Social Indicators of Well-Being : Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality

This is a study about perceptions of well-being. Its purpose is to investigate how these perceptions are organized in the minds of different groups of American adults, to find valid and efficient ways of measuring these percep­ tions, to suggest ways these measurement methods could be implemented to yield a series of social indicators, and to provide some initial readings on these indicators; i.e., some information about the levels of well-being perceived by Americans. The findings are based on data from more than five thousand Americans and include results from four separate representative samplings of the American population. One of the ways our research is unusual is that it includes a major methodological component. Typical surveys involve a modest effort at instru­ ment development, the application of the instrument to a group of respondents, and an analysis of the resulting data that mainly describes the people studied. Our work, however, was implemented in a series of sequential cycles, each of which consisted of conceptual development, instrument design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Ideas and findings generated in prior cycles affected the design of subsequent cycles. Front Matter....Pages i-xxi Introduction....Pages 1-24 Front Matter....Pages 25-25 Identifying and Mapping Concerns....Pages 27-61 Measuring Global Well-Being....Pages 63-106 Predicting Global Well-Being: I....Pages 107-149 Predicting Global Well-Being: II....Pages 151-173 Evaluating the Measures of Well-Being....Pages 175-217 Exploring the Dynamics of Evaluation....Pages 219-245 Front Matter....Pages 247-247 Americans’ Well-Being: Specific Life Concerns....Pages 249-281 Americans’ Well-Being: Differences Among Population Groups....Pages 283-307 Americans’ Well-Being: Life-as-a-Whole....Pages 309-335 Front Matter....Pages 337-337 Applications....Pages 339-357 Back Matter....Pages 359-455