Poster Presentation 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Guidelines For The Cultural Adaptation Of Positive Psychology Interventions (#602)

Tom Hendriks 1
  1. Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Paramaribo, Suriname

Cultural adaptation can be described as the systematic modification of evidence-based treatments, in such a way that they become more compatible with the cultural patterns, meanings, and values of the participants receiving them. Most positive psychology interventions (PPIs) that have been introduced in the past two decades were developed by western scholars. There is a growing number of PPIs conducted in non-western countries as well as an increased awareness of the need for cultural sensitive interventions among populations with a multi-ethnic background in western countries. Therefore, it is important that psychological interventions are adapted to the different cultural backgrounds of populations, in order to increase their efficacy. This presentation provides guidelines to make positive psychology interventions more sensitive towards non-western populations. These guidelines build on previous ones that describe the cultural adaptation process of psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy and will focus on aspects during the diagnostic, developmental, implementation, and evaluative stages of evidence-based interventions that aim to increase positive feelings, behaviors, and cognitions.

  1. Hendriks, T., & Graafsma, T. (2019). Guidelines for the cultural adaptation of positive psychology interventions. Manuscript submitted for publication.
  2. Hendriks, T., Schotanus-Dijkstra, M., Hassankhan, A., Sardjo, W., Graafsma, T., Bohlmeijer, E., & de Jong, J. (2019). Resilience in the Caribbean: findings from a randomized controlled trial of a cultural adapted multi-component positive psychology intervention. Journal of Positive Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.159062
  3. Hendriks, T. (2018). Positive psychology interventions in a multi-ethnic and cross-cultural context. (Dissertation). Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam. https://dare.uva.nl/search?identifier=c7553146-8ab0-424b-98d6-9aed4e33870a