When my daughter, Lauren, chose her college, she picked-up on an aspect that didn’t jump out at me. I guess I was the only one surprised at how that played-out four years later and it made me curious: how does a college foster a service culture that stands out to a high school student?

Are there different kinds of curiosity? Todd: We asked over 500 people what are the things that make them most curious. The two most frequent categories were being curious about other people’s lives and trying to figure themselves out – introspection. We don’t talk enough about the value of introspection, being curious about the self.

Todd: I have always been an anxiety researcher, especially about social anxiety. Then I started seeing people who had energizing and profoundly meaningful social interactions. When I asked about their motivations, what kept arising was “I felt interested” or “I was curious.”

If you met Denni Chipollini before one of his speaking engagements, you’d see his communicative smile and feel his positive attitude. But you’d never guess what the story behind his energy is.

Barbara Heileman and Jan Elsner have been practitioners of positive psychology in business contexts in Australia for several years. When I asked, “What is the most burning thing you want to share with us?” their response concerned effective ways of measuring outcomes in terms that are organizationally relevant to business.

Wishes touch on so many aspects of positive psychology. That is because wishes tell us something about what it means to be human. They frame for us our vision of what is important – both those things that are “big I” Important that give us meaning and purpose, as well as the little pleasures and comforts that ease and aide us in our enjoyment of life. Wishes help us define a vision of what is possible and show us what life could be.

How can our children develop these sort of empathic bonds with others if their interactions are with a screen rather than real-life, flesh-and-blood people? Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand had an idea. While stranded in Mali in the 1980’s, Arthus-Bertrand spent an evening listening to another man’s life story. [...]

With Labor Day behind us, Fall is the time when we really spring ahead. September is full of opportunities for new beginnings, as millions of us return to school and work. What a perfect time …

By Timothy T.C. So
I urge all positive psychologists – especially the younger generation – to investigate this and to build greater communion and understanding between the traditions of thought in the East and the West.
~ …

“Realizing strengths, in my view, is the smallest thing that you can do to make the biggest difference.”
~ Alex Linley
Alex Linley is the Founder and Director of the Centre of Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP) and a Visiting Professor in Psychology at the University of Leicester. I first met Alex when he gave a speech in my positive psychology class in Aston Business School.