Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-lived

Front Cover
American Psychological Association, 2003 - Family & Relationships - 335 pages
Psychology has made great strides in understanding mental illness, but how much has it learned about mental health? When people want to reflect upon the good life and how to live it, they turn to philosophers and novelists, not psychologists. The emerging field of positive psychology aims to redress this imbalance. In Flourishing, distinguished scholars apply scientific analyses to study the good life, expanding the scope of social and psychological research to include happiness, well-being, courage, citizenship, play, and the satisfactions of healthy work and healthy relationships. Their findings reveal that a sense of meaning and a feeling of richness emerge in life as people immerse themselves in activities, relationships, and the pursuit of intrinsically satisfying goals like overcoming adversity or serving one's community through volunteering. This provocative book will further define this evolving field.

About the author (2003)

Corey L. M. Keyes is a sociologist and social psychologist. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has been a member of the Emory University faculty since 1997 where he holds joint appointments in the Department of Sociology and in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education of the Rollins School of Public Health, and is an adjunct faculty in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Keyes is a leader in the new field of 'positive psychology' and has published a new model of 'complete health' along with initial measurements of optimal, complete health found in the US adult population.

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