Spirituality, Religiousness, and Personal Beliefs in the WHO’s Quality of Life Measurement Instrument (WHOQOL-SRPB)

Abstract

Abstract This chapter turns to the mid-1990s, when the WHO’s Division of Mental Health developed a scale for the assessment of quality of life (WHOQOL) which departed radically from most such instruments at the time: it applied to both well and unwell populations, it was developed through a broad, systematic consultation process across various cultural settings, and it measured subjective well-being rather than the functional normality of a person. This chapter shows how throughout the 1990s, the Division developed a module for the WHOQOL to assess a hitherto overlooked aspect of well-being, which it termed ‘spirituality, religiousness and personal beliefs’ (SRPB). In its development, the researchers applied the same rigorous cross-cultural consultation that marked the WHOQOL methodology; but rather than identifying conventional biopsychosocial facets of quality of life, they brought together a group of medical and religious experts who sought to find commonalities across complex theological questions.