This book is concerned with the human conflict between needs and means, between material wants and lack of resources to satisfy them. Looking at both individuals and some segments of society, the authors measure economic well-being and define its objective and psychological bases, its dimensions, and its relationship to economic incentives. In the introduction an operational model of the interactions is presented as a conceptual framework. The articles in the book report on results of investigation in areas of research and development that have emerged from the model. Section I includes five papers that examine the sources and measurement of economic well-being. Their titles are (1) Economic Life Styles, Values, and Subjective Welfare; (2) Well-Being, Goals, and Motivation for Economic Advancement; (3) Persistence of Belief in Personal Financial Progress; (4) Effects of Social-Psychological Factors on Subjective Economic Welfare; and (5) Personal Efficacy and the Ideology of Individual Responsibility. Papers in Section II explore the use of indicators of economic well-being as performance criteria and as components for an early warning system of individual maladjustment and social conflict. Titles of these papers are (6) Economic Well-Being as a Criterion for Performance: A Survey in Bulgaria and Greece; (7) The Quality of Consumption; (8) Economic Deprivation and Societal Discontent; (9) Factors Affecting Social Change; and (10) Responses to Economic Adversity: An Agenda for Research in a Changed Environment. (Author/ND)