1.23
Positive Psychology
Four strategies to find joy in a very different holiday season
Four strategies to find joy in a very different holiday season
Experts from Penn’s Positive Psychology Center suggest tweaking traditions, acknowledging the situation’s highs and lows, and seeking help from people in your life.
A lesson in grit from Angela Duckworth
A lesson in grit from Angela Duckworth
Her new Grit Lab course, part of the Paideia Program, teaches Penn undergrads how to develop more passion and perseverance for long-term goals.
Talking positive psychology and COVID-19 with Larry King
Talking positive psychology and COVID-19 with Larry King
In a free video series co-hosted by James Pawelski, King interviews researchers about coping during the pandemic. In a June 11 event, they’ll speak with actor Kevin Bacon about philanthropy, arts and culture’s role in well-being, and the importance of open dialogue.
Six tips to stay calm, positive, and resilient in trying times
Six tips to stay calm, positive, and resilient in trying times
The situation around COVID-19 can be overwhelming, but experts from Penn’s Positive Psychology Center offer advice to get through—or at the very least, get by.
Parents asked questions about living in lockdown. Penn GSE experts answered
Parents asked questions about living in lockdown. Penn GSE experts answered
Stay-at-home orders, closed schools, and pandemic-induced anxiety are taking their toll on families. Penn GSE’s Caroline Watts offers insights and resources for families requesting online resources.
A simple exercise to help stay calm in the face of coronavirus uncertainty
A simple exercise to help stay calm in the face of coronavirus uncertainty
As the pandemic continues to change, Martin Seligman, director of Penn’s Positive Psychology Center, offers a quick and straightforward way to refocus the mind.
A look back into humanity’s collective history, through religious rituals and practices
A look back into humanity’s collective history, through religious rituals and practices
In a Q&A, psychology doctoral student David Yaden describes his new book, which touches on traditions from Hinduism, Buddhism, and 11 other religions.
What factors predict success?
What factors predict success?
New research from Angela Duckworth and colleagues finds that characteristics beyond intelligence influence long-term achievement.
In the pursuit of happiness, a new class leads the charge
In the pursuit of happiness, a new class leads the charge
The course, taught by Positive Psychology’s James Pawelski, not only gives students an intellectual understanding of the subject but asks them to practice what they’re learning.
Weekly paid professional staff learn resilience through free, online opportunity
Weekly paid professional staff learn resilience through free, online opportunity
Offered through the Online Learning Initiative and the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, the course teaches participants resilience, gratitude, authenticity, and more.
In the News
The New York Times
Go ahead. Fantasize
Martin Seligman of the School of Arts & Sciences said dreaming about the future can help people live well in the present. “Imagining the future—we call this skill prospection—and prospection is subserved by a set of brain circuits that juxtapose time and space and get you imagining things well and beyond the here and now,” he said. “The essence of resilience about the future is: How good a prospector are you?”
FULL STORY →
The Wall Street Journal
The one thing you can control right now: Yourself
Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences said self-control is more difficult when people are under extreme stress. “You can think of self-control as bandwidth,” she says. “And right now, it’s divided.”
FULL STORY →
Morning Edition (NPR)
How the coronavirus has upended college admissions
Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke at the annual conference for the Common Application about factoring “personal qualities” into the admissions process. "Whatever you call them, the take-home message is these things matter, and in some cases matter as much as IQ," she said.
FULL STORY →
Forbes
Scientists look to West Point to better understand what it takes to succeed
A team of researchers led by Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts and Sciences examined data from thousands of West Point cadets to assess the attributes that were most predictive of success. Their results “suggest that both cognitive and non-cognitive attributes matter in different ways and at different times,” they wrote.
FULL STORY →
Philadelphia Inquirer
How reading a good book can make you a better person
Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts and Sciences wrote about the human capacity for empathy. “True, human beings tend to be egocentric, experiencing and reacting to the here-and-now of our lives,” she wrote. “But also true, and out of all species perhaps uniquely so, we’re capable of mentally untethering ourselves from our own narrative and imagining what it is like to walk a path entirely different than our own.”
FULL STORY →
WBUR Radio (Boston)
Employers want to do more with less. Where does that leave expertise?
Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about grit and other non-IQ competencies achieved through hard work over sustained periods of time.
FULL STORY →