The development of this course has been funded by the Curriculum Resource Center (“CRC”) at the Central European University (“CEU”), whose programs are partially funded by the Higher Education Support Program (“HESP”). The opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily
express the views of CEU.
Lecturer:
Host Institution:
Course Title:
Year of CDC Grant:
Ekaterina Uglanova
Yaroslavl State University
Social-Psychological Conception of Life Quality in the System of Interdisciplinary Links
2002 / 2003
Introduction
Locating the content of the course within the discipline
Locating the course within the curriculum
Student’s assumed knowledge basis for course participation
The course topic is located at the juncture of several disciplines: social psychology, sociology, and
social anthropology.
There are a number of other courses in the curriculum touching upon similar issues: “Social Psychology”, “Economic Psychology”, “Sociology”, “Psychology of Personality”, etc. The course “Social-Psychological Concept of Life Quality” presents a new perspective on a person’s life study and
describes specific methods of life quality evaluation.
The main goal of the course is to give not only theoretical but also applied knowledge.
The course is designed for 5th year students. In order to master the course, students should possess a
basic knowledge in sociology, psychology of personality, ethnical psychology, medical psychology,
experimental psychology, psycho-diagnostics and statistics. Students also need to be familiar with
basic economics concepts, and be able to work with statistics software on a PC.
Objectives of the course
Academic Aims (within the discipline):
Modern social psychology is characterized by the search and systematization of integral phenomena
of human life (such as life strategy, life variant, etc). The concept of life quality is being developed
within the bounds of this tendency; it aims to unite the objective conditions of human life and the
subjective evaluations of various life aspects.
The main goal of the course is to show students another perspective on life study – life quality; to
train them to use this concept in various fields, for example, in counseling, in the work of a medical
psychologist, in public opinion polls and social monitoring.
The course unites the psychological aspects of the phenomena from different areas: economics,
medicine, health studies, etc.
Learning Outcomes:
As a result of the course, students are supposed:
-
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To understand various aspects of the notion “life quality”: medical, psychological, sociological,
and economic.
To understand the characteristics of the modern social situation in Russia and tendencies of its
changes.
To understand the worldwide tendencies of value changes; to be able to describe new social inventions.
To be able to analyze how such changes affect people’s representation of life quality.
To get familiar with the objective and subjective factors that affect people’s life quality.
To understand the methodology and procedure of life quality monitoring and the principles of
social policy elaboration; to understand the role of life quality monitoring in the context of society studies;
To be familiar with the qualitative and quantitative methods in life quality assessment and to be
able to apply these methods in different types of work.
III Course Details
Lecture Synopsis
1. Introduction lecture (2 academic hours).
The aim of the lecture is to introduce the concept of “life quality” from various points of view:
sociological, medical, psychological, and economic. As a result of the lecture students should
understand the interdisciplinary nature of the notion.
Content of the lecture. Notion of life quality. Evolution of the life quality concept. Concept of “life
quality” in economics, sociology, medicine and psychology. Modern approaches to life quality
assessment. Objective and subjective life quality. Indicators of subjective life quality. The Michigan model of life quality assessment. Life quality as a subject of interdisciplinary study.
Notions of “life strategy”, “lifestyle”, “life variant”, “level of living”.
Readings:
- Argyle M. Psychology of Happiness. Moscow, Progress, 1990. Chapter 1.
- Djidarjan I. A. Representation of happiness in Russian mentality. M.: Aleteya. 2001. Chapter
2.
2. Post-industrial society and representation of life quality (2 academic hours).
The aim of the lecture is to give students an idea about the evolution of life quality perception
through different periods of human society.
Content of the lecture. Traditional and industrial societies from historical, anthropological and sociological perspective. Characteristics of post-industrial society. New social inventions. Consumption as an important factor of identity formation in modern society; changes in perception (representation) of life and life quality.
Readings:
- Kozlova N. Social – Historical Anthropology. Handbook. Moscow, 1998. Chapters 3, 6, 9.
3. Factors of life quality assessment (2 academic hours).
The aim of the lecture is to show the role of cultural and demographic dispositions in life quality
assessment.
Content of the lecture. Demographic characteristics (gender, age, leisure features, occupation), culture and nationality. Notions of “happiness”, “unhappiness”, satisfaction with life” and Russian
mentality.
Readings:
- Djidarjan I. A. Representation of happiness in Russian mentality. M.: Aleteya. 2001. Chapters 1, 5.
4. Factors of life quality assessment (continued; 2 academic hours).
The aim of the lecture is to show the role of economic factors in the process of life quality assessment in different social groups.
Content of the lecture. Economic growth. Influence of GNP and personal income on subjective life
quality in “societies of affluence” and “societies of scarcity”. Subjective life quality in groups of
different economic status and the preconditions of social tensions and social conflicts. Subjective economic well-being, its structure, and influence on life quality assessment.
Readings:
- Inglehart R. Post-modernisation: changing values and changing societies // Polis. 1997.
# 3.
5. Factors of life quality assessment (continued; 2 academic hours).
The aim of the lecture is to demonstrate the importance of psychological variables in life quality
assessment; to show the concept of life quality from the perspective of health studies.
Content of the lecture. Health and life quality. QOL as a medical term. Quality of life and quality of
death. QOL in palliative medicine. Personality and life quality. The influence of psychological
and socio-psychological characteristics (coping style, anxiety, stress, introversion / extraversion,
mental absorption, self-esteem, value structure, social support, role performance, life goals) on
subjective life quality.
Readings:
- Cubler – Ross E. Of death and dying. Chapter 1.
- Gnezdilov A. V. Psychology and psychotherapy of losses. SPb.. 2002. pp. 73-82, 121-139.
- G. Grinberg. Stress management. Chapter 21.
- Djidarjan I. A. Representation of happiness in Russian mentality. M.: Aleteya. 2001. Chapter
7.
6. Methodology of life quality assessment (2 academic hours).
The aim of the lecture: to introduce the basic methodological principles of life quality measurement.
Content of the lecture: Main principles of life quality assessment from the perspective of the following disciplines: economics, social anthropology, sociology, social psychology and health studies.
Readings:
-
Davydova E.V., Davydov A.A. Measurement of Life Quality // Russian Academy of Science.
Institute of Sociology. Moscow, 1993.
Seminar/Tutorial Synopsis
1. Methods of subjective QOL assessment: Questionnaire of Life Quality Assessment (WHO,
1990); 2 academic hours.
Content of the tutorial: students read and discuss the instructions and test themselves using a
WHO-QOL questionnaire. Afterwards, the group discusses the advantages and limitations of
the method.
2. Other methods of subjective QOL assessment: A5 questionnaires*, semantic differential
technique, Cantrill’s Self-Anchoring Scale, etc (4 academic hours).
Content of the tutorial: students test themselves using the above mentioned methods. Subsequently,
the group discusses the advantages and limitations of each method.
A question for discussion: identify situations (aims, tasks) where the application of each method is
appropriate. Where would you use these methods?
* A very interesting and important work has been done by students who attended the course this academic year. They tried to adapt the English-language version of this questionnaire to Russian environment. Students translated it into Russian, collected the necessary empirical data and began psychometric
procedures, such as checking the reliability and validity the questionnaire.
3. Methods of life quality improvement (4 academic hours).
Content of the tutorial: group discussion. Students are divided into small groups (4-5 persons per
group). Each group prepares at home a project on the topic “Mechanisms of social policy elaboration” and presents it in the class.
Questions for discussion: What are psychological factors of life quality improvement? What can a
psychologist in modern Russia do in order to improve people’s life quality? What is the nationwide monitoring of life quality? How do you understand the role of monitoring life quality in social policy elaboration?
Readings: Social Politics. Handbook.
4. Fieldwork (2 class hours).
Contents of the fieldwork: students choose a method of QOL assessment (questionnaire, scale, semantic differential technique or interview) and test it on a small sample group (about 10 persons). During the group discussions in class students focus on the advantages and shortcomings
of the method.
5. Work with electronic database (RLMS – Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey). The work
is done individually, with consultations with the tutor, if necessary. At the end, students present
their results and discuss the work they did (3 academic hours).
Here are a few examples of the exercises:
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Using means calculation, compare the level of satisfaction with life (question #A-EJ65) of men
and women in each wave. Follow up the dynamics of satisfaction with life level in groups of
men and women from 1996 until 1999.
Using regression analysis, define the percentage of variance in satisfaction with life (question
#A-EJ65) broken down by occupation (question #A-EJ11). Follow up the dynamics of changes
from 1996 until 1999.
Using correlation analysis, find out significant correlations in life satisfaction (question #A-EJ65)
taking into account the character of the respondent’s economic situation.
IV Assessment
1) Participants were evaluated on the basis of their performance in fieldwork and work with the
electronic database.
2) At the end of the semester all students filled in a questionnaire investigating their opinion about
the course (a 7-point scale was used). Students evaluated the importance and interest of each
topic covered. The following results were obtained:
#
Topic of the lecture
1
2
Introduction lecture: evolution of the life quality concept
Traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies and
quality of life
Determinants of life quality evaluation: culture and nationality
Determinants of life quality evaluation: economic growth
and money
Social – demographic determinants of life quality evaluation
Quality of life and personality
Work with WHO – QOL questionnaire
Work with A5 questionnaire
Work with RLMS database *
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Means
How interest- Do you considing was this
er this topic
topic for you?
important for
studying?
4.3
5.3
4.9
5.0
6.2
6.5
5.9
6.4
6.1
6.4
6.5
5.5
5.4
4.1
6.8
5.8
5.6
5.0
* Students evaluated group discussion and fieldwork separately.
Students were also asked to add any critical remarks about the content of the course. Their recommendations were as follows:
- it would be useful to include more debates, discussions and brain-storming;
- put more emphasis on the methods of life quality evaluation;
-
put more emphasis on Russian and regional data on life quality and its comparison to worldwide tendencies;
- include a cross-national comparison of level of living and life quality;
- include video-materials (for example, interviews with specialists or with population about
quality of life) for discussion.
V. Reading list
Outline of reading per lecture
See Course Detail.
VI. Teaching Methodology
Teaching methodology intended to meet the following criteria:
- the content of the course should be relevant to the principal goals, methods and strategies of
teaching at the Department of Psychology;
- the strategy of teaching should help to overcome a partial approach to human psychology;
- methods of teaching should promote the principles of active learning.
In order to meet these principles, I used both the traditional methods of information delivery (lectures) and those that promote active learning and critical thinking (e.g. group discussions, fieldwork,
independent work with the electronic database).
Lectures took less than half of the course hours. Tutorials, seminars, discussions and fieldwork followed all lectures.
VII. Number of participating students
24 students.
VIII Your additional critical remarks about the course
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Additional Readings.
Anastazi A. Psychological Testing. Мoscow, 1982.
Andreenkova A.V. Materialistic / Post-materialistic Values in Russia // Journal: Sociological
Research, 1994. №11. pp.73-81.
Davydova E.V., Davydov A.A. Measurement of Life Quality // Russian Academy of Science.
Institute of Sociology. Moscow, 1993.
Deineka O.S. Economical Psychology: Social-psychological Problems. Saint-Petersburg, 1999.
240 p.
"People and Money” / Edited by V.V. Novikov and S.I Erina. Moscow, 200.
Petrenko V.F. Basics of Psycho-semantics, Moscow, Moscow State University Press, 1997.
Popova M.B. Social Differentiation and Poverty of Population. Petrozavodsk University Press.
1998.
Savchenko T.N., Golovina G.M. Ecology of Man: Theoretical and Experimental Research on
Life Quality. Moscow, Institute of Psychology of Russian Academy of Science Press, 1996.
Ackerman N., Paolucci B. Objective and subjective income adequacy: their relationship to perceived life quality measures // Social Indicators Research. 1983. V.12. #1. P. 25-49.
10. Diener, E. (1984) Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin 95: 542-75.
11. Emmons, R.A. and Diener, E. (1985) Personality correlates of subjective well-being. Personality
and Social Psychology Bulletin 11: 89-97.
12. Furhnam A., Argyle, M. The psychology of money. Routledge, London &New York, 1998.
13. Glatzer W., Mohr H.-M. Quality of life: concepts and measurement // Social Indicators Research. 1987. V.19. #1. p. 15-24.
14. Inglehart R., Rabier J.-R. Aspirations Adapt to Situations - But why are the Belgians so Much
Happier than the French? // Research on the Quality of Life (ed. by F.M. Andrews). Ann Arbor: Survey Research Center. 1986. 366 c.
15. Michalos A.C. Satisfaction and happiness // Social Indicators Research. 1980. V.8. #4. P.385422.