Hefferon & Boniwell's Book

Unusually for me, my posting for Positive Psychology News this month is a book review, Kate Hefferon and Ilona Boniwell’s Positive Psychology: Theory, Research and Applications. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s a textbook, in short it’s a highly enjoyable, educational, and engaging read, well worth the £18-£20 it’s currently selling for online. It includes all the usual subjects such as positive emotions, subjective well-being and resilience, lots of new research, and topics you won’t find mentioned in other positive psychology textbooks, like the positive body, sex and positive death. I thoroughly recommend it whether you’re a student, lecturer, practitioner or positive psychology enthusiast. It’s so good it’s now at the top of our list of recommended reads on our Positive Psychology Masterclass!

For the full review, click here.

Issue 2 of the open access positive psychology journal, the International Journal of Well-Being has just been published. It focuses on ‘felicitators’ or producers of happiness, that is the people, places,  ideas and institutions that have made and can make the world a happier place.  People familiar with pos psych research may find the subjects a little atypical, e.g. Dr Seuss (of ‘ The Cat in the Hat’ fame), Maria Montessori and Moses.

Here’s a great animated video supporting Daniel Pink’s presentation on intrinsic motivation and why profit-related pay (PRP) doesn’t actually motivate people to work harder.

According to Pink, psychology research shows that economists have got it all wrong. If you want to motivate and engage people, and get them work harder, they need to experience the following 3 things at work:

1) AUTONOMY (i.e. being able to choose what you do and how you do it)
2) MASTERY (i.e. being able to get better at whatever you do – so there needs to be some challenge in the job), and
3) PURPOSE (i.e. being able to make a meaningful contribution. A profit motive is OK as long as it’s linked to a ‘purpose motive’).

Organisations which fit the bill include Skype (now owned by private investment company Silver Lake, and Ebay) and Apple.

Pink’s theory is that if we treat people like people, we can make organisations better off and make the world a better place.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tal Ben-Shahar, Psychology Lecturer at Harvard University talks about how organisations can use Positive Psychology to improve motivation, creativity and loyalty, and ultimately productivity (2.37 mins).

Thanks to bigthink.com

The American Psychological Association has just announced the five winners of its 2009 Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards. The statistics quoted are interesting:

• Their average turnover rate is 11% vs 39% nationally
• 85% of their employees reported being satisfied with their jobs vs 61% nationally
• 87% of their employees said they would recommend their organizations to others as a good place to work, vs 44% nationally
• Only 5% their employees intend to seek employment elsewhere within the next year, vs 32% nationally
• Only 25%  of their employees reported experiencing chronic work stress vs 39% nationally.

What surprised me somewhat was the last statistic – only 25%? And that’s a good place to work? I wonder whether the 2010 winners’ average will be higher or lower. We’ll have had over a year of Full-blown Economic Crisis by then. On the other hand, it’s also just been reported in the Wall Street Journal that people are more satisfied with their jobs than last year and less likely to complain (they’re grateful that at least they have a job).

The five award-winning organisations run programmes aimed at improving their employees’ involvement and recognition as well as their personal growth and development, and work-life balance. No wonder 91% of them say they care about the organisation they work for.

I wonder what the latest stats are for the UK, and whether they’re following the same trends…