Positive Psychological Science

Book excerpt: Positive psychological science has experienced extraordinary growth over the past two decades. Research in this area is revealing new strategies and interventions for improving everyday life, health and well-being, work, education, and societies across the globe. Contributions from luminaries in the field provide excellent reviews of the selected topics, summarizing empirical evidence, describing measurement tools, and offering recommendations for improving many aspects of our lives. Comprehensively updated, this second edition not only incorporates the more recent empirical findings; three new chapters on relationships and love, the importance of purpose, and the stimulation of education practice have been added. Focused on peer-reviewed and theory-driven psychological science, this book uniquely establishes a bridge between the intellectual movement for positive psychology and how it works in the real world. This collection of chapters will inspire the reader to creatively find new opportunities to better the human condition, whether these are in our lives, schools, health care settings, or workplaces. This book will be of interest to all psychologists and social scientists, applied researchers, program designers and evaluators, educators, leaders, students, and anyone interested in applying the science of positive psychology to improve everyday life and/or to promote social betterment and justice locally and globally.