ABSTRACT
In view of the globalized nature of today’s world, we aimed to explore whether and to what extent there were differences in levels of perceived hope, positive and negative emotions, as well as harmony in life between two national samples, Czech and South African. Although the Czech Republic (CZ) and South Africa (SA) significantly differ in terms of history, culture, language, and socioeconomic background, they both experienced recent political and macro-social changes. It was assumed that remaining hopeful might play an important role in attaining subjective well-being despite the perceived socio-political issues in both countries. As the concepts of perceived hope and harmony in life are relatively new, the main aim of this exploratory study was to examine the role of perceived hope and positive and negative affect in the level of harmony in life among CZ and SA. The specific aims were to (1) Compare differences in perceived hope, emotional experiences, and harmony in life between the CZ and SA samples; (2) examine the predictive power of perceived hope in harmony in life and (3) investigate the possible mediating role of perceived hope in the relationship between positive affect and harmony in life. Data from the international Hope Barometer survey, collected through an online survey between 2016 and 2017, were employed and processed using IBM SPSS Statistics. The CZ sample consisted of 310 adults (63.5% females, mean age = 29.6) while the SA sample consisted of 414 adults (69.6% females, mean age = 38.9).
Perceived hope proved to be an independent predictor of harmony in life in both samples. Further analyses revealed interesting culture-specific differences in the measured variables. Better understanding of cross-cultural similarities and differences in hope and subjective well-being might be useful in understanding and promoting harmony, resilience, and respect for diversity in today’s multicultural society.
