[2][3] Cultural psychologist Richard Shweder argues that these factors help shape what people deem is good, moral, and virtuous.
With these new findings, researchers broke down the biological foundations into several categories in order to further understand how endogenic factors play a role on an individual's happiness.
The categories researchers selected to examine were genetics, endocrine glands, hormones, physical health, brain and neurotransmitters, typology, and attractiveness.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, anthropologists and psychologists used race and culture as factors that influence positive, negative behaviors, and attitudes{Snyder, Lopez, Pedrotti (2011).
By the mid 20th century, the dominant view was that culture did not predetermine life outcomes; instead, differences were the consequence of environmental factors.
[9] Psychologists Charles R. Snyder, Shane J. Lopez, and Jennifer T. Pedrotti identify two major influential western traditions – Athenian and Judeo-Christian – and four major eastern traditions – Confucianism (China), Taoism (China), Buddhism (Japan), and Hinduism (Southeast Asia) – relevant to positive psychology.
His analysis is based on his survey of the accounts of happiness and optimal functioning provided in Western as well as non-Western traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Sufism.
One perspective, termed 'culturally-free' believes that there are numerous human strengths that are valued universally, and that the pursuit of happiness is common across cultures.
[5] Edward C. Chang did a series of quantitative studies in order to showcase the importance of understanding the equivalence of traits and constructs across cultural groups.
[20] Joseph G. Ponterotto et al. have suggested that the ability to navigate and adapt to the increasingly diverse context of the world, is an important strength.
Dahlsgaard, Peterson, and Seligman's (2005)[25] meta-analysis present historical and psychological evidence supporting the contention that there are universal virtues that exist across cultures.
These authors note that these virtues have been represented in ancient texts within Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and from Athenian scholars.
Each of these core virtues was represented in these schools of thought and became entrenched in the societies and cultures that ascribe to these religions and belief systems.
Thus, these core virtues of courage, justice, humanity, temperance, wisdom, and transcendence are valued equally across these different cultures (Dahlsgaard et al., 2005).
[26] In studies that highlight differences between Western and Eastern cultures, discrepancies in values and emotions have been found when comparing the United States and China.
[28] Kubokawa and Ottaway also present research that discredits the cultural relevance of the Values in Action Classification of Strengths (VIA) created by Peterson and Seligman.
Peterson and Seligman (2004) identified six universal characters strengths and virtues that are valued by all cultures: courage, justice, humanity, temperance, wisdom, and transcendence.
[28] Previous research has demonstrated that the good life, as defined by subjective well-being, is rooted in predominantly Western ways of thinking.
Due to this dichotomy, it is difficult to examine subjective well-being without considering both realms, which occurs when positive psychology uses Western ways of thinking about the world.
[32] Maygar-Moe, Owens, and Conoley identified specific cultural considerations that affect how practitioners should engage with concepts and theories in positive psychology within counseling settings.
[33] Latinos – life satisfaction was the only predictor of pathways thinking, and rational problem solving was the best predictor of agentic thinking, therefore, Latinos would benefit most from interventions aiming to increasing rational problem solving and that would lead to higher life satisfaction (Chang & Banks, 2007).
Cross-cultural studies would help with the application of psychological treatment and recovery, along with improving the general understanding of the psyche of diverse populations of people.
This is not only important for the differences between Western and Eastern civilizations, but has implications for the various cultural and ethnic groups within the United States of America, a society that has been considered a "melting pot" and has grappled with these issues throughout history.
[32] In addition, a culturally embedded approach would allow professionals outside the mental health field to utilize methodology and concepts from psychology to motivate and help people.
[35] Furthermore, teachers and administrators would be better equipped to address issues in educational achievement and behavioral development amongst diverse groups of students.
This supports the idea that applications of positive psychology to cultivate strengths need to be altered to fit the clients' cultural backgrounds.
Many of the ideals that are associated with a positive psychology are notions that are deeply ingrained within Western cultures and do not necessarily apply to all groups of people.
[citation needed] "Positive psychology is doomed to being narrow and ethnocentric as long as its researchers remain unaware of the cultural assumptions underlying their work.
[citation needed] Non-standardized measurements of emotion are also due to the fact that pleasant hedonic experiences are expressed in very different ways across cultural groups, hindering researchers' ability to choose universal terms that will accurately describe these experiences without completely disregarding their cultural context.
This makes it challenging for researchers to study positive psychology across cultures, as different interpretations of these terms could lead to invalid assumptions about specific emotions.