Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Positive Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Well-Being and Cultures

Part of the book series: Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology ((CAPP,volume 3))

Abstract

This introductory chapter attempts to bring together the main ideas and findings of this book within an integrative perspective, based on a broad theoretical framework encompassing interdisciplinary and methodological issues. Special emphasis is given to some open issues in the theory and assessment of culture-related dimensions and to the potential of positive psychology in addressing them. An overview of the contribution to current research in positive psychology provided by each chapter of this volume is also offered.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Conference website: www.enpp2010.dk

  2. 2.

    Retrieved online, January 15, 2012, at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4

References

  • Acerbi, A., Enquist, M., & Ghirlanda, S. (2009). Cultural evolution and individual development of openness and conservatism. PNAS, 106, 18931–18935.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, P. P., & Hinde, R. A. (Eds.). (1976). Growing points in ethology. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, A., Killmer, C., Siegrist, J., & Schaufeli, W. (2000). Effort-reward imbalance and burnout among nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 31, 884–891.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, D., & Marecek, J. (2008). Positive psychology: History in the remaking? Theory & Psychology, 18, 591–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, P. L., & Luckman, T. (1966). The social construction of reality. New York: Doubleday & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R., Richerson, P. J., & Henrich, J. (2011). The cultural niche: Why social learning is essential for human adaptation. PNAS, 108(Suppl 2), 10918–10925.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Christopher, J. C., & Hickinbottom, S. (2008). Positive psychology, ethnocentrism, and the disguised ideology of individualism. Theory & Psychology, 18, 563–589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delle Fave, A., & Bassi, M. (2009). Sharing optimal experiences and promoting good community life in a multicultural society. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 280–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delle Fave, A., Brdar, I., Freire, T., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Wissing, M. (2011a). The eudaimonic and hedonic components of happiness: Qualitative and quantitative findings. Social Indicators Research, 100, 158–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delle Fave, A., Massimini, F., & Bassi, M. (2011b). Psychological selection and optimal experience across cultures: Social empowerment through personal growth. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel. The fates of human societies. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E. (Ed.). (2009). Culture and well-being. Dordrecht: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas, R. (2003). Personality, culture, and subjective well-being: Emotional and cognitive evaluations of life. Annual Review of Psychology, 54, 403–425.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, R. (2009). Where is culture in cross-cultural research? International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 9, 25–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, R., Vauclair, C. M., Fontaine, J. R. I., & Schwartz, S. H. (2010). Are individual-level and country-level value structures different? Testing Hofstede’s legacy with the Schwartz value survey. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 41, 135–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, M., & Brockmeier, J. (2001). Narrative integrity: Autobiographical identity and the meaning of the “good life”. In J. Brockmeier & D. Carbaugh (Eds.), Narrative and identity: Studies in autobiography, self, and culture (pp. 75–99). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gavin, J., & Mason, R. (2004). The virtuous organization: The value of happiness in the workplace. Organizational Dynamics, 33, 379–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich, J., Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (2008). Five misunderstandings about cultural evolution. Human Nature, 19, 119–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hofstede, G., Bond, M. H., & Luk, C. L. (1993). Individual perceptions of organizational cultures: A methodological treatise on levels of analysis. Organization Studies, 14, 483–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Inglehart, R., & Baker, W. E. (2000). Modernization, cultural change and the persistence of traditional values. American Sociological Review, 65, 19–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jablonka, E., & Lamb, M. J. (2005). Evolution in four dimensions. Genetic, epigenetic, behavioural and symbolic variations in the history of life. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirkman, B. L., Lowe, K. B., & Gibson, C. (2006). A quarter century of culture’s consequences: A review of empirical research incorporating Hofstede’s cultural values framework. Journal of International Business Studies, 37, 285–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kristjansson, K. (2010). Positive psychology, happiness, and virtue: The troublesome conceptual issues. Review of General Psychology, 14, 296–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laland, K. N., Odling-Smee, J., & Feldman, M. W. (2000). Niche construction, biological evolution, and cultural change. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 131–146.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leung, K., & Bond, M. H. (2004). Social axioms: A model for social beliefs in multicultural perspective. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 36, 119–197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, L., & Gilmour, R. (2006). Individual-oriented and socially oriented cultural conceptions of subjective well-being: Conceptual analysis and scale development. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 9, 36–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maslach, C., & Goldberg, J. (1998). Prevention of burnout: New perspectives. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 7, 63–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W., & Leiter, M. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Massimini, F., & Delle Fave, A. (2000). Individual development in a bio-cultural perspective. American Psychologist, 55, 24–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Na, J., Grossmann, I., Varnum, E. W., Kitayama, S., Gonzalez, R., & Nisbett, R. E. (2010). Cultural differences are not always reducible to individual differences. PNAS, 107, 6192–6197.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Newson, L., Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2007). Cultural evolution and the shaping of cultural diversity. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology (pp. 454–476). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oishi, S., Kesebir, S., & Snyder, B. H. (2009). Sociology: A lost connection in social psychology. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 13, 334–353.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2006). Character strengths in fifty-four nations and the fifty US states. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 118–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues. A handbook and classification. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, F. C., & Guignon, C. B. (2008). Positive psychology and philosophy of social science. Theory & Psychology, 18, 605–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richerson, P. J., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone. How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sauter, D. A., Eisner, F., Ekman, P., & Scott, S. K. (2010). Cross-cultural recognition of basic emotions through non-verbal emotional vocalizations. PNAS, 107, 2408–2412.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, S. H. (1992). Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, S. H. (2006). A theory of cultural value orientations: Explication and applications. Comparative Sociology, 5, 136–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slife, B. D., & Richardson, F. C. (2008). Problematic ontological underpinnings of positive psychology. Theory & Psychology, 18, 699–723.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Super, C. M., & Harkness, S. (1986). The developmental niche: A conceptualization at the interface of child and culture. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9, 545–569.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strimling, P., Enquist, M., & Eriksson, K. (2009). Repeated learning makes cultural evolution unique. PNAS, 108, 13870–13874.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tafarodi, R. W., Bonn, G., Liang, H., Takai J., Moriizumi S., Belhekar, V., & Padhye, A. (2011). What makes for a good life? A four-nation study. Journal of Happiness Studies, Online First, 19 August 2011. DOI 10.1007/s10902–011–9290–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaalsiner, J. (1998). The guided mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaalsiner, J. (2007). Personal culture and conduct of value. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 1, 59–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veenhoven, R. (2010). World database of happiness, collection happiness in nations. Rotterdam: Erasmus University. http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/ Accessed January 4, 2012

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Hans Henrik Knoop

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche Luigi Sacco, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Antonella Delle Fave

Authors
  1. Hans Henrik Knoop
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Antonella Delle Fave
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hans Henrik Knoop .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Education, Aarhus University, Niels Juels Gade 84, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark

    Hans Henrik Knoop

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche Luigi S, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via G.B. Grassi 74, Milano, 20157, Italy

    Antonella Delle Fave

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Knoop, H.H., Fave, A.D. (2013). Positive Psychology and Cross-Cultural Research. In: Knoop, H., Delle Fave, A. (eds) Well-Being and Cultures. Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4611-4_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation