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Selected Positive Psychology Books

Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience, by Fred B. Bryant and Joseph Veroff

by Fred B. Bryant and Joseph Veroff

This book is about savoring life—the capacity to attend to the joys, pleasures, and other positive feelings that we experience in our lives. The authors enhance our understanding of what savoring is and the conditions under which it occurs. Savoring provides a new theoretical model for conceptualizing and understanding the psychology of enjoyment and the processes through which people manage positive emotions. The authors review their quantitative research on savoring, as well as the research of others, and provide measurement instruments with scoring instructions for assessing and studying savoring. 

German
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The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt

by Jonathan Haidt

As America descends deeper into polarization and paralysis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has done the seemingly impossible—challenged conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to everyone on the political spectrum. Drawing on his twenty five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, he shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.

German
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The Resilience Factor: The Resilience Factor: Seven Essential Skills For Overcoming Life's Inevitable Obstacles, by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté

by Karen Reivic and Andrew Shatté

The science in The Resilience Factor takes an extraordinary leap from the research introduced in the bestselling Learned Optimism a decade ago. Just as hundreds of thousands of people were transformed by "flexible optimism," readers of this book will flourish, thanks to their enhanced ability to overcome obstacles of any kind. Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatté are seasoned resilience coaches and, through practical methods and vivid anecdotes, they prove that resilience is not just an ability that we're born with and need to survive, but a skill that anyone can learn and improve in order to thrive. 

German
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Quality of Life Therapy: Applying a Life Satisfaction Approach to Positive Psychology and Cognitive Therapy, by Michael B. Frisch

by Michael B. Frisc

This book explains the "Sweet 16" Recipe for Joy and Success, along with validated interventions for each:
 
1. Basic Needs or Wealths: Health, Money, Goals-and-Values/Spiritual Life, Self-Esteem
 
2. Relationships: Love, Friends, Relatives, and Children
 
3. Occupations-Avocations: Work and Retirement Pursuits, Play, Helping-Service, Learning, Creativity
 
4. Surroundings: Home, Neighborhood, Community
German
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Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being, by Daniel Haybron

by Daniel Haybron

The pursuit of happiness is a defining theme of the modern era. But what if people aren't very good at it? This and related questions are explored in this book, the first comprehensive philosophical treatment of happiness in the contemporary psychological sense. In these pages, Dan Haybron argues that people are probably less effective at judging, and promoting, their own welfare than common belief has it. For the psychological dimensions of well-being, particularly our emotional lives, are far richer and more complex than we tend to realize. Knowing one's own interests is no trivial matter. As well, we tend to make a variety of systematic errors in the pursuit of happiness. We may need, then, to rethink traditional assumptions about human nature, the good life, and the good society. Thoroughly engaged with both philosophical and scientific work on happiness and well-being, this book will be a definitive resource for philosophers, social scientists, policymakers, and other students of human well-being.
German
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The Pursuit of Happiness, by David G. Myers

by David G. Myers

Social psychologist David G. Myers has reviewed thousands of recent scientific studies conducted worldwide in search of the key to happiness. With wit and wisdom, he explodes some of the popular myths on the subject and presents specific techniques for finding true joy in living:
 
  • Are most people happy?
  • What are the inner traits of happy people?
  • Are extroverts happier than introverts?
  • Are men happier than women?
  • Does religious faith promote inner peace and joy?
  • Does well-being come with being well-off?
  • Are happy children more likely to become happy adults?
  • What part do friends play in personal happiness?
  • Is age a factor in feeling happy?
  • What can you do to improve your own sense of well-being?
  • and much more
German
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Pursuing the Good Life: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology, by Christopher Peterson

by Christopher Peterson

In Pursuing the Good Life, one of the founders of positive psychology, Christopher Peterson, offers one hundred bite-sized reflections exploring the many sides of this exciting new field. With the humor, warmth, and wisdom that has made him an award-winning teacher, Peterson takes readers on a lively tour of the sunny side of the psychological street. What are the roles played by positive emotions and happiness, by strengths of character, by optimism, and by good relationships with others? How can we pursue the good life in families, workplaces, schools, and sports, no matter who we are or where we live? With titles such as "You May Now Kiss the Bride--And Would You Like Fries With That?" and "How Can You Tell If Someone from France is Happy?" Peterson good-humoredly explores these questions and many others, including such diverse topics as the difference between employment and work, the value of doing the right thing, and why books matter, among other subjects.

German
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Pursuing Human Strengths: A Positive Psychology Guide, by Martin Bolt

by Martin Bolt

By using the scientific method in its efforts to assess, understand, and then build human strengths, positive psychology balances the investigation of weakness and damage with a study of strength and virtue. Pursuing Human Strengths: A Positive Psychology Guide gives instructors and students alike the means to learn more about this relevant approach to psychology. Martin Bolt helps students learn more about themselves as they learn the facts of, and theories about, the fascinating field of psychology.  This book is a terrific accompaniment to virtually any psychology course (most notably, human adjustment and growth, introductory psychology, and abnormal psychology). For those teaching a course in positive psychology, Pursuing Human Strengths provides a primary text.
German
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The Psychology of Happiness, by Michael Argyle

by Michael Argyle

What is happiness?  Why are some people happier than others?
 
This new edition of The Psychology of Happiness provides a comprehensive and up-to-date account of research into the nature of happiness. Major research developments have occurred since publication of the first edition in 1987 – here they are brought together for the first time, often with surprising conclusions.
German
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The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, by Gregg Easterbrook

by Gregg Easterbrook

The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook draws upon three decades of wide-ranging research and thinking to make the persuasive assertion that almost all aspects of Western life have vastly improved in the past century--and yet today, most men and women feel less happy than in previous generations. Why this is so and what we should do about it is the subject of this book.

German
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