1: Welcome to positive psychology: --
Building human strength: psychology's forgotten mission / Martin E P Seligman --
Going from the negative to the positive --
Positive newspaper story --
Reactions to this positive story --
Positive psychology seeks a balanced, more complete view of human functioning --
Views of reality that include both the positive and the negative --
Where we are now and what we will ask --
Personal mini-experiments: What you want to experience --
Guide to this book --
Personal mini-experiments --
Life enhancement strategies --
Big picture --
Appendix: Movies for review --
Key terms --
2: Eastern and Western perspectives on positive psychology contributions from Phil McKnight included: --
Matter of perspective --
Historical and philosophical traditions --
Western influences: Athenian and Judeo-Christian traditions --
Athenian views --
Judeo-Christianity --
Eastern influences: Confucianism, Taosim, Buddhism, and Hinduism --
Confucianism --
Taoism --
Buddhism --
Hinduism --
Summary of Eastern and Western philosophies --
East meets West --
Value systems --
Orientation to time --
Thought processes --
East and West: Is one best? --
Different ways to positive outcomes --
Rugged individualist and the construct of hope --
Eastern values: compassion and harmony --
Final thoughts --
Key terms --
3: Classifications and measures of strengths and positive outcomes: --
Classifications and measures of strengths --
Gallup's Clifton StrenghsFinder --
VIA classification of strengths --
Search institutes's 40 developmental assets --
Distinguishing among the measures of psychological strength --
Identifying your personal strengths --
Personal mini-experiments: Discovering and capitalizing on your strengths --
Case of Shane --
Positive outcomes for all --
Dimensions of well-being --
Toward a better understanding of positive outcomes --
Identifying strengths and moving toward a vital balance --
Note --
Key terms --
Part 2: Positive Psychology In Context: --
4: Developing strengths and living well in a cultural context: --
Culture and psychology --
Main message: culture counts / David Satcher --
Understanding culture: a matter of perspective --
Positive psychology: culture free or culturally embedded? --
Personal mini-experiments: Culture-free or culturally embedded daily practice --
Culture-free positive psychology research and practice --
Culturally embedded positive psychology research and practice --
Culture free versus culturally embedded: an ongoing debate? --
Situating positive psychology / John Chambers Christopher --
Putting positive psychology in a cultural context examining the equivalence of the "positives" to determine what works --
Determining the foundations of the good life --
Wise man of the gulf --
Multicultural mindset as a strength --
Final thoughts on the complexity of cultural influences --
Key terms. 5: Living well at every stage of life: --
Resilience in childhood --
Case of Jackson --
What is resilience? --
Roots of resilience research --
Resilience resources --
Excerpt from Finding Strength: How to Overcome Anything / Deborah Blum --
Positive youth development --
What is positive youth development? --
Positive youth development programs that work --
Life tasks of adulthood --
Trajectories of precocious children --
What are the primary tasks of adulthood? --
Case of Sarah --
Successful aging --
What is successful aging? --
MacArthur Foundation study of successful aging --
Adult development study --
One man's view of aging --
More development focus in positive psychology --
Personal mini-experiments: Finding amazing people of all ages --
Key terms --
Part 3: Positive Emotional States And Processes: --
6: Principles of pleasure: understanding positive affect, positive emotions, happiness, and well-being: --
Defining emotional terms --
Affect --
Emotion --
Happiness --
Subjective well-being --
Distinguishing the positive and the negative --
Positive and negative affect schedule --
Positive emotions: expanding the repertoire of pleasure --
Personal mini-experiments: In search of joy and lasting happiness --
Positive emotion styles linked to the common cold / A Palmer --
Happiness and subjective well-being: living a pleasurable life --
Age-old definitions of happiness --
Subjective well-being as a synonym for happiness --
Satisfaction with life scale --
Determinants of subjective well-being --
Happiness + meaning = well-being --
21st-Century definitions of happiness --
Excerpts from Authentic Happiness / Martin E P Seligman --
Beach man named nation's happiest / Jason Skog --
Complete mental health: emotional, social, and psychological well-being --
Increasing happiness in your life --
Life enhancement strategies --
Moving toward the positive --
Key terms --
7: Making the most of emotional experiences: emotion-focused coping, emotional intelligence, socioemotional selectivity, and emotional storytelling: --
Emotion-focused coping: discovering the adaptive potential of emotional approach --
Case of a hurricane survivor --
Emotional intelligence: learning the skills that make a difference --
Who is emotionally intelligent-and does it matter? / Jack Mayer --
Socioemotional selectivity: focusing in later life on positive emotions and emotion-related goals --
Emotional storytelling: the Pennebaker paradigm as a means of processing intense negative emotions --
Emotional storytelling after a traumatic event --
Emotions and context --
Working with emotions to bring about positive change --
Personal mini-experiments: Making the most of emotions in everyday life --
Life enhancement strategies --
Emotional balancing act --
Key terms --
Part 4: Positive Cognitive States And Processes: --
8: Seeing our futures through self-efficacy, optimism, and hope contributions from Phil McKnight included: --
Fascination with the future --
Being busy not an end in itself / Ellen Goodman --
Self-efficacy --
I think I can, I think I can --
Definition --
Childhood antecedents: where does self-efficacy come from? --
Neurobiology of self-efficacy --
Scales: can self-efficacy be measured? --
Self-efficacy's influence in life arenas --
Latest frontier: collective self-efficacy --
Changing behavior through TV heroes / Melissa Dittmann --
Optimism --
Learned optimism-Seligman and colleagues --
CAVE and predicting baseball outcomes --
Optimism-Scheier and Carver --
Hope --
Definition --
Childhood antecedents of hope --
Neurobiology of hope --
Scales: can hope be measured? --
What hope predicts --
Latest frontier-collective hope --
Hope in our current times --
Life enhancement strategies --
Putting temporal futures in perspective --
Personal mini-experiments: Balancing your perspective on time --
Cultural caveats about temporal perspective --
Appendix A: Summary of hope theories --
Appendix B: Zimbardo time perspective inventory items --
Key terms --
9: Wisdom and courage: two universal virtues: --
Wisdom and courage: two of a kind --
Theories of wisdom --
Wisdom difficult to define, attain / Roger Martin --
Implicit theories of wisdom --
Explicit theories of wisdom --
Becoming and being wise --
Developing wisdom --
Wise people and their characteristics --
Measurement of wisdom --
Relationships between wisdom and intelligence --
Theories of courage --
Implicit theories of courage --
Amputee Parry honored as most courageous / Bernard Fernandez --
Becoming and being courageous --
United States Senator John McCain's view on strengthening courage-April 2004 --
Courage research --
Measurement of courage --
Relationships between fear and courage --
Finding wisdom and courage in daily life --
Can courage be learned? / Vic Conant --
Personal mini-experiments: In search of the wisdom and courage of everyday people--including yourself --
Life enhancement strategies --
Value of wisdom and courage --
Key terms. 10: Mindfulness, flow, and spirituality: in search of optimal experiences: --
Moment-to-moment searches --
Mindfulness: in search of novelty --
Mindfulness as a state of mind --
Living with mindfulness: Women's Heart Foundation --
Benefits of mindfulness --
Flow: in search of absorption --
Personal mini-experiments: In search of optimal experiences --
Flow state --
Autotelic personality --
Longitudinal flow research --
Cultural comparisons and considerations in the flow experience --
Fostering flow and its benefits --
Life enhancement strategies --
Spirituality: in search of the sacred --
True benefits of spirituality? --
Search continues --
Key terms --
Part 5: Prosocial Behavior: --
11: Empathy and egotism: portals to altruism, gratitude, and forgiveness: --
Altruism --
Defining altruism --
Egotism motive --
Forms of egotism-motivated altruism --
Empathy motive and the empathy-altruism hypothesis --
Genetic and neural foundations of empathy --
Cultivating altruism --
Personal mini-experiments: Exercises in altruism, gratitude, and forgiveness --
Measuring altruism --
Gratitude --
Defining gratitude --
Cultivating gratitude --
Thanking your heroes / Rick Snyder --
Measuring gratitude --
Psychophysiological underpinnings of gratitude --
Forgiveness --
Defining forgiveness --
Cultivating forgiveness --
Measuring forgiveness --
Evolutionary and neurobiological bases of forgiveness --
Societal implications of altruism, gratitude, and forgiveness --
Empathy/egotism and altruism --
Empathy/egotism and gratitude --
Empathy/egotism and forgiveness --
Moral imperatives: altruism, gratitude, and forgiveness --
I have a dream: toward a kinder, gentler humankind --
Life enhancement strategies --
Appendix A: Helping attitude scale --
Appendix B: Gratitude questionnaire-six items from GQ-6 --
Appendix C: Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS) --
Appendix D: Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Scale (TRIM) --
Key terms --
12: Attachment, love, and flourishing relationships: --
Infant attachment --
Personal mini-experiments: In search of love and flourishing relationships --
Adult attachment security --
Love --
Passionate and companionate aspects of romantic love --
Triangular theory of love --
Self-expansion theory of romantic love --
Comments on love research --
Flourishing relationships: series of purposeful positive relationship behaviors --
Building a mindful relationship connection --
Life enhancement strategies --
Creating a culture of appreciation --
Lot of love in the lovemaking: avoiding chaos, relationshipwise / Mark D Fefer --
Capitalizing on positive events --
Praise: encouraging signs / Willow Lawson --
Neurobiology of interpersonal connection --
More on flourishing relationships --
Building a positive psychology of close relationships --
Key terms --
Part 6: Understanding And Changing Human Behavior: --
13: Balanced conceptualizations of mental health and behavior: --
Moving toward balanced conceptualizations --
Our fascination with abnormal behavior --
Neglect of the environment and of the positive --
Asking questions: Four-front approach --
Case of Michael --
Lack of developmental emphasis --
Normalizing negative and positive behavior --
Case of Michael --
Difficulties understanding behavior in a cultural context --
Determining how "culture counts" --
Case of Michael --
Limits of the categorical diagnostic system --
Considering new personality dimensions --
Case of Michael --
Going beyond the DSM-IV framework --
Attending to all behavior --
Key terms --
14: Interceding to prevent the bad and enhance the good: --
In the words of a psychotherapy client --
Primary prevention: Stop the bad before it happens --
Definition --
Is primary prevention effective? --
Components of effective primary preventions --
Head start: example of primary prevention --
Primary preventions for racial and ethnic minorities --
Primary preventions for children --
Primary preventions for the elderly --
Caveats about primary preventions --
Secondary prevention (psychotherapy): fix the problem --
Definition --
Is secondary prevention effective? --
Common components of secondary preventions --
Secondary prevention programs for adults --
Secondary preventions for racial and ethnic minorities --
Secondary preventions for children --
Secondary preventions for the elderly --
Caveat about secondary preventions --
Primary enhancement: Make life good --
Primary enhancement: Psychological health --
Primary enhancement: Physical health --
Caveat about primary enhancement --
Secondary enhancement: Make life the best possible --
Secondary enhancement: Psychological health --
Personal mini-experiments: Enhancing your daily life --
Secondary enhancement: physical health --
Caveats about secondary enhancement --
Balance of prevention and enhancement systems --
Appendix A: Effective secondary preventions --
Psychotherapies for adult problems --
Appendix B: Hope therapy worksheet --
Key terms --
Part 7: Positive Environments: --
15: Positive schooling: --
Teachers can't get jobs in the real world! --
Negative psychology: those who can't, shouldn't be teaching --
No child left behind and beyond --
Personal mini-experiments: Power of positive (and negative) teachers --
Components of positive schooling --
Care, trust, and respect for diversity --
Goals (content) --
Plans --
Motivation (plus enlivening the course contents for students) --
Hope --
Societal contributions --
One example of positive schooling: the StrenghtsQuest program --
Baylor University StenghtsQuest program --
Teaching as a calling --
Dr Brewer has passion for art of teaching / David Shi --
Giving back to teachers --
Appendix A: Assessing educational success / Bridget Murray --
Appendix B: Teaching tips from two "Wills"-James and McKeachie / Wilbert McKeachie --
Key terms. 16: Good work: the psychology of gainful employment: --
Gainful employment --
We have an opening: Jenny loses a job and finds a career --
Take-home messages from Jenny's story --
Gainful employment: happiness, satisfaction, and beyond --
Performing well and meeting goals --
Deriving purpose by providing a product or service --
Engagement and involvement --
Variety in job duties --
Income for family and self --
Companionship and loyalty to coworkers and bosses: friends at work --
Safe work environments --
Respect and appreciation for diversity in the workplace --
Measuring gainful employment --
Your job --
Back to the case of Jenny --
Assistant Professor who didn't get tenure --
Having or being a good boss --
Strengths-based approach to work --
Match people, don't fix them --
Stages of this approach --
Does it work? --
Assets exercise --
Capital at work --
Traditional economic capital --
Human capital --
Social capital --
Positive psychological capital --
Hope: a prime psychological capital --
High-hope companies --
High-hope employees --
Putting hope together at work --
Can hope be increased at work? --
Dark side: workaholics, burnouts, and jobs lost --
Workaholics --
Burnout --
Losing your job --
What can be done to improve your work? --
Making the job better --
Personal mini-experiments: Becoming gainfully employed --
Applying for a new job --
Power to change --
When work becomes a calling: the tale of a hospital orderly --
New accounting: an eye toward people rather than money --
Key terms --
17: Me/we balance: building better communities: --
Where we are going: from ME to WE to US --
Individualism: the psychology of ME --
Brief history of American individualism --
Emphases in individualism --
Personal examples of individualism --
Personal mini-experiments: Getting and giving help --
Summary of individualism --
Need for uniqueness --
Collectivism: the psychology of WE --
Historical comment on collectivism: we came together out of necessity --
Emphases in collectivism --
Demographics related to collectivism --
ME/WE balance: the positive psychology of US --
Both the individualistic and the collectivistic perspectives are viable --
Thinking about your own life --
Suggestions for WE people (collectivists) --
Suggestions for ME people (individualists) --
Closing thoughts --
Appendix: Need for uniqueness scale --
Key terms --
Part 8: Positive Look At The Future Of Psychology: --
18: Going positive: --
Trading the bad for some good: the case of Molly --
Tackling a fundamental dilemma: bad is stronger than good --
For the many, not just the few --
Experts' views on 21st-Century positive psychology --
Imagine our world if positive psychology succeeds / Ed Diener --
Embracing positive psychology tenets as crucial advice for clinical psychology / James Maddux --
Spirituality and positive psychology / Kenneth I Pargament --
Joining other scientists in search of the spiritual / Robert Emmons --
Building on the "third pillar": positive communities / David Myers --
Role of positive psychology in maintaining hope and balance / late Michael Mahoney --
Learning from the 2005 hurricanes / Nancy G Westburg --
Toward a positive psychology of the whole person / Christine Robitschek --
Positive psychology of reaching out and bridging / P Alex Linley --
Proactive coping / Ralf Schwarzer --
Role of positive psychology in urban migration and increased life spans / Everett L Worthington, Jr --
Health care for all: the challenges for the 21st Century / Corey L M Keyes --
Need for greater commitment to a broader sense of community / Charles Carver --
Happiness is the best medicine / Ellen Langer --
Acknowledging the good with the bad / Jamie Pennebaker --
Mainstreaming positive psychology ideas / Shelley Taylor --
On partnering and getting our message out / Susan Hendrick --
Maintain scientific integrity in the quest for relevance and application / Timothy R Elliott --
Building a universal positive psychology / Samuel Ho --
Giving positive psychology away / Tal Ben-Shachar --
Appendix: Positive social science / Martin E P Seligman --
References --
Author index --
Subject index --
About the authors.

Offer comprehensive coverage of the science and application of positive psychology and present new frameworks for understanding positive emotions and human strengths. The authors bring positive psychology to life by tackling issues such as how positive psychology can help improve schooling and the workplace, as well as promote cooperative lifestyles among people. Further, the book covers Western and Eastern approaches to understanding human strengths, along with the cultural and developmental influences on positive functioning. The authors also explore various positive conditions such as happiness and well-being, along with other processes related to mindfulness, wisdom, courage, and spirituality. Features of the Second Edition: - Offers an in-depth discussion of science and applications: The book provides the most comprehensive coverage of postive psychology's science and applications. It explores various positive conditions such as empathy, altruism, gratitude, attachment and love. - Encourages active learning: The authors include over 50 case studies, grounded in the practice, research, teaching, and daily lives of the authors that reveal how positive psychological phenomenon operates in the lives of real people. Personal Mini-Experiments and Life Enchancement Strategies help readers apply knowledge of the science and practice of positive psychology in their lives. - Instructor's Resource Site is available to adopters. New to the Second Edition: - Updated with the latest research in positive psychology that covers topics such as hope, courage, altruism, and more - Provides examples and research from many different cultural groups that includes such facets as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender, nation of origin and others.