Abstract
The main points made in the previous papers are summarized and integrated and the strategies that the authors have recommended for producing an improved QOL are discussed. QOL is also systematically reviewed in relation to matters of definition, assessment, applications, and directions for future research and practice.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andrews, F. M. and S. B. Withey: 1976, Social Indicators of Well Being: Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality (Plenum, New York).
Autio, T.: 1992, The Quality of Life of Mentally Retarded: Interviewing Results in Tabular Form (Finnish Association of Mental Retardation Research and Experimental Unit, Helsinki).
Barton, L.: 1992, ‘Disability and the necessity for a socio-political perspective’, in L. Barton, K. Ballard and G. Fulcher (eds.), Disability and the Necessity for a Socio-Political Perspective, Monograph No. 51 (The International Exchange of Experts and Information in Rehabilitation, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH).
Bateson, G.: 1972, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chandlerpun, San Francisco).
Berkman, L. F. and L. B. Breslow: 1989, Health and Ways of Living: The Alameda County Study (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
Borgen, W. and N. Amundson: 1984, The Experience of Unemployment: Implications for Counselling the Unemployed (Nelson, Scarborough, ON).
Brekke, J. S., S. Levin, G. H. Wolkon and E. Slade: 1993, ‘Psychosocial functioning and subjective experience in schizophrenia’, Schizophrenia Bulletin 19, pp. 599–608.
Brown, R. I.: 1992, ‘Aging and the arts’, in R. I. Brown, H. Coward and J. Dugan (eds.), Arts: The Soul of the Community (Institute for the Humanities, Calgary).
Brown, R. I., M. B. Bayer and C. MacFarlane: 1989, Rehabilitation Programmes: Performance and Quality of Life of Adults with Developmental Handicaps (Lugus, Toronto).
Brown, R. I., M. B. Bayer and P. M. Brown: 1992, Empowerment and Developmental Handicaps: Choices and Quality of Life (Captus University Publications, Toronto; Chapman and Hall, London).
Brown, R. I. and V. Timmons: 1993, ‘Quality of Life — Adults and adolescents with disabilities’, Forthcoming in Exceptionality Education in Canada.
Bruhn, J. G. and B. U. Philips: 1984, ‘Measuring social support: A synthesis of current approaches’, Journal of Behavioral Medicine 7, pp. 151–169.
Calman, K. C.: 1984, ‘Quality of life in cancer patients — An hypothesis’, Journal of Medical Ethics 10, pp. 124–127.
Campbell, A.: 1983, The Sense of Well-Being in America (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Clark, P. G.: 1988, ‘Autonomy, personal empowerment, and quality of life in long-term care’, Journal of Applied Gerontology 7, pp. 179–194.
Cummins, R. A.: 1992, Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale — Intellectual Disability ComQol-ID Manual 3rd ed. (Deakin University, Toorak, Australia).
Czaja, S. J. and R. A. Barr: 1989, ‘Technology and the everyday life of older adults’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 503, pp. 127–137.
Day, H. I.: 1989, ‘Quality of life of people with disabilities’, Keynote Address, 4th Canadian Congress of Rehabilitation, Toronto.
Denholm, C. J.: 1993, ‘Developmental needs of adolescents; application to adolescents with Down Syndrome’, in R. I. Brown (ed.), Building our Future (Proceedings of the 1992 National Conference of the Canadian Down's Syndrome Society, Rehabilitation Studies, University of Calgary, Calgary).
Edgerton, R.: 1990, ‘Quality of life from a longitudinal research perspective’, in R. Schalock and M. Begab (eds.), Quality of Life: Perspectives and Issues (American Association on Mental Retardation, Washington, DC).
Emes, C. and B. Ferris: 1986, Physical Activities Amongst Activity-limited and Disabled Canadians (Fitness Canada, Ottawa).
Erickson, E. H.: 1968, Identity, Youth and Crisis (Norton, New York).
Feather, N. T. (ed.): 1980, Expectancy, Incentive, and Action (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ).
Felce, D. and J. Perry: 1993, ‘Quality of life: A contribution to its definition and measurement’ Unpublished report, Mental Handicap in Wales Applied Resource Unit, Cardiff.
Felton, B. J. and T. A. Revenson: 1987, Age differences in coping with chronic illness', Psychology and Aging 2, pp. 164–170.
Firth, H. and M. Rapley: 1990, From Acquaintance to Friendship: Issues for People with Learning Disabilities (BIMH Publications, Kidderminster).
Halpern, A. S., G. Nave, D. W. Close and D. Nelson: 1986, ‘An empirical analysis of the dimensions of community adjustment for adults with mental retardation’, Australia and New Zealand Journal of Developmental Disabilities 12, pp. 147–157.
Hofstede, G.: 1984, ‘The cultural relativity of the quality of life concept’, Academy of Management Review 9, pp. 389–398.
Johnson, L. C. and J. Dineer: 1982, The Kin Trade: The Day Care Crisis in Canada (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto).
Lance, C. E., G. L. Lautenschlager, C. E. Sloan and P. E. Varca: 1989, ‘A comparison between bottom-up, top-down, and bidirectional models of relationships between global and life facet satisfaction’, Journal of Personality 57, pp. 601–624.
Lawton, M. P.: 1983, ‘The varieties of well-being’, Experimental Aging Research 9, pp. 65–72.
Lehman, A. F.: 1983, ‘The well-being of chronic mental patients: Assessing their quality of life’, Archives of General Psychiatry 40, pp. 369–373.
Marcia, J. E.: 1966, ‘Development and validation of ego-identify status’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 3, pp. 551–558.
Marlett, N. J., R. Gall and A. Wight-Felske: 1984, Dialogue on Disability: A Canadian Perspective (University of Calgary Press, Calgary).
Maslow, A. H.: 1968, Toward a Psychology of Being 2nd ed. (Van Nostrand Rheinhold, New York).
McIntyre, K., M. Farrell and A. David: 1989, ‘In-patient psychiatric care: The patient's view’, British Journal of Medical Psychology 62, pp. 249–255.
Mercier, C. and S. King: in press, ‘A latent variable causal model of the quality of life and community tenure of psychotic patients’, Forthcoming in American Journal of Psychiatry.
Nagi, S. Z.: 1990, ‘Disability concepts revisited: Implications for prevention. Appendix A’, in A. M. Pope and A. R. Tarlov (eds.), Disability in America: A National Agenda for Prevention (National Academy Press, Washington, DC), pp. 216–227.
Neufeld, R.: 1991, ‘Advocacy: Applications in early years of children’, in D. Mitchell and R. I. Brown (eds.), Early Intervention: Studies for Young Children with Special Needs (Chapman and Hall, London).
Olshansky, S. J., B. A. Carnes and C. K. Cassel: 1993, ‘The aging of the human species’, Scientific American, April, pp. 46–52.
Osaba, D.: 1991, Effect of Cancer on Quality of Life (CRC Press, Baca Raton, FL).
Pinkney, A. A., G. J. Gerber and H. G. Lafave: 1991, ‘Quality of life after psychiatric rehabilitation: The clients' perspective’, Acta Scandinavica Psychiatrica 83, pp. 86–91.
Rodin, J.: 1989, ‘Sense of control: Potentials for intervention’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 503, pp. 29–42.
Rodin, J., K. Rennert and S. K. Solomon: 1980, ‘Intrinsic motivation for control: Fact or fiction’, in A. Baum and J. E. Singer (eds.), Advances in Environmental Psychology, Vol. 2 (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ), pp. 131–148.
Romney, D. M.: 1994, ‘Psychosocial functioning and subjective experience in schizophrenia: A reanalysis using LISREL', Paper submitted for publication.
Romney, D. M., C. D. Jenkins and J. M. Bynner: 1992, ‘A structural analysis of health-related quality of life dimensions’, Human Relations 45, pp. 165–176.
Rotter, J. B.: 1966, ‘Generalized expectancies for internal versus external locus of control’, Psychological Monographs 80, pp. 1–28.
Rowland, J. H.: 1989, ‘Developmental stage and adaptation: Adult model’, in J. D. Holland and J. H. Rowland (eds.), Handbook of Psycho-oncology: Psychological Care of the Patient with Cancer (Oxford University Press, New York), pp. 25–43.
Sartorius, N.: 1987, ‘Cross-cultural comparisons of data about quality of life: A sample of issues’, in N. K. Aaronson and J. Beckman (eds.), The Quality of Life of Cancer Patients (Raven, New York), pp. 19–24.
Schalock, R. L.: 1990, Quality of Life: Perspectives and Issues (American Association on Mental Retardation, Washington, DC).
Schalock, R. L.: 1991, ‘The concept of quality of life in the lives of persons with mental retardation’, Paper presented at the 115th Annual Meeting of the American Association on Mental Retardation, Washington, DC.
Schipper, H., J. Clinch, A. McMurray and M. Levitt: 1984, ‘Measuring the quality of life of cancer patients: Development and validation’, Journal of Clinical Oncology 2, pp. 472–483.
Shotton, M. A.: 1985, ‘Belt up — if you can’, Applied Ergonomics 11, pp. 127–133.
Stagner, R.: 1985, ‘Aging in industry’, in J. E. Birren and K. W. Schaie (eds.), Handbook of the Psychology of Aging 2nd ed. (Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York).
Stokols, D.: 1992, ‘Establishing and maintaining health environments: Towards a social ecology of health promotion’, American Psychologist 47, pp. 6–22.
Strain, L. A., N. L. Chappell and M. J. Penning: 1993, ‘The need for social science research on technology and aging’, Technology and Disability 2, pp. 56–64.
Thapa, K. and L. A. Rowland: 1989, ‘Quality of life perspectives in long-term care: Staff and patient perceptions’, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 80, pp. 267–271.
Timmons, T.: 1993, Quality of Life of Teenagers with Special Needs (Doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary).
Warr, P.: 1987, Work, Unemployment and Mental Health (Clarendon Press, Oxford).
WHO: 1980, International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (World Health Organization, Geneva).
Wolfensberger, W.: 1983, ‘Social role valorization: A proposed new term for the principle of normalization’, Mental Retardation 21, pp. 234–239.
Zautra, A. J. and J. W. Reich: 1983, ‘Life events and perceptions of quality of life: Developments in a two factor approach’, Journal of Community Psychology 11, pp. 121–132.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Romney, D.M., Brown, R.I. & Fry, P.S. Improving the quality of life: Prescriptions for change. Soc Indic Res 33, 237–272 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01078963
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01078963