Happiness from Here: Conceptions and Experience of Well-Being from Ghana

The study of happiness and related topics like well-being is a rapidly expanding area of scientific research. The dominant theories for these constructs emerged from research in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) settings. This chapter questions this tradition by thinking about happiness and well-being from here: the West African country of Ghana. Rather than impose hegemonic foreign measures on individuals in Ghana, we develop our methods to elaborate a body of knowledge and practice about happiness that is distinctive to Ghanian settings. This approach seeks to reveal and advance local conceptions and experiences of happiness, not merely as a definition or peculiar feature of African psychology, but on the implications for psychology and the study of well-being.