This book is about the concept of “Quality of Life”. What is necessary for quality of life, and how can it be measured? The approach is a multicriterial scheme reduction which prevents as much information loss as possible when shifting from the set of partial criteria to their convolution. This book is written for researchers, analysts and graduate and postgraduate students of mathematics and economics.

Anything that has to do with people, anywhere across the globe, has surely something to do with their Quality of Life. The concept has been discussed and finds reference right from ancient literature dating back to early Greek philosophers like Socrates (469-399 BC), his student Plato (427/428-348/347BC), and Aristotle (384-322 BC) and stays on the radar of researchers and policy makers until today. Aristotle had written about the nature of happiness and what people require in order to have ‘a good life’. The concept of QoL still holds a strong place in psychological studies, social research as well as policy-making because the various national and international bodies – like World Health Organization, United Nations, and many others, have a strong focus on improving the QoL of the people. The book is a comprehensive compilation of the large number of definitions of QoL, multiple underlying theories, various concepts, derivative models, how QoL is essentially linked with the UN’s SDGs, and the crucial global rankings used for international comparative analysis of QoL. As the world is changing fast, while recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, there are many changing trends that have an integral role in QoL assessments. The book attempts to cover almost all of this in lucid and comprehendible language.

The majority of studies on the quality of life have been conducted in Western contexts and are based on Western participants. Comparatively speaking, there are only a few studies that have been conducted in different Chinese contexts. Also, there are fewer QOL studies based on children and adolescents, or studies that examine the relationship between QOL and economic disadvantage. In addition, more research is needed to address the methodological issues related to the assessment of quality of life. This volume is a constructive response to the challenges described above. It is the first book to cover research in Chinese, Western and global contexts in a single volume. It is a ground-breaking volume in which Chinese studies on the quality of life are collected. The book includes papers addressing family QOL, quality of life in adolescents experiencing economic disadvantage, and methodological issues in the assessment of QOL. It is written by researchers working in a variety of disciplines.

Written in response to the Supreme Court's landmark Daubert decision regarding provision of expert witness scientific testimony, Assessment of Rehabilitative and Quality of Life Issues in Litigation focuses on quality of life as a means of conceptualizing and measuring pain and suffering in the controversial enjoyment of life debate. The authors make a compelling argument for a quality of life paradigm based on a rehabilitation and health economics analysis, demonstrating that qualified rehabilitationists are the best experts to provide analyses of the impact of disability or injury on quality of life over the lifespan. The extensive literature review enables attorneys and litigation experts to easily access quality of life literature.

On October 16 and 17, 2000, we hosted an international workshop entitled "Statistical Design, Measurement, and Analysis of Health Related Quality of Life." The workshop was held in the beautiful city of Arradon, South Brittany, France with the main goal of fostering an interdisciplinary forum for discussion of theoretical and applied statistical issues arising in studies of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Included were biostatisticians, psychometricians and public health professionals (e.g., physicians, sociologists, psychologists) active in the study ofHRQoL. In assembling this volume, we invited each conference participant to contribute a paper based on his or her presentation and the ensuing and very interesting discussions that took place in Arradon. All papers were peer-reviewed, by anonymous reviewers, and revised before final editing and acceptance. Although this process was quite time consuming, we believe that it greatly improved the volume as a whole, making this book a valuable contribution to the field ofHRQoL research. The volume presents a broad spectrum of papers presented at the Workshop, and thus illustrates the range of current research related to the theory, methods and applications of HRQoL, as well as the interdisciplinary nature ofthis work. Following an introduction written by Sir David Cox, it includes 27 articles organized into the following chapters.

This edited volume approaches the life experiences and well-being of Japanese people from an empirical perspective. It explores the current trend of happiness among Japanese over time and examines the association of income, lifestyle, and perceived life conditions using modern econometric models with supplementary qualitative observations. Issues relating to ageing, gender, household division of labour, and emigration are also examined to provide a wide scope of results based on both survey and field methods for culturally sensitive researchers. Going beyond the conventional cultural interpretation of the uniqueness of the Japanese case, this book provides timely, empirical evidence for understanding how the various social groups comprising the Japanese population have enjoyed a better quality of life, while some groups are very dissatisfied with social arrangements and have elected to emigrate. The book is a pioneering endeavour to reveal the detailed structure of quality of life and well-being in Japanese society.

This book is the second in a series covering best practices in community quality-of-life (QOL) indicators. The first volume is a compilation of cases of best work in community indicators research. This volume builds on the goal of the series and includes eleven cases describing communities that have launched their own community indicators programs. Elements included are the history of the community indicators work within the target region, and the planning of community indicators.

Offering a thorough assessment of recent developments in the economic literature on happiness and quality of life, this major research Handbook astutely considers both methods of estimation and policy application. Luigino Bruni and Pier Luigi Porta’s refreshing, and constructively critical, approach emphasizes the subject’s integral impact on latter-day capitalism. Expert contributors critically present in-depth research on a wide range of topics including: • the history of the idea of quality of life and the impact of globalization • links between happiness and health • comparisons between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being • the relational and emotional side of human life, including subjective indicators of well-being • genetic and environmental contributions to life satisfaction • the impact of culture, fine arts and new media. Accessible and far-reaching, the Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Happiness and Quality of Life will prove an invaluable resource for students and scholars of welfare and economics as well as practicing psychologists and researchers.

The aim of the Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research is to create an overview of the field of Quality of Life (QOL) studies in the early years of the 21st century that can be updated and improved upon as the field evolves and the century unfolds. Social indicators are statistical time series “...used to monitor the social system, helping to identify changes and to guide intervention to alter the course of social change”. Examples include unemployment rates, crime rates, estimates of life expectancy, health status indices, school enrollment rates, average achievement scores, election voting rates, and measures of subjective well-being such as satisfaction with life-as-a-whole and with specific domains or aspects of life. This book provides a review of the historical development of the field including the history of QOL in medicine and mental health as well as the research related to quality-of-work-life (QWL) programs. It discusses several of QOL main concepts: happiness, positive psychology, and subjective wellbeing. Relations between spirituality and religiousness and QOL are examined as are the effects of educational attainment on QOL and marketing, and the associations with economic growth. The book goes on to investigate methodological approaches and issues that should be considered in measuring and analysing quality of life from a quantitative perspective. The final chapters are dedicated to research on elements of QOL in a broad range of countries and populations.

This book is about spiritual intelligence and its effects on mental health and quality of life. As mental health and related problems are increasing rapidly and have become a matter of great concern, there has not been a unanimous and empirical approach to assess and cure it, due to its divergence or other causes. This book is based on the most developed construct: spiritual intelligence and its effects on mental health and quality of life. Spirituality and its other constructs are one of the most interesting topics nowadays in the area of positive/indigenous/transpersonal psychology and among social/behavioral scientists. This book provides content on spirituality, spiritual intelligence, mental health, and quality of life. The book also attempts to review related literature (whether review or empirical), to have a look at past and current scenarios on spirituality and mental health and quality of life research. Through an exploration of Indian indigenous psychology, this book provides a look at mental health and the mind from an Indian psychological perspective and examines Indian psychology, taking into consideration modern psychological concepts.