Quality of life - a pressing challenge for science of the new millennium

In the introduction the author presents lay views of what is an affluent li fe. The approaches of health care workers to the improvement of chronically ill patients can be considered the beginnings of quality of life research. Tile domains of quality of life according to the WHO international project are presented. The entire spectrum of this phenomenon is completed by ecol ogical-environmental criteria. Social or socio-psychological indicators of quality of life are discussed and individual psychological concepts (satisf action, well-being, flow) are described in detail. The author. informs the reader of the integration approaches to quality of life represented by the Human Development Index (HDI - UN) and the Happy Life Expectations (HLE - R . Veenhoven). The author's principles of the hypothetical quality of life m odel are presented in detail: three levels and a multidimensionally layered components complemented by meaning of life as a system regulator of action .