Sherri Fisher

The Army News Service formally announced last week that the U. S. Army has a new approach it hopes can prevent the psychological effects of warfare from turning into post…

“Thank You” sign Did you know that over two thirds of happy experiences are relationship oriented? Gratitude is the feeling we experience when we perceive ourselves as the recipient of…

What enhances student motivation, engagement, and learning? We know many answers to that question. For the convenience of readers, here are some of the topics you can search for on…

Parents, if you have been waiting for a positive psychology book that is results-oriented but easy to digest, Dr. Timothy J. Sharp’s new book, 100 Ways to Happy Children: A…

Joe, a school custodian, was an Army Ranger during the first Gulf War. He rushed in to save a friend who was hit by a mortar and stepped on a concussive charge which resulted in several serious injuries that ended Joe’s Army career. Joe also lost his fiancée, his excellent social skills, and the life he assumed he would live. When asked if he wishes things were different, Joe says, “Yeah, I wish I could have saved Brian.”

To get along better with someone, do you have to be able to dance cheek-to-cheek? Maybe not, since being able to take risks and “wing it” it is a better predictor of marriage success than carefully choreographed steps. In honor of June, the wedding month in America, let’s explore some aspects of human emotion that make for a joyful relationship.

I’ve recently become aware of a question that’s important to many of my coaching clients: “What are the skills for resilience I can use throughout my life?” I’ve been thinking about this…

Remember the game “hot potato” that you played as a kid? Blame is like that. No one wants to be left holding it, since you might get burned. …All of us have times when we are clueless, and we, too, pass the blame to keep from feeling shame or embarrassment. Do you find yourself using the passive voice, saying, “Well, yes, mistakes were made.” But by whom?

Thomas Hobbes famously described life as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” In contrast, Dacher Keltner describes life as the “survival of the kindest.” His new book, Born to Be…

On the back of a holiday photo I received recently was a troubling note that belied the lovely smiling faces of the melded family on the other side. In the…

This holiday season I’d like to give you something meaningful. Since I am a teacher at heart I want it to be something that offers a practical and engaging learning experience. With that in mind, this month my gift to you is an article that presents four of MAPP’s favorite lecturers speaking about applications of some of their signature research.

It keeps beeping, interrupting even the most focused thoughts and conversations: the call waiting signal.  Do you answer? Hope the sound will go away? Hope that voicemail will pick it…

How much of your happiness is up to you? Three-and-a-half slices worth. You are probably familiar with Ken Sheldon, David Schkade, and Sonja Lyubomirsky’s pie chart depicting where our happiness…

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…

Nearly all of us have had the sudden awareness that while we have been driving along, sometimes for many miles, we have not been paying attention. How did I get…

If you have not read it, I highly recommend Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. One of Haidt’s metaphors, more thoroughly explained in the book, is the very accessible image of…

In education there are a number of cookbooks. They serve the same purpose as kitchen cookbooks (attempting to guarantee a consistent outcome) and are bound by the same limitations. However, in an education system under fire, cookbook education can sometimes rightly be seen by administrators as the most easily defensible program a system can take.

A new study from the Wharton School of Business seems to refute a widely held intuitive belief. Despite what you may have believed, according to the new study, it turns out that money CAN buy happiness. Or maybe it says that money DOES buy happiness. Well, maybe both, but not exactly either […]

“[Appreciative Inquiry] deliberately seeks to discover people’s exceptionality – their unique gifts, strengths, and qualities. It actively searches and recognizes people for their specialties – their essential contributions and achievements.…