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Well-being, or quality of life, is a continuing goal for individuals and a major criterion for the evaluation of governments and societies. As a research concept, however it has been marked by persisting problems of definition and measurement and by uncertainties about its changing pattern over the life course. In this article, these issues are discussed; the concept of well-being is 'unpacked'; and a model of stocks and flows is described as applicable to the analysis of well-being. Finally, the concept of resilience is proposed as important for research on well-being in relation to age.

This paper proposes four functions in terms of which social indicators can be judged successful or unsuccessful: description, explanation, valuation, and utilization. These criteria are applied to the findings of a current nation-wide study on the attitudes of American men toward violence. Two indexes-the level of force that men consider justifiable for social control and the level of force that they consider justifiable for social change-are shown to be essentially uncorrelated and to present very different descriptive patterns. Most men consider injury or property damage to be unnecessary for social change, but are prepared to justify substantial force for social control. The explanation of these attitudes is sought in terms of background and demographic characteristics, and in terms of such psychological characteristics as values, group identification, semantics, and perception of social issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a summary of the progress made by the "Journal of Social Issues" in a continuing program of research and assessment of research prospects. A review is presented on the empirical work described by Zander and Quinn, Kasl and French, Mann and Williams, and Wolfe and Snoek. All those studies urge the conclusion that the industrial environment has powerful effects on the mental and physical health of the person.

The program for studying the Industrial Environment and Mental Health is intended as an environmental approach to mental health in industry. As such, it is considered to be complementary to the more usual approach of individual counseling and therapy. This article deals with the following major issues in the programmatic work: the central research concepts to be employed; an approach to theory construction and to methods of research; the place of motivation, self-identity and other enduring aspects of the person in this research program; a systematic approach to studying the industrial environment; and the development of appropriate criteria for mental health.

An organization exists for the achievement of some goal and one of the criteria by which it may properly be judged is its success and efficiency in achieving its goal. In this sense the concept of organizational productivity has great social and theoretical importance, and cannot be written off as the special concern of management in industry and comparable leaders in government and other areas of organizational life. This article presents two research projects, in which productivity is a major criterion. It notes that there are a number of general conclusions which appear to be justified by the findings from this series of studies, and which suggest some of the requirements which should be met by further research.

Presents an introductory statement to the May 1956 issue of "The Journal of Social Issues."

Relatively little has been written on the complicated problem of establishing collaborative relationships with subjects in the field research sites which the social scientist wishes to study. Anthropologists have had the longest experience of this kind but their experiences for the most part are based on societies greatly different from their own, infinitely less complex, and typically characterized by a single authority structure. There is a real need, therefore, for the development of a specific methodology of doing social science research in functioning organizations of various kinds. This means the development of new concepts, the evaluation and measurement of various practices in present use, and the development of some theory which will permit scientists to build upon their own best practices. This article attempts to describe four concepts which have assumed increasing importance as part of research methodology. These are: (1) dual or multiple entries; (2) contingent acceptance at successive organizational levels; (3) double liaison, and (4) double access.

In the development of scientific knowledge about organized behavior, close research contact with functioning organizations is essential. This article discusses the relationship between the research team and the ongoing organization which is determined by two sets of requirements. The first is the needs of the research group, which are established primarily by the nature of the research problem and the second is the needs of the organization itself, which leads to the demands it makes on the research team. The interaction of these two sets of demands gives rise to the particular relationship developed in any research situation. The authors of this article also define the attributes of the organization which influence the research relationship. These include: (1) Research maturity; (2) The character of internal relationships in the organization, and between management and labor, and; (3) Extent of problems within the organization.

In 1947, the prospectus was written for "A Program of Research on the Fundamental Problems of Organizing Human Behavior." It set as the major goal for the proposed ten-year research program the discovery of the principles which underlie the behavior of human beings in organizations. More specifically, the research began with the accumulation of quantitative data which in time would permit generalizations about the characteristics which account for organizational effectiveness. Two basic criteria of organizational effectiveness were employed from the beginning: productivity and morale. This article attempts to study the relationship between productivity and morale. Using satisfaction and productivity as criteria of organizational effectiveness, the authors study the necessity of formulating independent variables which would reflect the major structural and functional characteristics of large organizations.

The article reports on the Kurt Lewin Memorial Award Presentation, 1992. The Kurt Lewin Memorial Award is given to a person whose work embodies that combination of theoretical rigor and societal relevance that is the Lewinian ideal. This year the selection committee determined that the award should be given to author John R.P. French, Jr. In lieu of the usual address by the recipient of the Lewin Award, a special symposium in his honor was held at the 1992 American Psychological Association Convention. Jack French did his doctoral work at Harvard as part of a remarkable pre World War II cohort. The article author's own collaborative work with Jack French began in the late 1950s when, with social scientist Sidney Cobb and Floyd Mann, they decided to merge two lines of social-psychological research: one concerned with organizational issues and the other with group phenomena. The purpose of the merger was to bring social-psychological concepts to bear on problems of mental and physical health.