Embracing Well-Being in Diverse African Contexts: Research Perspectives

Preface.- Part I Theoretical perspectives on well-being in Africa.- Chapter 1 Embracing Well-Being in Diverse Contexts: The Third Wave of Positive Psychology and African Imprint.- Chapter 2 Well-Being in Africa: Towards an Africa(n) Centred Positive Psychology.- Chapter 3 Socially Influenced Health Norms: Their Construction and Enactment in African Culture Settings.- Part II    Measuring well-being in Africa.- Chapter 4 Factorial Validity of the Twi Version of the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form and Prevalence of Mental Health in a Rural Ghanaian Sample.- Chapter 5 Conceptualising and Measuring Hospitality in Relation to Wellbeing in Kenya: Is Hospitality a Character Strength?.- Chapter 6 The factor structure of the Peer and Community Relational Health Indices in two South African samples: A bifactor exploratory structural equation modelling approach.- Part III Manifestations and dynamics of well-being in Africa.-  Chapter 7 Resilience in the Context of Chronic, Complex Stressors: An Emerging Adult's Account.- Chapter 8 Psychological Well-being among Yung People Living with HIV: Role of Social Support, Self-esteem and Socio-demographic Variables.- Chapter 9 Exploring Protective Resources that Facilitate Positive Outcomes Among Married Girls in the Northern Region of Ghana.- Chapter 10 Factors Contributing to Student Wellbeing: Student Perspectives.- Chapter 11 Nature and Role of Student Hope and Meaning in Goal Setting: Implications for Higher Education in South Africa.- Chapter 12 Virtues and Character strengths, Subjective Well-being and Academic Achievement: An Exploratory Study with Angolan University Students.- Chapter 13 Adult Attachment and Well-Being in the Medical Education Context: Attachment Security is Associated with Psychological Well-being through Self-Efficacy.- Chapter 14 Exploration of Harmony as a Quality of Happiness: Findings from South Africa and Ghana.- Chapter 15 Concordance of Goals and Meaning with Reference to

Lusilda Schutte, holding a PhD degree in psychology and a Masters degree in statistics, is an associate professor in the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research at the North-West University in South Africa, as well as a registered and practicing clinical psychologist. She is the principal investigator of a funded research project (2020-2022) that examines the conceptualisation, measurement, dynamics, and correlates of well-being in diverse contexts. She has been invited to present at the 6th World Congress of Positive Psychology in 2018, to convene a symposium at the International Congress of Psychology in 2021, and to present guest lectures in the USA and Croatia. She is an Associate Editor of Springer's Journal of Well-being Assessment, a Review Editor of Quantitative Psychology and Measurement, part of the journals Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics and Frontiers in Psychology, an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Happiness Studies,and she chaired the first Africa Positive Psychology Conference in 2018. She previously lectured statistics and worked as a statistical consultant at the North-West University and as a clinical psychologist at a government-funded psychiatric hospital in South Africa.


Tharina Guse is a counselling psychologist, professor, and Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Pretoria. Her broad research area concerns the field of positive psychology. In particular, she is interested in examining factors related to youth well-being, including interventions to maintain and promote their psychological well-being. Tharina further investigates the nature, dynamics and mechanisms of psychological strengths, specifically hope and gratitude. She also examines the application of hypnosis for mental health promotion. Tharina has been invited as visiting professor to the University of Bologna, Italy, on several occasions received an Erasmus scholarship to the University of Porto,