QoL 4

Quality of Life
Introduction and overview
vs. 4.175
An essay by Håkan Gulliksson,

hakan.gulliksson@tfe.umu.se
Applied System Technology
Umeå University
Introduction
This short paper discusses models for Quality of life (QoL). The models are
necessary for creating liveable, useful, satisfying, enjoyable, sustainable
systems, including the environment we live in.
In the sections that follow we will cover quality of life, happiness, inner life and
outer worlds, experience and flow. We will always frame our discussions from
the point of view of a singe human (H) and when technology is interacted with
it will be represented as a thing (T) or information (I). Things are manufactured
parts of our material environment and information is the immaterial aspects of
things, data and ideas. The discussion will be limited to ideas from the western
hemisphere and religion will not be covered.
Beware, human lives are extremely rich!
Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 1

Introduction................................................................................................................................................ 1
1. Quality of Life ........................................................................................................................................ 3
2. Happiness (subjective well-being)......................................................................................................... 5
3. Inner life ................................................................................................................................................. 8

3.1 Emotion (x) ............................................................................................................................................ 9
3.2 Appraisal (x) ........................................................................................................................................ 12
3.3 Concern (need, urge, drive, goal, utility, desire, motive) (x) ............................................................... 12
3.4 Action tendency (coping strategies) (x) ............................................................................................... 14
4. Outer world .......................................................................................................................................... 15

4.1 Natural environment ............................................................................................................................ 15
4.2 Social world ......................................................................................................................................... 17
5. Experience ............................................................................................................................................ 22
5.1 Sensory/Behavioural level ................................................................................................................... 24
5.2 Emotional............................................................................................................................................. 24
5.3 Intellectual/Reflective/Ideo pleasures .................................................................................................. 25
5.4 Social ................................................................................................................................................... 26
5.5 Contextual............................................................................................................................................ 27
5.6 Practice ................................................................................................................................................ 28
5.7 An example (x) .................................................................................................................................... 29
6. Flow....................................................................................................................................................... 30
More on flow (x)........................................................................................................................................ 30
7. Meaning and value of experience ....................................................................................................... 32

7.1 Value.................................................................................................................................................... 33
7.2 Virtues.................................................................................................................................................. 36
7.3 Human universals (x) ........................................................................................................................... 37
References ............................................................................................................................................... 39

1. Quality of Life
A sweeping assertion is that development and designshould improve Quality

of life (QoL). But, what then is QoL? Activity around, and interest in, this topic
is high. January 6th 2009 Google returned 22.900.000 hits for the query “quality
of life”.
Quality of life for design is a number of suitable dimensions of value

(quality), for assessing the emergent processes of one or more humans being
(life). The possibility of QoL for other living creatures or for interactors of types
I and T will not be discussed. Synonyms for QoL from different areas of
research are Life satisfaction (economics), Happiness (psychology and
economy), Well-being (psychology and health), and Wellfare (economics). The
term Quality of life itself originates from and is used in sociology [BA].
The figure below shows some of the intercations possible involving humans
and we allow each of the interactions to be mediated by technology. A mobile
phone for instance mediates H-H interaction.
a) b) c)
HH H H H I/T
Figure 1. Three interactions for QoL used for structuring this report, a) self-
related and internal to the human b) family, community and culture c)
interacting with the inanimate nature and technology, e.g. driving a car or
reading a book.
As is indicated by figure 1 we will focus on QoL at the individual level with

only a few people involved. We will assume that the total QoL of a system can
be calculated as the sum of the QoL for the human interactors involved. It is
also possible to define QoL indicators for organizations, and nations. Gross
domestic product (GDP) is one such measure for a whole country, and whether
the staff of an organization develop their joint competencies is an indicator of
QoL for an organisation.

The question is whether and how technology can change QoL. The introduction
of technology triggers changes, but it is important to note that the outcome is a
result of humans and human communities interacting with the physical
environment and new technology, adapting at perceptive, cognitive, and
cultural levels. Technoloy itself is a constraint not a creator of an unevitable
rosy or fatal destiny. We humans are in control if we care to be, we are the
designers.
A list of the most used QoL dimensions, sometimes referred to as life-chances

is shown in Table 1 [RS].
QoL dimension Indicators and descriptors

1. Emotional well-being a. Contentment (satisfaction, moods, enjoyment)
b. Self-concept (identity, self-worth, self-esteem)
c. Lack of stress (predictability, control)
2. Interpersonal relations a. Interactions (social networks, social contacts)
b. Relationships (family, friend, peers)
c. Supports (emotional, physical, financial, feedback)
3. Material well-being a. Financial status (income, benefits)
b. Employment (work status, work environment)
c. Housing (type of recidense, ownership, neighbourhood)
d. Infrastructures (personal and goods transportation)
4. Personal development a. Education (achievement, status)
b. Personal competence (cognitive, social, practical)
c. Performance (success, achievement, productivity)
5. Physical well-being a. Health (functioning, symptoms, fitness, nutrition)
b. Activities of daily life (self-care skills, mobility)
c. Leisure (recreation, hobbies)
6. Self-determination a. Autonomy/personal control (self-endorsed, independence)
b. Goals and personal values (desires, expectations)
c. Choices (opportunities, options, preferences)
7. Social inclusion a. Community integration and participation
b. Community roles (contributor, volunteer)
c. Social supports (support network, services, events)
8. Rights a. Human(respect, dignity, equality)
b. Legal (citizenship, access, due process)
Table 1. Quality indicators based on reading 9749 abstracts, and 2455 articles,
selected from the 20900 articles with the term “quality of life” in the title and
published since 1985 [RS].
The indicators listed in the table are not independent. Interpersonal relations
are for instance extremely important for emotional well-being and personal
development.
We can study the indicators in Table 1 in two ways. Either we can ask
individuals and obtain an internal estimate, or we can try to measure the
indicators from the outside. When we ask individuals we face the problem that
we cannot be sure that the question is understood the same way by everyone,
and also that adaptability modulates the expressed level of QoL. Other
problems are that personality, disposition, temperament, and recent
experiences affects opinions. The cultural and organisational context of an

individual also changes the priorities of the indicators in Table 1. More money
makes a bigger difference living among the poor. Measuring quality of life by
studying it from the outside without interfering with the individual is also
difficult. To establish the mood or most other internal indictors is not easy.
Measures of the QoL provided by a product, system or a service could be:
• What people are willing to pay for it.

• Their reaction to loosing it.
• How much they use it.
• Their attitude towards it.
• How they feel after using or being in contact with it.
The table 1 above can be used to indicate areas where positive changes from
new technology will affect the individual. Even if a few individuals do not
appreciate improved housing, on the level of a population this indicator is a
true measure of increased QoL. We can compare measurements of the
indicators above before and after introducing a new technology.
2. Happiness (subjective well-being)

“We are made happy when reason can discover no occasion for it”,
Henry David Thoreau
Happiness is an individual’s appraisal of life. It is a personal sampling of life

as a whole, while in the middle of living. Some synonyms to happiness are
ebullient, joyful, exhilarated, elated, carefree, contented, at peace, at ease, and
being in high spirit. Happiness is an easy indicator of QoL to measure, just ask.
The problem is to interpret and relate the answers given from different
individuals. If our measures for instance indicate that unmarried persons are
less happy this could be interpreted as that the word unmarried is negatively
loaded in the particular culture. It could on the other hand be an indication of
loneliness, or correlated to the fact that unhappy people are less attractive [RV].
From Table 1 in the previous section we have a number of QoL dimensions.

They can be seen as a context for what we do and what happens to us, i.e. a
context for the events that we experience.

Table 2 below complements this by a list of measurements of happiness for a
selection of the daily events we encounter and the actions we perform.
Action/event Happiness Average hours per day

1. Sex 4.7 0.2
2. Socialising after work 4.1 1.1
3. Dinner (socialising too?) 4.0 0.8
Relaxing (socialising too?) 3.9 2.2
Lunch (socialising too?) 3.9 0.6
Exercising 3.8 0.2
Praying 3.8 0.5
Socialising at work 3.8 1.1
Watching TV 3.6 2.2
Phone at home 3.5 0.9
Napping 3.3 0.9
Cooking 3.2 1.1
Shopping 3.2 0.4
Computer at home 3.1 0.5
Housework 3.0 1.1
Childcare 3.0 1.1
Evening commute 2.8 0.6
Working (! low index) 2.7 6.9
Morning commute 2.0 0.4
Table 2 A list of courses of events and their happiness index [RL]
There are many motivations for taking an action, and many reasons to expose
oneself to experiences. The most important is to directly increase happiness as
with having sex or enjoying lunch, but we also plan ahead as when we work to
fund shopping or a bottle of good wine. The logic is either; action -> feel happy
-> more action, or experience something that increase happiness -> take action
to increase the probability of experiencing the same thing again.
Whether a new technology can make you happier is a good question, and one
you need to ask to assess the result of the introduction of new technology.
Asking is important since if we cannot evaluate the result, then what and why
should we design? Measures are however relative, situation specific and
subjective even if they are consistently positive or negative, e.g. when
interviewed by someone in a wheelchair healthy persons will rate their
happiness higher [RV]. Correctly interpreting the answers in a larger
framework is also difficult. Claims have for instance been made both that the
TV disrupts and increase family interaction, and that heavy TV-users have been
found to be unhappy, but is this really an effect of watching TV, or do some
people watch a lot of TV because they are unhappy for other reasons?
An overall assumption in this essay is that happiness can be increased by

adding technology. Whether raised happiness over a longer term is possible is
however not clear. Heritability as a major factor of well-being is accepted and
also that it limits the range of personal adjustment. A widely accepted figure of
the heritability is 50% which means that to a large extent our destiny and
happiness is in our genes [KS].
Quality dimensions as listed in Table 1 provide a salient set of cues for how we
rate our happiness, and even the life chances listed in the table themselves effect

happiness. If we compare our social prestige with that of our neighbour the
result can affect how we evaluate our life. Life chances also directly could affect
how we evaluate what we experience. More people without family bonds feel
lonely. Each individual will however interpret and sum their life-chances
differently depending on for instance age, disposition, and education. Some
researchers argue that 10% of our happiness is determined by life circumstances
[SL].
After taking heritability and life-chances into account we still have 40%, a
significant share, of happiness that depends on the events and the experiences
that we encounter, but also, and perhaps more importantly, on the actions we
take and how we experience the result of these actions. We in other words have
a chance to create our own happiness within the context of our genes and life-
chances. One problem is that we are restrained by our traits. They are the
affective and cognitive behaviours that are consistent across situations and over
time, and quite stable for an individual. Another objection against taking action
for happiness is that we eventually always adapt to the new resulting
circumstances, and consequently striving for happiness is not worth the trouble
in the long run. If we however not concentrate solely on the result, but on the
process of gaining happiness the fight might be worth the effort. We are
constantly interacting with our physical and social environment, and it seems
silly not to do this in a way that brings us as much happiness as possible. If we
can build tools to help us in this, it is good use of technology. Identifying the
actions to take, and the technology we need are important research issues.
Furthermore, what we do also changes the context for us enabling new actions
and ideas of supportive technology. Examples of things to consider doing to get
happier are; practice gratitude and positive thinking, invest in social
connections, manage stress, hardship and trauma, live in the present, commit to
goals and take care of body and soul [SL]. As the author Sonja Lyubomirsky
notes these advices seem corny and simplistic, but empirical research prove that
this is why happy people differs from unhappy. The trick is to foster these
behaviours and improve quality of life in the long run. Stop and smell a rose,
focus on what you eat, use your camera to enhance experiences rather than
detach yourself from then. Practise empathy, make contact, appreciate being
forgiven and be kind. The list is long.
More people in wealthier developed countries, where housing and food is

provided, will look positively on life. They also think that they are happier than
the average. We are a positive breed of critically observers. On the other hand
we rate losses as more salient than wins, which tend to make us conservative.
Happiness has risen in most countries since measurements began, with the
greatest increases in non-western nations such as Egypt and India. Happiness
has been raised also in the EU nations that have been surveyed, even though
the increase is a moderate 0.33% over 30 years [RV2]. On the average a EU
citizen will experience 51 happy years. This is an increase of 6.2 years over the
last 33 years in the 8 countries followed in the measurements.
One important finding is the positive correlation between happiness and

freedom, democracy, urbanization, industrialization and individualization. It
seems that we are happier in a modern society despite the obvious problems
with anonymity and alienation [RV]. Why this is so might be clearer when we

later give examples of how we are supported by the technology that surrounds
us, and what it helps us to do.
3. Inner life
In this section we will present a model for how we experience life at an
emotional level. Not only is this inner life important for well-being, it is also
notoriously difficult to clearly describe. It is an example of the highly dynamic
and complex character of many aspects of life and human behaviour.
Emotional well-being is based on interactions and emotions serve many

functions as our control centre. They produce shifts in concentration and
attention, motivate and help us to sustain explorations, manipulations and
investigations. Furthermore they free up cognitive recourses when needed, and
support social life. Emotional well-being is however not always perceived by us
as a process. It is more often described as a state, which easily is interpreted as
that emotion, and hence emotional well-being, is a static property.
We prefer in this essay to see life as a dynamic action cycle where a human
perceives internal and external events, and has intentions (goals) and
concerns, see figure 6. The precepts are appraised, and emotions result. Action
tendencies (arousal) are established and actions executed that will change
internal and external variables, possibly triggering new events. Concerns are, or
have similar effects as, needs and urges. Together with impulses, drives, and
attitudes they sum up to a set of motivational factors that can complement
emotions and conscious reasoning to help us decide what to do. Along with
emotions we also have moods and traits. In this context an event is the object of
the emotion, and to perceive the event presence is important, and attention
must be directed.
Action tendency
Behaviour
Event Appraisal Emotion Action
Concern Cognition Attention
Figure 2 Inner life as a network of interacting components.
Even though the concept network in figure 2 might seem complicated, as with
many other areas where the human is studied the devil is very much in the
details. There are numerous other different definitions and views, but for the
purpose of this essay the above model is sufficient. To clarify the concepts we
will now shortly define them, still at a rather high level of abstraction.

3.1 Emotion (x)
Emotions are experienced and attached to events, people, products, and
services. Generally they are short-lived, intentional, directed, and affect
cognition as well as physiology, e.g. anger raises blood pressure. A common
term used for mood, emotion, and feelings is affect, and the simplest
description of emotion is as a core affect. The core affect has two dimensions:
activation/deactivation and pleasant/unpleasant, which can be seen as
spanning a circle in two dimensions, see figure 3 below [JR]. Alternatively we
can use the words valence and activation to describe core affect where valence
is the degree of attraction or aversion that an individual feels toward a specific
object or event, and activation that is to what extent an individual is wake/tense
or calm/tired. Pleasures are agreeable reaction to experiences in general. It is
similar to enjoyment, which has been used for the more limited scope of
positive responses to media.
On the periphery of the circle spanned by activation and pleasantness we can

find different combinations of core affects, again see figure 3. As a human we
are at every instant somewhere in this space, and, importantly, forever on the
move.
Activation
tense alert
nervous excited
stressed elated
upset happy
Unpleasant Pleasant
sad contented
depressed serene
lethargic relaxed
fatigued calm
Deactivation
Figure 3 Core affects and their combinations.
One basic set of emotions often used are Fear (terror, shock, phobia), Anger
(rage), Sorrow (sadness, grief, depression), Joy (happiness, glee, gladness), and
Disgust, sometimes complemented by Surprise [PE]. One reason to use this set
is that they can be identified by face expressions. The emotions listed above are
the most commonly used, but there are between 500 and 2000 different
categories of emotion suggested in the English language, and different research
views generates different categorisations [JR].
More on pleasure and play

The philosopher Epicurus living more than 2200 years ago suggested that
pleasure is the fundamental component in quality of life; “It is impossible to

live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is
impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly.
Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to
live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live
a pleasant life.” (Epicurus, Principal doctrine no 5). Aristotle around 50 years
earlier noted that pleasure demands resources; "How, then, is it that no one is
continuously pleased? Is it that we grow weary? Certainly all human things are
incapable of continuous activity. Therefore pleasure also is not continuous; for
it accompanies activity".
We continuously seek the right level of pleasure, and by pleasure we evaluate

what we do and everything else in life: “We recognize pleasure as the first good
innate in us, and from pleasure we begin every act of choice and avoidance, and
to pleasure we return again, using the feeling as the standard by which we
judge every good. (Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus).
However, Epicurus does not mean that we should chase pleasures without
regard of the results; “When we say, then, that pleasure is the end and aim, we
do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we
are understood to do by some through ignorance, prejudice, or wilful
misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of
trouble in the soul. It is not an unbroken succession of drinking-bouts and of
revelry, not sexual lust, not the enjoyment of the fish and other delicacies of a
luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching
out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs
through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul. Of all this the
beginning and the greatest good is wisdom” (Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus).
A problem with pleasure pointed out by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick is

that pleasure and happiness cannot be acquired directly, you get happy by
doing something (else). You for instance can buy a red Porsche and feel happy.
But, buying a car does not guarantee happiness for someone else. Also,
doubling the quantity of whatever makes you happy might not make you twice
as happy.
A characterisation of humans as pleasure hunters is the basis of the Hedonism,

which American Heritage dictionary defines as 1) “The branch of psychology
that studies pleasant and unpleasant sensations and states of mind.”, and 2)
“The branch of ethics that deals with the relation of pleasure to duty.” Some
synonyms to pleasure are amusement, bliss, buzz comfort, contentment,
delectation, delight, diversion, ease, enjoyment, entertainment, felicity, flash,
fruition, game, gladness, gluttony, gratification, gusto, hobby, honeymoon,
indulgence, joy, joy ride, kick, luxury, primrose path, recreation, relish, revelry,
satisfaction, seasoning, self-indulgence, solace, spice, thrill, titillation, turn-on,
velvet, zest (Websters online dictionary). The fact that there is not far from
pleasure and joy to rapture and ecstasy hints at that pleasure is a serious thing.
Pleasure is also important because it can free us from boredom.
When we look for personal pleasure the social context will be affected by
egoistic behaviour. There is however pleasure to be found also in social
relationships, for instance in the satisfaction of joining the group complying

with a moral code, and in pride. Pleasures related to our social life includes;
company, glamour, status and good personal relationships.
A special case of pleasure is having fun, enjoying ourselves, which as a field of

study in HCI is sometimes called funology (Hassenzahl). The general hedonic
attributes are well being, stimulation, identification, and evocation. The table
below lists some other aspects trying to distinguish fun from pleasure.
Fun/Distraction Pleasure/Absorbtion
Triviality Aesthetics
Repetition Commitment
Spectacle (an elaborate and remark- Relevance (personal growth, from
able display on a lavish scale) memory, anticipation)
Transgression (the violation of a law or Progression (Becoming more
a duty or moral principle) advanced, severe, or worse)
Table 2. Distraction vs Absorbation (Blythe cited by Nordström).
Play is often referred to as a pleasurable activity, involving a sense of freedom

and spontaneity; see also the section above on play as an aesthetic experience.
There is a free choice of the player in an imaginary situation dominated by
meaning. Some suggested uses of play are (Linder):
1. Play mirrors and consolidates the development of cognitive stages.

2. Play establishes zones of intersubjectivity within which the
development of cognition can take place.
3. Play mediates culture.
4. Play is the imitation of adult behaviour among children.
5. Play is an intermediary and transitional cathexis between human
developmental stages.
6. Play is a form of socialisation that proceeds through a series of
developmental stages and generates mastery and feeling of
competence.
7. Play (especially of games) is a useful form of adolescent education.
8. Play has a complementary relationship to exploration.
9. Play is a preparation for the future, e.g. through competition.
In general a pleasurable activity is an amusement or enjoyment, i.e. a practise of

distraction. The apparent uselessness however hides a paradox. To deepen or
sharpen concentration we need at times to do something completely different,
and then return to the problem (Shusterman). The lack of seriousness has
however irritated some philosophers, while others value it. The famous French
thinker Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) said, concerning reading serious
books for amusement: “If anyone tells me that it is degrading the Muses to use
them only as a plaything and a pastime, he does not know as I do the value of
pleasure, play, and pastime. I would almost say that any other aim is
ridiculous” (Shusterman). Fun might be seen as a different mode of doing than
productive work, but work can be fun, and playing is not fun for someone who
do not want to participate. It is in fact possible to make a living out of joking. A
lot of practise and training is needed, as well as a fair amount of on the scene

creativity when adapting to the audience, which is part of the act. Human
laughs are rich! What is challenging in fun might be quite stressful at work, and
work in one context can be considered as play in another. Some characteristics
are the same for both of the modes; work should also be varied and challenging,
demanding and developing skills, and support a pleasurable social
environment. We switch between the modes almost at will, as a friend enters
the room, or perhaps as the tunes on the radio change.
3.2 Appraisal (x)

Stimulus of the system has to be appraised. This is the cognitive interpretation
of the event that also can be used to categorise emotions [NF]. A set of appraisal
variables distilled from research are listed in table 4 [JG]. As can be seen from
the table this model also introduces an agent that cause or mediates events.
Appraisal variable Explanation

Relevance Does the event require attention or adaptive reaction
Desirability Does the event facilitate or thwart what the person wants
Causal Agency What causal agent was responsible for an event
attribution Blame and Credit Does the causal agent deserve blame or credit
Likelihood How likely was the event; how likely is an outcome
Unexpectedness Was the event predicted from past knowledge
Urgency Will delaying a response make matters worse
Ego Involvement To what extent does the event impact a person’s sense of self
(self-esteem, moral values, beliefs, etc.)
Coping Controllability The extent to which an event can be influenced
potential Changeability To what extent an event will change of its own accord
Power The power of a particular causal agent to directly or indirectly
control an event
Adaptability Can the person live with the consequences of the event
Table 4 Appraisal varaiables [JG].
Another set of appraisal variables is, with their associated emotions within
parentheses is [Scherer as cited by JU]:
• novelty (surprise amazement …),

• motive compliance (instrumental emotions such as disappointment,
satisfaction …),
• intrisic pleasantness (aesthetic emotions: disgust, attraction to …),
• legitimacy (social emotions: indignation, admiration …) and
• challenge/promise (interest emotion: boredom, fascination …).
Some social appraisals have also been suggested; status signals (trigger pride),
violation of mutual fairness (anger), and events that happen to a group that
we identify with will trigger emotions in us [JU].
3.3 Concern (need, urge, drive, goal, utility, desire, motive) (x)
Concerns and other motivators is another set of ill-defined overlapping
concepts. A concern is the disposition of a system to prefer certain states of the
environment, and of the own organism over the absence of such conditions, see
Table 1 for a list of conditions. If the system detects problems related to
concerns then emotions develop [NF]. A concern can be universal, such as the

concern for physical well-being, or personal, and related to previous, current or
future events. Concerns can be abstract, such as the concern for democracy, but
they can also be very practical, such as worrying about a traffic stocking. That
concerns can be personal and situated is a problem for us here since it makes it
difficult to state general facts about QoL. This is because concerns are personal,
so will appraisal be, along with emotions, the actions taken and eventually the
perceived quality of life.
Needs are effectuated through drives and are low-level and non-conscious,
directed at achieving essential resources. Biological drives include hunger,
thirst and reproduction [DD]. We need to eat, mate, and shelter ourselves from
the storm, compare table 1. Needs can be seen as particular qualities of
experience that human demands for QoL. Complementing organic low level
needs are social needs (belonging, esteem), and self-actualizing needs
(mastery, control, variety, meaning …) [RV]. By asking people to rate different
needs a list of them was identified, and on top of this list were autonomy,
relatedness, competence, and self-esteem [KS2]. Autonomy means that the
activities chosen are self-endorsed, and relatedness is the need to be close to
others. Less important needs from the query were security, self-actualization
and physical thriving. Popularity/influence and money/luxury where not seen
as important according to the reference.
Another existential shopping list is provided by Roy Baumeister [RB2]. He

asserts four needs for meaning purpose, value, efficiacy and self-worth. These
needs are not necessary for survival but provide our lives with meaning.
Purpose is the need of a purpose for the activities you undertake. Values are
motivators for this purpose, efficacy implies that you have the ability to affect
your situation so that you can eventually reach your purpose. Self-worth, the
fourth need for meaning, is a positive attitude towards yourself, finding some
way to be superior to others.
One alternative and very famous suggestion for needs is the fundamental set
specified on different levels by Maslow. The levels he chose were physical
health, security, self-esteem, love-belongingness, and self-actualization. Self-
esteem is about achievement, status, responsibility, and reputation, whereas
self-actualisation is personal growth and self-fulfilment, i.e. becoming
everything one is capable of. Other researchers have complemented Maslows
hierachy of needs by aesthetic (beauty, balance, form ..), and cognitive needs
(knowledge, meaning, self-awareness). Yet other interesting suggestions for
needs, or urges, are curiosity, challenge and teaching [MT]. Curiosity is for
instance clearly seen in very young children, and there is no end to the number
of world records indicating the importance of challenge. Curiosity helps to find
something to challenge. The teaching urge is shown by that it is difficult to keep
a secret, and that it feels good to share your knowledge. SDT (Self-
Determination theory) is another line of thinking that postulates three innate
psychological nutriments for growth and well-being, competence, relatedness
and autonomy [ED]. Note that challenge and curiosity are important, if not
necessary, for achieving competence.
Goals need not be intrinsic, they can also be cognitive conscious creations,
with yet another variation of the theme being motives that arouse and direct

behaviour toward specific objects and goals. The big three motives are
achievement, power, and intimacy, all related to the social world [RL2]. They
are the most important motives from the following longer list by Henry
Murray; Achievement, Exhibition (to make an impression), Order (arrange
neatly, precision), Dominance, Abasement (admit inferiority), Aggression,
Autonomy, Blame-avoidance, Affiliation,/ Intimacy, Nurturance (to give,
assist, help, feed), and Succor (to help, assist).
Next step in the analysis would be to find even more fundamental reasons
behind all of the different concerns, and try to identify the most important
concerns and their reasons. Maybe there are reasons that affect many concerns?
One attempt to such an analysis is found in [BS2]. Starting from the three
general components situation, environment, and object the three major areas of
concerns found are power (hierarchy, competition, and submission), death
(violence, health, and self preservation), and love (friendship, hatred, and lust).
Reasonable choices.
3.4 Action tendency (coping strategies) (x)

If concerns are aroused then action tendencies develop. The following list
shows some possible tendencies with associated emotions given within
parenthesis [NF];
• Approach (Desire),
• Avoidance (Fear),
• Being-with (Enjoyment, Confidence),
• Attending (Interest),
• Rejecting (Disgust),
• Nonattending (Indifference),
• Agonistic (Attack/Threat) (Anger),
• Interrupting (Shock, Surprise),
• Dominating (Arrogance),
• Submitting (Humility, Resignation).

Another view formulates the behaviour of appraisal as something that triggers
coping strategies, see table 2 [JG].
Problem focused Active coping: taking active steps to try to remove or circumvent the stressor
Coping Planning: thinking about how to cope. Coming up w/ action strategies
Seeking social support for instrumental reasons: seeking advice, assistance,
or information
Emotion focused Suppression of competing activities: put other projects aside or let them slide.
Coping Restraint coping: waiting till the appropriate opportunity. Holding back
Seeking social support for emotional reasons: getting moral support,
sympathy, or understanding.
Positive reinterpretation & growth: look for silver lining; try to grow as a
person as a result.
Acceptance: accept stressor as real. Learn to live with it
Turning to religion: pray, put trust in god (assume God has a plan)
Focus on and vent: can be function to accommodate loss and move forward
Denial: denying the reality of event
Behavioral disengagement: Admit I cannot deal. Reduce effort
Mental disengagement: Use other activities to take mind off problem:
daydreaming, sleeping
Alcohol/drug disengagement
Table 5: Some common coping strategies
The table distinguishes between problem based (cognitive) and emotion

focused coping, but in most situations they interact.
4. Outer world
We will crudely divide the outer world into humans (H), information (I), things
(T) and nature (N). Here we will first discuss some contributions of nature to
QoL and then continue with a number of social aspects. We will come back to
technology (I,T) for later.
4.1 Natural environment

No species can survive in an environment solely of their own making.
Ian McHarg
Some of the resources provided by nature are; seas for swimming and surfing
with wind for sailing, trees for shadow, mountains to climb, wilderness to
explore with places for fishing possibilities for hunting, parks to stroll in, roads
to run, grass to play golf on. We have ponds, whales, bears, creeks, rivers,
ridges, capes, islands, refuges, turtles, willows, delicate arches, farms, horses,
landscapes, city squares, parks, suppers and motorcycles [EH]. Nature is rich!
We are all parts of this nature that will eventually kill us. Nature is our biggest
enemy, but also the provider of the resources we need to live. Over the
centuries man has always longed for mastery and control over nature and at a
local scale this dream has come through. If we do not want to we can avoid
wilderness and natural forces by spending most of our time indoors, and many
of us do this.

Still, nature can contribute to quality of life in many ways. Spending time in the
forest can foster physical fitness, coordination and endurance. The following
quote from a research report indicates the importance and potential of spending
time in nature; “Very pronounced impacts were reported by most participants
in various aspects of physical, emotional, and intellectual development and well
being. Challenge and immersion in pristine nature in the shared company of
others generally produced major and sometimes profound changes in self-
concept and enhanced capacity for coping and adapting. This experience
particularly resulted in increased self-confidence, selfesteem, independence,
autonomy, and initiative. Substantial, although less striking, changes were
observed in many elements of interpersonal relationship.” [SK]. There are also
other, indirect features of nature. One example is that; “forests contribute to a
better quality of living environment in the cities, for example by improving air
quality and consequently the health of urban residents. The leaves of trees can
take up many pollutants, e.g. ozone, nitric acid vapour, nitrogen dioxide,
ammonia, sulphur dioxide and particles (aerosols and dust). Some of these
pollutants can cause serious health problems.” [SB].
Some of the factors contributing to QoL are the psychological boosts from
effectively coping in an outdoor setting, doing this together with others,
resolving challenging situations, and acquiring new skills. As a side effect “The
wilderness experience has also been related to a greater awareness,
appreciation, knowledge, and concern for the natural environment” [SK].
What is it that pleases the individual, and satisfies by concentrating pleasure

stimuli? For vision, and if we use evolution as a master copy, we want to look at
safe, food-rich, explorable, learnable habitats and have friends. We also prefer
to look for fertile, mates, and at healthy babies [SP]. Any ordinary family
photo album can be used to verify these facts.
On an individual basis it is difficult to predict reactions. Aesthetics and

perception of beauty has the dual nature of being subjective and still consistent
over a population in relation to a culture. No is for instance the politically
“correct” answer to the question of whether the looks of a beautiful man or
woman bias our opinions on him or her. In reality most of us apply stereotypes
effectuating such bias. We will even make things worse by rationalizing our
reactions not as unfounded judgements, but as a result of some other, but
“politically correct” attribute of the person. Prejudices will consequently be
motivated as trustworthy judgements and affect our reasoning and perceptual
processing.
Spending time in nature is also reported to relieve stress and attentional fatigue,
enhance peace of mind, provide a quiet/natural soundscape, support feelings of
harmony, and even spiritual wonder and awe. Even simple exposure to a green
environment can reduce muscle tension, brain activity and blood pressure
within minutes [SB]. In summary it seems that nature has something to give to
us for most of the items listed in table 1. It can support emotional well-being,
interpersonal relations, material well-being, personal development, physical
well-being

4.2 Social world
Social interaction can be seen as the context of meaning making,
and at the same time its prime motivator”
Katja Battarbee [KB2, p16].
A philosophical, or rather sociological, school of thought focusing on social

emergent interaction is Symbolic interactionism (Blumer). The main premises
within this school are;
• People act upon and towards things according to the meanings they
have for them, e.g. memory from childhood
• these meanings arise from interaction with other people
• these meanings are handled in and modified by people in an
interpretative process
As can be seen from the premises, meaning is central, and meaning is created
when people meet. This meeting includes an interpretative process in action.
For this we need communication skills, but also empathy. It is crucial that we
can put ourselves in the situation of others to figure out what they are doing
when we observe them. We cannot fully accomplish this, and that might not
even be a good thing to do; “the solution need only be “good enough” for the
matters at hand” [PD, p 113]. Most of what we do and perceive is guesswork!
A man meets a girl in the corridor, stumbles and almost hit her. He smiles at her
and apologizes. She accepts his apology and smiles back. She cannot sense any
conscious intent on his behalf. She thinks that his smile is well motivated since
also she in that situation would be embarrassed by her clumsiness. He is
carrying some papers so maybe he is on his way to a meeting, probably late for it,
as she herself usually is.
Social systems favour the socially competent, and abilities such as guessing
thoughts and intentions of another individual are extremely valuable.
Imitation of behaviours is another important talent, and even very small
children follow the gazes of their parents. Social competence is also about
finding patterns, e.g. rituals, and using them. One example is that if you see
someone who twice gets really, really angry over dishes not done, you suspect a
pattern and perhaps make an extra effort the next day. Imitating the angry
father is a popular, and advanced, social activity. Research on a social
behaviour using a questionnaire selected the 20 out of 172 most important social
parameters for social competence. The items were altruism, amicability,
assertiveness, compassion, competence, compliance, duitifulness, eagerness
of effort, empathy, good impression, gregariousness, helpfulness, likeability,
modesty, responibility, sociability, socialization, straight forwardness, trust,
warmth [BR2].
The different lists of qualities of life given previously in this essay, see Table 1
contains mostly subjective qualities, starting from an individual’s goals and
interests. It is assumed that they sum up to quality of life for an individual. It is
also implicitly understood that the quality of a community is the sum of the
contributions by the participants. If however new qualities at the level of a
collective is found this might not be the whole truth.

QoL dimension Indicators and descriptors
1. Emotional well-being of a a. Contentment (satisfaction, moods, enjoyment)
group (family, department, b. Self-concept (identity, self-worth, self-esteem)
population, minority) c. Lack of stress (predictability, control)
2. Inter-group relations a. Interactions (networks, contacts)
b. Relationships (peers)
c. Supports (emotional, financial, feedback)
4. Group development a. Education (achievement, status)
b. Competence (cognitive, social, practical)
c. Performance (success, achievement, productivity)
6. Self-determination for a. Autonomy/ control (self-endorsed, independence)
a group b. Goals and values (desires, expectations)
c. Choices (opportunities, options, preferences)
7. Group inclusion a. Community integration and participation
b. Community roles
8. Rights a. Human(respect, dignity, equality)
b. Legal (access)
Table 6 QoL, selected aspects at the group level.
Table 6 above revamps selected parts from table 1 earlier in the essay. The new
table gives thoughts for discussion QoL on the group level.
Presence (x)
Presence is the experience of being there, in a situation or an environment,
participating in a cause-effect chain of actions. The internal representation of the
situation and the actions involved is called a frame, or a schema. Frames are
dynamic, socially shared, and can be culture specific. If you are present you
could be more or less aware of the directions of feelings and cognitive attention,
and presence increases as this awareness decreases [RR]. Another definition of
presence is as “the perceptual illusion of nonmediation”. Here, instead of
feelings and cognitive attention it is the awareness of the mediation that
decreases as presence increases. Presence can also be related to social presence,
i.e. to our awareness of a social environment, and in general three types of
presence can be identified, environmental, social, and personal presence. The
difference between environmental and personal presence is that for
environmental presence the environment takes you into account and reacts to
you.
To support a sense of presence several factors are important. A cultural

framework, the possibility of negotiation, and the possibility of action.
Presence is facilitated by the affordances of the context, and presence is
improved by ease of interaction, user-initiated control, realism and length of
exposure [RR3].
A first pre-requisite for a social environment is social presence, and tree

dimensions have been distilled; co-presence, psychological involvement, and
behavioural engagement. Co-presence is the degree that a person feels that he
or she is alone, i.e that she knows there is someone else at the same location (co-
location), or senses others while showing some aspect of herself or her activities
(mutual awareness). Psychological involvement is to what extent the person

attends, thinks about, senses, or responds emotionally to another person.
Behavioural engagement is about the interactions that constitute social
relations, e.g. when someone is dependent on an action by someone else.
Connectedness complements psychological involvement and describes a
situation where we know there is a person thinking about us, even though we
cannot directly sense it [RR]. The example given in the reference is that we send
someone a message just to tell that we are currently connected to the Internet.
The above discussion on presence focused on what it is, and how to keep it up.
Alternatively we can look at how it works and has evolved. The reference [GR]
suggests three levels of presence, proto presence, core presence and extended
presence. Proto presence is about the unconscious “embodied presence related
to the level of perception-action coupling”. The next higher level is core
presence where changes in core affect and perceptions are consciously
followed, and attention is directed according to evolutionary dispositions and
learned knowledge, i.e. “something arouses me, here and now, I see and hear
something, and I react to it”. This kind of presence still does not imply memory.
Extended presence is the highest level and is slower. Here perceptions and
emotions are integrated into a single experience, i.e. “this is what is happening
in this situation, I understand how it could affect me and my goals, I change my
plans accordingly”. Extended presence builds the frame we discussed in the
beginning of this section, and can be seen as a narrative structure involving us
that we can reflect on. The three levels of presence corresponds to three levels of
self built by evolution and since this structure has been developing over a long
time there is bound to be interactions between the different levels of self and
presence. Emotion is one example of a feature cross coupling them. Drinking
coffee while consciously identifying its taste changes presence and makes
conversation difficult.
Play (x)
It has been proposed that the whole society relies on play, Homo Ludens, “the
playing man” was suggested in a book with the same name by Johan Huzinga
1938; "It is ancient wisdom, but it is also a little cheap, to call all human activity
'play'. Those who are willing to content themselves with a metaphysical
conclusion of this kind should not read this book.". When you are playing a
game together with others all other aspects of life are forgotten, and the rules
are those defined by the game: “The management of tension, or the disparity
between the outside realities that are suspended and the gaming realities that
are played with, is essential to the success of game gatherings and game play.”
[KB, p56]. The participants have mutually agreed to contribute to the game, and
“only as participants can people then enjoy and have fun in winning. However,
participants may become too involved in the game and take it so seriously that
fun disappears. If people leave in the middle, because of this or some other
reason, the remaining participants have to work harder to try to maintain the
fun in the game.” [Goffman as cited in KB, p56]. The philosopher Herbert Mead
followed a similar thought and used (team-) games to describe how someone
aquires a view of the community, rather than of another individual participant;
“each of the players [in a game] view their own actions from the point of view
of a number of their fellow players at once, and indeed from the point of view
of the abstract and general purpose and role structure of the game as a whole”
[NC, p64].

Pleasurable meeting (x)
Some of the aspects involved in a pleasurable meeting, such as a conversation
at the social level are (Fiske):
• Situation, dinner at home or at a restaurant,

• Awareness, other people enjoying sushi,
• Identification of other participants: familiarity, the boss or an old friend,
e.g. living nearby, categories of people, roles, type of group
• History and expectations: norms, previous commitment, primacy, i.e.
knowledge about previous encounters, group belonging, self-
perception, or other contextual information, e.g. at a party
• Etiquette: rules for behaving pleasurably
• Sincerity and effort: time invested in the encounter
• Attachment: physical and emotional attraction
• Consequences: outcome important
Of all the above people primarily use the cues that catch attention, e.g.
novelties, unusual behaviour, or if there is only one man in a room filled with
women he will be noticed. The current mood could also affect behaviour, i.e. we
see good sides of people when in a good mood (Fiske). Given the above it is still
not clear when meetings develop into emerged experiences such as
depreciation, distrust, or love. External factors can be important here such as
working out at the same gym, or having a common friend. In general sharing
meaningful experiences, such as the ones in table 6 could encourage deeper
relationships.
Seductive expereince (x)

Another example of a social encounter is a seductive experience. It starts by
attracting the attention of the seduced. To hold the attention the experience next
makes a promise. This promise is what keeps the interaction alive which means
that it has to be matched against user aspirations, emotional or other. The
experience ends by fulfilling the promise, but could be kept alive for a long time
by partially fulfilling promises. A flirt between a boy and a girl usually involves
such partial fulfilments and a soap opera on television uses it to perfection.
Some clues to a seductive experience are (Khaskavsky):
• It diverts attention.
• It surprises.
• It creates an instinctive emotional response.
• It gives promises that matter.
• It fulfils some of these promises.
• It unexpectedly gives deeper understanding.
• It unexpectedly provides more than expected, i.e. it goes beyond
expectations, indirectly exposing a devoted creator.
The process could also be described as that the seducer tries to establish a
“social resonance” to snare the victim. If social noise and damping is overcome
the prey can be willingly seduced to almost anything.

Team spirit (x)
Individualism is a philosophical line of thinking arguing that a society first of
all is a number of individuals, and that if each of these individuals rationally
optimises their lives then the result will be a society worth living in. What
basically motivates humans is self-interest, and even if an act might seem
altruistic its motive is personal gain, for some deeds postponed to an afterlife.
Examples of hidden motifs are (Wikipedia):
• Satisfaction of a desire to comply with a given moral code

• Feeling of power, by making notable changes in one's environment
• The expectation of reciprocal beneficial action
• Pride and self-worth
One proponent for individualism is Ayn Rand who said in her one sentence
declaration: “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being,
with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive
achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”. If an
individual cannot see the best course of action, then who or what can? The
question is rather what to take into consideration.
The alternative to individualism is universalism, i.e. an act should be judged by

its contribution over time, and its affects on everyone and everything.
Utilitarism is a kind of universalism that preaches greatest amount of
happiness for the greatest number of people, and was marshalled by John
Stuart Mill. What to include in our universe when summing happiness is not
clear. Should we also include dogs in our equations as animal activists propose?
Clearly we are at least soon forced to consider Mother Earth and her climate.
As humans we have no problem of perceiving an organisation or a team as an

agent, and they are in fact social constructions. Such an agent can be perceived
to have powers and a purpose which they actively strive for. Members of a
football team identify with the team (we) and compete together, against the
other teams (them). The rules of a team could be quite extensive. A collective,
including a football team, needs an identity and a name. In the case of a football
team it also has a unique outfit. There are furthermore self-defining procedures
within an institution, a football team could for instance have a “personal” song
or chant to perform after a game has been won. A social reality is created and
supported, and a member of a football team can use this knowledge to have a
pretty good idea about what is going to happen in a game. He can also use the
knowledge and the accepted vocabulary to discuss a game or a situation within
a game with his team mates. Someone unfamiliar with football will not
understand much of what is going on.
Participants in an organisation can be trained to understand what is good for a

particular organisation. Other means for this are media, advertisements and
outright propaganda that have their own expressions for proposing and
supporting what should be done. In general any experience that has a bearing
on a culture can be used to modify the culture. However, the culture itself can
support or restrict what can be used, for instance through accepted moral
values. Note that accepted ways of thinking can (will) change over time, as the
reality for the organisation changes.

An interesting topic related to human groups in general, and a football team in
particular is “team spirit”. A game can be seen as a test of the team as a
community. In order for the team to be successful some of the requirements are
[LP]:
• Each team member’s role is clear and accepted by all.

• Each team member’s goals is agreed on, and should be verified against
the goal of the team. The team needs to monitor its performance,
discuss it, and compare it to the level agreed.
• Structure, practices, policies, and systems are understood and agreed
on by all team members goals are agreed on and adds up to the goal of
the team.
• Working relations are discussed and any problems dealt with
• Each team member develop a high level of satisfaction and
commitment.
• The abilities, skills, talents, and resources of team members are used to
the fullest.
Additionally the team must be adapted to its context, e.g. provided with a
satisfactory reward system. In action the team spirit can provide an experience
of each member for the team being carried by the others, a social form of flow.
When building such a team the following aspects are important [LP]:
• Trust
• Open, problem solving climate
• Decision making/problem solving responsibilities located
• Sense of ownership of organizational goals
• Shared perspective developed through collaboration within the group
• Awareness of group process and its consequences for performance
• Removal of obstacles for communication
You can join the team fan club, but you cannot join the team itself without the
required talents.
Consider a group of people. When will the group as a whole emerge an

experience? How many needs to join to trigger the emergence? When Sweden
plays England in football the streets are empty and occasional shoutings can be
heard from TV audiences looking at the game. Is it possible to enhance group
experience using technology?
In summary we are social beings and social aspects are very important for our
quality of life, which is also indicated by table 1 where all of the items listed are
socially grounded in one way or another.
5. Experience
After establishing a model for inner life in the previous section we go on to
discuss the content of the events that affects our inner life, including events that
are created by our inner life. An experience is the sensation of interaction with
a product, service, or event, through all of our senses, over time, and on both
physical and cognitive levels [NS]. Defined such, experience is a useful concept

when discussing QoL being an aggregation of whatever people encounter in
their lives. After a deep breath we will now attempt to dissect experience.
We are constantly interacting with our environment, attracted to favourable

experiences, and repelled by those that are not. A reasonable assumption is that
by evolution we are selected to be healthy and to feel good. Evolution has most
efficiently eliminated those of our forefathers who did not enjoy food, shelter
and company [RV]. Playing tennis with a friend is typically seen as more fun
than sitting in jail alone, and people who win Oscars on average live 4 years
longer than people who are nominated, but fail to win [RL].
Both cognitive and affective structures are active and interdependent when
information is processed. Even physiological aspects are involved. A human
infant tasting sugar will for instance relax the muscles of the middle face. So far
however no one has found any “centre of pleasure” in the brain, even though
there are several regions identified that contributes to feeling good [KB].
Luckily, a larger area in the brain seems to be allocated for positive experiences
than for negative. The issue of experience is further complicated by the many
feedback loops that exist in the system. Imagination is one example of a
phenomenon active in such loops: “Human beings have the ability to
manipulate their experience imaginatively, and this is one of the ways in which
they can bring it more sharply in focus and find greater significance in it.”
(Graham).
There are also other human experiences that have not been covered in the
discussion above. Some of them are:
• Commitment to a cause
• Pride
• Schadenfreude, enjoying the mistakes or bad fortunes of a rival.
• Fiero, personal triumph over hardship or impossible superiority.
Human lives are extremely rich!
Next, this section will present a layered model for the external relations and
interactions that provide the events and contexts for the inner system discussed
in the previous section. Each layer has its own set of interactions and relations
and manages channels for action, as well as guides attention. Each layer also
has its own affordances, i.e. its own properties and behaviours. In other words
the section is about how experiences are constructed through interactions.
The layers identified and presented here are the sensory layer, emotional,
intellectual/reflective/ideo layer, social, contextual, and the practice layer.
They are interdependent in the sense that each layer requires the services of the
lower layers and that higher layers can affect the behaviour of the lower levels.
It is for instance difficult to maintain a social relation without sensory
information. Despite the introduction of layers an experience should be seen as
a whole, developing over time within a single frame of interactions. Experience
emerges from the sum of the interactions at all of the involved layers.
Layers are chosen here either because they have been used in several models in
the literature or because they contribute with a unique perspective. Depending

on the definition of the terms involved and the purpose of the model many
different layerings are possible. One example is Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi who
uses the perceptual, emotional, intellectual and communicative
(transcendental) layers to describe interactions with art, i.e. to describe an
aesthetic experience [MC].
5.1 Sensory/Behavioural level

This layer supports experiences from interactions that are reflexive, palpable
(capable of being handled, touched, or felt), concrete, physical, material and
non-conscious. We hear, see, smell, taste or touch. Since senses are closely
related to the body they are experienced close to the body. A fundamental, and
important fact, is that sensed reality is a guess! It is as close as we get to reality,
but perceptions are many times wrong because they are guesses about objects
and situations that are made based on insufficient evidence. As an example a
small bird behaves in the same way whenever it perceives a moving shadow.
The moving shadow could be an eagle, and the bird quickly hides, but the
perception could represent almost anything else that moves. The reason for the
shortcuts taken is that human conscious perception, as well as the little bird’s,
are severely information limited. The trick used to overcome this problem is to
quickly refocus attention and sensory channels. Another property at this level is
that experiences are very short. Most of the time we do not reflect over them
since we are too focused on what we are doing rather than on how this doing is
perceived.
Experiences of this kind are generally short, but can be spread out over the
range of times from a delicate touch to an exquisite five course dinner. They
many times have a “first time effect”, and the sensibility to stimuli decreases
over time, e.g. the tenth roller-coaster ride does not arouse as the first one. This
can be seen as a kind of damping. More of the same is not always better. If we
manage to focus on a sensory experience caused by an object the subject-object
distinction is dissolved for as long as we can keep our focus.
5.2 Emotional
We have already discussed emotions in the section about inner life above. Here
we will add some notes on how we experience emotions. A pure emotional
experience is difficult to find (if it exists at all) and so is an experience that is
fully non-emotional. As most other experiences emotional experiences are
personal end situation dependent; “Emotional experiences consist of the
perception of situations rather than of stimulus event” [NF]. Furthermore, the
experiences built at this layer are based on reflexes difficult to consciously
guide, hide, or create.
Experiences, and specifically emotional experiences, are however not only

perceptions. As discussed above “they are readiness or possibilities to act, and
to pains and pleasures actual or forthcoming” [NF]. Emotional responses are for
instance important aspects of aesthetic experiences. For some viewers it can
even be the primary aspect [MC]. When we instead of just looking at a painting
use a system for a purpose then emotions can help us plan and make decisions
about how to use the system, as well as how to evaluate the outcome.
Emotional experiences can result from learned behaviour, but can also be

innate. The emotional layer might be the one that affects the other layers of
experience the most. Emotional experiences can for instance directly affect us
physiologically when blushing, or falling into tears.
The first impression, i.e. the first affective response is quite fast, which is not too
surprising considering the primacy of the emotional component. The
connection to the inner model is immediate, a work of art is for instance
immediately appreciated according to the viewer’s previous experiences or to
innate needs, and emotions are stirred. A photograph of a kitten raises quite a
different feeling from the same kitten photographed with its head cut off.
“Emotion is the “moving and cementing force. It selects what is congruous… thereby
giving qualitative unity to materials externally disparate and dissimilar” (Dewey)
Similar to sensory stimuli, also emotional stimuli decreases with novelty and
routine. Passion decreases, we get used to being bullied. Another feature of
emotional experiences is that people can observe their own emotions and also
to some extent influence them. One example is that deliberately smiling can
make you feel better. The first rock songs were forcefully declared as noise by
most people. As the audience learned to appreciate rock the bands further
developed the genre looking for new ways of expressing for instance emotions,
but they also opportunistically exploit record sales as guides to the right sound.
5.3 Intellectual/Reflective/Ideo pleasures

At this layer we add experiences that include conscious reflection. An
intellectual experience is highly dependent on training and consequently on the
values and norms in a specific society. If sufficiently trained, such a reflective
behaviour even can be reduced to routine. One type of intellectual experience
comes from problem solving, e.g. getting the right answer to a mathematical
problem makes one feel good. Even pounding on a problem or trying to
formulate it could be a stimulating experience this to some. Another type of an
experience is reflecting on the current situation or activity, i.e. making
awareness of something to an experience [NF]. A fantasy about how the current
situation could evolve is one example, and the result of this fantasy could
provide a new experience, for instance scare you. Studying action tendencies
can also be an interesting experience.
An important dependency of the other layers is that experiences from the

emotional layer flavour our reasoning, our decisions, actions and attention. This
for instance means that reflective designs need to deal with pride and
personality.
The lyrics of a rock song can be emotional, but could also be a political
statement to reflect over. A fugue by Bach is certainly an intellectual statement
with a rigorous internal organisation at different scales that needs to be learned
to be appreciated. Accompanied with a suggestive musical score lyrics can
make a deep impression.
Some sources for emergent experiences at this level are arguments and
discourses in general. It is difficult, if not impossible to foresee the result

(experience) of an argument, even over such a simple thing as what to have for
dinner.
5.4 Social
As noted above experiences at this level are very important. One example of a
positive social experience is establishing a new friendship, and in general
experiences at this layer imply communication among people. We are social
beings and this involves having extremely complex social experiences. This
among other things means that we experience empathy; I know that you know
that I know how something feels. Empathy is a deep well filled with potential
experiences. Because of our fundamentally social orientation we also tend to
attribute human characteristics to many aspects of the world. The man in the
moon is one example, “intelligent” dogs, fighting a fire, and preferring a
computer that behaves politely are other examples (Reeves).
“If the artist is completely sure of the experience of the audience,

it will often not be considered art, but “simply” communication”
D. Vyas
People express themselves for reasons, and to be properly interpreted

expressions must be decoded in their contexts, which might include a feedback
loop where the expressions of many people are involved. Noise at this level can
be exemplified by a cultural mismatch, e.g. misunderstandings because of
different gender. Joint commitments stabilize in a chaotic world and support
relaxed experiences based on trust, security and safety.
Experiences related to human communication depend both on how the

communication is done and on its content. We share experiences in many ways
either person to person, or one person to many. Whispering and yelling are
examples of behaviours to accomplish communication, and also mimicry, body
language, and emotion support social sharing [KB]. Yet another example is that
a work of art, if seen by the viewer as an artist communicating, can enhance
experience [MC], certainly most artists want to share something with their
viewers. Technology has overcome some previous constraints on
communicative experiences, and using a letter we now can postpone an
experience to a later time and another place. With a mobile phone an experience
can be shared instantly across any ocean. To what level such an experience can
be described as shared, compared to a face-to-face interaction, depends on the
common ground, joint personal experiences, joint communal experiences, and
possibilities for joint perception (gesture, salient events).
When the behaviour of groups of children was studied it was found that
children preferred exploring new products together [KB, p15]. This can be seen
as a special case of experience, a co-experience, which stresses the social context
of an experience; “experiences with products in terms of how the meanings of
individual experiences emerge and change as they become part of social
interaction.” [KB, p136]. Such an experience selectively focuses shared attention
on certain aspects, and enables mutual acceptance, acknowledge, and
reciprocation. In doing this we together choose what to ignore, make fun of,
downplay, and reject. The social constitution of the world described above is a
prerequisite for our behaviour. The conclusion by Battarbee is that “although

experience is in its essence most unique and subjective the way in which
experiences “come to life” is a social phenomena.
The fact that experiences are shared can be exemplified by that a bad experience
with the food at a restaurant affects more than the person who ordered the
food, and could change the reputation of the restaurant through word of
mouth. This example also suggests the inherent emergence in most social
experiences. The result of a social interaction is never easy to predict.
Social experiences cover a wide set of time spans, from a wink of the eye for a
split of a second, to a lifelong heart warming friendship. Declaring a friendship
as an experience is perhaps somewhat stretching the notion of experience.
Although it fulfils the criteria’s set up for an experience in the beginning of this
section the instances where the friendship is experienced are more vivid than
the dim perception of the whole friendship.
A social experience involves a sensory experience and is always interpreted

with respect to a situational context. Most social experiences have a potential or
fulfilled emotional ingredient and can be intellectually challenging and
rewarding. Face recognition even has the privilege of specialised, pre-allocated
areas in the brain.
The pervasiveness of social experiences also includes the inner model discussed
previously, making the whole human system deeply social. Many of the
attributes of appraisal, concerns, emotion and action avoidance listed in the
previous section are distinctly social. It has been argued that emotions are
interpreted culturally, and even that they are created culturally, Negotiation,
interpretation and inference are intertwined and heavily dependent on
emotions (Boehner).
5.5 Contextual
To start with we evolved out of the African savannah with semi-open views
(seeing without being seen), green surroundings, flowers, visible horizon,
landmarks such as big stones, trees for frame of reference, and multiple escape
paths. We are very much the result of an evolved animal and prefer contexts
that we are already adapted to. We can only survive within a very limited range
of environmental parameters. Moods depend on the surroundings and a
familiar, pleasant, environment will consequently help the user to relax and to
do a better work.
The context has many aspects; physical environment as discussed above of

course, but also situation, time, physical, virtual, technological (battery, screen
size), computational (cpu, memory and network capacity), social environment,
activity, self, user, the application used and a lot of others. These aspects are
partly overlapping, have many representations, and different spatio-temporal
characteristics.
The context can be defined as everything currently not directly involved in the
interaction giving the experience. One example is to have a conversation out in
the heavy rain compared to a chat out on the porch in the warm spring
afternoon sun. Changing place slightly by stepping under a roof to avoid the

rain will probably spark the conversation. Since humans are mobile this means
that physical context can change rapidly.
Grouping everything else as context easily hides the dynamics of the system.
Interaction at the contextual level takes place in most adaptive system. One
example is that technical development has drastically changed the conditions
for personal communication, which in turn affects where and how we use
communication. The context is by our definition not a direct part in the
interaction. This means that is usually does not adapt to the interaction on its
own accord. However, many experiences and their interactions are purposely
designed, and the designer can change the context to enhance the experience,
e.g. as in city planning.
The cultural environments where many people concurrently interact provide

contexts, but at the same time also a social interaction at a higher level. An
experience such as belonging to a group is one example.
The inner model in the previous section was described as a sequential cause-
effect chain. In a real situation there are many chains active in parallel, and one
way to view context is as a catalyst, promoting some chains or parts of chains,
and inhibiting other. Whether the door to the lion cage is open or not makes a
difference to the experience.
5.6 Practice
At this level we consider experiences gained from actually experiencing,
exploring or using a system in context, i.e. actions “towards, with, or through” a
system [NV]. The system at hand usually only affords a limited number of
interactions, and consequently a matching set of experiences. However, it is up
to the user to understand and explore the affordances possibly added by an
eventual designer, or even to invent new uses of an artefact. Practise is how we
make sense of the world.
Depending on the intentions of the user the available interactions and the
corresponding functionality might not be appropriate. Another problem could
be that the user cannot use the system because of low usability; perhaps the
system is inefficient, has bad ergonomics, or suffers from accessibility problems.
If the system is well behaved a positive user experience could emerge.
Whenever practise runs smoothly we could say that there is a resonance
involving user(s) and a system. Noise is anything preventing smooth operation.
To practical interactions we could add most activities in mundane everyday life,

and practicalities could affect and be affected by both emotional and other
layers of experience. Practising something is what people do, all of the time. If
we relate this to the inner model in the previous section we can think about
practising as exploiting and recording neural patterns. Experiences accompany
the activities performed. Examples of experiences at this level are the
experiences from dancing, or slamming the door shut versus closing it as
silently as possible in the night. Context is important for how we value an
experience. Doing a hole in one when no one is watching is a waste. Emotion
and moods also affect how a particular experience is valued. Practices could be

highly intimate and private, or they could be activities of a social community. In
either case they are collective phenomena established through social interaction.
The philosopher Heidegger stated that being is about exploring the world using
tools. An example of a tool could be a blind mans stick. The idea is that we can
only experience the world up to the point that we have explored it using our
tools. This seems like a limited life, but it is not so bad since tools can be almost
anything that helps us to explore, such as using language.
To practise is to be embedded in an interactive task, with a goal, it is directed.

The optimal golf swing is an extreme example of a complex practise. Each part
of the swing can be trained separately but the smooth flow of the combined
motion of a professional performing a swing demands years of practise. Doing
something well and being appreciated for this is one of the best experiences.
Practising something automates behaviour and simplifies adding layer to layer
of practices.
5.7 An example (x)

Let us now discuss a slightly more complete example, a smile. Its intention is
basically to signal and induce a positive emotion. A smile for less than 1ms will
not be detected so there will be no experience at the receiving side. The sender
on the other hand can experience a number of different experiences, e.g. a relief
that a misguided smile was not detected. If the smile is 100ms long it might be
detected, but the recipient will not be sure about seeing it. The experience could
be just about anything depending on the context.
To be smiled at for a couple of seconds is a nice experience and we are socially

inclined to smile back, perhaps adding an extra emphasis on the smile if this
suits us. Who knows where the escalating sequence of experiences could lead?
If the smile continues for a minute, or more, we will start to feel uncomfortable.
At the intellectual level we analyse the experience and ask ourselves, “What
does this person mean by smiling all of the time? ”. Your initial happy smile
fades or stiffens into a grimace. The effect of your reaction will determine your
next move.
The original physical representation of a smile is a facial expression

accomplished by moving muscles. But, in the right mood you can also see the
man in the moon smiling. The perfect smile might be the smile of Mona Lisa
deigned by Leonardo da Vinci. Or, is maybe the hint of a smile from your first
born the ultimate smile? Try to think about an ugly smile. What makes it ugly?
Its representation or context? As suggested above the meanings of people’s
interactions depend heavily on context. It is easy to smile at a party where there
is a lot of happy people.
The smile could confirm an unspoken agreement, or be used to signal

sympathy. It could be used for personal gain in which case the smile should feel
natural and not as an attempt of manipulation. An actor needs to produce a
number of different smiles at the right time in a theatre play. Standing in front
of the mirror smiling can be explored until the right composition is found, for
instance for the character of Count Dracula ☺.

6. Flow
Flow is the optimal presence, and it is the optimal experience, i.e. the ultimate
mindfulness [MC]. This sounds as a rare experience, but flow might also be
more common that you could think. Where you for instance lost in the previous
sentence a couple of seconds ago? Prerequisites for flow are:
• A task with clear goals to complete.

• Immediate feedback.
• Ability to concentrate on the task.
• Sense of control over actions.
In the state of flow the duration of time seems to change, concern for self,
awareness of worries disappears, and after the experience a stronger sense of
self emerges. To achieve this it is however important that skills and challenges
matches the person, see figure below.
Anxiety Flow
Level of
challenge
Apathy Boredom
Level of skill
Figure 4. Model of flow.
People will accept or be faced with a level of challenge, and as skills develop
and new challenges emerge over time they will be forced towards the upper
right corner in figure 4. Also, note how easy it is to match the prerequisite for
flow to how a successful game affects a player.
More on flow (x)

Challenge can be generalised to the level of complexity that a person faces.
Boredom then means that we face a situation with low complexity compared to
what we can manage. This difference between situational complexity and
ability is called incongruity in [RN] and the figure below shows a person in two
different situations and how learning and adaptation affects incongruity for
situation 1.
Complexity Situation 2
Learning/Adaptation
Incongruity
Situation 1
Version 4.175 Context Person

Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 30
Figure 5. Incongruity (adapted from RN]).
The figure is interesting since it suggests a definitely dynamic framework for

experience, to be discussed soon. The figure also suggests that all experiences
are individual, since incongruity is individual, as well as context and situation
specific.
We can assume an equivalence to flow also in social activities. Too much

control reduces complexity, and without enough challenge we get bored. Too
much variation, i.e. a high level of social complexities that we cannot handle.
A simple solution to tweak the current situation is to use drugs, other

disputable strategies are over consumption of food, fat, and sugar.
We as human prefer a medium level of uncertainty, see figure below. Total

predictability will be dull and grey (at best), and even worse is the ultimate
chaos without any patterns of stable references. We, in other words prefer a
semichaotic environment.
High Situation2 Optimal new

situation
Pleasant-
Situation1
ness
Level of arousal High
Figure 6. Optimum level of arousal (uncertainty).
Now, if we return to figure 5 above, let us follow the reasoning from [RN]. Flow
means that contextual complexity must be larger than the individual’s current
level of skills and knowledge. Also, a medium arousal level is sought. If the
challenge is too low we will get bored and look for novelty, i.e. for a more
complex (challenging) situation or context. If this is not possible we have to
change context or situation. However, when we find ourselves in a comfortable
situation it is sadly only a temporary match and relief. Either we adapt, or the
situation develops into something we cannot handle. The problem is not as
acute in a social environment where the participants can co-develop, but even
there the context can endanger a long-term relationship.
If we consider media enjoyment, such as reading a book, watching a video, or

playing a game, a suitable tension is sought between the cognitive abilities of
the interpreter and the complexity and other characteristics of the media
message. We can view experience as a story, possibly socially constructed,
where we can be one of the participants. Enjoyment results from moving in

between over-stimulation and under-stimulation providing different levels of
arousal. To what extent that we are able to extract the message from a media,
and experience arousal depends on disposition, but also to a large extent on
training.
7. Meaning and value of experience

This section will refine the analysis of experience further and discuss how
meaning resulting from experiences can be modelled and evaluated. This is an
area where a multitude of views exists and we will only be able to give a broad
selective overview of what has been thought. The discussion is important
because ultimately meaning is what counts.
An extensive framework for experience relevant for our discussion is provided

by Nathan Shedroff [NS]. The idea is to help designers and management to
think about how products are perceived and for this a number of characteristics
affecting an experience are identified:
• Intensity (reflex, habit, engagement)

• Breadth (price, promotion, channel/environment, name, brand, service,
product)
• Significance (function, price, emotion/lifestyle, status/identity,
meaning)
• Triggers (by sense or cognitive (concept, symbols))
• Duration (initiation, immersion, conclusion, continuation)
• Meaning (beauty, accomplishment, creation, sense of community or
oneness, duty, enlightment, freedom, harmony, justice, redemption
from undesirable conditions, security, truth, validation by others,
wonder)
The last item of the list, meaning, is what interests us most here. In the
reference it is defined as “a distinct level of cognitive significance that
represents how people understand the world around them”. This is also how
we will use the word in this essay. Meaning supposedly integrates emotional
and cognitive, as well as cultural factors, and is very important to all of us.
Many of the suggested meanings listed above can be rephrased as a person
living out a culturally specific frame. They can also be experiences in
themselves, e.g. as in felt freedom.
An alternative set of human meanings is defined in the reference (Nordström).

The suggestions are: Challenge, Novelty, Motivation, Variation, Creativity,
Control, Communication, Appropriation, and Social opportunities. Most of
them are self-explanatory, except perhaps appropriation, which refers to the
fact that every experience will be related to the sense of our self, our personal
history, and our anticipated future. This means that an experience is a personal
affair and the better it is tuned to the perceiver the more meaningful it can get.
A personal meaning is an interpretation of the world and it manifests itself as

an excitation of a neural pathway or pattern in a particular brain. This pathway
or pattern can be innate (established by evolution) or cultural (trained). The last
statement could be read as if meaning is something internal to a human being,
but in general meaning is emerged as the result of interactions outside of the

human, and what is perceived as internal is an imprinted reflection of the
external interactions. Meanings are contextually constructed and if expressed
then this is done through interactions, emergence and adaptations for instance
modelled as the types H-H, H-I, H-T. Because of the changing context, and of
the complexity of the processes of emergence and adaptation, meanings are
often ambiguous and open for interpretation. Depending on a changing context,
i.e. what has happened before, the same smile in a thriller could be jovial or
devilish even within a quite similar scene.
The problem that the word meaning has many possible interpretations is
elegantly illustrated in the following quotes found in Wikipedia concerning the
question “What is the meaning of life?”: "What is the origin of life?", "What is
the nature of life", "What is the significance of life?", "What is valuable in life?",
and "What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?".
7.1 Value
When we assign preference to a meaning we have a value. Values are beliefs,
standards, criteria that people hold and can use for evaluation of “good”,
“bad”, “must”, and “ought”. Values can be held, but also assigned to specific
objects, events, situations, or actions. Cultures also nurture values, including
moral values that tend to be acquired by inhabitants. One survey by Rokeach
proposes 18 values that influences people; a comfortable life, an exciting life,
a sense of accomplishment, a world of peace, beauty, equality, freedom,
happiness, inner harmony, nature love, national security, pleasure, salvation,
self-respect, social recognition, true friendship and wisdom. To live a good
life the instrumental values are ambitious, open-minded, capable, cheerful,
clean, courageous, forgiving, helpful, honest, imaginative, independent,
intellectual, logical, loving, obedient, polite, responsible, and self-controlled.
Not everyone checks the whole list.
The assignment of a value could be innate, or learned, and values together

constitute the principles, standards, or qualities which guides human actions
(Wikipedia). To explore some of the differences between meaning and value let
us take an example. Imagine that you attend to a dance performance. The
evening has been planned for a long time to celebrate the birthday of a dear
friend, and you really have looked forward to it. The expressive movements of
the dance and the rhythmic music make you feel good, and you would certainly
say that the performance has an aesthetic value to you. The dance is called “Me
and Thailand” and your guess is that the dance is an artistic interpretation of a
particularly joyful vacation. The tempo of the dance increases and you can feel
that the whole audience is intensely focused on the dance, immersed in the
experience. The dancer notices this and increases her efforts. Your sense of
community or oneness heightens the experience even more into something
valuable at a social level. After a short intermission the dance commences again,
but now in a different, lower, tempo. You glance at the theatre programme and
see the title “Fly CO2”. The dance is still enjoyable, but its meaning has now
changed. Even the first joyful dance can now be seen as an ironic political
statement. The meaning of the whole night is however still the same.
An experience with many different meanings and values has emerged

(consciously or not). The show was appraised and valued; both by you, your

friend, the rest of the audience, and even by all of you in concert. Referring back
to figure 2 it is reasonable that values for individuals and groups should be
consistent with and even correspond to the appraisals in figure 2.
Values are preferred meanings that guide human actions. They are not easily
changed when learned, and stabilizes human societies [Duneier as cited by KB].
It is reasonable to assume that they could be used as a framework for human
behaviour and to characterize quality of life.

The figure 7 below illustrates another set of values used for predicting and
explaining attitudes, opinions and actions within a society and across nations
[SS].
Openness to Self
change transcendence
Self-
Universalism
direction
Stimulation
Benevolence
Hedonism
Conformity
Achievement Tradition
Power Security
Self
enhancement Conservation
Figure 7. Values.
Power is an indication of social status and prestige, control or dominance over

people and resources (social power, authority, wealth). It can be the result of
achievement, i.e. personal success through demonstrating competence
according to social standards (successful, capable, ambitious, influential).
Following and accepting tradition counter individual charges savouring
respect, commitment and acceptance of the customs and ideas that traditional
culture or religion provide the self. Keywords are humble, accepting my
portion of life, devout, respect for tradition, moderate. Conformity also
constrain the individual by restraining actions, inclinations, and impulses likely
to upset or harm others and violate social expectations or norms (politeness,
obedient, self-discipline, honouring parents and elders). Universalism supports
understanding, appreciation, tolerance and protection of the welfare of all
people and of nature (broadminded, wisdom, social justice, equality, a world at
peace, a world of beauty, unity with nature, protecting the environment).
Benevolence complements by interests by reservation and enhancement of the
welfare of people with whom one is in frequent personal contact, being helpful,
honest, forgiving, loyal, and responsible.
Hedonism is the pleasure and sensuous gratification for oneself. Life should be
enjoyed and this implies stimulation, e.g. excitement, novelty, and challenges
in life (daring, a varied life, an exciting life). Making it by yourself your own
way is self-direction where independent thought and action-choosing, creating,
exploring is important. Some keywords are (creativity, freedom, independent,
curious, choosing own goals). Finally security is favoured, safety, harmony and

stability of society, of relationships, and of self (family security, national
security, social order, clean, reciprocation of favours).
Note that values interact and in particular that values at the opposite ends of
the circle many times will be in conflict. It is for instance difficult to maximise
personal power without threading on someone’s toes, i.e. without sacrificing
universalism or benevolence.
Next we try to dig deeper and start by identifying a number of categories of

values; ethical, aesthetical, doctrinal, innate, or potential, see figure 3 below.
Value
Doctrinal (personal, cultural) Potential
Ethics Aesthetic Innate

Norms
Permissible Moral Beauty Sublime
Right/Wrong Virtue Pleasant …
Figure 3 Values
Ethics is the study of values and include the discussions about, good-bad,
virtue-vice, moral-immoral-amoral, right-wrong, permissible (allowed) or
impermissible. Moral is about what is judged as just, of questions of good-evil,
and right-wrong; about conforming to standards of behaviour and character
based on those principles.
Norms add to this by first starting from a particular culture and secondly by
socially enforcing the rules of this culture, i.e. by making sure that the norms
are followed. Norms define how a group of people think that the world
should be. Let us take an example. If we not wear a helmet when bicycling we
might feel uncomfortable getting all these glances from people wearing them. A
new law could enforce wearing, and if even this does not change behaviour
then media might start a campaign moralising around the issue. Not wearing a
helmet will be characterised as something wrong, and discussed at length in the
newspaper, and, as a last resort if even this fails media could present
helmetlessness as something evil to mankind.
We will come back to the values virtues and aesthetics soon, but before that we
would like to frame the discussion by first proposing a number of human
universals, and second by presenting a standard for measuring quality of life by
using life-chances.
7.2 Virtues
One of the sets of values in figure 3 above is the virtue, i.e. a positive character
trait. In Western cultures virtues might include (Wikipedia):

Acceptance, accountability, adventure, altruism, agape, appreciation,
assertiveness, autonomy, awareness, balance, beauty, being beautiful in spirit,
calm, care for others, charity, chastity, cleanliness, commitment, compassion,
confidence, consciousness, continence, co-operation, courage, courtesy,
creativity, critical thinking, curiosity, democracy, dependability, detachment,
determination, diligence, discipline, education, effort, empathy, endurance,
enthusiasm, equality, etiquette, excellence, fairness, faith, fantasy, fidelity,
focus, foresight, forgiveness, fortitude, freedom, free will, friendship,
generosity, gentleness, happiness, helpfulness, honesty, honour, hope,
hospitality, humility, humanism, humour, idealism, imagination,
individualism, independence, innocence, integrity, intuition, inventiveness,
justice, kindness, love, loyalty, magnanimity, mercy, moderation, manners,
modesty, morality, non-violence, nurture, obedience, openness, optimism,
patience, perspective, peace, perfection, perseverance, piety, potential,
prudence, purpose, respect, responsibility, restraint, satisfaction, self-
awareness, self-discipline, self-esteem, self-interest, self-reliance, self-respect,
sensitivity, service, sharing, sincerity, socialism, spirituality, sympathy, tact,
temperance, tenacity, tolerance, tradition, trust, truth, truthfulness,
understanding, unpretentiousness, unselfishness, utility, wealth, well-being,
wisdom, zeal.
The list above consists of desired personality traits, desirable not only because
you want others to have them for your sake, but also because you know that
others value them and consequently will value you if you have them. One point
should be obvious and that is that the number of virtues is quite high.
Human lives are extremely rich! Yeah!
7.3 Human universals (x)

In this section we will list human universals collected by social researchers over
the last fifty years. They serve as a list of what we humans are and a frame of
reference when we think about QoL. We start with a list by George Murdoch
[GM].
Age grading, Community organisation, Cooking, Cooperative labour,

Cosmology, Courtship, Dancing, Decorative art, Divination, Division of labour,
Dream interpretation, Education, Eschatology (end of the world), Ethics, Ethno-
botany, Etiquette, Faith healing, Fire making, Folklore, Food taboos, Funreal
rites, Games, Gestures, Gift giving, Government, Greetings, Hairstyles,
Hospitality (also a virtue?), Housing, Hygiene (also a virtue?), Incest taboos,
Inheritance rules, Joking, Kin groups, Kinship nomenclature, Language, Law,
Luck superstitions, Magic, Marriage, Mealtimes,Medicine, Obsterics (treatments
concerning giving birth), Penal sanctions (punishment by law), Personal names,
Population policy, Postnatal care, Pregnancy usages, Property rights,
Propitation (gain the favour of) of supernatural beings, Puberty customs,
Religious rituals, Residence rules, Sexual restrictions, Soul concepts, Status
differentiation, Surgery, Tool making, Trade, Visiting, Weather control,
Weaving.
A much longer list was generated 45 years later by Donald Brown. What is
given below is a short edited version with the most interesting items (Brown).

The listed universals are most probably not the only ones and questionable as
truths. However, they are interesting as starting points to frame the human
condition and evolution. What aspects of reality are responsible for a certain
universal? Jungle? Savannah? Social behaviour? Raising a child in the jungle?
Hunting behaviour?
Actions under self-control Belief in supernatural/religion, Beliefs, false, Beliefs

about death, Beliefs about disease, Beliefs about fortune and misfortune, Body
adornment, Childbirth customs, Childcare, Collective identities, Conflict,
consultation to deal with conflict, means of dealing with conflict, mediation of
Containers, Cooking, Cooperative labor, Corporate (perpetual) statuses,
Cultural variability, Culture, Culture/nature distinction, Customary greetings,
Daily routines, Death rituals, Differential valuations, Directions, giving of,
Distinguishing right and wrong, Diurnality (active in daytime), Division of
labor, Dreams, Economic inequalities, consciousness of Entification (treating
patterns and relations as things), Environment, adjustments to, Ethnocentrism
(look at the world from perspective of own culture), Facial communication,
Fairness (equity), concept of Family (or household), Fear, of death, overcoming
Feasting, Food preferences, Future (attempts to predict), Good and bad
distinguished, Gossip, Healing the sick (or attempting to), Hope, Identity,
collective Imagery, In-group distinguished from out-group(s), Institutions
(organized co-activities), Interest in bioforms, Judging others, Kinship statuses,
Law (rights and obligations), Law (rules of membership), Leaders, Making
comparisons, Male and female distinction and characterisation, Marriage,
Materialism, Mealtimes, Measuring, Mood- or consciousness-altering
techniques and/or substances, Moral sentiments, Murder proscribed, Music,
Myths, Narrative, Oedipus complex, Oligarchy (de facto), Pain, Planning, Play,
Poetry/rhetoric, Practice to improve skills, Pretend play, Pride, Private inner
life, Promise, Proverbs, sayings, Rape, Reciprocal exchanges, Rhythm, Risk-
taking, Rites of passage, Rituals, Role and personality seen in dynamic
interrlationship (i.e., departures from role can be explained in terms of
individual personality), Self-control, Self distinguished from other, Self as
subject and object, Sex statuses, Sexual attraction, Shame, Shelter, Snakes
(wariness around), Social structure, Socialization, Socialization expected from
Senior kin, Statuses and roles, Sweets preferred, Taboos, Tabooed utterances,
Territoriality, Tickling, Time, cyclic, Tool dependency, Toys (playthings), Turn-
taking, Units of time, Visiting, Weapons, World view.
We can also add another set of universals often explored in literature, film and
theatre. We have envy, loyalty, betrayal, tragedy, despair, destiny, jealousy,
admiration, greed, heroism, courage, camaraderie, trust, promise, tricking,
obedience, revenge, and of course love and hate.
A problem with the discussion in this essay is to find stable grounds from
where to start the discussion. There are no models that are valid over a larger
range of disciplines or even a larger group of researchers within a discipline.
Partly this is because of the complexity of the problem and partly it is because
of the nomenclature and meaning of words differs. It seems that the field is big
enough for everyone and every discipline to have a go at the ultimate truth
without listening to anyone else.

References
[AR] Anat Rafaeli, “Emotion as a onnection of Physical Artifacts and
Organizations”, Organization science, vol 15, no 5, 2004, p 671-686.
[BA] B. Anderson, “Information Society Technologies and Quality of Life“,
Chimera working paper number 2004-09
[BF2] B. Fogg, “Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We
Think and Do”, ISBN 1-55860-643-2
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Quality of Life

Introduction and overview

An essay by Håkan Gulliksson,

Beware, human lives are extremely rich!

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 1

1. Quality of Life ........................................................................................................................................ 3

2. Happiness (subjective well-being)......................................................................................................... 5

3. Inner life ................................................................................................................................................. 8

4. Outer world .......................................................................................................................................... 15

7. Meaning and value of experience ....................................................................................................... 32

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 2

A sweeping assertion is that development and designshould improve Quality

Quality of life for design is a number of suitable dimensions of value

As is indicated by figure 1 we will focus on QoL at the individual level with

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 3

A list of the most used QoL dimensions, sometimes referred to as life-chances

QoL dimension Indicators and descriptors

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 4

• What people are willing to pay for it.

2. Happiness (subjective well-being)

Happiness is an individual’s appraisal of life. It is a personal sampling of life

From Table 1 in the previous section we have a number of QoL dimensions.

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 5

Action/event Happiness Average hours per day

Table 2 A list of courses of events and their happiness index [RL]

An overall assumption in this essay is that happiness can be increased by

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 6

More people in wealthier developed countries, where housing and food is

One important finding is the positive correlation between happiness and

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 7

Emotional well-being is based on interactions and emotions serve many

Concern Cognition Attention

Figure 2 Inner life as a network of interacting components.

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 8

On the periphery of the circle spanned by activation and pleasantness we can

Figure 3 Core affects and their combinations.

More on pleasure and play

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 9

We continuously seek the right level of pleasure, and by pleasure we evaluate

A problem with pleasure pointed out by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick is

A characterisation of humans as pleasure hunters is the basis of the Hedonism,

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 10

A special case of pleasure is having fun, enjoying ourselves, which as a field of

Table 2. Distraction vs Absorbation (Blythe cited by Nordström).

Play is often referred to as a pleasurable activity, involving a sense of freedom

1. Play mirrors and consolidates the development of cognitive stages.

In general a pleasurable activity is an amusement or enjoyment, i.e. a practise of

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 11

3.2 Appraisal (x)

Appraisal variable Explanation

Table 4 Appraisal varaiables [JG].

• novelty (surprise amazement …),

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 12

Another existential shopping list is provided by Roy Baumeister [RB2]. He

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 13

3.4 Action tendency (coping strategies) (x)

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 14

Table 5: Some common coping strategies

The table distinguishes between problem based (cognitive) and emotion

4.1 Natural environment

Version 4.175 Håkan Gulliksson 2010-06-03 15

What is it that pleases the individual, and satisfies by concentrating pleasure

On an individual basis it is difficult to predict reactions. Aesthetics and