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Thinking through Positive Psychology

MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY, jcc{at}montana.edu

Frank C. Richardson

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, fcr{at}mail.utexas.edu

Brent D. Slife

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY, slife{at}byu.edu

Positive psychology offers a needed corrective to deficiencies in mainstream psychology. However, there have been relatively few attempts to systematically analyze and assess this movement. This special issue examines the conceptual underpinnings and guiding ideals of positive psychology. Generally, these articles conclude that positive psychologists have not dealt adequately with the challenge of rendering credible and illuminating accounts of human flourishing in a post-positivist era and in a pluralistic society. The authors suggest ways we might better meet this challenge, allowing us to discuss questions of human agency, character, and the good life despite quite different views of them across historical eras and cultures. We hope this will help fulfill some of the aims of positive psychology.

Key Words: critical psychology • cultural psychology • flourishing • good life • happiness • individualism • ontology • philosophy of social science • positive psychology • well-being

Theory & Psychology, Vol. 18, No. 5, 555-561 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0959354308093395


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