Invited Symposium International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

Past Presidents Symposium: Positive Psychology in a Pandemic: How can our field help in times of crisis? (#34)

Lea Waters 1 , Sara Algoe 2 , Meg Warren 3 , Tim Lomas 4 , James Pawelski 5 , Judith Moskowitz 6 , Michael Steger 7
  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
  2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA
  3. Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA
  4. Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  5. University of Pennsylvania, Wynnewood, USA
  6. Nortwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, USA
  7. Harvard University , Boston, USA

Launched in the late 1990’s as a way to counterbalance the heavy research focus on psychopathology (Seligman, 1999), positive psychology called for an emphasises on what is good about people (Sheldon & King, 2001; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) and was described by Peterson (2006) as “the scientific study of what goes right in life” (p. 4). In this symposium the immediate IPPA past president, Professor Lea Waters Ph.D, explores the role of positive psychology when life does not go right – in fact, when life goes radically wrong. Bringing together a panel of experts for a two-part symposium, the discussion will focus on the role that positive psychology has to offer during crisis times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, at the individual, institutional and societal level cope. Topics will include self-compassion, courage, gratitude, flourishing, relationships, adversarial growth, positive emotions, coping diversity, equity and inclusion and more…

Panel members include: Michael Steger, Sara Algoe, Meg Warren, Tim Lomas, James Pawelski, Judy Moskowitz

  • Keywords: Coping and Emotion Regulation, Diversity and Inclusion, Positive emotions, Relationships