Which trait is more likely to increase your well-being: high self-esteem or a high level of self-compassion?
According to Kristin Neff, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and a pioneer of self-compassion research, it’s no contest. Self-compassion will serve you better in every circumstance.
Read MoreI had the honor to talk with Scott Barry Kaufman about his latest book Transcend: The New Science of Self Actualization, his research, and his mission to define a common humanity of wholeness. Scott or “SBK” as he is affectionately referred to by peers, colleagues and friends, is an innovative writer and scientist. He is also well-known for his top-rated psychology podcast, which is aptly named, The Psychology Podcast. Over the past 20 years, SBK’s research has spanned a broad range of intriguing topics, including imagination and creativity, intelligence and gifted children.
Read MoreIn many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic is something we all have in common. Yet our personal experiences vary widely, depending on our unique circumstances. It follows that our approaches to coping, adapting, and even flourishing, are different, too. As I connected personally and professionally with a few of my MAPP alumni friends in the early months, I heard stories of new routines and rituals. Many were devised as necessities to address the big lifestyle changes brought on by remote work and school. Others seemed to be joy-filled, inspired by newfound opportunities of staying close to home. By mid-summer, I became quite curious about what activities this community of extraordinary people, devoted to enhancing worldwide well-being, were putting into place in their own lives, in order to survive and to thrive in this difficult time.
Read MoreI spoke with Shondrea as she was gearing up to virtually teach her 5th grade class in Baltimore. Fresh from wrapping up her capstone, she’s far from putting MAPP behind her, like the rest of us newly-minted grads are figuring out how to do. Nope! She’s joining the program as an Assistant Instructor in Marty’s 600 class, which makes the class of 2021 MAPPsters a darned lucky bunch to have Shondrea’s calming presence and wisdom to lean on (especially as they chew upon Jaynes’ The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind). I chatted with Shondrea before her evening plans of a pescatarian dinner and a personal training session
Read MoreMathew A. White, PhD, Associate Professor of Education and Deputy Head of the School of Education at the University of Adelaide, recently spoke to the MAPP community about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the landscape of education, highlighting the overwhelming need for an increased focus on wellbeing and resilience. COVID-19 has shifted the ground beneath us in many ways. It has demanded us to adapt to ambiguity, isolation, and if we are lucky, new routines. Its ripple effect on education has been far-reaching, and rebounding from this will present both challenges and opportunities. In addition to teaching and learning, schools are stable pillars of community connection and a necessary source of both resources and wellbeing. While we continue to do our very best through the pandemic, new perspectives can be leveraged to reimagine education for the future. Mathew White presents a hopeful and collective path forward.
Read MoreFrom the beginning of the MAPP journey, the capstone is a term that all MAPPsters quickly learn. For every MAPP student, the capstone, comparable in many ways to a master’s thesis, is the culminating project of an intense year. For some, the topic is chosen before the first day of immersion week, with each paper written throughout the year bringing them another step closer to its completion. For others, each new subject matter within the study of positive psychology presents an additional opportunity for capstone consideration, and a topic is not chosen until the last minute (or even beyond)! Each capstone reflects its writer’s individual interest, viewpoint, and assertion about the world of positive psychology, and the topics chosen are varied and diverse.
Read MoreOur bodies are important to how we think, feel and behave. Research demonstrates physical activity not only helps prevent disease, but it helps improve the quality of our life and health. In fact, physical activity, active leisure, and play are essential for our physical, intellectual and emotional development at all ages, and stages of life.
Read MoreWhy does hearing the word "negotiation" make our pulse quicken? If you close your eyes and picture a negotiation, what do you see? Many people envision a conference room with people in business attire sitting across the table from one another. More than likely, nobody is smiling, there is tension in the air, and the mood feels adversarial. What if I told you that negotiations don't have to be that way?
Read MoreYou might say that at midnight of May 31, 2020, the stars aligned for Dr. Dan Tomasulo (C’12). Earlier that day, he had received an invitation to become the Academic Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute (SMBI) at Columbia University. And on the following day his book Learned Hopefulness was released, soon to become Amazon’s #1 new release for the month of June.
Read MoreA few years back, I was fortunate to share a cab during a downpour of Biblical proportions with MAPP lecturer and well-being expert, Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky, in which we talked about Positive Psychology’s impact on business. One of us was going to the airport and one of us to the train station – I can’t remember who was doing which. What I do remember is our brief conversation, the question I asked him, and the answer he gave me. It’s a question I’d been seeking a definitive answer to across my own decades-long careers both inside the corporate system as a manager and outside as a corporate coach. Here it is: “Is there any real evidence that if a company invests in the well-being of their people, it will impact that company’s financial performance?”
Read MoreIn our April 2020 post, MAPP Magazine caught up with Therese Sheedy, President of University of Melbourne’s MAPP Alumni Association to talk about MAPP “down under” and connections between MAPPsters from around the globe that were sparked at the 6th World Congress of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) in July 2019. Now we turn to Rosie Hancock (C ‘13) to hear about her experience as a lecturer at the University of East London’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology (MAPPCP) programme.
I taught at UPenn MAPP as an Assistant Instructor on three MAPP modules the year after I finished MAPP. I have also been a lecturer at the University of East London in their Master of Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology (MAPPCP) programme from 2017 to 2019, where I was jointly responsible for the content and teaching of the main positive psychology module: Perspectives on Wellbeing.
Almost six months ago, as we hurriedly sequestered ourselves in response to the spread of COVID-19, finally succumbing to the fact that we were indeed in the midst of a pandemic, I would never have guessed that we would still be under its shadow as we now roll into August. What started as an enthusiastic effort to muster my courage and make the best of the lockdown has spiraled into a deflated resignation to ride out this strange time for the long haul, tabling plans and becoming used to a global and diffuse ambiguity about the future. And in the midst of the pandemic,
Read MoreDanny Torrance wants to clear up some misconceptions you may have about people who suffer from hoarding disorder.
Despite the impressions promoted by reality TV shows and urban legends, Danny finds that the majority of those with hoarding disorder are neither lazy nor dirty. He finds that people who hoard are, well, people -- people with strengths, just like you and me.
“There are so many good things about people who hoard,” observes Danny with sincere appreciation.
Danny came to his interest in hoarding disorder around the time that he earned his MAPP degree in 2015,
Read MoreAt the end of May, as Black Lives Matter protests gathered momentum across the United States and around the world, many within our MAPP community were grieving. Viewed afresh after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmed Arbury, Tony McDade, and so many more, the historical and ongoing trauma of injustices against Black Americans was astounding and the emotional pain undeniable. As people were crying out for justice, many MAPPsters were asking what action we could take that might make a difference.
Read MoreAs we reflect on the extraordinary and tumultuous days of spring and summer 2020, I am struck by a few fundamental questions. How do we live in the U.S. as if everybody matters? Do organizations, neighborhoods, systems, policies, and places where we live, work, worship, and play encourage wellbeing? Who has access to wellbeing, and is it equitably actualized in the daily lives of Americans?
Read More(Article is reposted with permission from www.highperformanceinstitute.com blog appearing February 13, 2020)
When I was 10 years old, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime. I began attending an elite, private school in Los Angeles on a full scholarship. I was one of two black students in my entire class, and one of only a few to wear second-hand uniforms and receive free lunch.
Read MoreSuzie Pileggi Pawelski began contributing to the field of positive psychology while she was still a MAPP student in 2007. That year, she was invited to write a daily interview column for the newly launched IPPA (International Positive Psychology Association), and she continued to write this column for over a decade. Today, she’s become a sought-out expert on positive relationships, which she believes are fundamental to thriving during COVID-19.
Read MoreWhen I think about the “B’s” in positive psychology, I immediately think of the A – B – C’s of resilience, Barb Fredrickson and Biswas-Diener, and the unfortunate grade on my last theory paper. I recently learned that there is a new and exciting “B” buzzing around positive psychology these days: the honey bee!
Read MoreIn a historic session on April 18, 2020, Martin E. P. Seligman, PhD and Aaron T. Beck, MD welcomed 260 Zoom guests to join their monthly lunch and discuss the evolution of their respective practices and how psychology practitioners can help people cope during COVID-19.
Read MoreGraduates of UPenn’s MAPP program know well that social connection is a powerful and necessary ingredient for well-being. At the MAPP Summit last October, students were treated to a visit from the 19th Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has made it his mission to spread the message that lack of human connection poses a significant public health risk to our nation. In fact, lack of connection, experienced as loneliness, can affect our health in profoundly negative ways.
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