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People care about their own well-being and about the well-being of their families. It is currently, however, unknown how much people tend to value their own versus their family's well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size (N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries (N = 49). We found that the strength of the idealization of family over personal happiness preference was small (average Cohen's d s =.20, range −.02 to.48), but present in 98% of the studied countries, with statistical significance in 73% to 75%, and variance across countries <2%. We also found that the size of this effect did vary somewhat across cultural contexts. In Latin American cultures highest on relational mobility, the idealization of family over personal happiness was very small (average Cohen's d s for Latin America =.15 and.18), while in Confucian Asia cultures lowest on relational mobility, this effect was closer to medium (d s >.40 and.30). Importantly, we did not find strong support for traditional theories in cross-cultural psychology that associate collectivism with greater prioritization of the family versus the individual; country-level individualism–collectivism was not associated with variation in the idealization of family versus individual happiness. Our findings indicate that no matter how much various populists abuse the argument of "protecting family life" to disrupt emancipation, family happiness seems to be a pan-culturally phenomenon. Family well-being is a key ingredient of social fabric across the world, and should be acknowledged by psychology and well-being researchers and by progressive movements too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Happiness research tradition is focused on an independent form of happiness (Satisfaction with life, SWL), which in part neglects the social context and group well-being. We considered interdependent happiness (IH) to evaluate a collectivist conceptualization of happiness, which is based on harmony with others. We also considered the role of the perceived urbanization level of the place of living in the independent and interdependent happiness of people since in the literature there is no consensus about the impact of rural vs urban characterization of the living context on happiness. We hypothesized that place of living – rural vs urban – differently impacts on factors influencing independent or interdependent personal or familiar happiness. 290 university students of the Lazio Region in Italy participated to an online survey aimed to investigate the relation among self-construal, familism, personal and familiar independent and interdependent happiness. Results show that for people living in urban places, self-oriented individual factors concerned with self-realization, predicted satisfaction with life and interdependent happiness. For people living in rural places, other-oriented factors, more anchored to the group and community dimension, affected happiness for self and the family. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, mindfulness has been considered as a potential source of proenvironmental attitudes and behavior. Present research is aimed at consolidating and expanding previous knowledge by proposing that mindfulness is related to both proenvironmental behavior and belief in global climate change through social dominance orientation (SDO). A first study was conducted on undergraduate students (n = 279) and found, as expected, that trait mindfulness was related to proenvironmental behavior through SDO. A second study using a known groups approach compared practitioners (n = 44) and nonpractitioners (n = 53) of Buddhist meditation, which is known to develop a mindful stance. Moreover, in Study 2, a measure of belief in global climate change was adopted as a further outcome. Again, trait mindfulness was related to both proenvironmental outcomes through SDO. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological science tends to treat subjective well-being and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective well-being is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: What is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of Western, educated, industrial, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) societies but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why “happiness maximization” might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat (i.e., faced relatively light existential pressures compared with other regions). We review the influence of the Gulf Stream on the Northwestern European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealize attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for happiness maximization, we also studied some of its potential side effects, namely alcohol and drug consumption and abuse and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we reanalyze data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction—the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology—involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]