The role of positive and negative affect on well-being amongst Swedish and Iranian university students

Abstract

The roles of positive and negative affect in well-being were studied in two different societies, namely the Iranian and the Swedish. A total of 606 university students (296 Iranian and 310 Swedish) participated in the study. The results showed that, whereas there was no difference between Iranian and Swedish participants in their general level of life satisfaction, differences with regard to positive and negative affect were found. Swedish participants had more positive affect, whereas Iranian participants had more negative affect. In the Swedish sample, the most predictive factor of flourishing was positive affect, while there was a balance affect (between positive and negative affects) in the Iranian sample. The results are discussed from a individualistic–collectivistic perspective.

Keywords:

• flourishing
• well-being
• positive affect
• negative affect
• cross-cultural
• individualistic
• collectivistic

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments for our manuscripts. We also thank Valiollah Ramazani for his effort in data collection from Iranian population.