and good life. These implicit and embodied outlooks need to be juxtaposed with notions of the good that are consciously accessible and espoused by lay persons, as well as with indigenous professional theories of well-being. To fully address how positive psychologies exist at a variety of levels of awareness requires the addition of interpretive methods. This will initially result in a kind of messiness, as some moral development theorists now acknowledge is necessary (Campbell
& Christopher, 1996a; Walker & Hennig, 2004; Walker & Pitts, 1998), but this is offset by the potential to capture more of the richness and diversity of human experience.
Positive psychology is critical to the well-being of 21st-century psychology. It will require vigilance to ensure that positive psychology does not become yet another form of a disguised individualistic ideology that perpetuates the sociopolitical status quo and fails to do justice to the moral visions of those outside the reigning outlook. I believe that by paying attention to our underlying moral visions, learning about the moral visions of those across cultures and across time, and learning to think culturally, we can avoid prematurely rushing to ethnocentric conclusions that fail to take full measure of the wisdom of non- Western cultural traditions.
Source: Christopher (2005). Reprinted with permission of the author.
Note: Citations for Dr. Christopher’s article are presented in the References section at the back of this book.
requires an understanding of the indigenous psychology of the group (Sandage et al., 2003) that tells the story of how and when the strength or process became valued within the culture and how it currently functions positively. studies must be conducted across nations (cross-culturally) but must also investigate potential differences between cultural groups within diverse nations (multiculturally) such as the United States in order to fully appreciate within-group heterogeneity.
Qualitative study of a people’s development of particular strengths or use of them in their daily lives could enhance our understanding of how culture counts in the development and manifestation of that strength, and rigorous, quantitative, cross-cultural, and multicultural studies could reveal additional information about how a strength leads to or is associated with a particular outcome in one culture but a different outcome in another.
Another means of uncovering the cultural nuances associated with a positive construct or process is to ask people how a particular strength became potent in their daily lives. For example, the “Head, Heart, Holy Test of Hope” has proven to be an effective means of starting discussions (in and out of counseling
sessions) and lectures on hope because it allows people to reflect on their story of how hope came to be meaningful in their lives and to be part of their culture.
Here is how we (Lopez, 2005) introduce it:
Today, we will talk about the power of hope in your lives. Before I get started, I need to know how you understand this thing called hope. Here is what we are going to do, raise both hands (facilitator raises both hands).
And on the count of three, I want you to point to where YOUR hope comes from. Given your background and all of your life experiences, where do you think your hope originates . . . in your head (facilitator points to head)
—that thinking part of you, in your heart (facilitator points to heart)—from the love you have for others and they have for you, or from the holy
(facilitator points up and all around)—your spiritual life? Now, you can use both hands to point to one place if you think all of your hope comes from that place, or you can use one hand to point to one place and the other hand to point to another (facilitator demonstrates.) Any questions? So, on three, point to where your hope comes from . . . 1, 2, 3. (p. 1)
Inevitably, there is a diversity of gestures capturing people’s beliefs about their hope. As participants look around the room, they start asking questions of one
another and sometimes launch into stories. Some of these stories about hope are shared with the larger group, and the cultural base of each person’s hope
becomes more evident. Hope, as laypeople understand it, is clearly grounded in beliefs, values, and experiences.
Chang (1996a, 1996b), in a series of quantitative studies on optimism in Asian Americans and Caucasians, highlighted the importance of understanding the equivalence of constructs across cultural groups. In one study, Chang (1996a) examined the utility of optimism and pessimism in predicting problem-solving behaviors, depressive symptoms, general psychological symptoms, and physical symptoms. In general, the results of this study revealed that Asian Americans were significantly more pessimistic than Caucasians (according to the Extended Life Orientation Test; Chang, Maydeu-Olivares, & D’Zurilla, 1997) but not significantly different from Caucasians in their level of optimism. These findings were corroborated when data from an independent sample were examined
(Chang, 1996b). Chang points out that his findings might suggest that Asian Americans are generally more negative in their affectivity than Caucasian Americans, except for the fact that he found no significant differences in reported depressive symptoms between the two groups. In fact, optimism was negatively correlated with both general psychological symptoms and physical symptoms for Asian Americans but not for Caucasians. Also, problem solving was found to be negatively correlated with depressive symptoms for Asian Americans but unrelated for Caucasians. Finally, it was revealed that, whereas pessimism was negatively correlated with problem-solving behaviors for
Caucasians, it was positively correlated for Asian Americans (See Chapter 8 for a more thorough discussion of this study).
Similarly, one may gain insight as to how a strength plays out in one’s life by thinking about how the salience of various cultural identities may provide sources of strength for different individuals. This exercise was developed as a class activity by one of this textbook’s authors (JTP) and is introduced by asking people to identify three cultural facets (such as race, gender, religion, etc.) and to then think about which personal strengths might be derived from membership in these various groups. In the ensuing discussion, it is easy to see that cultural facets can provide many sources of strength for individuals (Pedrotti, 2013b).
For example, one may say that coming from a low socioeconomic status has forced them to come up with creative solutions to various problems. Others may feel that being a member of a collectivist group (such as Asian or Latino
cultures) may have helped them to develop strong networking skills in their
lives. An individual who holds religion to be a salient factor in his or her life may feel that he or she has more opportunities to cultivate strengths such as altruism or gratitude. In exercises such as these, it seems that identification with various cultural facets can influence the recognition, development, and
enhancement of personal strengths.
Utsey, Hook, Fischer, and Belvet (2008) make this point clear in their
investigation of the roles of optimism, cultural orientation, and ego resilience in predicting levels of subjective well-being in African American populations.
Utsey and colleagues found that adherence to a traditional African American worldview (such as valuing the importance of religion) and pride in racial heritage predicted higher well-being and positive psychological functioning.
Participants who reported higher levels of racial pride also showed higher levels of resilience; thus findings such as these support the idea that salience of
particular cultural factors may elicit various strengths.
Even in cases where common strategies are used in similar ways by people of different backgrounds, the benefits of those strategies often are not shared.
Hence, we should be cautious when prescribing particular coping strategies that, on the surface, seem universally beneficial. Consider another example. Shaw et al. (1997) found that the use of four coping strategies seemed to transcend culture (or were equally valued in cultures) for family caregivers (participants were from Shanghai, China, and San Diego, California) aiding a loved one grappling with Alzheimer’s disease. These four strategies involved (1) taking action, (2) utilizing social support, (3) cognitively reappraising life situations, and (4) denying the health problem and demands or avoiding thinking about it.
The benefits, however, of these four strategies were not shared across the cultural groups. These results are consistent with other research indicating that common coping strategies have unique effects across cultures (Liu, 1986).
Discussions with clients, along with well-designed quantitative and qualitative studies with research participants, can provide good data on the equivalence of positive constructs and processes across cultures. With these data in hand, we will be better able to assess what strengths benefit whom (in what situations) and what positive interventions might help people create better lives for themselves (Pedrotti, 2014). As professionals attempt to enhance strengths in culturally diverse groups of people (see Chapter 14 of this text, along with Linley and Joseph [in press] and Magyar-Moe [2014], for discussions of positive
psychology in practice), we must ask and answer the question, “What works for
whom?”