“Anyone who is concerned with the well-being of their family, clientele, or employees will benefit from this work. … book is an excellent source thoroughly covering an extremely broad field.” (Gerald A Steckmeister, Doody's Book Reviews, October 22, 2021)
Preface
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Philosophical Foundations, Definitions, and Measures of Wellbeing Chapter 2: Further Distinctions among Major Concepts of Wellbeing Chapter 3: Positive Outcomes of Wellbeing
Part II: Objective Reality and Effects on Wellbeing
Chapter 4: Effects of Technological, Economic, Political, and Socio-Cultural Factors on Wellbeing Chapter 5: Effects of Resources (Time, Money, Income, and Wealth) on Wellbeing Chapter 6: Effects of Demographic Factors on Wellbeing Chapter 7: Effects of Personal and Consumption Activities on Wellbeing Chapter 8: Effects of Biology, Drugs, Life Events, and the Environment on Wellbeing
Part III: Subjective Reality and Effects on Wellbeing
Chapter 9: Effects of Personality on Wellbeing Chapter 10: Effects of Affect and Cognition on Wellbeing Chapter 11: Effects of Beliefs and Values on Wellbeing
Chapter 12: Effects of Needs and Need Satisfaction on Wellbeing Chapter 13: Effects of Goals on Wellbeing Chapter 14: Effects of Self-Concept on Wellbeing
Chapter 15: Effects of Social Comparisons on Wellbeing
Part IV: Life Domains and Effects on Wellbeing
Chapter 16: Effects of Domain Dynamics on Wellbeing Chapter 17: Work Wellbeing Chapter 18: Residential Wellbeing Chapter 19: Material Wellbeing Chapter 20: Social, Family, and Marital Wellbeing Chapter 21: Health Wellbeing Chapter 22: Leisure Wellbeing Chapter 23: Wellbeing in Other Life Domains
Part V: Population Segments and Wellbeing
Chapter 24: The Wellbeing of Children and Youth Chapter 25: The Wellbeing of Older Adults Chapter 26: The Wellbeing of Women Chapter 27: The Wellbeing of Geographic Population Segments Chapter 28: The Wellbeing of Specialty Population Segments
Part VI: Epilogue
Chapter 29: Integrative Models of Wellbeing Chapter 30: Philosophy and Public Policy Issues Related to Wellbeing
Appendix: Wellbeing Measurement Issues
Index
M. JOSEPH (JOE) SIRGY is a management psychologist (Ph.D., U/Massachusetts, 1979) and the Virginia Tech Real Estate Professor of Marketing 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 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 Co-Director (2011-present).
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 (2002-04) 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 co-founding editor (1995-present). He also served editor of the QOL section in the Journal of Macromarketing (1995-2016). 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 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. In 2019 the Macromarketing Society honored him with the Robert W. Nason Award for extraordinary and sustained contributions to the field of Macromarketing. He is currently serving as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Macromarketing (2020-present)
He also was the editor of ISQOLS/Springer book series on International Handbooks in QOL (2008-15), Community QOL Indicators: Best Cases (2004-15), Applied Research in QOL: Best Practices (2008-12). He is currently the co-editor of Springer book series on Human Well-Being and Policy Making (2015-present).
The third, thoroughly revised and enhanced edition of this bestselling book analyses and discusses the most up-to-date research on the psychology of quality of life. The book is divided into six parts. The introductory part lays the philosophical and academic foundation of much of the research on wellbeing and positive mental health, showing the beneficial effects of happy people at work, health, and to society at large. Part 2 (effects of objective reality) describes how sociocultural factors, income factors, other demographic factors, and biological and health conditions affect wellbeing and positive mental health. Part 3 focuses on subjective reality and discusses how individuals process information from their objective environment, and how they manipulate this information that affects wellbeing and positive mental health. Part 4 focuses on the psychology of quality of life specific to life domains, while Part 5 reviews the research on special populations: children, women, the elderly, but also the disabled, drug addicts, prostitutes, emergency personnel, immigrants, teachers, and caregivers. The final part of the book focuses on theories and models of wellbeing and positive mental health that integrate and unify disparate concepts and programs of research. The book addresses the importance of the psychology of quality of life in the context of public policy and calls for a broadening of the approach in happiness research to incorporate other aspects of quality of life at the group, community, and societal levels. It is of topical interest to academics, students and researchers of quality of life, well-being research, happiness studies, psychotherapy, and social policy.