Posts by PPL Admin
Well-Being and the Five ‘Happy’ Lives
By Christopher L. Heffner, PsyD, PhD Well-Being and The PERMA Model Seligman (2011) argues that well-being is enhanced through thriving in one or more pillars of well-being. His model, often referred to as the PERMA Model, consists of Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (or Achievement). The more we thrive in each of these,…
Read MoreThe Fading Affect Bias: A Defense Mechanism in Pursuit of the Pleasant Life
By Christopher L. Heffner, PsyD, PhD Fading Affect Bias (FAB) The Fading Affect Bias, or FAB for short, refers to the cognitive phenomenon supported by research showing that memories associated with negative emotions tend to fade faster than memories associated with positive emotions (Skowronski, 2014). This means we tend to forget the bad times at…
Read MoreThe Convergence of Positive Psychology and Neurodiversity
By Gwendolyn Barnhart, PhD Within my studies of psychology, there are often converging viewpoints between modalities. Indeed, the commonalities in thought, viewpoint, and practice are strikingly similar. I will briefly discuss the basic underpinnings of positive psychology and neurodiversity and intertwine them together through a theory of convergence while using the lens of positive psychology’s…
Read MoreBuilding Psychological Capital: Hope, Self-Efficacy, Resilience, and Optimism
By Christopher L. Heffner, PsyD, PhD You Can Bank On it Psychological capital in many ways is like a savings account for our well-being. Just as it is good to save money for a rainy day, it is good to build psychological capital. It is beneficial for good days and allows us greater comfort and…
Read MoreThe Real World Benefits of Expressing Gratitude
By Christopher L. Heffner, PsyD, PhD Gratitude: As Old as Animal Kind Gratitude may be an evolutionary component of human development, passed down for thousands of years according to sociologist Georg Simmel (Greater Good Magazine, n.d.). While we may think of it as something personal and internal, it is also considered an important social skill…
Read MoreThe Paradox of Flow and Happiness
By Christopher L. Heffner, PsyD, PhD What is Happiness? “…Aristotle concluded that, more than anything else, men and women seek happiness. While happiness itself is sought for its own sake, every other goal . . . is valued only because we expect that it will make us happy” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p.1). Much of psychology has…
Read MoreA Negative Beginning to Positive Psychology: Part 2
By Christopher L. Heffner, PsyD, PhD Continued From Part 1… But Wait, there is Good News Remember, Csikszentmihalyi found that teenagers can be unhappy and can see life through their suffering, but he also found an interesting exception. When teenagers focus their energies on tasks that are challenging, their mood is more upbeat. In other…
Read MoreGrit Can be Developed
By Crystal Hall What do you think of when you hear the word “grit”? Without context, maybe we think of something that is dirty or perhaps course. The Oxford online dictionary has two definitions of grit. The second is more applicable to the field of positive psychology. Grit is courage and resolve or strength of…
Read MoreSavoring to Overcome and Grow
By Elle Harris Savoring is often associated with the infrequent double scoop of large chunk chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with thick, hot chocolate sauce in this diet-abundant, sugar-free era, or a beach vacation in a Seattle February. The verb, “to savor” implies action; it is less passive than “to enjoy” or “to feel…
Read MoreFlow: A State of Full Engagement
Flow is “a psychological state involving the positive experience of being fully engaged in the successful pursuit of an activity” (Marin & Bhattacharya, 2013, p. 1)
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