When "social existence determines consciousness": the influence of political system on psychological well-being, happiness, proactive coping, and depression levels among Polish and Russian citizens – a cross-cultural study

Erzin Alexandr, Gazdowska Zuzanna, Piotrowska-Półrolnik Małgorzata. When “social existence determines consciousness”: the influence of political system on psychological well-being, happiness, proactive coping, and depression levels among Polish and Russian citizens – a cross-cultural study. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2017;7(4):342-359. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.495268 http://ojs.ukw.edu.pl/index.php/johs/article/view/4381 The journal has had 7 points in Ministry of Science and Higher Education parametric evaluation. Part B item 1223 (26.01.2017). 1223 Journal of Education, Health and Sport eISSN 2391-8306 7 © The Author (s) 2017; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 05.03.2017. Revised 12.03.2017. Accepted: 06.04.2017. When “social existence determines consciousness”: the influence of political system on psychological well-being, happiness, proactive coping, and depression levels among Polish and Russian citizens – a cross-cultural study Alexandr Erzin Orenburg State Medical University, Orenburg, Russian Federation Zuzanna Gazdowska SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland Małgorzata Piotrowska-Półrolnik SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland Abstract Economic, political, and cultural crises, which many European countries are currently experiencing, increase the interest of scholars to the phenomena that positive psychology studies. The authors examine the subjective well-being, happiness, levels of depression, and proactive coping among the inhabitants of Russia and Poland – examples of similar cultures with common ethnic roots and the previous communist. The general study sample consisted of 112 people. Measures included The Ryff Psychological Well-being Scale, Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, and Proactive Coping Inventory. The study found that inhabitants of Poland gained higher scores for psychological well-being and happiness. In Russia, the adults and older people have lower levels of happiness than the young. However, the Poles’ depression scores were significantly higher than the Russians’. It was found that the Russian citizens increasingly use proactive coping and preventive coping. At the same time, the Poles are more likely to seek emotional support and use information resources for coping with difficulties. Correlation analysis showed that the level of depression is negatively associated with proactive coping behavior, while there is a positive link between proactive coping and psychological well-being. Research shows that some positive psychological phenomena depend on the economic, political, and social conditions in which the different countries’ citizens live. Cultural and historical characteristics also determine the age-related differences. The authors believe the results presented in this article will form the basis for further research of positive mental states in Eastern Europe. Key words: cross-cultural; psychological well-being; happiness; depression; proactive coping; Eastern Europ