Claude-Hélène Mayer

Lok Sang Ho

Fan Yang

Paul T. P Wong

Richard Gregory Cowden

New developments in positive psychology have evolved into the 2nd and 3rd waves, going beyond the individual and positive focus towards complex systems, multi-cultures, and the existential positive psychology of transcending suffering. The present project aims at developing a general theory of well-being that integrates all the above changes as the new frontier of positive psychology. At a time when humanity is threatened by all kinds of existential crises, from climate change to nuclear war, from ideological polarization to a widening income gap, we need to develop a big-picture theoretical framework showing that happiness is not just for those living in peace and prosperity, but also for those struggling in dire poverty and war-ravaged countries like Ukraine, not just for the self, but also for others, not just for the present, but also for future generations. This broader approach towards wellbeing opens up new vistas for research and interventions.

A New Science of Suffering, the Wisdom of the Soul, and the New Behavioral Economics of Happiness: Towards a General Theory of Well-being

Elisabeth Vanderheiden

The second revised and expanded edition of this successful handbook extensively explores the idea and practice of love from diverse cultural, psychological, and biological perspectives. It provides a comprehensive understanding of love by examining its various manifestations, cultural interpretations, and the underlying psychological and biological mechanisms that shape it. Notably, the book won the William B. Gudykunst Outstanding Book Award from the International Academy for Intercultural Research in July 2023, underscoring its scholarly excellence. The work is structured into several 11 key sections to cover the field comprehensively. It begins with an exploration of theories and concepts of love, followed by an examination of cultural interpretations and practices, and exploring the different forms and expressions of love, such as romantic love, familial love, platonic love, and self-love or friendship. Next, it addresses the dynamics of romantic relationships, exploring topics such as love and marriage, love in the digital age, and long-distance relationships. It also covers challenges and complications in love, including conflict, unrequited love, mental health issues, and the healing process after breakups. To reflect the evolving nature of love in contemporary society, the work includes a section on modern love and technology, discussing topics like love and artificial intelligence, cyberspace as a romantic culture, and the future of intimacy. It also examines love in later life. The handbook features contributions from a wide range of experts, including psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, neuroscientists, relationship counsellors, therapists, and literary authors. This ensures a rich and varied perspective on the subject matter. Additionally, it serves as a valuable academic resource for educators, learners, and researchers in related fields. Through personal stories, literary excerpts, and philosophical discussions, the reference work also invites readers to reflect on their own experiences and beliefs about love, inspiring personal growth and deeper connections with others. The handbook is an essential resource for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of love in its many forms and contexts, and provides a comprehensive guide that is both academically rigorous and accessible to a broad audience.

Transcultural and Transdisciplinary Perspectives

International Handbook of Love

Dan Tomasulo

Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl

Marijke Schotanus-Dijkstra

Wenjie Duan

Susana Llorens

Jeff Klibert

Machteld Van Den Heuvel

Positive Psychological Interventions Beyond Weird Contexts: How, When, and Why They Work

Saba Safdar

Kiyoko Sueda

Orna Braun-Lewensohn

Gila Chen

Brightness Mangolothi

Soyeon Kim

This edited volume focuses on women’s empowerment for a sustainable future. It takes cultural and transcultural and positive psychology perspectives into consideration and explores the topic of women’s empowerment from diverse stances, across social strata, cultural divides as well as economic and political divisions. It addresses the critique of the overly Western focus of positive psychology on this topic by adopting a transnational and transcultural lens, and by taking non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) samples into in-depth consideration. The chapters therefore focus on women from diverse socio-cultural, political, socio-economic backgrounds and discuss their ways of empowering others and being empowered. They also discuss related positive psychology constructs, such as: coping, resilience, transformation, growth, leadership, creativity, identity development, sustainable action, as well as positive socio-economic, political and eco-sustainable thought and action. The volume as a whole looks at women's leadership as a factor of empowerment. A further fundamental assumption is that women’s empowerment is needed to create a sustainable future at micro-, meso- and macro levels, which presumes safety, peace, ecological considerations, and compassionate leadership.

Transcultural and Positive Psychology Perspectives

Women's Empowerment for a Sustainable Future

Paul T. P. Wong

Gökmen Arslan

In the era of COVID-19, many people have suffered high levels of stress and mental health problems. To cope with the widespread of suffering (physical, psychological, social, and economical) the positive psychology of personal happiness is no longer the sole approach to examine personal wellbeing. Other approaches such as Viktor Frankl’s theory of self-transcendence provide a promising framework for research and intervention on how to achieve resilience, wellbeing, and happiness through overcoming suffering and self-transcendence. The existential positive psychology of suffering complements the positive psychology of happiness, which is championed by Martin Seligman, as two equal halves of the circle of wellbeing and optimal mental health. This Research Topic aims to examine the different approaches to Positive Psychology and their influence on individual wellbeing during the COVID-19 era. One of the exciting development in the positive psychology of wellbeing is the mounting research on the adaptive benefits of negative emotions, such as shame, guilt, and anger, as well as the dialectical process of balancing negative and positive emotions. As an example, based on all the empirical research and Frankl’s self-transcendence model, Wong has developed the existential positive psychology of suffering (PP2.0) as the foundation for flourishing. Here are a few main tenets of PP2.0: (1) Life is suffering and a constant struggle throughout every stage of development, (2) The search for self-transcendence is a primary motive guided by the meaning mindset and mindful mindset. (3) Wellbeing cannot be sustainable without overcoming and transforming suffering. In this Research Topic we welcome diverse approaches discussing the following points: • The dialectic process of overcoming the challenges of every stage of development as necessary for personal growth and self-transcendence; • The role of self-transcendence in resilience, virtue, meaning, and happiness; • The upside of negative emotions; • The new science of resilience based on cultivating the resilient mindset and character; • How to make the best use of suffering to achieve out potentials & mental health.

COVID-19 and Existential Positive Psychology (PP2.0): The New Science of Self-Transcendence

Jasmin Mahadevan

Workplace diversity has become increasingly relevant to academics and practitioners alike. Often, this issue is tackled merely from a business-oriented/managerial point of view. Yet such a single-level perspective fails to acknowledge both the macro-societal context wherein companies and organizations act and the micro-individual dynamics by which individuals construct and affirm their identities in relation to others. Muslim minorities are part of current workplace diversity in many parts of the world. This book focuses on Muslim identities and their interrelations with societal frameworks and organizational strategy and practice. Contributors from various disciplines and societal contexts ensure a multiplicity of perspectives. The authors shed light on this diversity and draw implications for human resource management (HRM) theory and practice. Chapters uncover the wider discourses on Muslim minorities that impact organizational HRM. The book explores how HRM academics and practitioners might become aware of and counteract these discourses in order to acheive a truly inclusive HRM regarding Muslim minorities. Throughout Muslim Minorities, Workplace Diversity and Reflexive HRM, readers are guided from large theoretical concepts to specific contexts, whilst being encouraged to question their assumptions. This book lays the foundations for managing Muslim employees beyond stereotypes, enabling the reader to develop the reflexive mindset needed for truly inclusive HRM with regard to Muslim employees.

Muslim Minorities, Workplace Diversity and Reflexive HRM

Paul, J.P. Fouché

Roelf Van Niekerk

This book explores psychobiography with focus on meaning making and identity development in the life and works of extraordinary individuals. Meaning-making and identity development are existential constructs influencing psychological development, mental health and wellbeing across the lifecourse. The chapters illustrate through the eyes of 25 international psychobiographers various theoretical and methodological approaches to psychobiography. They explore how individuals, such as Angela Merkel, Karl Lagerfeld, Henri Nouwen, Vivian Maier, Charles Baudelaire, W.E.B. du Bois, Loránt Hegedüs, Kim Philby, Zoltan Paul Dienes, Albertina Sisulu, Ruth First, Sokrates, and Jesus construct their lives to make meaning, develop their identities and grow as individuals within their sociocultural contexts. The texts provide deep insight into life’s development.

Psychobiographical Illustrations on Meaning and Identity in Sociocultural Contexts

This Handbook provides new perspectives on humour from transdisciplinary perspectives. It focuses on humour as a resource from different socio-cultural and psychological viewpoints and brings together authors from different cultures, social contexts and countries. The book will enable researchers and practitioners alike to unlock new research findings which give new directions for contemporary and future humour research. By employing transdisciplinary and transcultural perspectives, the volume further discusses humour in regard to different cultural and political contexts, humour over the lifespan, in therapy and counselling, in pedagogical settings, in medicine and the workspace. The contributions also highlight the connections between humour and the COVID-19 pandemic and promise new inspiring insights. Researchers, practitioners and students in the fields of industrial and organisational psychology, positive psychology, organisational studies, future studies, health and occupational science and therapy, emotion sciences, management, leadership and human resource management will find the contributions highly topical, insightful and applicable to practice.

The Palgrave Handbook of Humour Research

This volume combines empirical research-based and theoretical perspectives on shame in cultural contexts and from socio-culturally different perspectives, providing new insights and a more comprehensive cultural base for contemporary research and practice in the context of shame. It examines shame from a positive psychology perspective, from the angle of defining the concept as a psychological and cultural construct, and with regard to practical perspectives on shame across cultures. The volume provides sound foundations for researchers and practitioners to develop new models, therapies and counseling practices to redefine and re-frame shame in a way that leads to strength, resilience and empowerment of the individual.

Exploring a Health Resource in Cultural Contexts

The Value of Shame

This is a book about Mori-Joe and the cultural and spiritual journey she embarks on. After spending her formative years in Germany she moves to South Africa with her parents, where exciting new worlds await her. Somehow these worlds are already uncannily familiar to her. Her journey is told in the form of a didactic narrative. It is an amazing story on the one hand, on the other a biographical excerpt that has its roots in a set of profound cross-cultural scenarios. Mori-Joe's story is based on David S. Hoopes' cross-cultural personality development methodologies and cleverly conceptualises this into a humorous and entertaining narrative. Found at the end of the story is a compact, scientific 'user guide' on intercultural personality development with select references to the literature that has been consulted on this subject. The book has been written as a novel in a style that is both palatable to young people and adults alike, as it is to persons in a professional context devoted to the subject of cross-cultural development and learning. It can be adopted by schools and universities as foundational material for an understanding of the subject, as well as for topics like psychobiography and anti-racism. Claude-Hélène Mayer holds a Master and Doctorate in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Göttingen, Germany, and a Doctorate in Management from Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Her research areas are cross-cultural conflict management, identity, value and health in organisational contexts. She is currently Professor of Intercultural Business Communication at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany, and Senior Research Associate at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. PD Dr. habil. Claude-Hélène Mayer, PhD (RU) ist Visiting Professor an der University of South Africa, Pretoria, Distinguished Visiting Professor (2013) und Senior Research Associate an der Rhodes University, Grahamstown, sowie Privatdozentin am Lehrstuhl für Sprachgebrauch und Therapeutische Kommunikation, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder). Sie ist interkulturelle Trainerin, Mediatorin & Ausbilderin für Mediation (BM), systemische Beraterin (NIS) und systemische Familientherapeutin (SG), Hypnosetherapeutin (TIM) und integrierte Lerntherapeutin (ILT). Ihre Forschungsthemen sind interkulturelle Gesundheit in Organisationen, interkulturelles Konfliktmanagement und Mediation sowie Beratung. Sie ist Autorin mehrerer Kinderbücher, Fachbücher, wissenschaftlicher Artikel und Monographien.

A reading companion to intercultural learning and personality development

Mori-Joe - exploring magical paths

Zoltan Kovary

This volume offers insights into contemporary trends and perspectives in psychobiographical research. It applys new theoretical and methodological frameworks and presents discourses on psychobiography from transdisciplinary backgrounds and various socio-cultural contexts, displaying the new state-of-the-art, new trends and themes in psychobiography. The book outlines psychobiography’s outstanding contribution to psychology from 36 internationally reputable authors. It also presents the ideas of five outstanding psychobiographers through interview excerpts. This book is a must for researchers, lecturers and practitioners in the field of psychology and social sciences interested in the use of new psychological theories and methodologies in life-span research.

New Trends in Psychobiography

This book introduces the topic of intercultural mediation and conflict management. Based on the latest scientific research and successful conflict management practices, it provides theoretical insights and practical, self-reflective exercises, role-plays and case studies on conflict, mediation, intercultural mediation, and solution-finding in conflict mediation. The book serves both as a self-learning tool to expand personal competences and cultural sensitivity, and as training material for seminars, workshops, secondary, advanced and higher education and vocational training. It is a valuable contribution to the fields of intercultural conflict mediation and conflict management, intercultural communication, intercultural training and coaching. This is a book about practicing – the applied practice of competent conflict crafts in diverse intercultural contexts. Conflict practitioners, mediators, and intercultural trainers would be inspired by Professor Claude-Hélène Mayer’s creative integration of relevant intercultural models with do-able conflict strategies and in reaching intergroup harmony with reflexivity and cultural resonance. --- Professor Stella Ting-Toomey, Human Communication Studies, California State University at Fullerton, USA, and Co-Editor of The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication, 2e Given the difficulty and complexity of successful intercultural collaboration and conflict mediation, this is a much-needed addition to cross-cultural positive psychology. It is rich in content and training. I highly recommend it for teaching, corporate training, and for executive coaches. --- Professor Paul T.P. Wong, President International Network on Personal Meaning and President Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute, Toronto, Canada Intercultural conflict resolution is a critically important task in this modern world. This book by Professor Mayer is a welcome handbook on how to use mediation to resolve those conflicts. It should be in the library of every conflict mediator. My congratulations to Professor Mayer for her important work. --- Dan Landis, Founding President, International Academy of Intercultural Research, Affiliate Professor of Psychology, University of Hawaii

A Guide for Professionals and Academics

Intercultural Mediation and Conflict Management Training

This book provides new ideas on how to work with and constructively transform shame on a theoretical and practical level, and in various socio-cultural contexts and professions. It provides practical guidelines on dealing with shame on the basis of reflection, counselling models, exercises, simulations, specific psychotherapeutic approaches, and auto-didactical learning material, so as to transform shame from a negatively experienced emotion into a mental health resource. The book challenges theorists to adopt an interdisciplinary stance and to think “outside the box.” Further, it provides practitioners, such as coaches, counsellors, therapists, trainers and medical personnel, with practical tools for transforming negative experiences and emotions. In brief, the book shows practitioners how to unlock the growth potential of individuals, teams, and organisations, allowing them to develop constructively and positively.

Transforming and Growing Through Practical Applications in Cultural Contexts

The Bright Side of Shame

Dietmar Treichel

Kultur ist nicht greifbar, sagen die Einen. Es gibt einfach viel zu viele Theorien und Definitionen zur Kultur, sagen die Anderen. Dieses Lehrbuch nimmt beide Meinungen ernst und zeigt, dass der Kulturbegriff auch deshalb so spannend ist, weil er uns immer wieder zu einer Stellungnahme gegenüber unserer Wirklichkeit, unserer Entwicklung und unserem Denken und Handeln auffordert. Kultur, gerade weil sie so viele Facetten hat, lehrt uns, wie wir grundlegende Fragen zum menschlichen Leben aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven stellen – und uns dann nicht mit der erstbesten Antwort zufrieden geben. Dieses Lehrbuch Kultur bietet dementsprechend nicht eine, sondern viele kompakte Einführungen ins Thema. Es richtet sich an Leser, die sich für die unterschiedlichen fachlichen Entwicklungen, aber auch für fachübergreifende Zusammenhänge und die praktischen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten kultureller Kompetenz interessieren. Die Beiträge wollen neugierig machen auf mehr. Fast 40 Expertinnen und Experten bieten dafür Einstiegs- und Vertiefungspunkte. Die Reflexionsaufgaben lenken den Blick immer wieder auf zentrale Fragen: Kultur als Lupe. Dieses Lehrbuch ermöglicht mit seinem systematischen Aufbau den überfachlichen Austausch auf einem hohen und dennoch auch für Novizen oder Fachfremde verständlichen wissenschaftlichen Niveau. Damit kann es sowohl für das Selbststudium als auch als Lehrmaterial für eine umfassende Einführung in die Kulturwissenschaften und -praktiken genutzt werden.

Claude-Hélène Mayer

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