Bridging cultural and experimental existential psychology, this book offers a synthetic understanding of how culture shapes psychological threat.

Social and personality psychologists traditionally have focused their attention on the most basic building blocks of human thought and behavior, while existential psychologists pursued broader, more abstract questions regarding the nature of existence and the meaning of life. This volume bridges this longstanding divide by demonstrating how rigorous experimental methods can be applied to understanding key existential concerns, including death, uncertainty, identity, meaning, morality, isolation, determinism, and freedom. Bringing together leading scholars and investigators, the Handbook presents the influential theories and research findings that collectively are helping to define the emerging field of experimental existential psychology.

This thought-provoking treatise explores the essential functions that culture fulfills in human life in response to core psychological, physiological, and existential needs. It synthesizes diverse strands of empirical and theoretical knowledge to trace the development of culture as a source of morality, self-esteem, identity, and meaning as well as a driver of domination and upheaval. Extended examples from past and ongoing hostilities also spotlight the resilience of culture in the aftermath of disruption and trauma, and the possibility of reconciliation between conflicting cultures. The stimulating insights included here have far-reaching implications for psychology, education, intergroup relations, politics, and social policy. Included in the coverage: · Culture as shared meanings and interpretations. · Culture as an ontological prescription of how to “be” and “how to live.” · Cultural worldviews as immortality ideologies. · Culture and the need for a “world of meaning in which to act.” · Cultural trauma and indigenous people. · Constructing situations that optimize the potential for positive intercultural interaction. · Anxiety and the Human Condition. · Anxiety and Self Esteem. · Culture and Human Needs. A Psychology of Culture takes an uncommon tour of the human condition of interest to clinicians, educators, and practitioners, students of culture and its role and effects in human life, and students in nursing, medicine, anthropology, social work, family studies, sociology, counseling, and psychology. It is especially suitable as a graduate text.

This innovative volume examines the phenomenological, existential and cultural dimensions of grief experiences. It draws on perspectives from philosophy, psychology and sociocultural studies to focus on the experiential dimension of grief, moving beyond understanding from a purely mental health and psychiatry perspective. The book considers individual, shared and collective experiences of loss. Chapters explore the intersections between the profound existential experiences of bereavement and how this is mediated by sociocultural norms and practices. It points to new directions for the future conceptualization and study of grief, particularly in the experiential dimension. Drawing on a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, this important book will appeal to academics, researchers and students in the fields of death and bereavement studies, wellbeing and mental health, philosophy and phenomenological studies.

Existential-Psychology East-West(Volume 2) emerged from continued dialogues on existential psychology, particularly existential-humanistic psychology, in Southeast Asia. This volume includes authors from Southeast Asia, India, Africa, Europe, and the United States, including Xuefu Wang, Louise Sundararajan, Mark Yang, Louis Hoffman, Al Dueck, Albert Chan, Donna Rockwell, Ilene Serlin, Rainbow Tin Hung Ho, Rochelle Suri, Meili Pinto, and Anthony K. Nkyi. The book is divided into three sections: 1) Theory and Practice, 2) Applications and Case Illustrations, and 3) Existential Perspectives on Cultural Myths. The first three chapter focus on Zhi Mian Therapy, an indigenous Chinese approach to existential psychology. These chapters are the most comprehensive overview of Zhi Mian Therapy in English to date. Other theory chapters include a discussion of international psychology from an existential-humanistic perspective, the concept of Sui Wu Fu Xing, men's violence against women, Sunyata, and the concept of savoring. The second section focuses on a variety of case illustrations to illuminate the practice of existential therapy in different cultural contexts. The final section expands upon existential perspectives of myths as developed in Rollo May's The Cry for Mythand Existential Psychology East-West(Volume 1). Seven myths from different cultural contexts are examined from an existential perspective. Along with Volume 2, Existential-Psychology East-West(Volume 2) represents a landmark contribution to the existential psychology literature.

Social and personality psychologists traditionally have focused their attention on the most basic building blocks of human thought and behavior, while existential psychologists pursued broader, more abstract questions regarding the nature of existence and the meaning of life. This volume bridges this longstanding divide by demonstrating how rigorous experimental methods can be applied to understanding key existential concerns, including death, uncertainty, identity, meaning, morality, isolation, determinism, and freedom. Bringing together leading scholars and investigators, the Handbook presents the influential theories and research findings that collectively are helping to define the emerging field of experimental existential psychology.

What is the human essence? Although typically viewed as one of the big questions in philosophy, exploring the human essence requires a deep and comprehensive understanding of the human condition and thus social psychological perspectives are pivotal. Advances in social-psychological theorizing and research suggest that humans can be viewed as biological beings as well as cultural creatures, rational reasoners as well as emotional enigmas, moral minds as well as amoral agents. In this volume, talented scholars come together to present a fascinating array of insight into such topics ranging from evolutionary approaches to social constructivist accounts that essentially deny the existence of a human essence altogether. As such, this volume showcases the various shades of human essence that social psychology has discovered. Through these novel chapters, edited by Martijn van Zomeren and John F. Dovidio, The Oxford Handbook of the Human Essence expertly articulates both what social psychology can tell us about the human essence, and the astonishing range of perspectives reflected within this field. Consequently, this volume also raises important questions about the future of social psychology and the role of the notion of the human essence.