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Cultural Construal of Wellbeing – Theories and Empirical Evidence

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Global Handbook of Quality of Life

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

To compare ideas about wellbeing and happiness in a global context, it is important to focus on the characteristics of the collectively shared concept of wellbeing among cultures, namely, the cultural construal of wellbeing. In this paper, we review cultural psychological research to illustrate the considerable variation in how people construe wellbeing at both the micro and macro levels. Particularly in Japan, wellbeing is construed as balance and harmony and it is achieved collectively. In addition, we argue that multi-level analysis has shown the importance of capturing collectively achieved wellbeing. Finally, we will discuss the cultural construal of wellbeing under globalization and how sustainable societies can be created in a global context in the future.

This paper is based on the discussions and presentations by the authors in the 12th Meeting of the German-Japanese Society for Social Sciences, Werner Reimers Stiftung, Bad Homburg (May 2013).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yukiko Uchida

  2. Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Yuji Ogihara

  3. Uehiro Kokoro Studies, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Shintaro Fukushima

Authors
  1. Yukiko Uchida
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  2. Yuji Ogihara
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  3. Shintaro Fukushima
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yukiko Uchida .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Goethe-Universitat, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Wolfgang Glatzer

  2. University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, United Kingdom

    Laura Camfield

  3. Rhodes University Inst. Social & Economic Research, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Valerie Møller

  4. FLACSO-Mexico & UPAEP, Mexico City, Mexico

    Mariano Rojas

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Uchida, Y., Ogihara, Y., Fukushima, S. (2015). Cultural Construal of Wellbeing – Theories and Empirical Evidence. In: Glatzer, W., Camfield, L., Møller, V., Rojas, M. (eds) Global Handbook of Quality of Life. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9178-6_38

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