History of Cultural Context in Positive Psychology: We Finally Come to the Start of the Journey

Abstract

When the field of positive psychology was officially introduced in lectures and writings (e.g., Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000), its stated aim was to counterbalance the prevailing scientific emphasis on psychopathology through rigorous empirical study of wellness, positive experiences and traits, and prosocial engagement with others and society. However, positive psychology has since been criticized as not only denigrating the contributions of established fields such as humanistic psychology (Taylor 2001), but also of promoting certain culturally-biased approaches, strengths, and morals-in particular those of Western majority (e.g., White male) culture (Becker and Marecek 2008; Christopher and Hickinbottom 2008; Christopher et al. 2008; McDonald and O'Callaghan 2008; Sandage et al. 2003). In essence, regarding culture, positive psychologists were accused of committing James' (1899) prejudicial error again. It is our aim in this chapter to explore such criticisms, by reviewing how positive functioning has been approached over psychology's history; how other areas of psychology laid the foundation for the rise of positive psychology; and how culture has been approached both within psychology generally, and within positive psychology specifically. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)