*** Welcome to piglix ***

Culture and positive psychology


Cultural differences can interact with positive psychology to create great variation, potentially impacting positive psychology interventions. Culture influences how people seek psychological help, their definitions of social structure, and coping strategies.

Research shows that cultural factors affect notions of perceived happiness. The current general literature discusses positive psychology into two categories: Western and Eastern. Cultural psychologist Richard Shweder argues that these factors help shape what people deem is good, moral, and virtuous. Westerners seek rewards on more of a physical plane, while Easterners seek to transcend the physical plane to a spiritual one. Western literature generally stresses autonomy, individuality, and personal satisfaction, while Eastern work generally focuses on harmony, collective cooperation, and group satisfaction.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, anthropologists and psychologists used race and culture as factors that influence positive and negative behaviors and attitudes.{Snyder, Lopez, Pedrotti (2011). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations of human strengths (2nd ed.)} This led to a culturally deficient perspective, used for some groups to assert dominance over others through eugenics. American psychologists G. Stanley Hall and Henry Goddard Hall were among some of the notable figures to adopt this view. By the mid 20th century, the dominant viewpoint was that culture did not predetermine life outcomes; instead differences were the consequence of environmental factors. The culturally different perspective holds that unique strengths can be highlighted within every culture.

David Satcher was among the first to emphasize the influences of culture on mental health. Cultural differences occur both between and within nations. Social psychologists have supported the notion that humans are "social animals".


...
Wikipedia

...