Copyright (c) 2009 University of Pennsylvania All rights reserved. http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone Recent documents in Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects en-us Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:39:12 PDT 3600 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/12 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/12 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:03:28 PDT A diverse group of 30 adults attended a 3-day intensive experiential learning group intervention conducted by Foundations Seminars. Participants reported on measures of subjective well-being (life satisfaction and felt emotion) before and for 14 weeks after attendance. Repeated measures analysis demonstrates that participants significantly improved in all measures following attendance at the seminar (p < .03), with medium-to-large effect size (.5 < d < 1.2). Contrast analysis showed that participants maintained their subjective well-being throughout the follow-up period (p < .01). The report details possible group and individual mechanisms of change that may be utilized by the seminar to increase well-being. It also explores ways to minimize risk of psychological harm to participants. Steve J. Safigan http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/11 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/11 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:31:42 PDT Existing environmental problems, such as climate change and species extinction, are partially the result of human behavior. Attempts to motivate people to reduce and alter consumption behaviors have primarily relied on the summoning of negative emotions. The author elaborates a comprehensive theory, supported by empirical evidence, showing how positive emotions can be more effective at inspiring environmentally responsible behaviors. B. L. Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions is used to demonstrate how cultivated positive emotions can, expand people's awareness that they are a connected part of the Earth's living system, increase their capacity to creatively and effectively address environmental problems, and help them recognize that well-being and environmental health go hand in hand. David M. Carter http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/10 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/10 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:22:18 PST If a crisis of character is eroding values in our communities, schools, and families, how do we construct a more positive reality for ourselves, and our future? Social-Emotional Leadership is an emergent, socially constructed, positive intervention designed to build character within groups. My hypothesis is that positive social/cultural change is possible but must emerge from within a group and from the ground-up. Social-Emotional Leadership occurs when at least one member of a primary network raises consciousness, urgency, and agency within his own network, which is defined as an established group of people with traditions and histories-- a family, small business, school, or even book club. The task is to mobilize the group, leverage other Social-Emotional Leaders (potentially everyone), then find and then use the tools to help the network recognize individual and collective strength inherent at its core. For my graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, I am piloting a social experiment in Social-Emotional Leadership with my own family and our family business--to build character strength and reconstruct value systems within an appreciative paradigm. Goals: (1) to create positive social-cultural growth for our network and (2) to develop a replicable model for other networks to consider. This paper will include theoretical underpinnings of the project, initial data collected from both the family case study and interviews from a US independent school, and offer future directions of the project. Ultimately, I envision bringing a large-scale effort in Social-Emotional Leadership to a school district interested in holistic character education. Louis Alloro http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/9 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/9 Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:53:03 PST A Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations (CAVE) study of all chemistry Nobel laureates' banquet speeches (N = 79) given in Stockholm showed that the chemists are very optimistic, with strong positive emotions that arguably help them be especially creative and satisfied in their work. The results first compared to those from the laureates in physiology or medicine (N=41), then in combination, support the contention that eminent scientists, though optimistic, also use healthy skepticism, defensive pessimism, and prudence in their approach to research. Finally, the Nobel laureates' explanatory styles appear to be consistent with sense of equanimity and low ego attachment with outcomes, particularly evident in the low internality and controllability ratings. Gregory R. Quinting PhD http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/8 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/8 Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:17:20 PDT Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure the extent to which a hatha yoga practice would improve mood as compared to a seated meditation practice. Methods: This was an eighteen week, cross-over design study in which forty-four hatha yoga students, largely inexperienced with seated meditation, were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group started with an eight week practice of hatha yoga, half an hour four times a week, and the other group practiced seated meditation. After eight weeks, all subjects stopped practicing for two weeks. Then they switched practices for another eight weeks. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were taken at the beginning of the study, after the first eight week practice, again after the two week break, and finally at the end of the study. The five quantitative measures used included a modified Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-M), and the qualitative measures asked subjects to describe their mood, cognition, level of motivation and quality of life.Results: The findings suggest that for this population, hatha yoga had a stronger effect than meditation on improving mood. After the first eight week practice period, only hatha yoga improved mood. Meditation was more effective at improving cognition. During the two week break, the subjects who had practiced hatha yoga first suffered bodily discomfort and mental unrest. Those practicing meditation did not seem to suffer. When subjects practiced seated meditation as a second practice, they too experienced an improvement in mood, and during the second practice period both groups experienced a significant improvement in quality of life.Conclusion: These results demonstrate the efficacy of introducing more active people to a personal practice of seated mediation by first having them establish a hatha yoga practice. They also illustrate the powerful effect of hatha yoga on improving mood and the need for further research on the physiological effects of hatha yoga. deborah r. cohen http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/7 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/7 Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:44:18 PDT The global knowledge based economy, technological and information advances, and expanding complexity, are transforming the work place. Worldwide, less than a third of employees are actively engaged, the majority unengaged, and a significant portion actively disengaged. Work represents nearly half of waking life for most adults and has been identified as an important domain for authentic happiness. A model is provided to guide employees through the process of recrafting work to align with signature strengths with the goal of moving along the job, career, calling continuum. A description of the model, the empirical basis for the process and tools embedded in the model and results of a pilot implementation in a Fortune 250 global information services company are reviewed. Gordon H. Parry http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/6 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/6 Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:19:04 PDT Piloting the Group Positive Psychotherapy program (Seligman, Rashid & Parks, 2006) with dually diagnosed mothers age 13 to 22, who are under penal supervision; this project will attempt to counter traditional interventions by increasing positive emotion, meaning and engagement. Phase 1: The program will be administered over 7 a week period to 20 professional staff members. Measures on approaches to happiness and quality of life will be taken pre and post intervention. Phase 2: The program will be administered over a 6 week period to a group of 24 residential clients. Measures on depression and quality of life will be taken pre and post intervention. Sandra C. Lewis http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/5 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/5 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:19:56 PST Americans spend a great deal of time and money trying to help teens who are not top students become better performers--providing tutoring/test preparation (a $3.5 Billion industry that has doubled in the past five years), diagnosing learning disabilities, or simply seeking new ways to "motivate" better school performance. We have developed many labels to identify what is wrong with students who are not in the top of their classes--for example, learning disabilities, motivation issues, and processing problems--but we have not asked, "What's right with these kids?" That is the question I raised in this study. The answer was surprising: many things are right with these students. What's wrong is the way we view and structure education. I found that the students' capabilities are remarkable and well-suited to thriving in adulthood, but are not capitalized upon in school. I also demonstrated that our approach to education as a society--from a systems view--is a cause of depression and anxiety in students of at all levels of performance. I concluded that appreciating beauty in the gifts and strengths of adolescents who are not top students - the majority - will significantly increase student, parent, and teacher well-being. Moreover, we can enhance adolescent well-being (at all performance levels) by refuting three myths of education: Myth #1: Not being a "top student" means not: intelligent, hardworking, or gifted; Myth #2: Being a "top student" leads to a great life; Myth #3: Our approach to education is good for adolescents. Through a combination of interviews and literature review, I identified strengths and gifts in secondary school students who were not in the top 20% of their classes, "The Bottom 80," and examined them in the context of education objectives and future prospects. Interviewees were a representative sample of eleven parents, three educators, and two experts. Information from additional experts was obtained as part of a wide-ranging literature review that included multiple intelligences, positive psychology, education practices, and leadership. In addition, through Abduction, the form of reasoning that leads to new knowledge, this study demonstrated that as a society we reinforce an approach to education that causes depression and anxiety and that by changing this approach--with proven practices--we can increase well-being in adolescents, parents, and educators. Christine Duvivier http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/4 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/4 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:31:04 PST Ninety-eight adult volunteers participated in this exploratory study of potential links between psychological type as determined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and signature strengths as identified by the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths. We examined participants' types and signature strengths to test for covariation between specific signature strengths and individual type dichotomies or paired type combinations. We found significant covariations between 10 character strengths with single type dimensions namely, creativity (intuition), open-mindedness (thinking), love of learning (introversion), integrity (sensing and thinking), persistence (judging), vitality (extraversion), love (extraversion and feeling), fairness (sensing), and gratitude (extraversion). Love, integrity, and gratitude also covaried with multiple paired type combinations while curiosity covaried only with one paired type combination (introverted intuition). Kathryn H. Britton http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/3 http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/3 Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:09:34 PST The objective of this study is to investigate whether teams are more engaged and productive when led by an optimistic manager. Furthermore, we hypothesize that optimistic managers embody positive leadership--employing a strengths-based approach, maintaining a positive perspective, and frequently providing recognition and encouragement--which increases the engagement and productivity of their employees. In a cross-sectional study of 86 employees and 17 managers in an Information Technology (IT) organization, positive leadership correlated with employee optimism, engagement, and project performance. When we looked at a subset of this data prospectively, with 39 employees and 14 managers, manager optimism predicted project performance. Our data support the claim that positive leadership is correlated with employee engagement and performance, and further extends the importance of optimism in the workplace. Margaret H. Greenberg Mrs.