Well-Being and Happiness for Harmonization of Natural and Cultural Resources: Cross-Cultural Pillars of Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Among the seventeen goals for Sustainability and Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2018), well-being and happiness refer to the third goal (good health and well-being, to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages). The comprehension of well-being in the scientific literature shows an articulation in hedonic and eudemonic approaches. Hedonic well-being essentially considers well-being as pleasure achievement and pain avoidance (Watson, Clark, and Tellegen, 1988), comprising both an affective component in terms of positive affect and negative affect (Watson et al., 1988) and a cognitive component of evaluation as life satisfaction in terms of a global cognitive judgment about own life (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin, 1985). Eudemonic well-being regards meaning, flourishing, and self-realization and optimal functioning (Ryan and Deci, 2001; Waterman et al., 2010), focusing on building resources and strengths (Di Fabio and Saklofske, 2014; Di Fabio and Kenny, 2012, 2016; Di Fabio and Peiró, 2018; Henao-Zapata and Peiró, 2018; Tetrick and Peiró, 2012).

In this framework, Psychology of Harmonization (Di Fabio and Tsuda, 2018) represents a new theoretical point of reference for a new approach in the Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development (Di Fabio and Rosen, 2018). Psychology of Harmonization (Di Fabio and Tsuda, 2018) considers both geographical and temporal perspectives, including meaningful construction processes from the past, to the present, towards the future, using reflexivity processes at the individual, group, intergroup, social, community, organization, interorganization, national, and cross-national levels. Psychology of Harmonization also underlines the value of taking care of a harmonic recomposition on many levels of internal and external complexity, both temporally and geographically. For this reason, Psychology of Harmonization offers a promising framework for research and intervention, to identify and foster new strengths from the point of view of a preventive perspective, promoting health and well-being with the natural environment and in different environments. Well-being and happiness for harmonization of natural and cultural resources represent cross-cultural challenges in this new perspective. Psychology of Harmonization (Di Fabio and Tsuda, 2018) is embedded in the new research area of Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable development (Di Fabio, 2017a, 2017b; Di Fabio and Rosen, 2018) in the transdisciplinary field of Sustainability Science.

Psychology of Sustainability and Sustainable Development (Di Fabio and Rosen, 2018) is aimed at opening the black box of psychological processes, focusing on psychological processes and enlarging the concept of sustainability and sustainable development. Psychology of Harmonization fits into this area as a new pillar aiming to improve harmonization with/in the natural environment as well as the other environments: Personal environment, social environment, organizational environment, interorganizational environment, etc. all the way to globalized environment and virtual environment.

Psychology of Harmonization (Di Fabio and Tsuda, 2018) asks for a prevention perspective for harmonization of natural and cultural resources. In particular, this framework stresses the value of the primary prevention perspective (Caplan, 1964; Hage et al., 2007), focused on both avoiding the emergence of a problem before it begins and on promoting well-being at every level and in every environment, also taking on the complex perspective of the psychological variables involved. The preventive perspective is more effective when efforts to decrease risks are combined with efforts to increase resources, centering on building strengths of individuals and environments.

This Special Issue is focused on the innovative contribution that Psychology of Harmonization can add to the theme of sustainability and sustainable development, concentrating on well-being and happiness for harmonization of natural and cultural resources in a cross-cultural perspective. The aim of this Special Issue is then to offer a framework for research articles interested to explore the topic of Psychology of Harmonization for well-being and happiness of people and environments as cross-cultural pillars in the construction of Sustainability and Sustainable development.

Prof. Dr. Annamaria Di Fabio
Prof. Dr. Akira Tsuda
Guest Editors

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