The 6th Biennial Meaning conference took place August 5-8 in Vancouver Canada. The theme was Creating a Psychologically Healthy Workplace, and sessions also touched on a deeper theme — the importance of meaning to the quality of our lives. Many of the sessions were recorded and recordings are available for purchase, if this brief summary makes you wish you had been there. My own presentation on articulating a shared and valued purpose at work is available in the collection.

Visiting an 87-year-old friend in a supported living facility, I have been wondering what gives meaning to life when someone is no longer able to serve others or contribute to lifetime passions or pursue a larger purpose.

The film, Inception, explores the phenomenon of ideas. Where do they start? How are they influenced? Can we extract ideas from each other, and when we do, to whom do they belong? Can we cause others to incept (take in) ideas by influencing them to think what we want them to think? The film shows how these powers can be used for good as well as evil.

Research and application often appear to live in separate worlds, but sometimes they come together in a way that shines light on both. What if a company could change direction radically by adopting …

It is time again for the biennial Meaning Conference, to be held in Vancouver BC on August 5-8. From from the announcement, “Work is more than a means of making a living or creating wealth. It can also be a higher calling that ennobles the soul, endows life with meaning, and enhances humanity. ” Read further to see who will be speaking, including two lectures open to the general public.

Kathryn Britton recently wrote about using positive psychology to deal with a sudden loss as she mourned her dear friend Linda. Grieving is an individual process, but while no two people have an identical experience of losing a loved one, there are several patterns that emerge. I’d like to offer some observations about how Positive Psychology is at work while people heal after a loss, even in the long term.

Is It More Fun To Be a Scientist or an Artist? is the title of Professor Richard Gregory’s final publication. Professor Gregory, one of the world’s leading researchers on perception died on May 17, 2010.
Professor …

At some point in all the stories I have heard from people who describe their memorable and positive experiences at work, those in which they had high job satisfaction, I hear words such as ‘passion,’ …

Is there any substance and meaning behind the choice of who wins an Academy Award? In an analysis of 1,132 films, Simonton found that the Oscars do matter; they provide meaningful information about creativity and …

Inspiration, or more precisely the lack of it, strikes fear into the hearts of many students faced with an assignment or test, a blank sheet of paper and a ticking clock. I can remember countless …