Social Vitality from the Perspective of Psychologists

Joy and cheerfulness is the missing thing of contemporary man and the common desire of all people. Man is a purposeful being who seeks joy, happiness, and prosperity, and he does not feel joy, happiness, and prosperity until he achieves what he wants. The cheerfulness is one of the factors affecting economic, social, cultural, and political development and promotes sustainable development.

The present study was conducted with a phenomenological social approach and with the aim of examining psychologists' experiences of social vitality. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 16 psychologists with PhD degrees and at least five years of teaching experience in the academic level.

 Smith's phenomenological method was used to analyze the data, during which eight main themes and 46 sub-themes were extracted from the data.

The results showed that in some sub-themes such as the definition of social vitality, consequences, obstacles, and causes, there is some alignment between the views of psychologists and the background; However, there are different results in the solutions. Psychologists, based on their psychological perspectives and experiences, have proposed various solutions for parents and organizations at the micro and macro levels. For example, their proposed solutions include not politicizing social vitality, careful selection of officials and meritocracy, reducing the distance between social classes, organizing the economic situation, having a scientific view on the issue of social vitality and several other strategies. The results of this study will pave the way for further research in the field of interventions related to social vitality.