Last week, on Jan. 24th, 2009 over 600 people convened at The Claremont Graduate University for a day long conference called: Applying the Science of Postive Psycholgy to Improve Society. At this conference top scholars in Positive Psychology and Positive Organizational Psychology as well as related fields such as Appreciative Inquiry, met to present their studies and research in Positive Psychology as applied to such areas as: education, work, social responsibilty, social entrepreneurship, adult development and more.
Positive Psychology is not
just about happiness. In fact Edward Diener from the University of Illinois, cautioned the audience about trying to attain too much happiness, or as the Dalai Lama put it "stupid happiness". Positive Psychology has a broader scope of studying the good, positive and generative factors in individuals and organizations. Some of the character strengths and traits, emotions and thought processes that these psychologists are studying are: optimism, creativity and flow, resilience, grit, character, reduction of stress, love, forgiveness, gratefulness and many others.
Although positive psychology seems oriented towards personal development, the goal of this conference was to expand from the personal and develop the positive aspects of society that enable it to flourish.
For more information, this is the post from CGU to enable anyone to experience for themselves this conference.
SPREAD THE WORD - ONLINE VIDEO AVAILABLE!If you have colleagues who have been wondering what all the excitement was about (or if you'd simply like to revisit the experience yourself), we have posted the initial 45 minutes of the conference online for free at www.cgu.edu/positivepsych.
The entire conference will be available for download within the next week, so keep your eyes on the site for details! Plans are also underway for an interactive workshop based on this event; we will share news about that workshop with the email lists above, and will post the news on www.cgu.edu/positivepsych .Check out the next installment of "Positive New Directions" where we review some of specific and practical ways to enhance well-being, that were presented at the conference.