Strengths-based approaches to work and life are popular these days; particularly in how personal strengths can improve leadership, as better leaders mean better experiences for employees, more productivity, and more money (or other bottom line). But a key question is, do leadership strengths exist? Are there strengths that all leaders share? If so, what are [ Read More ]
This series is discussing the idea that not only does success bring happiness, but happiness also brings success. Previously, we found that happiness helps people to have better careers and better relationships. Today, we’ll see that they also have better health, too. The authors of the paper put the question this way: “Is happiness associated [ Read More ]
This series is discussing the idea that not only does success bring happiness, but happiness also brings success. Last time we found that happiness helps people to have better jobs and earn more money; today we’re going to see whether they enjoy better relationships too. I’ve already written articles on happiness as it relates …
Let’s look at happiness from a different perspective. Most people see happiness as a response to good things happening; a natural assumption to make, considering that when good things happen, it makes us happy. But the evidence is piling up that happiness is also a cause of good things happening. And by ‘good thing’, I [ Read More ]
Let’s have some fun and pick apart a paper (try saying “pick apart a paper” 10 times fast!) The question is, did 9/11 impact the character of Americans? I mean that personally not just in political attitudes towards this or that. It’s a tough question to answer empirically. “What do you mean by character?” is [ Read More ]
Do you find it harder to recognise people of different races to your own? Have you ever used the phrase “They all look the same to me!” If so, you’re not alone; it’s a documented phenomenon called the “own-race bias”. Why it happens isn’t completely clear, but some evidence indicates that own-race …
These two dominant models of strengths are slightly different in concept. Gallup’s Strengthsfinder is more workplace-oriented, helping people to do better in their careers and organisations to work better. Perhaps performance-oriented is a better term. Values In Action (VIA), which we looked at in depth earlier, is character-oriented, helping people to achieve virtue. First [ Read More ]
Music has a remarkable ability to conjure up strong emotions in people. It can cheer you up, bring you down, and in the case of boybands, cause severe anger and disgust. And it’s old; some scientists believe music even predates language, this based on flute-like instruments dug up in France, believed to be over 50,000 [ Read More ]
In positive psychology, most theories of positive emotion have focused on discovering their relative costs and benefits to humans. These theories, to a greater and lesser degree, see positive emotions as being evolved adaptations to our environment. Greater mood brings wider though-action repertoires, allowing us to build our resources (1), they regulate our …
‘Flow’, or the ‘flow state’, refers to what you might know as being ‘in the zone’. It is that state where you are wrapped up in the activity that you are doing, so much so that you are ‘one’ with it (in the sense of being fully engaged that is; not a strange zen thing).The [ Read More ]
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