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The Pursuit of National Wellbeing Policies Across the GCC: The What, How, and Why?

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Positive Psychology in the Middle East/North Africa

Abstract

Social scientists working under the umbrella of positive psychology are putting their research to good use by helping to define wellbeing, propose theories and models, implement their findings, collect and provide data to support interventions, and propose policy ideas and frameworks at national and community levels. These players, including the populace who will benefit from and live under wellbeing policies and activities, are foundational to achieving individual and social prosperity as they collaborate under an expansive vision to develop a repertoire of practises that can be emulated around the globe. As a team of social scientists representing expertise in policy and psychology, we briefly visit the distinction between happiness and wellbeing, the inadequacies of using GDP as a measure of prosperity and consider why wellbeing is of interest to governments. We further outline potential steps to developing a national wellbeing framework with governments at the helm and propose policy ideas as future pathways for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations in particular, but with relevance to other Middle East nations as well, to consider as they embark on their national pathways towards wellbeing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE

    Louise Lambert

  2. Global Communications Agency, Dubai, UAE

    Aziz Mulay-Shah

  3. Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA

    Meg. A. Warren

  4. UAE Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Yara Younis

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  1. Louise Lambert
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  2. Aziz Mulay-Shah
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  3. Meg. A. Warren
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  4. Yara Younis
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Correspondence to Louise Lambert .

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  1. Editor in Chief, Middle East Journal of Positive Psychology, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Louise Lambert

  2. Department of Social Science, Houston Community College, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX, USA

    Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi

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Lambert, L., Mulay-Shah, A., Warren, M.A., Younis, Y. (2019). The Pursuit of National Wellbeing Policies Across the GCC: The What, How, and Why?. In: Lambert, L., Pasha-Zaidi, N. (eds) Positive Psychology in the Middle East/North Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13921-6_2

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