Positive Psychology

Bringing together today’s most prominent positive psychology researchers to discuss current themes and issues in the field

Positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths, rather than the weaknesses, in human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. For much of its history, psychology has focused on the negative, completely overlooking the positive attributes that allow individuals and communities to thrive. Positive Psychology is a collection of essays that together constitutes a much-needed theoretical rationale and critical assessment of the field. This book reassesses what we already know and provides directions for the future. Contributors are leading international authors, including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Robert Sternberg, Vittorio Caprara, C. Daniel Batson, and Illona Boniwell, among others. These luminaries write in a way that is rigorous enough for academic use but accessible to professionals, policymakers, and lay audiences as well.

The content of Positive Psychology include both theoretical applied contributions focusing on a range of areas including altruism, positive creativity, science of well-being, forgiveness, coaching for leadership, cyberpsychology, intelligence, responding to catastrophes like COVID-19, time perspective, physiological and epigenetic, youth civic engagement, ups and downs of love, flow and good life, global perspectives on positive psychology, self and collective efficacy, positive psychology interventions and positive orientation. The book is pitched to senior undergraduates, graduates, academics and researchers and provides insights and perspectives into neglected and unresolved questions.

• Brings together the latest viewpoints and research findings on positive psychology, from the leading thinkers in the field
• Offers both theoretical and applied insights, for a well-rounded reference on this new and fast growing field
• Contains contributions from well known authors like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Robert Sternberg, and Vittorio Caprara
• Appeals to academic, professional, and lay audiences with an interest in acquiring a profound knowledge of positive psychology

No other book currently on the market addresses such a breadth of issues in positive psychology. Positive Psychology represents a significant theoretical boost to this exciting field.

Aleksandra Kostić is Professor of Social Psychology at Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, University of Niš, Serbia. She teaches courses on Social Perception, Nonverbal Behavior and Psychology of Interpersonal Behavior. Her research interests include examining the accuracy of the social psychology of nonverbal behaviour, social, emotional, and perceptual judgments, especially the judgments of primary emotions from the face, emotional intensity and antecedent-events and reaction to emotion. She is particularly interested in cross-cultural study of facial expression, questions of universal antecedents of the emotions, research on deception and facial clues to deceit.

Derek Chadee is Professor of Social Psychology and Director of the ANSA McAL Psychological Research Centre at the University of the West Indies. He is a Fulbright Research Scholar and has published several books in the area of social psychology. He has a robust research agenda on the psychology of fear of crime and has published in several international journals including: Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Psychology of Popular Media Culture British Journal of Criminology, International Victimology, Media and Culture, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology. He has a strong interest in social psychological theories and his second edition of Theories in Social Psychology, Wiley, is forthcoming in 2021.