Denise Clegg

The Positive Neuroscience Project has announced the recipients of the 2010 Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards, $2.9 million given to 15 new research projects at the intersection of neuroscience and positive psychology. Read on to learn about the winning projects that explore a range of topics including how the brain enables humans to flourish, the biological bases of altruism, and the effects of positive interventions on the brain.

Research shows we are more likely to sustain positive change by changing actions and patterns than by improving external circumstances. But that assumes we do them. Stephen Schueller is the first researcher to develop a structure for recommending positive interventions based on a person’s preferences for prior interventions.

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…

The stories we tell weave moments, days, and years into a meaningful sense of life. Researchers have found that the way we tell those stories about our own lives is…

When we chose the theme of relationships as a topic for PPND this month, I asked myself, what is true love? I would describe myself as a (covert/genuine/tentative-but-rational … Heathcliff!!)…

The International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) World Congress this June was an inaugural success, attracting more than 1500 people from 52 countries, and widely covered in the press. In his…

Yesterday, the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center announced the Templeton Positive Neuroscience Awards and a new research initiative aimed at understanding how the brain enables flourishing. Supported by a…

Chronic stress has been linked to many health disorders, including depression, heart disease, cancers, and Alzheimer’s disease. But the stress response engages a number of adaptive, complementary systems fine-tuned to find a balance between stress and solace. Take pleasure seriously, and sow it generously.

In February, PPND announced our first ever contest. We asked readers to submit a photograph that captured the meaning of love. Dave further inspired our contest by offering the top three contestants a copy of Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson! And the winners are….

How do you want to feel in your life? In your work? Doug Newburg interviewed hundreds of world-class performers, including athletes, business leaders, artists, and surgeons, to find out what made them tick. A consistent pattern emerged from their stories.

Love changes the brain. In general, change in life correlates with physical change in the brain made possible by neural plasticity. The human ability to learn and adapt is king among our capacities – and research suggests that love is the queen of conditions enabling change and growth. We are wired, mind and body, to love and learn.

Several years ago, my mother gave me The Soul of Money by Lynn Twist, and it is one of the best gifts I’ve received. In the book, Lynn presents a candid, genuinely transformative treatise about the meaning and impact of our relationship to money.

Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel outlines five principles for this new science of mind. In this context, I like to think of character strengths as old good habits–correlating to strong neural networks that can be engaged for new learning and reinforced with practice.

This final segment of a MAPP Summit poster review series covers two projects that explored positive psychology and peak performance — the relationship between mind-body performance by Elaine Tarantin O’Brien and the role of optimism in the lives of Nobel laureates in chemistry by Greg Quinting.

Part III of the MAPP Summit poster series covers 2 projects that explored positive psychology in stories — strengths in the oral legends of Vanuatu by Virginia Millar and creation of a storytelling blog and community building tool by Nadya Peeva.

Part II of the MAPP Summit poster series includes studies of family savoring by Trecia Davis, appreciating the strengths of students in the bottom 80% by Christine Duvivier, positive psychology applications in education by Sherri Fisher, and a new model for strengths-based, interactive job search training by Lindy O’Brien.

What do corporate superstars, Vanuatu elders, parents of teens and Nobel Laureates all have in common? Strengths, meaning, and engagement. These were just four of the poster subjects presented during the MAPP Summit October 24—26.

Fear and panic are not great external forces; they are powerful internal ones, generated deep in the brain. George Valliant notes, “negative emotions are often crucial for survival—but only in time present. The positive emotions are more expansive and help us to broaden and build.”

Your brain has a mind of its own – a cartographer. Every action, thought, memory, habit, talent, and trouble is recorded in the firing pattern of neural networks in your brain. Why is a bad habit so hard to break? Why is the electric slide effortless for some and befuddling to others, no matter how hot the disco? Dr. Norman Doidge’s book “The Brain that Changes Itself” chronicles the history of neuroplasticity (the brain changing itself).