International Journal of Wellbeing (IJW)
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Understanding the Processes that Regulate Positive Emotional Experience: Unsolved Problems and Future Directions for Theory and Research on Savoring
Get PDFIn this paper, we focus on unanswered questions and future directions in positive psychology, with a special emphasis on savoring processes that regulate positive emotions. To advance our understanding of the savoring processes underlying positive experience, we highlight three unresolved issues that must be addressed: (1) discriminating the distinctive neuropsychological profiles associated with different savoring processes; (2) developing viable methods of measuring and analyzing the mediational mechanisms involved in real-time savoring; and (3) clarifying the developmental processes through which people acquire different strategies to savor positive experiences across the life span. We propose several potentially fruitful lines of attack aimed at addressing these unsolved problems, each of which requires new methods of assessment to advance theory and refine our conceptual understanding of savoring
No-one is unmusical: Elizabeth, everyday cheermongery, and active musical citizenship
Get PDFEveryday cheermongers spread positive emotion through social contagion. This capability is illustrated here through a portrait of Elizabeth, a ‘Suzuki method’ violin teacher in Edinburgh. Through this example, we can learn about the important ways in which children and parents alike rely on skilled and dedicated felicitators to help them through the difficult balance between enjoyable and sociable music-making on the one hand, and the pursuit of musical excellence on the other. After presenting the philosophical and practical aspects of Shinichi Suzuki's ‘everyone-is-talented’ approach to instrumental music instruction, this paper argues for recognition of the key roles of music in facilitating happiness, and explores cultural variety in the promotion of musicality. While also recognizing that music education needs a democratic ‘no child left behind’ approach, the argument is that the full benefits of music are better realised through active musical engagement and social music-making. When not treated simply as an optional leisure activity or as a means to other ends, music can be a pathway to self-transcendent ‘peak experiences’ that can be achieved not only via the extraordinary performances of elite musicians, but also by savouring the very imperfect musical sounds produced by children
Central Park: Nature, context, and human wellbeing
Get PDFThis paper considers evidence that social and physical contexts, particularly natural environments, are surprisingly important for human wellbeing. In particular, the pursuit of happiness seems to be less a matter of individual choice than is commonly supposed. These ideas are explored through an examination of New York’s Central Park
Peace, war and happiness: Bruder Klaus as wellbeing facilitator
Get PDFLittle is known in the scholarly literature about the effect of war and peace on happiness; but they have a large number of direct and indirect effects on happiness, difficult or impossible to capture due mainly to issues of causality and attribution. The paper concentrates on three fundamental claims regarding the effect of war and peace on happiness: ‘War brings happiness’; ‘People adjust to wars’; and ‘The happiness of the dead is irrelevant’. An attempt is made to discuss different solutions to deal with these claims but it is made clear that each one has grave disadvantages. Bruder Klaus, whose full name was Niklaus von Flüeh, is the patron saint of Switzerland. This paper describes Bruder Klaus as a creator of peace and, based on the claims mentioned above, as a felicitator or wellbeing facilitator
Positive Psychology Cinemeducation: A review of Happy
Get PDFThe documentary film, Happy, offers educators and practitioners a unique opportunity to provide a novel learning experience for students and clients. The film integrates meaningful stories and expert interviews with quality filmmaking to offer viewers knowledge, entertainment, and engagement. Cinematic elevation, the process by which a viewer observes virtuous behavior, feels physiological sensations of inspiration, and is consequently motivated to do good or to be a better person (e.g., copying the strengths of the film character) is particularly at play in Happy. Where there are gaps in the film’s scope of the field of happiness, wellbeing, and positive psychology, suggestions are made for the viewer to overcome these and maximize the potential to derive benefit from the film