Chris Peterson, one of the 100 most cited psychologists in the world, one of the founding fathers of positive psychology, and a visionary in the study of character strengths and virtues, passed away this week at the age of 62. The outpouring of sadness and affection in the psychology community has been inspiring in its […]
Photo Credit: Arne Hendriks via Compfight You are the puppet master. You pull the strings. You push the buttons. And everyone around you powerlessly and unwittingly submits to your will. This force that you hold over others is powerful but subtle. So subtle, in fact, that it goes undetected by even your closest loved ones, […]
The other day I yelled at my 2-year-old son Dylan after one of his wooden blocks bounced off my forehead, narrowly missing my eye. “NO!,” I shouted. “You DO NOT throw things!” I thought I was being as clear and direct as possible, but if I put myself in young Dylan’s shoes, this is not […]
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 […]
“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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
“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 […]
