Cultural relevance of character strengths in Eurasia: Making science of strengths less WEIRD — ASN Events
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  3. Cultural relevance of character strengths in Eurasia: Making science of strengths less WEIRD

Cultural relevance of character strengths in Eurasia: Making science of strengths less WEIRD (#103)

Tahira Mubashar 1 2 , Marco Weber-Harzer 3 , Claudia Harzer 3
  1. Institute of Psychology, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
  2. Institute of Applied Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
  3. Department of Psychology, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Background

Over a couple of decades, positive psychologists have focused on human strengths that facilitate an individual’s ability to live a better life. [1] [6] [7] Character strengths are presumed to be ubiquitously recognized and valued across cultures. [6]  Like other psychological research and theory, positive psychology has been criticized for being a WEIRD science (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic). [3] Further, some researchers argue that character strengths are oversimplified and do not provide a better understanding of different cultures. [4] [5] To probe if character strengths are WEIRD (or not), evidence needs to be collected from Eastern countries including participants with diverse backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses.

Aims

To partly address this concern, our research aimed to explore perceptions about the cultural relevance of character strengths in Eurasia approaching participants of WEIRD and non-WEIRD countries.  

Method

Taking insight from Biswas-Diener (2006) [2], the Cultural Relevance of Character Strengths Survey (CRCSS) was developed to measure different dimensions of cultural relevance such as existence development and practices. We collected data from four countries in Eurasia (n = 52 Germany, n = 76 Russia, n = 288 Pakistan, and n = 74 China). 

Results

The results indicated that character strengths are perceived as culturally relevant by most participants with respect to existence, importance, helpfulness, encouragement, application, parent’s desirability, established cultural practices, and cultural institutions for the development of character strengths with few exceptions. In addition, we found some differences regarding the practices of character strengths by specific gender and age groups.

Conclusion

Overall, the findings provided consistent evidence on the ubiquity of character strengths from WEIRD and non-WEIRD countries advocating that character strengths are more than just a WEIRD science.

 Keywords: Character strengths, positive psychology, culture, WEIRD science, Eurasia

  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Culture, Interdisciplinarity, Strengths
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