6 years ago, a small application of positive psychology to unemployed lone parents took place in Bundaberg, Queensland. Today, over 100,000 disadvantaged citizens, long term unemployed and unemployed citizens with a disability have been through the various iterations of the program across Australia, Denmark, Oregon, England and Scotland.
Whilst the headline figures of a 42% uplift in job placements vs controls tell one story, it is the minutiae of running these initiatives that reveal the most fascinating insights into applying positive psychology at scale and debunking conventional wisdom surrounding human behaviour.
This talk will reveal whether everyone responds to the same extent to positive psychological interventions, whether improving wellbeing whilst unemployed increases employment outcomes, are men and women as honest as each other, whether those closest to you will really support you when you’re down and do Indigenous populations respond to positive psychological interventions the same way?