Book Review

Time to take another look at the IPPA Third World Congress. How wide was the coverage? Then how deep did positive psychology go when it was embodied by the Chilean miners during their long ordeal? This was one of the stories I heard when I was at the conference.

Since most business leaders are immersed in their own negativity bias, there is a distinct competitive advantage for focusing on the positive side of the science. Positive approaches remind us not only to give our attention to our most challenging customers and employees, but also to spend quality time with our best customers and employees. If you are in business, it is likely that your competitors are neglecting some of these opportunities. If you can do them well, you can indeed profit from the positive.

This is a ground-breaking volume of positive psychology research, and the breadth of perspectives is unparalleled. Not only are new and more specialized topics included, but even familiar topics are illustrated with up-to-date research, case studies, and examples. Clearly this is what positive psychology students and teachers need to progress the science, do high quality research, and put it out into the public domain.

Caroline Miller’s ability to bounce back, rise above challenges and improve her lot in life is perhaps the book’s greatest gift. With her candor and strength, she teaches readers they too can survive and thrive through challenges. She teaches us to appreciate what is, to cultivate nurturing relationships with love and gratitude, and to approach life with grace and gusto.

Adam Grant’s new book, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success, dispels the myth that nice guys are underachievers. Grant examines three styles of social interaction: Giving, Taking and Matching. He provides the research to support the positive impact and benefits of giving. Despite our instinct to take or match in competitive atmospheres, the data show that givers rise to the top.

The first part of Love 2.0 sets out a vision of what is so far known about love, including the body’s definition of love and the necessary preconditions. The second part provides guidance for applying this information, drawing on Fredrickson’s experiments with meditation and shared positivity micro-moments.

Pick any chapter from Chris Peterson’s posthumously published book, Pursuing the Good Life: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology, and you’re in for a real treat. His reflections cover every aspect of what it means to be human and to live a life worth living. Even sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll get a passing mention, although you won’t find them listed in the index.

Many of the major findings from this book about healthy and unhealthy male development and adaptation to life will likely astound you. Here are 10 findings to whet your appetite for more.

Making Hope Happen is fun to read and full of both science and stories. Lopez helps us understand that there is a difference between optimism and hope. He outlines The Hope Cycle, which includes goals, agency, and pathways. He makes a case for the value of cultivating hope in our lives.

I believe that Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Positive Psychology: The Seven Foundations of Well-Being is the first book to look at the commonalities and differences between positive psychology and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Steven Hayes, founder of ACT, sums up the message of this book in its last chapter, “What you hold in your hands is the beginning of a conversation.”

In this book, Judy Umlas buttresses her largely anecdotal evidence with several well known gratitude and acknowledgment studies. Her own material is thoroughly documented, often in the words of her clients. To help consultants, managers, coaches and other professional practitioners, she has distilled her experiences into principles that even the gratitude averse can apply.

This book helps coaches enhance their current coaching practices by applying a strengths-focus. The book does not preach. It leaves readers with a sense that they need to take what works, test it, be discriminating, and most of all be situational. The book is informative, practical, and will give all readers a wealth of ideas, approaches, thoughts, and techniques.

Looking for gift ideas for this holiday season? We asked authors and friends to share gift ideas, not just of books as we’ve provided in earlier years, but also of movies and music and experiences.

Daring Greatly is wide-ranging, making it difficult to summarize in a review. So I will focus on a chapter of the book called The Vulnerability Armory. Brown asserts that we learned to protect ourselves from vulnerability—from being hurt, diminished, or disappointed—by putting on emotional armor and acting invulnerable when we were children. Now as adults we must learn to dare greatly by taking the risk of removing our armor and being vulnerable for the sake of connection.

I find all aspects of innovation fascinating. In a chapter of the new POS Handbook titled Innovativeness as Positive Deviance authors Jeff DeGraff and Dan Nathan-Roberts look at innovativeness from several viewpoints. For example, they use the competing values framework, showing that “oppositional factors can be productively engaged to create positive tensions that yield hybrid and novel solutions.”

Some months ago, a colleague introduced me to the book ‘Building Happiness, Resilience and Motivation in Adolescents: A Positive Psychology Curriculum for Well-being‘ by Ruth MacConville and Tina Rae, which focuses on applying the VIA strengths to adolescents rather than younger, primary age children.

If virtuousness is excellence in the human soul, what comprises excellence in the soul of an organization or business?

Jeni Hooper’s new book, What Children Need to Be Happy, Confident and Successful fulfills the promise of its title, providing adults with information and tools to support development of happy, confident, and successful children.

The Psychology of Spas and Wellbeing by Jeremy McCarthy offers a clearly stated, scientific investigation of the mind-body connection and the psychology of relaxation, beauty, touch, and holistic wellness.

Last Friday I started to explore Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, by looking at some of the sections I had underlined. Today I conclude with the final set of quotations. I hope you can see just how much there is to learn from this book.