It’s Valentine’s Day and love is in the air! I thought today would be a good day to explain why there is a heart in the middle of The Psychology of Wellbeing logo. The atom symbol, of course, represents science, to convey the fact that this blog is generally based on a spirit of scientific inquiry towards wellbeing (i.e. not just about sharing personal beliefs and stories but rather considering [...]
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Finding Wellbeing on Facebook
“If we only wanted to be happy it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are.” –Montesquieu (from “The Anti-Social Network” on Slate.com) Recent research out of Stanford University’s psychology department has stimulated a lot of theories that Facebook could be making us all miserable. The reason? Facebook makes us victims of social [...]
Face, Butt, Wit: Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places
This article was also published today on Positive Psychology News Daily. I previously wrote an article about Sam Sommers’ new book, Situations Matter (see Why Men are better than Women at Math.) But I liked this book so much that I agreed to write a second article in order to participate in their online book tour traveling around the internet (cool idea.) The theme of the book is about the [...]
Warning: Positivity May be Harmful
Today’s article is featured on Positive Psychology News Daily. “Context matters” for understanding human wellbeing. This has been a recurring theme of this blog in recent months. It was one of my key takeaways from the International Positive Psychology Association conference in Philadelphia, and it was the topic of a new book called “Situations Matter” by Sam Sommers that I wrote about here. In a recent research article, called “Beyond Positive Psychology,” [...]
Love or Science? A Young Woman’s Dilemma
A recent series of research studies found that women are lured away from math and science by their desire for romance. This research is fascinating on two levels. First, because it highlights a difference between the genders as researchers found that women, but not men, would express less motivation to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering or math if they were prompted to think about romantic goals. Secondly, because [...]
The Positive Psychology of Zombies Part 2: Hive Psychology
Recently I wrote an article on the positive psychology of zombies, and I immediately realized that I was only telling half the story. I argued that the popularity and appeal of zombies was due to their perseverance. Unlike other mythical horror creatures, the zombies do not have super human powers or weapons to destroy their prey, it is their persistence and relentlessness towards their victim that is so terrifying. But [...]
In a Wedding, Other People Matter
“This is your day,” people would tell us when we got married (last week) “forget about everybody else.” This is a common piece of wisdom that friends and family members will tell the bride and groom, who often find themselves spending more time and energy worrying about their guests’ enjoyment than they do enjoying their special day themselves. There were certainly times when we felt this way the week of [...]
When Baby Comes First
“First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage.” From the time we are ten years old, we learn that this is the way things are supposed to go. But it doesn’t always work out that way. For some people, the baby comes first. At the end of February, I’ll be getting married to Catherine, my girlfriend of the last four and a half years, [...]
What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Spas as a Surrogate for Love)
It was the first week of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology graduate school program at University of Pennsylvania when I met George Vaillant, who would be one of our guest lecturers. I was excited to meet him because, working in the spa industry, I was a big fan of his book “Aging Well,” a book that certainly influenced my own “anti-anti-aging” philosophy. (Most people in the spa industry try [...]
Putting the Social back in Social Media
Last year was a year of focusing on the new social media channels, but it seems we have been more focused on the “media” than we have on the “social.” The buzz for the past year has been on which are the right channels to play in, how to develop your “presence” in social media, and what are the secret tips for getting more fans, friends and followers. Software makers [...]
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