Positive Psychology Center at University of Pennsylvania, Lecture notes of Psychology

Download Positive Psychology Center at University of Pennsylvania and more Lecture notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Positive Psychology Center University of Pennsylvania ________________________________ Martin E.P. Seligman, Director Positive Psychology Center 1 University of Pennsylvania Martin E.P. Seligman, Director The Positive Psychology Center has a wide range of initiatives in research, training, education, dissemination, and application. Following is a summary of these initiatives. A. Research Programs (Internal to Penn) 1. Positive Interventions (Creating and Validating) 2. Fostering Genius (GRIT & Pinnacle) 3. Learned Optimism Prevents Depression Among College Students 4. Learned Optimism Children and Parents Program 5. Predicting National Elections 6. Teaching Positive Psychology to High School Students (Strathaven) 7. Positive Psychology as a Treatment for Depression 8. Strengths and Virtues Across Nations 9. Strengths and Virtues Across the Life Span 10. Positive Psychology of Disabilities 11. Positive Youth Development (Sunnylands) 12. What Constitutes a “Good Day?” B. “Medici 2” Research Programs 1. Purpose, Productivity and Health: Hardening Positive Psychology Variables 2. National Well Being Indicators 3. Aging Well and Spirituality 4. Psychological Capital 5. Chinese and Spanish Websites C. Positive Psychology Network (M. Seligman, Director) 1. Positive Emotion Center (E. Diener) 2. Positive Character Center (M. Csikszentmihalyi) 3. Classification of Strengths and Virtues (C. Peterson) 4. Positive Psychology Curricula in Education 5. Twenty Eight Research Pods across Fifty Universities 6. Annual Summits (International Summit, European, History of Strengths) 7. Young Scholar Research Awards 8. Positive Psychology Microgrants Program 9. Summer Institute 10. Web Site (www.authentichappiness.org) 11. Toward A Positive Humanities D. Dissemination 1. Penn Professional Master’s Program in Positive Psychology 2. Ph.D. students in Positive Psychology (Penn) 3. Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors’ Programs 4. Teaching High School Teachers to Deliver Positive Psychology Training 5. Authentic Happiness Coaching 6. Strengths Testing and Website (VIA) 4 6. Teaching Positive Psychology in High School (Strath Haven School) This U.S. Department of Education-funded project, called Positive Psychology for Youth (PPY), investigates the effects of a Positive Psychology curriculum developed for high school students. The major goals of the curriculum are to increase positive emotion, character strengths, citizenship, and sense of meaning or purpose in young people. The curriculum includes approximately 25 lessons, integrated into the Language Arts class. The program aims to increase positive emotion through lessons and activities on savoring and mindfulness, gratitude, optimism and resilience. Character strengths are promoted by identifying students’ signature strengths and having them employ these strengths in their daily lives. Students also have the opportunity to develop non-signature strengths that are important to them. Finally, students are encouraged to think about the activities and experiences that increase meaning in their lives. The curriculum emphasizes that experiences that increase meaning often involve connections to others and causes that are larger than ourselves. Students develop plans for engaging in activities (individually or with others) that increase their sense of meaning and fulfillment. 7. Positive Psychology as a Treatment for Depression Over the last five decades considerable effort and resources have been spent to treat depression through psychotherapy and medication. Data indicate, however, that the pooled effectiveness of all therapies is about 50%. We believe one of the reasons of this limited efficacy of treatments of depression is that traditional treatments focus on the weaknesses of the depressed individual. Traditional treatments of depression, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and antidepressant medications (ADM) although somewhat effective, explicitly target faulty cognitions and neural dysregulation, rather than the strengths of the individual. We have created a treatment for depression that explicitly builds the strengths of the individual – Positive Psychotherapy (PPT). Our central assumption is that depression can be treated effectively not only by reducing negative symptoms but also by directly building positive emotions, building engagement through signature strengths and building meaning. Our treatment relieves depression by building positive psychological resources, which we believe will relieve depressive symptoms and buffer against future recurrence. In addition, we also believe that this treatment will produce collateral healthy outcomes such as social and community engagement, satisfaction with life, physical health, and better work performance. 8. Strengths and Virtues Across Nations Are the strengths and virtues that we have identified in the United States recognized and valued around the world? We are investigating this question with an Internet research strategy that asks English-speaking scholars from many nations (more than 50 to date) to tell us if a given strength of character (e.g., open-mindedness) has an unambiguous linguistic counterpart in their home culture, if it is celebrated, if it is deliberately cultivated among children, and so on. Results to date point to the ubiquity across the globe of the 24 strengths included in the Values in Action (VIA) Classification. 5 9. Strengths and Virtues Across the Life Span Using different research strategies, we are beginning to track the developmental trajectory of character strengths across the life span, literally from birth (using parental descriptions of infants) to death (using obituaries). We have learned that the most common strengths among children and adolescents are gratitude, humor, and love, and the lesser strengths include prudence, forgiveness, spirituality, and self-regulation. This profile is consistent with the profile for adults, although exceptions exist: hope, teamwork, and zest are relatively more common among youth than adults, whereas appreciation of beauty, authenticity, leadership, and open-mindedness are relatively more common among adults than youth. 10. Positive Psychology of Disabilities We have applied for funding with the U.S. Department of Education for a series of studies with people with disabilities. About 70% of adults with disabilities are unemployed. We proposed that interventions that increase optimism, resilience, and well-being among people with disabilities will substantially increase their employment, educational attainments, and well being. These studies will determine the effectiveness of programs that teach optimism and Positive Psychology skills to people with disabilities. We will also match the specific strengths of people with disabilities to the strength requirements of various types of jobs. 11. Positive Youth Development (Sunnylands) We received a grant from the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands to advance research in positive youth development. To accomplish this goal, Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson created a commission of experts in several areas. Each member of the commission contributed a white paper outlining his or her understanding of the current state of positive youth development and recommendations for future research. The commission members met in May 2003 to discuss gaps in the literature and brainstorm the most effective interventions for promoting positive youth development. Currently, Seligman and Peterson are working together to consolidate the individual commission papers into one publishable document. It is their hope that this document will chart a new direction in the prevention and rehabilitation of psychological disorders among adolescents. Oxford University Press is publishing the result of our commissions. 12. What Constitutes a “Good Day?” In order to make people less depressed or happier, Psychology and Psychiatry have restricted themselves to two techniques: drugs and therapy. Another technique is to discover what activities the person already engages in and what sequence of these activities produces the most happiness or the least suffering. Using diary studies, we are now investigating people’s mood and activities hour by hour, with an eye toward re-arranging people’s daily lives to produce more “good days” per week. 6 B. “Medici 2” Research Programs We have received a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to fund the beginnings of the following five flagship projects: 1) How purpose and meaning build life satisfaction, productivity, and health (M. Seligman & C. Peterson) 2) The development of national well-being indicators to complement economic indicators (E. Diener) 3) The study of spirituality in successful lives (G. Vaillant) 4) The study of Psychological Capital (M. Csikszentmihalyi) 5) The development of Chinese & Spanish Websites for Positive Psychology (C. Peterson & M. Seligman) 1. Purpose, Productivity, and Health: Hardening Positive Psychology Variables Positive Psychology is an umbrella term for theories and research about what makes life most worth living. The psychological good life is not simply the minimization of stress and trauma. Subjectively defined happiness is desirable, but what about harder measures of well-being at the individual and societal level? There is good reason to believe that Positive Psychology constructs have a beneficial impact on group productivity, achievement in a variety of domains, and even physical health and longevity. For what hard outcome might each characteristic be more conducive? Do individuals with pleasant, engaged, and/or meaningful experiences end up leading objectively better lives, as measured by productivity and physical health, even after controlling for initial productivity and health? And across settings, does a given work site, community, or nation with a higher proportion of individuals leading these sorts of lives do better than those with a lower proportion? Is there a tipping point or critical mass of individuals in a group, above which others are pulled up? Conversely, what is the effect on the group of some (or many) individuals with empty lives (low in pleasure, engagement, and meaning)? Does a leader with given characteristics make a special difference? We are exploring a possible collaboration with Scottish colleagues, who have proposed that Positive Psychology be used to understand Scotland’s crisis of confidence. Longitudinal studies could focus on workers in commerce, health care, and government. The studies would measure pleasure, engagement, and meaning and focus on the prediction of health, longevity, productivity, and attrition. 2. National Well Being Indicators Domestic policy currently focuses primarily on economic outcomes, although economic indicators omit or misreport much of what society values. Economic indicators have risen steeply over the past decades and yet there has been no rise in life satisfaction during this period, and there has even been a substantial increase in depression and distrust of others. Economic indicators alone were good first approximations to well-being when basic resources were very scarce and when the fulfillment of basic needs was the central concern. But in the absence of scarcity there is enormous slippage 9 major research initiatives: a) The study of good work in higher education. A preliminary article on this work is slated to appear later in the year in Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, b) A study of flow in chess, and c) A study of venture philanthropy and the effect of giving on the donors. 3. Classification of Strengths and Virtues (C. Peterson) Central to the Positive Psychology Center is the classification and measurement of strengths and virtues. The Mayerson Foundation provided funding for this mission, dubbed the Values-in-Action (VIA) Classification of Strengths and Virtues. We wrote introductory chapters for the manual, commissioned literature reviews from experts on the specific strengths, and devised self-report questionnaires measuring strengths suitable for children, youth, and adults. Oxford University Press and The American Psychological Association have published this 800-page manual as Psychology's Un-DSM. 4. Positive Psychology Curricula in Education The purpose of the teaching task force is the dissemination of Positive Psychology curricula in high schools and colleges. Publications include a unit plan on Positive Psychology (published by the APA for TOPSS) and a high school psychology textbook, resource binder, and teacher's edition (published by Worth Publishers). These publication efforts will result in long-term promotion of Positive Psychology as high school students are introduced to the movement at the same time as they are introduced to general psychology. In addition, Positive Psychology has been presented to high school and collegiate psychology teachers through various presentations, including most notably the National Council for the Social Studies annual convention in Chicago, Illinois. This annual convention serves over 5,000 attendees, and the session on Positive Psychology was attended by over 50 teachers. 5. Twenty Eight Research Pods across Fifty Universities We support 28 pods of scholars to write books, to pioneer scientific discovery or to obtain a major grant for research on Positive Psychology. 1) Jon Haidt (Virginia) and Dacher Keltner (Berkeley): Awe and Moral Elevation. 2) Paul Rozin (Penn), Claude Fischler (Paris), Joel Kupperman (Connecticut), Daniel Kahneman (Princeton) and Alan Fiske (UCLA): Comfort and Joy. 3) Lisa Aspinwall (Utah), James Gross (Stanford), and Lisa Feldman Barrett (Boston College): Thriving During Change. 4) Sonja Lyubomirsky (UC Riverside), Ed Diener (U. Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Laura King (U. Missouri-Columbia): Positive Emotions. 5) Ken Sheldon (Missouri): Insecurity, Priming, and Greed. 6) Tim Kasser (Knox College): Happiness and the Holidays. 10 7) Suzanne Segerstrom (Kentucky) and Annette Stanton (Kansas): Immunology and Health. 8) Karen Reivich (Penn) and Shane Lopez (Nebraska): Positive Interventions and Civic Engagement. 9) Amy Wrzesniewski (NYU), Jane Dutton (Michigan) and Monica Worline (Michigan): Positive Psychology of Organizations. 10) Laura King (SMU), Jefferson Singer (Connecticut), and Melanie Green (Penn): Rising to the Occasion: Narrative Pod. 11) Barry Schwartz (Swarthmore), Andrew Ward (Swarthmore), Shelly Gable (UCLA), and Darrin Lehman (UBC). Maximizing vs. Satisficing. 12) Sonja Lyubomirsky (UC Riverside), Ken Sheldon (U. Missouri-Columbia), and David Schkade (U. Texas-Austin): The Architecture of Sustainable Happiness. 13) James Pawelski (Albright) and John Lachs (Vanderbilt): Positive Liberal Arts. 14) Jonathan Schooler (Pittsburgh), Daniel Gilbert (Harvard), and Timothy Wilson (Virginia): Mispredicting Unhappiness: Predicted and Experienced Affect. 15) Lisa Aspinwall, Carol Sansone, and Cynthia Berg (all of Utah): Future-Oriented Thinking, Feeling, and Acting Across the Lifespan. 16) Barbara Fredrickson (Michigan) and Kevin Rathunde (Utah): Experiential Education. 17) Paolo Inghilleri (Univ. of Verona): A Psychosocial Model of Meaningful Materialism. 18) Julie Bower (UCLA), Elissa Epel (UC San Francisco), and Judy Moskowitz (UC San Francisco): Stress and Thriving. 19) Willibald Ruch (Zurich), Rod A. Martin (Western Ontario), and Christopher Peterson (Michigan): Humor. 20) Fredrik Ullen (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden): Creativity. 21) Fred Bryant (Loyola, Chicago), Darryl Maybery (Latrobe, Australia), and Tracy Lindberg (British Columbia): Savoring. 22) Barbara Fredrickson (Michigan) and Kevin Rathunde (Utah): Experiential Wisdom. 23) Manfred van Dulmen (Minnesota) and Anthony Ong (Notre Dame): The Methodology and Measurement. 24) Jonathan Schooler (Pittsburgh), Dan Wegner (Harvard), John Bargh (NYU), Roy Baumeister (Florida State), and Martin Seligman (Pennsylvania): Free Will. 11 25) Shelly Gable (UCLA) and Jean-Philippe Laurenceau (Miami): Close Relationships. 26) Lene Arnett Jensen (Catholic Univer.), Ruth K. Chao (California, Riverside), Andrew J. Fuligni (UCLA), Jean S. Phinney (California State Univ.): Immigrant Children and Youth: Developing Skills for Succeeding. 27) Maya Tamir (Illinois) and Michael Robinson (North Dakota State): Attention. 28) Omri Gillath (UC Davis), Mario Mikulincer (Israel), Phillip Shaver (UC Davis): Attachment. 6. Annual Summits (International Summit & European Summit) Following are the Positive Psychology conferences that have or will take place in 2004: The third International Positive Psychology Summit will be held in Washington, DC in October 2004, with the financial support of the Gallup Organization. This meeting is held annually at the Gallup headquarters the first weekend in October. For details, see: www.gallup.hu/pps/ The second European Positive Psychology Summit took place July 5 to 8, 2004 in Italy. This conference attracted over 300 individuals from around the world and was considered a great success. The next one will be in Portugal in July 2006. For details, see: www.positivepsychology.org/ppeuropeconferenceschedule.doc The Fourth International Summer School and Symposium on Humour and Laughter took place at the University of Wolverhampton, in the United Kingdom, September 6 to 11, 2004. For details, see: asp.wlv.ac.uk/Level2.asp The Philosophical History of Strengths and Virtues Conference took place at the University of Pennsylvania September 2-4, 2004. For details, see: www.positivepsychology.org/pawelskiconference.htm The first South African and Asian Positive Psychology Summits will likely take place in the next 24 months. 7. Young Scholar Research Awards We received a grant from the John Templeton Foundation to support research awards to young investigators in Positive Psychology. The purpose of this grant program is to recognize and encourage the best and brightest among the rising generation of researchers who share a vision for transforming psychology in a positive direction. The program offers seed grants, up to $10,000 each, to support early-career psychologists as they develop innovative lines of research within Positive Psychology. We awarded a total of twenty-three grants. 8. Positive Psychology Microgrants Program Similar to the Young Scholar grants, the Microgrants program aims to recognize and encourage the best and brightest among the rising generation of researchers who share a vision for transforming psychology in a positive direction. The program offers small seed grants, up to $2,000 each, to