THE IMPORTANCE OF INCLUDING QUALITY-OF-LIFE INDEXES IN INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

Psychology has not been a visible player in international social and e conomic development efforts. Through its demonstrated commitment to th e concept of quality of life, psychology has an opportunity to help sh ape foreign policy and to improve the lives of countless people around the globe. Poverty has reached unacceptable limits of humanitarian to lerance and political consequence throughout the world. The United Nat ions estimates that 20% of the world's population now lives in conditi ons of absolute poverty in which there is an absence of even the bare essentials for living. Social and economic development efforts have of ten failed despite good intentions because they have often concentrate d on improving peoples' material level of living but not their quality of life. This article addresses the need to include quality-of-life ( QOL) indices in international social and economic development efforts. In addition, the article calls attention to the need to use valid cro ss-cultural measurement strategies (i.e., culturally equivalent) when assessing QOL across cultural and national boundaries. Current approac hes to social and economic development rely heavily on interventions t hat do not reflect the actual peoples' perceptions of life satisfactio n and subjective well-being. Self-serving political and economic natio nal interests have kept new approaches to development from being imple mented. New interventions must be holistic, decentralized, integrated, empowering, participatory, and human-resource directed, and must incl ude culturally equivalent objective and subjective quality of-life ind ices as the arbiters of success.