Huodegan: A Novel Index Reflecting Both Individual Wellbeing and Social Development

This book empirically develops a new concept, “sense of gain”. By addressing four interrelated and progressive questions, this book clarifies the conceptualization of the sense of gain, develops three kinds of psychometric-sound instruments for various research purposes, demonstrates the diagnosis function of the index, and explores the social influencing factors. The sense of gain can be conceptualized as a two-faceted (i.e., psychological wellbeing and perceived social development) and ten-dimensional (i.e., economic level, political rights, stylistic education, social livelihood, ecological protection, satisfaction, ability, target, friendly, happily settled) theoretical construct, which can categorize the general population into four categories.
The level of the sense of gain can be measured by 70-item, 30-item, and 10-item instruments. A series of influencing factors, such as demographics, household type, population mobility, and socioeconomic status, were preliminarily identified. Future studies should focus on the development of a longitudinal nationwide database and systematically investigate the promotions and barriers of the sense of gain to further understand this kind of comprehensive individual and social wellbeing index.