Positive Psychology and Well-Being
A New MentorCoach® Master Class with
Christopher Peterson, Ph.D.
(February 18, 1950 – October 9, 2012)
To take the class by recording, click here.
Positive Psychology and Well-Being
This is the second of two Positive Psychology Master Classes that Chris developed and taught many times for MentorCoach. The first class in the series is Chris’ extraordinary North of Neutral Master Class.
Chris as a Person. Here’s a wonderful interview I did with Chris that was solely about him, not about positive psychology. If you want content, pass on this. But if you want to learn more about Chris, how he talked, how he thought, you’ll like it. Toward the end, there’s some fascinating detail about how he would quickly master a new area, how he’s been so productive. His scrabble skills. His GRE scores. How he approached teaching. And much more. To listen, click here for streaming audio or to download an mp3.
Chris’ In-Depth Interview (1/20/12) Here’s an extensive, widely-attended interview with Chris on the latest issues in Positive Psychology with questions coming in from listeners all over the world (80 mins). To listen, click here for streaming audio or to download an mp3.
Chris on this class. Hear Chris talk about the Positive Psychology and Well-Being Master Class (11 mins.). Just click here.
Chris Peterson will teach this extraordinary class.
1. Context for Course
Consider the well-known 1946 statement by the World Health Organization: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Although all would agree with this statement, until recently, it has remained largely a slogan. But in the last ten years, with the Chris Petersonemergence of positive psychology, the scientific study of what makes life worth living, theories, studies, and applications directly relevant to health in the positive sense have emerged.
This course provides an overview of what positive psychologists have learned about well-being and especially how to achieve and sustain it with respect to one’s personal life, social relationships, work, and physical health. This course is a more focused, updated, and elaborated version of the Mentor Coach class taught several years ago by Christopher Peterson: “Positive Psychology Immersion 2–The Applications in Action Master Class.”
2. The Eight Class Sessions
1. Key definitions
2. Positive psychology applications and interventions
3. Positive psychology and your personal life
4. Positive psychology and your social relationships
5. Positive psychology and your work
6. Positive psychology and your health
7. Positive psychology and the world
8. The future of positive psychology applications
3. Readings: The course entails readings from a primary text–Chris Peterson’s A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. In addition, each week Chris will post relevant research articles, videos, and blog entries for the next week on the class’ password-protected website.
4. Class Website. In this class, you’ll use our password-protected class web site. Here, you’ll find Chris’ power points for each class in multiple formats. You’ll also find Chris’ special lecture notes for each class, relevant articles and blog entries. And you’ll be able to listen online or to download a digital recording of each class to your computer and MP3 player (eg your iPod). When you listen by recording, it will be exactly the same as if you had been listening to Chris live as he taught the class.
Chris PetersonThis photo does not come close to capturing how alive, spontaneous, and funny Chris can be while teaching. It’s not for nothing that he’s twice been named the most outstanding teacher at the University of Michigan.
5. What You Will Learn. In this class, Chris focuses on the most important, latest research–including, at times, unpublished papers–and practice. The aim is for you emerge with an overview of how you and your clients can achieve wellbeing. How you can sustain it. And how you can do this in the most important arenas of your life: your personal life; your relationships; your work; and in your physical health.
6. Prerequisites: None.
Chris and his University of Michigan colleague, psychologist, Nansook Park, Ph.D., gave a phenomenal–and very funny–keynote presentation at our MentorCoach Conference in Bethesda.
About Christopher Peterson, Ph.D.
(February 18, 1950 – October 9, 2012)
Christopher Peterson, Ph.D.Chris Peterson taught “The Positive Psychology and Well-Being Master Class” by global teleconference from his office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Chris was the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan and was one of the founders and leading figures in positive psychology. He was noted for his work in the study of optimism, health, character, and well-being. He was one of the 100 most cited psychologists in the world and is now Co-Director of the newly-established Michigan Positive Psychology Center.
He received his PhD. in social psychology from the University of Colorado and respecialized in clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He also completed a clinical psychology internship at the Philadelphia VAMC.
Chris was widely regarded to be one of the seminal figures in Positive Psychology. He was a member of the Positive Psychology Steering Committee, a member of the board of directors of the Gallup Organization Positive Psychology Institute, a consulting editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology, and the positive psychology series editor of Oxford University Press.
He was the research director of the Values in Action (VIA) project, the most ambitious undertaking to date from the explicit vantage of positive psychology; the VIA project describes, classifies, and measures important strengths of character. Chris’ VIA Survey of Signature Strengths has been taken by more than a million people throughout the globe. It has been translated into Chinese and Spanish as well.
Chris was twice named best teacher at the University of Michigan and in 2010 won the 2010 Golden Apple Award–the most prestigious teaching award at the University of Michigan. The author of more than 350 publications, Chris was the co-author of of the landmark work Character Strengths and Virtues (2004), the author of the best-selling, A Primer in Positive Psychology (2006), and Pursuing the Good Life: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology (2013).
