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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Overview of Positive Psychology in Latin-American Countries

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This chapter aims to outline the dissemination of Positive Psychology (PP) in Latin America and provides an overview of the present book. In the past decade, PP was introduced in Argentina by Maria Martina Casullo. Since 2006, Positive Psychology Ibero-American Meetings have been held annually, involving the majority of Latin American countries, especially from South America. Abstract books of these meetings and Latin-American indexed journals were the basis to identify the impact of PP in the southern region. Four basic trends were found: (1) the most frequently studied topics were psychological well-being, interpersonal relationships and psychotherapeutic interventions; (2) there was a lack of development of modern PP constructs such as human strengths, positive emotions and positive organizations; (3) there was a strong interest in positive interventions for different settings, but these intervention programs were not consistently validated; and (4) many authors highlighted the need for cross-cultural studies and “emic” research of positive constructs.