The International Society for Quality of Life Studies held its first conference in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1997. Participants at the conference were allowed to submit their papers for the present volume. The submitted manuscripts went through a review and revision process, and the papers in this book represent the best articles from that process. Because the society sponsoring this volume is international in character, it is not sur- prising that the 11 contributions are from 4 different countries: Canada (3), India (1), Netherlands (3), and the United States (4). Thus, the volume is...