Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Abstracts

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  • Publication
    The Talent Narrative: A Reductive Heuristic
    (2016-01-01) Southwick, Daniel A
    The way people perceive their personal capacity for growth has profound implications (Dweck, 1999). People who believe that their abilities are largely constrained by genetic factors tend to perform worse than those who believe that ability is perpetually malleable. Those who believe most strongly in genetic constraints argue that there are significant differences in talent between individuals, and that these differences play a major role in a person’s potential. In this paper, I explore what is commonly meant by the term “talent”, and show that the assumptions that underlie the “talent narrative” are reductive heuristics. I conclude the paper by offering a new perspective for thinking about how individual differences and potential work. This new perspective is consistent with research that shows that starting points do not constrain ending points. Understanding the reductive logic that has led to the talent narrative may help individuals to overcome limiting self-theories.
  • Publication
    Pilot Your Life Decisively for Well-Being and Flourishing
    (2015-01-01) St. George, David P
    I have been a pilot, aviation instructor and FAA Pilot Examiner for over 40 years. Aviation requires a “pilot in command” mindset consistent with the tenets of positive psychology. This paper explains and advocates for this daily empowered, adaptive decision making process used by pilots in aviation as a necessary life skill to eliminate mind wandering and disengagement and optimize human performance consistent with the goals of positive psychology. Exploring the concepts of “pilot-in-command” (decisive control and self-efficacy) and “situational awareness” (alert mental functioning) I will offer techniques and suggestions for developing and deploying these critical skills in everyday life. I will examine the heuristic-based, “fast and frugal” (time and data limited) decision-making used every day in aviation and apply this to life for optimal performance and flourishing for individual lives and organizational effectiveness.
  • Publication
    Walking Their Talk: The Role of the Body in Effective, Positive Leadership
    (2015-01-01) Mallorie, LeeAnn M
    The way we do anything is the way we do everything. Be it giving a presentation in the boardroom or running a marathon, we must take action using our physical bodies. Yet, despite this fact, the body has been largely overlooked in research on leadership and organizational well-being. The present paper aims to dispel the myth that the body is simply a tool, arguing that body-mind connection may be a critical missing piece in the formula for effective, positive leadership. I propose that important aspects of positive leadership like character strengths and practical wisdom may be trainable via mindfulness practices that involve coordinated movement of, or attention on, the physical body. Ten teachers of body-based wisdom and ten corporate leaders were interviewed to explore these hypotheses. The interviews examined positive leadership qualities, the role of physical health and the role of body awareness and body language in effective, positive leadership. Based on the literature review and interview results, I propose two pathways by which the wisdom of the body can enhance leadership. First, leaders may be able to develop and cultivate latent leadership strengths through body-based mindfulness practice. Second, leaders with greater body-awareness may display greater practical wisdom, using information obtained from bodily sensations to engage their key strengths in the right situations, at the right times, in the right ways.
  • Publication
    SEMEAR Project: Planting Seeds for a Better and More Virtuous World
    (2016-01-01) da Silva, Flora Regina
    This capstone presents the SEMEAR project. The SEMEAR project is the main initiative of the Brazilian Coaching Society Foundation. The project aims to stimulate and support flourishing in Brazil through positive coaching programs in three major areas: social, educational, and corporative. A set of interventions designed to enhance well-being, facilitate healthy relationships, promote flow and engagement, stimulate social contribution, as well as other aspects that can help people flourish, will be proposed. The project will explore how to use coaching, positive psychology and philanthropy to develop virtues, promote human flourishing and generate people’s well-being in families, schools, companies and communities through change agents such as coaches, parents, educators and leaders. Therefore, the project plans to engage and prepare 1,000,000 positive coaches who will directly or indirectly impact 50,000,000 people by 2050, contributing to the flourishing of 25% of the Brazilian population.
  • Publication
    Positive Psychology at Work: Psychological Capital and Thriving as Pathways to Employee Engagement
    (2015-01-01) Levene, Ronald A
    As chief executive officers and corporate leaders around the globe seek to truly differentiate their organizations, employee engagement, when grounded in the principals of positive psychology and more deeply explored in positive organizational scholarship, offers a genuine solution. This paper defines employee engagement, its history and its grounding in positive psychology. Further it explains how two constructs, Psychological Capital and Thriving, provide a point of entry for organizations to increase the emergence of employee engagement. Finally, it discusses how the organization that leverages these two constructs as a means to enhance the engagement of their individual employees has the potential to influence not only the individual employee, but also the wider organization, to the benefit of economic performance.
  • Publication
    Thriving Through Orthodontics
    (2015-01-01) Altalibi, Mostafa
    BACKGROUND: Given that orthodontists are exposed to many teens and adolescents who are going through psychological transformations with regards to developing their personalities (Zhou et al. 2014), what role do they play in helping their patients in this critical developmental time? AIM: To systematically review the orthodontic literature for the psychological benefit orthodontics renders to its otherwise healthy pediatric patients, and to give recommendations on how this process can be ameliorated with positive psychology interventions. METHODS: Systematically review the literature using electronic and manual searches and inclusion/exclusion criteria. RESULTS: Initially 2007 results were found and filtered for relevance to 5 articles (Agou et al. 2011; Albino, Lawrence, & Tedesco 1994; Chen, Wang and Wu 2010; Feu, et al. 2013; Dann, et al. 1995). The results (Agou et al. 2011; Chen, Wang, & Wu 2010; Feu et al. 2013) reveal that orthodontic treatment increases the Oral-Health-Related-Quality-of-Life but doesn’t seem to directly affect the psychological parameters per se (Agou et al. 2011; Albino et al., 1994; Dann et al. 1995). CONCLUSION: More can be done within the time period that pediatric patients spend with the orthodontist, including better monitoring of the mental health parameters and targeted positive interventions to improve parameters of wellbeing (Seligman 2011). If implemented these interventions could represent a major public health intervention.
  • Publication
    Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy: From Surviving to Thriving
    (2015-01-01) Cory, Jennifer
    Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy is a life-threatening, inherited disease, and a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young, otherwise healthy adolescents and adults. Through the advances of modern technology, those who receive this once-devastating diagnosis, now stand an excellent chance at survival through the use of medication and a life-saving device called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. However, living under the peril of life-threatening arrhythmias and life-saving shocks can cause considerable psychosocial disturbances, and potentially contribute to diminished medical outcomes. Though living with a chronic, life-threatening illness poses many challenges, it is both possible and imperative that we provide those dealing with such a diagnosis the skills necessary to go beyond surviving to thriving. Borrowing heavily from the research and collaborative efforts from the field of positive psychology, Civilian Resilience Training is an empirically-informed set of interventions designed to protect patients with these diagnoses against psychopathology and promote their ability to be resilient in the face of the significant health crises that inevitably arise as a result of their disease, as well as the lesser day-to-day crises life brings. The program is designed to help diminish the negative effects of diagnosis, reduce disease symptomology, and encourage effective coping with defibrillator intervention, while enhancing psychosocial well-being and flourishing. It is hoped this program will serve as an interventional model to build flourishing among patient populations with other chronic diseases as well.
  • Publication
    Resilience Training for Firefighters: A Proposed Approach
    (2015-01-01) Deppa, Karen Fernicola
    In the course of doing their jobs, firefighters unavoidably experience stressful and even traumatic situations that can lead to emotional and behavioral health problems including anxiety, burnout, depression, alcoholism, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide. Current approaches to addressing these problems tend to focus on assistance and treatment that takes place following traumatic events, or after symptoms emerge. While these important efforts must continue, the science of positive psychology can suggest a more proactive approach through the development of resilience skills, which prepare individuals to resist the negative effects of stressful events and situations, and support overall well-being. Resilience training teaches thinking and coping skills that can be employed on the job as well as at home and in other circumstances. Existing evidence-based resilience training programs used in military and educational settings are reviewed, as well as literature addressing factors specific to firefighter and emergency responder populations. A firefighter resilience training program is recommended that takes into account the fire service culture and focuses on developing increased self-efficacy through increased social support and flexible, accurate thinking habits that promote optimism. Suggested interventions and measures are presented, along with ideas for fostering an environment of resilience within the fire department.
  • Publication
    The Evolution of Business: Cultivating Flourishing for Organizations and Their Stakeholders
    (2015-01-01) Brady, Andrew T
    Both biological and cultural evolution are delineated by dual, ongoing processes of differentiation and integration. Companies labeled as Firms of Endearment whose social consciousness blurs the distinction between for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, represent the positive deviants of evolution among organizations. The ongoing process of evolution creates non-zero-sum relationships that enable sustained organizational success while cultivating the flourishing of all stakeholders. By exploring the positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship research that can illuminate the mechanisms behind the success of these positive deviants, organizations can learn to evolve themselves through a process of differentiation and integration, while overcoming the trust and communication barriers to such progress.
  • Publication
    Building Attorney Resources: Helping New Lawyers Succeed Through Psychological Capital
    (2015-01-01) Knudson, Martha
    Law firms seeking a competitive advantage in the marketplace would do well to consider that the positive psychological resources of firm lawyers are just as important to individual and organizational performance as their intellectual resources. There is growing evidence from the fields of positive psychology and positive organizational behavior that the resources of hope, optimism, self-efficacy and resilience shape the underlying attitudes and behaviors associated with increased performance. These resources may even buffer lawyers against the occupational hazards of the profession that cut against long-term success – hazards that include depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicide. In this capstone I advocate for traditional law firm associate training programs to be enhanced to include the development of psychological capital (or “PsyCap”), a construct consisting of the components of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism. I discuss how policies that promote lawyer strengths and well-being are good for the lawyer, good for the law firm and ultimately good for business, and I propose a brief training intervention to boost lawyer PsyCap.