The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide a comprehensive reference work on scientific and other scholarly research on the quality of life, including health-related quality of life research or also called patient-reported outcomes research. Since the 1960s two overlapping but fairly distinct research communities and traditions have developed concerning ideas about the quality of life, individually and collectively, one with a fairly narrow focus on health-related issues and one with a quite broad focus. In many ways, the central issues of these fields have roots extending to the observations and speculations of ancient philosophers, creating a continuous exploration by diverse explorers in diverse historic and cultural circumstances over several centuries of the qualities of human existence. What we have not had so far is a single, multidimensional reference work connecting the most salient and important contributions to the relevant fields. Entries are organized alphabetically and cover basic concepts, relatively well established facts, lawlike and causal relations, theories, methods, standardized tests, biographic entries on significant figures, organizational profiles, indicators and indexes of qualities of individuals and of communities of diverse sizes, including rural areas, towns, cities, counties, provinces, states, regions, countries and groups of countries.

The entire first series of the BBC family sitcom following pompous, upwardly-striving Muslim businessman Mr Khan (Adil Ray) and his hard done-by family. Living in Sparkhill, part of Birmingham's 'Balti Triangle', with his house-proud wife (Shobu Kapoor) and two rebellious daughters Shazia (Maya Sondhi) and Alia (Bhavna Limbachia), the distinctly retro, self-styled leader of the community constantly tries to get others to see the wisdom of his ways, without much success.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on `Stress and Communities', Château de Bonas, France, June 14--18, 1994

The Society for Life History Research in Psychopathology is a group of investigators from many disciplines who share an interest in studying the longitudinal aspects of psychiat ric disorder. Sociologists, psychologists, statisticians, psychiatrists, epidemiologists, and others each bring to the study of life history the expertise and vantage point arising from his or her unique training and experience. This volume, the fifth in a series, is devoted to explor ing the methods used to contribute to the understanding of the complex unfolding of a human life as it avoids, copes with, or succumbs to psychiatric disorder. We hope that by describing these methods, their current status, advantages, and short comings, this volume can serve as a guidepost to all who are involved in our field to help understand it further and to generate solutions for the many crucial problems we face. J. S. H. B. M. R. Contents Introduction . . . . . 1 John S. Strauss, Haroutun M. Babigian, and Merrill Roff SECTION I CONTROLLED VS. NATURALISTIC APPROACHES CHAPTER 1 Controlled vs. Naturalistic Experiments: Application of the Life Table Method 7 Myrna M. Weissman CHAPTER 2 The Psychiatric Case Register: A Versatile Device for the Application of Multiple Methodological Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Haroutun M. Babigian and Dolores B. Jones CHAPTER 3 A Survey of Issues Related to the Analysis of Observational Data in Longitudinal Research . . 43 John E.