5.20
Positive Psychology
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.
Social scientists trade academic silos for shared work space
Social scientists trade academic silos for shared work space
Faculty and grad students in the new Social and Behavioral Sciences Initiative have access to two state-of-the-art labs, grants, and a collaborative environment aimed at creating a vibrant research community.
Linguistic red flags from Facebook posts can predict future depression diagnoses
Linguistic red flags from Facebook posts can predict future depression diagnoses
The language people use in these social media posts can make these predictions as accurately as the tools clinicians use in medical settings to screen for the disease.
How psychology explains the itch for spring cleaning
How psychology explains the itch for spring cleaning
Wharton Professor Katherine Milkman teases out the “fresh start effect” of temporal landmarks like the first day of spring, New Year’s Day, and other meaningful calendar dates.
In the News
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.
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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.”
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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.
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Science Alert
Scientists found an opposite ‘light’ force to the driver of all your worst impulses
Scott Barry Kaufman and a team of researchers from the School of Arts and Sciences have developed a Light Triad Scale to assess positive character traits in individuals, a counter to the Dark Triad that drives bad behavior. “Yes, everyday psychopaths exist. But so do everyday saints, and they are just as worthy of research attention and cultivation in a society that sometimes forgets that not only is there goodness in the world, but there is also goodness in each of us as well,” wrote Kaufman.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
Can you teach students to be happy? Colleges are trying.
James Pawelski’s course The Pursuit of Happiness goes beyond introducing students to positive psychology by encouraging them to practice it. Pawelski, of the School of Arts and Sciences, emphasizes the field’s two key concepts: emphasizing individual strengths and creating closer human bonds. “It’s important that wellness not be thought of as something merely important for mentally ill students,” he said.
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The Washington Post
India, which has long focused on student success now offers ‘happiness’ classes
Alejandro Adler of the School of Arts and Sciences discussed India’s new “happiness” classes, which were inspired by a Bhutanese program to improve the “gross national happiness,” an alternative to measuring a country’s success via the gross domestic product indicator.
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