Varieties of Happiness: Mapping Lay Conceptualizations of Happiness in a Spanish Sample

Research on lay conceptions of happiness is essential to determine what is investigated in happiness studies. Whereas psychological investigation has traditionally emphasized the importance of studying people's everyday conceptions and their relation to cultural and social factors to advance psychological theory, this line of research is still largely overlooked in the field. The Spanish context has also received very limited attention in the area. To fill these gaps, this paper examined 547 lay definitions of happiness in a sample of Spanish participants. The aims of the study were threefold. First, to map and classify the definitions elicited through an open-ended question using a bottom-up approach. Second, to analyze the relationship of happiness definitions with different sociodemographic factors. Third, to explore the relationship between happiness conceptualizations and two different happiness measures. The final classification yielded 39 codes, 15 categories, and 3 overarching types of definitions. Three main findings resulted from the study. First, happiness emerged as a highly heterogeneous concept characterized by diverse social, psychological, and theoretical descriptions. Social types of definitions stood out in the sample. Second, most definitions varied significantly with sociodemographic factors. Third, happiness scores tended to show no significant association with happiness definitions. Implications derived from these results were discussed. Altogether, the paper highlights the value of exploring lay conceptions of happiness to advance toward a more comprehensive and fine-grained understanding of what happiness means for -and, to a certain extent, of how it is experienced by- people of different cultural backgrounds and social settings.

Happiness Maximization Is a WEIRD Way of Living

Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why "happiness maximization" might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat (i.e., faced relatively light existential pressures compared with other regions). We review the influence of the Gulf Stream on the Northwestern European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealize attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for happiness maximization, we also studied some of its potential side effects, namely alcohol and drug consumption and abuse and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we reanalyze data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction-the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology-involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level.

Virtue, well-being, and mentalized affectivity

Virtue ethics, featuring the claim that virtue leads to wellbeing, has been imported by psychologists from philosophy. In the first part of the paper, we re-examine the source of virtue ethics in Aristotle's philosophy and question whether virtues can be the path to eudaimonistic well-being for us, given that contemporary society differs from ancient society in terms of a lack of consensus about virtues. We focus on the modulation of emotions as a good starting place for reconstruing virtue ethics, and we affirm a connection to well-being through the construct of "mentalized affectivity", which is a specific kind of emotion regulation. In the second half of this hybrid paper, we provide evidence for the link between mentalized affectivity and well-being, based upon an empirical study with an adult sample (N=558). Our study examined how the Mentalized Affectivity Scale (MAS) predicts subjective well-being compared to five commonly used and related measures: Difficulty with Emotion Regulation Scale; Emotion Regulation Questionnaire; Flexibility Regulation of Emotional Expression scale; Reflective Functioning Questionnaire; Toronto Alexithymia Scale. The most important finding is that the MAS and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale are most predictive of satisfaction with life. A second finding, less relevant for the present paper, is that the MAS (namely, its components of Identifying and Processing) strongly predicted psychopathology, including anxiety and mood disorders. This suggests that the MAS is a valuable tool for research on emotion regulation, well-being, and psychopathology, and that mentalized affectivity ought to be regarded as a promising construct for re-describing and specifying the contemporary relevance of virtue ethics.

Wellbeing-responsive community: a growth target for intentional mental health promotion

With mental illness remaining a significant burden of disease, there is an ongoing need for community-based health promotion, prevention, and responses (or "mental health promotion activities"). The health promotion, community development, and positive psychology literature identifies significant heterogeneity in the design and delivery of these activities. This variability spans: (1) individual vs. group outcomes, (2) psychological vs. sociological determinants of change, (3) promoting wellbeing vs. reducing mental health symptoms, and (4) the degree activities are contextualized vs. standardized in design and delivery. Mental health promotion activities do not easily accomplish this level of complexity within design and implementation. This has led to the emergence of the complexity-informed health promotion literature and the need for innovative tools, methods, and theories to drive this endeavor. This article directly responds to this call. It introduces "wellbeing-responsive community": a vision and outcome hierarchy (or growth target) for intentionally delivered mental health promotion. The construct enables the design and implementation of interventions that intentionally respond to complexity and contextualization through the drivers of co-creation, intentionality, and local empowerment. It represents a community (support team, programme, agency, network, school, or region) that has the shared language, knowledge, methods, and skills to work together in shared intent. In other words, to integrate best-practice science with their local knowledge systems and existing strengths, and intentionally co-create and deliver contextualized wellbeing solutions at both the individual and community levels that span the "system" (e.g., whole-of-community) to the "moment" (e.g., intentional support and care). Co-creation, as applied through a transdisciplinary lens, is emerging as an evidence-based method to respond to complexity. This article describes the rationale and evidence underpinning the conceptualization of a wellbeing-responsive community through the integration of three key disciplines: (1) positive psychology, (2) ecological or systems approaches, and (3) intentional practice (implementation science). A definitional, contextual, and applied overview of the wellbeing-responsive community is provided, including a hierarchy of outcomes and associated definitions. Its purported application across education, mental health, community service, and organizational settings is discussed, including its potential role in making complexity-informed health promotion practical for all knowledge users.

If you're happy and you know it: neural correlates of self-evaluated psychological health and well-being

Psychological health and well-being have important implications for individual and societal thriving. Research underscores the subjective nature of well-being, but how do individuals intuit this subjective sense of well-being in the moment? This pre-registered study addresses this question by examining the neural correlates of self-evaluated psychological health and their dynamic relationship with trial-level evaluations. Participants (N = 105) completed a self-evaluation task and made judgments about three facets of psychological health and positive functioning-self-oriented well-being, social well-being and ill-being. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, self-evaluation elicited activity in the default mode network, and there was strong spatial overlap among constructs. Trial-level analyses assessed whether and how activity in a priori regions of interest-perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and ventral striatum-were related to subjective evaluations. These regions explained additional variance in whether participants endorsed or rejected items but were differentially related to evaluations. Stronger activity in pgACC was associated with a higher probability of endorsement across constructs, whereas stronger activity in vmPFC was associated with a higher probability of endorsing ill-being items, but a lower probability of endorsing self-oriented and social well-being items. These results add nuance to neurocognitive accounts of self-evaluation and extend our understanding of the neurobiological basis of subjective psychological health and well-being.

A metatheoretical framework for organizational wellbeing research: Toward conceptual pluralism in the wellbeing debate

The organizational wellbeing discourse has in the past decades gravitated toward two adversarial camps. The first camp draws increasingly from positive psychology and studies wellbeing as the presence of positive attributes centered around the individual. The second camp is critical toward the first one from a sociological standpoint by warning about its hidden tyranny and detrimental organizational consequences. In this paper we interrogate the conceptual foundations of the two camps and argue that the paradigmatic divide between them can be traced to their antithetical assumptions about the nature of human freedom. To move beyond the paradigmatic standstill, we suggest adopting Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic pentad as a metatheoretical framework for organizational wellbeing research. The pentad can help integrate concerns and viewpoints from both camps and facilitate the exploration of novel opportunities to conceptualize wellbeing in organizations. The proposed metatheoretical framework acknowledges the plural and essentially contested character of wellbeing whilst promoting theoretical pluralism in organizational wellbeing research. We also illustrate the use of the dramatistic pentad through three thought-provoking conceptualizations of organizational wellbeing. The illustrations show how the dramatistic pentad can be used to spur much needed conceptual imagination within organizational wellbeing research.

Toward an Expanded Taxonomy of Happiness: A Conceptual Analysis of 16 Distinct Forms of Mental Wellbeing

Recent decades have seen a surge of scientific interest in happiness. However, its theoretical conceptualization is a work in progress. Much of the literature focuses on two main forms: hedonic (encompassing life satisfaction and positive affect) and eudaimonic (encompassing phenomena such as character development and meaning in life). However, this binary has been critiqued as being incomplete, in part because it reflects a Western-centric perspective that overlooks forms emphasized in non-Western cultures. As a result, scholars have begun to highlight other forms besides hedonia and eudaimonia. This article surveys the literature to identify 16 potential forms in total, classified according to whether they primarily pertain to feelings (hedonic, contented, mature, chaironic, and vital), thought (evaluative, meaningful, intellective, aesthetic, and absorbed) or action (eudaimonic, masterful, accomplished, harmonic, nirvanic, and relational). This article thus offers a more expansive, albeit still just provisional, taxonomy of this vital and still-evolving topic.

Attachment style, religiosity, and well-being among Indonesian Christians

This study examines attachment styles, religiosity as measured by religious coping, and church activities, for their possible impact on feelings of well-being in an Indonesian Christian community. This cross-sectional study was conducted on both purposive and snowball samples of 264 Christians from Bandung and Semarang, Indonesia. The study hypothesized that a more positive Self-Other Model of attachment, greater positive religious coping, and higher church involvement would predict greater well-being as measured by flourishing/eudaimonic, affective, and subjective well-being scales. Pearson correlation and multiple regression methods were used to analyze data. Results indicated that 15% of the total variance in affective well-being is attributable to positive self-model attachment, positive religious coping, and higher subjective religiosity/spirituality. The study also found that 9.9% of the total variance in flourishing or eudaimonic well-being is counted for the self-model. However, neither predictor was correlated to hedonistic or subjective well-being. Greater religiosity, as measured through the church activities, was also not correlated with greater measures in the three types of well-being. This study concluded that the predictive power of religiosity such as church activities and attachment to well-being may depend on the characteristics of the culture.

Questioning Contemporary Universalist Approaches to Human Flourishing

This article takes stock of the growing interest in flourishing measurement. The focus is on three challenges in this domain: the degree of coherent theorizing, the overreliance on psychometric validation, and the questionable universality of the measures. A rigorous process identified the eight most widely documented flourishing measures. All eight measures struggled with the three challenges. First, all measures were constructed on intuitive grounds, whether those bases were existing literatures, personal conceptualizations, or the intuition of an opposition of mental illness and flourishing. Second, all measures were assessed almost exclusively with psychometric studies, with little evidence of theoretical or cultural validity. Finally, all eight measures implicitly or explicitly assume cultural universality without providing theoretical argument or empirical evidence for that assumption. This stock-taking resulted in two main conclusions. First, there are areas of both consensus (e.g., that flourishing is a measurable, multidimensional construct) and dissensus (e.g., the components of flourishing) that can provide bases for future theory and research. Second, systematic theoretical argument is necessary to better understand what flourishing is, how it can be validly measured, and the degree to which it can be considered a universal human experience. It is time to address these theoretical and cultural questions.

Context matters: Sociocultural considerations in the design and implementation of community-based positive psychology interventions in sub-Saharan Africa

Scholars conducting cross-cultural research in mental health often import intervention programs found to be efficacious in one social context (e.g., Western) and directly implement them in other contexts (e.g., African and Asian) without recourse to the sociocultural disparities between the target populations and the theoretical foundations of the constructs and principles underpinning the intervention programs. Such efforts mistakenly assume that positive psychology interventions (PPIs), most of which were developed from Western perspectives and assumed individualistic cultural orientation and value systems, operate equally across all contexts. Drawing on the extant literature and on insights from designing, implementing, and evaluating group-based (mental) health behavior change intervention programs across several communities in Ghana, we discuss some sociocultural, theoretical, and methodological issues that can significantly constrain the design, uptake, and effectiveness of PPIs in the rural, low literate, socioeconomically disadvantaged, highly collectivistic context of Ghana, and sub-Saharan Africa more generally. In all illustrations, we offer suggestions to guide the design and implementation processes to ensure culturally appropriate, highly acceptable, and potentially effective intervention programs. We argue that PPIs can be potentially fructuous in the sub-region when adapted to, or embedded in, the cultural values of the target population and tailored to the needs, capacities, and circumstances of participants.

An Innovative Model of Positive Education with Traditional Chinese Moral Values: An Evaluation of Project Bridge

Project Bridge, as a new, contextualized positive education program, is designed to enhance university students’ character strengths and moral development, resulting in the promotion of their psychological wellbeing. Taking into account the differences between Western and Chinese cultures, the project integrated both Western and Asian concepts and values in the delivery of university education that would likely bring about optimal outcomes. In the evaluation, mixed methods were applied to demonstrate the outcomes of this newly developed positive education program. Pre- and post-test, as well as reflective writing, were adopted to measure the outcomes. Both quantitative and qualitative results demonstrated satisfying outcomes. Implications and future developments are discussed in the conclusion.

The Dao of Maslow: A New Direction for Mentorship

Despite its historical importance for human achievement in many fields, mentorship has received meager research attention until relatively recently. Now recognized as a distinct personal relationship, mentorship is linked to a variety of psychological benefits to mentees including greater self-esteem, well-being, career focus, and leadership capability. Mentors have also been found to experience gains related to generativity. However, lacking has been a meaningful conceptualization of mentorship based on humanistic psychological concerns related to the “whole person.” In particular, the idea that mentoring can facilitate the self-actualization process has been neglected in the literature. In this article, we draw upon Maslow’s writings, particularly related to Daoism, to propose a new conceptual model. For at the time of his sudden death, he was directly seeking to apply Daoist notions to a variety of helping relationships including teaching, counseling, psychotherapy, and even friendship and parenting. After differentiating growth-centered mentorship from skill-centered mentorship, we delineate the former’s essential features based on Maslow’s unfinished legacy in this domain. These aspects include (a) incorporating and fostering the far goal of self-actualization; (b) guiding mentees to better identify their calling by identifying peak and foothill experiences; (c) helping mentees to overcome what Maslow termed the Jonah complex, as well as what subsequent researchers have dubbed the imposter syndrome; and (d) recognizing the mutuality of growth for both participants into a potentially synergic relationship.

The importance of awareness, acceptance, and alignment with the self: A framework for understanding self-connection

We provide a theoretical framework for what it means to be self-connected and propose that self-connection is an important potential contributor to a person’s well-being. We define self-connection as consisting of three components: 1) an awareness of oneself, 2) an acceptance of oneself based on this awareness, and 3) an alignment of one’s behavior with this awareness. First, we position the concept within the broader self literature and provide the empirical context for our proposed definition of self-connection. We next compare and contrast self-connection to related constructs, including mindfulness and authenticity. Following, we discuss some of the potential relationships between self-connection and various aspects of mental health and well-being. Finally, we provide initial recommendations for future research, including potential ways to promote self-connection. In all, we present this theory to provide researchers with a framework for understanding self-connection so that they can utilize this concept to better support the efforts of researchers and practitioners alike to increase individuals’ well-being in various contexts.

Adaptation and Preliminary Validation of a Positive Psychology Assessment Tool: Character Strengths Semantic Differential Scale

Character strengths are a protective factor against psychological symptoms. However, there is a lack of research that has investigated the psychometric properties of abbreviated character strengths scales. The purpose of this study was to adapt and validate the Character Strengths Semantic Differential Scale (CS-SDS) with a sample of 235 college students. Using the back-translation method, the CS-SDS was translated from English into Turkish and then adapted. Next, exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factorial structure of the Turkish version of CS-SDS (T-CS-SDS). The results indicated that the T-CS-SDS had a four-factor structure, namely, leadership, humanity, wisdom, and vitality. Significant moderate correlations were found for the character strengths factors with perceived stress, depression, and life satisfaction. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the factors were above .70. This is the first study that supported the use of the T-CS-SDS as a positive psychology assessment tool to design and implement innovative interventions to increase the well-being of college students.

Beyond the "Third Wave of Positive Psychology": Challenges and Opportunities for Future Research

The positive psychology (PP) landscape is changing, and its initial identity is being challenged. Moving beyond the “third wave of PP,” two roads for future research and practice in well-being studies are discerned: The first is the state of the art PP trajectory that will (for the near future) continue as a scientific (sub)discipline in/next to psychology (because of its popular brand name). The second trajectory (main focus of this manuscript) links to pointers described as part of the so-called third wave of PP, which will be argued as actually being the beginning of a new domain of inter- or transdisciplinary well-being studies in its own right. It has a broader scope than the state of the art in PP, but is more delineated than in planetary well-being studies. It is in particular suitable to understand the complex nature of bio-psycho-social-ecological well-being, and to promote health and wellness in times of enormous challenges and changes. A unique cohering focus for this post-disciplinary well-being research domain is proposed. In both trajectories, future research will have to increase cognizance of metatheoretical assumptions, develop more encompassing theories to bridge the conceptual fragmentation in the field, and implement methodological reforms, while keeping context and the interwovenness of the various levels of the scientific text in mind. Opportunities are indicated to contribute to the discourse on the identity and development of scientific knowledge in mainstream positive psychology and the evolving post-disciplinary domain of well-being studies.

Bibliometric Differences Between WEIRD and Non-WEIRD Countries in the Outcome Research on Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) developed in parallel to Positive Psychology, as a type of intervention that also emphasizes the strengths and resources of clients. The aim of this study was to examine the development of outcome research on SFBT and to determine whether it is predominantly carried out in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) countries. A literature review was conducted using a bibliometric methodology, identifying: (a) authors and countries, (b) time trends, (c) language of publications; (d) and journals; (e) samples on which they were tested; (f) characteristics of interventions; and (g) main study designs. A total of 365 original outcome research articles published in scientific journals on solution-focused interventions were extracted. The results show that outcome research on SFBT has grown steadily over the last three decades. Although it started in WEIRD countries, the number of outcome research publications generated in non-WEIRD countries is now higher. There is little international collaboration and, although English is the main language of publication in WEIRD countries, English, Chinese and Parsi predominate in non-WEIRD countries. Productivity is low and most authors have only published one paper. The journals that have published the most papers have a very diverse visibility. The tested interventions are conducted both in clinical and non-clinical samples; mostly in individual and group format; face-to-face; and not only in the form of psychotherapy, but also as coaching and school interventions. Almost half of the publications are randomized controlled trials. The results confirm the wide applicability of SFBT as a single or main component of psychosocial interventions. They support the claim that solution-focused interventions are not a WEIRD practice, but a global practice.

Educating for Public Happiness and Global Peace: Contributions from a Portuguese UNESCO Chair towards the Sustainable Development Goals

For a positive global future, it is fundamental to tackle the existing web of psychological, economic, sociological, and cultural processes reflected in current education systems. Confronted with complex issues that are essential to the stability of civilizations, we need more voices addressing a critical analysis of education in its key role. This can result in more people participating as happy, informed, and engaged citizens. This paper introduces the argument for education to promote public happiness (Felicitas Publica) and support global peace, addressing the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) #3, #4, and #16. It begins by mapping the landscape of promising education-related practices supporting these SDGs and provides recommendations for research and actions. In addition, it presents the work of the UNESCO Chair on Education for Global Peace Sustainability, based at the Universidade de Lisboa, in Portugal, as an illustrative example. With this paper, we hope to convey the input of different branches of psychology that have the common good as their aim and address the positive transformation of our current educational processes.

Critical positions: Situating critical perspectives in work and organizational psychology

This paper argues that critical perspectives have constituted a marginal yet continued presence in work and organizational (W-O) psychology and calls for a reflexive taking stock of these perspectives to ground a critical research agenda. We argue that critical W-O psychology has been positioned between a psychology literature with limited development of critical perspectives, and an emergent critical management literature that has allowed their selective development. This in-between position has allowed critical W-O psychology to persist, albeit in a fragmented form, while limiting its potential for theoretical and applied impact. We use this diagnosis to reflect on how critical perspectives can best develop from within W-O psychology. We end with a call for developing a critical movement unique to the current historical moment, drawing upon without repeating the experiences of its home disciplines, in a future oriented and reflexive psychology research agenda.

Evaluation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander strengths based coaching program: a study protocol

Background

Increasingly, strength-based approaches to health and wellbeing interventions with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are being explored. This is a welcome counter to deficit-based initiatives which can represent a non-Indigenous view of outcomes of interest. However, the evidence base is not well developed. This paper presents the protocol for evaluating a strengths-based initiative which provides life coaching services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community housing tenants. The study aims to evaluate the effect of life coaching on social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) of tenants in three Victorian regions.

Methods

The More Than a Landlord (MTAL) study is a prospective cohort study of Aboriginal Housing Victoria tenants aged 16 years and over that embeds the evaluation of a life coaching program. All tenant holders in one metropolitan and two regional areas of Victoria are invited to participate in a survey of SEWB, containing items consistent with key categories of SEWB as understood and defined by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and key demographics, administered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peer researchers at baseline, 6 and 18 months. Survey participants are then invited to participate in strengths based life coaching, using the GROW model, for a duration of up to 18 months. Indigenous life coaches provide tenants with structured support in identifying and making progress towards their goals and aspirations, rather than needs. The study aims to recruit a minimum of 200 survey participants of which it is anticipated that approximately 73% will agree to life coaching.

Discussion

The MTAL study is a response to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and organisational requests to build the evidence base for an initiative originally developed and piloted within an Aboriginal controlled organisation. The study design aligns with key principles for research in Indigenous communities in promoting control, decision making and capacity building. The MTAL study will provide essential evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of strengths-based initiatives in promoting SEWB in these communities and provide new evidence about the relationship between strengths, resilience, self-determination and wellbeing outcomes.

Trial registration

This trial was retrospectively registered with the ISRCTN Register on the 12/7/21 with the study ID:ISRCTN33665735.

Positive psychology interventions in the United Arab Emirates: boosting wellbeing - and changing culture?

As the science of wellbeing has grown, universities have adopted the challenge of prioritizing the wellbeing of students. Positive psychology interventions (PPIs), activities designed to increase the frequency of positive emotions and experiences, which help to facilitate the use of actions and thoughts that lead to human flourishing, are being increasingly used worldwide. Known to boost wellbeing and a number of other variables, it nonetheless remains unknown whether their use can influence other variables in non-Western cultures. In this study, we determined the impact of PPIs on a variety of wellbeing outcomes. The 6-week PPI program was conducted in the United Arab Emirates on Emirati university students (n = 120) who reported more positive emotion and overall balance of feelings that favored positivity over time relative to a control group. Yet, there was no effect found on negative emotions, life satisfaction, perceived stress, fear of happiness, locus of control, or somatic symptoms, and no effect on levels of collectivism or individualism. Our findings nonetheless support the use of PPIs in higher education as they show an increase in the experience of positive emotion, with this in itself bringing positive life outcomes, and no negative impact on culture. Our findings serve to build a foundation for understanding for whom PPIs work best - and least - around the world.

The Emerging Science of Virtue

Numerous scholars have claimed that positive ethical traits such as virtues are important in human psychology and behavior. Psychologists have begun to test these claims. The scores of studies on virtue do not yet constitute a mature science of virtue because of unresolved theoretical and methods challenges. In this article, we addressed those challenges by clarifying how virtue research relates to prosocial behavior, positive psychology, and personality psychology and does not run afoul of the fact-value distinction. The STRIVE-4 (Scalar Traits that are Role sensitive, include Situation × Trait Interactions, and are related to important Values that help to constitute Eudaimonia) model of virtue is proposed to help resolve the theoretical and methods problems and encourage a mature science of virtue. The model depicts virtues as empirically verifiable, acquired scalar traits that are role sensitive, involve Situation × Trait interactions, and relate to important values that partly constitute eudaimonia (human flourishing). The model also holds that virtue traits have four major components: knowledge, behavior, emotion/motivation, and disposition. Heuristically, the STRIVE-4 model suggests 26 hypotheses, which are discussed in light of extant research to indicate which aspects of the model have been assessed and which have not. Research on virtues has included survey, intensive longitudinal, informant-based, experimental, and neuroscientific methods. This discussion illustrates how the STRIVE-4 framework can unify extant research and fruitfully guide future research.

Harnessing single-session interventions to improve adolescent mental health and well-being in India: Development, adaptation, and pilot testing of online single-session interventions in Indian secondary schools

BACKGROUND

Many evidence-based prevention and intervention approaches for youth mental health exist, but most are time-consuming and expensive to deliver. Innovative approaches are needed to develop and disseminate scalable mental health interventions, especially for youth in low- and middle-income countries. Computerized single-session interventions (SSIs) may be able to overcome many of these implementation barriers, especially if deployed in school settings.

METHODS

Guided by this logic, we designed three computerized SSIs (based on behavioral activation, gratitude, and growth mindset exercises) for delivery in Indian high schools. Then, we conducted focus groups with Indian adolescents and school officials to inform adaptations of the interventions. Finally, we designed a Hybrid Type 1 effectiveness-implementation study to evaluate the interventions.

RESULTS

In this paper, we present the rationale for selecting the interventions, the results of the focus groups, and the design of a Hybrid Type 1 effectiveness-implementation study. Our initial focus group data showed that the interventions were considered acceptable, feasible, and appropriate by both educators and students. We also describe feedback on the interventions which we incorporated to refine the interventions prior to our randomized controlled trial.

DISCUSSION

Computerized SSIs may offer innovative, scalable ways to disseminate evidence-based interventions. By identifying which interventions are most acceptable and effective in this highly scalable format, we may understand which SSIs are best suited for continued development, testing, and, ultimately, widespread dissemination.

For a Society Beyond Justice

The first part of the paper suggests a minimalist framework for integrating the discipline of psychology. Such a framework must rest on the principle of parsimony, build on fewest and simplest possible axiomatic assumptions and yet be able to contain, sustain and benefit from the enormous diversity of its interests and approaches, its ever-widening research enterprise and its unique relationship to neuroscience that situates it felicitously between natural and human sciences. I take the Kantian questions about the human condition as the starting point to link the concepts of reason, work and autonomy to the idea of self as transformative agency that straddles the domains of nature and society the way psychology does. The second part of the paper takes Rawls’ idea of society beyond justice, with reference Marx, to show why justice must act as the placeholder for equality in formal procedural democracies and to chart the direction that psychology should follow to meet the challenge of becoming more relevant for human welfare in this neoliberal age of deepening inequalities and mounting social, political and personality crises.

The Strengths-Based Inclusive Theory of Work

This paper describes a new vocational theory—the strengths-based inclusive theory of work (S-BIT of Work). This theory addresses the ever-changing, dynamic nature of the world of work and integrates counseling psychology’s core values of emphasizing vocational psychology, strengths-based perspectives, multiculturalism, and social justice. We aim to provide a holistic vocational theory to inform career and work counseling practice by increasing clinicians’ cultural responsivity, promoting clients’ strengths and optimal functioning, and addressing a variety of vocational challenges across developmental stages. This first article in the Major Contribution includes a discussion of the S-BIT of Work’s core assumptions and theoretical propositions, research supporting the development of the S-BIT of Work, as well as future directions. The second and third articles in this Major Contribution discuss a model of fulfulling work, and the infusion of positive psychology and cultural responsivity in work counseling practice, respectively.

Contours of Positive Mental Health: An Exploratory Delphi Study from India

The need to broaden attention from a narrow focus on mental illness and pathology to investing in understanding and enhancing positive mental health is well recognized. The bulk of research on positive mental health tends to be largely based onwestern developed nationconceptualizations. This highlights the need to examine the construct of positive mental health in diverse socio-cultural contexts. Present study aimed at exploring indicators and dimensions of positive mental health in Indian adults. A two-step Delphi technique, involving a vignette-based tool was used for facilitating a contextualised understanding of indicators of positive mental health. The sample consisted of a panel of 35 experts from different regions of India, majority of whom had >10 years of professional experience. Using a bottom-up approach, content analysis of the emergent data in terms of responses of experts to 10 vignettes resulted in identification and operationalisation of 33 indicators which could be grouped under 13 dimensions. Comparisons with popular well-being frameworks indicated that eight of these could be considered newer dimensions. Though the remaining dimensions significantly overlapped with existing dimensions of well-being in the western literature; finer differences in their meanings and constituents were observed. Finding have implications for further research.

Affective modulation in positive psychology’s regime of happiness

Over the last decade, positive psychology has reified happiness as the key to achieving an understanding of human psychological experience and development. According to positive psychology, happiness can be understood as a measurable object of self-cultivation and psychological enhancement. This conceptualization has provoked multiple critiques, focusing on the power effects invested in these psychological discourses, with a special emphasis on the governmentality practices they exercise on subjectivity formation, in the context of neoliberal capitalism. Less attention has been paid to the ways in which specific technologies, derived from this “turn to happiness,” have had an influence on subjects’ bodies and embodied experiences beyond discursive means. In this article, we borrow insights from affect studies to contribute to and expand the critique of positive psychology. We do this by analyzing a positive psychology-based app called “Happify.” Our analysis consists of identifying and describing three mechanisms through which this technology modulates the capacities of human bodies by producing preemptive habits that result in what we call the positive psychology regime of happiness.

Decolonial theory and disability studies: On the modernity/coloniality of ability

This paper applies a decolonial approach to hegemonic psychological science by engaging marginalized knowledge perspectives of Disability Studies (DS) to reveal and disrupt oppressive knowledge formations associated with standard understandings of ability. In the first section of the paper, we draw upon mainstream DS scholarship to challenge individualistic orientations to disability (evident in the medical model and positive psychology perspectives) that pervade psychological science. The purpose of this approach is to normalize disability by thinking through disabled ways of being as viable and valuable. In the second section of the paper, we draw upon critical race and global disability perspectives to denaturalize hegemonic accounts of ability. Rather than essential properties of human bodies and minds, the capabilities of the modern subject reflect technological and ideological investments that enable a privileged few, while disabling the marginalized global majority. We conclude by discussing implications of decolonial theory for DS and ways in which considerations of disability subjectivity can inform the decolonial project.

The Necessity of Ambiguity in Self-Other Processing: A Psychosocial Perspective With Implications for Mental Health

While distinguishing between the actions and physical boundaries of self and other (non-self) is usually straightforward there are contexts in which such differentiation is challenging. For example, self-other ambiguity may occur when actions of others are similar or complementary to those of the self. Even in the absence of such situational challenges, individuals experiencing hallucinations have difficulties with this distinction, often experiencing thoughts or actions of self as belonging to other agents. This paper explores the role of ambiguity in self-other differentiation, drawing from developmental, psychodynamic, and neurocognitive perspectives. A key proposal is that engagement in contexts that make distinctions between self and other challenging yet necessary allow reality-testing skills related to agency to develop. Attunement in typical caregiver-infant interactions is framed as a safe but inherently ambiguous environment that provides optimal condition for the infant to develop a coherent self-other sense. Vulnerability to psychosis may be related to limited access to such an environment in early development. However, the perceptual, cognitive, and social skills that contribution to attribution are likely to be malleable following infancy and improve though opportunities for boundary play in similarly ambiguous settings. Using music-making to illustrate, we postulate that engagement in intricate joint-actions that blurs agentic boundaries can contribute to the continued development of an adaptive sense of self and other essential to healthy social functioning. Increased insight into the self-other ambiguity may enhance our understanding of mechanisms underlying "self-disorders" such as schizophrenia and eventually extend the range of social and arts-based therapeutic possibilities.

Negative Reflections About Positive Psychology: On Constraining the Field to a Focus on Happiness and Personal Achievement

“Positive” psychology has gained a dominant voice within and outside the field of psychology. Although critiques of this perspective have been rendered, including by humanistic psychologists, psychology scholars have offered minimum space for critical reflections of this movement in contrast to its critiques existing inside and outside the academia in other fields. Therefore, this contribution seeks to explicate emerging systematic critiques of positive psychology by scholars and practitioners from within mental health fields as well as from philosophy, medicine, education, business, and cultural studies and to highlight sociocultural discussions of positive movement by the culture critics. Last, we offer reflections on positive psychology as immigrant professionals from non-Western backgrounds with an emphasis on existential and humanities-based perspectives. We also highlight that the tenets and experiments based on “positive” psychological practices may have especially detrimental effect on marginalized individuals and communities. This contribution seeks to invite a critical dialogue in the field regarding positive psychology within and outside humanistic psychology and psychology in general.

Experiential cartography and the significance of “untranslatable” words

Mainstream psychology can be regarded as largely Western-centric, with its concepts and priorities biased towards Western ways of thinking and understanding. Consequently, the field would benefit from greater cross-cultural awareness and engagement. To that end, this article offers one means of engagement, the study of “untranslatable” words (i.e., terms without an exact equivalent in another language, in our case English). A key function of language is that it offers a “map” that allows us to understand and navigate the world. In that respect, such words point to cultural variation in the maps we use, and even to variation in the actual territory mapped. The paper concludes with suggestions for why and how psychology could benefit from engaging with such words.