News Archive
Management QOL in the News - August 12, 2013
Last month, the third World Congress on Positive Psychology convened leading scientists to explore the keys to a happy and meaningful life. Here are three
of the most striking and practical insights from the conference.
Fifteen years after emerging as a major scientific movement, it's clear that positive psychology—the study of what brings happiness and meaning in life—is
not just a fad. The field is reaching new levels of breadth and depth: Having established its core themes and principles during its first decade, it is now
getting deeper and more precise in its exploration of what it takes to truly flourish in life.
The growth of positive psychology was evident last month at the International Positive Psychology Association's (IPPA) third bi-annual World Congress on
Positive Psychology in downtown Los Angeles. A truly international crowd gathered for four days of workshops and symposia on everything from neuroplasticity
and mindfulness to positive organizations and positive psychology in film.
"The science of positive psychology has now achieved a point where it is comparable to the other sub-disciplines of psychology," wrote IPPA president Robert
Vallerand in the Congress’ welcome message. "And the scientifically informed applications of positive psychology are more popular and diversified than
ever."
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In following 268 men for their entire lives, the Harvard Grant Study has discovered why some of them turned out happier than others.
At 19 years old, Godfrey Minot Camille was a tall redheaded boy with a charming manner who planned to enter medicine or the ministry. In 1938, Camille
enrolled in a study that would follow him for the rest of his life, along with 267 other Harvard College sophomores deemed by recruiters as likely to lead
"successful" lives.
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A new study is the first to find that happy people have less risk of a heart attack--even if their family history puts them at high risk.
Having a bad attitude can kill you.
That's the upshot of a large body of scientific research which suggests that negative emotions are connected to developing cardiovascular disease.
But can positive emotions actually extend your life? The answer is yes, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Cardiology. It
finds that happy, cheerful individuals have significantly lower chances of heart attack and other cardiac problems.
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Management QOL in the News - April 23, 2013
According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, you have a happiness set point. It's partly encoded in your genes. If something good happens, your sense of happiness rises;
if something bad happens, it falls.
But either way, before too long, your mood will creep back to its set point because of a really powerful and perverse phenomenon referred to in science as
"hedonic adaptation." You know, people get used to things.
With her 2007 book, "The How of Happiness," and this year's follow-up, "The Myths of Happiness,"
Dr. Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, caused ripples in her field but also drew a wider audience, cementing her
place in a long chain of happiness-industry stalwarts, from M. Scott Peck with "The Road Less Traveled" to Martin E. P.
Seligman and "Learned Optimism" to Daniel Gilbert and his best-selling "Stumbling on Happiness."
Dr. Lyubomirsky's findings can be provocative and, at times, counterintuitive. Renters are happier than homeowners, she says. Interrupting positive
experiences makes them more enjoyable.
Acts of kindness make people feel happier, but not if you are compelled to perform the same act too frequently. (Bring your lover breakfast in bed one day,
and it feels great. Bring it every day, and it feels like a chore.)
Dr. Lyubomirsky 46, Russian and expecting to give birth to her fourth child this weekend is an unlikely mood guru. "I really hate all the smiley faces
and rainbows and kittens," she said in her office. She doesn't often count her blessings or write gratitude letters, both of which she thinks sound hokey
even though her research suggests they make people happier.
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Management QOL in the News - March 29, 2013
Just after noon on a Wednesday in November, Adam Grant wrapped up a lecture at the
Wharton School and headed toward his office, a six-minute speed walk away. Several
students trailed him, as often happens; at conferences, Grant attracts something more like a
swarm. Grant chatted calmly withthem but kept up the pace. He knew there would be more
students waiting outside his office, and he said, more than once, "I really don’t like to keep
students waiting."
Grant, 31, is the youngest-tenuredand highest-rated professor at Wharton. He is also one of
the most prolific academics in his field, organizational psychology, the study of workplace
dynamics. Grant took three years to get his Ph.D., and in the seven years since, he has
published more papers in his field’s top-tier journals than colleagues who have won
lifetime-achievement awards. His influence extends beyond academia. He regularly advises
companies about how to get the most out oftheir employees and how to help their
employees get the most out of their jobs. Itis Grant whom Google calls when “we are
thinking about big problems we are trying to solve,” says Prasad Setty, who heads Google’s
people analytics group. Plenty of people havemade piles of money by promising the secrets
to getting things done or working a four-hour week or figuring out what color your
parachute is or how to be a brilliant one-minute manager. But in an academic field that is
preoccupied with the study of efficiency and productivity, Grant would seem to be the most
efficient and productive.
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Management QOL in the News - February 16, 2013
WorldatWork has compiled the results from an October 2011 member survey designed to gather information
about current trends in well-being practices. The focus of the research was to construct a well-being
researchproject that brings a unique perspective on comprehensive employee wellness programs and the
benefits gained by the practitioners.
To view the full results from the survey, download the report by clicking the link below.
Download Full Report...
For the past decade, Todd Kashdan has been teaching a course called "The Science of Well-Being," exposing students to what scientists have learned about
happiness, positive emotions, love, creativity, forgiveness, mindfulness, curiosity, and meaning and purpose in life.
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