The Good Life

Positive psychology and what makes life worth living.

Christopher Peterson is professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. See full bio

May 25, 2009

Positive Psychology and Unemployment

In recent months, I have received several inquiries from those in the popular media about what positive psychology has to say to people who have lost their jobs. Read More

May 24, 2009

It's Never Too Early to Start Living Happily Ever After

An important study was recently published by Laura Kubzansky of the Harvard School of Public Health and her colleagues. They looked at longitudinal data from a diverse sample of individuals from the Providence area, They goal was to investigate whether childhood personality characteristics predicted adult physical health. Read More

May 23, 2009

Subjective and Objective Research in Positive Psychology

A criticism of happiness research is that it often relies on what a person says about his or her own happiness. Calling a self-report measure of happiness "subjective well-being" seems not to help much, because the critic then objects "Isn't that subjective?" The answer is that of course self-reports are subjective, meaning that they are from the respondent's own point of view. Read More

May 13, 2009

A But-Free Day

According to research by psychologists Shelly Gable, Harry Reis, and colleagues (2004), the way couples respond to each other's good news influences the happiness and stability of their relationships, perhaps more so than how they respond to bad news. This finding is important because so much of couples counseling focuses on resolving conflicts, fighting fairly, and being assertive. Read More

May 11, 2009

Translational Research in Positive Psychology

Translational research is the application of basic science to practical problems. Read More

May 5, 2009

The Girls from Ames

The "Girl from Ipanema" walked alone, and her samba to the sea lasted a scant two minutes. In contrast, The Girls from Ames have walked together for 40+ years, and their journey is far from over. Read More

May 5, 2009

Very Good Years

I recently attended a meeting on physical health with several epidemiologists, and I was reminded of DALYs - disability-adjusted life years - a World Health Organization metric for gauging disease burden that combines morbidity and mortality into a single score. Read More

April 13, 2009

Finding the Right Bank to Rob

According to an urban legend, bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked: "Why do you rob banks?" His supposed answer: "Because that's where the money is." In the wake of the world financial crisis, perhaps that's no longer a good answer, but this blog entry is not about literal banks. Read More

April 6, 2009

First World Congress on Positive Psychology

How many positive psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?

I don't know the answer, but perhaps I will by the end of June, after the largest positive psychology conference ever held has taken place in Philadelphia, from June 18-21, 2009. Read More

March 24, 2009

Resilience

From writers and researchers, I receive a number of questions about resilience these days. It is topic of ongoing interest to positive psychologists and - in light of economic and other challenges around the world - also a topic of current interest to people in general. What is resilience? How can we assess who has it? Read More

Happiness Basics

Research on how to increase positive moods and capitalize on your strengths has proliferated lately thanks to the positive psychology movement, and has shed light on ongoing insights into personality, mood, and cognition.

Go to the Happiness Basics page for more on Happiness including:

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