Measuring Australia's well-being using hierarchical needs

A new approach to well-being measurement is presented in this paper based on multidimensional hierarchical human needs and motivation. This paper empirically applies this new measure of well-being to Australia for the period 1985–2000. This hierarchical approach is underpinned by a rigorous psychological theory of human motivation. Hierarchical human needs are classified into five categories. Eight indicators have been chosen to reflect these categories. A composite indicator of these eight indicators is calculated. This paper concludes that it is necessary to consider multidimensional human needs and motivation when analysing and seeking to improve well-being through economic and social development activities.

Measuring human well-being in Thailand : a normative social choice approach

Numerous methods exist within the literature to measure human well-being. A limitation of some approaches however is that they fail to explicitly consider society's views, choices and preferences on how human well-being should be defined. It is possible though to explicitly incorporate society's value judgements in defining and measuring human well-being through normative social choice theory. Normative social choice theory reflects the views, opinions and perspectives of societies of differing economic and social circumstances so that measures of human well-being retain their relevance for public policy makers in those countries. This paper reviews two indicators based on this theory for Thailand over the 25 year period, 1975-1999. The first indicator focuses on certain hierarchical needs and the second is a measure of adjusted national income. It is concluded that both measures provide important insights.

Geographical dislocation and adjustment in university students: the impact of attachment, autonomy and coping behaviour on stress and well-being

The relative contribution of geographical dislocation, attachment styles, coping behaviours, and autonomy, to successful student adjustment, was examined in relation to stress and well-being. A sample of 142 on campus first year university students, across four Victorian university campuses completed self-report questionnaires. Questionnaires included demographic, social network, intrapsychic (attachment and autonomy), and coping variables. Multiple regression analysis revealed that being female, not having made a friend to confide in personal matters, lower achieved autonomy, and use of emotion-focused coping predicted higher levels of student stress. A second multiple regression analysis revealed that living away from home, and preferring others to approach oneself to initiate conversation or friendships predicted lower well-being, whilst increased frequency of phone and email contact, and greater secure parent and peer attachment, predicted greater well-being. Pearson's correlations indicated that securely attached students used more problem focused coping and social support, whereas insecurely attached students used more emotion focused coping. Qualitative data indicated student concerns about being away from family and friends, finance, course direction and structure, social opportunities on campus, and generally adjusting to the university culture. It was concluded that first year on-campus students would benefit from program initiatives targeting enhancement of on-campus social opportunities, development of autonomy, problem focused coping behaviour, interpersonal and social assertiveness.

The language of subjective well-being

The Language of Depression project is a linguistic study of the language of Acute Care Hospital patients suffering depression with the ultimate aim of enabling medical and nursing staff to become more aware of their patients’ depression and immediately refer them for psychological or psychiatric help. As part of that larger project, and following recent developments in positive psychology (e.g. Seligman 2002) this paper will focus exclusively on the control group, that is, the language of those Acute Care Hospital patients deemed non-depressed. The data comprise 30 minute interviews between the patients and a Consultation-liaison psychiatrist. Prior to interview, the patients were screened using the Brief Case-find for Depression (Clarke et al. 1994). From the screening, patients were then deemed likely to be depressed and likely to be non-depressed. This paper reports on the analysis of 10 patients deemed as non-depressed. Using the linguistic theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics, the data were analysed for their Appraisal features (e.g. Martin and Rose 2003). Appraisal analysis provides a lexico-semantic analysis that is concerned with how speakers use language to evaluate as well as negotiate relationships. The Appraisal analysis has been used to identify in the language of non-depressed patients the types of attitudes that facilitate psychological well-being. This paper will present some analysed extracts from the interviews to show how key features of subjective well-being are realised in the language of non-depressed Acute Care Hospital patients.

Sources of well-being and commitment of staff in the Australian Disability Employment Services

This study examined the role of working conditions in predicting the psychological health, job satisfaction and organisational commitment of personnel responsible for helping people with disabilities gain employment in the mainstream Australian labour market. The working conditions were assessed using two theories: the Job Strain Model (job demand, social support and job control) and Psychological Contract Theory (unwritten reciprocal obligations between employers and employees). In the case of the Job Strain Model, the generic dimensions had been augmented by industry-specific sources of stress. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken in June and July 2005 with 514 staff returning completed questionnaires (representing a response rate of 30%). Comparisons between respondents and non-respondents revealed that on the basis of age, gender and tenure, the sample was broadly representative of employees working in the Australian disability employment sector at that time. The results of regression analyses indicate that social support was predictive of all of the outcome measures. Job control and the honouring of psychological contracts were both predictive of job satisfaction and commitment, while the more situation-specific stressors - treatment and workload stressors - were inversely related to psychological health (i.e. as concern regarding the treatment and workload stressors increased, psychological health decreased). Collectively, these findings suggest that strategies aimed at combating the negative effects of large-scale organisational change could be enhanced by addressing several variables represented in the models - particularly social support, job control, psychological contracts and sector-specific stressors.

Is the Genuine Progress Indicator really genuine? Considering well-being impacts of exports and imports

The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is estimated as if nations operate within a closed economy. Therefore, in terms of coverage, the GPI is most analogous to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Indeed, within the relevant literature, these two indicators are most often contrasted. However, consideration should be given to adapting the GPI, so it has more in common with Gross National Income (GNI). As with GDP, the GPI is concerned only with a particular physical location. Yet, it may be more effective if the GPI was freed from these physical boundaries in a similar manner to GNI. The GPI should be concerned more with the 'ownership' of the costs and benefits associated with economic growth than with the 'location' of those costs and benefits. Those that derive the most benefit from exploitation of the environment are often physically removed from the location of that damage. The GPI does not consider the net consumers of the negative externalities of environmental costs, merely the producers. Currently, however, the structure of the GPI allows a nation to enjoy, without penalty, the benefits of importing goods from countries which bear a disproportionately large cost of environmental degradation. This results in an overstatement of the real progress experienced by the county importing 'dirty goods'. This paper will investigate how certain GPI adjustments may be adapted to overcome this present shortcoming. However, the purpose of this paper is not only to empirically implement this new approach, but also to stimulate debate as to its potential merit.

Ecosystems and human well-being : health synthesis

This report synthesizes the findings from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment's (MA) global and sub-global assessments of how ecosystem changes do, or could, affect human health and well-being. Main topics covered are: Food, fresh water, timber, fibre, and fuel, nutrient and waste management, pollution, processing and detoxification, cultural, spiritual and recreational services, climate regulation, and extreme weather events.

Deakin University national index of well being

Discussion on the results of Deakin University National index of well being.

Deakin University national index of well being

Discussion on the results of Deakin University National index of well being.