Well-Being Research in South Africa

Contributors.- Preface.- Chapter 1. Introduction; Marié  P. Wissing.- Chapter 2. Toward Fortigenesis and Fortology: An Informed Essay; Deodandus J. W. Strumpfer.- Chapter 3. Positive Psychology and Education; Irma Eloff.- Chapter 4. Life Design: An Approach to Managing Diversity in South Africa; Jacobus G. Maree.- Chapter 5. Teacher Pathways to Resilience: Interpretations of Teacher Adjustment to HIV/AIDS-related Challenges; Linda Theron.- Chapter 6. Building generative theory from case work: The relationship-resourced resilience model; Liesel Ebersohn.- Chapter 7. From Happiness to Flourishing at Work: A Southern African Perspective; Sebastiaan Rothmann.- Chapter 8. Resilience and Thriving among Health Professionals; Henriëtte van den Berg.- Chapter 9. Measuring Happiness: Results of a Cross-National Study; Sebastiaan Rothmann.- Chapter 10. Further validation of the General Psychological Well-being Scale among a Setswana-speaking group; Itumeleng P. Khumalo, Q. Michael Temane and Marié P. Wissing.- Chapter 11. Feeling Good, Functioning Well and Being True: Reflections on Selected Findings from the FORT Research Programme; Marié P. Wissing and Michael Temane.- Chapter 12. Coping and Cultural Context: Implications for Psychological Health and Well-being; Marelize Willers, Johan C. Potgieter, Itumeleng P. Khumalo, Leoné Malan, Paul J. Mentz, and Suria Ellis.- Chapter 13. Aspects of Family Resilience in Various Groups of South African Families; Abraham P. Greeff.- Chapter 14. Psychological Well-being, Physical Health, and the Quality of Life of a Group of Farm Workers in South Africa: The FLAGH study; Sammy, M. Thekiso, Karel, F. H. Botha, Marié P. Wissing  and Annamarie Kruger.- Chapter 15. The Pivotal Role of Social Support in the Well-being of Adolescents; Henriëtte S. Van den Berg, Ancel  A. George, Edwin D. Du Plessis, Anja Botha, Natasha Basson,  Marisa De Villiers and Solomon Makola.-Chapter 16. Older Adults' Coping with Adversities in an African Context: A

Marié Wissing is professor of Psychology in the School for Psychosocial Behavioral Sciences at the North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa. Her research interests are the understanding, measurement and promotion of psychological well-being and strengths in the context of bio-psycho-social health. As a member of the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research (AUTHeR) she participates as leader of the psychology team in multi-disciplinary research projects. She developed a research program in psychofortology (i. e. the science of psychological strengths) which includes several team research projects that focus on the exploration of the nature, patterns, dynamics and enhancement of psychological well-being in various contexts. Her current research projects focus on the exploration of patterns of psychological well-being in cultural context, and on the prevalence of various levels of mental health and its association with bio-markers, socio-demographic factors and predictors of health behaviours, with a view to inform health promotion strategies. She developed several curricula for teaching of Positive Psychology in South Africa. She is an NRF (National Research Foundation) rated researcher; was a visiting professor and invited lecturer at several universities in South Africa and Europe, and serves on the editorial boards of disciplinary journals. She received the Stals prize for Psychology in 2003 from the South African Academy of Science and Art, and a reward for contribution to work wellness in 2004 at the South African Work Wellness Conference. She initiated and co-led the First South African Positive Psychology Conference in 2006. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), and has served on the scientific committees of several international conferences.