Transcript wellbeing

WELLBEING:
Contributions towards practical
strategies to promote social
integration
Julie Newton
Expert Group Meeting
“Creating an Inclusive Society: Practical strategies
to promote social integration”
10 - 13 September 2007, Paris
Wellbeing in Developing Countries
(WeD) ESRC Research Group
• “To develop a conceptual and methodological
approach for understanding the social and
cultural construction of wellbeing in developing
countries”
• Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Thailand and Peru
• Conceptual + empirical research in 4 countries
• Improved understanding of dynamics of poverty
• Seeking policy relevance, but not to be policy
driven
Strategystrategy
commitment
on wellbeing
Defra
commitment
Securing the Future (2005): UK’s
Sustainable Development Strategy
“to get a better understanding and
focus on wellbeing… the
Government will… bring together
existing research …and to explore
how policies might change with an
explicit wellbeing focus.”
Expected outcomes
•Wellbeing indicators
•Policy development
Why you should be interested in
wellbeing?
• Process and content: WB provides a framework to
explore this interaction
• Methods: using multidisciplinary approach, combining
quantitative + qualitative, unpack processes behind the
numbers
• Difference matters!
• Underlying theme of power
• Perceptions and experiences matter! (how people think
and feel is important), if we are looking at rights and
responsibilities, need to consult people on their values,
beliefs, attitudes etc.
– Existing methods/measures : Value of mental health measures:
can explore importance of having sense of control, feeling part of
something/community, feelings of alienation etc….
Defining Wellbeing
• Objective vs Subjective
• Hedonic vs Eudaimonic
– HEDONIC = what makes life
pleasant/unpleasant, focuses on preferences
and pleasures; life satisfaction, presence of
positive mood and absence of negative mood
(often conflated with happiness)
– EUDAIMONIC =human flourishing, realising
true potential, sense of purpose, meaning
• Self Determination Theory = autonomy,
competence, relatedness (Ryan & Deci)
Wellbeing according to WeD
• “Wellbeing is a state of being with others,
where human needs are met, where one
can act meaningfully to pursue one’s
goals, and where one enjoys a satisfactory
quality of life”
• 3 dimensions:
– material
– relational
– affective/cognitive
Three Building Blocks
1.
Needs: Universal human needs: denial always results in
harm.
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2.
Health, autonomy, competence, security, relatedness, meaning
include psychological and relational needs
But need satisfiers socially and culturally relative
Socially Meaningful Goals: goals inform action; goals &
action informed by broader context; relational
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3.
Cannot explore WB divorced of social context
Satisfaction with Life: Happiness/good feeling = a good
thing – BUT more than the absence of misery.
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Can’t rely on this alone: affected by aspirations and adaptive
preferences
WeD approach: relate to peoples’ own goals in local contexts:
satisfaction with personally important goals in one’s lives
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Tension between universalising and concretising local perspective
Tradeoffs between different dimensions of wellbeing
WB not restricted to the individual: SOCIAL being
Common understanding of wellbeing
“Wellbeing is a positive physical, social and mental state; it
is not just the absence of pain, discomfort and
incapacity.
It requires that basic needs are met, that individuals have a
sense of purpose, that they feel able to achieve
important personal goals and participate in society.
It is enhanced by conditions that include supportive
personal relationships, strong and inclusive
communities, good health, financial and personal
security, rewarding employment, and a healthy and
attractive environment”
• SYNERGIES: vision of positive human development & flourishing;
centrality of social relationships, importance of autonomy
• ADDED VALUE:
– 3 building blocks= mechanisms + processes that
enable/constrain SI (process & outcome/ content?)
– Greater appreciation of experiences/perceptions and how people
think & feel, (values, beliefs, cultural attitudes)
– How this influences behaviour, how people cope
– Understanding of r’ships people engage in
– Recognises differences between people matter, explains why
and how
– Tradeoffs between different visions of wellbeing
• Much more rounded view of people’s lives
• POLICY IMPLICATIONS: Evaluating success of social integration
policies and impact of societal context, a way to ENGAGE people
Wellbeing indicators
• Dominance of objective measures
• Growing interest in SWB measures= more complete
assessment of WB
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hedonic traditions
Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) + global happiness
Remember, that these are only one dimension of WB
Need more work to develop eudaimonic WB measures (e.g.
psychological wellbeing scale: Ryff; Personal wellbeing index
(Cummins).
– European Social Survey: Third Round (Huppert et al)
• Measures useful for tracking progress, do not always
explain or facilitate understanding of processes at work
• WeD rejection of single measures or single method
approaches
Defra’s provisional Wellbeing Measures
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Sustainable Development Indicators : 68 in total= 20 Framework
indicators, 48 other indicators
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e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, fish stocks, employment, health, poverty
Three framework indicators to be developed:
- social justice
- environmental inequality
- wellbeing –provisional basis No single WB indicator
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New indicator of overall life satisfaction (from Defra Survey)
• By proportion at each level
• By social class
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With supporting analysis
Satisfaction with various factors affecting wellbeing, e.g. standard of living,
relationships, community, achieving goals
Plus …
– Positive mental wellbeing
• Warwick-Edinburgh-Mental-Wellbeing-Scale (incl some eudaimonic
measures)
Supported by enhancement of existing indicators to put in wellbeing context
Defra’s PROVISIONAL Wellbeing
Measures
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39. Fear of crime
Perceptions of anti-social behaviour *
41. Workless households
43. Childhood poverty
45. Pensioner poverty
47. Education
50. Healthy life expectancy
Self-reported general health *
Self-reported long-standing illness *
51. Mortality rates (suicide)
Mortality rates for those with severe mental
illness *
57. Accessibility
59. Social justice
60. Environmental equality
62. Housing conditions
66. Satisfaction with local area
Trust in people in neighbourhood *
Influencing decisions in the local area *
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68. Wellbeing
Overall life satisfaction*
Overall life satisfaction by social
grade*
Satisfaction with aspects of life*
Satisfaction with aspects of life, by
social grade*
Satisfaction with aspects of life, by
age*
Frequency of positive and negative
feelings*
Frequency of positive and negative
feelings, by social grade*
Frequency of feelings or activities
which may have a positive or negative
impact on wellbeing*
Level of participation in sport*
Access to green space*
Level of participation in other activities*
Positive mental health*
WeD methodology
• Outcomes: obj + subj
– Resources and Needs Questionnaire (RANQ)
– Quality of life: WeDQol: Goals, Goal Achievement, Perceived
Resource Availability and Values + SWLS & PANAS
• Structures: social being exist in collectivities
– Community profiles
– Structures research: adapted welfare regimes approach
• Processes:
– Income & Expenditure: stocks of resources translated into
incomes/expenditures
– Process research : qualitative research into key forms of action
to achieve wellbeing, highlights key r’ships people engage in
Concluding remarks
• Synergies: but also added value!
– Better grasp of HOW people think and feel: get an understanding of
PERCEPTIONS and explain what drives them
– A framework to relate processes to outcomes AND situate that in
wider structures
– Constraints and opportunities
– Understanding of what drives people to behave (values, goals), their
ability to fulfil needs and pursue meaningful goals
• WB multi-dimensional concept, therefore needs different methods to
explore it.
– Value arises from using the methods together
• Making the most of existing measures (range of eudaimonic wellbeing
measures: mental health: grasp of how people think and feel)
• Measures important, BUT, should not replace in-depth research and
analysis essential for explaining and understanding social integration
• Promising progress in UK: wellbeing measures, Equality Review,
Commission for Equality and Human Rights.