“What If Goodness Ruled the World?”

This chapter describes how the Realabilities Comic Book Series and the Addy & Uno Off-Broadway Musical feature five characters with disabilities, who harness the special strengths-associated with their disabilities (Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Visual, Hearing and Physical Disability)-to save their school from bullies. The intent of the following five studies was to utilize pre-post-test designs to examine the efficacy of various iterations of a musical and/or a full comic book series curriculum in enhancing typical children's empathy, cognitive attitudes on the adjective checklist (ACL) and behavioral intentions on the shared activities questionnaire (SAQ) towards children with disabilities. Following the musical and/or comic book series curriculum, the participants showed significantly improved behavioral intentions and improved cognitive attitudes towards children with disabilities. These findings help demonstrate how creative programs like these may foster empathy and serve as a useful antidote to counter negative attitudes towards individuals with disabilities.

More Than Achievement

The last decade has witnessed an extraordinary interest in the concept of grit (i.e., “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”). Grit has garnered widespread attention in both the research and public spheres due to its association with lifetime educational and professional achievement. However, research indicates that grit has more far-reaching implications than simply educational and professional achievement; in fact, the literature suggests that grit is a key component of positive psychology, which aims to promote well-being more broadly. The current chapter will explore grit in the context of the positive psychology by reviewing the literature that supports grit as an important component of positive psychology. This chapter will also highlight the limitations of our current understanding of grit, discuss how these limitations implicate the field of positive psychology, and discuss next steps for grit research in light of these limitations.

Employing Disability Simulations and Virtual Reality Technology to Foster Cognitive and Affective Empathy Towards Individuals With Disabilities

The chapter will begin by defining empathy and theory of mind (ToM), key constructs for showcasing the importance of simulations and immersive experiences to help typical children better understand the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities. The authors will delineate strengths and limitations associated with Autism, ADHD, Visual, Hearing and Physical Impairment. Next, the chapter will introduce Affect/Effort Theory to demonstrate how formulating positive expectancies of individuals with disabilities will be critical to interest typical children in their peers with disabilities. Moreover, the chapter will highlight the strengths, limitations and best practices for optimizing VRT and disability simulations to enhance typical children's knowledge, intentions and attitudes towards peers with disabilities. Finally, the authors will share qualitative data from a pilot disability simulation of eight children in third through sixth grade from a Camp in Liberty, NY. The results will be discussed in light of future possibilities for effective VRT-based disability simulations.

The Power and Compassion of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

This chapter demonstrates the effectiveness of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) for enabling people to enhance their lives and create greater happiness. It is the pioneering approach developed by Albert Ellis PhD, the late husband of the author, that heralded in the cognitive revolution in psychotherapy, and which influenced approaches that followed it such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Positive Psychology and more. It is a holistic approach that reminds us of the inseparable interplay of thoughts, emotions and behaviors, and in addition to being an evidence based therapy, it can also be a way of life for those who choose to apply it as such. By practicing its principles which encourage us to create healthy emotions in response to adverse situations, we are also guided to experience and express unconditional acceptance of ourselves, others, and life, and to practice daily gratitude. In so doing we can feel compassion and empathy for those who suffer, including ourselves, experience greater joy and minimize emotional suffering in our lives.

Mature Happiness and Global Wellbeing in Difficult Times

The starting point in the wellbeing research of this chapter is that life is full of suffering, just as the living environment is full of bacteria, viruses, and toxins. Therefore, a realistic strategy to research sustainable happiness needs to include at least two components: (1) the capacity to overcome or live with suffering and stress, as measured by a comprehensive misery index, and (2) the process to achieve mature happiness and flourishing despite the dark side of human existence. This two-pronged approach is based on the second wave of positive psychology (PP 2.0). At the broadest level, wellbeing research needs to be situated in the context of universal human suffering, while a middle level of theorizing needs to specify the special circumstances and people. Furthermore, a complete theory needs to integrate the best evidence and wisdom from both the East and West. Mature or noetic happiness is characterized by a sense of acceptance, inner serenity, harmony, contentment, and being at peace with oneself, others, and the world.

A Happier Balance

This chapter describes how intentional well-being interventions integrate the development of character strengths and activation of positive emotional resources while reducing risks and alleviating symptoms of depression and poor health. The emergence of these interventions reaches back nearly half a century and each layer of development has led to a more robust platform for implementing these approaches. Now, based on the evidence-based principles of positive psychology, these positive interventions help to cultivate hope through a more balanced approach to well-being than traditional deficit-oriented methods of psychotherapy. This chapter looks at the history of development of these interventions and their likely next phase of development.

It's Nice to Be Nice

Kindness and gratitude are important when teaching children about positive interpersonal relationships. Every day in the United States bullying occurs because of negative influences children contend with in their lives. Parents, teachers, and peers can promote healthy interactions within groups of children through positive reciprocity of emotions and behaviors. This chapter explains how kindness is described as the motivational act of doing a positive behavior for another person; gratitude is described as the highly needed emotion for social and emotional functioning in humans that drive the kind behaviors. Children who practice kindness based on gratitude have better overall happiness outcomes and healthier interpersonal relationships.

Gratitude and Prosocial Behaviour Among Preservice Preschool Teachers

Considering the significance of a preschool teacher's influence on children's overall behavior, this research focuses on the characteristics and positive emotions, like gratitude which are associated with good wishes and the tendency to do something positive (i.e. prosocial behavior). Therefore, the main question of this study was to explore gratitude and prosocial behavior among preservice preschool tachers, and to analyze the relationship between their gratitude, prosocial behavior and academic year and age. Results of a sample of 96 Early and Preschool Education students have shown higher levels of gratitude and prosocial behavior among students who participated in this study. In addition, the significant positive correlation between gratitude, prosocial behaviour and the students' age was determined. These findings have been discussed within the framework of preschool education students' future roles as preschool teachers who would be significant in the lives of preschool children.

Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being

In this chapter we review the good of gratitude and recommend various methods for cultivating this human strength. First, we show how gratitude is indeed good. We show how gratitude is important to flourishing and happiness. Gratitude is strongly correlated with various measures of well-being, and experimental studies suggest that gratitude actually causes increases in happiness. If gratitude is good, then it behooves us to investigate how the disposition of gratitude can be enhanced. We suggest that grateful responding can be enhanced by training in noticing the good in one's life, and by encouraging interpretations and appraisals that have been found to promote gratitude. We then present a discussion of unresolved issues in the science of gratitude. This is followed by a discussion of who might benefit most from gratitude. We conclude with a summary of the cultivation of gratitude. Research strongly supports the idea that the cultivation of gratitude should result in a harvest of happiness, but cultivating gratitude is not likely to be an easy process.

Gratitude and Happiness in Adolescents

Gratitude is important for social and emotional health. Research suggests that there is a relation between experiencing and expressing gratitude and happiness. The aim of this chapter is to review current research regarding gratitude development and happiness, adolescent gratitude development, and to discuss future recommendations. This chapter also discusses a study examining adolescent perspectives on the meaning of being thankful. To obtain adolescent perspectives on the meaning of being thankful, adolescents (N = 1,098) wrote essays describing what being thankful meant to them. Thematic analysis was used to identify and analyze themes within the essays. Percentiles were calculated for the most recurrent themes across essays (Appreciation = 54.07%, Family = 31.42%, Positive Emotions = 28.81%, Assistance/Support from Others = 25.99%, Friendship = 21.18%, and Downward Comparison = 16.60%). Understanding gratitude development in adolescents can aid in creating effective interventions, potentially increasing adolescent well-being and happiness.