It turns out that this is a question I am in the early stages of researching (which of course is not very helpful for the course you are now teaching, but will be great if you get a chance to teach it again in a few years!) Work I've seen so far suggests the answer is yes. For instance, spending money for the sake of others predicts increased happiness, living up to value commitments leads to satisfaction, and performing moral acts increases both happiness and sense of purpose. I've found less work about the mechanisms that drive these results and the long term effects, which I hope to remedy in the near future. Citations for a few relevant articles are below.

Dunn, Elizabeth W., Lara B. Aknin, and Michael I. Norton. 2014. “Prosocial Spending and Happiness Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 23(1):41–47.

Hitlin, Steven. 2007. “Doing Good, Feeling Good: Values and the Self’s Moral Center.” The Journal of Positive Psychology 2(October):249–59.

Hofmann, Wilhelm, Daniel C. Wisneski, Mark J. Brandt, and Linda J. Skitka. 2014. “Morality in Everyday Life.” Science 345(SEPTEMBER):1340–43.

Take a look at the European Social Survey (can be analyzed online). There is plenty of data on human values and quality of life.

http://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/data/online_analysis.html

I do not believe it. Moral life is learned in the family.

Hello

I would have thought that living within your own moral code is associated with feeling comfortable within yourself . . .  which could be extrapolated towards quality of life?

These papers discuss the subject to some degree:

Veenhoven, R. (2013). The four qualities of life ordering concepts and measures of the good life. In The exploration of happiness (pp. 195-226). Springer Netherlands.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ruut_Veenhoven/publication/23545417_The_Four_Qualities_of_Life/links/0deec523b4b565dc49000000.pdf

King, L. A., & Napa, C. K. (1998). What makes a life good?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 75(1), 156.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Laura_King5/publication/13599639_What_makes_a_life_good/links/02e7e525ef3a594c46000000.pdf

It's quite a philosophical question isn't it?

It will be interesting to see what other RG members say.

Best wishes

Mary

Article The Four Qualities of Life

Article What Makes a Life Good?

Is there a connection between a person's moral life and their quality of life?

I think there can be a connection between a person's moral life & his / her quality of life.  Because when a person is subscribing certain moral philosophy e.g. Utilitarianism, Kantanism etc might prompted him or her to think / decide / behave / live his or her life differently from others.  Of course there can be other factors influencing quality of life e.g. ambition, passion, hardworking, persistent etc.  Also when a person's quality of life including how s/he was brought up in the family, early education, community practices etc can influence the person's moral life / perception.  Perhaps we can do more literature review or conduct a study to collect some empirical evidence.  Thank you for the good question. 

In philosophy the question of how to live ones life (the Good Life; related to the Aristotelian Eudamonia) is also/often understood more broadly, i.e. that is not just restricted to morality (that what we should do, mores). Many philosophers look into the question whether (and if so how) it helps us, enriches us, to act morally. I am not sure that answer helps you with yours.

Insofar as their is an aesthetic dimension to morality (as philosophers as diverse as Aristotle and John Dewey have maintained) then yes, there is a connection between a person's moral life and the quality of his/her life. As Dewey once observed, the double meaning of the term "fair" is no accident. 

The European Social Survey mentioned above assess value priorities (i.e. which values people find more/less important as guiding principles in their lives). It does not have data on whether people live by their values or don't. Overall, the correlations between values and behavior are not overly high (see Bardi & Schwartz, 2003). So I wouldn't use the theory of basic human values (that ESS values block is based on) to look at what you want to look at. 

My intuitions would be similar to those of Mary Wilson, that unethical behavior may be stressful.

I also think that there's somewhat of a paradox here: behaving ethically requires self-control and modification of initial impulses (see the Kouchaki paper) so it is also stressful/cognitively demanding. 

However, it's also likely that there are long-term benefits - ethical people are treated better (I'd look for research in economic psychology on that), and ethical people may internalize how they are treated and like themselves better (using the same logic that is used in the sociometer theory of self-esteem). Which would probably translate to saying "I am satisfied with my life" more often (which is what QoL basically is). 

It turns out that this is a question I am in the early stages of researching (which of course is not very helpful for the course you are now teaching, but will be great if you get a chance to teach it again in a few years!) Work I've seen so far suggests the answer is yes. For instance, spending money for the sake of others predicts increased happiness, living up to value commitments leads to satisfaction, and performing moral acts increases both happiness and sense of purpose. I've found less work about the mechanisms that drive these results and the long term effects, which I hope to remedy in the near future. Citations for a few relevant articles are below.

Dunn, Elizabeth W., Lara B. Aknin, and Michael I. Norton. 2014. “Prosocial Spending and Happiness Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 23(1):41–47.

Hitlin, Steven. 2007. “Doing Good, Feeling Good: Values and the Self’s Moral Center.” The Journal of Positive Psychology 2(October):249–59.

Hofmann, Wilhelm, Daniel C. Wisneski, Mark J. Brandt, and Linda J. Skitka. 2014. “Morality in Everyday Life.” Science 345(SEPTEMBER):1340–43.

Another way to think about this is to consider more abstract concepts of anxiety and morality. For example, Heidegger and Kierkegaard respond to this existential worry in very different ways, but their responses may be helpful to consider the rightful role of anxiety (i.e. to consider the near or distant future).  In other words, does the angst of existing have a relationship to whether or not we act (or think) morally? And, in turn, does this affect how we consider our quality of life? I suspect deep-rooted anxiety has a key role in this question. 

Thank you for the interesting question and I enjoyed reading and reflecting the answers. I agree with the notion that 'a connection between a person's moral life and their quality of life' , however some external factors may moderate the connection. In addition, quality of life may be defined differently. I apologise that this is based on personal opinion, no literature support etc. And yes, ideally, ethical people are treated better. You would be very fortunate to have this situation.

My answer would be "Yes, but..."

Here are some "but" related points:

1. Most people consider being moral a central aspect of their self-identity. As part of their moral identity, people aspire to be moral, and they also aspire to be seen as moral by other people (e.g., Aquino & Reed, 2002). These two components are not the same.

2. In line with manifestations of self-enhancement and better-than-average illusion, most people think they are generally moral, and easily find examples to corroborate the feeling that they are a bit more moral than others. In class, you can use a short questionnaire to demonstrate it. One option is to embed the following three questions (you can use different wording) in a list of filler questions: (i) Do you consider yourself a good/moral/honest person? ; (ii) Recall a recent good deed from the past week that made you feel good/worthy/honest; and (iii) Recall a recent bad deed from the past week. Something minor that kept bugging you or that you wished you could 'undo'.

Based on the research of behavioral ethics I believe your students will report they consider themselves moral (e.g., reasonably moral, honest as the next person, a bit more honest than the average student). I believe they will also be able to recall both good and bad deeds...

(You can also use relevant items my MASC scale - it is on RG).

3. Research also shows that people use various justification mechanisms that allow them to do wrong and feel moral at the same time (e.g., Shalvi et al, 2015).

Thus, statistically, since most people feel moral, the variance of 'morality' will be limited and it will be difficult to establish a relation with reported quality of life.

Furthermore,

4. As regards quality of life - research shows that most people report the same levels of well-being (with averages usually, just above the midpoint of the scale). See Kahneman, Diener and Schwarz (1999).

The limited variance of well-being will make it even more difficult to show a statistical relation between morality and quality of life.

One more point for thought - a moral person who reflects on his/her moral misconduct (experiencing guilt, anxiety etc.) may have lower quality of life than a less moral person who can easily disengage and/or forget their wrongdoing...

Maybe students will benefit from discussing why it is so difficult to establish relation between morality and quality of life.

Person moral life & quality both go hand in hand & they become the hands of every human beings .Person moral life is the resulting fruits of our earlier action of our life of previous lives. With this our present up bringing & the environment behind us also help us considerably for person moral life.

Person moral life becomes a different said of meaning for every individuals according to the reading habits ,moral & cultural background. Under this no individual can afford to take a new adventure of their moral code of thinking .

Certain moral codes should be acceptable to entire human beings .No one can afford to ignore the moral codes of life. Truth ,obedience respect ,honesty ,sincerity , integrity must remain the foundation code of our moral values .

Individual may judge with his moral quality of life .Apart from the ref of moral codes mention character in every respect remains the foundation of quality of life .

This is my personal opinion