Summer Program Schedule
This is an outline of the subjects that will be covered over the course of the Program.
Each day begins with 15 minutes of physical warm-ups and stretching, and 15 minutes of guided focus meditation. Lunch is provided in the middle of the day.
The first class will include special
activities
o
Positive Introduction – introduce yourself to everyone else showing
your best self
o
Positive Sharing – students pair up to tell another story about
themselves that shows them at their best
Subjects covered
1)
Measuring happiness
o
Lyubomirsky scale
o
Diener scale
o
VIA
o
Optimism scale
o
Four pathways
o
AHI
2)
Resilience (2 classes)
o
Seligman/Reivich
o
Optimism (me, always, everything)
o
ABCDE
o
RTR – real time resilence
o
iceberg beliefs
3)
Hope theory / Goal-Setting
o
Bandura, Latham, Snyder
o
setting short-term and long-term goals
o
writing it down
o
Small Successes, Mastery Steps - Bandura
4)
Self-regulation
o
Bandura, Schwartz
o
Marshmallow study – linked to future success
o
control the environment
o
In one area à in other areas
o
Posture, brushing teeth, exercise
5) Positive Life Skills for Teenagers
o
How their unique personal strengths can
support successful communication
o
Specific actions that make
a positive connection
with teachers, other adults, and friends
o Interview techniques for colleges and jobs
o
How to encourage and
empower others, rather than
being negative
6)
Flow & Mindfulness
o
Csikszentmihalyi & Langer
o
skills and challenge
o
what skills do you have?
o
Losing time, building flow
7)
Strengths (2-3 classes)
o
The VIA
o
What surprises you and what did you expect to be there?
o
Positive introduction
o
Introduce each other
o
Strength stories
o
Top 5 – of all people
o
Big 5 – correlated with happiness
o
Strength index cards
8)
Powerful Questions
o
Appreciative Inquiry
o
ACR - Active Constructive Responding
o
Starting the meeting with “what works well?”
o
Coaching q’s (have kids coach each other on what they need to do for
hw)
9)
Intuition
o
Dijerkserhaus paper
o
Complex problems
10)
Decision Making
o
Schwartz
o
Satisficing and Maximizing
o
How are they related to happiness?
o
Good constraints
o
jams and limiting own options
11)
Health and Happiness
o
The components of beneficial happiness
o
Evidence of the positive effects of BH on social relationships
o
Evidence of the positive outcomes of BH on health & longevity
o
Research on the benefits of BH for creativity and other factors
12)
Money and Happiness
o
Diener and King
o
How much money is enough?
o
What do we need, what do we have?
The final Class will also have
special activities
o positive
strengths letters
to each other
o performance
/ concert – to show strengths
Reference Text:
Peterson, C. (2007). A Primer in Positive Psychology.
Oxford University Press, New York.
"This is the definitive textbook in Positive Psychology.
But more than that, it may be the single best textbook on any subject that I
have ever read. It's fun to read and it's authoritative-written as it is by
one of the main investigators in the field. I can't remember reading a
textbook before that both made me laugh out loud and brought tears to my
eyes."
--Martin E.P. Seligman, Fox Leadership Professor of Psychology, University of
Pennsylvania, and Director, Positive Psychology Center
"Peterson offers his readers a marvelous blend of
lucidity, originality, humor, kindness and scholarship. This is a book that
should entice many thousands of readers into a lifetime of interest in
psychology."
--George Vaillant, Senior Physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Resources and possible readings:
Diener, E., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2002). Will money increase subjective well-being? A literature review and guide to needed research. Social Indicators Research, 57, 119-169.
Diener, E., & Suh, E. M. (Eds.). (2000). Culture and subjective well-being Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Fordyce, M. W. (1977). Development of a program to increase personal happiness. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 24, 511-521.
Fordyce, M. W. (1983). A program to increase happiness: Further studies. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30, 483-498.Diener, E., & Tov, W. (in press). Well-being and culture. In S. Kitayama & D. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of cultural psychology.
King, L. A. (2001). The health benefits of Writing about Life Goals. In Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 798-807.Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (in press). The nonobvious social psychology of happiness. Psychological Inquiry.
Lopez, S. J., Snyder, C. R., Magyar-Moe, J. L., Edwards, L., Pedrotti, J. T. Janowski, K., Turner, J. L., & Pressgrove, C. (2004). Strategies for accentuating hope. In Linley, P. A. & Joseph, S. (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp. 388-404). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Mutrie, N. & Faulkner, G. (2004). Physical activity: Positive psychology in motion. In Linley, P. A. & Joseph, S. (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp. 146-164). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.Diener, E., Suh, E. M., Lucas, R. E., & Smith, H. E. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276-302.
Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Strengths of character and well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23, 603–619.Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). Happiness as a strength: A theory of the benefits of positive affect. Psychological Bulletin, in press.
Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410-421.
Shapiro, S. L., Schwartz, G. E. R., & Santerre, C. (2002). Meditation and positive psychology. In Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 632-645). New York: Oxford University Press.
Smith, W. P., Compton, W. C., & West, W. B. (1995). Meditation as an adjunct to a happiness enhancement program. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 269-273.
Copyright © 2007 Greenwich Academic Coaching. All rights reserved.
Revised:
06/17/07
