Positive Psychology: An Introduction

Abstract

RICH teaches a variety of psychology courses at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, including creativity, methods, and health psychology. He is currently editing a book on massage therapy research to be published by Harcourt/Churchill Livingstone. He maintains an interest in anthropology and is guest editing a forthcoming special issue of the AAA journal Anthropology of Consciousness on body and consciousness. His popular writing has appeared in Psychology Today, Skeptical Inquirer, and Massage Therapy Journal. His academic writing has focused on a variety of topics, including peak experience, music, culture, and adolescence.

Dimensionality of the Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analyses

“…Larson (2000) argued that "this field has evolved separately from developmental psychology and has not had a strong base of research and theory, especially regarding positive youth development" (p. 171). More empirical support for the positive youth development approach is needed for helping youths to stretch their full potential when they enter into adult society (Rich, 2001;Roth et al, 1998) With specific reference to the Chinese culture, there is a paucity of instruments assessing psychosocial functioning of Chinese adolescents (Shek, 2002). In their review of the development of evidence-based practice in Hong Kong, Shek, Lam and Tsoi (2004) The second implication of the findings is that the subscales based on the CPYDS can be constructed to look at specific aspects of positive youth development.…”

“…Thirdly, the conception of "positive youth development" might vary across cultures as the scope and meaning of this subjective positive experience are conceptualized and prescribed by a particular set of values, norms and morals within society (Rich, 2001). Most of the positive youth development assessment tools to date were conducted in the West, little is known whether the Western measures are applicable to non-Western contexts, such as the Chinese culture.…”

Empirical Research on the Influence of Organizational Support on Psychological Capital

“…American Psychologist magazine respectively published two special issues devoted to positive psychology problems in January 2000 and March 2001 [3] [4]. In the 2001 winter volumes of Journal of Humanistic Psychology, there are 6 articles talking about positive psychology [5]. In addition, Coutu D. L., Hamel G., Klonhlen E. A. and other scholars respectively studied the related problems in positive psychology [6]- [14].…”

Subjective outcome evaluation of the Project PATHS based on different cohorts of students

“…The conception of " positive youth development " might vary across cultures as the scope and meaning of this subjective positive experience are conceptualized and prescribed by a particular set of values, norms, and morals within society (12) . In particular, Catalano et al (13) recently argued that more research is needed "to understand how well they can be implemented in real-world settings and what effects they are likely to have … and examine differences of effects on relevant subgroups (e.g., culture, gender, age etc.)"…”