or
community.

Assessment Techniques Description

Measurement Methods Asset mapping is a method of identifying the

strengths within a community. Assets models
focus on the positive, concentrating on capability
and capacity at the level of the individual,
institution, community, or population (Fenton,
Assessment, Social Brooks, Spencer, & Morgan, 2009).
Traditionally, a needs assessment might be
Social Impact Assessment undertaken to try to understand the needs of
a community; however, this often focuses on
gaps and weaknesses. This gap analysis can be
termed a deficits approach in that it looks for what
is missing, highlighting problems and areas to be
Assessments of Prose Literacy
fixed. Kretzman and McKnight (1993) argue that
deficit approaches can have negative effects even
International Literacy Assessments
when positive change is intended as they force
communities to highlight problems in order to
access resources.
An assets model is more than just a flipside
Asset-Based Community of a deficits approach. It does not ignore
Development problems but proposes a different focus and
different way of working. An assets approach
Assets Mapping looks to the positive, identifying the strengths
A 260 Assets-Oriented Community Assessment

that a community already has, and then works asset-based community development institute
with the community to develop these resources. http://www.abcdinstitute.org/).
Morgan (2006) has suggested that an assets- Challenges to asset mapping include access
based approach adds value to the deficits to key informants: communities may feel
approach in three ways: over consulted and so not participate; conse-
The community is seen as a coproducer rather quently, some peoples views may not be heard.
than a consumer of scarce resources. Communities may be apathetic or suspicious
The capacity of individuals and communities that this is a way of reducing financial input
to realize their potential for development is to an area.
strengthened.
Through the process of community develop-
ment, there are likely to be impacts on social
Cross-References
and economic goals.
The process of asset mapping can achieve
Community Participation
more than just identifying community resources.
Developmental Assets
Assessing a communitys assets means identify-
Salutogenesis
ing, supporting, and mobilizing existing commu-
Sense of Coherence
nity resources and capacities for the purpose of
Social Capital and Health Inequalities
creating and achieving a shared vision (Sharpe,
Greaney, Lee, & Royce, 2000, p. 206). The
techniques employed to map assets are likely to
be dependent on the goals of the community, the References
resources available to them, and their own philo-
Fenton, C., Brooks, F., Spencer, N., & Morgan, A. (2009).
sophical beliefs.
Sustaining a positive body image in adolescence: An
Part of the asset mapping process is likely assets-based analysis. Health & Social Care in the
to include a visioning stage, where the com- Community, 18, 2,1892198.
munity is encouraged to imagine what they want Kretzman, J. P., & McKnight, J. L. (1993). Building com-
munities from the inside out: A path toward finding and
to achieve through the process. If, for example,
mobilizing a communitys assets. Chicago: ACTA
the community decides that they want to Publications.
improve their health, asset mapping may Morgan, A. (2006). Needs assessment. In W. Macdowell &
include a physical mapping of green spaces, M. Davies (Eds.), Health promotion practice
(pp. 2136). Maidenhead: Open University Press.
shops selling healthy food, and cycle paths;
Sharpe, P. A., Greaney, M. L., Lee, P. R., & Royce, S. W.
they may also include interviews or groups dis- (2000). Assets-oriented community assessment. Pub-
cussions with key community members to iden- lic Health Reports, 115, 205211.
tify skills locally such as physical activity
instructors, cooks, and health professionals. All
these datasets will be brought together to map
the community resources that can then be used Assets-Oriented Community
to achieve the outcome of better health. The Assessment
resources necessary to map assets maybe peo-
ples time to undertake group discussions and Assets Mapping
interviews, paper to capture connections, or
could also include GIS software packages
that allow a thematic display of the different
asset layers that exist in a community. Asset Assisted Housing
inventories and support resources to facilitate
asset mapping are available (e.g., from the Housing, Supportive
Association Memberships
Association Memberships
Claire Wallace
Department of Sociology, University of
Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK
Synonyms
Civic participation; Civil society; Formal social
capital
Definition
Associational membership refers to membership
of civil society associations or organizations.
These vary across countries but usually include
religious associations such as churches, mosques
and synagogues, trade unions, employers asso-
ciations, youth associations, arts and cultural
associations, sports and leisure associations,
political associations, professional associations,
and specialist interest associations. Membership
usually means paying a subscription to support
the association, but it can also mean simply join-
ing a mailing list. Membership can be passive
(merely subscribing or joining the mailing list)
or active taking the form of active involvement in
the activities of the association.
Description
Participation in civil society is assumed to lead to
a better quality of life. Influential social scientists
have indicated that it leads to higher levels of
democracy, wealth, health, and education
(Coleman, 1988; Field, 2003; Fukuyama, 2000;
Halpern, 2005; Putnam, 2000). Indeed, the
European Commission and the World Bank
have made participation a main plank of its policy
initiatives, assuming that this should lead to
a better quality of life in European societies and
across the world.
261 A
One common measure of civil society in this
sense is usually measured by participation in
associations, and the vitality of the associations A
is usually counted by the number of members.
Various studies using cross-national surveys have
shown that well-being as measured by individual
satisfaction is linked to associational membership
both at an individual and at a national level. That
is, individuals who join associations are more
likely to feel satisfied with their lives, and those
countries with the highest number of association
members have higher quality of life (Pichler &
Wallace, 2009).
There are a number of possible explanations
for this. At an individual level, joining associa-
tions brings connection to community networks,
brings a sense of self-worth, and enables individ-
uals to contribute to the broader collective good
or just pursue their own interests more effec-
tively. In countries where people are more satis-
fied with their own life as well as public life,
participation rates in voluntary associations are
significantly higher. At a societal level, higher
levels of participation do lead to a better aggre-
gate score of subjective well-being and positive
assessment of various aspects of public life.
Participation in civil society (even if it is only
a bowling or football club) helps the views and
opinions of citizens to be formed and conveyed
since even football clubs represent a potential
form of mobilization, so that in those societies
with many associations, citizens are better able to
get the government to deliver the things that they
want (therefore leading to greater satisfaction).
They also represent schools for democracy
according to some other arguments. Finally, par-
ticipation in civil society encourages social bond-
ing at an individual level and system integration
at a more societal level, something which helps to
promote social cohesion and in turn societal
well-being in a more Durkheimian sense.
Hence, high levels of association membership
can be seen as a measure of social quality more
generally (Abbott & Wallace, 2012).
Levels of participation across most societies
are generally low, but in some parts of
Europe (mainly the Scandinavian countries) and
A 262
particularly in the USA, levels are high (Wallace
et al., 2012). According to an influential study in
the USA, levels of membership association have
been declining since the 1960s (Putnam, 2000),
and we can see that this has happened even since
1995 (Wallace et al., 2012). In other regions of
Europe, however, it has remained stable at low
levels, even though we might expect a decline
due to declining church and trade union member-
ship, two of the traditionally strong civic society
associations in Western Europe. Others have
argued, however, that civil society now takes
different forms with a variety of spontaneous,
localized, and nonorganizational forms of partic-
ipation taking place or mobilization through
Internet campaigns which do not necessarily
imply conventional membership (Bruszt
et al., 2005).
Therefore, while membership of associations
is still an important factor in improving
well-being, its importance varies across
societies as civic associations are embedded in
different ways in national governance; for
example, in Europe, associations are often
embedded within state welfare, while in the
USA, they are seen as a counterpoint to the
state. Furthermore, the kinds of associations
that people join might also be highly variable
and change across the life course (young people
are more likely to be involved in sport, those of
working age in professional associations and
trade unions for example). Finally, we should
consider the importance of nonorganized forms
of mobilization, especially through electronic
and social media, which provide alternative
forms of association based upon swift and
global communications (Castells, 1996;
Wellman et al., 2001). These may become
more important in the future, but there is debate
about whether they support the quality of life or
individual well-being.
Cross-References
Civil Society
Quality of Life
Well-Being
Asthenia
References
Abbott, P., & Wallace, C. (2012). Social quality: A way to
measure the quality of society. Social Indicators
Research, 108(1), 153167.
Bruszt, L., Vedres, B., Stark, D., et al. (2005). Shaping the
web for civic participation: Civil society websites in
Eastern Europe. Journal of Public Policy, 25, 149163.
Castells, M. (1996). The information age: Economy, soci-
ety, culture. Volume 1: The rise of the network society.
Oxford/MA: Blackwells.
Coleman, J. (1988). Social capital and the creation of
human capital. The American Journal of Sociology,
94(Supplement), 94120.
Field, J. (2003). Social capital. London/New York:
Routledge.
Fukuyama, F. (2000). Social capital and civil society.
International Monetary Fund Working Paper.
WP/00/74,118.
Halpern, D. (2005). Social capital. Cambridge: Polity.
Pichler, F., & Wallace, C. (2009). More participation,
happier society? A comparative study of civil society
and the quality of life. Social Indicators Research,
93(2), 255274.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone. The collapse and
revival of American community. New York: Simon and
Schuster.
Wallace, C., Pichler, F., et al. (2012). Changing patterns of
participation in Europe and the USA 19952005. Is
Eastern Europe different? East European Politics and
Society, 26(1), 319.
Wellman, B., Quan Haase, A., Witte, J., et al. (2001). Does the
internet increase, decrease or supplement social capital?
Social networks, participation and community commit-
ment. American Behavioural Scientist, 45(3), 436455.
Asthenia
Fatigue
Asthma
Amede Gogovor and Sara Ahmed
Faculty of Medicine, McGill University,
Montreal, QC, Canada
Synonyms
Breathlessness; Mild wheezing; Wheezy bron-
chitis (in children)
Asthma
Definition
Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by
recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing,
which vary in severity and frequency from person
to person (World Health Organization [WHO],
2011). An extensive definition is provided by the
Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA): Asthma is
a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways in
which many cells and cellular elements play
a role. The chronic inflammation is associated
with airway hyperresponsiveness that leads to
recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness,
chest tightness, and coughing, particularly at
night or in the early morning. These episodes
are usually associated with widespread but vari-
able airflow obstruction within the lung that is
often reversible either spontaneously or with
treatment (GINA, 2012).
Description
Symptoms may occur several times in a day or
week in affected individuals and, for some peo-
ple, become worse during physical activity or at
night. During an asthma attack, the lining of the
bronchial tubes swell, causing the airways to
narrow and reducing the flow of air into and out
of the lungs.
The fundamental causes of asthma are not
completely understood. The strongest risk factors
for developing asthma are a combination of
genetic predisposition with environmental expo-
sure to inhaled substances and particles, includ-
ing indoor allergens (e.g., house dust mites in
bedding, carpets, and stuffed furniture; pollution;
and pet dander), outdoor allergens (pollens,
molds, tobacco smoke, chemical irritants in the
workplace, air pollution, cold air), individual
characteristics (extreme emotional arousal such
as anger or fear), physical exercise, some medi-
cations, and very occasionally iatrogenic effects
of inhaled asthma drugs.
The diagnosis is based on a combination of
detailed medical history, physical exam, response
to therapy, and tests such as spirometry,
methacholine challenge testing, and peak
263 A
expiratory flow. Differential diagnosis includes
transient infant wheeze, non-atopic wheezing,
and obesity in children and, in adults, chronic A
obstructive pulmonary disease, large airway
obstruction, pulmonary oedema, and chronic bron-
chitis in smokers (Expert Panel Report 3, 2007;
Rees, Kanabar, & Pattani, 2010; WHO, 2011).
Asthma management plan includes educa-
tion, assessment and monitoring of asthma
severity, avoidance of risks factors, establishing
medication plans for long-term control, and
designing individual strategies for managing
exacerbations (GINA, 2012). Groups of drugs
commonly used in the pharmacotherapy of
asthma are beta-agonists, long-acting beta-ago-
nists, anticholinergic bronchodilators, methyl-
xanthines, and corticosteroids.
Discussion
Asthma is a chronic disease with a very low
fatality rate compared to other chronic diseases,
but it is a condition that impacts much on
a number of domains of the well-being and
daily activities of the individual and the family
such as activity limitation, absenteeism from
school or work, poor quality of sleep, poor social
functioning, and mental and emotional health
(Spilker, 1996; WHO, 2011). Among patients
who have asthma, a more emotional or avoidant
coping style, low self-efficacy, and low mastery
feelings were found to be independently associ-
ated with poor quality of life (QOL) (Expert
Panel Report 3, 2007). As such, measuring QOL
in the context of asthma management is
a necessary complement to clinical and resource
utilization measures. The major domains of QOL
include physical and functional status, psycho-
logical status, social interactions, economic
related factors, and spiritual status (Spilker,
1996). Generic and particularly disease-specific
QOL instruments are used to measure the impact
of asthma and to evaluate the impact of interven-
tions aimed at improving the condition. Appro-
priate management, including the use of
medications and written personal action plans,
the avoidance of triggers, and patient self-
management, can help control asthma and enable
people to enjoy a good quality of life.
A 264
Cross-References
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
(COPD)
Quality of Life (QOL)
References
Expert Panel Report 3. (2007). Guidelines for the diagno-
sis and management of Asthma. National Asthma Edu-
cation and Prevention Program. National Heart, Lung
and Blood Institute.
GINA (2012). From the Global Strategy for Asthma Man-
agement and Prevention, Global Initiative for Asthma.
Available: http://www.ginasthma.org/. Accessed 23
January 2013.
Rees, J., Kanabar, D., & Pattani, S. (2010). ABC of Asthma
(6th ed.). Chichester: Wiley.
Spilker, B. (1996). Quality of life and pharmacoe-
conomics in clinical trials. Philadelphia: Lippincott-
Raven.
WHO. (2011). Asthma Fact Sheet No307. WHO [On-line].
Available: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/
factsheets/fs307/en/. Accessed 23 January 2013.
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
Amede Gogovor and Sara Ahmed
Faculty of Medicine, McGill University,
Montreal, QC, Canada
Synonyms
AQLQ
Definition
There are two instruments of the same name:
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (Marks)
(AQLQ-M or AQLQ-S or AQLQ-Sydney)
is a 20-item self-administered questionnaire to
measure quality of life in adults with asthma
(Marks, Dunn, & Woolcock, 1992; Spilker,
1996). There is a modified version, Asthma
Quality of Life Questionnaire for Native
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
American Adults (AQLQ-NAA) (Gupchup
et al., 2001).
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ
or AQLQ-J) developed by Juniper and col-
leagues is a 32 questions instrument to mea-
sure the functional problems that are most
troublesome to adults (Fayers & Machin,
2000; Juniper et al., 1992; Spilker, 1996).
Alternative versions of AQLQ are:
Standardized Asthma Quality of Life Ques-
tionnaire (AQLQ(S))
Mini Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
(Mini AQLQ)
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire for
12 years and older (AQLQ + 12)
Acute Asthma Quality of Life Question-
naire (Acute AQLQ)
Paediatric Asthma Quality of Life Ques-
tionnaire (PAQLQ)
Standardized Pediatric Asthma Quality of
Life Questionnaire (PAQLQ(S))
Mini Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life
Questionnaire (MiniPAQLQ)
Pediatric Asthma Caregivers Quality of
Life Questionnaire (PACQLQ)
Description
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire Marks
(AQLQ-M)
Domains. The instrument covers four
domains: breathlessness and physical restric-
tions, mood disturbance, social disruption, and
concerns for health.
Administration mode. The self-administered
questionnaire takes approximately 5 min to
complete. Patients rate each of the 20 items
on a 5-point scale, over the past 4 weeks.
Psychometric properties.
Reliability. Internal consistency assessed by
Cronbachs alpha was 0.92, and test-retest
interclass correlation was 0.80 in a sample of
77 outpatient adults.
Validity. Construct validity was evaluated in
a survey of 87 patients and showed moderate
correlation with the number of asthma medica-
tions (r 0.38) and weak correlation with
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
clinical indicators, including % predicted forced
expiratory volume at 1.0 s (FEV1% predicted;
r 0.20) and 20 % fall in the forced expira-
tory volume in 1 s (PD20FEV1; r 0.16).
Responsiveness. The instrument was capable
of detecting differences between improved
and stable subjects (p 0.007) in a study of
44 adults with asthma (Marks, Dunn, &
Woolcock, 1993).
Languages. English (Australia). Translations are
available in Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ)
Domains. The instrument covers four
domains: symptoms, activity limitation, emo-
tional function, and environmental stimuli.
Administration mode. Self-administered,
interviewer administered, interactive voice
response system (IVRS). Patients respond to
each of the 32 items on a 7-point scale with
a recall period of 2 weeks. The questionnaire
takes approximately 10 min to complete at the
first visit and 5 min at follow-up.
Psychometric properties.
Reliability. Test-retest interclass correlation
ranging from 0.89 to 0.94 (Juniper, Guyatt,
Ferrie & Griffith, 1993) and 0.90 to 0.96
(Rowe & Oxman, 1993).
Validity. Construct validity studies showed
a high correlation with changes in clinical
asthma control (r > 0.5) in longitudinal corre-
lations studies, a moderate correlation with the
sickness impact profile measure (r 0.35 to
0.5), and no correlation with FEV1% predicted
or PD20FEV1 in cross-sectional correlations
studies (Spilker, 1996).
Responsiveness. Demonstrated by the instru-
ments ability to detect changes in quality of
life in patients who responded to treatment or
who had natural fluctuations in their asthma
(p < 0.001) and to differentiate these patients
from those who remained stable (p < 0.001)
(Spilker, 1996).
Languages. English (North America). This
instrument has been translated in many lan-
guages. A full list of translations is available
at: http://www.qoltech.co.uk/language_lists.
html#aqlq.
265 A
Other: Adolescent Asthma Quality of Life
Questionnaire (AAQOL) is a 32-item self-
administered questionnaire, specifically devel- A
oped for adolescents (1217 years) with asthma
that covers six domains: symptoms, medication,
physical activities, emotion, social interaction,
and positive effects (Rutishauser, Sawyer, Bond,
Coffey, & Bowes, 2001).
Discussion
Quality of life (QOL) instruments that measure
dimensions determined by health status are
defined as health-related quality of life, and they
can be either generic (e.g., the SF-36) or disease
specific (e.g., the AQLQ). Both types of instru-
ments have strengths and limitations. Generic
instruments permit comparisons across different
conditions but may lack sensitivity in relation to
the impacts of a specific disease.
AQLQ instruments were designed for use with
patients with asthma and have been mainly used
in clinical trials to assess the efficacy of health
interventions, including the use of medications.
The Expert Panel for the Guidelines for Diagnos-
tic and Management of Asthma recommends that
key areas of quality of life and related loss of
physical function should be assessed periodically
for each person who has asthma. However, there
are practical constraints to the routine use of
AQLQ instruments in clinical practice, including
a lack of experience with their use and the time
involved in completing the instrument, even
though shorter questionnaires have been devel-
oped (e.g., AQLQ-M, Mini-AQLQ) (Expert
Panel Report 3, 2007). The use of AQLQ instru-
ments in quality of care assessment at the group
level (Ehrs, Nokela, Stallberg, Hjemdahl, &
Wikstrom, 2006) may be the first step to their
widespread adoption in routine clinical practice.
AQLQ instruments are summated scales com-
prised of items with Likert-type response formats.
The questionnaires have good psychometric prop-
erties including good reliability, construct validity
and responsiveness, properties essential for use
in clinical trials, clinical practice, and surveys.
Nonetheless, new approaches in the field of
patient-reported outcomes measurement are
being used to develop, modify, and validate
A 266 Astronaut Families

measures for research and clinical practice. In
particular, item response theory (IRT) is increas-
ingly used to develop measures that include items
of different levels of difficulty based on the pre-
mise that patients will have different probabilities
of responding positively to each item (Walters,
2009). It might be useful to use IRT to develop
QOL instruments for asthma and assess their use-
fulness in routine clinical practice, clinical trials,
and population-based research in comparison with
current AQLQ instruments.
Cross-References
Changes in Quality of Life
Construct Validity
Quality of Life (QOL)
Quality of Life Questionnaire
Reliability
Self-Assessment, Quality of Life
Sickness Impact Profile (SIP)
with asthma. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 45,
461472.
Marks, G. B., Dunn, S. M., & Woolcock, A. J. (1993). An
evaluation of an asthma quality of life questionnaire as
a measure of change in adults with asthma. Journal of
Clinical Epidemiology, 46, 11031111.
Rowe, B. H., & Oxman, A. D. (1993). Performance of an
asthma quality of life questionnaire in an outpatient
setting. The American Review of Respiratory Disease,
148, 675681.
Rutishauser, C., Sawyer, S. M., Bond, L., Coffey, C., &
Bowes, G. (2001). Development and validation of the
Adolescent Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire
(AAQOL). The European Respiratory Journal, 17,
5258.
Spilker, B. (1996). Quality of life and pharmacoeconomics
in clinical trials. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven.
Walters, S. J. (2009). Quality of life outcomes in clinical
trials and health-care evaluation: A practical guide to
analysis and interpretation. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Astronaut Families
Child Well-Being and Transnational Families

References
Atheism
Ehrs, P. O., Nokela, M., Stallberg, B., Hjemdahl, P., &
Wikstrom, J. E. (2006). Brief questionnaires for patient- Religious Nonbelievers Psychological
reported outcomes in asthma: Validation and usefulness Distress
in a primary care setting. Chest, 129, 925932.
Expert Panel Report 3. (2007). Guidelines for the Diag-
nosis and Management of Asthma National Asthma
Education and Prevention Program. National Heart,
Lung and Blood Institute. Atmo Index
Fayers, P. M., & Machin, D. (2000). Quality of life assess-
ment, analysis, and interpretation. New York: Wiley.
Gupchup, G. V., Hubbard, J. H., Teel, M. A., Singhal, Air Quality
P. K., Tonrey, L., Riley, K., et al. (2001). Developing
a community-specific health-related quality of life
(HRQOL) questionnaire for asthma: The Asthma-
Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire for Native
American Adults (AQLQ-NAA). The Journal of At-Risk Children
Asthma, 38, 169178.
Juniper, E. F., Guyatt, G. H., Epstein, R. S., Ferrie, P. J., Kristin D. Sawka-Miller
Jaeschke, R., & Hiller, T. K. (1992). Evaluation of
Department of Psychology, Siena College,
impairment of health related quality of life in asthma:
Development of a questionnaire for use in clinical Loudonville, NY, USA
trials. Thorax, 47, 7683.
Juniper, E. F., Guyatt, G. H., Ferrie, P. J., & Griffith, L. E.
(1993). Measuring quality of life in asthma. The Amer-
ican Review of Respiratory Disease, 147, 832838.
Synonyms
Marks, G. B., Dunn, S. M., & Woolcock, A. J. (1992).
A scale for the measurement of quality of life in adults Child psychopathology; Risk factors
At-Risk Children
Definition
Risk factor is defined as a variable that pre-
cedes a negative outcome of interest. The pres-
ence of the variable increases the probability that
the outcome will occur.
Description
Risk factors can include acute stressors as well as
chronic adversity. Research has shown that the
relationship between risk factors and quality of
life can be partially explained by a number of
mediating variables, including (a) number and
severity of each risk factor, (b) length of exposure
to the risk factor, and (c) presence or absence of
positive supports available to the child (Walker &
Shinn, 2002). Risk factors most commonly
influencing child life quality can be categorized
as (a) family factors, (b) child factors, and
(c) environmental factors, which will be
reviewed below.
Child-Specific Factors. Having poor social
skills, low self-esteem, poor problem-solving
skills, and explanatory styles attributing success
to external events and failures to internal events
are examples of alterable child psychological
characteristics that increase the likelihood of
diminished life quality in general (Walker &
Shinn, 2002). Physical factors such as being
born prematurely or at low birth weight, sustain-
ing prenatal brain damage (from preventable
causes such as maternal use of drugs to accidental
in vitro physical trauma), and lacking proper
maternal and child health care are risk factors
that affect quality of life. Cognitive functioning
has also been shown to be a key risk factor;
children with mild to moderate intellectual dis-
abilities are more likely to develop learned help-
lessness, experience emotional and behavioral
problems, and are at greater risk for school drop-
out than children without intellectual disabilities
(Mash & Wolfe, 2010).
Another dispositional factor associated with
compromised life quality is temperament. Chil-
dren described as having a difficult tempera-
ment (i.e., highly emotional and irritable) may be
267 A
more vulnerable to the effects of parenting than
infants with less difficult temperaments. Specifi-
cally, children with difficult temperaments who A
experience poor parental responses and/or a lack
of environmental supports show diminished qual-
ity of life on measures of academic competence,
social skills, and relationships with teachers and
peers by the first grade. When quality of parent-
ing is high, difficult infants show better adjust-
ment than children with less difficult
temperaments (Stright, Gallagher, & Kelley,
2008).
Health of the child can also impact quality of
life. For example, compared with healthy weight
adolescents, children with obesity (typically
defined for children in terms of a body mass
index, or height-to-weight ratio, which is above
the 95 % percentile based on norms for the childs
sex and age) report significantly lower scores in
physical, social, and emotional functioning
(Keating, Moodie, & Swinburn, 2011). Children
with chronic illnesses (i.e., an illness that lasts
longer than 3 months in a year or that requires
a period of continuous hospitalization of more
than 1 month) often experience interference
with daily activities such as establishing or
maintaining friendships, attending school, and
pursuing a normal quality of life (Mash &
Wolfe, 2010).
Family Factors. A harsh or inconsistent par-
enting style, as well as poor supervision and low
involvement in childs activities, is strongly asso-
ciated with family instability and stress, which in
turn are associated with poor school perfor-
mance, social rejection by prosocial peers,
impaired problem-solving, and antisocial behav-
ior (Walker & Shinn, 2002). Child abuse and
neglect, which affects boys and girls at similar
rates (with the exception of sexual abuse, in
which girls are four times as likely to be victim-
ized), are risk factors for poor emotional regula-
tion, low self-efficacy, emotional and behavioral
problems, mood disturbances, substance abuse,
and suicidal behavior (Cicchetti, 2006).
While child maltreatment may occur outside of
the home or at the hands of a stranger, 80 % of the
victims of abuse or neglect are maltreated by
one or both parents. Family structure is also
A 268
associated with maltreatment. Specifically, chil-
dren living with a single parent and larger fami-
lies are more likely to be the victims of abuse or
neglect (Mash & Wolfe, 2010). Other recognized
family risk factors for diminished quality of life
in children include being the child of a teenage
mother, having one or both parents with psycho-
pathology (especially depression, parental crimi-
nality, parental substance abuse, marital discord,
family violence, and long-term parental unem-
ployment (Walker & Shinn, 2002)).
Environmental Factors. Socioeconomic dis-
advantage is one of the most significant risk fac-
tors associated with compromised quality of life.
Children growing up in poverty experience sig-
nificantly higher rates of behavior disorders,
chronic illness, emotional problems, learning dis-
abilities, and school problems than children who
are not poor (Mash & Wolfe, 2010). Child devel-
opment is also strongly influenced by risk factors
within community and school contexts. Children
who grow up in neighborhoods in which they are
exposed to or have been the victim of violence
and crime are more likely to experience post-
traumatic stress disorder, symptoms of depres-
sion, and substance abuse (Kilpatrick et al.,
2003). Lack of support services and connections
to social organization or adults outside the family
who take an interest in promoting the childs
welfare, experiencing social or cultural discrimi-
nation, and living in areas in which violence is
considered an acceptable outlet for frustration are
additional community risk factors for diminished
quality of life (Mash & Wolfe, 2010).
In the school context, factors such as school
failure, belonging to a deviant peer group, being
the victim or perpetrator of bullying, and being
rejected by ones teachers or peers place a child at
risk for a host of negative outcomes, including
behavior disorders, depression, and dropout
(Walker & Shinn, 2002). Schools with negative
climates in which there may be high rates of
disruption, a heavy reliance on punitive disci-
pline procedures, poor teacher-student relation-
ships, and inadequate behavior and instructional
management have higher rates of vandalism,
aggression, low academic achievement, and
dropout (Mayer, 2002). Low student engagement
At-Risk Children
with school and the schooling process puts a child
at risk for dropout, low academic achievement,
and more health compromising activities (i.e.,
substance abuse, depression, suicidality, aggres-
sion; Hart, 2009). Each of these variables can
negatively and significantly affect childrens
quality of life.
It is important to note that although exposure
to risk factors makes a child vulnerable to abnor-
mal development, not all at-risk children will
develop impairments. Protective factors are per-
sonal or situational variables that reduce the
chances that a negative outcome will occur, and
they work in tandem with risk factors. Specifi-
cally, the likelihood of resiliency, or the ability to
avoid negative outcomes despite being at risk,
increases as the number of a childs protective
factors increase. For example, children with par-
ents with low involvement may receive compen-
satory support from individuals in their
community, social service agencies, teachers, or
peers (Doll et al., 2009). Early identification of
circumstances that place or may place children at
risk, with a focus on building protective factors at
the family (e.g., parent management training),
child (e.g., social skills training), and commu-
nity/school level (e.g., establishing a positive
school climate), is the current model of preven-
tion and intervention to enhance the quality of life
with at-risk children (Walker & Shinn, 2002).
Cross-References
Parent-Child Relationship(s)
Parenting Style
Resilience
School Climate
School Dropout
References
Cicchetti, D. (2006). Development and psychopathology.
In D. Cicchetti & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Theory and
method (2nd ed., Vol. 1, pp. 123).
Doll, B., Kurien, S., LeClair, C., Spies, R., Champion, A., &
Osborn, A. (2009). The ClassMaps survey. In R.
Gilman, E. S. Huebner, & M. J. Furlong (Eds.),
Attachment
Handbook of positive psychology in schools. Routledge:
New York.
Hart. (2009). Student engagement: What it is and why its
important. School Psychology: From Science to Prac-
tice, 1(2), 4244.
Keating, C. L., Moodie, M. L., & Swinburn, B. A. (2011).
The health-related quality of life of overweight and
obese adolescents A study measuring body mass
index and adolescent-reported perceptions. Interna-
tional Journal of Pediatric Obesity, 6(56), 434441.
Kilpatrick, D. G., Ruggiero, K. J., Acierno, R., Saunders,
B. E., Resnick, H. S., & Best, C. L. (2003). Violence
and risk of PTSD, major depression, substance abuse/
dependence, and comorbidity: Results from the
National Survey of Adolescents. Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology, 71(4), 6927000.
Mash, E. J., & Wolfe, D. A. (2010). Abnormal child
psychology (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Mayer, G. R. (2002). Behavioral strategies to reduce
school violence. Child and Family Behavior Therapy,
24(12), 83100.
Stright, A. D., Gallagher, K. C., & Kelley, K. (2008).
Infant temperament moderates relations between
maternal parenting in early childhood and childrens
adjustment in first grade. Child Development, 79,
186200.
Walker, H. M., & Shinn, M. R. (2002). Structuring school-
based interventions to achieve integrated primary, sec-
ondary, and tertiary prevention goals for safe and
effective schools. In M. Shinn, H. Walker, & G. Stoner
(Eds.), Interventions for academic and behavior prob-
lems II: Preventive and remedial approaches
(pp. 126). Bethesda, MD: NASP.
Attachment
Melissa George1 and E. Mark Cummings2
1
Department of Psychology, University of
South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
2
Department of Psychology, University of
Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
Synonyms
Emotional bond; Emotional security; Security
Definition
Attachment is an emotional bond between indi-
viduals characterized by continuity over space
269 A
and time (Bowlby, 1969). The earliest attach-
ments are formed between infant and caregivers,
typically the parents, for physical protection, A
although this relationship contributes to
emotional security and protection after infancy.
Attachments are also formed to other individuals
later in development and have implications for
many areas of adjustment and well-being across
the life span. Central to the security of this bond
is the availability and responsiveness of the
caregiver to the childs needs, especially in
times of threat or distress, and the effective-
ness of the relationship in restoring the childs
sense of safety and security. Patterns of attach-
ments (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall,
1978), which are characterized as secure (B),
insecure-avoidant (A), insecure-ambivalent (C),
or insecure-disorganized (D), develop in the
context of interactions with the attachment
figure and function as a template for interacting
with the social world and thus are associated
with later psychosocial functioning.
Description
Attachment theory has become one of the most
influential theories in social and behavioral
sciences with regard to understanding individual
psychosocial functioning. Parentchild attach-
ment security has been identified as influential
in promoting mental health, well-being, and
quality of life across the life span. Mary Ains-
worth pioneered scientific approaches to the
investigation of attachment. Developing in the
context of the infant-caregiver relationship
during the first few years of life, patterns of
attachment reflect the availability of the care-
giver and sensitivity and reciprocity of this
relationship (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, &
Wall, 1978). Parentchild attachment security
is related to healthy development, having
important implications for well-being and
quality of life.
Attachment theory was conceptualized by
Bowlby as an extension of psychoanalytic
principles that integrated a variety of other con-
ceptualizations, including control systems theory
A 270
to account for the context sensitivity of attach-
ment behavior, and ethological theory to
explain the biological foundations of infant
needs to develop attachments to caregivers for
survival purposes (Bowlby, 1969). The attach-
ment behavioral system was hypothesized by
Bowlby to have developed in the environment
of evolutionary adaptiveness due to its function
in increasing childrens capacity to survive in
threatening contexts. When threatened, infants
signal caregivers to respond and seek proximity
with the caregiver to ensure physical protection
and, in this process, develop a sense of
belonging, loyalty, and trust in the attachment
relationship. Infant and caregiver behaviors
become synchronized as each develops expecta-
tions about the self and their partners responses
to their behavior (Bowlby, 1973).
Theory and research (see reviews in Cassidy &
Shaver, 1999) indicate that secure attachment
fosters feelings of self-value and competence.
Children who are secure regard their parent as
responsive and emotionally available especially
in times of stress and supportive of exploration
of their environment. In contrast, children
who are insecure develop strategies for managing
their parents unresponsiveness, unavailability,
and interference with exploration and may also
develop self-ideas characterized by worthless-
ness and incompetence (Bretherton &
Munholland, 1999). Children develop and use
these expectations regarding the availability
and responsiveness of attachment figures as
part of their internal working models or mental
representations about the attachment figure,
the self, and the relationship with the attachment
figure (Bretherton, 1992). Thus, internal
working models derived from parentchild attach-
ments affect the way a child processes the envi-
ronment, influencing their behavior in future
interactions with the social world (Bowlby,
1969). A secure attachment is significant for
child socio-emotional health as it reflects the
childs ability to utilize attachment relations to
evaluate and interact with his or her environment,
with this relationship serving as a template in
developing all other social relationships.
Thus, insecurity in the parentchild attachment
Attachment
relationship has negative implications for adjust-
ment, while patterns of secure parentchild attach-
ment facilitate healthy emotional and social
development (Sroufe & Waters, 1977).
While attachment beyond the first two years of
life becomes increasingly more stable and resis-
tant to change, attachment is modifiable based on
experience. Theory and research indicate that
while attachment relationships may change in
manifestation and operation during childhood,
the bonds with primary caregivers do not
weaken as children begin developing and
directing time toward other social relationships
(Ainsworth, 1985; Bowlby, 1982). However, the
caregiving context still remains a critical influ-
ence, and changes or disruptions in the caregiving
context are associated with potential changes in
attachment security. Notably, many current per-
spectives on families identify the interrelatedness
of family relationships, the plasticity of develop-
ment (Lerner, 1976), the transactional nature of
parentchild relationships and an individuals
attachment security, and the implications of emo-
tional security from a family-wide perspective
(Cummings & Davies, 2010).
An extensive literature of remarkable scope
and breadth has linked attachment with later
psychological functioning (Cassidy & Shaver,
1999). Commonly, findings focus on the assess-
ment of attachment in infancy as a predictor of
later aspects of development and functioning.
Attachment insecurity has been associated with
numerous aspects of child maladjustment, partic-
ularly social and emotional dysfunction and the
development of emotional and behavioral prob-
lems. Attachment insecurity has been associated
with internalizing problems and externalizing
problems. Yet, there are inconsistencies in these
associations, and support for these relations is
not always found, or support may be specific to
a particular parentchild gender dyad. To a great
extent, however, attachment security is often
associated with positive socio-emotional and
behavioral outcomes or low levels of internaliz-
ing and externalizing behaviors.
Attachment security has been linked with adap-
tation to school (Aviezer, Sagi, Resnick, & Gini,
2002), and success in school, especially childrens
Attachment
emotional and regulatory abilities in the classroom.
There is also support for associations between
attachment security and childrens academic
achievement as well as relations with cognitive
and motivational aspects of academic performance.
Additionally, secure attachment appears to pro-
mote socially competent behaviors with peers
(Booth, Rose-Krasnor, McKinnon, & Rubin,
1991), while insecure attachment contributes to
difficulties in peer relations, including aggressive
and hostile behaviors, social ineptness, and passiv-
ity and victimization. Perceptions of attachment
relationships also contribute to competency in
romantic relationships. Attachment may be espe-
cially associated with the quality of romantic rela-
tionships and friendships, reflective of intimate
experiences within the family being strongly linked
with intimate relations outside of the family.
Finally, emerging evidence suggests that attach-
ment security may advance the ability to connect
with others and to build supportive relationships
and social networks that can serve as coping
resources (Lopez & Brennan, 2000). In this regard,
secure attachment has been linked with promoting
positive affect (Torquati & Raffaelli, 2004),
well-being (La Guardia, Ryan, Couchman, &
Deci, 2000), and positive models of self and others
(Brennan, Clark, & Shaver, 1998). By contrast,
insecurity in attachment relationships has been
associated with poor life satisfaction (Ling,
Jiang, & Xia, 2008; Van Buren & Cooley, 2002;
Wearden, Lamberton, Crook, & Walsh, 2005).
Cross-References
Competence
Distress
Emotional Well-Being
Feeling Safe
Love
Parent-Child Relationship(s)
Positive Affect
Psychosocial Adjustment (Includes
Psychosocial Functioning and Well-Being)
Sense of Belonging
Trust
Victimization
271 A
References
Ainsworth, M. D. S. (1985). Patterns of infant-mother
attachments: Antecedents and effects on development. A
Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 61,
771791.
Ainsworth, M. D. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S.
(1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study
of the strange situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Aviezer, O., Sagi, A., Resnick, G., & Gini, M. (2002).
School competence in young adolescence: Links to
early attachment relationships beyond concurrent
self-perceived competence and representations of
relationships. International Journal of Behavioral
Development, 26, 397409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/
01650250143000328.
Booth, C., Rose-Krasnor, L., & Rubin, K. H. (1991). Relat-
ing preschoolers social competence and their mothers
parenting behaviors to early attachment security and
high risk status. Journal of Social and Personal Rela-
tionships, 8, 363382. doi:10.1177/0265407591083004.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1 Attach-
ment. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. (1973). Separation: Anxiety & anger. Attach-
ment and loss (Vol. 2); (International psycho-
analytical library no.95). London: Hogarth Press.
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss: Retrospect
and prospect. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry,
52, 664678. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.
1982.tb01456.x.
Brennan, K. A., Clark, C. L., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Self-
report measurement of adult attachment: An integra-
tive overview. In J. A. Simpson, W. Rholes, J. A.
Simpson, & W. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and
close relationships (pp. 4676). New York: Guilford
Press.
Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory:
John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental
Psychology, 28, 759775.
Bretherton, I., & Munholland, K. A. (1999). Internal
working models in attachment relationships:
A construct revisited. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver
(Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research,
and clinical applications (pp. 89111). New York:
Guilford.
Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P. R. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of
attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applica-
tions. New York: Guilford Press.
Cummings, E. M., & Davies, P. T. (2010). Marital conflict
and children: An emotional security perspective.
Guilford Press, New York, NY.
La Guardia, J. G., Ryan, R. M., Couchman, C. E., & Deci,
E. L. (2000). Within-person variation in security of
attachment: A self-determination theory perspective
on attachment, need fulfillment, and well-being. Jour-
nal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(3),
367384. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.3.367.
Lerner, R. M. (1976). Concepts and theories of human
development. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
A 272
Ling, X., Jiang, G.-R., & Xia, Q. (2008). Relationship
between normal university freshmens adult attach-
ment towards different subjects and subjective
well-being. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology,
16, 7173.
Lopez, F. G., & Brennan, K. A. (2000). Dynamic
processes underlying adult attachment organization:
Toward an attachment theoretical perspective on the
healthy and effective self. Journal of Counseling
Psychology, 47, 283300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/
0022-0167.47.3.283.
Miller, P. H. (1993). Ethological theory. In theories of
developmental psychology (pp. 291343). New York:
W.H. Freeman.
Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1977). Attachment as an
organizational construct. Child Development, 48,
11841199.
Torquati, J. C., & Raffaelli, M. (2004). Daily experiences
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curely attached young adults. Journal of Adolescent
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0743558403260023.
Van Buren, A., & Cooley, E. L. (2002). Attachment styles,
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Wearden, A. J., Lamberton, N., Crook, N., & Walsh, V.
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2004.09.010.
Attachment Theory, Coping and
Childs Death
Coping with Childs Death Using Spirituality
and Religion
Attachments, Social
Community Values
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD)
Attachment Theory, Coping and Childs Death
Attention Restoration Theory
Restorative Natural Environments
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD)
Alison Scope
School of Health and Related Research,
The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Synonyms
Attention deficit disorder (ADD); Hyperkinetic
disorder (HKD)
Definition
Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
is a developmental disorder in which the
interplay of multiple genetic and environmental
factors contribute to the risk for the disorder. It is
characterized as persistent inattention and/or
hyperactivity-impulsivity occurring more
frequently and at a greater level of severity than
is typical in individuals at the same level of devel-
opment. Although the last decade has seen an
increase in neuroimaging and molecular genetic
investigations of ADHD, it remains defined at
a behavioral level. ADHD causes significant diffi-
culties which can detrimentally affect the suf-
ferers development and health-related quality
of life.
Description
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
(APA, 2000) is a condition reported to affect
an increasing number of children from birth or
infancy. A range of theories to account for the
development of ADHD have been presented in
the literature and one stance views ADHD as
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
a biopsychosocial disorder (Cooper, 1997). This
theory implicates biological, psychological, and
environmental factors in the etiology of the
disorder. Assumptions have been made that
brain abnormalities, whether caused by
differences in brain structure (Castellanos et al.,
1996; Filipek et al., 1997), genetic transmission
(Khan & Faraone, 2006), or environmental fac-
tors (Das Banerjee, Middleton, & Faraone, 2007),
go on to cause cognitive deficits and subsequent
inappropriate or atypical behavior which are
the symptoms of ADHD. The ratio of boys to
girls diagnosed with ADHD is reported as lying
somewhere between 4:1 and 8:1 (Barkley, 1998),
and this sex difference is explained by varying
theories such as differing personality traits of
boys in comparison to girls (Barkley, 1998) and
sex differences in dopamine receptor density
(Anderson & Teicher, 2000).
Diagnosis
According to the American Psychiatric
Association (APA), attention deficit/hyperactiv-
ity disorder (ADHD) is characterized as
persistent inattention and/or hyperactivity-
impulsivity occurring more frequently and at
a greater level of severity than is typical in
individuals at the same level of development
(DSM-IV TR) (APA, 2000). They suggest that
the diagnosis of ADHD should be based on these
behavioral symptoms and they should be persis-
tent for at least 6 months. Some of these symp-
toms should have been present before the age of
seven and should be persistent in at least two
settings. There should also be clear evidence of
a clinical impairment. Symptoms of inattention
include inattention to schoolwork, difficulty
maintaining sustained attention, not listening
when spoken to, not following instructions,
disorganization, avoidance of sustained mental
effort, losing items, being easily distracted by
extraneous stimuli, and forgetfulness. Symptoms
of hyperactivity include fidgeting, running, and
climbing excessively; difficulty in engaging in
activities quietly; and talking excessively, and
symptoms of impulsivity would include shouting
out, interrupting others, and finding difficulty in
waiting turn. There are also three subtypes of
273 A
ADHD dependent on the type of symptoms
displayed (APA, 2000). These are combined
type (ADHD-CT), predominantly inattentive A
type (ADHD-PI), and predominantly hyperac-
tive-impulsive type (ADHD-HI). Although the
term ADHD is used globally, in a number of
countries, including Britain and Australia, both
DSM-IV-TR ADHD and the International Clas-
sifications of Diseases 10th edition (ICD 10)
(WHO, 1992) definitions of hyperkinetic disorder
(HKD) are used to diagnose attentional disorders.
The definition of HKD is severe and pervasive
inattentiveness, overactivity, and impulsiveness
with an onset prior to the age of 6 years. The
definition of HKD is more restrictive than the
definitions for ADHD, as it focuses more on
extreme hyperactive behaviors; HKD is thought
of therefore as a severe subgroup of the DSM-IV
TR combined subtype of ADHD.
Prevalence
ADHD (DSM-IV-TR) is a relatively common
disorder. A recent systematic review of interna-
tional prevalence studies of with children and
adolescents with ADHD (Polanczyk, Silva de
Lima, Lessa Horta, Biederman, & Rohde, 2007)
reported a worldwide-pooled prevalence rate of
5.29 % and concluded that the majority of vari-
ability derived from the definitions used and the
way symptoms were measured in different parts
of the world. Prevalence in adults has been esti-
mated by Faraone and Biederman (2005) as 2.9 %
for a narrow definition of ADHD and 16.4 % for
a broad definition using a US sample.
Etiology
Various models have been proposed to account
for ADHD (e.g., Barkley, 1997; Sonuga-Barke,
2003; Sonuga-Barke et al., 1992). These models
are commonly based on the premise that differ-
ences in brain structure and function in children
with ADHD can lead to secondary difficulties
which can cause persistent and pervasive prob-
lems for the affected individual. Reduced motor
(Kalff et al., 2003; Kroes et al., 2002) and partic-
ularly cognitive abilities (Barkley, DuPaul, &
McMurray, 1990) are commonly reported in chil-
dren with ADHD. Underlying etiological
A 274
explanations have their basis in biological or
environmental causes. Genetic differences make
a substantial contribution to the risk of ADHD. It
has been shown to be highly heritable in a pooled
analysis of 20 international twin studies.
This analysis demonstrated that ADHD is one of
the most heritable psychiatric disorders with
a heritability of 0.76 (Faraone et al., 2005). The
investigation of a possible genetic mechanism of
ADHD has focused on potential candidate genes.
However, no single gene with a large effect has
been identified in ADHD.
The most widely reported brain structural
abnormality in ADHD is associated with the
right prefrontal cortex (Castellanos et al., 1996;
Filipek et al., 1997). More recently, however, it
has been suggested that a number of brain regions
in conjunction are implicated in ADHD; specifi-
cally, brain circuits linking the prefrontal cortex,
striatum, and cerebellum have been found to not
function normally (Castellanos & Acosta, 2002).
Furthermore, Castellanos and Tannock (2002)
suggest that there may be three endophenotypes
that characterize ADHD, an abnormality in
reward-related circuitry, deficits in temporal
processing, and deficits in working memory.
This implicates lower brain regions as well as
prefrontal regions in ADHD.
Although genetic studies have shown ADHD
to be highly heritable, there have been a number
of reported environmental risk factors for the
disorder. Potential biological environmental
causes include diet, exposure to toxins, preg-
nancy, and delivery complications, such as very
low birth weight, fetal exposure to alcohol, and
fetal exposure to maternal smoking (Das
Banerjee et al., 2007). Psychosocial factors may
include low social class, maternal psychopathol-
ogy, and family conflict (Biederman, Faraone, &
Monuteaux, 2002).
Neuropsychology
There are currently five dominant neuropsycho-
logical models of ADHD (Sergeant et al., 2003).
Depending upon the theoretical position of
each author or authors of the models, they
differ in the extent to which they stress top-down
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
(Pennington & Ozonoff, 1996) or bottom-up
(Quay, 1997; Sonuga-Barke, 2003; Sonuga-
Barke et al., 1992) processes or an interaction of
both (Sergeant, Oosterlaan, & Van der Meere,
1999). Top-down models emphasize deficit or
dysfunction of the frontal cortex, whereas bot-
tom-up models suggest the origins of attentional
difficulties are in subcortical areas (Sergeant
et al., 2003).
The premise of each of these models is that
executive function, which summarizes top-
down processes, is impaired in children with
ADHD and, therefore, has a detrimental effect
on higher level cognitive processes such as
working memory. Barkley (1997) uses the term
executive function to describe both response
inhibitory processes and the higher cognitive
processes, such as nonverbal working memory,
which are dependent on response inhibition.
Pennington and Ozonoff (1996), however,
describe only processes associated with execu-
tive attention or response inhibition as executive
function. Bottom-up models (Quay, 1997;
Sonuga-Barke et al., 1992) do not distinguish
between different executive functions as these
models favor motivational hypotheses to
explain ADHD. A number of empirical investi-
gations have centered on executive function in
children diagnosed with ADHD (Barkley et al.,
2001; Clark, Prior & Kinsella, 2002; Kempton
et al., 1999). All of these investigations have
reported significant differences between chil-
dren diagnosed with ADHD in comparison
with control children on some if not all behav-
ioral measures of executive function, showing
that ADHD children have a lowered cognitive
ability providing support for executive function
models of ADHD.
Comorbidity and Problems Associated
with ADHD
A high level of comorbidity is associated with
ADHD. Comorbid disorders include oppositional
defiant disorder, conduct disorder, depression,
and anxiety (Barkley, 1998). Problems associ-
ated with ADHD include a lack of social compe-
tence resulting from a lack of understanding of
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
social interaction with peers and adults, and this
is compounded by problems of low self-esteem
due to rejection as a result of the behavioral
manifestations of the cognitive difficulties.
Numerous studies have supported a link between
attentional difficulties and academic under-
achievement. DuPaul et al. (2001) found that
preschool children with ADHD exhibited
preacademic skill deficits before school entry.
Significantly lowered academic achievement in
ADHD children was observed when compared to
children without ADHD, and this finding held
when comorbid learning disabilities were
controlled for (DeShazo Barry, Lynman, &
Grofer Klinger, 2002). Further, it has been
asserted that inattention-hyperactivity is
a stronger predictor of academic underachieve-
ment than is aggression (Hinshaw, 1992). It has
also been demonstrated that ADHD has
a significant effect on a number of domains of
health-related quality of life (HRQL) in children
and adolescents. These include more parent-
reported problems in emotional-behavioral role
function, behavior, mental health, and self-
esteem. Further, worse psychosocial HRQL was
observed in children with more symptoms of
ADHD (Klassen, Miller, & Fine, 2004).
A meta-analysis reported by Pratt et al. (2002)
showed a strong association between measures of
ADHD and criminal/delinquent behavior. The
conclusions of the report were that ADHD should
be considered in the delivery of treatment for
offenders, highlighting the importance of early
intervention through to rehabilitation.
Treatment
The treatment options for people with
ADHD include psychological therapies, parent
training, and medications. Medications such as
atomoxetine, dexamfetamine, and methylpheni-
date are licensed in the UK for the treatment
of ADHD in children and young people
(National Collaborating Centre for Mental
Health, 2009). A large-scale US study reported
that medical management alone was signifi-
cantly more effective compared with psychoso-
cial treatment alone and routine care (The MTA
275 A
Cooperative Group 1999). However, the use
of medication to treat ADHD in children is
controversial and the numbers of cases treated A
are limited by difficulties in recognizing and
diagnosing the disorder.
Cross-References
Anxiety
Comorbidity
Health Related Quality of Life
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Attitude Measurement
Attitude Measurement
John Robinson
Department of Sociology, University of
Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Definition
Attitudes refer to whether a person is positive
or negative toward any object, animate, or
inanimate, and the usual way of measuring
attitudes involves asking people questions
about this.
Description
In the QOL context here, it is usually reflected in
a respondents expressed personal happiness,
satisfaction with life, or attitude toward ones
self or life situation. Attitudes thus are
a fundamental way of determining a persons
quality of life (QOL) so that its accurate
measurement is a crucial component. In addition
to this feeling or affective component, attitudes are
usually thought of as having two other components,
cognitive (does one have positive or negative
thoughts or beliefs about the object, e.g., ones
abilities to accomplish some goal?) and behavioral
(how does one behave in relation to the object, e.g.,
considerations or rejection of suicide?).
QOL measurement can be done either with
single questions (How happy are you? How
much faith do you have in the government?) or
by a combination of multiple questions (or scales)
on the same QOL topic (as in a self-esteem or
political efficacy set of scale items). The
questions can be in various formats: simple
agreement or disagreement, multiple option or
choice (very happy, somewhat happy, or
not happy or excellent, good, fair, poor, very
poor), rating scales (on a scale going from
1 delighted to 7 terrible), open-ended
questions (What things do you like about X?),
or more observational methods (facial expres-
sions, reaction times). Because they approach
277 A
the topic from a variety of angles or perspectives
to check on the measures reliability or consis-
tency, scales are usually the preferred form of A
measurement.
One reference work that presents and reviews
many of the major scales, as well as individual
items, to gauge a persons QOL or subjective
well-being is Measures of Personality and Social
Psychological Attitudes (Robinson, Shaver, and
Wrightsman, 1991). In addition to the scales
reviewed there, three other scales can be found in
Lyubomirsky and Lepper (1999); Watson, Clark,
and Tellegen (1988); and Diener, Emmons, Larsen,
and Griffin (1985). A related volume Measures of
Political Attitudes (Robinson, Shaver, and
Wrightsman, 1998) also reviews a number of
QOL-related concepts such as trust in govern-
ment, political efficacy, democratic values,
social tolerance, and political knowledge.
The volume on social psychological measures
contains chapters reviewing the following QOL
concepts: happiness and life satisfaction,
self-esteem, depression/loneliness, fear/ anxiety,
locus of control, alienation/anomy, trust in
people, authoritarianism, androgyny, and general
values (e.g., freedom, equality). The specific
contents of these measures that underlie them
bear a close relation to the five basic emotional
factors identified in multidimensional research
(e.g., Epstein, 1984; Shaver, Schwartz, Kirson, &
OConnor, 1987). When Shaver et al. (1987) asked
research respondents to sort the 135 most prototyp-
ical emotions into categories that were similar to
one another, five major groupings emerged: love
(liking), happiness, anger, sadness (depression),
and fear (anxiety). Various attitude constructs have
been cited and reported in the social science
literature, as in love or liking assessed to some
degree by the attitudes toward people scales and
by the self-esteem (self-love) scales. Happiness is
obviously directly assessed with their measures
and indirectly with the locus of control scales.
The struggle to maintain a positive affective state
such as happiness or self-esteem is reflected in their
measures; social desirability bias can be consid-
ered a defensive or self-enhancing strategy. Both
masculinity and femininity have been found to be
related to measures of self-esteem and well-being.
A 278
Considering the hedonically negative
emotional categories, anger (hostility, hatred) is
related to measures of authoritarianism and to
cynical or hostile attitudes toward people.
Sadness is obviously related to depression,
loneliness, alienation, (low) self-esteem, and
low satisfaction with life. Sadness (depression)
is also more common among people with an
external locus of control. Fear and anxiety are
directly assessed by the measures of social
anxiety and are present in people who are high
in dogmatism. Finally, the superordinate
categories of positive versus negative emotions
are reflected in certain measures of values. In
this sense, then, the above scale topics can be
seen to relate to these basic emotional
states. Given the growth of research on emotion
(e.g., Scherer & Ekman, 1984; Frijda, 1986;
Izard, Kagan, & Zajonc, 1984; and the journal,
Cognition & Emotion), it seems likely that these
links between attitudes and basic emotions will
become more explicit. Some early evidence of
the relation of many of these measures to life
satisfaction was reviewed by Robinson (1969).
Evaluative Criteria for QOL Scales
The following brief description of evaluative
criteria for multi-item scales proceeds in the
general chronological sequence in which attitude
instruments are constructed:
1. Writing the Items: One minimal consideration
in constructing a scale involves proper
sampling of content. This is not easy to
achieve, but some successful examples include
investigators of the authoritarian personality
lifting key sentiments expressed in small group
conversations, personal interviews, and written
remarks and transforming them into scale
items sometimes using direct verbatim
quotes. In the job satisfaction area,
researchers examined open-ended responses
to questions on What things do you like best
(or dont you like) about your job? Other
instruments in the job satisfaction area
(as elsewhere) were built either on the basis
of previous factor analyses (see below) or on
responses to questions concerning critically
satisfying or dissatisfying situations.
Attitude Measurement
Another criterion is simplicity of item
wording. One of the great advantages of
obtaining verbatim comments from group
discussions or open-ended questions, as people
in advertising have discovered, is that such
sentiments are usually couched in language
easily comprehended and recognized by
respondents. Items developed from college
student samples need to be edited and adapted
for use with more heterogeneous populations,
with some helpful advice on these matters
contained in Sudman and Bradburn (1982),
Robinson and Meadow (1982), Sears (1986),
and Converse and Presser (1986). Many other
undesirable item-wording practices seem to be
going out of style as well: double-barreled
items, which contain so many ideas that it is
hard to tell why a person agrees or disagrees
with them (e.g., the government should pro-
vide low-cost medical care because too many
people are in poor health and doctors charge so
much money); items that are so vague they
mean all things to all people (everybody
should receive adequate medical care); or
items that depend on familiarity with little-
known facts (the government should provide
for no more medical care than that implied in
the Constitution).
A further way to improve item construction
is via item analysis to check whether people
are responding to the items in the manner.
Researchers need not go so far as to
factor-analyze their data to select included or
discarded items, but an item intercorrelation
matrix (on perhaps a small subsample or pretest
sample) can be a simple and convenient
alternative, using correlational statistical pack-
ages like STATA, SAS, or SPSS. Measuring
the degree to which each of the five items
correlates with external criteria or outside vari-
ables is a more direct device. Wendt (1979), for
example, used canonical correlation methods
to find that a general alienation scale factored
into two distinct scales with different
demographic correlates. In the same vein,
Robinson (1969) reported learning a valuable
lesson about the myriad pitfalls in writing items
from a simple item analysis of value questions
Attitude Measurement
in a national survey. A previous study
had uncovered four dimensions of value
(authoritarianism, expression, individualism,
and equalitarianism). When one of the individ-
ualism items (it is the man who starts off
bravely on his own who excites our
admiration) was reworded to we should all
admire a man who starts out bravely on his
own, item analysis revealed that this
reformulated item was more closely associated
with the authoritarianism items than with the
other two individualism items.
2. Avoiding Response Set: A second area of
concern to scale builders is the avoidance of
response set the tendency of respondents to
respond to attitude statements for reasons
other than the content of the by statements,
say generally being agreeable with any atti-
tude statement said to show an agreement
response set. Two major sources of response
set are acquiescence and social desirability.
With acquiescence, people are yea-sayers,
willing to go along with anything that sounds
acceptable, while others (perhaps optimists)
are unwilling to look at the negative side of
any issue. Perhaps the best strategy is simply
to abandon agree-disagree or yes-no
questions in favor of forced choice items.
Here, two (or more) replies to a question are
listed and respondents are told to choose only
one: The most important thing for children to
learn is obedience and independence.
The second response set of social desir-
ability is more difficult to control (Krosnick,
1998). In contrast to the subservience implied
in the term acquiescence, Edwards (1957)
proposed more positively that such people
are just trying to make a good impression. To
overcome this temptation, the items need to
be rated on their social desirability, as
DeMaio (1984) discussed in the context of
cross-section surveys.
3. Statistical Criteria: The third area of
instrument evaluation concerns the various
statistical and psychometric procedures incor-
porated into its construction. These include:
1. Representative Sampling: There is
a familiar fallacy of generalizing results
279 A
from samples of college students to an
older and much less well-educated general
population (Sears, 1986). College students A
as a whole represent less than 5 % of the
population of the United States and diverge
from the population on two characteristics
that survey researchers usually find
most distinctive in predicting attitude
differences: age and education.
2. Reliability (test-retest): Reliability is
a highly ambiguous term in measurement,
with at least three major referents: (1) the
correlation between the same persons
scores on the same items at two separate
points in time, (2) the correlation between
two different sets of items (parallel forms)
at the same time, or (3) the correlation
between the scale items for all who answer
the items at the same time. The latter two
indices refer to the internal structure or
homogeneity of the scale items (the next
criterion), while the first indicates stability
of a respondents item responses over time.
It is unfortunate that test-retest measures
are available for so few QOL instruments.
3. Internal Consistency: There exist various
measures of reliability, some of which have
known statistical relationships with one
another (e.g., Scott, 1960). Even between
such distinctly different procedures as
the traditional psychometric approach and
the Guttman cumulative approach,
however, there likely exist reasonably stable
relationships. As yet, however, these have
not been charted. This includes the major
reliability coefficient, Cronbach (1951).
Currently, the major difference between
the indices seems to lie in a researchers
preference for large or small numbers.
Inter-item correlations seldom exceed
.40, so if one prefers larger numbers,
a Guttman reproducibility coefficient or
split-half reliability coefficient computed
on the same data could easily exceed. 90.
Again, the wisest approach is simply to
inspect the inter-item correlation matrix.
One final word of caution: It is possible to
devise a scale with very high internal
A 280
consistency merely by writing the same basic
item in a number of different ways. Sampling
of diverse item content, therefore, is crucial.
4. Known Groups Validity: Validity is the
more crucial indicator of the value of the
scale. A more demanding criterion is
whether the scale scores reliably distin-
guish happy from miserable people.
5. Convergent Validity (Predictions from The-
ory): A second and more usual test of con-
vergent validity involves obtaining results
from the scale consistent with ones theory.
For example, one might find that older peo-
ple or better-educated people or students
with higher grades score higher on the
scale, which would be consistent or conver-
gent with some theoretical expectation or
prediction. One might also expect that the
scale scores would be higher among people
who engaged in some type of behavior (such
as joining a social group or contributing
money) or expressed a particular attitude.
6. Discriminant Validation: A more refined
and powerful standard is the multitrait-
multimethod matrix as proposed by Camp-
bell and Fiske (1959). The method requires
more than one index of each of the several
constructs (say x, y, and z) one wants to
measure with the instrument. Needless to
say, this is oversimplification of the
Campbell-Fiske criteria, and interested
readers should peruse the authors article
thoroughly before attempting comparable
analyses. At the time they were writing,
Campbell and Fiske found only a few
personality scales which met their
conditions. One example of an attitude
scale that meets them is Andrews and
Crandalls (1976) life quality scale.
Even this extensive list of proposed criteria is
far from exhaustive. The actual choice of an instru-
ment should be dictated by decision-theoretic con-
siderations. Thus, the increasing of homogeneity
by adding questionnaire items needs to be bal-
anced against corresponding increases in adminis-
trative analysis and cost (as well as respondent
fatigue and noncooperation) before one decides
on how many attitude items to use. For assessing
Attitude Measurement
general levels of some attitude (e.g., separating
believers from atheists), well-worded single items
may do the job almost as well as longer scales no
matter how competently the scales are devised.
References
American Psychological Association. (1985). Standards
for educational and psychological tests. Washington,
DC: Author.
Andrews, F. (1984). Construct validity and error
components of survey measures: A structural modeling
approach. Public Opinion Quarterly, 48, 409422.
Andrews, F., & Crandall, R. (1976). The validity of
measures of self-reported well-being. Social
Indicators Research, 3, 119.
Bohmstedt, G., & Borgatta, E. (Eds.). (1981). Social
measurement: Issues. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Bohmstedt, G., Mohler, P., & Muller, W. (Eds.). (1987).
Empirical study of the reliability and stability of survey
research items. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Campbell, D., & Fiske, D. (1959). Convergent and
discriminant validation by the multitrait multimethod
matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81105.
Christie, R., Havel, J., & Seidenberg, B. (1958). Is the
F scale irreversible? Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 56, 143159.
Converse, J., & Presser, S. (1986). Survey questions:
Handcrafting the standardized questionnaire.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Crandall, R. (1973). The measurement of self-esteem and
related constructs. In J. Robinson & P. Shaver (Eds.),
Measures of social psychological attitudes. Ann
Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
Cronbach, L. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal
structure of tests. Psychometrika, 31, 9396.
Cronbach, L., & Gleser, G. (1965). Psychological tests
and personnel decisions (2nd ed.). Urbana: University
of Illinois Press.
DeMaio, T. (1984). The social desirability variable in survey
research. In C. Turner & E. Martin (Eds.), Surveying
subjective phenomena (Vol. 2). New York: Russell Sage.
Diener, E., Emmons, R., Larsen, J., & Griffin, S. (1985).
The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality
Assessment, 49, 7175.
Edwards, A. (1957). The social desirability variable in
personality assessment and research. New York: Dry-
den Press.
Ekman, P., & Scherer, K. (Eds.). (1984). Approaches to
emotion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Epstein, S. (1984). Controversial issues in emotion theory. In
P. Shaver (Ed.), Review of personality and social psy-
chology (Vol. 5, pp. 6488). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Frijda, N. H. (1986). The emotions. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Heise, D. R., & Bohrnstedt, G. W. (1970). Validity,
invalidity, and reliability. In E. F. Borgatta &
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G. W. Bohmstedt (Eds.), Sociological methodology.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Attitudes
Izard, C. E., Kagan, J., & Zajonc, R. B. (Eds.). (1984).
Emotions, cognition, and behavior. Cambridge: A
Cambridge University Press. Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty
Lyubomirsky, S., & Lepper, H. (1999). A measure of sub- Attitudes Toward Women
jective happiness: Preliminary reliability and construct Attitudes Towards Aging
validation. Social Indicators Research, 46, 137155.
Robinson, J. (1969). Life satisfaction and happiness. In Gender Role Attitudes
J. Robinson & P. Shaver (Eds.), Measures of social Homosexuality, Attitudes Toward
psychological attitudes (p. 533). Ann Arbor, MI: Index of Attitudes Favorable Toward
nstitute for Social Research (also see review of 1965 Sustainable Development
Withey scale).
Robinson, J., Athanasiou, R., & Head, K. (1967). Pornography and Mens Attitudes Supporting
Measures of occupational attitudes and characteris- Violence Against Women
tics. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research. Welfare State Attitudes
Robinson, J., & Meadow, R. (1982). Polls apart. Cabin
John, MD: Seven Locks Press.
Scherer, K. S., & Ekman, P. (Eds.). (1984). Approaches to
emotion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Scott, W. A. (1960). Measures of test homogeneity.
Attitudes Toward Government
Educational and Psychological Measurement, Spending in Asia-Pacific Region
20, 751757.
Sears, D. (1986). College sophomores in the laboratory: Chong-Min Park
Influences of a narrow data base on social
Department of Public Administration,
psychologys view of human nature. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 515530. Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
Shaver, P. (1969). Measurement of self-esteem and related
constructs. In J. Robinson & P. Shaver (Eds.), Mea-
sures of social psychological attitudes. Ann Arbor, MI:
Institute for Social Research.
Definition
Shaver, P., Schwartz, J., Kirson, D., & OConnor, C.
(1987). Emotion knowledge: Further exploration of This entry focuses on public attitudes toward
a prototype approach. Journal of Personality and government spending in six major countries of
Social Psychology, 52, 10611086.
the Asia-Pacific region Australia, China,
Sudman, S., & Bradburn, N. (1982). Asking questions. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass. India, Japan, Russia, and the United States.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). An analysis of recent cross-national survey data
Development and validation of brief measures of pos- reveals that ordinary citizens of these countries
itive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal
favored increased, rather than reduced, govern-
of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 10631070.
Wendt, J. (1979). Canonical correlation as an explanatory ment spending on a wide range of policy pro-
technique for attitude scale construction. Public grams. Citizen support for state activism was
Opinion Quarterly, 43(5), 1853 1. stronger in former state socialist countries than
Werts, C. E., & Linn, R. L. (1970). Cautions in applying
in market capitalist ones. Although economic
various procedures for determining the reliability and
validity of multiple item scales. American Sociologi- interests, symbolic predispositions, and social
cal Review, 34, 757759. positions influenced spending preferences in
Wheaton, B., Muthen, B., Alwin, D. F., & Summers, G. F. varying degrees, left-right ideology was particu-
(1977). Assessing reliability and stability in panel
larly conspicuous in most sample countries, indi-
models. In D. R. Heise (Ed.), Sociological
methodology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. cating that conflict over the role of government
remains largely ideological in nature.

Description
Attitude Scales
The 20082009 global economic crisis has
Simplex Scales resulted in a widespread demand for state
A 282 Attitudes Toward Government Spending in Asia-Pacific Region
intervention, and the magnitude of the demand
has been greater than ever before. Before the
crisis, however, the general trend had been that
of state contraction or retrenchment arising from
global pressures, a trend that had existed for more
than two decades. Major economic powerhouses
of the Asia-Pacific region Australia, Japan, and
the USA as well as China, India, and Russia
were not exceptions. Despite differences in the
size of government, levels of development, types
of economies and political regimes, and historical
legacies, they all experienced the problem of
government intervention and sought to redefine
the proper role of government in the economy
and welfare (Bevir, 2007). This entry is drawn
from an analysis of public attitudes toward gov-
ernment and their determinants in six major
countries of Asia-Pacific region based on Asia
Barometer Survey data collected in 2008, just
before the onset of the global economic crisis
(Park, 2010).
To ascertain attitudes toward government
spending, the survey asked respondents whether
they would like to see more or less government
spending in each of the following ten policy pro-
grams: the environment, health, policing and law
enforcement, education, the military and defense,
old age pensions, unemployment benefits, public
transport and telecommunications infrastructure,
culture and the arts, and the improvement of the
social status of women. Although these policy
programs by no means encompassed all activities
of modern government, they constituted major
ones. To obtain responses, the survey used
a five-point verbal scale: 1 (spend much more),
2 (spend more), 3 (spend the same as now), 4
(spend less), and 5 (spend much less).
It was found that attitudes toward government
spending hardly constituted a single dimension-
ality across most sample countries. Empirical
dimensions of spending preferences did not cor-
respond exactly to conventional types of state
functions or goals taken on by government. The
number of dimensions of spending preferences
and their constituent programs differed consider-
ably from country to country. Specifically, pro-
grams designed to protect the vulnerable such as
the elderly and the unemployed did not constitute
the same type of government activities in the
USA, India, and Australia. It was only in the
minds of Japanese and Chinese that old age pen-
sions and unemployment benefits were clearly
differentiated from non-welfare programs.
Although health and education are often regarded
as welfare programs, they were found to be dis-
tinguished from old age pensions and unemploy-
ment benefits almost everywhere. To the extent
that health is primarily seen as public health
intervention rather than health insurance, it is
likely to be distinguished from social insurance
programs. Similarly, to the extent that education
is seen as promoting equality of opportunity, it is
likely to be differentiated from welfare programs
designed to protect the vulnerable. Health and
education were closely related to the environ-
ment in the highly developed countries, while
they were related to defense, law enforcement,
and the environment in the less developed coun-
tries, suggesting that they tended to be seen as
government programs addressing market failures
rather than improving social equity. Public atti-
tudes toward government spending were
multidimensional and varied depending upon
dimensions; as such, the use of a simple analytic
scale to measure the level of support for state
activism would be difficult to justify (Jacoby,
1994).
It was revealed that public demands for gov-
ernment intervention varied from country to
country and from program to program. Specifi-
cally, Russia, China, and India were distin-
guished from Australia, the USA, and Japan in
their greater support for increased defense spend-
ing. China and Australia were most supportive of
more government action to maintain law and
order, while Japan was least supportive. In
China and Russia where the state used to guaran-
tee full employment, large majorities favored
increased spending on unemployment benefits.
In sharp contrast, in liberal or conservative wel-
fare state regimes such as Australia, the USA, and
Japan, only small minorities favored it. In India,
one of the emerging market economies with
a history of state socialism, only a minority
favored more government action to protect the
unemployed. As expected, the former state
Attitudes Toward Government Spending in Asia-Pacific Region
socialist countries tended to display higher levels
of support for government protection of the
elderly than the market capitalist countries. Aus-
tralia and India appeared to deviate from this
pattern. Support for old age pensions was greater
than support for unemployment benefits every-
where perhaps because of the universality of
aging and uneven risks of unemployment. More-
over, support for welfare programs tended to vary
depending upon the size of their potential bene-
ficiaries (Taylor-Gooby, 1985). Although health
was the least contested area of government
spending, the level of support varied from coun-
try to country. Russia and Australia were distin-
guished from Japan, the USA, and India in their
greater support. There existed nearly unanimous
public support for increased spending on health in
Russia and Australia. It remains unclear whether
the higher support for health spending indicates
support for more government provision of social
insurance, public health services, or both. Public
support for increased spending on education was
also widespread. More public investment in edu-
cation received the support of a strong majority in
every sample country except for Japan. The
higher support for health and education indicates
a strong popular commitment to human capital or
social infrastructures, which are viewed as essen-
tial for development. In contrast, womens status
was one of the least favored areas of expenditure.
Advanced capitalist countries tended to display
lower support than former state socialist coun-
tries which once pursued equality for all. In the
male-centered Japanese society, more govern-
ment intervention to improve gender equality
enjoyed lower support. Irrespective of the level
of industrialization, every sample country
displayed relatively high levels of support for
increased spending on the environment. Less
developed China and Russia displayed greater
support than more developed Japan and the
USA, suggesting that public concerns for clean
air and safe water do not necessarily require value
changes from materialism to post-materialism
(Inglehart, 1990). China and Russia were distin-
guished from Japan in their greater support for
increased spending on transport and telecommu-
nications. Australia was most supportive of
283 A
increased spending on physical infrastructure
despite its already highly industrialized society.
Public support for more government subsidies for A
culture and the arts also varied widely. Russia
was particularly distinguished from Japan, the
USA, and Australia in its greater support. In less
developed countries, the support for increased
spending on culture and the arts may reflect pub-
lic concerns on symbols of national pride more
than aesthetic aspects of quality of life.
In terms of support for state expansion, as
measured by an average of percentages favoring
increased spending on the policy programs sur-
veyed, Russia ranked first and was closely
followed by China. In contrast, Japan ranked the
last and was followed by the USA. The remaining
two countries, Australia and India, fell between
the two pairs. The former state socialist countries
still displayed greater support for the activist role
of government than the market capitalist coun-
tries. The exception was Australia, where the
support for state activism was higher than that in
Japan, the USA, and even India. It remains to be
seen whether this indicates a new trend
distinguishing Australia from other advanced
market economies. There existed national varia-
tion in support for state activism, as measured by
the number of programs on which citizens wanted
more spending or less spending. Japanese wanted
more spending on 3.9 of the ten programs and less
spending on 1.1 programs; Americans, more
spending on 4.6 programs and less spending on
1.4 programs; Indians, more spending on 5.5 pro-
grams and less spending on 1.6 programs; Aus-
tralians, more spending on 6.1 programs and less
spending on 1.0 program; Chinese, more spend-
ing on 6.8 programs and less spending on 0.5
programs; and Russians, more spending on 7.1
programs and less spending on 0.4 programs.
There were fewer differences in the number of
policy programs on which reduced public expen-
diture was favored. In contrast, there were nota-
ble differences in the number of policy programs
on which increased public expenditure was
desired. Americans and Japanese were least sup-
portive of state activism, while Chinese and
Russians are most supportive. Australians and
Indians fell somewhere in between. Not only
A 284
levels of economic development but also distinc-
tive historical legacies seem to account for the
variation in support for state expansion and
retrenchment.
Reflecting on prior theory and research (Borre &
Scarbrough, 1995; Coughlin, 1980; Eismeier,
1982), multiple regression analysis was performed
to investigate how individual attitudes toward
government spending are related to four socio-
demographic variables (gender, age, education,
and income) and two attitudinal variables (left-
right ideology and post-material values) and how
their effects and relative importance vary across the
sample countries. It turned out that primary deter-
minants of attitudes toward government spending
varied considerably from one country to another. In
Australia, educational attainment, left-right ideol-
ogy, and post-material values were significantly
related to four of ten spending preferences, indicat-
ing there was no single dominant predictor. In
Japan, left-right ideology was significantly related
to six of ten spending preferences, while educa-
tional attainment, five, indicating that political ide-
ology and socioeconomic status were major, if not
dominant, predictors. In the USA, left-right ideol-
ogy was significantly related to nine of ten spending
preferences, while income, six, underscoring the
influence of symbolic politics and self-interest
(Sears, Lau, Tyler, & Allen, 1980). In China, left-
right ideology was related to eight of nine spending
preferences, indicating that public disagreements
about the scope of government reflected an under-
lying ideological tension between neoliberalism
and state socialism. In India, there was no major
determinant of spending preferences. In Russia,
gender was significantly related to five of ten spend-
ing preferences, suggesting that if there were
a politics of government spending, it would be
neither self-interest politics nor symbolic politics
but gender politics.
The 20082009 global economic crisis has
resulted in a widespread demand for more state
intervention. Even before the crisis, however, the
mass publics of the Asia-Pacific countries surveyed
did not endorse state contraction or retrenchment in
the midst of economic globalization and the neo-
liberal reform movement. There was little public
antagonism to state intervention, particularly in
Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
social infrastructures and universal social services.
Citizen demands for such public goods and services
appeared to be insatiable almost everywhere.
Despite neoliberal calls for reductions in public
expenditure for more than two decades, ordinary
citizens of both advanced and emerging market
economies of the Asia-Pacific region displayed
a wide support for state activism, little indication
of popular support for state retrenchment.
Cross-References
Arts in British Columbia, Canada
Gender and Health
Gender Equality
Gender Well-being Composite Index
Quality of Life, Two-Variable Theory
References
Bevir, M. (2007). Introduction: Public sector reform. In
M. Bevir (Ed.), Public governance (Vol. 2, pp. vii
xxiv). London: Sage.
Borre, O., & Scarbrough, E. (Eds.). (1995). The scope of
government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coughlin, R. M. (1980). Ideology, public opinion and
welfare policy. Berkeley: Institute of International
Studies, University of California.
Eismeier, T. J. (1982). Public preferences about govern-
ment spending: Partisan, social, and attitudinal sources
of policy differences. Political Behavior, 4, 133145.
Inglehart, R. (1990). Culture shift in advanced industrial
society. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jacoby, W. G. (1994). Public attitudes toward government
spending. American Journal of Political Science,
38(2), 336361.
Park, C. (2010). Public attitudes toward government
spending in the Asia-Pacific region. Japanese Journal
of Political Science, 11(1), 7797.
Sears, D. O., Lau, R. R., Tyler, T., & Allen, H. M., Jr.
(1980). Self-interest vs. symbolic politics in policy
attitudes and presidential voting. American Political
Science Review, 73(3), 670684.
Taylor-Gooby, P. (1985). Public opinion, ideology and
state welfare. London: Routledge/Kegan Paul.
Attitudes Toward Homosexuality
Homosexuality, Attitudes Toward
Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty
Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty
Scott Vollum
Department of Sociology-Anthropology,
University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth,
MN, USA
Synonyms
Attitudes; Death penalty opinion; Marshall
hypothesis on death penalty opinions;
Public opinion about the death penalty;
Value-expressive attitudes
Definition
Attitudes toward the death penalty refer to the
sentiments, beliefs, or opinions typically
reflecting support of or opposition to the death
penalty as a criminal sanction. These attitudes
often reflect underlying social, cultural, moral,
and political sensibilities that relate to broader
notions of punishment, retribution, and criminal
responsibility. They also play an important role in
the policy, application, and imposition of the
death penalty through their role in legislation
and political decision making, with measures
of death penalty support often being relied upon
as political rationale for maintaining and
implementing it as a criminal sanction. Measures
of attitudes toward the death penalty, though typ-
ically revolving around public support for it,
include more complex questions of underlying
rationale for support or opposition, the impact
of information and knowledge on attitudes and
attitude change, and social-psychological and
sociocultural correlates and functions of individ-
uals attitudes toward the death penalty.
Description
Public attitudes and opinion have played a role in
both the perception and the reality of the death
penalty since its inception. Writers such as
285 A
Camus (1960) and Foucault (1975) documented
early public sentiment regarding the use of the
death penalty in Europe and illustrated its A
salience to this ultimate criminal punishment. In
the United States, the attitudes people hold about
the death penalty have always been tied to its use
and the debate surrounding it. But in the modern,
post-Furman era (since 1972) of the death pen-
alty in the USA (which is the primary focus of
this essay), attitudes surrounding the death pen-
alty have become especially central to its contin-
ued use and application. Specifically, attitudes
toward the death penalty have effects on politi-
cians, legislators, prosecutors, and judges. Each
of these actors play significant roles in the ongo-
ing policy and practice of the death penalty; and
each, in a variety of ways, is sensitive to the
opinion and attitudes of citizens. Therefore,
understanding the form, nature, and function of
these attitudes is all the more important.
Death Penalty Support and Opposition
Early attempts to measure death penalty opinion
or attitudes in the United States were relatively
rudimentary and focused primarily on the assess-
ment of basic levels of support of or opposition to
the death penalty as a criminal sanction. The
earliest research was in the form of opinion
polls, the most prominent being the Gallup Poll,
which began including questions pertaining to the
death penalty in 1936 (Bohm, 1991). Questions
were typically phrased in terms of yes/no dichot-
omies and asked respondents to indicate whether
or not they believed in or supported the death
penalty for the crime of murder (Bohm, 2012).
What we know about attitudes toward the death
penalty from these measures is that, historically,
a majority of the US public supported the death
penalty. This majority reached its peak in 1994
when 80 % of Americans supported the death
penalty; this number declined to 66 % by the
year 2000 and by 2011 reached its lowest point
in the post-Furman era at 61 % (Gallup, 2012).
Historically, death penalty support has varied
substantially across racial, social class, gender,
political, and regional categories (Bohm, 1991).
Whites, wealthy individuals, males, Republicans,
and Westerners were those most likely to support
A 286
the death penalty (Bohm, 1991). Less difference
between groups was found for age, education,
religion, population size, and occupation
(Bohm, 1991). Many of these patterns remain
today. Currently, according to Gallup (2012),
Whites are far more likely to support the death
penalty than people of color (68 % vs. 41 %), and
Republicans are more likely to support the death
penalty than Democrats (73 % vs. 46 %). Though
a majority of both men and women report
supporting the death penalty, men (64 %) are
more likely than women (57 %) to do so. The
Gallup Poll (2012) also reveals that support for
the death penalty is lowest among young people
(1829 years old) and among those living in the
Eastern and Western regions of the USA, though
support is still reported by a majority of each
category.
Today, measures of support and opposition to
the death penalty have become more complex
and yield perhaps a more complete picture of
Americans attitudes toward the death penalty.
The traditional question simply asking whether
one supports or opposes the death penalty for
murder fails to offer any context in terms of
what the alternative might be (i.e., one may
assume that not having the death penalty would
mean that the murderer will be free in a matter of
decades or even years). Clearly, this limits our
ability to obtain an accurate picture of death
penalty attitudes. To rectify this, questions
about death penalty support have come to include
a more complex set of options beyond just
support or oppose. Notably, respondents are and an option to read several books), and again
now often asked about their opinion and
preferences in terms of possible alternatives to
the death penalty namely, true life without
parole (LWOP) sentences. For example, the
most recent (2010) Gallup Poll included
a question asking respondents to choose which
was the better punishment for murder: the death
penalty or life in prison without parole (LWOP).
The results indicated that less than a majority
(49 %) supported the death penalty when offered
the option of LWOP (46 % selected LWOP and
5 % were undecided) (Gallup, 2012). This has
important implications for the death penalty as
public policy.
Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty
The Marshall Hypothesis
In Furman v. Georgia (1972), Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall rendered his famous
opinion in which he argued that if Americans
were adequately informed about the realities of
the death penalty, they would no longer support
its use. In debating the constitutionality of the
death penalty based on majority support for it
among the American public, Marshall stated
that the question with which we must deal is
not whether a substantial proportion of American
citizens would today, if polled, opine that capital
punishment is barbarously cruel, but whether
they would find it to be so in the light of all
information presently available (Furman v.
Georgia, 1972, p. 362). He went on to assert that
if so informed, the great mass of citizens would
conclude. . .that the death penalty is immoral and
therefore unconstitutional (Furman v. Georgia,
1972, p. 363). This came to be known as the
Marshall hypothesis and has spurred much
research (see, most recently, Bohm & Vogel,
2004; Cochran & Chamlin, 2005; Vollum,
Longmire, & Buffington-Vollum, 2004).
Early research produced findings that seemed
to support Marshalls hypothesis. Sarat and
Vidmar (1976) found that support for the death
penalty decreased from 62 % to 42 % after
respondents read several essays containing infor-
mation about the death penalty. Vidmar and
Dittenhoffer (1981) extended this research,
adding more substantial information (e.g., an
essay and series of articles on the death penalty
found that support for the death penalty declined,
this time from 48 % supporting it before reading
the information to 24 % after. Though producing
some compelling support for Marshalls hypoth-
esis, there were important methodological con-
cerns about these early studies. First, the
researchers lacked control over the information
process, having no way to know for sure if or how
respondents took in the information. Did they
read everything? If so, did they adequately com-
prehend it? Moreover, the time interval between
precondition and post-condition was very short
(an hour in Sarat and Vidmars study and 2 weeks
in Vidmar and Dittenhoffers study), denying any
Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty
ability to assess the long-term stability of any
change in attitude. Finally, the samples were
small and in the latter case nonrandomly selected.
Though there seemed to be support for Marshalls
hypothesis, because of these methodological con-
cerns, the validity of this support was questioned.
In the 1980s and 1990s, several researchers
attempted more rigorous tests of Marshalls
hypothesis. This research was led by Robert
Bohm and incorporated experimental and longi-
tudinal research designs, involving more com-
plex measures. Rather than relying on a brief
and simplistic delivery of information about the
death penalty, Bohm and colleagues used
a semester-long college course on the death pen-
alty. This allowed for a more complex presenta-
tion of death penalty facts and issues as well as
more substantial processing and consideration of
the information on the part of subjects (Bohm,
Clark, & Aveni, 1990, 1991). Moreover, Bohm
et al. (1990, 1991); Bohm et al. (1991) incorpo-
rated a greater number of pre- and posttest ques-
tions about attitudes toward the death penalty,
including an assessment of actual knowledge
about the death penalty and various reasons for
supporting the death penalty. They also gave
respondents a wider range of options in questions
about supporting or opposing the death penalty
(e.g., whether respondents supported the death
penalty in all cases or only in particular cases).
Finally, Bohm and colleagues incorporated lon-
ger-term follow-ups (23 years) to examine
whether attitudes reported in the initial posttest
(administered at the end of the semester in which
the course was taken) continued after time away
from the information.
What Bohm et al. (1990, 1991) found was
a much more nuanced and qualified picture of
death penalty attitudes and, importantly, one
that challenged Marshalls hypothesis. Though
support for the death penalty declined following
the semester-long exposure to information, they
found that the impact of this information on death
penalty attitudes was contingent upon context.
Specifically, only attitudes surrounding particular
reasons for supporting the death penalty (namely,
administrative issues such as racial discrimina-
tion and wrongful conviction/execution) were
287 A
impacted. Moreover, they found that, in some
cases, any change in attitude was mitigated by
a polarizing effect where the information A
presented resulted in some subjects simply
becoming even more entrenched in their original
position (Bohm et al., 1990, 1991). This has been
found to be particularly true in reaction to infor-
mation pertaining to deterrence, retribution, and
incapacitation (Bohm & Vogel, 1994). Most
importantly, any reported change in death penalty
attitudes was found to disappear over time
(Bohm & Vogel, 1994; Bohm, Vogel, & Maisto,
1993). Other researchers revealed similar find-
ings. Whereas some found small and statistically
insignificant decreases in death penalty support
(Wright, Bohm, & Jamieson, 1995), others
found larger but qualified change (Cochran,
Sanders, & Chamlin, 2006) particularly in
response to information focused on cost and
wrongful convictions/executions (Lambert &
Clark, 2001; Sandys, 1995). On balance, the
research suggests that Marshalls hypothesis
may have been only marginally correct and that
death penalty attitudes are likely based on more
complex factors than simple cognition or instru-
mental reasoning. Though information does
indeed impact peoples attitudes about the death
penalty, that impact appears to be shallow and
short-lived, giving way to other social-psycho-
logical, symbolic, and emotional bases of those
attitudes.
Understanding Death Penalty Attitudes:
Foundations, Functions, and Dynamics
The failure of the Marshall hypothesis to with-
stand empirical scrutiny opened the door for
research examining which factors, if not instru-
mental concerns, underpin death penalty atti-
tudes. To be fair to Marshall, he qualified his
hypothesis noting that when death penalty
attitudes were based on retribution, information
would have little effect. Research bore this out
with Bohm et al. (1991) finding that when death
penalty support is based on revenge-oriented ret-
ribution, that support is unlikely to change
regardless of knowledge about the realities of
the death penalty or its application. This revela-
tion suggested that death penalty attitudes were
A 288
perhaps rooted in something more emotional than
rational and led to much deeper examinations of
their foundations, functions, and dynamics.
Contemporary research has focused more on
the complexity of death penalty attitudes, exam-
ining both their mutability/constancy (Longmire,
1996; Unnever, Cullen, & Roberts, 2005; Vollum
et al., 2004), as well as their social-psychological
(Cochran, Boots, & Chamlin, 2006; Cochran,
Boots, & Heide, 2003; Robbers, 2006; Stack,
2003; Unnever, Cullen, & Fisher, 2005;
Vollum & Buffington-Vollum, 2010) and socio-
cultural (Borg, 1997; Cochran et al., 2006;
Unnever & Cullen, 2006) foundations. Social-
psychological factors found to be associated
with death penalty attitudes are empathy
(Unnever et al., 2005), authoritarianism (Stack,
2003), extroversion (Robbers, 2006), moral
disengagement (Vollum & Buffington-Vollum,
2010), and attribution of blame (Cochran et al.,
2003, 2006; Vollum & Buffington-Vollum,
2010). Sociocultural factors found to be associ-
ated with death penalty attitudes include religion
(Borg, 1997; Curtis, 1991; Unnever & Cullen,
2006), geographic region (Borg, 1997), and
political perspective (Curtis, 1991; Cochran
et al., 2006). The picture that emerges from this
research reveals that those who support and
oppose the death penalty have very distinct per-
sonal and cultural characteristics characteristics
that make the likelihood of change in attitudes
questionable. Those who are authoritarian,
tough minded, individualistic, conservative,
and identify causes of behavior in individual
choices are more likely to support the death pen-
alty. Those who are more empathic, communal,
liberal, and see others as products of a collective
society are more likely to oppose the death pen-
alty. Culturally, support for the death penalty is
more likely among those who grow up in an envi-
ronment where violence (particularly morally
justified violence) is legitimized, intolerance
toward other groups or individuals is supported or
reinforced, and a fundamentalist notion of
a vengeful or punitive God is predominant. Not
only do these factors relate to the direction of
attitudes about the death penalty, they also relate
to the strength of those attitudes, reducing the
Attitudes Toward the Death Penalty
likelihood of attitudinal change in the face of less
symbolic information and knowledge.
In sum, attitudes about the death penalty seem
more symbolic and rooted in underlying personal
and cultural values than in reasoned cognition.
Some scholars have characterized this in terms of
the function of attitudes about the death penalty
being value-expressive (Vollum et al., 2004;
Vollum & Buffington-Vollum, 2010). That is,
death penalty attitudes serve to support underly-
ing values more than they reflect logical decision
making. Whether this is manifested in the specific
criminal justice objective of retribution or in less
direct objectives rooted in personal, social, or
political value systems, it is clear that attitudes
about the death penalty are more complex than
many, including Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall, have historically believed.
Moreover, this value-expressive function of atti-
tudes about the death penalty makes them more
resistant to change, regardless of information or
knowledge (Vollum et al., 2004; Vollum &
Buffington-Vollum, 2010), and has important
implications for understanding the death penalty
as a cultural and political institution as well as for
its continued use as public policy.
Cross-References
Crime
Cultural Values
References
Bohm, R. M. (1991). American death penalty opinion,
19361986: A critical examination of the Gallup
polls. In R. M. Bohm (Ed.), The death penalty in
America: Current research (pp. 113145). Cincinnati:
Anderson Publishing.
Bohm, R. M. (2012). Deathquest: An introduction to the
theory and practice of capital punishment in the
United States (4th ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson
Publishing.
Bohm, R. M., Clark, L. J., & Aveni, A. A. F. (1990). The
influence of knowledge on reasons for death penalty
opinions: An experimental test. Justice Quarterly, 7,
175188.
Bohm, R. M., Clark, L. J., & Aveni, A. A. F. (1991).
Knowledge and death penalty opinion: A test of the
Attitudes Toward Women
Marshall hypothesis. Journal of Research in Crime
and Delinquency, 28(3), 360387.
Bohm, R. M., & Vogel, R. E. (1994). A comparison of
factors associated with uninformed and informed
death penalty opinions. Journal of Criminal Justice,
22, 125143.
Bohm, R. M., & Vogel, R. E. (2004). More than ten years
after: The long-term stability of informed death penalty
opinions. Journal of Criminal Justice, 32, 307327.
Bohm, R. M., Vogel, R. E., & Maisto, A. A. (1993).
Knowledge and death penalty opinion: A panel study.
Journal of Criminal Justice, 21, 2945.
Borg, M. J. (1997). The southern subculture of punitive-
ness? Regional variation in support for capital punish-
ment. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency,
34(1), 2545.
Camus, A. (1960). Resistance, rebellion, and death.
New York: Alfred Knopf.
Cochran, J. K., Boots, D. P., & Chamlin. (2006). Political
identity and support for capital punishment: A test of
attribution theory. Journal of Crime & Justice, 29(1),
4579.
Cochran, J. K., Boots, D. P., & Heide, K. M. (2003). Attri-
bution styles and attitudes toward capital punishment
for juveniles, the mentally incompetent, and the men-
tally retarded. Justice Quarterly, 20(1), 6593.
Cochran, J. K., & Chamlin, M. B. (2005). Can information
change public opinion? Another test of the Marshall
hypothesis. Journal of Criminal Justice, 33, 573584.
Cochran, J. K., Sanders, B., & Chamlin, M. B. (2006).
Profiles in change: An alternative look at the Marshall
hypotheses. Journal of Criminal Justice Education,
17(2), 205226.
Curtis, M. S. (1991). Attitude toward the death penalty as
it relates to political party affiliation, religious belief,
and faith in people. Free Inquiry in Creative Sociol-
ogy, 19(2), 205212.
Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of
the prison. New York: Vintage Books.
Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972).
Gallup. (2012). Death penalty. Retrieved September 20,
2012, from http://www.gallup.com/poll/1606/death-
penalty.aspx
Lambert, E., & Clark, A. (2001). The impact of informa-
tion on an individuals support of the death penalty:
A partial test of the Marshall hypothesis. Criminal
Justice Policy Review, 12(3), 215234.
Longmire, D. R. (1996). Americans attitudes about the
ultimate weapon: Capital punishment. In T. J. Flana-
gan & D. R. Longmire (Eds.), Americans view crime
and justice: A national public opinion survey
(pp. 93108). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Robbers, M. (2006). Tough-mindedness and fair play:
Personality traits as predictors of attitudes toward the
death penalty: An exploratory gendered study.
Punishment & Society, 8(2), 203222.
Sandys, M. (1995). Attitudinal change among students in
a capital punishment class: It may be possible.
American Journal of Criminal Justice, 20, 3755.
289 A
Sarat, A., & Vidmar, N. (1976). Public opinion, the death
penalty, and the Eighth Amendment: Testing the Mar-
shall hypothesis. Wisconsin Law Review, 1, 171197.
Stack, S. (2003). Authoritarianism and support for the A
death penalty: A multivariate analysis. Sociological
Focus, 36(4), 333352.
Unnever, J. D., & Cullen, F. T. (2006). Christian fundamen-
talism and support for capital punishment. Journal of
Research in Crime and Delinquency, 43(2), 169197.
Unnever, J. D., Cullen, F. T., & Fisher, B. S. (2005).
Empathy and public support for capital punishment.
Journal of Crime & Justice, 28(1), 134.
Unnever, J. D., Cullen, F. T., & Roberts, J. V. (2005). Not
everyone strongly supports the death penalty: Assessing
weakly-held attitudes about capital punishment.
American Journal of Criminal Justice, 29(2), 187216.
Vidmar, N., & Dittenhoffer, T. (1981). Informed public
opinion and death penalty attitudes. Canadian Journal
of Criminology, 23, 4356.
Vollum, S., & Buffington-Vollum, J. (2010). An examina-
tion of social-psychological factors and support for
the death penalty: Attribution, moral disengagement,
and the value-expressive function of attitudes.
American Journal of Criminal Justice, 35(12), 1536.
Vollum, S., Longmire, D. R., & Buffington-Vollum, J.
(2004). Confidence in the death penalty and support
for its use: Exploring the value-expressive dimension
of death penalty attitudes. Justice Quarterly, 21(3),
521546.
Wright, H., Bohm, R., & Jamieson, K. (1995).
A comparison of uniformed and informed death pen-
alty opinions: A replication and expansion. American
Journal of Criminal Justice, 20, 5787.
Attitudes Toward Women
Robin Allyn1 and Judith Treas2
1
Sociology, University of California at Irvine,
Irvine, CA, USA
2
School of Social Sciences, University of
California, Irvine, CA, USA
Synonyms
Attitudes; Gender equality; Gender role beliefs
Definition
Attitudes toward women can be defined as beliefs
about the nature and perceived value of persons
A 290
identified as female. Attitudes are individual-level
phenomena, often internalizations of group or soci-
etal ideologies or systematic belief systems. Some-
times traced to early childhood socialization,
beliefs are challenged or reinforced in day-to-day
interaction (Moen, Erickson, & Dempster-
McClain, 1997). In the sociological literature, gen-
der is not a biological given but rather is socially
constructed. The characteristics attributed to
women or men result from social and cognitive
processes, such as the overgeneralizations seen in
stereotyping. Conceptions of gender are sustained
by social institutions (Sjoberg, 2004) and by
behavior conforming to gender expectations.
Description
Although highly nuanced and multidimensional,
scholarship distinguishes between more and less
traditional orientations. Traditional orientations
are characterized by beliefs in innate gender dif-
ferences, gender specialization in social roles,
and gender inequality privileging men.
Nontraditional, liberal, or egalitarian beliefs
emphasize the socially constructed nature of
dubious gender differences, desegregation of
social roles, and equality of the sexes. The move-
ment away from traditional viewpoints and
toward ideals of gender equality ranks among
the most important social changes of recent
decades (Inglehart, Norris, & Welzel, 2002).
Attitudes toward women are measured by batte-
ries of stereotypical traits imputed to women, nor-
mative judgments on the acceptability of women
occupying various social roles, and objective indi-
cators such as gender-based wage inequality. As
seen in the rise in womens paid employment,
women are now less confined socially in what
they do and how they structure their lives; this
break from tradition is both observable and
measureable. Gender role attitudes are associated
with a number of characteristics of individuals
(Davis & Greenstein, 2009). In general, individuals
are less likely to endorse traditional beliefs about
women if they are female, better educated, divorced
rather than married, and have participated in the
work force (Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004).
Attitudes Toward Women
Attitudes toward women also vary by social
context. Reporting on the traditionalism of the
religiously oriented, Inglehart and Norris (2003)
argue that cultural norms and values play
a leading role in gender egalitarianism. Their
study using the World Values Survey also
shows a strong association between a countrys
GDP and its gender egalitarianism. The citizens
of more affluent, Western countries, such as
Canada, Sweden, and West Germany, rank high
on gender egalitarianism, while poorer countries,
such as Egypt, the Philippines, and Jordan, rate
low. On many indicators (e.g., infant mortality),
quality of life suffers to the extent that traditional
attitudes toward women constrain their lives.
Attitudes toward women have trended in a less
traditional direction in societies around the globe
(Inglehart & Norris, 2003). The implications for
subjective well-being are not entirely clear for sev-
eral reasons. First, there is little evidence that
embracing more egalitarian attitudes results in
direct improvements in quality of life. Impacts, if
any, are apt to be indirect. For example, gender
egalitarianism has supported increases in womens
labor force participation, leading to higher family
incomes, which are modestly associated with
higher life satisfaction (Treas, Van der Lippe, &
Tat, 2011). Higher rates of labor force participation
may also introduce greater work-family conflict
and time binds, which may depress subjective
well-being. Second, change in attitudes may trans-
late at least in the short run to less consensus
(say along cohort lines) on appropriate roles and
behaviors for women and men. This implies unset-
tling anomic conditions as well as greater potential
for conflicts with intimates and others. Finally,
changing gender attitudes introduces the possibility
of new winners and losers, with those who success-
fully meet new gender expectations benefitting
more in terms of well-being than those who do not.
Cross-References
Attitude Measurement
Attitudes Towards Aging
Gender Discrimination
Gender Role Attitudes
Attitudes Towards Aging
References
Bolzendahl, C. I., & Myers, D. J. (2004). Feminist atti-
tudes and support for gender equality: Opinion change
in women and Men, 19741998. Social Forces, 83,
759789.
Davis, S. N., & Greenstein, T. N. (2009). Gender ideology:
Components, predictors, and consequences. Annual
Review of Sociology, 35, 87105.
Inglehart, R., & Norris, P. (2003). Rising tide: Gender
equality and cultural change around the world. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Inglehart, R., Norris, P., & Welzel, C. (2002). Gender
equality and democracy. Comparative Sociology, 1,
321345.
Moen, P., Erickson, M. A., & Dempster-McClain, D.
(1997). Their mothers daughters? The
intergenerational transmission of gender attitudes in
a world of changing roles. Journal of Marriage and
Family, 59, 281293.
Sjoberg, O. (2004). The role of family policy institutions
in explaining gender-role attitudes: A comparative
multilevel analysis of thirteen industrialized countries.
Journal of European Social Policy, 14, 107123.
Treas, J. Van der Lippe, T. & Tat, T. (2011). The happy
homemaker? Married womens subjective well-being
in cross-national perspective. Social Forces.
Attitudes Towards Aging
Verena Menec1 and Sheila Novek2
1
Department of Community Health Sciences,
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
2
Centre on Aging, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
Synonyms
Ageism; Attitudes
Definition
An attitude can generally be defined as a tendency
to evaluate an attitude object, which can
include persons, objects, ideas, or events, either
favorably or unfavorably (Eagly & Chaiken,
1993). Social psychologists define an attitude
more specifically in terms of three components:
cognitive reactions, which include beliefs or
291 A
perceptions about the attitude object; emotional
reactions; and behavior directed toward the atti-
tude object (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). Attitudes
A
toward aging can be conceptualized in two ways:
(1) when older adults are judged by younger indi-
viduals as being different by virtue of being older
and (2) when evaluative judgments based on age
impact individuals of any age over the life course
(Bytheway, 2005).
Description
In 1969, Robert Butler introduced the term age-
ism, which he described as a form of bigotry
analogous to racism. Ageism, he argued, was
widespread in the United States and rooted in
younger individuals beliefs that older adults are
a burden and useless, as well as personal fears of
getting old and disabled (Butler, 1969). Such
negative attitudes, Butler later argued, are deeply
embedded within society (Butler, 2005). Public
policies such as mandatory retirement at age 65
regardless of the persons ability to keep work-
ing, for instance, may perpetuate negative atti-
tudes (Palmore, 1999).
Attitudes toward aging have been studied
extensively in a variety of contexts, such as
across cultures, in the media, and in specific set-
tings (e.g., health care). Much of the literature has
focused on younger individuals attitudes toward
older adults, although some studies have exam-
ined older adults attitudes toward old age (Kite,
Stockdale, Whitley, & Johnson, 2005). Negative
beliefs or stereotypes include notions that
older adults are lonely and lack close family or
friends; that they are depressed, rigid, and unable
to cope with or resistant to change; and that they
are sick and dependent (Nussbaum, Pitts, Huber,
Krieger, & Ohs, 2005; Sneed & Whitbourne,
2005). Although much has been written about
the negative beliefs associated with aging, posi-
tive stereotypes are also prevalent. Palmore
(1999) describes several positive stereotypes,
including kindness, wisdom, dependability, afflu-
ence, political power, and freedom. Regardless of
their valence, stereotypes result in older adults
being viewed and treated as a homogenous social
A 292
group, contrary to the fact that there is enormous
heterogeneity in abilities, socioeconomic back-
grounds, cultural origins, and so forth (Nussbaum
et al., 2005).
Research also indicates that attitudes toward
aging are complex and multidimensional and
influenced by variety of factors, including the
characteristics of the person evaluating the target
person (the attitude object), as well as character-
istics of the target person (Kite et al., 2005). For
example, in a meta-analysis of published studies,
Kite et al. differentiate between five attitude cat-
egories: evaluation (e.g., generous, friendly),
competence (e.g., intelligent, good memory),
attractiveness (e.g., pretty, wrinkled), stereotypes
about aging (e.g., old-fashioned, talks about
past), and behavioral intentions (e.g., willingness
to interact with; make phone call). Attitudes
toward older adults were most negative when
looking at stereotypes, attractiveness, and com-
petence but less so in terms of evaluations and
behavioral intentions. In addition, Kite et al.
(2005) found that older research participants
exhibited less of a bias against older target per-
sons than younger participants. Attitudes were
also less negative when research participants
were given extensive information about the per-
son they were judging, suggesting that when peo-
ple get to know older adults, reactions are not as
readily based on stereotypes.
Attitudes toward older adults are also gen-
dered. Looking old is judged more harshly for
women than men, and women are more likely to
use cosmetic products and other techniques to
reduce the signs of aging, such as gray hair and
wrinkles (Russell-Hatch, 2005). From a social
policy perspective, researchers have drawn atten-
tion to the fact that old-age policies and programs
need to be viewed through a gender lens to ensure
gender equality in old age (Russell-Hatch, 2005).
This is particularly an issue, given that older
women outnumber older men as a result of their
longer life expectancy.
Attitudes about older adults affect a wide
range of life domains. At the interpersonal level,
they can influence how younger individuals inter-
act with older adults. For instance, younger indi-
viduals have been found to use patronizing
Attitudes Towards Aging
language when interacting with older adults,
such as using simplified speech, slow speaking
rate, and a demeaning emotional tone (Nussbaum
et al., 2005). This in turn can threaten older
adults self-esteem and self-identify. In the public
sphere, older workers may be disadvantaged by
employers as manifested in job assignment (or
reassignment), targeting retraining programs to
certain age-groups only, job displacement,
employment termination, as well as biases in
hiring (Nussbaum et al., 2005). An extreme
form of negative attitudes is manifested in elder
abuse. Negative attitudes are also reflected in
policies, such as mandatory retirement, although
compassionate ageism (Binstock, 2005),
rooted in the elderly historically being seen as
deserving of assistance, is evident in the pro-
grams available for older (low-income) adults,
including housing, income assistance, and
health-care programs.
Theoretical Perspectives
Many theories have been proposed to explain the
existing attitudes toward older adults. The fol-
lowing are just a few examples (see e.g., Palmore,
Branch, & Harris, 2005 for other theories).
One view is that negative attitudes arise
from a fundamental anxiety over death (Martens,
Goldenberg, & Greenberg, 2005; Bodner, 2009).
According to terror management theory, people
deal with death anxiety by clinging to culturally
determined belief systems (Martens et al., 2005).
As such, negative attitudes against older adults,
particularly among younger individuals, are
thought to represent a defense mechanism against
death anxiety (Bodner, 2009). A solution to
avoiding negative attitudes, consequently,
would entail either reducing fears of death, thus
following the example of some cultures where
death is not perceived as a threat, or changing
beliefs about old age, which may be accom-
plished by younger people interacting more with
older adults (Bodner, 2009).
Social role theory, in contrast, suggests that
the beliefs held about social groups are based on
judgments about the roles they play in society.
Work force participation is one key role by which
people are judged. As older adults are typically
Attitudes Towards Aging
no longer in the work force, they are perceived as
no longer productive and are thus devalued.
The notion that older adults are an economic
burden on society is perpetuated by images in
the media of the aging population as an apoca-
lyptic demography or a gray tsunami (see (Ebhihara, Freeman, Ebihara, & Kohzuki, 2010).
Gee & Gutman, 2000). Another proposed expla-
nation for ageism is social identity theory,
according to which people exhibit favoritism or
a positive bias toward the group they belong to,
the in group (Bodner, 2009).
From a macro perspective, modernization the-
ory posits that the shift toward industrialized
modes of production undermines the societal sta-
tus of older adults as the traditional extended
family structure is weakened by urbanization,
and control over the means of production is
shifted from family elders to industrial entities
(Cowgill, 1986). Ageism has also been viewed in
the context of oppressive social relations
(Calasanti, 2007). As such, younger individuals
may benefit from ageism as it gives them certain
advantages at the expense of older adults, for
example, they may face less competition over
valuable resources, such as jobs.
Cross-Cultural Attitudes
If attitudes toward aging are shaped by social
norms, beliefs, and values, one would expect
considerable variation across cultures. A major
emphasis in the literature has been on WestEast
comparisons. The assumption underlying these
studies has been that attitudes toward aging
would be more positive in Asian cultures such
as in China, Japan, and South Korea than in the
West, because of the prevalent Confucian princi-
ples of filial piety and respect for elders (Yoon,
Feinburg, Hasher, Rahhal, & Winocur, 2000).
However, research indicates that this assumption
may be as much a stereotype as reality (Giles
et al.), given that attitudes are not uniformly
more positive in Eastern as compared to Western
cultures. The complexity of this issue was
highlighted recently with the case of the missing
centenarians in Japan. Long considered exem-
plary in terms of extreme longevity and valuing
293 A
elders, Japan has had to face the fact that the
whereabouts of about 200 centenarians cannot
be accounted for. The issue of so many missing A
older adults was recently described as potentially
reflecting a new Japanese trend of ageism
Research suggests that attitudes are influenced
not only by cultural values or norms but also by
individual characteristics (e.g., gender, age) and
larger societal factors, such as the socioeconomic
development of a country (Lockenhoff et al.,
2009). Yun and Lachmans (2006) study, for
example, which compared Korean and American
participants attitudes toward aging found that
Koreans had higher levels of anxiety about
aging and greater fears of older people than
Americans. When comparing attitudes within
each culture for different age-groups, the study
showed that fear of older adults was the greatest
among young Koreans, relative to their older
counterparts; the finding was reversed for Amer-
icans, where the greatest fear was expressed by
older Americans. The authors suggest that fear of
older adults among young Koreans may reflect
the demands of respect for the elderly in Korean
culture. Some support for this interpretation
comes from research by Yoo and Kim (2010),
who showed that Korean Americans attitudes
toward their aging parents include a strong
sense of gratitude and responsibility. At the
same time, adult daughters emphasized their con-
cerns over the future care of their parents (Yoo &
Kim, 2010).
A recent, large study comparing young adults
(college students) attitudes toward older adults
across 26 countries further highlights the com-
plexity of cultural influences on attitudes
(Lockenhoff et al., 2009). Across all cultures,
general knowledge, wisdom, and respect were
thought to increase with age, whereas attractive-
ness, ability to do everyday tasks, and new learn-
ing were perceived to decrease with age. Ratings
also differed across cultures; however, the vari-
ability depended on the category being rated,
with the most similar perceptions emerging for
attractiveness. The authors also specifically com-
pared Western and Eastern countries given the
previous research in this domain. Consistent with
A 294
previous research, the findings show that attitudes
are not necessarily more negative in Western
cultures; compared to participants from Western
countries, those from Eastern countries reported
more positive societal views of aging but less
favorable perceptions of age-related changes in
wisdom. Lastly, sociodemographic characteris-
tics influenced some, albeit not all attitude cate-
gories. For instance, young adults from cultures
with a higher proportion of older adults reported
less favorable societal views on aging, which fits
with the hypothesis that an aging population may
trigger intergenerational conflicts over limited
resources (Lockenhoff et al., 2009).
The Media and Attitudes Toward Aging
Media representations of aging and older adults
have been of particular interest to gerontologist
since the 1970s because the media both reflects
societal attitudes toward older adults but also
helps shape them. In addition, media representa-
tions may influence self-perception and identity
as people age (Donlon, Ashman & Levy, 2005;
Lumme-Sandt, 2011). For instance, Donlon et al.
(2005) showed that greater exposure to television
was a significant predictor of negative attitudes
toward aging among older adults.
Two general conclusions emerge from media
research: one is that older adults, and particularly
older women, are underrepresented in media like
television and the second is that stereotypic por-
trayal of older adults is common (Lumme-Sandt,
2011). Researchers are also quick to point out,
however, that the portrayal of older adults has
changed considerably in the last decades, with
older adults being represented more positively
in more recent years. For example, whereas
Davis and Davis (1986) concluded in the 1980s
that older characters tended to be shown in tele-
vision programs as more comical, stubborn,
eccentric, and foolish than younger ones,
research conducted in the early 1990s suggests
that positive portrayals have become more com-
mon, with television programs like the Golden
Girls or Murder She Wrote, which show older
women as powerful, healthy, and active (Bell,
1992). An analysis of a magazine targeted at
individuals aged 50+ also revealed positive
Attitudes Towards Aging
representations of aging by focusing on issues
such as freedom from work and predetermined
roles and possibilities of new identities, activity,
looking good, as well as wisdom that comes from
aging (Lumme-Sandt, 2011). Similarly, on the
positive side, Rozanova, Northcott, and
McDaniel (2006) showed that older adults are
represented as a diverse group of individuals in
the printed media, specifically the Globe and
Mail, a national Canadian newspaper, countering
the stereotypic view of older adults as
a homogenous social group.
Although these trends are positive, negative
attitudes toward aging persist. As Rozanova
et al.s (2006) study shows, having a youthful
appearance and being vigorous and independent,
in other words being able to minimize the signs of
aging, are portrayed as key to success in the
context of a youth-oriented society. Maintaining
a youthful appearance was shown to be particu-
larly important for older women. With its focus
on not aging, the negative perceptions of old
age are therefore implicitly reinforced. Another
major theme that emerged from this newspaper
analysis is that of the aging population and the
burden that this will place on family members (in
terms of caregiving) and on society as a whole (in
terms of pressures on the pension and health-care
system). This portrayal perpetuates the view that
older adults are not productive and do not con-
tribute to society.
Attitudes of Health-Care Providers
Health-care providers attitudes toward older
adults can impact their interaction with patients
and the care patients receive. As such, attitudes of
providers (e.g., nurses, physicians) or students
training to become providers have been the
focus of considerable research. Once again, the
literature presents a complex picture indicating
that positive and negative attitudes coexist. For
instance, nurses attitudes toward older adults
have been found to be generally positive,
although some negative attitudes are also evident,
such as the perception that older adults are can-
tankerous and complaining, set in their ways and
Attitudes Towards Aging
unable to adjust to new situations (Courtney,
Tang, & Walsh, 2000).
Family medicine residents (individuals who are
training to become family physicians) also gener-
ally report positive attitudes toward older patients
and the vast majority indicate that they would care
for older patients in their practice (Helton &
Pathman, 2008). Yet, surveys with practicing pri-
mary care physicians (which includes family phy-
sicians) show that up to half of them limit the
number of older patients they admit to their prac-
tice. This may be due to the medical complexity
and chronicity of health problems experienced by
older adults; the personal and interpersonal chal-
lenges that are associated with caring for older
patients, such as time pressures and communica-
tion barriers; and the administrative burden
incurred, such as paperwork, telephone calls, and
so forth (Adams et al., 2002).
A similar argument that speaks to the com-
plexities of caring for certain older adults was put
forth by Parke and Chappell (2010) in the context
of hospital care. Based on their research in
a hospital (acute care) setting, these authors
argue that negative attitudes toward certain
older adults emerge because of the pressures
imposed on health-care providers as a result of
a high demand environment coupled with an
inflexible system of delivering care. This care
environment, although it serves some older adults
well, is not well suited to dealing with certain
older patients, including those who require more
time, who are more helpless and who demand
special attention. Rather than thinking of patient
care as being difficult in these circumstances,
health-care providers end up labeling these
patients as being difficult. Thus, ageism is con-
ceived as a by-product of systemic problems
within the hospital system.
Ageism may manifest itself in the health-care
system in a variety of other ways. For example,
illnesses or ailments of older adults may be attrib-
uted to normal aging and thus not receive the
attention from health-care providers that they
warrant (Palmore, 2005). This might, in part,
explain the lower referral rates for older adults
compared to younger adults from primary care to
secondary care for certain conditions (e.g., for hip
295 A
pain) (McBride, Hardoon, Walters, Gilmour, &
Raine, 2010). Concern has also been raised over
the lack of geriatric training among health-care A
professionals, including medical students
(Diachun, Van Bussell, & Hansen, 2010), nurses
(Holroyd, Dahlke, Fehr, Jung, & Hunter 2009),
and other health-care providers such as para-
medics (Peterson, Fairbanks, Hettinger, & Shah,
2009), which may mean that the health-care pro-
vided may not meet the complex care needs of
some older adults.
Discussion
Attitudes toward aging are complex and
multidimensional; they also change over time.
The notion that attitudes toward aging and older
adults are exclusively negative has been proven
wrong, as positive perceptions are also common.
The long-standing dichotomy between
Western and Eastern attitudes toward aging
has also been questioned. Instead, researchers are
now finding that attitudes toward aging reflect
varying degrees of positive and negative beliefs
across different cultures. The media plays an
important role in both reflecting and perpetuating
stereotypes of older adults. Research indicates
that portrayals of older adults in the media are
becoming increasingly diverse and include more
positive examples of the aging process. At the
same time, ageist stereotypes persist, with depic-
tions of the burden that the aging population (the
gray tsunami) will place on families and soci-
ety as a whole being common. Concern has also
been raised over ageism in health care, given that
older adults are the biggest users of the health-
care system. Although health-care workers gen-
erally display positive attitudes toward older
adults, negative attitudes have also been identi-
fied, which may impede the quality of care pro-
vided. In sum, as the populations in developed, as
well as many developing countries are aging, it
becomes important to critically examine attitudes
toward aging and older adults. A task for the
future is to understand under what circumstances
and in what contexts negative attitudes are most
prevalent and severe and how to minimize age-
ism in order to promote age equality and improve
quality of life throughout the life course.
A 296
Cross-References
Aging Population
Attitude Measurement
Attitudes Toward Women
Elder Abuse
Elder Care
Gender Discrimination
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Definition

The Personal Well-being Index (PWI; Inter-

Attractiveness national Well-being Group, 2006) measures sub-
jective well-being (SWB). The PWI has an
Beauty unusual structure that is both theoretically and
empirically determined. In theoretical terms, the
items comprise the most parsimonious, first-level
deconstruction of general life satisfaction (GLS)
Atypical Employment measured through the single item, How satisfied
are you with your life as a whole? In empirical
Casual Employment terms, each item (domain) must contribute
unique, as well as shared, variance to the predic-
tion of GLS. This is determined through multiple
regression, where all domains are simultaneously
regressed against GLS.
Audio-Computer-Assisted The original version of the scale comprised
Self-Interviews (ACASI) seven domains as standard of living, health,
achieving in life, relationships, safety, commu-
Computer-Assisted Interviews, Quality of Life nity connectedness, and future security. In 2006,
the additional item of spirituality/religion was
added due to awareness of a forthcoming publi-
cation (Wills, 2009) showing that this item met
Auditing the criteria for a new domain. Respondents use an
11-point, end-defined scale ranging from
Monitoring completely dissatisfied (0) to completely satisfied
(10). The average domain score is the measure of
SWB, and all results are recoded onto a standard
0100 point distribution.
Auditing Sustainability Assessments The interpretation of results is assisted by the
theory of Subjective Well-being Homeostasis
BellagioSTAMP (Cummins, 2010). A description of this theory is
A 298
presented elsewhere in the encyclopedia
(Cummins: Homeostasis). In essence, each per-
son has a set point for the level of their SWB, and
a normal range around this set point within which
their SWB is generally found. Homeostasis the-
ory proposes a management system which acts to
defend SWB against emotional reactions, either
positive or negative, which threaten to move
SWB outside its normal operating range. The
combination of set points and homeostasis is
mainly responsible for the stability of SWB over
time, as shown from the normative ranges that are
presented below.
Description
The following results are drawn from the
Australian Unity Well-being Index surveys.
These national surveys have monitored the
SWB of the Australian population since 2001.
Each survey, conducted in English, involves
a telephone interview with a new sample of 2,000
Australians selected to represent the geographic
distribution of the national population. These
surveys comprise the PWI and the National
Well-being Index, which measure how satisfied
people are with life in Australia. Additional items
include a standard set of demographic questions
and other survey-specific questions designed to
elicit data on topics such as pet ownership or house-
hold debt. All survey raw data and survey reports
are freely available from http://www.deakin.edu.
au/research/acqol/auwbi/survey-reports/.
Participants
The results for this essay come from the Report
26.0 of the Australian Unity Well-being Index
(Cummins, Woerner, Hartley-Clark, Perera,
Collard, Horfiniak, & Gibson-Prosser, 2011).
The results are based either on data from survey
26, collected in September 2011, or are cumula-
tive data across surveys.
Data Analysis
Missing data were dealt with by case-wise dele-
tion. Data from the 010 response scale are stan-
dardized onto a 0100 point distribution. This is
Australia, Personal Well-Being Index
achieved by shifting the decimal point one step to
the right. For example, a response of 5.0 on the
010 scale becomes 50 points.
Prior to analysis, and in accordance with the
PWI Manual (International Well-being Group,
2006), all data were checked for response sets.
A response set is evident when the participant
scores at the top or the bottom of the scale for
all PWI domains. Such a pattern of data may
indicate a response set due to acquiescence,
malevolence, or a lack of understanding. There-
fore, data sets from participants which displayed
minimum (0) or maximum (100) scores on all
eight domains of the Personal Well-being Index
were eliminated.
Results
Normative Ranges
Two kinds of normative ranges can be calculated
from the cumulative data. Each range is defined
as double the standard deviation on either side of
the mean. These values, as shown in Table 1, are
designated as 2SD and +2SD.
The first type of normal range is calculated
from the raw scores of individuals. This indicates
the range within which there is a 95 % probability
of finding any individual score. These results are
shown in Table 1.
From the results in Table 1, the following
observations can be made:
1. The normal range for the PWI spans the pos-
itive half of the response scale almost pre-
cisely. This implies that only around 5 % of
the individual respondent scores lie below 50
points. Such values are linked to depression
(Cummins, 2010).
2. Each of the PWI domains has their own mean
and normal range. This information can be
used for diagnostic purposes when a PWI
value lies outside its normal range. The two
highest domains are relationships and safety;
the two lowest are future security and commu-
nity. The variance for all domains is higher
than for the PWI because they are single-
response items.
3. The mean of GLS (satisfaction with life as
a whole) is 2.44 points higher than the mean
for the PWI. This reflects the lower cognitive
Australia, Personal Well-Being Index 299 A
Australia, Personal Well-Being Index, Table 1 Normative ranges calculated from aggregated individual data
N Mean SD 2 SD +2 SD
PWI 52,011 75.23 12.42 50.39 100.07 A
Standard 53,687 77.75 17.09 43.57 111.93
Health 53,682 74.74 19.70 35.34 114.14
Achieving 53,390 73.62 18.41 36.80 110.44
Relationships 53,471 79.45 21.22 37.01 121.89
Safety 53,552 78.91 17.84 43.23 114.59
Community 53,397 70.92 19.78 31.36 110.48
Future security 52,939 71.02 19.74 31.54 110.50
Spirit/religious 18,389 72.22 24.19 23.84 120.60
GLS 53,653 77.67 17.13 43.41 111.93
NWI 45,252 61.68 14.53 32.62 90.74
Economic situation 50,394 64.56 19.32 25.92 103.20
Environment 50,809 60.01 18.92 22.17 97.85
Social conditions 50,539 62.49 18.28 25.93 99.05
Government 48,764 54.60 24.36 5.88 103.32
Business 47,378 61.85 17.93 25.99 97.71
National security 48,010 65.76 19.39 26.98 104.54
Life in Australia 51,049 82.51 17.60 47.31 117.71

component in GLS and, therefore, its closer
approximation to each persons set point.
These set points have a normal range between
70 and 90 points (Cummins, Li, Wooden, &
Stokes, unpublished) and so have an average
of 80 points.
4. It is notable that the PWI, on 75.23 points, is
4.77 points below the average set point. This
deficit is explained by the inclusion, in the
population samples, of respondents experienc-
ing strong homeostatic challenge or outright
homeostatic failure.
5. The mean for the NWI and its domains is
considerably lower than for the personal mea-
sures. This is because the evaluation of these
national domains is far less dominated by the
personal positive bias generated by homeostatic
set points (Cummins & Nistico, 2002) and more
driven by cognition. This also implies that the
national domains are less constrained by set
point homeostasis and so are freer to vary.
Hence, the standard deviation of the NWI is
2.11 points higher than it is for the PWI.
6. The mean for satisfaction with life in
Australia is 82.51. This is not only higher
than GLS (77.67) but also higher than the
mean set-point average for individuals
(80 points). This may be due to an added
positive bias coming from the affective-
cognitive influence of national pride.
Table 2 shows the second type of normative
ranges, this time calculated using the survey
mean scores as data. Here, the SDs reflect the
degree of variation between surveys.
From the results shown in Table 2, the follow-
ing observations can be made:
1. The normal range for the PWI is just 3.00 %
points. This astonishingly small degree of var-
iation between surveys attests to the power of
set points, homeostasis, the generally benign
living circumstances in Australia, and the
absence of major national catastrophes over
the period of these surveys.
2. All of the SDs shown in this table are far
smaller than those of Table 1. This is due to
the fact that each datum is itself an average of
around 2,000 responses.
3. The SD for spiritual/religion (0.03 points) is
unreliable, being based on just three surveys.
However, it is notable that the mean score of
these surveys has shown such a small degree
of variation.
A 300 Australia, Personal Well-Being Index

4. Among the seven original domains, the smallest Updated norms for the Tables 1 and 2 vari-
variation between surveys is for health (SD ables can be obtained from Appendix 2 within the
0.70), while the largest is for safety (SD 1.67). latest report on the Australian Unity Well-being
It is not known why this difference occurs. Index (http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/
auwbi/survey-reports/). Norms are also presented
within each report for gender, age groups, income,
Australia, Personal Well-Being Index, marital status, household composition, and work-
Table 2 Normative ranges calculated from survey mean
scores status groups. These norms are presented at the
back of their respective chapters.
N Mean SD 2 SD +2 SD
PWI 26 75.21 0.75 73.71 76.71
Factor Analysis
Standard 26 77.72 1.14 75.44 80.00
The data for Table 3 are taken from Survey 27.
Health 26 74.73 0.70 73.33 76.13
Achievements 26 73.63 0.88 71.87 75.39
The data for the Personal and National Well-
Relationships 26 79.48 1.03 77.42 81.54 being Index have been entered into a single Prin-
Safety 26 78.82 1.67 75.48 82.16 ciple Component analysis with varimax rotation,
Community 26 70.85 1.00 68.85 72.85 to determine their degree of scale coherence and
Future security 26 71.00 1.31 68.38 73.62 distinctiveness. The results of two such analyses
Spiritual (S24S26) 3 78.25 0.03 78.19 78.31 are presented. The first used just the seven orig-
GLS 26 77.64 0.83 75.98 79.30 inal domains for the PWI (N 1,897). The sec-
NWI 25 61.67 1.31 59.05 64.29 ond data set used the gating question, Do you
Economic situation 26 64.58 3.78 57.02 72.14 have spiritual or religious beliefs? and only the
Environment 26 60.02 2.23 55.56 64.48 respondents who had such beliefs (N 1,038)
Social conditions 26 62.50 1.48 59.54 65.46 were asked, How satisfied are you with your
Government 25 54.60 3.29 48.02 61.18 spirituality or religion?
Business 25 61.85 2.10 57.65 66.05 As can be seen, using a criterion factor loading
National security 25 65.75 3.29 59.17 72.33 of 0.4, the items all load as intended, both without
Life in Australia 26 82.51 3.33 75.85 89.17
and with the S/R item.

Australia, Personal Well-Being Index, Table 3 Factor analysis of the Personal and National Well-being Index
Without S/R With S/R
Component 1 Component 2 Component 1 Component 2
P- Standard of living 0.234 0.723 0.748 0.206
P- Health 0.147 0.592 0.636 0.158
P- Achieving 0.132 0.780 0.790 0.176
P- Personal relationships 0.015 0.634 0.669 0.060
P- How safe you feel 0.255 0.623 0.587 0.335
P- Community connectedness 0.173 0.609 0.637 0.208
P- Future security 0.341 0.683 0.671 0.377
P- Spiritual/religious 0.417 0.147
N- Economic situation 0.764 0.191 0.252 0.768
N- State of the environment 0.643 0.205 0.236 0.647
N- Social conditions 0.713 0.261 0.298 0.716
N- How Australia is governed 0.780 0.046 0.077 0.778
N- Business 0.733 0.208 0.231 0.730
N- National security 0.697 0.185 0.178 0.706
Eigenvalue 3.45 3.34 3.71 3.58
% of variance 26.50 25.65 26.49 25.57
Australia, Personal Well-Being Index
Australia, Personal Well-Being Index, Table 4 Regression of seven domains against life as a whole (combined
surveys)
Variable
(N 51,947) GLS 1. 2.
1. Standard of living 0.579**
2. Health 0.372** 0.349**
3. Achieving in life 0.563** 0.453** 0.371**
4. Personal 0.472** 0.340** 0.233** 0.401**
relationships
5. Safety 0.286** 0.316** 0.241** 0.245** 0.226**
6. Comm. connect 0.363** 0.312** 0.205** 0.344** 0.292** 0.332**
7. Future security 0.441** 0.473** 0.282** 0.414** 0.298** 0.438** 0.398** 0.068** 0.078 0.004
R2 0.508 Total unique
variance
Adjusted R2 0.508 Total shared
variance
p < 0.01; **p < 0.001
*
PWI Domain Regressions Against GLS
One of the defining features of the PWI is the
requirement that each domain makes an indepen-
dent contribution to the variance of GLS. Table 4
shows the relevant multiple regression using the
cumulated data over all surveys. The sr2statistic
represents the proportion of unique variance con-
tributed by each domain. It is calculated as the
square of the part statistic that can be requested
from SPSS in association with a multiple regres-
sion. When this value is multiplied by 100, it
gives the percentage of unique variance contrib-
uted by the domain.
These results show that the seven domains
together account for 50.8 % of the variance in
GLS. Of this, 35.9 % is shared variance, and
it is suggested that the source of this is
Homeostatically Protected Mood (HPMood):
which dominates the composition of SWB
(Blore, Stokes, Mellor, Firth, & Cummins, 2011;
Davern, Cummins, & Stokes, 2007; Tomyn &
Cummins 2011). The remainder (14.9 %) is the
combined variance unique to each of the domains.
It is proposed this is the unique cognitive-affective
component of each domain triggered by the
domain target. The following observations pertain:
1. While six of the domains contribute unique
variance, hence, meeting the criterion for
their inclusion in the PWI, the domain of
safety makes no unique contribution. This
301 A
3. 4. 5. 6. B b sr2
A
0.305** 0.304 0.061
0.076** 0.087 0.006
0.236** 0.254 0.042
0.162** 0.202 0.032
0.003 0.003 0.000
0.062** 0.071 0.004
0.149
0.359
seems to indicate that, in Australia, personal
safety does not generate a cognitive-affective
complex that is powerful enough to rise above
the background HPMood. In other words, on
average in Australia, personal safety is not an
issue that impacts on SWB.
2. The opposite is true for standard of living,
which contributes 6.1 % unique variance.
Clearly, it seems, matters of personal finance
are of great relevance to SWB.
3. Of the other domains, achieving in life (4.2 %)
and personal relationships (3.2 %) are the next
strongest contributors. Thus, these three
top-contributing domains appear to be the
dominant predictors of SWB in this normal
population sample.
In 2007 (Survey 17), the PWI was
supplemented by the new domain, How satisfied
are you with your spiritual fulfillment or religion
(Wills, 2009). Over a period of seven surveys
(Survey 17, April 2007, to Survey 23, April
2010), this S/R domain was asked using the
same format as the other domains. That is, the
question assumed the respondent had S/R beliefs,
but with the opportunity for the interviewer to
record No spiritual or religious beliefs if that
information was volunteered by the respondent.
The values for this domain ranged between 67.7
and 72.5 points. In survey 24, the question format
was changed, with the satisfaction question
A 302 Australia, Personal Well-Being Index

Australia, Personal Well-Being Index, Table 5 Regression of eight domains against life as a whole (Surveys 2426
with response option)
Variable
(N 3,160) GLS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. B b sr2
1. Standard of 0.604** 0.309** 0.307 0.056
living
2. Health 0.392** 0.368** 0.065** 0.077 0.004
3. Achieving 0.591** 0.518** 0.452** 0.225** 0.250 0.036
in life
4. Personal 0.470** 0.360** 0.241** 0.407** 0.139** 0.174 0.023
relationships
5. Safety 0.335** 0.397** 0.279** 0.323** 0.300** 0.024 0.025 0.000
6. Comm. 0.425** 0.367** 0.237** 0.395** 0.336** 0.372** 0.085** 0.098 0.007
connect
7. Future 0.485** 0.534** 0.300** 0.456** 0.360** 0.497** 0.468** 0.064** 0.077 0.003
security
8. Spiritual/ 0.247** 0.178** 0.156** 0.215** 0.237** 0.178** 0.229** 0.217** 0.043** 0.051 0.002
religious
R2 0.529 Total 0.131
unique
variance
Adjusted Total shared 0.397
R2 0.528 variance
* p < 0.01; ** p < 0.001

preceded by a gating item as Do you have spir-
itual or religious beliefs? Only those people who
responded yes were then asked the satisfaction
question.
The proportion of people declaring that they
do not have a spiritual/religious dimension is very
sensitive to these different formats. When it was
assumed that all respondents had S/R beliefs and
they were asked for their level of satisfaction,
only 11.6 % volunteered the information that
they had no such beliefs. When the gating option
was provided, the proportion rose to 44.2 %. In
other words, in the absence of the gating question,
around 30 percent of the total sample responded
to the question of satisfaction even though they
had no S/R beliefs. Unsurprisingly, this new for-
mat also dramatically changed the average satis-
faction level. With the gating format, the survey
mean scores for this domain range from 78.2 to
78.6 points, which is some eight points higher
than when using the un-gated format.
The effect of the addition of this new domain
to the regression, using the gating procedure, is
shown in Table 5.
The following observations can be made:
1. The S/R domain fulfills the criterion for a new
domain in that it accounts for 2 % unique var-
iance. This raises the overall variance accounted
for from 50.8 % to 52.8 %, showing that, as
theoretically expected, the overall contribution
is restricted to unique variance. The shared var-
iance of HPMood and method variance is held
in common with the other 7 domains.
2. The overall unique variance has fallen from
14.9 % to 13.1 % (net 1.8 %), while the overall
shared variance has risen from 35.9 % to 39.7 %
(net +3.8 %). In other words, the addition of S/R
has diminished the differential domain contribu-
tions, which is the signature strength of the scale,
but has also enhanced the breadth of domains
(by one) and increased the overall cohesion of
the items to form a scale.
3. Despite this reduction of unique variance, it
has not caused the contribution of any original
domains to become nonsignificant. The big
losers of unique variance (standard, 0.5 %;
achieving, 0.6 %; relationships, 0.9 %) are
those with the most unique variance to spare.
Australia, Quality of Life
4. In conclusion, while the results that caused the
International Well-being Group to include this
new domain were generated in an intensely
religious society (Bogota: Wills, 2009), the
domain also holds its own among people
who have the spiritual/religious experience in
the far more secular society of Australia.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the Personal Well-being
Index has acceptable psychometric properties when
used with general population samples from Austra-
lia. While the new spiritual/religious domain fulfills
the criteria for a domain, the fact that around half of
the population do not have the spiritual/religious
experience makes its use optional in this country.
Cross-References
Australian Unity Well-being Index
International Well-being Group
Personal Well-being Index
Subjective Well-being
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Blore, J. D., Stokes, M. A., Mellor, D., Firth, L., &
Cummins, R. A. (2011). Comparing multiple discrep-
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doi:10.1007/s10902-009-9167-0.
Cummins, R. A., Li, N., Wooden, M., & Stokes, M.
(2013). A demonstration of set-points for Subjective
Wellbeing. Journal of Happiness Studies, (in press).
Cummins, R. A., & Nistico, H. (2002). Maintaining life
satisfaction: The role of positive cognitive bias.
Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 3769.
Cummins, R. A., Woerner, J., Hartley-Clark, L., Perera,
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Wellbeing of AustraliansChronic health. Melbourne:
Australian Centre on Quality of Life, School of
Psychology, Deakin University. ISBN 978-1-74156-
164-7 Retrieved July 11, 2012. http://www.deakin.edu.
au/research/acqol/index_wellbeing/index.htm
Davern, M., Cummins, R. A., & Stokes, M. (2007). Sub-
jective wellbeing as an affective/cognitive construct.
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Well-being Index. Retrieved July 10, 2012, from
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Life Web site: http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/ A
acqol/instruments/well-being_index.htm.
Tomyn, A. J., & Cummins, R. A. (2011). Subjective
wellbeing and homeostatically protected mood: Theory
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Wills, E. (2009). Spirituality and subjective well-being:
Empirical evidences for a new domain in the Personal
Well being Index PWI. Journal of Happiness Studies,
10, 4969.
Australia, Quality of Life
Robert A. Cummins
School of Psychology, Deakin University,
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Synonyms
Down Under; Great Southern Land; New
Holland; Oz
Definition
Australian Life Quality: An Overview
By almost any measure, the Australian popula-
tion has high life quality. Australia is a relatively
wealthy country, due largely to an abundance of
natural resources. It has a Liberal Market Econ-
omy (Hall & Soskice, 2001), it is classified as
high income within the OECD (Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development)
countries (World Bank, 2007), and has a GDP
per capita of about US $39,700 which places it
9th in comparison with other countries (Interna-
tional Monetary Fund, 2011). However, its Gini
Index is 35.2 (medium) which places it 46th in
terms of equality of income distribution, with
Sweden on 25.0 and the USA on 40.8.
As one consequence of its wealth, its citizens
enjoy good medical care and high levels of edu-
cation. Unemployment has been at about 48 %
over the past decade (Australian Bureau of
A 304
Statistics, 2011c) and only increased to about 6 %
following the 20082010 financial crisis. There is
a minimum wage and a social security safety net
which provide, at minimum, an income about 1/3
of the average wage. Australia has the second-
highest Human Development Index within the
list of 124 countries provided by the Human
Development Report (2010).
Australia is a young country with an aging
population. It was first colonized by Britain in
1788. Now, some 22 million people call Australia
home, almost all of whom are migrants or the
progeny thereof. As a consequence, it is
a highly multicultural society. About 13 % of
the population are immigrants who arrived after
1984 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007a)
and, of these people, 70 % are from non-
English-speaking countries. However, English is
the only official language and, according to the
2001 census, the only language spoken at home
for around 80 % of the population. This imposes
an acculturating influence on new arrivals from
non-English-speaking countries and a unifying
influence on the population. The most common
other languages spoken at home are Chinese
(2.1 %), Italian (1.9 %), and Greek (1.4 %).
Despite substantial immigration, the population
grew by only 1.7 % during 20092010 (Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2011a), indicative of an age-
ing population. While the proportion of people
over the age of 65 was 12 % in 1997, it is projected
to be 18 % in 2021 and 26 % in 2051 (Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, 2002, 2004). The
provision of adequate health care to this aging
population is anticipated to strain the resources of
Australias publicly funded universal health
care system operated by the government authority
Medicare Australia (Medicare Australia, 2007).
On the negative side, there is a moderate level
of crime. In 20092010, 6.3 % of adults reported
being victims of physical or threatened violence
during the past year (Australian Bureau of Statis-
tics, 2011b), while 0.4 % were victims of at least
one robbery. In 2007, men were more likely
(14 %) than women (8 %) to be the victim of
violence, with younger men (1824 years)
the most likely (31 %) to have been a victim
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007a).
Australia, Quality of Life
Feelings of safety are generally consistent
with these statistics. While most people (86 %)
feel safe at home, alone and after dark (Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2007a), only 48 % report
feeling safe walking alone in their neighborhood
at night. There are many factors that decrease
feelings of safety. The major ones are living in
a major city, living in government-subsidized
rented accommodation, being unemployed, not
being proficient in English, and being in poor
health. Many of these factors are likely to be
tied to low income as their root cause.
The indigenous Aboriginal Australians are
the most disadvantaged ethnic group. They com-
prise about 2.5 % of the Australian population
(Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2005)
and about 30 % of the Northern Territory popu-
lation. They remain disadvantaged, compared to
other Australians, across the full spectrum of
social, economic, and health areas (Trewin &
Madden, 2005) despite the provision of substan-
tial indigenous-specific funding (Gardiner-
Garden & Park, 2007).
Despite this obvious inequality of opportunity
experienced by the Aboriginal population and the
medium-range Gini Index, Australians like to
think of themselves as egalitarian. A delightful
and insightful take on this cultural myth is
provided by Poleg (2004) who writes The 19th
century English author Marcus Clark exclaimed
that the new Australians are not nations of snobs
like the English or of extravagant boasters like
the Americans or of reckless profligates like the
French; they are simply a nation of drunkards.
Indeed they used to be, and the love affair with
alcohol has been another defining national char-
acteristic, which now is also taking on mythical
status. World Drink Trends (2005) rates Austra-
lian total alcohol consumption as 36th highest
among nations. So, there are always two sides to
any nation how the commodities statistics say
the nation is and how the people feel themselves
to be.
The average level of subjective life quality is
always in the top cluster of countries within inter-
national comparative surveys (Bergheim, 2007;
Cummins, 1995, 1998). Consistent with this,
Australia also has relatively high levels of other
Australia, Quality of Life
commonly measured subjective variables, such
as trust between citizens (Bergheim, 2007) and
low levels of perceived corruption. For example,
the General Social Survey (Australian Bureau of
Statistics, 2007c) found about half of respondents
(54 %) felt that most people could be trusted,
and they were even more likely to trust their
doctor (89 %) and local police (76 %). The high
level of trust in police is a major factor underpin-
ning social stability. While there are many
different variables that can be used to describe
subjective life quality, the most important and
global measure is Subjective Well-being (SWB).
The first systematic measures of SWB in
Australia were made by Headey, Holmstrom,
and Wearing (1984) and Headey and Wearing
(1989). Members of their Victorian Quality of
Life Panel were interviewed four times between
1981 and 1987. They observed that people
appeared to have an equilibrium level for their
SWB and this discovery triggered much subse-
quent research. Then, in 2001, two new surveys
were commenced, both of which are extant. One
is the Household Income and Labour Dynamics
in Australia (HILDA) Survey (2009) and the
other is the Australian Unity Well-being Index
(2009).
The Australian Unity Well-being Index
The Index incorporates the Personal Well-being
Index (International Well-being Group, 2006)
which measures Subjective Well-being (SWB)
through the average level of satisfaction across
seven life domains: health, personal relation-
ships, safety, standard of living, achieveing in
life, community connectedness, and future secu-
rity. The first survey containing the Index was
conducted in April 2001. A total of 24 such
surveys had been conducted until September
2010. A detailed report is constructed from the
results of each survey and these can be
downloaded from the Australian Centre on Qual-
ity of Life website at Deakin University (http://
www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/index.htm).
Each survey is based on a new sample of 2,000
randomly selected adults across Australia. Scale
values are standardized to a 0100 range.
Changes in SWB over the 24 surveys to date are
305 A
shown in Fig. 1. The temporal spacing between
surveys is shown on the baseline and involves
intervals of approximately 3 or 6 months. A
The most remarkable characteristic of the
mean scores, derived from these surveys, is their
stability. As shown in Fig. 1, all means lie
between 73.4 and 76.3 points, giving a total
range of 2.9 percentage points. The reason for
this stability, as has been argued elsewhere
(Cummins, 2010), is the process of Subjective
Well-being Homeostasis. On the other hand, pop-
ulation SWB does show statistically significant
variation within this tight range. The first survey,
conducted in April 2001, was closely followed by
the events of September 11. This dreadful event
was associated with a significant rise in SWB,
most probably due to increased social cohesion
in the population as people bonded in response to
a common and distal threat (Putnam, 2000).
Interestingly, however, it is not just threat
events that apparently cause the well-being of
Australians to rise. One of the highest levels of
population well-being was attained in August
2004 during the Athens Olympics (Survey 12)
when Australian athletes achieved spectacular
success. Thus, both national threat and enhance-
ment events appear to cause population well-
being to rise.
Identifying the Demographic Groups with the
Highest and Lowest SWB
Australian Unity Well-being Index Report 16.1
(Cummins, Walter, & Woerner, 2007) presents
an analysis of the cumulative data from 15 sur-
veys. The total number of respondents is about
30,000 and the aim of the analysis was to identify
the demographic subgroups with the highest and
the lowest well-being.
The definition of subgroups was made through
the demographic variables of income, gender,
age, household composition, relationship status,
and employment status. While not every combi-
nation of demographic variables could be tested
due to limitations of cell size, the total number of
combinations analyzed was 3,277. Comparing
the SWB of these groups resulted in the identifi-
cation of six extremely high groups. These are
dominated by high income and the presence of
 A
306

77

>S11
76 >S2, S4, S5

Scores above this line are

75 significantly higher than S1
Strength
of
satisfaction
74

73

72
Major events a b c d e f g h i j k l m
preceding survey
Survey
Date

S1 Apr 2001
S7 Jun 2003

S3 Mar 2002
S6 Mar 2003

S4 Aug 2002
S8 Aug 2003

S5 Nov 2002
S9 Nov 2003

S2 Sept 2001
S14 Oct 2005
S16 Oct 2006
S17 Apr 2007
S18 Oct 2007
S19 Apr 2008
S20 Oct 2008

S10 Feb 2004

S12 Aug 2004
S11 May 2004
S13 May 2005
S15 May 2006
S21 May 2009
S23 April 2010

S22 Sept 2009

S24 Sept 2010

S18.1 Feb 2008

S20.1 Feb 2009

Key: a = September 11 e = Athens Olympics i = Labor Government Elected m = Labor government re-elected
b = Bali Bombing f = Asian Tsunami j = Stock market collapse
c = Pre-Iraq War g = Second Bali Bombing k = Fires and floods
d = Hussein Deposed h = New IR Laws l = Stock market recovery

Australia, Quality of Life, Fig. 1 Subjective well-being in Australia, 20012010

Australia, Quality of Life
Australia, Quality of Life
a partner. Five extremely low groups were also
identified, dominated by very low income, the
absence of a partner, and unemployment. It
is apparent that within both extremes, money
and relationships are common defining
characteristics.
Economic Well-being
Economic well-being is defined by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics as command
over economic resources, while wealth is
defined as assets minus liabilities. In 2004, the
wealth of the average Australian household was
about $500,000 (US $430,000) (Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2007b). For most Austra-
lians who have their own home, this represents
their single biggest asset. For many, it also rep-
resents their largest liability. The average mort-
gage at that time was $113,000, dwarfing other
kinds of financial liabilities such as vehicle
loans, which averaged $2,700 per household,
and credit card debts at $1,900. Thus, the eco-
nomic well-being of people with a mortgage is
highly vulnerable to changes in their economic
circumstances that may compromise their abil-
ity to make loan repayments. Such factors may
be housing loan interest rates, income, and the
cost of living.
On the asset side of the ledger, about 20 % of
Australians own property in addition to their
home, usually a holiday home or an investment
property. The next most valuable asset for most
Australians is their superannuation, which is
compulsory for full-time employees, at an aver-
age value of $63,000. This does not mean, how-
ever, that everyone is well-off. The median
household net worth is $295,000 but 17 % of
Australian households have a net worth of
$50,000 or less, while about 10 % of the popula-
tion has a net worth of $1 million or more. This
distribution is in accordance with the value of the
Gini Index reported earlier.
There are also substantial geographical
differences in wealth. The average net worth of
a Sydney household in 20032004 was $640,600,
the highest among the state capital cities and due
largely to the high value of property. The net
worth of people in rural communities is generally
307 A
lower than of people in cities, due largely
to the lower cost of housing. However, Western
Australia is an aberration in this regard. Due A
to the mining boom in that state, the wealth bal-
ance between city and country is reversed. The
lowest average net wealth for any geographic
group is for Tasmanians not living in Hobart,
at $289,000.
Relationships
In 2006, the ABS conducted their second General
Social Survey (Australian Bureau of Statistics,
2007c) which involved a total census of
15,307,000 people aged 18 years and over.
This massive snapshot of the population revealed
the most authoritative statements we have
concerning the objective nature of relationships
in this country. Some of these are as follows:
Most people (96 %) reported having contact in
the previous week with family or friends with
whom they did not live and 79 % made their
contact in person. Nonpersonal contact was
mainly by fixed telephone (91 %) or mobile
phone/SMS (77 %), followed by the Internet
(47 %). The older groups still rely mainly on
fixed telephone and standard mail.
This high level of connection extends to
instrumental support. Most people (93 %)
reported that they would be able to ask people
outside of their household for small favors, such
as looking after pets or collecting mail, watering
gardens, minding a child for a brief period, or
borrowing equipment.
While Australian families are predominantly
described as nuclear, this gives a false impres-
sion of the contemporary complexity of family
structures. Over 1,961,000 parents reported that
their own children aged 024 years were living in
another household. Moreover, of these parents,
68 % were providing some form of support to
their own children and 57 % of the adult children
were still receiving some form of support from
their parents.
Community participation is quite high, with
63 % actively participating in a social group
during the last 12 months. In 2006, 34 % of adults
had undertaken some form of voluntary work in
the previous 12 months.
A 308
Conclusions
In terms of both objective and subjective mea-
sures of well-being, Australia has a high level of
life quality. In part this is due to its wealth but
there are also other factors at work. It is a stable
democracy, has a basically egalitarian philoso-
phy, if increasingly based on myth, and is gener-
ally welcoming of new migrants. It is, thus, free
from systematic racial discrimination or sectorial
violence. All this is reflected in relatively high
and stable levels of subjective well-being. There
are, however, pockets of deprivation and low life
quality. Most notably this disadvantage applies
quite generally to the indigenous Aboriginal pop-
ulation. The resolution of this imbalance with the
nonindigenous population is currently, and must
remain, a national priority.
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309 A
characterized by distinctive symbols, text, and lan-
guages (Throsby, 2001: 4). It should be noted that
there is no one Aboriginal and Torres Strait A
Islander culture but a diversity of cultures across
regions and language groups. It has been estimated
that there were as many as 500700 different tribal
languages in existence prior to European settle-
ment in 1788 (Christie, 1985: 16). However,
important characteristics recognized as being com-
mon across these cultures include the emphasis
placed on immediate and extended kinship net-
works and their associated obligations (which con-
trasts with the emphasis on the nuclear family in
non-Indigenous Australia) and the importance of
connection to traditional lands in Indigenous peo-
ples sense of their past and self-identity (Christie).

Australian Indigenous Peoples
Alfred Michael Dockery
Curtin Business School, Curtin University, Perth,
WA, Australia
Synonyms
Aboriginal people in Australia; First Nations
people in Australia; Torres Strait Islander
Definition
The terms Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander,
Aboriginal, and Indigenous are used inter-
changeably to describe the descendants of the
native inhabitants of Australia prior to European
settlement. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples currently comprise roughly 2.5 % of the
Australian population, with around half living in
outer regional and remote areas (Steering
Committee for the Review of Government Service
Provision [SCRGSP], 2011: 3.33.5). For the
purposes of this entry, culture is considered to
relate to values, preferences, and beliefs that are
passed down through generations (Guiso,
Sapienza, & Zingales, 2006) and which may be
Description
Like many other First Nation peoples, the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of
Australia experience, on average, a far inferior
quality of life than is the norm for non-
Indigenous Australians. The statistical gap in socio-
economic outcomes is really quite shocking. To
give some of many potential examples, recent
data indicate that the age-adjusted mortality rate
for Indigenous Australians is around twice that for
non-Indigenous Australians; the retention rate from
the first to the final year of high school is estimated
at 47 % for Indigenous students compared to 79 %
for non-Indigenous students; an Indigenous youth
(016 years) is around seven times more likely to be
the subject of a substantiated case of child abuse
or neglect; and Indigenous people are 14 times as
likely to be imprisoned 23 times more likely in the
case of juvenile detentions (SCRGSP, 2011:
Overview).
In general, it is not due to a lack of funding that
the dire situation faced by many Indigenous
Australians persists, for significant amounts of
money have been invested in a wide range of
programs over the years. Rather, governments
of all persuasions have struggled to find effective
approaches to address Indigenous disadvantage.
Central to this vexed policy issue are questions on
the relationship between culture and well-being.
A 310
This entry discusses findings from a program of
research looking initially at programs to address
Indigenous disadvantage (Dockery & Milsom,
2007) and leading to an analysis of the links
between Indigenous Australians attachment to
their traditional culture and well-being (Dockery,
2010, 2012).
The Australian policy debate has consisted
largely of an ideological tug-of-war between
two opposing approaches: assimilation and
self-determination. Following European coloni-
zation of Australia some 225 years ago, the orig-
inal inhabitants were initially treated largely as
savages from a backward civilization. Some were
used as a source of cheap labor, others systemat-
ically killed by shooting or poisoning. Farming
and clearing of land encroached upon resources
needed to support traditional lifestyles and intro-
duced diseases took yet a further toll. Missionary
activities commencing in the 1820s, coupled with
the recommendations of a House of Commons
Select Committee of the 1830s, led to the forma-
tion of reserves and missions in which Aborigines
and Torres Strait Islanders could be civilized
through a protection and uplift policy. This
was seen as a positive step toward what was
believed to be the inevitable assimilation of
Aborigines from traditional lifestyles into
Western society (Dockery & Milsom, 2007;
Yarwood & Knowling, 1982). As part of this
process of civilizing the Indigenous popula-
tion, many children were forcibly removed from
their families and sent to school and missions.
These people have become known as the Stolen
Generation, although the practices continued
over many generations.
The assimilation approach gave way to
the emergence of self-determination as the
philosophy underlying Indigenous policy in the
1970s and 1980s. Self-determination embodies
both a recognition of the legitimacy and value
of Indigenous culture in its own right and the
belief that Indigenous people should be
empowered to choose and pursue their desired
balance between cultural maintenance and
engagement with the mainstream economy. This
was given further force through a number of
legislative changes and legal rulings, notably
Australian Indigenous Peoples
through the high court ruling in Mabo
v Queensland No. 2 1992 (Cth) which established
the doctrine of native title in Australian law.
However, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Commission (ATSIC) established in
1989 as the medium for Indigenous (partial)
self-government was later dismantled by the
Howard Liberal Government. In a swing in
policy direction back toward assimilation,
ATSIC was described as a failed experiment in
separate representation, and the government
argued for practical reconciliation rather than
symbolic reconciliation (Dockery & Milsom,
2007: 1415). The current Labor Governments
Closing the Gap policy, which pursues greater
statistical equality in key indicators across seven
life domains (see SCRGSP, 2011: 13), clearly sits
at odds with the philosophy of self-determination
in which Indigenous people themselves would
identify the outcomes important to them.
In reconsidering the debate on whether assim-
ilation or self-determination offers the best
approach to address Indigenous disadvantage,
Dockery (2010, 2012) calls for a focus on the
well-being of Indigenous Australians as the
primary objective of policy and notes a paucity
of empirical evidence on the construction of
Indigenous well-being within an otherwise
heavily ideological discourse. Both camps view
traditional Indigenous culture as a barrier to the
achievement of mainstream socioeconomic suc-
cess; only the proponents of self-determination
view this trade-off as a legitimate choice for
Indigenous people to make. Dockery and Milsom
(2007) describe how the underlying assumption
of culture as a barrier appears to have infiltrated
the bureaucracys evaluations of Indigenous
employment programs over the years, often in
direct contradiction to policy rhetoric. As Picker-
ing (2000: 157) noted for the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families Scheme for
American Indians Federal welfare and develop-
ment has always contained a tension between
respecting cultural difference and interpreting
that difference as the cause of poverty.
Under the guise of fostering economic develop-
ment, policy works instead to promote cultural
assimilation.
Australian Indigenous Peoples
Culture and Well-Being: Some Previous
Literature
Before turning specifically to Indigenous
Australians, it is useful to reflect on the existing
literature relating culture to well-being. From
Adam Smiths 1759 The Theory of Moral
Sentiments to Max Webers and Karl Polanyis
view of religion as contributing to the orderly
functioning of society and markets, the social
capital literature (Putnam, 1993), and the role of
trust and social virtues stressed by Fukuyama
(1995), economics has acknowledged some
role for culture in determining economic
outcomes. However, it has generally not fea-
tured prominently in the economics literature,
possibly because its contribution to growth rates
is seen as relatively insignificant (Throsby,
2001: 6162) or because it is difficult to
measure and model: The notion of culture is
so broad and the channels through which it
can enter the economic discourse so vague that
it is difficult to design testable hypotheses
(Guiso et al., 2006: 1). A weakness of much
of the macro- and microeconomic literature
relating culture to outcomes (see reviews in
Guiso et al. and Dockery, 2010) is that
measures of culture are rarely linked to
a theoretical understanding of what culture
means and how it impacts upon outcomes,
risking empirical findings relating to culture
being nothing more than simple ex post
rationalisations (Guiso et al., 2006: 3).
With respect to ethnic minorities, the psycho-
logical literature and subjective well-being
literature identify the promotion of a sense
of self-identity, self-esteem, or resilience
as the key causal channel through which
culture may impact upon personal outcomes
and well-being, sometimes referred to as the
enculturation hypothesis. Zimmerman,
Ramirez, Washienko, Walter, and Dyer (1994:
199) define enculturation as . . . the process by
which individuals learn about and identify with
their traditional ethnic culture and . . . an affir-
mation of ones heritage rather than a focus on
fitting into the majority culture. Enculturation
contrasts with acculturation, a process by
which an ethnic minority assimilates to the
311 A
majority culture (Zimmerman et al., 1994:
201). Resilience relates to an individuals or
communitys capacity for positive adaption A
despite adversity (Fleming & Ledogar, 2008:
49). There is evidence that enculturation can act
as a protective factor against alcoholism, suicide
ideation, and the internalization of stress asso-
ciated with trauma, but any positive effect may
be conditional upon high self-esteem
(Whitbeck, Chen, Hoyt, & Adams, 2004;
Yoder, Whitbeck, Hoyt, & LaFromboise, 2006;
Zimmerman et al., 1994).
Perhaps the most persuasive evidence comes
from the work of developmental psychologist
Michael Chandler and colleagues, who demon-
strate the importance of individuals developing
an elaborated sense of the persistence of their
self-identity through time and the role of cul-
tural identity in fostering this for Canadian
Aboriginal youth (Chandler, Lalonde, Sokol, &
Hallett, 2003). In New Zealand, the positive
effects of reengagement with cultural roots
are so well accepted that interventions to
improve outcomes for the Indigenous Maori
people are based upon a culture-as-cure
model (Houkamau & Sibley, 2011). However,
they note there is little by way of an evidence
base supporting this and find support for an
opposing outcomes model in which encultur-
ation leads to heightened awareness of the
socioeconomic disadvantage and past traumas
experienced by Maori as a group, leading to
lower satisfaction with the state of the nation
and society.
Based on a review of studies relating
mainly to Indigenous youth in North America,
Wexler argues . . . studies have consistently
found robust correlations between positive
affiliation and engagement with their culture
and Indigenous young peoples well-being and
resilience (2009: 267). In reality, results have
been more mixed and subject to a number of
limitations. Fleming and Ledogar are more
circumspect in saying Evidence is accumulat-
ing in favour of resilience from elements
of a broad concept that includes cultural
identity, participation in traditional activities,
and spirituality. (2008: 61).
A 312
Empirical Evidence for Indigenous
Australians
There is a growing recognition internationally
that conventional measures of socioeconomic
progress do not adequately capture Indigenous
populations aspirations and concepts of
well-being. There have been few studies into
the subjective well-being of Indigenous
Australians or how differences in culture
may shape Indigenous aspirations, and indeed
there are few datasets suited to this purpose.
SCRGSP (2011: 2.13) acknowledge that
Cultural strength is a fundamental aspect of
Indigenous well-being and that there is
a need to measure well-being as well as dis-
advantage, but cultural considerations are
largely omitted from the closing the gap
reporting framework due to difficulty in identi-
fying appropriate indicators.
Using data from a large and nationally repre-
sentative survey of Indigenous peoples, the 2002
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Social Survey (NATSISS), Dockery (2010) sets
out to empirically test the underlying assumption
that retention of elements of traditional culture
will negatively impact upon Indigenous peoples
socioeconomic outcomes. He finds that Indige-
nous persons with stronger engagement in, or
attachment to, traditional culture actually display
better outcomes on a range of mainstream socio-
economic indicators, arguing that traditional
Indigenous culture should be seen as a part
of the solution rather than as part of the problem
something that can be harnessed to reduce Indig-
enous disadvantage.
However, this study had several important
limitations. Echoing Guiso et al. (2006) criti-
cisms above, no explicit channel though which
cultural attachment impacts upon outcomes was
specified. This lack of a theoretical framework
compounds the challenge of reverse causality
in the modeling results that the achievement
of superior socioeconomic outcomes then leads
or empowers people to engage with their
culture. Second, culture or cultural attach-
ment is measured using a single construct
derived from factor analysis. In reality,
culture is likely to be a multidimensional
Australian Indigenous Peoples
construct. And third, the analysis focused on
mainstream outcomes, as there were no mea-
sures of subjective well-being collected in the
2002 NATSISS. Measuring Indigenous well-
being using mainstream indicators sits uneasily
with the definition of culture adopted, which is
based on differences in values and preferences,
in much the same way that tension exists
between the spirit of self-determination and the
pursuit of statistical equity implicit in the clos-
ing the gap agenda. What was required was
a measure of subjective well-being that
reflected Indigenous peoples own values and
preferences.
Subjective well-being measures became avail-
able with the release of data from the 2008
NATSISS, including a question on the regularity
of feeling happy and other questions that contrib-
ute to the SF-36 measures of mental health and
vitality, plus the questions comprising items
making up the Kessler 5-item scale of psycholog-
ical stress. Using the 2008 data, Dockery (2012)
extends the factor analysis of the culture-related
survey items to identify four dimensions: partic-
ipation/engagement in cultural activities, cultural
identification, language, and traditional eco-
nomic activities (such as hunting and gathering).
As well as confirming the previous findings with
respect to mainstream outcomes, the results now
supported a positive and statistically robust
association between the strength of Indigenous
peoples identification with their culture and
their subjective well-being. Importantly, the
cultural identification factor aligns with the
concept of self-identity or enculturation stressed
in the psychological literature, providing
a theoretically grounded mechanism for culture
to impact upon well-being. Further, as the iden-
tification measure relates to relatively fixed traits,
such as identification with tribal, clan, or lan-
guage groups and recognition of traditional
lands, these results are less susceptible to the
charge of reverse causality (endogeneity). There
was some evidence of greater psychological
stress for Indigenous persons with stronger
cultural identity. This applied only to persons
living in major population centers and reflected
a strong relationship between cultural identity
Australian Indigenous Peoples
and feelings of victimization by way of discrim-
ination for this group.
In other studies, Campbell, Burgess, Garnett,
and Wakerman (2011) have identified positive
health effects for Indigenous Australians
engaging in caring for country activities, and
Zubrick et al. found lower risks of emotional
or behavioral difficulties among Indigenous
youth whose carers were fluent in an Aboriginal
language (2005: 121). Both Dockery (2010,
2012) and Zubrick et al. (2005) find clear
evidence of markedly lower well-being among
those who identified themselves or their
families as members of the Stolen Generation.
This may not seem surprising, yet the same
philosophy underlying the policy of forced
removal of children from their families that
cultural assimilation is ultimately in Indigenous
peoples best interests continues to be widely
accepted.
In summary, the available evidence on the
determinants of the well-being of Indigenous
Australians, scant as it is, adds to the accumulat-
ing international evidence that the maintenance
of traditional culture is important to the well-
being of Indigenous people through the positive
psychological effects of a strong sense of self-
identity and of the connections through time and
place that have special meanings to Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Cross-References
Indigenous Child Well-Being in Canada
Indigenous Health Disparities
Indigenous Knowledge
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Campbell, D., Burgess, C. P., Garnett, S. T., & Wakerman,
J. (2011). Potential primary health care savings for
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Chandler, M. J., Lalonde, C. E., Sokol, B. W., & Hallett,
D. (2003). Personal persistence, identity development,
and suicide: A study of Native and Non-native North
313 A
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Christie, M. J. (1985). Aboriginal perspectives on experi-
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Dockery, A. M. (2010). Culture and wellbeing: The case
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Dockery, A. M. (2012). Do traditional culture and identity
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Dockery, A. M., & Milsom, N. (2007). A review of indig-
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National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
Fleming, J., & Ledogar, R. J. (2008). Resilience and
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Community Health, 6(2), 4764.
Fukuyama, F. (1995). Trust: The social virtues and the
creation of prosperity. London: H. Hamilton.
Guiso, L., Sapienza, P., & Zingales, L. (2006). Does
culture affect economic outcomes? (NBER Working
Paper No. 11999). Massachusetts: National Bureau of
Economic Research.
Houkamau, C. A., & Sibley, C. G. (2011). Maori cultural
efficacy and subjective wellbeing: A psychological
model and research agenda. Social Indicators
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Pickering, K. (2000). Alternative economic strategies in
low-income rural communities: TANF, labor migra-
tion and the case of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Rural Sociology, 65(1), 48167.
Putnam, R. (1993). Making democracy work. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press.
Steering Committee for the Review of Government
Service Provision (SCRGSP). (2011). Overcoming
Indigenous disadvantage: Key indicators 2011. Can-
berra, Australia: Productivity Commission.
Throsby, D. (2001). Economics and culture. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wexler, L. (2009). The importance of identity, history,
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Whitbeck, L. B., Chen, X., Hoyt, D. R., & Adams, W.
(2004). Discrimination, historical loss, and encultura-
tion: Culturally specific risk and resiliency factors for
alcohol abuse among American Indians. Journal of
Studies on Alcohol, 65(4), 409418.
Yarwood, A. T., & Knowling, M. J. (1982). Race relations
in Australia. A history. Australia: Metheun.
Yoder, Y. J., Whitbeck, L. B., Hoyt, D. R., &
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American Indian Youths. Archives of Suicide
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Zimmerman, M. A., Ramirez, J., Washienko, K. M.,
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Australian Unity Well-being Index
Australia, Personal Well-Being Index
Autocorrelation, Statistical
Ron Johnston
School of Geographical Sciences, University of
Bristol, Bristol, UK
Description
Autocorrelation refers to a situation where
the values of adjacent observations in a data
set usually in either time or space are related;
there is clustering of similar values, with obser-
vations that are proximate in space and/or time
having similar values. Where this occurs,
standard inferential statistical procedures can
only be applied with care (if at all); the results
of analyses, as in the fitting of linear regression
models, will be biased because the standard
errors will be understated.
The presence of autocorrelation as an issue in
statistical work was first identified in analyses of
time series, notably in economics. For example,
Australian Unity Well-being Index
the value of the Dow Jones index today is very
much a function of what it was yesterday and in
turn todays value will be very influential on
tomorrows. Similar values cluster at adjacent
dates. Analyzing the raw values of the index
to find a trend should take that clustering into
account. For example, if in a small example,
the index value was 10,005, 10,348, 10,297,
10,400, 10,200, and 10,444 on successive days,
graphing this would show a clear upward trajec-
tory (see Fig. 1). If, however, we looked at the
percentage change between adjacent days, the
changes would be +3.4 %, 0.5 %, +1.0 %,
1.9 %, and +2.4 %, indicating, if anything,
a downward trend in the rate of change
(Fig. 2). Similar absolute values are clustered
in time (because todays index is in part
a function of yesterdays), but similar changes
are not.
Technically, the autocorrelation problem
arises in least square regression analyses because
if the values on the independent variable time in
the above example are not themselves indepen-
dent, then when a regression line with time as
the independent variable is fitted, the standard
errors and hence the confidence intervals will be
underestimated. As the statistical significance of
a trend is evaluated using the standard error as
the denominator, this means that a trend may
appear to be more significant than it really is it
may not be significant at all.
Although autocorrelation may be a problem in
certain situations which is why much effort
has been expended at both measuring its
presence in datasets (using measures such as the
Durbin-Watson 1950 (Durbin & Watson, 1950a,
b), 1951 statistic) and analyzing data where it is
present (as in time series analysis) in others its
identification may have positive outcomes.
Where positive autocorrelation exists (it can
be measured using the equivalent of a correlation
coefficient), this indicates that there are patterns in
the data, which might be at least partly submerged
in underlying noise. Those patterns may occur
between adjacent observations, or they may be
periodic lags, such as seasonal patterns in monthly
data and weekly patterns in daily data (lower use
Autocorrelation, Statistical 315 A
Autocorrelation,
Statistical, Fig. 1 Time 10500
trend in an index value
A
10400

10300
Index

10200

10100

10000

1 2 3 4 5 6
Day

4.0

3.0

2.0
% Change

1.0

0.0

1.0

2.0
Autocorrelation,
Statistical, Fig. 2 Time
2 3 4 5 6
trend in percentage change
in the index value Change to Day

of public transport on Sundays, for example). Autocorrelation is also relevant to the

A wide range of techniques has been developed analysis of spatial data, such as crop yields in
to identify patterns in temporally autocorrelated adjacent counties, cancer rates at adjacent
data (as in Box & Jenkins, 1970). hospitals, dropout rates at neighboring schools,
A 316
and the spread of contagious diseases through
a city; indeed, it is more of a problem because
whereas temporal autocorrelation operates in one
direction only, in spatial autocorrelation it can
operate in all directions. Methods of spatial auto-
correlation analysis have been developed which
take into account the values for adjacent obser-
vations and avoid the biased results that might be
obtained otherwise (because of underestimated
standard errors). Where spatial autocorrelation
is identified (using statistics such as Morans
I: Moran, 1950), this should indicate the
existence of a spatially varying process highly
spatially autocorrelated patterns of cancer within
a city, for example, may indicate that adjacent
areas have similar proportions of at-risk
populations, which should be taken into
account. Recent developments of local statistics
(Anselin & Ray, 2010) allow the identification of
clusters within a territory such as the adjacent
areas of a city where immigrants are clustered as
much greater proportions of the local population
than is the case elsewhere and related tech-
niques, such as geographically weighted regres-
sion (Fotheringham, Charlton, & Brunsdon,
2002), identify spatial variations in recognized
patterns.
In inductive statistical analyses, the presence
of autocorrelation in a pattern of either the
dependent variable or the residuals from
a fitted model that accounts for part of the
pattern suggests the need for further explora-
tion of the reasons for what has been observed;
identifying the existence of autocorrelation in
the residuals acts, in effect, as a missing
variable indicator, suggesting that additional
independent variables should be explored to
account for the unaccounted for clustering in
time and/or space. If, for example, the incidence
of a particular illness across a citys neighbor-
hoods is partly associated with characteristics of
their populations, and the residuals display
positive spatial autocorrelation a greater
spatial clustering of individuals suffering from
the condition than their own characteristics
indicates this suggests other influences are
operating that have not been incorporated in
the model; they may themselves be spatial,
Autocracy
such as either a particular environment being
more conducive than others to the onset of
a disease or proximity to a particular facility (a
nuclear power plant, for example) being a major
source of the disease.
The presence of autocorrelation in a data set
raises two issues therefore:
The need for care in applying standard
statistical models, especially in evaluating
the statistical significance of findings, because
these assume independence among the
observations
The need to explore whether there are factors
not included in the explanatory model being
deployed that should be incorporated in order
to account for the clustering in time and/or
space
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Durbin, J., & Watson, G. S. (1950a). Testing for serial
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Durbin, J., & Watson, G. S. (1950b). Testing for serial
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Fotheringham, A. S., Charlton, M., & Brunsdon, C.
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Autocracy
Conceptualizing Democracy and
Nondemocracy
Automatic Prejudice
Prejudice
Avoidance Motives, Social 317 A
Autovectors Avoidance Coping
A
Eigenvalues Emergency Workers Quality of Life

Aversely Driven Approval Sex Avoidance Motives, Social

Motives
Sexual Motives and Quality of Life
Relationship Contingency and Sexual
Satisfaction