Across the world, governments are struggling to help people recover from substance use problems. Due to their particular risk factors, two age groups are of special interest to public health: emerging adults and older adults. Psychological sense of community (PSOC) is a key dimension in their recovery. Yet, to develop context-sensitive and effective strategies tailored for these groups, there is a need to understand their discourses of PSOC as situated within their context. This study offers a multi-level and comparative analysis of discourses of PSOC for 21 emerging adults and 23 older adults recovering within the same context. Using a discourse analytic tool and a comparative approach ideological impacts on the two groups' discourses of PSOC were identified. Both groups' discourses suggest that achieving and maintaining PSOC in recovery is challenging within a developing neo-liberal context. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate differences between the two groups' with respect to (a) the particular impact of ideologies, (b) sources for PSOC in recovery and (c) challenges in community participation. The article builds on the findings to suggest strategies targeting the two groups. Please refer to the Supporting Information section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.

Abstract Aim: Mattering is a fundamental human experience promoting crucial components to later-life recovery processes. Today, the largest population of older adult persons with substance use problems, so far, is on a steep rise in many Western countries. To tailor and offer substance use services promoting mattering, more knowledge about later life mattering of older adults recovering with the assistance of substance use services is needed. This study aims to explore conditions for, and experiences of, mattering in older adults in service-assisted recovery from substance use problems. Methods: A collaborative and deductive reflexive thematic approach was applied in analysing 23 interviews with participants using substance use services in their recovery processes from different substance use problems: alcohol, medication and illegal substances. The participants were recruited from three different Norwegian contexts: two urban and one medium size municipality. The age of the sample ranged from 65-80 years, with approximately equal numbers for those aged 60-69 (12 participants) and 70-80 (11 participants). Seven participants were women and 16 men. Results: Two main themes were identified in the data: “Conditions for later life mattering” and “Experiences of mattering from community relationships and own actions”. The findings illustrate various conditions for mattering and experiences of mattering and not mattering in later life recovery processes. Conclusions: Several participants experienced not mattering; promoted by lack of support, disrespect and devaluation and loss of relationships, but also being ignored and not receiving fair treatment and help by service professionals. Overall, the participants’ mattering depended on fair and healthy community relationships; fair distribution of resources such as affordable housing, accessible transportation, and fair organizational structures where participants could feel valued and also have a chance themselves to add value to others. Several practical implications to enhance the therapeutic and preventive potentials of later life mattering in recovery are suggested.

Purpose There is a pressing need for substance use services to know more about how to promote recovery from substance use problems, particularly in later life. Psychological sense of community (PSOC) is an important recovery dimension. This study aims to clarify in what ways PSOC and communities influence later life recovery processes. Method A collaborative and deductive reflexive thematic approach was used to analyse 23 interviews with older adults in recovery from different substance use problems. Results The findings suggest that PSOC and recovery in later life include multiple communities (relational, geographical, substance use-related, ideal and service-related) and affective states (PSOC and NPSOC). Older adults' recovery, moreover, can be described as personal and heterogenic (with respect to community relationships, individual needs, type of substance use problem, age of onset and meaningful activities). Conclusions The findings confirm age of onset, type of substance use problem and community memberships as essential to later life recovery. They also supplement prior evidence on community resources and challenges to later life recovery. Importantly, the new findings extend and nuance current understandings of later life recovery. Taken together, the article illustrates MPSOC as a useful concept, with central practical and theoretical implications for later life recovery.

Abstract Aim Mattering (to feel valued and add value to self and others) is a fundamental human experience and mechanism in recovery. In this paper, we concern ourselves with the recovery of older adults with substance problems. This population is on the rise in many Western countries. To offer mattering enhancing programs for this group, more knowledge about later life mattering in service-assisted recovery processes is needed. This study aims to explore experiences of mattering in older adults receiving services to recover from substance use problems. Methods A collaborative and deductive reflexive thematic approach was applied in analysing 23 interviews with participants using substance use services. Participants were recovering from different substance use problems: alcohol, medication and illegal substances. The participants were recruited from three different Norwegian social contexts: two urban and one medium size municipality. The age of the sample ranged from 65–80 years, with approximately equal numbers for those aged 60–69 (12 participants) and 70–80 (11 participants). Seven participants were women and 16 men. Results Three main themes were identified in the analysis: “relational experiences of mattering and not mattering”, “service-related experiences of mattering and not mattering” and “recovery and psychological sense of community as interrelated phenomena to experiences of mattering”. The findings illustrate various nuanced experiences of mattering and not mattering in later life recovery processes. Conclusions Overall, the participants’ mattering experiences rested on fair, healthy and positive community relationships and fair and attentive services, where participants could feel valued and also have a chance to add value to others. Experiences of not mattering were precipitated by lack of support, disrespect, devaluation and loss of relationships, and also by being ignored and not receiving fair treatment and help by professionals. Importantly, reciprocal and enhancing relations between mattering, recovery and relational PSOC seem to exist and to be significant for the older adults’ access to substance use services. Several practical implications are suggested to promote the therapeutic and preventive potentials of later life mattering in recovery.

Applying the multiple psychological sense of community concept (MPSOC), this study explored how emerging adults with substance use problems experience the influences of various senses of community and communities on their personal recovery processes. Semi-structured interviews with 21 emerging adults from different urban contexts in Norway were analysed using a collaborative, seven-step, deductive, and reflexive thematic approach. MPSOC is shown to be a key concept for achieving a broad, in-depth understanding of emerging adults' senses of community and personal experiences of community influences on recovery processes from substance use. Positive and negative senses of community in geographical, relational, substance use-related and ideal communities influence the potentials and challenges in emerging adults' recovery processes. Supportive and motivating community relationships, meaningful activities with peers, and distance from recovery-impeding communities were identified as important recovery components. To promote recovery and prevent substance use in emerging adults, community approaches and tools applied in substance use treatment have to take into account and utilise multidimensional and age group-specific aspects of belonging.

How do people describe the psychological sense of community (PSOC) in the present day ideological climate of globalising neo-liberalism, assuming that people are essentially individualistic, that solidarity, social commitment, and citizenship are not natural dispositions, as we all are the lonely citizen? This issue is addressed by a mixed-methods study using semi-structured interviews with two age groups—young and older people—from two different cultures—India (Mumbai) and Norway (Oslo). This two by two design gives the opportunity to analyse people’s meaning systems of PSOC, asking; is there a core meaning system of PSOC shared by people within as well as across cultures? Belongingness and citizenship are continuously formed and negotiated, just at the intersection of two dimensions: culture and historical time. The young and older adult informants often live in different “historical times.” The meaning systems of PSOC were explored and compared by language analyses of words used by the informants. Text search queries were made for 69 words. “Help,”, “care,” “different,” “problem,” and “family” were identified as central for further in-depth qualitative analyses. The word, “family” demonstrated high frequencies of use across sub-samples. There was nothing more relevant for the groups than the family when thinking of PSOC, revealing almost a “prior to society perspective.” PSOC is about being part of families. Simultaneously, we are members of other communities: schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, cities and nations. The informants mentioned such communities, but not often. Feeling part of the family, helping and caring not only the family but also your neighbourhood, local community, or national and global communities are particularly necessary today, as we live in a time where communities, societies, and nations across the world are heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this crisis, it is vital that nobody forgets that we are national and transnational citizens and part of many interrelated social systems. This study points out how community psychology and the applied social sciences can work to strengthen the feelings of connections to other communities, societies, and nations outlining and co-creating transformative multi-level interventions of public policy programmes of inclusion and “we-ness.”

Aim:The recent nationally implemented clinical pathways for the treatment of substance use problems in Norway require mapping and assessing of patients' needs, challenges, and resources. However, there is a lack of tools for systematically mapping and assessing patients' social situations and social networks as part of the national guidelines. The aim of this article is to present a tool developed to map and assess the patient's social situation, and to propose approaches for promoting multiple psychological senses of community (MPSOC) through clinical pathways for treating substance use problems.Methods:The proposed tool and approaches are developed based on findings in a previous in-depth collaborative study of MPSOC and recovery among people with substance use problems who received help and services from Norwegian municipalities.Findings:The findings suggest that multiple communities (geographical, relational and ideal) and senses of communities (within and outside treatment) simultaneously can influence individual recovery processes from problematic substance use in both positive as well as negative ways. As such, these community dimensions are of central importance to include in mapping and assessing of patients' social situations, as well as in the promotion of MPSOC through clinical pathways.Conclusions:The suggested tool and approaches can increase the likelihood of achieving key aims of the national clinical pathways. Most important, mapping, assessing and promoting MPSOC through clinical pathways may promote long-term recovery processes and positive recovery capital for persons with substance use problems.

AbstractAimsThis pilot study uses a multifaceted concept of sense of community (SOC)—multiple senses of community (MPSOC)—to understand how the multiple communities of persons with substance use problems, including those with a positive, negative and neutral SOC, influence processes of substance use recovery.MethodsSemi‐structured interviews were conducted with 16 informants from different Norwegian municipalities and regions. A collaborative research design and thematic analyses with a peer researcher were applied.ResultsThe findings confirm prior findings of key ingredients related to recovery. However, they also illustrate that for communities to promote recovery, they need to fulfil individual needs, provide distance from pretreatment status, identity and roles and harmonise with individual meaning systems of an ideal community.ConclusionExperiences of positive and negative community connections within geographical, relational and ideal communities take part in recovery processes. Community participation is suggested to be included in individual outpatient treatment and posttreatment plans.

Satisfaction with life is often considered to be a component of or a synonym for subjective well-being. However, the meaning of "satisfaction" is rarely discussed in the scientific literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the meaning potential of the Norwegian term for satisfaction (tilfredshet). A conceptual analysis was conducted based on the qualitative responses of 276 Norwegian adults to the question "What is satisfaction for you?" Based on principles of thematic analysis, text data units were examined to develop a framework of recurrent themes and superordinate categories. The analysis demonstrated that the word "satisfaction" in everyday Norwegian language does not unequivocally point toward a unitary, clear-cut affective or evaluative phenomenon. Instead, its meaning potential was found to include material, physiological and interpersonal conditions, activities, internal psychological states, and circumstances and contexts of well-being, connected by temporal and causal assumptions. In addition to hedonic understandings, eudaimonic and processual conceptualizations of satisfaction were identified. Findings support a conceptual co-existence of satisfaction as satisficing (conditions evaluated as good enough) and as more optimal fulfilment (conditions evaluated as good). Further qualitative studies of conceptual understanding across cultural contexts and languages are recommended.

The need for increasing conceptual clarity within well-being research has been stressed by social scientists as well as policymakers and international organizations. The present study aimed to identify and compare conceptual structures of the everyday terms happiness, a good life, and satisfaction, based on a semi-stratified sample of Norwegian adults. Findings indicate that these terms share certain conceptual similarities, as used in everyday Norwegian language. For each term, it was possible to identify an underlying structure of conceptual configuration, articulated into external life domain components and internal, psychological dimensions. Relationship themes were prominent among the external domains for all three terms. Findings indicated that in Norwegian participants' understanding, happiness and good life were highly inclusive of external life domains, whereas satisfaction primarily evoked associations to internal, psychological states and experiences. Latent class analyses highlighted differences among socio-demographic groups as concerns the degree to which different conceptualizations of the three terms were endorsed. Findings raise questions about the practice, relatively common in the applied social sciences, of treating happiness, good life and satisfaction as highly similar concepts, and the assumption that each term carries the same meaning for everyone.

The purpose of the present study is to explore older adults’ understanding and conceptualizations of the concept “psychological sense of community” (PSOC) as experiences of belonging and being part of seem to be important in old age. Twelve older informants from Oslo (the capital of Norway) were interviewed. A thematic and discourse analytical approach was used to identify and depict the most central themes in the older adults’ meaning of PSOC in-depth and in relation to context. The findings show that there are important parts of Norwegian older adults’ meanings of PSOC that goes beyond dimensions included in the predominant conceptualization of PSOC. “Individual responsibility for PSOC in old age”, identified as the most salient theme, reflects core Norwegian cultural values and provides new insight to premises of PSOC and well-being in old age. Furthermore, the findings in this Scandinavian sample extend the understanding of older adults’ efforts to maintain their PSOC and well-being through life-changing transitions.

Well-being is a widely discussed topic in research, policy, and media. This study was aimed at examining usage patterns of core terminology related to well-being in Norwegian newspapers during the past two decades. Specifically, we investigated occurrence across time of 39 words describing well-being facets from four theoretical perspectives: affective approaches, cognitive or life satisfaction approaches, eudaimonic and humanistic approaches, and character strengths. Four major newspapers were selected in order to capture sociocultural and regional variation. Evidence of significant changes in usage frequency was detected for about half of the search terms. Affective words showed variable trends, while usage of words referring to satisfaction declined. The most notable magnitude of change concerned the increase in eudaimonic words related to mastery, motivation, and self-development. Findings suggest that core vocabulary of well-being belongs to a changeable field of linguistic practice. Implications for positive psychology are proposed.

Youths’ well-being and subjectivity are strongly related to prevailing political, economic, and social conditions. Neoliberalism has extensively permeated societies worldwide, changing the way individuals, especially youth, make sense of their surroundings and themselves. There is thus an increasing need to investigate how youth subjectivities are influenced in contemporary societies that are under the influence of neoliberalism. Through an analysis of the future orientation of youth, we can investigate discourses that shape youth subjectivities. In this study, we perform a Foucauldian discourse analysis of the future orientation of youth — high school students, from two national contexts, Turkey and Norway — who were asked to write an essay on their personal futures. We investigate what dominant discourses are revealed in the youths’ writings and how they may influence their subjectivities and well-being. We detail two frameworks of discourses, one pertaining to materialism and the other pertaining to education and career, that our participants drew upon in their writings. We relate these discourses to neoliberalism and discuss the extent to which youth constitute themselves as neoliberal subjects of their respective societies. We discuss how these discourses may also be related to their well-being in diverse ways.

In well-being research the term happiness is often used as synonymous with life satisfaction. However, little is known about lay people's understanding of happiness. Building on the available literature, this study explored lay definitions of happiness across nations and cultural dimensions, analyzing their components and relationship with participants' demographic features. Participants were 2799 adults (age range = 30-60, 50% women) living in urban areas of Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Hungary, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, and United States. They completed the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation (EHHI), reporting, among other information, their own definition of happiness. Answers comprised definitions referring to a broad range of life domains, covering both the contextual-social sphere and the psychological sphere. Across countries and with little variation by age and gender, inner harmony predominated among psychological definitions, and family and social relationships among contextual definitions. Whereas relationships are widely acknowledged as basic happiness components, inner harmony is substantially neglected. Nevertheless, its cross-national primacy, together with relations, is consistent with the view of an ontological interconnectedness characterizing living systems, shared by several conceptual frameworks across disciplines and cultures. At the methodological level, these findings suggest the potential of a bottom-up, mixed method approach to contextualize psychological dimensions within culture and lay understanding.

Chapter 2 Positive Psychology: Historical, Philosophical, and Epistemological Perspectives Ingvild S. Jørgensen, Ingvild S. JørgensenSearch for more papers by this authorHilde Eileen Nafstad, Hilde Eileen NafstadSearch for more papers by this author Ingvild S. Jørgensen, Ingvild S. JørgensenSearch for more papers by this authorHilde Eileen Nafstad, Hilde Eileen NafstadSearch for more papers by this author Book Editor(s):P. Alex Linley, P. Alex LinleySearch for more papers by this authorStephen Joseph, Stephen JosephSearch for more papers by this author First published: 30 July 2004 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470939338.ch2Citations: 11 AboutPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShareShare a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Summary This chapter contains sections titled: A Revitalization of Aristotelian Philosophy From a Pathology-Oriented Understanding to a Perspective of Growth and Positive Development From the Individual as Asocial to the Individual as Socially and Ethically Responsible On Aristotelian Developmental Theory The Concept of Optimal or More Perfect Functioning in Modern Psychology The Eudaimonic Approach to the Good Life in Positive Psychology The Multicultural Perspective The Human Being: Universal, Local, or Unique? Different Levels of Scientific Activity Concluding Remarks Citing Literature Positive Psychology in Practice RelatedInformation

The influence of neoliberalism on culture and subjectivity is well documented. This paper contributes to understanding of how neoliberal ideology enters into the production of subjectivity. While subject formation takes place in multiple and contradictory ways and across multiple social sites, we focus on the increasingly popular media discourse of self-development, and examine it as a technology of neoliberal subjectification. Drawing on Foucauldian understandings, we analyze data from two different newspapers from two different national contexts, both of which are heavily influenced by neoliberalism. Based on our analysis, we detail four interrelated discourses-rationality, autonomy and responsibility, entrepreneurship, and positivity and self-confidence-demonstrating how these discourses constitute the neoliberal subject in ways consonant with neoliberal governmentality. There is no observable resistance to subject positions offered within these discourses. Self-development discourse instills stronger individualism in society, while constraining collective identity, and thus provides social control and contributes to preserving status quo of neoliberal societies.

This article takes as critical point of departure the currently individualized nature of mainstream social psychology. It is argued that by using the concept of ideology, social psychology may be transformed into a more societal social psychology and thereby a discipline more relevant to individual, society and social life. Based on the interplay between language usage and ideology, moreover, a methodology for assessing ideological changes in society by identifying shifts in language usage in the public discourse (newspapers) is presented. Research conducted by this methodology, including comparative studies of how the globalized neoliberalism with its strong individualism merges with local ideologies in various societies around the world is then reviewed. Finally, analyses of a society's ideological reactions upon terrorism, is presented.

ABSTRACTGroup boundaries between immigrant minority and majority members are currently undergoing considerable and complex changes in European multicultural societies due to migration. In this paper, we present a descriptive, longitudinal investigation of the usage of linguistic expressions in Norwegian media discourse that describe symbolic boundary developments between immigrant minority and majority members, and their multicultural context. Seventy‐two expressions are analyzed, and three temporal usage patterns are described (increasing, decreasing, and ‘mountain’) as central to understanding current symbolic boundaries and how they may both frame and be shaped by ideologies. Expressions describing immigrant minorities have increasingly focused on their establishment in the Norwegian multicultural society and have also shifted from general boundaries of outsiderness to increasingly specified boundaries of origins, visibility, and immigrant otherness. Norwegian majority expressions have mostly shifted toward a focus on origins. Our analysis suggests that symbolic boundaries in the Norwegian multicultural society have been changing rapidly. They seem to be shaped by complex ideological patterns constructing both similarities and differences, and which simultaneously seem to promote both inclusion and exclusion for certain immigrant minorities. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.