- Email: [email protected]
Frank M. Andrews (ed.), research on the quality of life
538
Book reviews
over it is conceivable that the mainstream of the tributary, rather than the reverse.
will have moved to the path
David Butler
Dept. of Economics University of York York YOI 5DD, UK
Frank M. Andrews for Social Research. xiv + 365.
(ed.), Research on the Quality of Life. The Institute University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 1986. pp.
It is always difficult to review an edited volume thoughtfully whilst at the same time being equally fair to all the contributions. In this case the task is especially difficult as the index not only sounds promising but each chapter also deals with an interesting topic. The book contains thirteen single articles which are attributed to three main-stream research areas on the quality of life, mainly conducted at the well-known Institute for Social Research at Ann Arbor: psychological determinants of perceived well-being, conceptualization and description of American’s life quality, and life quality and social factors. Nevertheless, I have taken the liberty of neglecting some of the chapters, particularly those which deal with very specific US-American issues. But this certainly does not imply any judgment about their value, it just reflects my more European oriented interests (including the fact that I look for a quality of weekend life which consists of things other than reviewing). With regard to my European orientation I was eager to read the first and longest chapter by R. Inglehart and J.-R. Rabier ‘Aspirations adapt to situations - but why are the Belgians so much happier than the French?’ (pp. l-56). The authors start from an aspiration-adjustment model which holds that subjective well-being reflects the gap between one’s aspiration level and one’s perceived situation. Using a large longitudinal cross-national data base sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities, they explore the reasons for two the paradox of minimum intergroup variation observed phenomena: and the paradox of large cross-national variation. Concerning the first,
Book reviews
539
it is almost trivial knowledge that financial wealth can not buy happiness or satisfaction. Inglehart and Rabier have studied the influence of several factors like gender, age, education, income, or marital status on satisfaction levels and found that all these explain very little of perceived subjective well-being. These results support their model, i.e., that one’s aspiration level adjusts to conditions that persist over the medium term (p. 34). To put it simply: as most people cannot stand permanently fighting against their circumstances, they prefer to adapt to them. Concerning the second phenomenon, the astonishingly large differences between levels of subjective well-being in different societies, the authors suggest the existence of an important cultural component: the different cultural norms governing the extent to which it is permissible to express unhappiness and dissatisfaction with one’s life (p. 43). This interesting hypothetical conclusion certainly merits further investigation. I am looking forward to more research based on this revealing cross-cultural study. The second chapter by A.C. Michalos (pp. 57-84) reviews research on satisfaction and happiness based on an analysis of papers published in the journal Social Indicators Research from 1974 to 1983. The author summarizes these studies under the term ‘gap theoretical’ explanations which have the following general form: satisfaction and happiness are functions of the perceived gap between one thing and another (p. 66). He proposes to differentiate between six types of such discrepancy theories, e.g., goal-achievement gap theory, ideal-real gap theory, expectation-reality gap theory, previous-best comparison theory, social comparison theory, and person-environment-fit theory. Looking at the results of studies conducted in this area, he found that 90 percent of the gap-theoretical explanations were successful in terms of finding an association between satisfaction and some sort of perceived gap. Thus, he consistently concludes that future research has to combine several of these explanations, calling it ‘multiple discrepancies theory’ (p. 73) which might also contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between individual and national well-being. A. Abbey and F.M. Andrews report in the third chapter (pp. 85-116) on a study in which they investigated the potential of psychosocial factors as predictors of life quality. The model they tested assumes that people’s interactions with their social world will affect a number of social psychological factors. These will in turn influence their own internal states of depression and anxiety which function as
mediators, thus determining the individual sense of well-being (p. 87). Although 1 like the simplicity of this conceptual framework, I miss a satisfying explanation why depression and anxiety have been chosen as psychological concepts. There are certainly other personality traits (see Buss and Finn 1987). Besides this, the two fundamental ideas for designing life quality measures are convincing. First, the authors propose that a general evaluation of life quality consists of three components: a positive affective response, a negative affective response, and a cognitive evaluation (p. 90). Second, they suggest that evaluations of life as a whole result from combining evaluations of relevant life domains (p. 91). Turning now to the results of their study, it is important to appreciate that there is a clear distinction between relationships and causality. The hypothesis that selected psychological concepts relate to perceptions of life quality is strongly supported and it seems worthwhile to test this model with other psychological concepts. Chapter 4 by F.B. Bryant and J. Veroff (pp. 117-146) belongs to part two of the volume concentrating on the conceptualization and description of American’s life quality. The authors used confirmatory factor analyses to map dimensions of subjective mental health underlying different indices of well-being assessed in a 1973 national representative survey of adults. The hypothesis to be tested was that there are four dominant dimensions underlying people’s evaluations of their own subjective health, i.e., the evaluation of positive and that of negative affective experiences as well as feelings of personal competence in handling both types of these experiences (p. 119). The results partially confirm the hypothesis by supporting the assumption of a distinction between evaluating positive and negative affective experiences, but rejecting the idea of separate dimensions of personal competence related to handling these experiences (pp. 134-135). No relevant gender differences were found, the analysis merely suggests that men structure their self-evaluations more generally than do women and that women’s self-evaluations interrelate in a more complex fashion. These interesting results suggest that this kind of study should be done in European countries as well. Another chapter on American’s life quality, chapter 8 by J.G. Bachman, L.D. Johnson and P.M. O’Maley, describes a longitudinal and continuing study on lifestyles and values of youth (pp. 215234). The issues covered by their data bank are general life goals, plans for
Book reviews
541
marriage, parenthood and jobs, expectations and worries about the future, and experiences with drugs. It sounds promising, but the presentation of results is poor and disappointing as it is limited to some short descriptions. No explanations whatsoever are offered for the findings about general life goals (pp. 216-217) e.g., the observed gender differences are just taken for granted. Concerning the plans for marriage, parenthood and jobs, the respondents are only offered conventional statements which perpetuate traditional norms and sex-role attitudes (pp. 218-219). With regard to worries about the future, again, no explanation is given, e.g., for gender differences (pp. 221-223) where females worry considerably more about crime and violence, even when familiar and important explanations come readily to mind. In contrast to these, the section on drugs is very extensive, describing almost every possible detail (pp. 224-232) and this without spectacular results. Hence, I feel driven to the impression that this study has been instructed by an anti-drug-committee regarding research on lifestyles and values as a decorative side issue. Fortunately, chapter 10 by J.S. House on social support and its relationship to life quality (pp. 253-270) is much more illuminating. It includes a clear definition - social support as the flow between people of emotional concern, instrumental aid, information, or appraisal (p. 255) - presents interesting data on social support influencing stress and health outcomes (pp. 257-266), and makes a cautious remark on the fact that US-Americans do not live in circumstances which promote a good quality of life (p. 267). The ideas suggested here might also be tested in the context of AIDS, thus combining the effects of social networks and information campaigns. The last chapter to be mentioned here is chapter 11, in which D.F. Alwin, P.E. Converse, and S.S. Martin write about the influence of household living arrangements on individual well-being (pp. 275-300). One of their research results suggests that living alone seldom has negative consequences, in the sense that it is rather an active preference autonomously chosen than an undesirable situation into which people have been forced against their will (p. 296). A finding, which stands in obvious contrast to the caveat made by J.S. House in the preceding chapter. Conclusively, this is a book to be recommended to all those interested in social psychological research and economic psychology, especially if they want to get a good impression of the actual state of
542
Book reviews
the art in research interest’
book,
considering
on the quality
it is of great
research
of life. As it can be called
value
as a reference
source
a ‘special for
those
on the topic. Susanne
C. Grunert
University of Hohenheim Institute for Consumer and Home Economics (530) P. 0. Box 70 05 62 D-7000 Stuttgart 70, FRG
Reference Buss, A.H. and SE. Social Psychology
Finn, 1987. Classification 52, 432-444.
of personality
traits.
Journal
of Personality
and
J. Jacoby and J. Olson (eds.), Perceived Quality. Institute of Retail Management, New York University. Lexington Books, D.C. Heath, Lexington, MA, 1985. This is a collection of sixteen chapters by various authors, dealing with consumer’s perceptions of, as the title suggests, stores and merchandise. It is a comprehensive collection and satisfies differing kinds of readers. First of all it is of relevance to commercial marketeers, presenting as it does the state of the art; there are ample opportunities for marketeers to evaluate the merits and applicability of the various technological advances in the assessment of subjective preferences and perceptions portrayed. The second major success of the text is in offering to academic economic psychologists an insight into contemporary market research. The publication presents contributions by academic consumer researchers and practitioners with a view to an increasing liaison between the two groups. The anthology is divided into five sections. The first deals with the concept of quality; the second, manufacturer perspectives on perceived quality; the third, retailer perspectives; the fourth, regulatory and economic perspectives; the fifth, the relationship between price and perceived quality.
Book reviews
over it is conceivable that the mainstream of the tributary, rather than the reverse.
will have moved to the path
David Butler
Dept. of Economics University of York York YOI 5DD, UK
Frank M. Andrews for Social Research. xiv + 365.
(ed.), Research on the Quality of Life. The Institute University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 1986. pp.
It is always difficult to review an edited volume thoughtfully whilst at the same time being equally fair to all the contributions. In this case the task is especially difficult as the index not only sounds promising but each chapter also deals with an interesting topic. The book contains thirteen single articles which are attributed to three main-stream research areas on the quality of life, mainly conducted at the well-known Institute for Social Research at Ann Arbor: psychological determinants of perceived well-being, conceptualization and description of American’s life quality, and life quality and social factors. Nevertheless, I have taken the liberty of neglecting some of the chapters, particularly those which deal with very specific US-American issues. But this certainly does not imply any judgment about their value, it just reflects my more European oriented interests (including the fact that I look for a quality of weekend life which consists of things other than reviewing). With regard to my European orientation I was eager to read the first and longest chapter by R. Inglehart and J.-R. Rabier ‘Aspirations adapt to situations - but why are the Belgians so much happier than the French?’ (pp. l-56). The authors start from an aspiration-adjustment model which holds that subjective well-being reflects the gap between one’s aspiration level and one’s perceived situation. Using a large longitudinal cross-national data base sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities, they explore the reasons for two the paradox of minimum intergroup variation observed phenomena: and the paradox of large cross-national variation. Concerning the first,
Book reviews
539
it is almost trivial knowledge that financial wealth can not buy happiness or satisfaction. Inglehart and Rabier have studied the influence of several factors like gender, age, education, income, or marital status on satisfaction levels and found that all these explain very little of perceived subjective well-being. These results support their model, i.e., that one’s aspiration level adjusts to conditions that persist over the medium term (p. 34). To put it simply: as most people cannot stand permanently fighting against their circumstances, they prefer to adapt to them. Concerning the second phenomenon, the astonishingly large differences between levels of subjective well-being in different societies, the authors suggest the existence of an important cultural component: the different cultural norms governing the extent to which it is permissible to express unhappiness and dissatisfaction with one’s life (p. 43). This interesting hypothetical conclusion certainly merits further investigation. I am looking forward to more research based on this revealing cross-cultural study. The second chapter by A.C. Michalos (pp. 57-84) reviews research on satisfaction and happiness based on an analysis of papers published in the journal Social Indicators Research from 1974 to 1983. The author summarizes these studies under the term ‘gap theoretical’ explanations which have the following general form: satisfaction and happiness are functions of the perceived gap between one thing and another (p. 66). He proposes to differentiate between six types of such discrepancy theories, e.g., goal-achievement gap theory, ideal-real gap theory, expectation-reality gap theory, previous-best comparison theory, social comparison theory, and person-environment-fit theory. Looking at the results of studies conducted in this area, he found that 90 percent of the gap-theoretical explanations were successful in terms of finding an association between satisfaction and some sort of perceived gap. Thus, he consistently concludes that future research has to combine several of these explanations, calling it ‘multiple discrepancies theory’ (p. 73) which might also contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between individual and national well-being. A. Abbey and F.M. Andrews report in the third chapter (pp. 85-116) on a study in which they investigated the potential of psychosocial factors as predictors of life quality. The model they tested assumes that people’s interactions with their social world will affect a number of social psychological factors. These will in turn influence their own internal states of depression and anxiety which function as
mediators, thus determining the individual sense of well-being (p. 87). Although 1 like the simplicity of this conceptual framework, I miss a satisfying explanation why depression and anxiety have been chosen as psychological concepts. There are certainly other personality traits (see Buss and Finn 1987). Besides this, the two fundamental ideas for designing life quality measures are convincing. First, the authors propose that a general evaluation of life quality consists of three components: a positive affective response, a negative affective response, and a cognitive evaluation (p. 90). Second, they suggest that evaluations of life as a whole result from combining evaluations of relevant life domains (p. 91). Turning now to the results of their study, it is important to appreciate that there is a clear distinction between relationships and causality. The hypothesis that selected psychological concepts relate to perceptions of life quality is strongly supported and it seems worthwhile to test this model with other psychological concepts. Chapter 4 by F.B. Bryant and J. Veroff (pp. 117-146) belongs to part two of the volume concentrating on the conceptualization and description of American’s life quality. The authors used confirmatory factor analyses to map dimensions of subjective mental health underlying different indices of well-being assessed in a 1973 national representative survey of adults. The hypothesis to be tested was that there are four dominant dimensions underlying people’s evaluations of their own subjective health, i.e., the evaluation of positive and that of negative affective experiences as well as feelings of personal competence in handling both types of these experiences (p. 119). The results partially confirm the hypothesis by supporting the assumption of a distinction between evaluating positive and negative affective experiences, but rejecting the idea of separate dimensions of personal competence related to handling these experiences (pp. 134-135). No relevant gender differences were found, the analysis merely suggests that men structure their self-evaluations more generally than do women and that women’s self-evaluations interrelate in a more complex fashion. These interesting results suggest that this kind of study should be done in European countries as well. Another chapter on American’s life quality, chapter 8 by J.G. Bachman, L.D. Johnson and P.M. O’Maley, describes a longitudinal and continuing study on lifestyles and values of youth (pp. 215234). The issues covered by their data bank are general life goals, plans for
Book reviews
541
marriage, parenthood and jobs, expectations and worries about the future, and experiences with drugs. It sounds promising, but the presentation of results is poor and disappointing as it is limited to some short descriptions. No explanations whatsoever are offered for the findings about general life goals (pp. 216-217) e.g., the observed gender differences are just taken for granted. Concerning the plans for marriage, parenthood and jobs, the respondents are only offered conventional statements which perpetuate traditional norms and sex-role attitudes (pp. 218-219). With regard to worries about the future, again, no explanation is given, e.g., for gender differences (pp. 221-223) where females worry considerably more about crime and violence, even when familiar and important explanations come readily to mind. In contrast to these, the section on drugs is very extensive, describing almost every possible detail (pp. 224-232) and this without spectacular results. Hence, I feel driven to the impression that this study has been instructed by an anti-drug-committee regarding research on lifestyles and values as a decorative side issue. Fortunately, chapter 10 by J.S. House on social support and its relationship to life quality (pp. 253-270) is much more illuminating. It includes a clear definition - social support as the flow between people of emotional concern, instrumental aid, information, or appraisal (p. 255) - presents interesting data on social support influencing stress and health outcomes (pp. 257-266), and makes a cautious remark on the fact that US-Americans do not live in circumstances which promote a good quality of life (p. 267). The ideas suggested here might also be tested in the context of AIDS, thus combining the effects of social networks and information campaigns. The last chapter to be mentioned here is chapter 11, in which D.F. Alwin, P.E. Converse, and S.S. Martin write about the influence of household living arrangements on individual well-being (pp. 275-300). One of their research results suggests that living alone seldom has negative consequences, in the sense that it is rather an active preference autonomously chosen than an undesirable situation into which people have been forced against their will (p. 296). A finding, which stands in obvious contrast to the caveat made by J.S. House in the preceding chapter. Conclusively, this is a book to be recommended to all those interested in social psychological research and economic psychology, especially if they want to get a good impression of the actual state of
542
Book reviews
the art in research interest’
book,
considering
on the quality
it is of great
research
of life. As it can be called
value
as a reference
source
a ‘special for
those
on the topic. Susanne
C. Grunert
University of Hohenheim Institute for Consumer and Home Economics (530) P. 0. Box 70 05 62 D-7000 Stuttgart 70, FRG
Reference Buss, A.H. and SE. Social Psychology
Finn, 1987. Classification 52, 432-444.
of personality
traits.
Journal
of Personality
and
J. Jacoby and J. Olson (eds.), Perceived Quality. Institute of Retail Management, New York University. Lexington Books, D.C. Heath, Lexington, MA, 1985. This is a collection of sixteen chapters by various authors, dealing with consumer’s perceptions of, as the title suggests, stores and merchandise. It is a comprehensive collection and satisfies differing kinds of readers. First of all it is of relevance to commercial marketeers, presenting as it does the state of the art; there are ample opportunities for marketeers to evaluate the merits and applicability of the various technological advances in the assessment of subjective preferences and perceptions portrayed. The second major success of the text is in offering to academic economic psychologists an insight into contemporary market research. The publication presents contributions by academic consumer researchers and practitioners with a view to an increasing liaison between the two groups. The anthology is divided into five sections. The first deals with the concept of quality; the second, manufacturer perspectives on perceived quality; the third, retailer perspectives; the fourth, regulatory and economic perspectives; the fifth, the relationship between price and perceived quality.