ABSTRACT
Positive psychology currently emphasizes micro-level interventions that provide short-term gains. But to sustain human flourishing, we must better understand how sociopolitical environments shape individual lives. Much (perhaps too much) effort is devoted to studying the results of brief interventions, though the emerging field of positive psychology had recognized that the “third pillar” of the institutional environment can have a more pervasive and potent impact than any intervention psychologists could devise (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). To understand the important role of institutions, this chapter first provides an evolutionary context for the measurement of societal well-being based on the concept of complexity. We then describe an analysis of archival data collected by the European Social Survey (Round 6) from the viewpoint of sociocultural complexity, operationalized as increasing levels of differentiation (measured by political freedom) and integration (measured by social trust). Finally, we discuss how this broad evolutionary context – informed by an empirical framework of societal well-being – provides a critical foundation for moving the science of positive psychology forward by focusing on the broader, macro-level interventions of our lives.
