Symposium 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology 2019

Interdisciplinary Investigation into Human Flourishing: Benefits for Positive Psychology (#335)

Sarah C. Sidoti 1 , James Pawelski 1
  1. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

The advent of positive psychology twenty years ago gave new impetus to the study of well-being in psychological research. Since then, positive psychology’s methods of inquiry have deepened and its collaborative scope has broadened. Positive psychologists have collaborated fruitfully with experts in psychiatry, economics, education, medicine, business, and many other areas. The arts and humanities, too, present fruitful possibilities for collaboration with positive psychology. Although their investigative methods differ, domains such as literature, music, art, film, theater, philosophy, history, and religion share overlapping areas of interest with positive psychology. The Humanities and Human Flourishing Project aims to explore these areas of overlapping interest by collaborating with researchers and practitioners in these fields. A deeply interdisciplinary approach has made possible significant strides in considering the conceptualization and cultivation of well-being through the arts and humanities. Positive psychology stands to benefit from such a collaboration through access to a rich repository of information about the perennial quest to understand and cultivate human flourishing, robust conceptual analyses, more nuanced constructs, and significant new programs of scientific inquiry into the roles of the arts and humanities for understanding, enjoying, and advancing human flourishing.