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About Sonja Lyubomirsky
 Sonja
Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., is author of the best-selling The How of
Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
(Penguin Press, 2008), which has been translated into 15
languages. Dr. Lyubomirsky is Professor of Psychology at the
University of California, Riverside. Originally from Russia, she
received her A.B., summa cum laude, from Harvard University and
her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology from Stanford
University. Lyubomirsky currently teaches courses in social
psychology and positive psychology and serves as the Department
of Psychology's graduate advisor. Her teaching and mentoring of
students have been recognized with the Faculty of the Year and
Faculty Mentor of the Year Awards.
In 2002, Lyubomirsky was awarded a Templeton
Positive Psychology Prize. Currently, she is an associate editor
of the Journal of Positive Psychology and (with Ken Sheldon)
holds a 5-year million-dollar grant from the National Institute
of Mental Health to conduct research on the possibility of
permanently increasing happiness. Her research has been written
up in dozens of magazines and newspapers and she has appeared in
multiple TV shows, radio shows, and feature documentaries in
North America and Europe. She has lectured widely to a variety
of audiences, including business executives, life coaches,
retirees, students, and scholars.
In her work, Lyubomirsky has focused on
developing a science of human happiness. To this end, her
research addresses three critical questions:
1) What makes people happy?
2) Is happiness a good thing?
3) How can we make people happier still?
For example, she is currently exploring the
potential of happiness-sustaining activities – for example,
expressing gratitude, doing acts of kindness, visualizing one's
“best possible selves,” and reflecting on happy moments – to
durably increase a person's happiness level. She has been
conducting research on happiness for 18 years and has published
widely in the area.
Lyubomirsky lives happily in beautiful Santa
Monica, California with her husband, Peter Del Greco, and their
two children, Gabriella and Alexander.
For Sonja's Website,
click here.
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