Speakers at the Applying the Science of
Positive Psychology to Improve Society symposium at Claremont Graduate
University are touting their new books.
Cameron, Kim (2008). Positive Leadership: Strategies for extraordinary performance. San
Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. "Shows how to reach beyond ordinary success
to achieve extraordinary effectiveness, spectacular results, and what
Cameron calls 'positively deviant performance' — performance far above
the norm. Citing a wide range of research in organizational development
and psychology as well as real-world examples, Cameron shows that to go
from successful to exceptional, leaders must learn how to create a
profoundly positive environment in the workplace."
Diener, Ed (2009). Well-Being and Public Policy. Oxford
Press. Presents the case for national measures of subjective well-being
to be used for policy purposes. Available April 2009.
Diener, Ed and Robert Biswas-Diener (2008). Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth. Malden
MA: Blackwell Publishing. This father and son team presents scientific
evidence revealing that happiness is not overrated, and is good for
people's health, social relationships, job success, longevity and
altruism.
Dutton, Jane E. (2009). Exploring Positive Identities and Organizations: Building a theoretical and research foundation. Psychology
Press. "The goal of this book is to forge new ground on identity
research through cutting edge compilation of articles by leading
identity scholars. Identities will be looked at the individual, dyadic,
group and organizational levels. The goal is to stress the positive and
have the authors concentrate on what is beneficial, valuable and good
in some way." Available May 20.
Fredrickson, Barbara L. (2009). Positivity:
Groundbreaking research reveals how to embrace the hidden strength of
positive emotions, overcome negativity, and thrive. Crown Press.
The author lays out 10 forms of positivity — joy, gratitude, serenity,
interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love — and
provides scientific evidence to illustrate her findings that
maintaining a 3:1 positivity ratio of positive thoughts to negative
emotions creates a tipping point between languishing and flourishing.
The book includes compelling case studies, concrete tips, a Positivity
Self Test and a tool kit for decreasing negativity and raising the
positivity ratio. Available Tuesday, January 27.
Lyubomirsky, Sonja (2008). The How of Happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. London:
Penguin Press. "Offers a comprehensive guide to understanding what
happiness is, and isn't, and what can be done to bring us all closer to
the happy life we envision for ourselves."
Rath, Tom and Barry Conchie (2008). Strengths Based Leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why people follow.
New York: Gallup Press. Using data from Gallup's StrengthsFinder
program, this new version provides specific strategies for leading with
your top five strengths and enables you to plot the strengths of your
team based on the four domains of leadership strength revealed in the
book.
