Positive Psychology Topic of Sept. 30 Talk

York College will host a talk on positive psychology – the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive – at 6 p.m., Sept. 30, in the Collegiate Performing Arts Center. The discussion will be presented by Ed Diener, a University of Illinois faculty member and eminent researcher in the areas of positive psychology and well-being. The public is invited to attend free of charge.

According to the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, the developing subdiscipline of Positive Psychology is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. Some of the goals of Positive Psychology are to build a science that supports: families and schools that allow children to flourish; workplaces that foster satisfaction and high productivity; communities that encourage civic engagement; therapists who identify and nurture their patients' strengths; the teaching of Positive Psychology; and the dissemination of Positive Psychology interventions in organizations and communities.

Diener received his doctorate at the University of Washington in 1974 and has been a faculty member at the University of Illinois for the past 34 years. He was the president of both the International Society of Quality of Life Studies and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. He is currently the president of the International Positive Psychology Association.

Diener was the editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and the Journal of Happiness Studies, and he is the founding editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science. He has over 260 publications, with about 200 being in the area of the psychology of well-being, and is listed as one of the most highly cited psychologists by the Institute of Scientific Information, with over 15,000 citations to his credit. He won the Distinguished Researcher Award from the International Society of Quality of Life Studies, the first Gallup Academic Leadership Award, and the Block Award for Personality Psychology. Diener also won several teaching awards, including the Oakley-Kundee Award for Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Illinois.