Abstract
This contribution is related to the quality of life in developed nations. Developed nations are not a strictly defined category, and in this article we regard as developed the nations of Europe, of North America, Australia, and Japan, where the last one is the only country which is not a European offshoot. Development in its original sense was mainly defined as economic growth in the course of industrialization. The comprehensive developmental process of the present world is usually defined as globalization. It is mainly understood as a worldwide process of increasing interdependency of people, goods, capital, and information. Among the societal goals in this development phase, quality of life attained a significant position. Beginning in the 1960s in the developed worlds, quality of life got more and more recognition as a societal goal. Quality of life is understood as objective conditions, investigated through social and technical experts, as well as subjective perceptions through the people. In consequence of defining new societal goals, the idea to measure these goals arose and measurement procedures were established worldwide. The comparative aims of this article are as follows: First, the main features of the scientific discussion on the concepts of quality of life and social well-being are explored. In scientific discussions, quality of life is partly emphasized more in objective terms and partly more emphasis is given to the subjective dimension of quality of life. Second, the objective dimension of quality of life is outlined with comprehensive indicators from the Human Development Index (HDI), the Human Well-Being Index (HWI), and the Weighted Index for Social Progress (WISP). It is shown how far they lead to similar results and to differences. Third, the subjective dimension of quality of life is described with regard to the perceived quality of life in terms of overall satisfaction with life (OSL), of positive and negative affect (ABS), and of personal and national well-being (PWI/NWI). Above that, there are approaches which combine objective and subjective aspects of life in a comprehensive index (e.g., the Happy Life Expectancy). In total, it is no surprise that the choice of criteria and values influences to a high degree the results of the state of nations. The question from the perspective of globalization is whether there are tendencies toward more similarity or to more divergence between the nations and continents.
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Notes
- 1.
To calculate the HDI, an index is developed for each of the three dimensions, which ranges from 0 (minimum value) to 100 (maximum value). The HDI is the simple average of the three index values.
- 2.
The construction of the HWI is as a composite index, where each country is positioned in a range between 0 and 100, the best and the worst empirical value. Using benchmarks, which were developed by the author, the different countries of the world are evaluated from fair/good to bad (Prescott-Allen 2001).
- 3.
A score on the Positive Affect Scale is obtained by summing up ratings for the 5 positive affect questions; the score for the Negative Affect Scale is obtained by summing up the ratings for the 5 negative affect questions. The Affect Balance Scale score is computed by subtracting Negative Affect Scale scores from Positive Affect Scale scores. Scores range then from −5 (lowest affect balance score) to +5 (highest affect balance score).
- 4.
The list includes over 50 countries, and these can be viewed at http://www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol/inter_wellbeing/index.htm. The international comparisons are mainly in respect to reliability and validity of the data.
- 5.
The Personal Well-Being Index is related to a theory of homeostasis of subjective well-being. According to this theory, subjective well-being is actively managed by a system that strives to maintain the individual level of happiness close to a genetically determined set point. But it is no problem to regard the concept of the PWI independent from this theoretical contribution.
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Glatzer, W. (2012). Cross-National Comparisons of Quality of Life in Developed Nations, Including the Impact of Globalization. In: Land, K., Michalos, A., Sirgy, M. (eds) Handbook of Social Indicators and Quality of Life Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2421-1_18
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