Well-Being Research in South Africa

This is the first book to bring together examples of research in positive psychology / psychofortology conducted in the multi-cultural South African context with its diverse populations and settings. The volume reflects basic as well as applied well-being research in the multicultural South African context, as conducted in various contexts and with a variety of methods and foci. Theoretical, review, and empirical research contributions are made, reflecting positivist to constructivist approaches, and include quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method approaches. Some findings support universality assumptions, but others uncovered unique cultural patterns. Chapters report on well-being research conducted in the domains of education, work, health, and family, and in clinical, urban vs. rural, and unicultural vs. multicultural contexts. Studies span the well-being of adolescents, adults, and older people, and topics include resilience in individuals, families, and groups, measurement issues and coping processes, the role of personal and contextual variables, and facets such as hope, spirituality, self-regulation, and interventions.

Marié Wissing is professor of Psychology in the School for Psychosocial Behavioral Sciences at the North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. Her research interests are the understanding, measurement and promotion of psychological well-being and strengths in the context of bio-psycho-social health. As a member of the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research (AUTHeR) she participates as leader of the psychology team in multi-disciplinary research projects. She developed a research program in psychofortology (i. e. the science of psychological strengths) which includes several team research projects that focus on the exploration of the nature, patterns, dynamics and enhancement of psychological well-being in various contexts. Her current research projects focus on the exploration of patterns of psychological well-being in cultural context, and on the prevalence of various levels of mental health and its association with bio-markers, socio-demographic factors and predictors of health behaviours, with a view to inform health promotion strategies. She developed several curricula for teaching of Positive Psychology in South Africa. She is an NRF (National Research Foundation) rated researcher; was a visiting professor and invited lecturer at several universities in South Africa and Europe, and serves on the editorial boards of disciplinary journals. She received the Stals prize for Psychology in 2003 from the South African Academy of Science and Art, and a reward for contribution to work wellness in 2004 at the South African Work Wellness Conference. She initiated and co-led the First South African Positive Psychology Conference in 2006. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), and has served on the scientific committees of several international conferences.