Jakość życia – konteksty, koncepcje, interpretacje

Abstract

The aim of the article is to provide a number of insights which will be helpful to comprehend the concept of quality of life. It presents reflection and discussion on the concept of quality of life (QL) with the intention of delimiting its meaning. This type of conceptual analysis is useful because many terms such as welfare, human well-being, living standards, life satisfaction, and, more recently, happiness are frequently used interchangeably with quality of life without precise discussion on their distinctiveness. The review of literature shows that the quality of life has many, often competing, interpretations. Further, conceptualization of quality of life has evolved over time and has many empirical operationalizations. The application of the concept of quality of life to research requires knowledge about different authors’ approaches to it in order to determine our own research process and the selection of appropriate indicators to compare the results. Obtaining comparison and real measure of quality of life is very important because in the past decade it has become a central political goal for social and public policy.