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Positive psychology

By Steve Draper,   Department of Psychology,   University of Glasgow.

This page lists a few basic starting points, plus pointers to pages by me about specific applications I'm concerned with that are related to Positive Psychology.

Positive psychology emerged fairly recently as a new area of academic psychology that seeks to study the nature and causes of happiness (as opposed to unhappiness and mental illness), and how to act so as to increase it.

  • 1 page statement (manifesto)
  • six page overview (PDF)
  • Further links are below.

    My own pages / projects related to positive psychology

    1. Public health approaches to mental illness,
    2. DACE courses some colleagues and I are putting on on happiness and positive psychology.
    3. Dramatic educational improvements inspired by positive psychology, particularly Dweck.

    Basic links on positive psychology

  • Center for confidence and well-being in Glasgow
  • Positive psychology center at University of Pennsylvania (Seligman's base)
  • www.positivepsychology.org
  • Tal D. Ben-Shahar's Harvard course on Positive Psychology   His website
  • Think tank on using well-being not GDP to run society
  • Steger on Pleasure vs. meaning of life for happiness:
    Steger,M.F., Kashdan,T.B., Oishi,S. (2008) "Being good by doing good: Daily eudaimonic activity and well-being" Journal of Research in Personality vol.42 no.1 pp.22-42

    Dweck

    Carol Dweck's work is particularly important for the educational applications, though she has some differences from other positive psychology researchers. For a first getting to grips with Dweck's particular theory, the advice I have had is to read her book "Self-theories".

    I have a page summarising several dramatic published studies of educational gains from interventions which, to me at least, are inspired by Dweck.

    Her main idea or focus is that many learners (prototypically American school children) see all educational tests and tasks as measures of aptitude, showing they are "smart". Consequently if they fail, they do not seek to improve nor to try harder, because of course aptitude is fixed. This attitude is profoundly damaging for learning. "A good education is not so much one which prepares a man to succeed in the world, as one which enables him to sustain failure." (Bernard Iddings Bell)

    The best way into her ideas may be through her books:
    Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (NY: Random House)

    Dweck, C.S. (2000) Self-Theories -- Their role in Motivation, Personality and Development. Essays in Social Psychology (Philadelphia: Psychology Press)

    She also has papers:
    Mueller, M.C. & Dweck, S.C. (1998) "Praise for Intelligence can Undermine Children's Motivation and Performance" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol.75, No.1, pp.33-52

    Dweck, C.S. (1986) "Motivational processes affecting learning" American Psychologist vol.41 no.10 pp.1040-1048

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