No. 45-A (2025): Monográfico Psicología
Psychology as a science has contributed evidence and solid intervention protocols to address mental illness, consider its causes, and seek to heal and relieve people’s suffering throughout the life cycle. Since the late 1980s, it has paid special attention to understanding what underlies mental health, well-being, and resilience, in order to promote them in healthy human development. It was then that working with the factors that protect and build positive states became an important focus of attention for a community of psychologists and academics around the world, who organized under the movement known as Positive Psychology. Currently in its third decade, this field has provided abundant scientific evidence about the key role played in health and lasting well-being by cultivating positive emotions and healthy emotional management, as well as by developing optimistic, kind, compassionate, merciful, and grateful ways of thinking. Hence, the goal is to promote the construction of a lifestyle that fosters, from an early age and across diverse contexts of human development, conscious practices that connect us with pleasures and gratifications, activities in which our talents and strengths enable flow experiences, healthy interpersonal relationships nurtured by affection and secure attachment, and meanings and purposes that keep us inspired and hopeful in life for personal and collective good. Positive Psychology has also contributed to the scientific study of character resources that provide strength and structure to support ways of thinking and beliefs that guide protective daily actions, through the 24 Character Strengths, placed at the service of human flourishing.
The contributions of Positive Psychology offer a constructive, powerful, and profoundly hopeful perspective for addressing the major challenges that the current global context presents in relation to mental health, providing the foundations and structures for its promotion and prevention, while enriching the traditional protocols used in dealing with the distress associated with mental illness.
The purpose of these lines is to invite a careful and thoughtful reading of the knowledge and experiences of a distinguished representation of professionals in Psychology and Education, who participated in the 7th Venezuelan Congress of Psychology, held on February 26–28, 2025, at Universidad Metropolitana, an institution of higher education committed to resilient and sustainable human development. From its Faculty of Sciences, and particularly the School of Psychology under my direction, this edition of the congress strengthened its alliances by incorporating into its organization the Latin American Network for Research and Intervention in Happiness and Well-Being. It was a meeting full of collaborative spirit, where the exercise of strengths such as love of knowledge, perseverance, kindness and social intelligence, teamwork, humility, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, and sense of humor were all placed at the service of the organization and development of the event.
The commitment to the science of well-being materialized in an academic-scientific gathering that addressed various themes oriented toward the promotion and prevention of healthy and sustainable human development. Careful attention was given to ensuring the presence of interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and intercultural perspectives on happiness and well-being, as well as to highlighting the relevance of protective factors for mental health and proposals for their education, reflected in far-reaching Latin American experiences.
The authors of this volume stand out for their significant and rich academic trajectories, scientific rigor, and passionate commitment to studying and disseminating findings about what works in people and human systems, in order to strengthen mental health and resilience. They also represent the essence of the event, with both a national and Latin American vision in addressing diverse and relevant facets of its central theme: Human Development in Well-Being: Self-Knowledge, Balance, and Coexistence in People Who Improve the World.
Readers will first find a historical overview that honors the main contributions of Positive Psychology and its evolution up to the present, highlighting conceptual complements that outline the path toward a comprehensive understanding of well-being, its relationship with Neuroscience, and the key elements for building habits that foster it.
Subsequently, space is given to a strategic perspective for promotion and prevention, based on the premise of the power of psychoeducational intervention to facilitate the teaching and learning of skills related to Mental Well-Being and Resilience. This perspective is reinforced by strengthening networking, diverse accompaniment, and the development of self-management for personal and community good. The strategic vision is also expanded with the proposal of a model of psychological service provision to respond to high psychosocial demands.
Finally, five rigorous research experiences are shared, employing diverse methodologies, stages, and evolutionary tasks related to well-being and human flourishing: vulnerable rural Colombian adolescents and their life projects; Mexican youth and the factors that support their vocational choices; employees in a Colombian organization and their stress management; the importance of technological tools and platforms for human development in well-being and happiness; and, lastly, relevant social variables (perceived social problems, emotional climate, and institutional trust) and their relationship with the well-being of Argentine adults.
The reading of this issue, enriched by approaches that offer a Latin American perspective, will provide valuable theoretical knowledge, scientific evidence, strategic alternatives, and examples of applied experience to students and professionals in Psychology and various disciplines interested in resources for strengthening the character of individuals and human systems. It will facilitate the construction of a lifestyle consistent with health and stimulate the development of greater awareness and connection of the person with themselves, with others, and with their environment—an experience necessary for building mental health and resilience. It is inspiring to know ourselves as members of a scientific community that is sensitive and committed to topics oriented toward what makes life worth living and flourishing. By drawing on the strength of being networked, we will have greater chances of responding to the needs and challenges posed by the present moment in our country and region, and this is profoundly hopeful.
MSc. Pura Zavarce Armas
Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas (Venezuela)
Latin American Network for Research and Intervention in Happiness and Well-Being
