The relationship between work hours and subjective well being is marked by contradictory findings, thereby implying that it is far from being completely understood. A study of moderator effects can help explain variations in results across studies and, thus, overcome inconsistencies in past research. Accordingly, the current study aims to…

Maslow's hierarchy-of-needs theory has been used to predict development of Quality of Life (QOL) in countries over time. In this paper an attempt has been taken to derive a methodological validation of quality of life questionnaire which have been prepared for the study area. The objective of the study is to standardize a questionnaire tool to…

The concept of social capital has become very popular but its definition and measurement are still rather unclear. We frame our study in one of its components, social participation. In this article we develop an optimal measure for social participation based on the questions asked in the first round of the European Social Survey. Our analyses…

By almost all measures of objective life quality, Indigenous Australians are disadvantaged relative to the general population. However, no measures of their Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) have been published. This paper presents the first such data, norm-referenced to the general Australian population. A total of 519 Indigenous adolescents, aged…

There is an ambiguity in Amartya Sen's capability approach as to what constitutes an individual's resources, conversion factors and valuable functionings. What we here call the "circularity problem" points to the fact that all three concepts seem to be mutually endogenous and interdependent. To econometrically account for this…

Many studies have examined the effect of life events, education, and income on well-being. Conversely, research concerning well-being as a predictor of life course outcomes is sparse. Diener's suggestion "to inquire about the effects of well-being on future behavior and success" has, with some exceptions, not yet come to fruition. This…

Deep integration of Asia into the global society necessarily affects wellbeing of local populations. This study proposes a notion of "extend capacities" to explain the relationships between individual globalization and subjective wellbeing among Asian populations in a context of increasing global integration. Using Amartya Sen's theory…

In Sen's Capability Approach (CA) well-being can be defined as the freedom of choice to achieve the things in life which one has reason to value most for his or her personal life. Capabilities are in Sen's vocabulary therefore the real freedoms people have or the opportunities available to them. In this paper we examine the impact of capabilities…

The Subjective Wellbeing (SWB) literature is replete with competing theories detailing the mechanisms underlying the construction and maintenance of SWB. The current study aimed to compare and contrast two of these approaches: multiple discrepancies theory (MDT) and an affective-cognitive theory of SWB. MDT posits SWB to be the result of perceived…

The objective of this study was to investigate the substantive aspect of construct validity of the Satisfaction with Life Scale adapted for Children (SWLS-C; Gadermann et al. in Soc Indic Res 96:229-247, "2010"). Specifically, the study examined the cognitive processes of children when responding to the items of the SWLS-C to find out how they…

New Zealand (NZ) Europeans show a unique implicit bicultural effect, with research using the Implicit Association Test consistently showing that they associate Maori (the Indigenous peoples) and their own (dominant/advantaged majority) group as equally representative of the nation. We replicated and extended this NZ = bicultural effect in a small…

Current theories on economic growth are stressing the important role of creativity and innovation as a main driver of regional development. Some perspectives, like Richard Florida's "creative class theory", have elected tolerance and diversity as a core concept in explaining differential development between different places, but his assumptions…

Progress is a powerful political concept, encompassing different and sometimes contradictory conceptions. This paper examines the results of a survey on progress conducted at the OECD World Forum entitled "Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies" held in Istanbul in June 2007. First, a distinction is drawn between the two approaches to…

Contrary to Bourdieu's theory ("Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste". Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press (1984)) that cultural consumption of so-called "high" versus popular culture is determined by socio-economic class, Peterson ("Poetics" 21:243-258, 1992; "Poetics"…

A new approach to volunteer motivation research is developed. Instead of asking what motivates the volunteer (accepting "any" conceptual category), we ask to what extent volunteering rewards the individual with each benefit taken from a complete set of possible benefits. As a "complete set of benefits" we use the 16 human functioning modes…