The Psychology of Quality of Life

The second edition will be an update and further elaboration of the literature related to subjective well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction. It will have a new substantial section that focuses on reviewing much of the literature of subjective well-being within specific life domains (social life, material life, leisure life, work life, community life, spiritual life, family life, health life, sex life, travel life, etc.) In the 1st edition the research in these various life domains was discussed only briefly. The second edition will maintain the same organizational structure of the first edition; that is, Part 1 will focus on introduction (definitions and distinctions; examples of measures of subjective well-being, happiness, and life satisfaction; and motives underlying subjective well-being). Part 2 will focus on psychological strategies that are allow people to optimize subjective well-being by engaging in psychological processes related to the relationship between and among life domains (e.g., social life, family life, love life, spiritual life, community life, financial life, etc.) This part will contain four chapters related to these various “inter-domain” processes: bottom-up spillover, top-down spillover, horizontal spillover, and compensation. Part 3 of the book will focus on “intra-domain” psychological strategies designed to optimize subjective well-being. These include re-evaluation based on personal history, re-evaluation based on self-concept, re-evaluation based on social comparison, goal selection, goal implementation and attainment, and re-appraisal. Part 4 of the book will focus on balance processes—how people attempt to create balance in their lives using psychological processes within specific life domains (intra-domain strategies) and processes that relate one domain to another (inter-domain strategies).

From the reviews of the second edition:

“Written by one of the field’s most preeminent theoreticians, the volume is an essential reference work for all researchers and scholars of quality of life. Personally, I enjoyed reading this book because it shows clearly and directly the necessity of integrating both micro- and macro-level views into the study of quality of life.” (Graciela Tonon, Applied Research in Quality of Life, April, 2013)

JOE SIRGY is a management psychologist (Ph.D., U/Massachusetts, 1979), Professor of Marketing, and Virginia Real estate Research Fellow at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He has published extensively in the area of marketing, business ethics, and quality of life (QOL). He is the author/editor of many books related to consumer marketing and quality of life. He co-founded the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) in 1995, served as its Executive Director/Treasurer from 1995 to 2011, and as Development Director (2011-12). In 1998, he received the Distinguished Fellow Award from ISQOLS. In 2003, ISQOLS honored him as the Distinguished QOL Researcher for research excellence and a record of lifetime achievement in QOL research. He also served as President of the Academy of Marketing Science from which he received the Distinguished Fellow Award in the early 1990’s and the Harold Berkman Service Award in 2007 (lifetime achievement award for serving the marketing professoriate). In the early 2000’s, he helped co-found the Macromarketing Society and the Community Indicators Consortium and has served as a board member of these two professional associations. He co-founded the journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life, the official journal of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, in 2005; and he has served as editor (1995-present). He also served editor of the QOL section in the Journal of Macromarketing (1995-present). He received the Virginia Tech’s Pamplin Teaching Excellence Award/Holtzman Outstanding Educator Award and University Certificate of Teaching Excellence in 2008. In 2010, ISQOLS honored him for excellence and lifetime service to the society. In 2010 he won the Best Paper Award in the Journal of Happiness Studies for his theory of the balanced life; in 2011 also he won the Best Paper Award in the Journal of Travel Research for his goal theory of leisure travel satisfaction.In 2012 he was awarded the EuroMed Management Research Award for outstanding achievements and groundbreaking contributions to well-being and quality-of-life research. He is the current editor of ISQOLS/Springer book series on handbooks in QOL research and the community QOL indicators best practices.

Endorsement Professor Alex C. Michalos:

This is a beautiful book, modest in its claims to being about the psychology of quality of life and spectacular in its comprehensive achievement. No other book exists that covers as many important and salient topics relevant to qol. None exists that provides an organizational structure that accommodates as well the great variety of issues in current research. For beginners in qol research, this is the place to begin. For those already familiar with the field, this book will show you what you have been missing.