What does the pursuit of a high quality of life entail?: Grounding a theoretical model in lived experience

Abstract

In response to calls for a better understanding of quality of life, we draw upon working professionals’ perspectives and experiences to introduce a theoretical model that emerged from an inductive analysis of respondents’ language. A key element of this model includes a collective picture of factors representing quality of life. Further, this model suggests interrelatedness among these factors with pursuit of a high quality of life emerging as a dynamic process with a tensional nature. Our proposed model extends existing research by more fully capturing the complex ways in which people from the United States describe quality of life and its pursuit.

En réponse aux appels pour une meilleure compréhension des issues sur la qualité de vie, nous examinons les experiences et perspectives d'un groupe de travailleurs professionnels et proposons un modèle théorique issu d'une analyse inductive basée sur la linguistique dans les propos de nos informateurs. Un élément clé de ce modèle est l'inclusion d'une représentation collective des facteurs représentants la qualité de vie. De plus, ce modèle suggère que la relation entre ces facteurs et la quête pour une meilleure qualite de vie est un processus dynamique sujet à tensions. Le modèle proposé approfondit nos connaissances en démontrant les processus complexes que les Americains utilisent pour décrire le concept de qualité de vie et sa poursuite.

Keywords:

• quality of life
• qualitative methods
• work–life issues

Keywords:

• la qualité de vie
• les méthodes d'enquêtes qualitatives
• l’équilibre entre vie privée et professionnelle

Notes

1. For example, the World Health Organization project on quality of life developed an international instrument (WHOQOL, 1994) to be used in both developed and developing countries. The domains covered by this instrument include: physical health; psychological functioning; level of independence; social relationships; environment; and spirituality, religion and personal beliefs.

2. Campbell et al. (1976) examined satisfaction in a variety of life domains in their study on quality of American life. Similarly, Frisch, Cornell, Villanueva and Retzlaff's (1992) Quality of Life Inventory and Alfonso, Allison, Rader and Gorman's (1996) Extended Satisfaction With Life Scale are comprised of satisfaction in a number of life domains. Other scales exist that measure one's overall life satisfaction (e.g., Diener, Emmons, Larson, & Griffin's [1985] Satisfaction With Life Scale).

3. Early research on well-being, such as Andrews and Withey's (1976), paved the way for this important and fruitful area of investigation. Diener, Suh, Lucas and Smith (1999) define subjective well-being as a general area of scientific interest that includes domain satisfactions (e.g., work, family, leisure, health), people's emotional responses (e.g., sadness, anxiety, stress, depression) and global judgments of life satisfaction (e.g., satisfaction with current life, the future, the past). Factors contributing to one's well-being have included: social relationships like marriage (Argyle, 1999; Diener & Seligman, 2004; Myers, 1999); physical and mental health (Diener & Seligman, 2004); physical pleasures and leisure (Argyle, 1999; Oishi, Schimmack, & Diener, 2001); engagement (Seligman, 2002); money, income and wealth (Argyle, 1999; Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002; Diener & Seligman, 2004); employment (e.g., Argyle, 1999); participation in daily tasks (Cantor & Sanderson, 1999); and satisfaction in various life domains such as such as health, financial situation, job, leisure, housing and environment (e.g., Van Praag, Frijters, & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2003).

4. The response rate is 27%. The sample is comprised of 80 business academics and 39 practitioners. We chose a sample of people who we believed had to make difficult life choices around careers, time and money. People with PhDs in business have opportunities to work in industry or academe. Investment bankers and consultants frequently experience difficult time demands from their work and have the potential for high financial gains.The business academics are from research I, II and teaching universities; the practitioners are investment bankers, consultants and HR managers. Respondents are from the following locations: Boston, MA; Seattle, WA; Sacramento and San Francisco, CA; and Provo, UT. Fifty-two percent of the participants work in private organizations; 48% work in public organizations; 62% are males; 38% are females; 82% are married; and 83% are between the ages of 31–65. The mean number of hours they work a week is 45.8 (SD = 11.16). Forty-four percent of the participants are sole providers; 25% are the primary providers; 14% are the secondary providers; and 18% are equal providers. Their annual personal income breakdown is as follows: 12% below $50K, 40% between $50K-$100K, 41% between $100K-$200K, and 7% above $200K.

5. The selection of the ‘thought unit’ as our qualitative unit of analysis (rather than individual words or phrases) is consistent with those who argue that qualitative analysis is about ‘finding your story’ (Patton, 2001, p. 432), which requires a focus on a larger unit of analysis to make sense of participants’ narratives. The justification for such an approach is not dissimilar to some of the rationale provided for adopting the think-aloud protocol (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995; Ericsson & Simon, 1984/1993) or methods associated with it.

6. This sample is comprised of 198 full-time or part-time working students from a large state university on the west coast and a large private university on the east coast. The students received some kind of course-related credit for their participation which resulted in a 91% response rate. Sixty-two percent of the participants are business students; 11% are psychology students; 7% are communication students; and 20% are undeclared or majoring in other areas of study. The average number of hours per week spent working in addition to going to school is 22.5. The majority of students (66.5%) is female. The students range in age from 18 to 43 years, with a mean of 21.88 (S.D.=3.79).

7. After this model emerged, we did a literature search with the terms ‘having’, ‘doing’ and/or ‘being’. Interestingly, we discovered several articles that used some similar terminology when describing aspects of a person's personality (e.g., Allport, 1937; Cantor, 1990). More recently, Rand and colleagues describe three modes of existence as having, doing and being (Rand & Tannenbaum, 2000; Reichenberg & Rand, 2000) that represent ‘a basic attitude or style of behavior, by which the individual reacts to his/her inner or outer world of stimuli’ (Rand & Tannenbaum, 2000, p. 89). Such research focuses on personality characteristics and argues that individuals are predisposed to privilege one mode or personality side over another. While this research supports our findings in the sense that similar ideas exist in other research arenas, our model differs by suggesting there is constant negotiation between having, doing and being; furthermore, our model reflects the process of pursuing a high quality of life.

8. Regulatory reference suggests the following: a) self-regulation systems either have a desired end-state or undesired end-state as the reference point; b) people attempt to move their current state as close as possible to the desired end state; and c) people attempt to move their current state as far away as possible from the undesired end-state. These self-regulatory principles provide additional support to the idea that the pursuit of a high quality of life is an ongoing process of renegotiation.