A measurement model for general noise reaction in response to aircraft noise

In this paper a measurement model for general noise reaction (GNR) in response to aircraft noise is developed to assess the performance of aircraft noise annoyance and a direct measure of general reaction as indicators of this concept. For this purpose GNR is conceptualized as a superordinate latent construct underlying particular manifestations. This conceptualization is empirically tested through estimation of a second-order factor model. Data from a community survey at Frankfurt Airport are used for this purpose (N = 2206). The data fit the hypothesized factor structure well and support the conceptualization of GNR as a superordinate construct. It is concluded that noise annoyance and a direct measure of general reaction to noise capture a large part of the negative feelings and emotions in response to aircraft noise but are unable to capture all relevant variance. The paper concludes with recommendations for the valid measurement of community reaction and several directions for further research.Infrastructures, Systems and ServicesTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Models of cognition and affect in perceptions of well-being

How do people arrive at assessments of their own life quality? A series of models was developed to provide an interpretation of the way the factors of cognition and affect operate along with evaluations of specific life concerns (domains) in the perception of well-being. Following previous research, cognition was defined operationally as a factor which accounts for the covariance among a set of assessments of life-as-a-whole after affect, as measured by Bradburn's scales, is partialled out and after allowance is made for the presence of correlated measurement errors. It was found that loadings on the cognitive factor, and hence the interpretation of this factor, changed little despite quite large changes in the models. Moreover, in all major comparisons, models that contained the cognitive factor fitted the data better than models that did not. Models that included affect as the only variable intervening between the domains and the life-as-a-whole factor led to results that were intuitively difficult to accept. In the preferred model both affect and cognition were positioned as intervening variables. In this model it was found that the domain evaluations had no direct impact on life-as-a-whole assessments — the contribution of the domains was indirect by way of their association with cognition and affect. It was hypothesised that associated with each domain was a domain-specific element of affect and a domain-specific element of cognition. The linear additive relation found by previous researchers between domain evaluations and life-as-a-whole assessments would then be explainable as a statistical result arising from the summing of the domain-specific elements of affect and cognition.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43703/1/11205_2004_Article_BF00292640.pd

Measures of self-reported well-being: their affective, cognitive, and other components

This investigation begins from the hypothesis that social indicators of perceived well-being — e.g., people's assessment of their own life quality — will, like other attudes, reflect two basic types of influences: affect and cognition. In addition, the indicators were expected to include two other components: unique variance (mainly random measurement error) and correlated measurement error. These ideas are investigated using a structural modeling approach applied to 23 assessments of life-as-a-whole from a national survey of Americans ( N=1072 ) and/or a survey of urban residents in England ( N=932 ). In both sets of data, models that included affective and cognitive factors fit significantly better than more restricted models. Furthermore, as expected, measures of (a) ‘happiness’, ‘fun’, and ‘enjoyment’ tended to be relatively more loaded with affect than were measures of (b) ‘satisfaction’, ‘success’, and ‘meeting needs’; and (c) measures designed to tap both affect and cognition tended to fall between the first two groups. In addition, the results suggest that measures employing relatively many scale points and direct assessments yield more valid indicators of people's evaluations of life-as-a-whole than do measures based on three-point scales or on explicit comparisons with other times or groups. These results contribute to basic knowledge about the nature of life quality assessments, help to explain some previously puzzling relationships with demographic factors such as age and education, and may be useful to designers of future studies of perceived well-being.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43702/1/11205_2004_Article_BF00286474.pd

Population issues and social indicators of well-being

Relating demographers' measures of various population characteristics (size, growth/decline, density, age/sex structures, migration, et cetera) to measures of well-being recently developed within the social indicators movement promises to provide new knowledge about the linkage of population and well-being that can enhance decision making about important population issues.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43515/1/11111_2005_Article_BF01363887.pd