Basic Beliefs and Cultural Attitudes as Predictors of Emotional and Psychological Well-Being in Urban and Rural Populations

The paper presents and discusses outcomes of a research on cultural attitudes and basic beliefs as predictors of psychological and emotional well-being in urban and rural populations. As it was revealed, beliefs contribute to the emotional and psychological well-being of both people living in urban and in rural areas. The rates of regression explaining the variations in psychological well-being by beliefs are higher in those living in rural areas, whereas the rates explaining emotional well-being are higher in urban population. The most significant predictor of the subjective well-being is one’s belief in the worth of his/her Self and in other people’s kindness. Also, of much importance for the well-being of those living in the cities (in contrast to the rural population) is their belief in luck. The impact of cultural context on the psychological well-being is higher in the rural population, while its impact on their emotional well-being remains unclear. However, if the city represents the impact of vertical individualism, in the rural areas it is horizontal individualism and collectivism that play an important role in the prediction. Thus beliefs and cultural context to a greater extent account for the variations in the psychological well-being in the rural population than in the urban one. Inclusion in a social territorial community also predetermines the differences in the prediction of the emotional and psychological well-being. The research was conducted with the assistance of the Russian Foundation for Humanities, project № 14-06-00250а “Structure and Predictors of Subjective Well-Being: Ethnopsychological Analysis”.

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