Indicators Of Social Progress Research Articles

Intrinsic Motivation, Life Satisfaction and Happiness: Students at higher learning institution in Malaysia

Happiness is currently one of the primary indicators of social progress in modern society, particularly among students at higher learning institutions. The study examines the relationship between intrinsic motivation, life satisfaction, and happiness. 285 business faculty students at a higher learning institution in Malaysia enrolled in a bachelor's degree programme received online surveys. The results demonstrated a positive and significant relationship between happiness and the two independent variables of intrinsic motivation and life satisfaction. This study sheds light on how offering extracurricular activities can boost students' pleasure in higher learning and improve students’ intrinsic motivation and life satisfaction

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL CONDITIONS FOR FORMING A VALUE RELATIONSHIP TO THE HEALTH OF STUDENTS OF CHEMICAL SPECIALTIES

The article examines the problem of forming a value attitude to health among students of chemical specialties, identifies the psychological and pedagogical conditions of this process. Currently, the problem of preserving and strengthening the health of the younger generation occupies one of the leading places in the system of social values and priorities of society. As a kind of indicator of social progress and a reflection of the socio-economic well-being of the country, human health appears to be a powerful social and economic potential of society. Health is an integral indicator of quality of life. Nowadays, the problems of quality of life and health of the population, especially young people, are the subject of considerable attention of many scientists, public figures and the state, which is reflected in numerous legislative documents, namely: Law of Ukraine «On Education», «On General Secondary Education», «On Higher Education», «Ukraine of the XXI Century» , the National Program «Children of Ukraine», the Concept of «Health through Education», the Concept of Humanitarian Development of Ukraine. At the same time, unfavorable living conditions lead to various deviations in the moral and physical health of the younger generation, the emergence of social problems associated with the hobby of young people for narcotic and psychoactive substances, alcohol and tobacco smoking, which are acquiring catastrophic proportions. Therefore, it is necessary to form a value attitude towards a healthy lifestyle, encourages the comprehension of positive pedagogical practice, analysis of existing pedagogical ideas to help the younger generation in search of values for leading a healthy lifestyle. The article substantiates the psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of a value attitude towards the health of students of chemical specialties through the use of active teaching methods, special classes for mastering knowledge about health, which contributes to its support, strengthening and preservation, the widespread use of methods of emotional impact, which are aimed at the formation of value attitudes future health professionals.

The Ecological Footprint of Happiness: A Case Study of a Low-Income Community in the City of São Paulo, Brazil

An ecological footprint is an accounting tool that reports the balance between resource supply and demand to assess environmental sustainability. Among the many available indicators of social progress, happiness reflects how a person feels about their quality of life. We combined these two approaches to assess the ecological efficiency of social performance in the low-income community of Felicidade, in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2019. We assessed the ecological footprint and gross domestic happiness (GDH) through questionnaires. We found that the community has a lower environmental footprint than higher-income communities in Brazil. However, the per capita ecological footprint in the community is still above what is available per person globally. We found that the community has a high level of life satisfaction (GDH = 0.86) and that the main contributor to happiness is health, time use, psychological wellbeing, education, good governance, and community vitality. The results suggest that other contributors unrelated to income are more robust determinants of happiness. In Brazil, despite higher footprints characterizing higher-income communities, further efforts in low-income communities are needed to reduce environmental footprints, ensure dignified income, and nurture the underlying conditions for high levels of happiness and social capital.

Life Satisfaction and Job Insecurity

Fear of the threat of job loss is likely to elicit negative thoughts that have adverse consequences for not only job satisfaction, but also all-around happiness and satisfaction with life. Using nationally representative cross-sectional data, this study provides evidence of the negative effect of perceived job insecurity on life satisfaction in post-communist Albania, an under-researched context. This adverse effect is found to be more pronounced for women and for blue-collar workers: being in a blue-collar job is associated with lower overall life satisfaction, but if this job is perceived as insecure, the negative effect on life satisfaction is magnified. In contrast, workers in well-paying jobs are more satisfied with their lives and, relatedly, higher education also has a positive impact, more so for males. Evidence of the quality-of-life effects of job insecurity can be used to inform workplace policy initiatives and practices, particularly as measures of life satisfaction, well-being, and happiness are increasingly considered appropriate indicators of social progress and the ultimate goal of public policy.

Self-assessment of health status and motor activity of women living in rural areas

The article covers the question of health and motor activity of women living in rural areas. Women rated their health status as mediocre (70.0%), good (11.8%), satisfactory (8.1%), ideal (3.9%), unsatisfactory (6.2%). 37.7% of women did not fall ill during the year, 22.5% of respondents fell ill for about two weeks, 20.0% of women about a month, 9.7% of those respondents for more than a month, for more than two month 10.1% women which living in the countryside. Among the means used by rural women to promote and restore health, the first ranked places are: medicines (used by 69.8% of mature women and 98.5% of women of retirement age), folk medicine (24.5% and 37.8% of women of mature and retirement age respectively).
 It was found that rural women rate their own motor activity as medium (36.1%), high (25.2%), low (24.7%). 14.0% of women were undecided. The motor activity of rural women is mainly of a household nature related to the various farm works. Women living in rural areas also indicated the dependence of their motor activity on the time of year. The lowest level of motor activity is observed in winter, due to the lack of work on land, gardens, etc. The analysis of the statistics of recent years shows the deterioration of the health of the population of Ukraine, caused by insufficient physical activity, poor diet, bad habits, environmental pollution. The state of health of the population is one of the most important social indicators of social progress, the potential of economic growth of the state, which reflects the welfare of the nation, its socio-economic, demographic, environmental, sanitary and hygienic status Rural women pay insufficient attention to specially organized motor activity. Exercise systematically 11.5% of rural women, most (65.8%) consider them necessary, but do not exercise, citing the lack of time and conditions for employment, and 22.7% of rural women do not see the need for carry out physical exercises. It is worth noting that the activity of rural women in physical activity decreases with age.

Quantification of Interplaying Relationships Between Wellbeing Priorities of Aboriginal People in Remote Australia

Wellbeing is a useful indicator of social progress because its subjectivity accounts for diverse aspirations. The Interplay research project developed a wellbeing framework for Aboriginal people in remote Australia comprising government and community wellbeing priorities. This article describes statistical modelling of community priorities based on surveys administered by community researchers to 841 participants from four remote settlements. Constructs for Aboriginal language literacy, cultural practice, and empowerment were identified through exploratory factor analysis (EFA); structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to confirm relationships. Cultural practice was associated with Aboriginal language literacy and empowerment, which were both associated with wellbeing. Aboriginal literacy and empowerment mediated negative direct relationships between cultural practice and wellbeing. Direct relationships were significant only for females for whom empowerment and Aboriginal literacy appear key to enhancing wellbeing.

Utopian Moments: Reading Utopian Texts

Utopian Moments: Reading Utopian Texts

MEASURING SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROGRESS IN INDIA: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

One of the challenges to the National Statistical Systems worldwide is to capturethe indicators of socio-economic progress from the current available framework. The limitsof traditional indicators provide little insights about the extent of well being realised in thesociety, since there is no automatic link between growth and development which aims atimproving human and social welfare. Therefore, different countries had tried variousapproaches to measure their progress of the society. India’s experience with measuringprogress in the society ranges from computation of composite index to adoption of adevelopment strategy that emphasises human welfare and well-being of the society ascentral to all development planning. In this connection, this paper limits its scope to some ofthe challenges and possibilities in the Indian system for developing the indicators of socialprogress.

Using wellbeing for public policy: Theory, measurement, and recommendations

Indicators of social progress are the primary drivers of public policy. If existing economic measures of prosperity are complemented with wellbeing metrics that better capture changes in individuals’ quality of life, decision makers will be better informed to assess and design policy. The science of wellbeing has yielded extensive knowledge and measurement instruments during more than three decades. We review the existing wellbeing literature and answer three questions: (1) What is wellbeing? (2) How do we measure wellbeing? And, importantly, distinguishing this review from previous ones, (3) How do we use wellbeing metrics to assess and design policy? We suggest that the science of wellbeing is empirically mature enough to complement economic assessments of national progress. We build on existing work to provide recommendations on metrics and new, specific policies for societal wellbeing.

The contribution of subjective measures to the quantification of social progress

Purpose – Statistical indicators, such as human health, are important for designing government policies, as well as for influencing the functioning of economic markets. However, there is often a discrepancy between statistical measures and the citizens’ prevalent feelings. In order to produce more relevant indicators of social progress, governments are currently shifting their measurement emphasis from objective to subjective measures. While the philosophical tradition of hedonic psychology views individuals as the best judges of their own conditions, little empirical evidence shows that individually reported health scores provide accurate information about a population’s health status. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate if subjective health questions contain genuine information about the status of human health, and are meaningful at an aggregated level. Design/methodology/approach – Subjective health data are extracted from the 2012/2013 European Social Survey (28 European countries plus Israel, n=54,427). Objective health data are based on the 2012 World Bank statistics for life expectancy at birth. The author check if aggregated subjective health correlates with life expectancy at country level, and can reliably be compared across countries. Findings – The findings support the idea of including subjective data into country statistics of social progress. Because of substantial between-country differences, social development programs should be devised individually for each country. Originality/value – By showing that subjective health measures can reliably contribute to the quantification of social progress, the author offer a bridge between objective neoclassical economics and subjective hedonic psychology.

Harmony in the World 2013: The Ideal and the Reality

Many global indicators rank countries according to valued goods such as freedom, wealth, or happiness, but they all share the same flaw: they neglect the importance of rich and diverse social relations for human well-being. The Harmony Index (HI) is an effort to remedy this flaw. It measures four types of relations that matter for human well-being. The HI attempts to measure the extent of peaceful order and respect for diversity—what Confucian thinkers call harmony—within each relation, and ranks countries according to the score for overall harmony. This inaugural HI made use of comprehensive and reliable comparative data for 27 countries. Our findings show that small and relatively wealthy countries tend to be more harmonious countries. Compared to other leading global indices, however, the Harmony Index is less influenced by gross domestic product per capita and by the extent of democracy in a country. Population has a greater impact on harmony than either wealth or political system. We constructed another HI with fewer measurements for family well-being but covering a broader range of countries. A chart with 43 countries demonstrates that it is possible to achieve a high score on the HI without a high level of wealth or democracy. A detailed breakdown of the findings allows us to draw some tentative policy implications at the end of the report. Establishing and nourishing harmonious social relations and a non-destructive approach to the environment is a goal shared by most of the world’s cultures, ethical systems, and religions, and a harmony index can and should be used as a key indicator of social progress and regress.

Measuring economic performance and social progress

In February 2008, French President Nicholas Sarkozy created a committee with a somewhat ungainly name, ‘The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress’, headed by Joseph Stiglitz, and advised by Amartya Sen. The aim of the Commission was to ‘identify the limits of GDP as an indicator of economic performance and social progress, including the problems with its measurement; to consider what additional information might be required for the production of more relevant indicators of social progress; to assess the feasibility of alternative measurement tools, and to discuss how to present the statistical information in an appropriate way’ (p. 7).

Social movements, technology and development: A query and an instructive case from the Third World

I believe that the KSSP's claim that all technological issues should be evaluated and assessed only in the context of their impact on the people are borne out by the case studies. Apart from the Silent Valley and the Mothi Chemicals controversies, the KSSP had a positive role to play in other technological and environmental controversies, such as those over river pollution from untreated chemical effluent being dumped in several rivers of the State by chemical and paper companies, nuclear power plant siting, and drug policy. The KSSP's position paper on industries indicates that Kerala has a high concentration of chemical industries, and urges the government to issue no more new licenses for chemical companies. Instead they urge the government to bring in more engineering and electonics industries into the State. The State government has been generally responsive to such calls by actively promoting electronics industry in the State. K.K. Subramanian and K.J. Joseph demonstrate how a “capital-deficient” State like Kerala can stimulate economic growth and employment opportunities in the electronics sector by taking advantage of the considerably well-educated “human resources” of the State. K.K. Subramanian and K.J. Joseph, \ldElectronics in Kerala's Industrialisation,\rd 23 (1988), pp. 1233\2-1240. The KSSP is in the thick of a debate about the advisability of the establishment of a nuclear power plant in the State as a long range plan to alleviate the acute power shortage predicted for the year 2000. The consensus seems to be that since Kerala is a densely populated State, a continuum of villages and towns and cities from one end to the other situated on the coastal belt, there is no proper site on which a nuclear power plant can be built. However, given the fact that the power availability should be increased and diversified and also that the statistical probability of a nuclear accident is remote, a strong minority in the KSSP is picking up support for a nuclear power plant among the media and the people. Mani, \ldPopularising Science, Fighting Pollution.\rd It appears that KSSP's campaign to reach out to the people to make science and technology instruments of change is quite successful. It is not clear how much their efforts are influencing scientists and technologists at large, who are not associated with the KSSP, to help unleash the potential inherent in science and technology to improve the quality of life of the people. Even though there are no quantitative studies to measure KSSP's contributions to the high literacy rate, low infant mortality rate, and similar indicators of social progress in the State, it is safe to assume that the KSSP's campaign of “Science for Social Revolution” has made a positive contribution to these achievements. Though the KSSP claims to be a non-political voluntary organization, its objective is to raise the consciousness of the people in order to harness the benefits of technology to socio-economic development. The measure of success they have had in educating and raising the consciousness of the people, who might have otherwise remained ignorant or indifferent to technological issues and controversies, is evident. Given the fact that the KSSP is a totally non-governmental and voluntary organization surviving on its own resources, its success in achieving its set goals are remarkable. It is an encouraging sign that similar people's science and technology (S&T) movements are springing up in several States in India, following the foot-steps of the KSSP. After the killing of thousands of people by the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, the need for many more such people's S&T movements for democratic control of technology has become ever more urgent.

Leisure Time in the GDR

The GDR is not a and never will be. Indeed, the prospects look rather grim for the leisure-time society, so zealously proclaimed in bourgeois circles until but a few years ago. We were correct in not allowing ourselves to be further influenced in the seventies by this euphoria. Labor is the deciding factor in socialist societies?the only societies today that guarantee full employment and job security until the age of retirement?and is more emphasized than elsewhere. In the balance between work and leisure, real social ism stands fully in the tradition of the culture and way of life of the working class. Of course leisure is a universal need and an important indicator of social progress in a society of producers and a republic of labor (Marx). According to Marx, a is richer the less time it uses for the production of its material means of subsistence, and the more time it sets free for other kinds of production, and for the all-round development of the individual, and above all for augmenting leisure time: A saving of time is tantamount to an augmentation of free time, i.e., time for the full development of the individual, which in turn, as the greatest force of production, has a retroactive effect on the productive power of labor.1 This is of course especially true in and for socialism, in which production is not a means to an end and so subserves not the creation of surplus value, but rather the production of ever more copious and more developed means and opportunities for the development of the personality of all members of so ciety, and hence the creation of more free time and better means for put ting it to use. This includes enabling and preparing human beings to make conscious use of their free time, and to utilize and increase what makes available.