CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES TO THE ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE

This paper provides an overview of the two main conceptual approaches to quality of life assessment; the standard needs approach where quali ty of life is seen as the extent to which certain universal needs are met and the psychological processes approach where quality of life is considered to be constructed from individual evaluations of personally salient aspects of life. The domains to be considered, their relative values and the criteria used to judge life quality are outlined for a number of assessment approaches. Psychological processes which can in fluence quality of life evaluations are described along with recommend ations for their systematic evaluation in future study designs.