Latin-American Studies on Well-Being

CASTRO SOLANO, ALEJANDRO

Positive Psychology in Latin America

Springer

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2014; p. 21 - 36

This chapter aims to describe Latin-American studies on well-beingfrom two different perspectives: the hedonic (life satisfaction, positiveand negative emotions) and the eudaimonic (psychological well-being)traditions. An analysis of research articles published between 1998 and2012 was conducted. The introduced key words were: happiness, lifesatisfaction and well-being and the search was limited by languageof publication restricted to Spanish and Portuguese. Results wereanalyzed by country of origin, type of well-being study and theinclusion of cultural variables. Those studies focused on what peopleunderstood about psychological well-being and the meaning assigned toit are described. Additionally, research studies conducted in Argentina,Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Peru from an emic perspective arereviewed. In general terms, Latin American people perceived themselvesas happy or very happy. However, as cross-cultural research is rarelyconducted in the region and most studies on this topic have used an eticimposed approach, findings cannot be generalized.