Posts tagged with 'happiness'
Recent research: four happiness studies on traditional advice, health benefits, and the particular value of safety & contentment
16th October 2008
It seemed time to post on recent research involving happiness and wellbeing. Here are four studies from the current issues of the Journal of Happiness Studies (the September edition is open access with all full articles freely viewable) and the Journal of Positive Psychology. Ad Bergsma discusses advice on how …
Self-determination theory
6th September 2008
I'm a big fan of Self-Determination Theory (SDT). SDT is a general theory of motivation and personality that has evolved over the past three decades. SDT suggests that humans, like plants or other animals, intrinsically 'strive' for need satisfaction & flourishing. Social context and personal choices can support or thwart …
Recent research: spiritually modified CBT, happiness & freedom, healthy goal disengagement, and hoarding & OCD
21st August 2008
Hodge, D. R. (2008). "Constructing spiritually modified interventions: Cognitive therapy with diverse populations." International Social Work 51(2): 178-192. [Abstract/Full Text] Although cognitive therapy is widely used, little attention has been given to the value assumptions embedded in the self-statements that are at the heart of the change process. Constructing statements …
Relationships, self-esteem and health - second posting
17th August 2008
Looking at research like the studies by Stinson on self-esteem, relationships and illness (Stinson, Logel et al. 2008), it's easy to start to see self-esteem as a "the-more-the-better" quality. It is true that higher self-esteem is robustly associated with higher levels of happiness, increased initiative and less tendency to depression …
Ways to happiness and life satisfaction
11th April 2008
On April 9 I wrote "On the fine Authentic Happiness website, Seligman and colleagues discuss three entwining roads to happiness and what they call "the full life". One of these three roads is maximising and appreciating positive emotions - very much the territory of savouring." Do visit the Authentic Happiness …
Savouring, mindfulness & flow
9th April 2008
In a post on 27 January I wrote about "savouring" - the appreciation of positive experiences. Savouring is, as it's name suggests, a sort of running the positive experience around in one's mouth, really tasting, valuing and enjoying it - a bit like slow, careful appreciation of a good wine. …
Savouring – initial thoughts
27th January 2008
Back in my post of January 5, I mentioned that I was looking at Sonja Lyubomirsky's book "The How of Happiness". On pages 73 to 77 of the book she describes a ‘person-fit' exercise to help readers decide which happiness-boosting activities to work with initially. I came up with a …
Sonja Lyubomirsky and "The How of Happiness"
5th January 2008
The postman delivered piles of post-holiday letters and parcels yesterday. In amongst the late Christmas presents and even a late Christmas card, was a book I had ordered called “The How of Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky. I spent half an hour browsing through it in the evening. It looks good. …