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Positive Psychology

Do art museums prioritize visitor well-being enough?
Two people standing in front of a wall of art. One of them is holding up a second piece of art in gloved hands. The other gestures toward the art, holding a computer or clipboard in the other hand.

Katherine Cotter and James Pawelski (not pictured) surveyed more than 200 curators, educators, researchers, security guards, exhibit designers, and others working at art museums to gauge how museums can impact visitors’ well-being.

Do art museums prioritize visitor well-being enough?

Research from the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project in Penn’s Positive Psychology Center reveals that the people working in these institutions want to see greater emphasis on human flourishing, but they feel ill-equipped to make it happen.

Michele W. Berger

‘In These Times’ explores the intricate riddles of life through art
Illustration resembling a cosmic square with stars.

Image: Marina Munn

‘In These Times’ explores the intricate riddles of life through art

Episodes 6 and 7 of the latest season of the OMNIA podcast explore how art like music and dance have been the pulse of social movements, and how individual artistic experiences impact mental health and well-being.

From Omnia

Breaking bad habits: Routines trump willpower
CNN

Breaking bad habits: Routines trump willpower

A study co-authored by Asaf Mazar of the Wharton School finds that routines matter far more than willpower or conscious choices when it comes to breaking bad habits.

College admission: Thanks in advance
Forbes

College admission: Thanks in advance

The Character Lab, co-founded by Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences, is cited for its resources on the positive power of gratitude.

How a brain tumor helped a cyclist change his life
Chris Baccash racing on a bike in a cycling race.

In 2019, Baccash finished the Bucks County Classic, the hardest race of the season, with a personal-best time. A few months later, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. (Image: Penn Medicine News)

How a brain tumor helped a cyclist change his life

In 2019, Chris Baccash was diagnosed with a a slow-growing malignant brain tumor. In 2021, after completing a grueling 100-mile cycling race up the Rockies, he started graduate school at Penn for a master’s degree in positive psychology.

From Penn Medicine News

Here’s how Black boys can cope with racial and gender violence
Word In Black

Here’s how Black boys can cope with racial and gender violence

Howard Stevenson of the Graduate School of Education speaks about the PLAAY Project, which prepares Black male youth to cope with crisis and high-stress situations through sports.

Art museums plant seeds of human flourishing
A view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a long building of orange brick and blue angled roofs. The Schuylkill River flows in the foreground.

A view of the Philadelphia Museum of Art from the Schuylkill River. A recent review shows the many ways that art museums benefit human flourishing. 

Art museums plant seeds of human flourishing

Researchers from the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project in the Positive Psychology Center at Penn have found that art museums are associated with wide-ranging benefits to human health.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

The past, present, and future of the Positive Humanities
Book cover that reads "Oxford Library of Psychology, edited by Louis Tay, James O. Pawelski, The Oxford Handbook of The Positive Humanities" next to a picture of James Pawelski.

The past, present, and future of the Positive Humanities

A new Oxford Handbook from Penn’s James Pawelski and Louis Tay of Purdue explores this emerging field, which brings together positive psychology, philosophy, the humanities, and the arts.

Michele W. Berger