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Selected Positive Psychology Books

Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life by Dacher Keltner

By Dacher Keltner

In this startling study of human emotion, Dacher Keltner investigates an unanswered question of human evolution: If humans are hardwired to lead lives that are “nasty, brutish, and short,” why have we evolved with positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and cooperative societies? Illustrated with more than fifty photographs of human emotions, Born to Be Good takes us on a journey through scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy. Positive emotions, Keltner finds, lie at the core of human nature and shape our everyday behavior—and they just may be the key to understanding how we can live our lives better.

German
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The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

By Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. This fundamental insight has the power to revolutionize the way you live. As Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz demonstrate in their groundbreaking New York Times bestseller, managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness, and life balance.

German
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Applied Positive Psychology: Integrated Positive Practice by Tim Lomas, Kate Hefferon, and Itai Ivtzan

By Tim Lomas, Kate Hefferon, and Itai Ivtzan

This exciting new textbook, written by leading academics in the UK, offers the very first authored title on applied positive psychology for university courses. Consisting of the latest cutting-edge theory and research in the subject and structured around a pioneering multidimensional model of wellbeing, this book will provide you with the knowledge and tools to apply positive psychology in many areas of life. These include interventions aimed at developing mental and physical functioning, to recommendations for enhancing relationships and reshaping organizational structures. The book shows how these practices can be successfully deployed in diverse real-world settings, from the classroom to the workplace.

German
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The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology by Shane Lopez and Charles Snyder

By Shane Lopez and Charles Snyder

The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology provides a roadmap for the psychology needed by the majority of the population - those who don't need treatment but want to achieve the lives to which they aspire. Topics include not only happiness but also hope, strengths, positive emotions, life longings, creativity, emotional creativity, courage, and more, plus guidelines for applying what has worked for people across time and cultures.

German
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Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct by Michael McCullough

By Michael McCullough

Psychologist Michael McCullough argues that the key to a more forgiving, less vengeful world is to understand the evolutionary forces that gave rise to these intimately human instincts and the social forces that activate them in human minds today. Drawing on exciting breakthroughs from the social and biological sciences, McCullough dispenses surprising and practical advice for making the world a more forgiving place.

German
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Facts, Values, and Norms: Essays toward a Morality of Consequence by Peter Railton

By Peter Railton

We struggle daily with the notions of why we do what we do and of assigning values to our actions, although it seems possible through experience to gain knowledge and understanding of such matters. Peter Railton's study reveals how a naturalistically informed view of the world might incorporate objective values and moral knowledge.

German
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Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

By Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

In recent years, while continuing to learn more about strengths, Gallup scientists have also been examining decades of data on the topic of leadership. They studied more than 1 million work teams, conducted more than 20,000 in-depth interviews with leaders, and even interviewed more than 10,000 followers around the world to ask exactly why they followed the most important leader in their life.
The results of that research are unveiled in Strengths Based Leadership. Using Gallup’s discoveries, authors Tom Rath and Barry Conchie identify three keys to being a more effective leader and use firsthand accounts from highly successful leaders — including the founder of Teach For America and the president of The Ritz-Carlton — to show how each person’s unique strengths can drive their success.

German
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Scientific Approaches to Consciousness by Jonathan Cohen and Jonathan Schooler

By Jonathan Cohen and Jonathan Schooler

Recent developments in both the empirical and theoretical methodologies of the fields of psychology and neuroscience have made it possible to begin to study the phenomenon associated with -- if not directly underlying -- consciousness in a scientific fashion.

German
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The Battle for Human Nature: Science, Morality, and Modern Life by Barry Schwartz

By Barry Schwartz

Out of the investigations and speculations of contemporary science, a challenging view of human behavior and society has emerged and gained strength. It is a view that equates “human nature” utterly and unalterably with the pursuit of self-interest. Influenced by this view, people increasingly appeal to natural imperatives, instead of moral ones, to explain and justify their actions and those of others.

German
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The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting by Laurence Steinberg

By Laurence Steinberg

In The Ten Basic Principles of Good Parenting, Dr. Steinberg distills decades of research into a parenting book that explains the fundamentals of raising happy, healthy children, giving readers an invaluable map to help them navigate parenthood from infancy to adolescence.

German
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