Culture, Personality and Well-Being(Socioemotional Well-Being)

This book presents an integrative, interdisciplinary examination of how cultural, psychological, and structural factors shape human well being, with a distinctive emphasis on the social contexts of Latin America and Spain. The book opens by reviewing the evolution of well being research and highlights the need for culturally grounded concepts and measurements. It then explores how national cultural values particularly autonomy, egalitarianism, and emotion norms relate to subjective well being, while illustrating the complexity of Latin American cultural profiles.

Several chapters analyze identity and social structure, showing how ethnic racial identity, social class, and inequality influence psychological outcomes through mechanisms such as discrimination, socialization, perceived control, and coping. Social relationships emerge as a central dimension of well being, with evidence on social capital, social support, and social identity demonstrating their strong protective and regulatory effects.

The book also incorporates personality science, detailing how traits, character strengths, spirituality, and religiosity contribute to flourishing or distress, and how culturally situated personality models and AI-driven approaches can enhance understanding. Additional chapters examine gender and emotional well being, affect and emotion regulation, and the determinants of well-being in older adults, highlighting the Latin American paradox moderately high well-being despite socioeconomic precarity. Across all chapters, the book underscores the interplay of personal, relational, and structural factors in shaping well being.

Chapter 1 Some milestones in psychological research on culture, personality, and well-being. By way of introduction.- Chapter 2 Culture and Well-Being.- Chapter 3 An analytical review of the relationship between Ethnic-racial identity and Well-Being in Latin America: protective and risk Factors in contexts of diversity and social exclusion.- Chapter 4 Social Class and Well-Being: Indicators, Moderating/Mediating Variables, and New Approaches.- Chapter 5 Social capital, social support, social identification, and wellbeing.- Chapter 6 Subjective and Psychological Well-Being within the Five-Factor Personality Model: Integrating Religion and Spirituality.- Chapter 7 Beyond normal personality traits and subjective well-being: Positive Personality and Well-Being from a Latin American Perspective.- Chapter 8 Wellbeing, Gender, and Life Course: A Meta-Analytic Review of the 2014 to 2024.- Chapter 9 The Relationship between Well-being and Stress Coping and Emotion Regulation Strategies: An Integrative Review Based on Meta-Analyses.- Chapter 10 Well-being in Older Adults.

Emilio Moyano Díaz is a social psychologist, full professor, and an Academic of Excellence at the University of Talca, Chile. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and has worked at the most prestigious universities of Chile, such as Universidad de Chile, Pontificia Universidad Cartólica de Chile, Universidad de Santiago de Chile and Universidad de Talca. He was also a visiting professor at Universidade Federal do Paraná, in Brazil. Dr. Moyano Díaz has published more than one hundred scientific articles in psychology, three books and several book chapters. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Research in Psychology by the Scientific Society of Psychology of Chile (2022). During his academic life he has held high university positions such as Member of the Academic Council of the University of Talca for almost ten years, Department Director, Director of different Schools of Psychology, Dean of the Faculty of Psychology, and Vice-Rector of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Talca. He has also been Coordinator of the Psychology Studies Group for the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Research of Chile (Fondecyt) and Coordinator of the Postgraduate Scholarship Commission in Social Sciences for the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research of Chile (CONICYT, now ANID).