Cognitive Constructs in the Context of Positive Psychology

Abstract

How we think matters. For example, our abilities to process information will have obvious impact on how well we succeed in the educational system. What we think also matters. Cognitive theories (e.g., Barutta et al. 2011; Beck 1976) tell us that if we think of ourselves, our environment, and the future as positive we are more likely not to be depressed than people who think of these things as negative. Our cognitive processes and content affect every domain of our lives, including school, work, and interpersonal relationships, and influence multiple aspects of these domains, including functioning and satisfaction. The topic of this chapter is positive cognitive constructs, with a focus on diversity defined by race, ethnicity, and/or national heritage. The majority of our attention will be given to constructs that are primarily cognitive. In addition, limited attention will be given to other more complex psychological constructs with important cognitive components (i.e., that also contain other important components). Relevant constructs exist in two well-known taxonomies of positive human traits, the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 (Rath 2007) and the Values in Action - Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS: Peterson et al. 2005), and identified additional relevant constructs not included in these taxonomies that are prominent or gaining prominence in the literature. We will begin with an overview of the current state of the literature on these constructs, including a summary of the extent to which culture has been addressed across the identified constructs as well as information from large scale studies. This is followed by a description of the Cultural Lens Approach (CLA; Hardin 2007), which provides the theoretical perspective through which we evaluated the literature for this chapter. Briefly, the CLA applies a deeper cultural perspective on theory than is typical of most multicultural perspectives, requiring practitioners and scholars to view constructs through a cultural lens. The main body of the chapter provides examples of constructs that are covered well versus poorly in the literature, all viewed through the CLA, to provide readers with a vision of what is and what could be regarding multicultural research on positive cognitive constructs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)