In relation to health, quality of life is defined in terms of difference between reality, or perception of reality, and expectations (Calman, 1984). Quality of life has also been referred to as an affective response to one’s role situation and values (Andrews and Withey, 1976). The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined “Quality Of Life” as “an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and

value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns” (WHO, 1996). The WHO states that quality of life is affected by an interaction of the individual's health, mental state, spirituality, relationship and elements of their environment (WHOQOL.BREF, 1996).

Some authors define QOL in terms of life satisfaction or satisfaction of needs (e.g. Campbell et al., 1976), or as ‘a person's sense of well-being that stems from satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the areas of life that

are important to him/her' (Becker et al., 1993).

Andrews and Withey (1976) reported evidence showing how people’s feelings about various life domains can be used to predict their general sense of well-being. These researchers found that people’s feelings about specific domains of life and their OSWL are all positively related (positive eta’s and r’s) and correlations ranged from .10 to.70. Their findings also showed that 50 to 62 percent of the variation in people’s scores on the global life measures can be explained in this way. Diener and Seligman (2002) compared a group of college students in the upper 10% of happiness to two groups whose happiness levels were considered average and very low (i.e., bottom 10% happiness level).