Life satisfaction and regional development: A case study of Oklahoma
TL;DR: This article analyzed the relation between regional development and perceived life satisfaction measures and found that people in less developed regions tend to be equally (or more) satisfied in almost every aspect of their lives.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the relation between regional development and perceived life satisfaction measures. Using Oklahoma it is identified that people in less developed regions tend to be equally (or more) satisfied in almost every aspect of their lives. This leads to the conclusion that aspirations, in addition to the attainment of aspirations, depend on the level of development.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the determinants of the quality of life in a sample of 600 people aged 60 or more years living in deprived areas of three English cities were analyzed by means of a face-to-face administered questionnaire.
Abstract: This article analyses the determinants of the quality of life in a sample of 600 people aged 60 or more years living in deprived areas of three English cities. Data were collected by means of a face-to-face administered questionnaire. Two standardised measures, the ‘Satisfaction With Life Scale ’ (SWLS) and the ‘Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale ’ (PGCMS), and a single-item question were used to produce outcome measures of the quality of life. Using a conceptual model of quality of life factors, 21 socio-demographic, objective and subjective variables were correlated with each of the measures. Thirteen of these variables were subsequently entered in three multiple regression models. Subjective variables correlated significantly with all three quality of life measures, but sociodemographic and objective life condition variables correlated less strongly. Regression analysis revealed perception of own health, perceived ability to cope financially, perception of poverty over time and loneliness to be important determinants of the quality of life across all three quality of life measures. Variables that described characteristics of the urban environment had limited direct influence on the quality of life. The findings support the conceptual framework and highlight the key role played by subjective variables in determining the quality of life of older people in deprived urban areas.
117 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of neighborhood characteristics on residential satisfaction was explored using data from the Twin Cities and found that using mismatched neighborhood characteristics or perceived neighborhood characteristics as explanatory variables produces somewhat different environmental correlates of residential satisfaction.
74 citations
Additional excerpts
...It is evident that residents can be satisfied even when they live in poor housing conditions (Amérigo & Aragonés, 1990; Amos et al., 1982; Jansen, 2013) because they chose the neighborhoods “which satisfy them on attributes important to them” under certain constraints (McCrea et al., 2014, p. 87)....
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TL;DR: Why is housing always satisfactory?
Abstract: This study focuses on residents’ perceptions of residential quality concerning 23 different dwelling aspects. Respondents were asked to indicate their appreciation of these dwelling aspects on a scale ranging from 0 (“extremely unattractive”) to 100 (“extremely attractive”). The influence of two potential factors on the appreciation of dwelling aspects is examined: (1) preference and (2) experience. It was hypothesized that residents who live according to their preferences give higher appreciation scores than residents who do not. This should even apply to low-quality housing. Furthermore, it was argued that residents appreciate their current housing situation more than residents who do not live in that particular housing situation. This effect should be independent of preference. The impact of both preference and of experience could be confirmed. The results also showed an interaction effect between preference and experience: the positive effect of experience on appreciation is larger in residents who live in a housing situation that they do not prefer. This result would be expected if the impact of experience works to decrease the ‘gap’ in residential satisfaction due to the discrepancy between what residents have and what they want. In conclusion, why is housing always satisfactory? In this paper, housing is satisfactory because the ‘gap’ between what residents want and what they have is small; residents seem to have realistic aspirations. Furthermore, residents appreciate what they already have, even if this is not what they prefer.
51 citations
Cites background from "Life satisfaction and regional deve..."
...Amos et al. (1982) found that residents with fewer goods and services were equally or even more satisfied in almost every area of life than residents with more goods and services were....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors classify environmental correlates of neighborhood satisfaction into ad hoc studies and theory-driven studies, and classify these studies into two categories: ad hoc and theory driven studies.
Abstract: Many studies explore environmental correlates of neighborhood satisfaction and provide insights for neighborhood enhancement. This article classifies such studies into ad hoc studies and theory-dri...
30 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of two psychological factors, cognitive restructuring and future perspectives, on residents' perceptions of residential quality was examined. But no effect was observed for future perspectives for cognitive restructuring, while the future perspectives hypothesis argued that residents who can change a suboptimal housing situation show higher appreciation scores because they have a better situation to look forward to.
Abstract: The current study focuses on residents’ perceptions of residential quality. The influence of two psychological factors is examined: cognitive restructuring and future perspectives. For cognitive restructuring, it is hypothesized that residents who cannot change a suboptimal housing situation show higher appreciation scores in order to prevent unhappiness and psychosocial complaints. By contrast, the future perspectives hypothesis argues that residents who can change a suboptimal housing situation show higher appreciation scores because they have a better situation to look forward to. Respondents indicated their appreciation of 23 dwelling aspects on a scale ranging from 0 (extremely unattractive) to 100 (extremely attractive). A weak impact was found for cognitive restructuring: residents living in a suboptimal housing situation and who do not intend to move showed a higher mean appreciation for an owner-occupied house and for a traditional architectural design than similar residents who did intend to move. No effect was observed for future perspectives. Why is housing always satisfactory? A previous study and the current one show that residents who live in a suboptimal housing situation might show relatively high residential satisfaction because they lower their aspirations (“I don’t need much”), because they are satisfied with what they have (“what I have is fine”) and, to a lesser extent, because they make the best of a situation that they cannot change (cognitive restructuring).
29 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 2013
Abstract: 1. The integrated wholeness of the organism must be one of the foundation stones of motivation theory. 2. The hunger drive (or any other physiological drive) was rejected as a centering point or model for a definitive theory of motivation. Any drive that is somatically based and localizable was shown to be atypical rather than typical in human motivation. 3. Such a theory should stress and center itself upon ultimate or basic goals rather than partial or superficial ones, upon ends rather than means to these ends. Such a stress would imply a more central place for unconscious than for conscious motivations. 4. There are usually available various cultural paths to the same goal. Therefore conscious, specific, local-cultural desires are not as fundamental in motivation theory as the more basic, unconscious goals. 5. Any motivated behavior, either preparatory or consummatory, must be understood to be a channel through which many basic needs may be simultaneously expressed or satisfied. Typically an act has more than one motivation. 6. Practically all organismic states are to be understood as motivated and as motivating. 7. Human needs arrange themselves in hierarchies of prepotency. That is to say, the appearance of one need usually rests on the prior satisfaction of another, more pre-potent need. Man is a perpetually wanting animal. Also no need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated or discrete; every drive is related to the state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives. 8. Lists of drives will get us nowhere for various theoretical and practical reasons. Furthermore any classification of motivations
18,001 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the role and limitations of the state global economic issues in the 1990s -energy and resource balances, Africa's downward spiral, the debt crisis, and the international economic order.
Abstract: Part 1 Principles and concepts: development economics and Third World nations - a global perspective common characteristics of developing nations alternative theories and the meaning of development historic growth and contemporary development - lessons and controversies. Part 2 Problems and politics - domestic: growth, poverty, and income distribution the population debate economics of population and development unemployment - issues, dimensions, and analysis urbanization and rural-urban migration - theory and policy agricultural transformation and rural development education and development. Part 3 Problems and policies - international: trade theory and development experience the balance of payments, international finance and the Third World debt crisis the trade policy debate - export promotion, import substitution, and economic integration direct foreign investment and foreign aid - controversies and opportunities. Part 4 Possibilities and prospects: development planning - theory and practice monetary and fiscal policy the role and limitations of the state global economic issues in the 1990s - energy and resource balances, Africa's downward spiral, the debt crisis, and the international economic order.
1,411 citations
1,302 citations
TL;DR: This research shows reported well-being to be most strongly related to health, followed by socioeconomic factors and degree of social interaction, for the general population of Americans over 60, and tentatively indicates that negative life situation exigencies create a greater vulnerability to the impact of other negative conditions.
Abstract: Thirty years of research among older Americans on life satisfaction, morale, and related constructs has yielded a consistent body of findings. Parallel results for measures of these contructs and high intercorrelations justifies considering them in terms of a single summary construct, subjective well-being. As this research has relied almost exclusively on survey measures, interpretations are limited to the social-psychological level of people's day-to-day verbal behavior. This research shows reported well-being to be most strongly related to health, followed by socioeconomic factors and degree of social interaction, for the general population of Americans over 60. Marital status and aspects of people's living situations are also conclusively related to well-being. Age, sex, race, and employment show no consistent independent relation to well-being. In addition to indicating that negative life situation exigencies, such as poor health and low income are related to lower well-being, the results tentatively indicate that these exigencies create a greater vulnerability to the impact of other negative conditions.
1,074 citations