About the Quality of Life Inventory®

Table of Contents

About the QOLI 3

1 Brief Description 3

2 About the Author 3

3 Quick Facts 3

4 Scales 4

5 Norm Groups 4

6 Report Options 4

7 Scoring and Reporting Rules 4

8 Data Export Labels 5

9 FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) 6

Copyright © 1988, 1994 Michael B. Frisch, PhD. All rights reserved.

Pearson, the PSI logo, and Psych Corp are trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries
of Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliate(s). QOLI is a registered trademark of Michael B.
Frisch, PhD.

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 About the QOLI

1 Brief Description
The QOLI assesses the importance of 16 quality of life dimensions to an individual and
the degree to which the individual is satisfied or dissatisfied with each area in his or her
own life. The areas include health, self-esteem, goals and values, money, work, play,
learning, creativity, helping, love, friends, children, relatives, home, neighborhood, and
community.

Providing a non-pathological measure of an individual’s mental health, the QOLI was

designed to augment measures of negative affect and psychiatric symptoms. It can
be usefully employed in treatment planning and counseling and can also serve as an
effective measure of treatment outcome.

2 About the Author

Michael Frisch earned his doctorate from the University of Kansas in 1981. He is
currently Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at Baylor
University. His publications include a number of studies involving the assessment of
social skills and quality of life and the relationship between these factors and treatment
planning and efficacy.

3 Quick Facts

Author: Michael B. Frisch, PhD

Publisher: Pearson
Date of Publication: 1988
Appropriate Ages: 17 and older
Norm Groups: Nonclinical adults
Minimum Reading Level: 6th grade
Administration Time: Approximately 5 minutes
Assessment Length: 32 questions
Areas Assessed: Health, Self-Esteem, Goals and Values,
Money, Work, Play, Learning, Creativity,
Helping, Love, Friends, Children,
Relatives, Home, Neighborhood, and
Community
Report Options: Profile Report
Progress Report

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 4 Scales
Not Applicable

5 Norm Groups
Norms for the QOLI are based on 798 nonclinical adults sampled from 12 states
representing the four major U.S. geographical regions: the Northeast, the South, the
Midwest, and the West. The final sample is 65% female and 35% male. The average age
is 36, and the average individual has 3 to 4 years of post-high-school education. Blacks
and Hispanics account for 14% and 13% of the sample, respectively.

6 Report Options
Profile Report
The QOLI profile report graphically presents the overall quality of life score and
a weighted satisfaction profile for the sixteen areas assessed. It also provides a
brief narrative description of the person’s overall classification and lists areas of
dissatisfaction that may need further exploration.

Progress Report
The progress report summarizes the results of up to five administrations of the QOLI.
It can be used to document the changes in a person’s quality of life that result from
treatment.

7 Scoring and Reporting Rules

Administration Scorability Rules
The administration of this assessment cannot be scored if any of the following
conditions are true:
• Identification number is missing or invalid, or first or last name of examinee is missing
or invalid
• Administration date is missing or invalid
• Birth date is missing or invalid
• More than one scale has omitted or invalid item responses
• Age is less than 17
• All 16 Areas of Life are marked Not Important
• Birth date is later than the administration date
• All responses must be properly filled in first

If an administration is unscorable, you must fill in the appropriate responses or raw

scores before you can score the instrument.

Report Invalidity Rules

Report invalidity rules describe circumstances in which a valid interpretation cannot be
made. Common examples are too many missing responses, a examinee’s age that is
outside the appropriate range, an abnormal score on an assessment’s validity index,
and an uninterpretable profile configuration.

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 7 Scoring and Reporting Rules continued
This report is invalid if any of the following conditions are true:

None

Unless you have modified your default system settings, you will always be asked whether
or not you want to print an invalid report. An on-screen message will briefly describe the
invalidity condition and the data you will receive if you print the report. For example, an
invalid report might include a printout of raw and transformed scores, but the scores
would not be plotted and no interpretation would be attempted.

Scale Invalidity Rules

A scale is invalid if either of the items on the scale is omitted or has multiple responses.
If the examinee indicates that all 16 areas of life are “Not Important,” no scores are
generated, the overall quality of life classification is not provided, and the clinician is
advised to talk to the examinee about his or her unusual response pattern.

8 Data Export Labels

Demographic Description Special Values

Data (if applicable)
ExamineeID Examinee’s identification number
BirthDate Examinee’s birth date
AdminDate Date of administration
Gender Examinee’s gender (1=Male; 2=Female)
OptionA User-defined variable (numeric
characters only)
LastName Examinee’s last name
FirstName Examinee’s first name
MI Examinee’s middle initial
Lithocode Lithocode that appears on the
assessment scan form
Custom1 Custom field #1
Custom2 Custom field #2
Custom3 Custom field #3
Custom4 Custom field #4

Score Data Description Special Values

(if applicable)
HLTH Health Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
SELF Self-Esteem Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
GOAL Goals-and-Values Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
MONY Money Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
WORK Work Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
PLAY Play Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
LERN Learning Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
CREA Creativity Scale Score (-99=Invalid)

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 8 Data Export Labels continued

Score Data Description Special Values

(if applicable)
HELP Helping Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
LOVE Love Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
FRND Friends Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
CHLD Children Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
RELA Relatives Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
HOME Home Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
NEIG Neighborhood Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
COMM Community Scale Score (-99=Invalid)
QOLI_R QOLI Raw Score (-99=Invalid)
QOLI_T QOLI T Score (-99=Invalid)
QOLI_P QOLI Percentile Score (-99=Invalid)

Item Response Description Special Values

Data (if applicable)
Q1 through Q32 Item responses for questions 1 through coded as shown on the
32 answer form (- = Omitted)

9 FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Why should I use a nonpathologically oriented “happiness” assessment?
The QOLI opens up a whole new area of assessment by broadening the criterion of
“mental health” to include personal happiness and life satisfaction in addition to
the absence of psychiatric symptoms. The QOLI gives you a positive mental health
instrument to augment other psychological assessments that focus on negative affect
and symptoms.

The QOLI can be used as a screening tool for mental health and physical problems.
A low quality of life score is often a key symptom of psychological and physical
disturbances and may also predict future health problems.

Addressing quality of life issues can also be crucial to the success of treatment.
Some examinee’s are discontent, even though their symptoms have remitted with
treatment, because their quality of life has not improved. There is even some evidence
that symptom reduction and improved functioning in everyday life cannot occur in
psychotherapy unless the patient’s quality of life is enhanced.

Finally, the QOLI can help clinicians develop relevant treatment plans by focusing
both examinee and therapist on “real world” aspects of life, like work situation, living
arrangement, etc. These areas can often be changed more quickly than cognitive or
psychodynamic factors can.

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 9 FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) continued
Can the QOLI be used for outcomes measurement?
Yes, the QOLI Progress Report can be used for individual outcomes measurement for
interventions alleviating either physical illness or psychological disorders.

Aggregate QOLI data can be used to evaluate the outcomes of diverse therapies to
determine which type works best for which patients to improve their quality of life.

The QOLI can also help managed care providers objectively demonstrate that their
services have improved a patient’s quality of life. A 1992 Psychotherapy Finances
article on managed care indicated that employers and payers will be tying income to
providing effectiveness in three areas: 1) work functioning, 2) use of medical benefits,
and 3) improved quality of life.

What if an area of life is not important to the test taker?

Areas that are rated “Not Important” are not included in QOLI score calculations.

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