Positive Psychology Theory

Nancy Luksch ‘Instead of a naïve scientist entering the environment in search of the truth, we find the rather unflattering picture of a charlatan trying to make the data come out in a manner most advantageous to his or her already-held theories’ Fiske & Taylor,...

The relationship between income and well-being has long been an area of interest to thinkers and philosophers, from Epicurus who believed that wealth and joy were not compatible, to modern economists, who often see income and consumption as being synonymous with...

In two extensive meta-analyses it was concluded from both experimental and longitudinal studies that positive emotions not only derive from, but also precede enhanced success and physical and mental health (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005; Pressman & Cohen,...

The fundamental premise of positive psychology is that personal fulfillment is constituted by more than the absence of problems and deficit. Although particular definitions of both happiness and good character may be subjective, their importance to personal and...

Clive Nayler The commonly endorsed assumption is that people need to feel good about themselves (Brown, 1998 as cited in Heine et al., 1999) and seek to enhance and maintain their positive self-view (Pyszczynski et al., 2004). Self-esteem is “a good opinion of oneself...

Clive Nayler This article looks to provide an insight into the plethora of research literature, measures and definitions available in the field of self-esteem. Its origins, from both a theoretical and contemporary perspective, are assessed before reviewing the three...

Historically, gratitude has been viewed variously as a social and civic virtue, a motivator of benevolence and both a cognitive and emotional reminder of the social need to reciprocate (Emmons, McCullough, Tsang, 2003). However, from the perspective of psychology, and...

"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional” Anon. One could argue that resilience is the end product of intuitive application of positive psychology to the management of personal adversity. Resilient people are those individuals who display “the capacity to remain...

Brian Albuquerque Subjective well-being (SWB) is defined as ‘a person’s cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life’ (Diener, Lucas, & Oshi, 2002, p. 63). The cognitive element refers to what one thinks about his or her life satisfaction in global terms...

Nietzsche (1997/1889) cited in Haidt (2006, p135) stated that: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. The adversity hypothesis states that people require adversity, trauma and setbacks in order to grow, find fulfilment, develop as a person and find their inner...

One of the assignments that students of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at the UEL have to complete is creating a mind map of the broad field of Positive Psychology. Below are a few interesting mind maps we have selected. Mind map by Bridget...

Jody Delichte Subjective well-being (SWB) reflects individuals’ thoughts and feelings of their own life experiences. It combines cognitive judgements and affective reactions in a measurement that includes positive affect, negative affect and life satisfaction (Diener,...