Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl - Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts

Fundamentally, we may assume that there are certain natural ways of living that foster well-being in all people, just as there seems to be in plants and all other animals. And if the conditions for thriving are present, flourishing may readily be expected. Thus, rather than being an exorbitant ambition directed toward some unrealistic utopia, a good life may be regarded as an indeed quite ordinary ideal, to be sought after even in the most troubled quarters of the world.

From this perspective, our ways of thinking and acting may be understood in somewhat parallel to our biological immune system: it may be of a quality that keeps us mentally healthy despite hardship, or not. Recognizing this may in itself already be sufficient evidence for the importance of actively promoting mental health, and for preventing damage to individuals and communities that may threaten their ability to function and thrive. And from this perspective, the rapid adoption and success of many positive psychological ideas are rather easy to explain: by instinct, people are drawn toward promises of living well and doing good, whenever they see or hear them, as is often the case when encountering positive psychology.

Yet, as shown in this fine volume, popularity often comes at a price, and the adoption and application of positive psychological interventions have been no exception. As it turns out, many of the applications devised by eager practitioners in the name of positive psychology have not been sufficiently anchored in sound science, and much of the proclaimed wisdom in many self-help books was built on shaky foundations. This appears particularly paradoxical in the light of positive psychology being a scientific endeavor aimed directly at preventing this from happening.

Thus, all the more inspiring it is to read this impressive anthology, which sets out to improve the state of affairs. Professors Llewellyn Ellardus Van Zyl and Sebastiaan Rothmann have succeeded in bringing together an array of remarkable scholars whose contributions focus on qualifying positive psychological interventions through strengthened evidence bases and improved understandings of multi-cultural contexts. The reader gains fascinating insights as regards diverse, yet deeply related, topics. What does meaning mean? Can it be captured through photography? Is worklife balance really achievable, and if so, how? And what about resilience in the Global South? In South Africa? In a township? Is it different from what is seen on the upper Northern hemisphere? How can healthy relations be fostered across cultural differences? How can diverse cultural contexts most meaningfully be mapped? Why do some students want to continue mindfulness practices even though these dont appear to improve their well-being? Is it possible to do voluntary work without oneself thereby being rewarded one way or the other? Can awareness of ones own happiness actually reinforce it? And in case so, how much of such auto-happiness may one expect?

These and many other points of great interest await the keen reader in this timely and important collection of fine scholarship. I hope and trust it shall reach the broad and multi-cultural readership it deserves.

With the advent of positive psychology in 1998, an upsurge in popular psychological (pop-psych) self-help publications drawing from processes and principles of the paradigm became apparent. These publications promised scientifically proven methods toward obtaining lasting happiness, positivity and good fortune through relatively easy steps. This promise by pop-psych authors fast-tracked the mass adoption of positive psychology as a consumer-friendly, self-help paradigm. These publications drew from clinically validated positive psychological intervention (PPIs) studies and translated into consumer-friendly terms. However, these self-help books and interventions fail to deliver on their promise as the intervention methods are significantly altered from the original forms, the contexts of the consumer are meaningfully different from the original study populations, and the impact on outcome variables misinterpreted or overinflated and incorrect outcomes are targeted. Further, the original articles from which these self-help interventions draw do not extensively discuss the content of the interventions, but merely present short descriptions of the PPI. As such, the intervention content cannot accurately be translated into practice, leaving self-help books to fill in the proverbial gaps with their own (unvalidated) content and approaches. Therefore, the purpose of this volume is to address the problems above by presenting clearly defined and detailed descriptions of evidence-based interventions which have been validated within multi-cultural contexts.