Experience-based Logic Of Life:Empirical Research On Quality Of Life In Hubei Province Residents

Based on the bi-dimensional analysis from objective and subjective perspectives, this research empirically evaluated the Quality of Life (QoL) in Hubei province residents. Specifically, on the one hand, in light of the sustainable development theory, I established an indicator system that included 19 index and represented 7 aspects of objective QoL, i.e. economic aggregate and personal income level, public service, education and medical resource, medical technology level, science and communication, ecological environment and industrial and domestic pollution. Then I used principle component analysis to demonstrate the changing pattern of objective QoL in 17 cities of Hubei province during the period of 2008 to 2012. Results showed that:from vertical perspective, the level of objective QoL in each city improved respectively within the designated time frame; from horizontal perspective, the development speed of 17 cities was unsynchronized and different evidently; spatial distribution analysis further pointed out that double development poles of Hubei have already formed in eastern and western regions respectively. In addition, these findings also revealed that the central part of Hubei province played a key role in the national strategy of "the rise of central China".On the other hand, the data of questionnaire surveys carried out in Hubei province between 2003 and 2012 depicted the average tendency of subjective QoL of Hubei residents, and the results of these investigations suggested that with the rapid development of Hubei economy, the overall subjective QoL had been elevated. However, the improvement tendency was not linear, but showed a certain degree of instability. Next, through examining the relationship between macro-level socio-economic indicators and subjective QoL, I found that objective factors do not necessarily have positive effect on residents' subjective QoL. Deeper statistical analysis further pointed out that psychological experience factors, such as self-perceived socio-economic status and self-perception of social justice environment, had remarkable impact upon subjective well-being and life satisfaction towards public domains, whereas objective social status factors showed unstable effect. Moreover, the research on the disadvantaged group of Wuhan migrant workers also showed that when controlled for other conditions, the psychological experience factor, namely self-identity cognition, still imposed significant influence upon their life satisfaction.On the strength of aforementioned research results, I argued that subjective QoL stemmed mainly from subjective experience-based rationality rather than the objective economic rationality. I further proposed a theoretical framework called "psychological experience projection of objective conditions", which is designed to explain the influencing mechanism of subjective QoL.