Alex C. Michalos

Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT)

A fairly thorough account of multiple discrepancies theory (MDT) is presented, with a review of its historical antecedents and an examination of its strength in accounting for the happiness (H) and satisfaction (S) of nearly 700 university undergraduates. Basically, MDT asserts that H and S are functions of perceived gaps between what one has and wants, relevant others have, the best one has had in the past, expected to have 3 years ago, expects to have after 5 years, deserves and needs. MDT explained 49% of the variance in H, 53% in global S and 50% or more in 7 out of 12 domain S scores. The domains studied were health, finances, family, job, friendships, housing, area, recreation, religion, self-esteem, transportation and education.

Satisfaction and happiness

I review the recent literature on satisfaction and happiness, identify some plausible next steps to take at the frontiers of the research field and offer some suggestions to facilitate those steps. Using partial correlation techniques, substantial levels of covariation are found among the variables that are used in predictions of satisfaction and happiness with life as a whole from satisfaction with specific domains (e.g. family life, health). Using path analysis, confirmation is found in a dozen domains for a model which has satisfaction as a function of a perceived goal-achievement gap, and the latter as a function of comparisons with previous best experience and the status of average folks. Using discriminant analysis, satisfaction with family life is found to be a powerful and predominant discriminator among three groups, identified as Frustrated (dissatisfied and unhappy), Resigned (satisfied and unhappy) and Achievers (satisfied and happy).

Multiple Discrepancies Theory

The three remaining sections of this chapter are devoted to a detailed account of MDT. The substance of the theory has changed very little since it was originally explained in Michalos (1985), but the version presented here has a bit more precision. In the next section I review the seven discrepancies employed in the theory, and provide more information about research and developments related to the specific theories connected to these discrepancies. Section 2.3 gives an overview of research on the social and personal construction of knowledge, perception and value. It seemed worthwhile to include this material in the context of a discussion of the notoriously low correlations people have found between objective and subjective indicators because there are still researchers who imagine that the correlations are between things that are wholly independent and rigorously measurable on the one hand and things that are equally independent but only roughly measurable on the other hand. In fact, there is apparently much more inter-dependence, interaction and similarity in measurement problems than such researchers suppose. In the final section I review the literature on the role of background conditions and conditioners on perceived well-being.

Health and the Quality of Life

The aim of this investigation was to explain the impact of people’s self-reported health on their levels of satisfaction with their health, and the impact of these things plus satisfaction with other specific domains of their lives on the perceived quality of their lives. The latter was operationalized as general happiness, satisfaction with life as a whole and overall satisfaction with the quality of life. Seven hundred and twenty-three (723) usable questionnaires returned from a mailout random sample of 2500 households of Prince George, British Columbia in November 1998 formed the working data-set for our analyses. Among other things, mean respondent scores on the SF-36 health profile were found to be lower than published norms from the UK, USA, Netherlands and Sweden, but higher than scores from Aberdeen, Scotland. Mean scores on the CES-D depression scale also indicated that our respondents tended to have more depressive symptoms than comparison groups in Winnipeg and the USA. A review of trends in mean scores on 17 quality of life items (e.g., satisfaction with family life, financial security, recreation, etc.) from 1994, 1997 and 1998 revealed that there were only 7 statistically significant changes across the four year period and they were all negative. Multivariate regression analysis showed that health status measured with a variety of indicators could explain 56% of the variation in respondents’ reported satisfaction with their health. A combination of health status plus domain satisfaction indicators could explain 53% of the variation in respondents’ reported happiness, 68% of reported life satisfaction and 63% of reported satisfaction with the overall quality of life. Sixty percent of the explained variation in happiness scores was attributable to self-reported health scores, while only 18% of the explained variation in satisfaction with life and with the overall quality of life scores was attributable self-reported health scores.

Criminal Victimization and the Quality of Life

The aim of this investigation was to explain the impact of crime-related issues on satisfaction with the quality of life, satisfaction with life as a whole and happiness in the city of Prince George, British Columbia. As explanatory variables, we had measures of respondent fears of and actual cases of victimization, Indexes of Neighbourhood Problems, Police Performance, Neighbourhood Worries, Defensive Behaviour, beliefs about increases in local crime, satisfaction with personal and family safety, and satisfaction with a variety of domains of life (e.g., friendships, financial security, health). Collectively such variables could explain only 5% of the variation in happiness scores, 7% of the variation in life satisfaction scores and 9% of the variation in satisfaction with the quality of life scores. However, they could explain 38% of the variation in overall neighbourhood satisfaction scores. When measures of satisfaction with family life, health, self-esteem, etc. were added, we found that crime related issues were simply displaced by the other measures and that we could explain 31 % of the variation in overall happiness scores, 58% of the variation in life satisfaction scores and 59% of the variation in satisfaction with the overall quality of life scores. We conclude, therefore, that crime-related issues have relatively little impact on people’s satisfaction with the quality of their lives, with life satisfaction or happiness here.

Combining Social, Economic And Environmental Indicators To Measure Sustainable Human Well-Being

In this paper an attempt is made to illustrate some ways in which social, economic and environmental indicators can be combined to tell a coherent story about the sustainability of human well-being. Using examples from the fields of health, the fishing industry and energy, it is argued that ones success at constructing a single comprehensive system of indicators of human well-being will always be limited by ones particular point of departure from social, economic or environmental indicators. If that is indeed the case, then it would be helpful for researchers to abandon attempts to construct single comprehensive utopian systems in favour of agreed upon lists of important goals, indicators and monitoring procedures that can be used to implement progressive social change.

The Impact of Trust on Business, International Security and the Quality of Life

The theses supported in this essay are that the world is to some extent constructed by each of us, that it can and ought to be constructed in a more benign way, that such construction will require more trust than most people are currently willing to grant, and that most of us will be better off if most of us can manage to be more trusting in spite of our doubts.

Satisfaction and happiness in a rural northern resource community

Satisfaction and happiness with life as a whole are analyzed in terms of satisfaction with health, finances, family, job, friends, housing, area, recreation, religion, self-esteem, transportation and government services for males and females. Patterns of influential variables differ for males and females. The perceived gap between what one has and wants is a better predictor of satisfaction than the gap between what one has and thinks similar others have, and the gap between what one has and the best one has had in the past. Domain-to-satisfaction and happiness explanations are combined with gap theoretic explanations to reveal the psychological dynamics of judgments of satisfaction for males and females for the 12 domains and global well-being.

Essays on the quality of life

Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. Reflections on twenty-five years of quality-of-life research. 2. Combining social, economic and environmental indicators to measure sustainable human well-being. 3. Evaluation of equality policies for the status of women in Canada. 4. Militarism and the quality of life. 5. Migration and the quality of life. 6. Job satisfaction, marital satisfaction and the quality of life. 7. Discrepancies between perceived income needs and actual incomes. 8. Optimism in 30 countries over a decade. 9. Health and the quality of life (with B.D. Zumbo, A. Hubley.) 10. Health and other aspects of the quality of life of older people (with A. Hubley, B.D. Zumbo, D. Hemingway.) 11. Healthy days, health satisfaction and satisfaction with the overall quality of life (with B.D. Zumbo.) 12. Leisure activities, health and the quality of life (with B.D. Zumbo.) 13. Social indicators research and health-related quality of life research. 14. Public services and the quality of life (with B.D. Zumbo.) 15. Criminal victimization and the quality of life (with B.D. Zumbo.) 16. Policing services and the quality of life. 17. Feminism and the quality of life (with D.C. Poff.) 18. Ethnicity, modern prejudice and the quality of life (with B.D. Zumbo.) 19. The impact of trust on business, international security and the quality of life. 20. Multiple discrepancies theory (MDT). Index.

Public Services and the Quality of Life

This is a report of the results of a survey of citizen beliefs and attitudes about public services and the quality of life in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada in the summer of 1997. Information is provided about the perceived frequency with which various services were used, the perceived satisfaction and value for tax dollars spent on the services as well as on levels of government officials generally, preferences for the provision of more or fewer services and for spending relatively more or less revenue on different services, views about user-fees, and views about smoke-free public places and the likely impact of bylaw changes on peoples behaviour. Using such information, we examined correlations among perceived satisfaction, perceived value for money, use, spending preferences and demand, and, using multiple regression analysis, explained 66% of the variance in life satisfaction scores, 57% of the variance in satisfaction with the quality of life scores and 37% of the variance in happiness scores. Applying LISREL 8.14, it was shown that a model in which our three global indicators were explained by 13 domain indicators was superior to a model in which the latter indicators were explained by the former, i.e., a Bottom-Up model was superior to a Top-Down model. A simple linear model was also used to explain 32%, 20% and 19%, respectively, of the variance in satisfaction with municipal, provincial and federal government officials.