For my German-speaking readers: I’ve recently published two articles in Positive Psychology in the workplace.
The first one covers the antecedents and consequences of Flow at work. It was published online by the German psychology magazine EMOTION.
The second one is an overview of several concepts in the realm of Positive Psychology in business and features the work of Martin Seligman, Barbara Fredrickson, Jane Dutton, Roy Baumeister, and Shawn Achor.
Share and enjoy!
My favorite pieces covering Positive Psychology and adjacent from (roughly) the last seven days:
Psychology Today: Re-setting Your Happiness Set Point Part 1 | Part 2 by Linda and Charlie Bloom
Talent Management: 6 Resolutions for Career Happiness in 2016 by Dan Bowling
PsyBlog: 33 Surprisingly Simple Things That Make People Happiest by Jeremy Dean
NBC News: United Arab Emirates Names Official ‘Minister for Happiness’ by Alex Johnson
Scientific American: How to Be an Optimal Human by Scott Barry Kaufman
Scientific American Mind: Can Positive Thinking Be Negative? by Scott Lilienfeld
The Guardian: Banish those midlife blues – the secret to happiness starts with one small step by Tracy McVeigh
Washington Post: The end of college rankings as we know them by Jeffrey Selingo
Washington Post: A Stanford psychologist explains why spacing out and goofing off is so good for you by Emma Seppälä
This is the second artwork (well…) in my self-imposed learning journey on the way to producing decent infographics. This time, I chose Martin Seligman´s PERMA framework, which, by many people, is considered to be the most comprehensive framework of “the good life”, the foundation of Positive Psychology in science and practice.
Since PERMA is not exactly hot from the presses, I added a little twist: For a couple of years now, Marty challenges his students in the Penn Master of Positive Psychology program to propose meaningful additions to the original PERMA outline (Positive Emotions | Engagement | Relationships | Meaning | Achievement). Over time, it became clear that the original framework may be somewhat “neck-up”, thereby omitting aspects such as sports, sex, sustenance, and sleep.
Therefore, students kept asking for the letter “S” to be added – which ultimately would result in the acronym PERMAS (doesn´t sound too funky…) or SPERMA (uh-uh, not a proper name for a scientific term…). Meanwhile, there seems to be a growing mutual consent to choose the letter “V” for Vitality – and to put it at the end with a hyphen. To my knowledge, this was first proposed by a fellow Mapp graduate, Emiliya Zhivotovskaya.
What do you think?
Share and enjoy!
Thanks to the stunning infographics of Anna Vital (see them here, here, and here), I’ve decided to learn how to better think and communicate in a visual way. I’m not a designer, so I don’t know how to work with Software packages like Illustrator. Therefore, for the time being I have to use what’s already out there, e.g., the Webdings that come with Microsoft’s fonts.
To start, I´ve chosen a topic that´s very close to my heart: Meaningful work. Prof. Michael F. Steger is one of the world´s foremost authorities on this topic. He created the acronym CARMA to outline a set of leadership behaviors that help employees to perceive their work as being valuable and meaningful.
What do you think?
Share and enjoy!
There are lots of definitions on coaching – what it is, and what is not. Most of them are rather long and circuitous. When I try to explain the process of coaching to my new clients, I oftentimes used this visual metaphor.
Coaching = Recognizing, understanding, and changing patterns.
What do you think?
My favorite pieces covering Positive Psychology and adjacent from (roughly) the last seven days:
Penn Current: Penn professor explores what it means to be positive by Michele Berger
Financial Times: Companies with a purpose beyond profit tend to make more money by Simon Caulkin
Greater Good Science Center: Five Ways to Put Self-Compassion into Therapy by Tim Desmond
Gizmodo: English is Surprisingly Devoid of Emotionally Positive Words by George Dvorsky
New York Times: How to Raise a Creative Child. Step One: Back Off by Adam Grant
Psychology Today: Is It a Good Idea To Build on Signature Strengths? by Todd Kashdan
Scientific American: The Differences Between Happiness and Meaning in Life by Scott Barry Kaufman
Psychology Today: Can You Help Others Find Meaning In Their Work? by Michelle McQuaid
Cosmopolitan: 12 Ways to Feel Happier at Work – Yes, even at the job you hate by Judith Ohikuare
Psychology Today: The Surprising Link Between Compassion and Success by Emma Seppälä
Forbes: How To Light The Fire When You’re Burned Out by Brett Steenbarger
This is yet another fantastic piece covering Positive Psychology by information designer Anna Vital (the other ones I published on Mappalicious can be found here and here). Share and enjoy!
In April 2015, I gave a keynote on Positive Psychology for several hundred people at the BMW-Arena in Munich.
The talk was recorded and I received a DVD a couple of weeks later. Finally, I’ve found the time to cut and edit some of the parts – these are the videos displayed below.
They’re in German of course and due to the sound equipment, I seem to have a slight lisp (which is not the case) – but nevermind.
The first video is a general introduction to Seligman’s PERMA framework, the second talks about positive emotions and especially, emotional contagion. The third video talks about the importance of social support (Other People Matter), the fourth about Esa Saarinen’s concept of systems of holding back, and the final one is about Daniel Kahneman and peak-end-theory.
Share and enjoy!
About two years ago, I uttered an outcry via Mappalicious: Positive Psychology in Germany – where are you? In the meantime, someone answered, as the movement is gaining some traction in Germany. Here´s an overview of Positive Psychology Associations and conferences taking place this year:
The DGPPF is an association of scientists from all academic backgrounds who conduct research on and teach positive psychology. It is an interdisciplinary research and teaching association which seeks to promote and disseminate the science of positive psychology. Over the next years, they plan to host congresses, promote publications, create empirical instruments, collect data, create a journal, and much more.
DGPPF will host a conference at University of Trier from May 19-21, 2016: “State of the Art – Zum Stand der positiv-psychologischen Forschung im deutschsprachigen Raum” (Info)
GAPP’s goal is to bring the concept and methods of Positive Psychology to the attention of a broader public in the German-speaking countries. GAPP supports the practical application of PP in areas such as coaching, psychotherapy, counseling, school, business and politics. GAPP wants to serve as a communication platform for initiatives which are rooted in academic application of positive psychology.
GAPP will host a conference at Freie Universität Berlin from September 17-18, 2016: “Erste Konferenz des DACH-PP – Positive Psychologie für die Praxis” (Info)
The European Network for Positive Psychology (ENPP) is a collective of European researchers and practitioners with shared interests in the science and practice of positive psychology. Researchers and practitioners from other disciplines like economics, sociology, philosophy or biology are also invited to participate.
The website www.positive-psychologie.org is currently under construction. In the meantime, you might want to check out the general ENPP Homepage.
ENPP will host the “8th European Conference on Positive Psychology” at Angers (France) from June 28-July 1, 2016. (Info)
Additionally, you might be interested to hear that some of the spearheading figures in Positive Psychology will be coming to Germany and Austria over the summer for several conferences and workshops, among them Martin Seligman, Barbara Fredrickson, Roy Baumeister, Tayyab Rashid, and Kim Cameron. All information can be found here.
A couple of days a go, I stumbled upon two TEDx talks by clinical neuroscientist Stephen Ilardi (University of Kansas). He shares how we can “naturally” (without taking antidepressants) fight depression. The talks are instructive and entertaining, yet pretty similar to each other – so if you´re short on time, it´s probably sufficient to watch only one of them. Here´s the summary:
We were never designed for the sedentary, indoor, sleep-deprived, socially-isolated, fast-food-laden, frenetic pace of modern life.
Accordingly, among the most potent remedies for depression are:
And while I´m happy and impressed that these recommendations are now being backed by “hard science”, I guess we should have known all along. Here are some quotes by Greek physician and “father of Western medicine” Hippocrates (460 – 370 BC).
If you are in a bad mood go for a walk.
To do nothing is also a good remedy.
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Mappalicious 