The Happiness of Pursuit: A Review of Curious?
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 | Tags: Meaningful life, Uncategorized, flow, happiness | 1 Comment »In Curious?, George Mason University psychologist Todd Kashdan provides self-help backed by science, toting curiosity as the means to a fulfilling life. Kashdan asks his readers: Is life really all about achieving happiness, or is it actually the pursuit of ...
Aging in Reverse: A Review of Counterclockwise
Friday, September 25th, 2009 | Tags: aging, happiness, health, mindfulness, positive psychology | 1 Comment »In Counterclockwise, Ellen Langer, a renowned social psychologist at Harvard, suggests that our beliefs and expectations impact our physical health at least as much as diets and doctors do. She argues that, as we grow older, our physical limitations are ...
Forgiveness and Gratitude
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 | Tags: Forgiveness, events, gratitude | 7 Comments »This Friday, the Greater Good Science Center will be hosting "Forgiveness and Gratitude," the fourth seminar in its "Science of a Meaningful Life" series. It'll be an all-day event held at the International House, on the UC Berkeley campus. There's ...
Why to Be Good, How to Be Happy
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 | Tags: Dacher Keltner, compassion, events, happiness | 4 Comments »This Thursday, the Greater Good Science Center will be hosting "Why to Be Good, How to Be Happy," the third seminar in its "Science of a Meaningful Life" series and its first in Los Angeles. We want to hear from those ...
Tell Us What Movie Makes YOU Happy
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | Tags: arts, happiness | 6 Comments »On Greater Good this month, Jeremy Adam Smith discusses the 10 films that are most likely to make him happy. Researchers often use films to induce happiness in the lab, and it seems that if they wanted to boost Jeremy's mood, ...
Can We Really Make Love Last?
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 | Tags: family, happiness, love, marriage, social connections | Leave a Comment »We’ve all read the fairy tales and watched the “rom-coms,” but most of us maintain a certain cynicism when it comes to romantic love. Sure, it may exist, but it certainly doesn’t last in long-term relationships. Passion and romance give ...
Testing Positive Psychology
Thursday, August 13th, 2009 | Tags: Forgiveness, Generosity, compassion, development, gratitude, happiness, helping behavior, meditation, mindfulness, motivation, optimism, prosocial behavior, psychology, self-actualization | 1 Comment »Are there really steps people can take to increase their overall happiness and life satisfaction? For the past decade, researchers in the positive psychology movement have tried to identify effective, everyday strategies for making people happier. Recently, researchers Nancy L. Sin ...
The Price of Perfection: A review of The Triple Bind
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | Tags: children, development, family, gender roles, happiness, parenting, psychology | Leave a Comment »In The Triple Bind (Ballantine Books, 2009), psychologist Stephen Hinshaw explores society’s expectations of girls and young women. According to Hinshaw, girls are pressured to excel at both traditional “female” roles (of being caring, tolerant, cute, sexy) and traditional “male” ...
The Tipping Point of Happiness: A Review of Positivity
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Tags: Jen ratio, goodness, gratitude, happiness, health, optimism, prosocial behavior, psychology, self-actualization, social capital, social connections | Leave a Comment »There has been no shortage of books recently about the benefits of positive emotions like happiness and optimism. But Barbara L. Fredrickson, author of Positivity (Crown Publishers, 2009), may be the first to suggest that a mathematical ratio of positive ...
Dacher Keltner-Paul Ekman Seminar
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 | Tags: compassion, emotional intelligence, events, happiness, health, social intelligence | 1 Comment »We here at the Greater Good Science Center are pretty excited to announce a new series of events we'll be hosting this year. Our "Science of a Meaningful Life" seminar series is designed to help audiences apply groundbreaking scientific findings to ...
