Subjective Elements of Well-Being; The OECD Social Indicator Development Programme. Papers Presented at a Seminar of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Paris, May 15-17, 1972).

This volume resulted from an attempt to compile comprehensive and accurate data about the popular reaction to social change for a seminar attended by European and American social scientists. The volume contains eight papers which reflect the three objectives of the seminar: (1) a review of psychological indicators of social change; (2) an exploration of new areas of survey measurement of psychological phenomena; and (3) a mapping of research priorities. The first paper contrasts social indicators of the subjective type with the customary hard statistics and identifies areas for the development of indicators. The next paper stresses that quality implies value judgement and that experience is anchored in individual notions of adequacy. The relationship between subjective and objective indicators is the topic of the next paper, which points to the role of the social environment as a source of subjective welfare. Various measurement and methodological questions are dealt with, in particular the issues of scale development and causal modeling of satisfaction structures. A report on the substantive research in the area of economic welfare is followed by a caution against a straightforward interpretation of satisfaction measures as indicators of well-being. Finally, two papers deal with the interaction between the individual and society from two different perspectives. The volume concludes with a summary of the seminar proceedings. (Author/KSM)