scholarly journals The Joyful Life: An Existential-Humanistic Approach to Positive Psychology in the Time of a Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Dean Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Face ◽  
Autobiographical Narrative

In the midst of a global pandemic, psychology has a duty to identify dispositional or character traits that can be cultivated in citizens in order to create resiliency in the face of profound losses, suffering and distress. Dispositional joy holds some promise as such a trait that could be especially important for well-being during the current pandemic and its consequences. The concept of the Joyful Life may operate as bridge between positive psychology and humanistic, existential, and spiritual views of the good life, by integrating hedonic, prudential, eudaimonic and chaironic visions of the good life. Previous phenomenological research on state joy suggests that momentary states of joy may have features that overlap with happiness but go beyond mere hedonic interests, and point to the experience of a life oriented toward virtue and a sense of the transcendent or the sacred. However, qualitative research on the Joyful Life, or dispositional joy, is sorely lacking. This study utilized a dialogical phenomenological analysis to conduct a group-based analysis of 17 volunteer students, who produced 51 autobiographical narrative descriptions of the joyful life. The dialogical analyses were assisted by integration of the Imagery in Movement Method, which incorporated expressive drawing and psychodrama as an aid to explicate implicit themes in the experiences of the participants. The analyses yielded ten invariant themes found across the autobiographical narrative descriptions: Being broken, being grounded, being centered, breaking open, being uplifted, being supertemporal, being open to the mystery, being grateful, opening up and out, and being together. The descriptions of a Joyful Life were consistent with a meaning orientation to happiness, due to their emphasis on the cultivation of virtue in the service of a higher calling, the realization of which was felt to be a gift or blessing. The discussion examines implications for future research, including the current relevance of a joyful disposition during a global pandemic. Due to the joyful disposition’s tendency to transform suffering and tragedy into meaning, and its theme of an orientation to prosocial motivations, the Joyful Life may occupy a central place in the study of resiliency and personal growth in response to personal and collective trauma such as COVID-19.

scholarly journals Sports as a Mechanism for Reaching Your Potential: The Relationship between Positive Psychology and Sports

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
The Relationship

People have been searching for the good life or personal well-being since the ancient Greeks. During this same period, people have been expressing themselves through sport, participating in games of athleticism as a means of discovering who they are and reaching their potential. This chapter examines the relationship between sports and a flourishing life. By examining sports as a mechanism of achieving specific traits of positive psychology associated with flourishing, the researcher is able to determine that sports are a matrix in which human potential can be nourished.

Positive Psychology: Past, Present, and Future

2009 ◽  
pp. 6-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Diener
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Human Functioning ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

This chapter briefly reviews the history of positive psychology, and the endeavor by scientists to answer the classic question posed by philosophers: What is the good life? One piece of evidence for the growth of positive psychology is the proliferation of measures to assess concepts such as happiness, well-being, and virtue. The chapter briefly reviews the importance of C. R. Snyder to the field of positive psychology. Several critiques of positive psychology are discussed. One valid critique is that there is too much emphasis within positive psychology on the individual, and too little focus on positive societies, institutions, and situations. We can profit from considering the various critiques because they will help us to improve the field. Positive psychology has important strengths, such as the number of young scholars and practitioners who are entering the field. The Handbook of Positive Psychology is an outstanding resource for all those who are working in this discipline, and also for others outside of the area, to gain broad knowledge of the important developments that are occurring in our understanding of positive human functioning.

scholarly journals Living the Good Life: A Conversation about Well-being, Education, and Culture

Paideusis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-22
Author(s):  
Trudy Cardinal ◽  
Louise Lambert ◽  
Sandra Lamouche
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Education System ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
World View ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Kitchen Table

In this paper we engage in a conversation speaking from three different perspectives and discuss the ways literature and our personal life experiences can inform policy and practice in relation to the concepts of well-being, education, and culture.  We gathered around a metaphorical kitchen table, bringing to it our life experiences, as well as the literature that informed our individual research programs (positive psychology, Indigenous world view, and narrative inquiry) and we began to unpack the questions: “What role does culture play in understanding and educating for well-being and why should an education system be concerned about it?”

scholarly journals PERSONAL ASPIRATIONS, THE “GOOD LIFE” AND THE LAW

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIM KASSER
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Legislative Agendas ◽  
The Law ◽  
Ecological Behaviour

[Many of the messages conveyed and laws created by capitalistic, consumer culture encourage the pursuit of goals for wealth, image and status. Sub- stantial research shows, however, that when individuals focus on such “ex- trinsic” goals, they report lower personal well-being and engage in more problematic social and ecological behaviour than when they are oriented towards “intrinsic” pursuits for personal growth, affiliation, and community feeling. Legislative agendas that are designed to increase “time affluence” and protect children from commercialisation are discussed as example ac- tivities lawyers could pursue to help increase intrinsic and decrease extrin- sic aspirations.] 

Self-Esteem and Individual Well-Being

2018 ◽  
pp. 91-112
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Mruk
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Human Values ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Sense Of Purpose ◽  
Intrinsic Values ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 5 focuses on understanding the connection between self-esteem and positive psychology. It begins by looking at self-esteem in relation to two theories of mental health and then moves on to explore research concerning two forms of happiness, namely, hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. The chapter also highlights the relationship between self-esteem and basic human values that positive psychologists have associated with the good life in an Aristotelian sense. This material includes appreciating the importance of identifying one’s own intrinsic values concerning such things as wisdom, compassion, balance, beauty, courage, and more. Special attention is given to the idea that making these types of values a greater part of one’s life may increase a sense of purpose and meaning or well-being. Practical suggestions and activities round out this chapter to make its concepts more useful.

“And you, what do you think of optimism?”

Propelled ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 132-148
Author(s):  
Andreas Elpidorou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
The Face ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
Positive Health Outcomes ◽  
Crucial Ingredient

The chapter illustrates the benefits (and in some cases, the dangers) of anticipation in the pursuit of the good life. It discusses how anticipation figures in decision-making, savoring, and optimism. It shows how anticipation can often boost our levels of subjective well-being and explains why anticipation is linked to numerous positive health outcomes. Anticipation also helps us to overcome life obstacles and remain resilient in the face of difficult challenges. Thus, anticipation is a crucial ingredient of the good life. In addition to its ability to prolong and amplify positive experiences, anticipation is a motivating mechanism that provides us with the emotional energy we need to pursue what we believe is significant and important.

scholarly journals Gratitude’s place in second wave positive psychology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilian Jans-Beken
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Bright Side ◽  
Second Wave

Second wave psychology (PP 2.0) aims at bringing out the best in individuals and societies in good and bad times, and it is based on four pillars: virtue, meaning, resilience, and well-being. In this essay, I want to explore how gratitude relates to these four pillars of PP 2.0 to establish whether gratitude has a place within PP 2.0. Gratitude is considered a virtue, important for living a good life. Also, gratitude is associated with greater resilience when faced with adversity in life, and a wealth of research points to the beneficial effects of gratitude on human well-being. Regarding meaning in life, the how and why of the connection with gratitude is still unclear. Future efforts to unravel the association between gratitude and meaning in life are warranted. This short exploration shows that gratitude has a place within the conceptual basis of PP 2.0 and it seems to bring out the best in individuals and, consequently in society as a whole. Future research into gratitude and the four pillars of PP 2.0 can establish the beneficial effects of gratitude on both the bright side as the dark side of human nature.

Virtuous Emotions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristján Kristjánsson
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Moral Justification ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Emotion Theory ◽  
Moral Theorizing ◽  
Emotional Value

Aristotelian virtue ethics has gained momentum within latter-day moral theorizing. Many people are drawn towards virtue ethics because of the central place it gives to emotions in the good life; after all, Aristotle says that emotions can have an intermediate and best condition proper to virtue. Yet nowhere does Aristotle provide a definitive list of virtuous emotions. In the Rhetoric, Aristotle does analyse a number of emotions. However, many emotions that one would have expected to see there fail to get a mention, and others are written off rather hastily as morally defective. Whereas most of what goes by the name of ‘Aristotelian’ virtue ethics nowadays is heavily reconstructed and updated Aristotelianism, such exercises in retrieval have not been systematically attempted with respect to his emotion theory. The aim of this book is to offer a revised ‘Aristotelian’ analysis and moral justification of a number of emotions that Aristotle either did not mention (such as awe, grief, and jealousy), relegated, at best, to the level of the semi-virtuous (such as shame), made disparaging remarks about (such as gratitude) or rejected explicitly (such as pity, understood as pain at another person’s deserved bad fortune). It is argued that there are good ‘Aristotelian’ reasons for understanding those emotions either as virtuous or as indirectly conducive to virtue. The book begins with an overview of Aristotle’s ideas on the nature of emotions and of emotional value, and it ends with an account of Aristotelian emotion education.

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