Premium
Quality of life as the criterion for need assessment and community psychology
Author(s) -
Murrell Stanley A.,
Norris Fran H.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6629(198304)11:2<88::aid-jcop2290110203>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - quality of life (healthcare) , resource (disambiguation) , psychology , stressor , task (project management) , community psychology , population , mental health , social psychology , applied psychology , quality (philosophy) , clinical psychology , computer science , medicine , psychiatry , psychotherapist , environmental health , epistemology , economics , computer network , philosophy , management
A “QOL‐Contribution” model for resource allocation decisions is proposed that integrates concepts and values from community psychology, need assessment, and quality of life (QOL) studies. QOL is taken as the criterion for establishing the goodness‐of‐fit between a population and its envronment. It is assumed that the characteristics of a given human group interact with the resources and the stressors of its environment, with its level of QOL as the result. The utility and the implications of the model for resource decisions are demonstrated with data from a statewide need assessment. In this application, different life domains, and different program targets within life domains, are prioritized according to their relative contributions to QOL. The findings for mental health and employment illustrate the specificity of the model's application. The model is then restated as the general task, and a unifying theme, for community psychology.