Dana Arakawa

For those new to positive psychology, the movie, Happy, is a great introduction to the field and the work of some of its most prominent researchers, including Ed Diener, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and Richard Davidson. Happy weaves a lot the research we’re already familiar with into a story that takes us from the slums of Kolkata to the subways of Tokyo to the bayous of Louisiana to the beaches of Brazil and other continents in between.

To describe how much I enjoyed and recommend the Positive Psychology Workbook series by Robert Biswas-Diener and colleagues, I thought of the positivity ratio proposed by Barbara Fredrickson, that flourishing happens when positivity outweighs negativity by 3 to 1, but above 11:1, the effect disappears. I loved the series and would highly recommend it, so I offer 11 positives and one dose of critique.

The act of organizing is a powerful tool to regain a sense of control, opening the door and creating space for proactivity and self-motivation to flourish.

Does the custom of sitting longer in a café mean that Argentines are savoring more than Americans do? I don’t know. Fred Bryant and Joseph Veroff proposed the term savoring to capture “the active process of enjoyment, the ongoing interplay between person and environment.” Savoring is a personal experience, distinct from pleasure, though they are interrelated.

A few months ago, I had an intense conversation with a friend who is a U.S. Navy SEAL. I asked him whether or not he was ready to kill someone. His response was unequivocal—yes, he was ready. He was strongly motivated by the conviction that evil people with no regard for human life must themselves be killed. … I was reminded of this conversation again when reading the manga, The 14th Dalai Lama. An important question emerged for me: What is the role of positive psychology in a world at war, in a time of terrorism and violence? I found lines in the manga that began to resonate as answers. […]

Recent events in my life have made me reconsider the virtue of patience, and come to a new appreciation of this under-appreciated but much needed strength.

As different people have different strengths, perhaps different cultures have different strengths. Just like implanting yourself amidst native speakers is the best way to learn a new language, why not learn a new hedonic strength by cultural immersion?

How do I begin to describe my two months studying, volunteering, and living in Peru? I came to Cusco, Peru without clear expectations, excited and nervous about my first time…

One change management tool that I have found helpful is the Inter Change Cycle™, from Interchange International Inc., which describes the different stages we go through to process changes big and small in our lives. When any change occurs, we go through the stages of loss, doubt, discomfort, discovery, understanding, and integration.

Our lives are full of stress: we have 24 hours each day and more activities than we feel we have time for. In this age of multi-tasking and instantaneous communication…

Given my longtime interest in spirituality, my favorite chapter in Authentic Happiness was the last, on “Meaning and Purpose.”  Martin Seligman discusses his encounter with Bob Wright, author of NonZero,…

Positive Psychology changed my life.  When I discovered Positive Psychology, I found an articulation of something that I had always been searching for.  I resonated with the concept of the…

Dana Arakawa, MAPP ’06, earned Ph.D. degree in social psychology at the University of Hawaii. Her dissertation looks at the effect of mood on emotional contagion. Before venturing into psychology,…