Erik Eriksen is a remarkable individual. He has no college degrees yet is Professor of Human Development at Harvard University. He came to psychology via art, which explains why the reader will find him painting contexts and backgrounds rather than stating dull facts and concepts. He has been a training psychoanalyst for many years as well as a perceptive observer of cultural and social settings and their effect on growing up. This is not just a book on childhood. It is a panorama of our society. Anxiety in young children, apathy in American Indians, confusion in veterans of war, and arrogance in young Nazis are scrutinized under the psychoanalytic magnifying glass. The material is well written and devoid of technical jargon. The theme of the volume is that it is human to have a long childhood which will leave a lifelong residue of emotional immaturity in man. Primitive groups and

Childhood and Society.

The pursuit of happiness is an important goal for many people. However, surprisingly little scientific research has focused on the question of how happiness can be increased and then sustained, probably because of pessimism engendered by the concepts of genetic determinism and hedonic adaptation. Nevertheless, emerging sources of optimism exist regarding the possibility of permanent increases in happiness. Drawing on the past well-being literature, the authors propose that a person's chronic happiness level is governed by 3 major factors: a genetically determined set point for happiness, happiness-relevant circumstantial factors, and happiness-relevant activities and practices. The authors then consider adaptation and dynamic processes to show why the activity category offers the best opportunities for sustainably increasing happiness. Finally, existing research is discussed in support of the model, including 2 preliminary happiness-increasing interventions.

/pdf/pursuing-happiness-the-architecture-of-sustainable-change-vlox9cbdfa.pdf

Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change

Do positive psychology interventions-that is, treatment methods or intentional activities aimed at cultivating positive feelings, positive behaviors, or positive cognitions-enhance well-being and ameliorate depressive symptoms? A meta-analysis of 51 such interventions with 4,266 individuals was conducted to address this question and to provide practical guidance to clinicians. The results revealed that positive psychology interventions do indeed significantly enhance well-being (mean r=.29) and decrease depressive symptoms (mean r=.31). In addition, several factors were found to impact the effectiveness of positive psychology interventions, including the depression status, self-selection, and age of participants, as well as the format and duration of the interventions. Accordingly, clinicians should be encouraged to incorporate positive psychology techniques into their clinical work, particularly for treating clients who are depressed, relatively older, or highly motivated to improve. Our findings also suggest that clinicians would do well to deliver positive psychology interventions as individual (versus group) therapy and for relatively longer periods of time.

http://sonjalyubomirsky.com/wp-content/themes/sonjalyubomirsky/papers/SL2009.pdf

Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: a practice-friendly meta-analysis.

The use of positive psychological interventions may be considered as a complementary strategy in mental health promotion and treatment. The present article constitutes a meta-analytical study of the effectiveness of positive psychology interventions for the general public and for individuals with specific psychosocial problems. We conducted a systematic literature search using PubMed, PsychInfo, the Cochrane register, and manual searches. Forty articles, describing 39 studies, totaling 6,139 participants, met the criteria for inclusion. The outcome measures used were subjective well-being, psychological well-being and depression. Positive psychology interventions included self-help interventions, group training and individual therapy. The standardized mean difference was 0.34 for subjective well-being, 0.20 for psychological well-being and 0.23 for depression indicating small effects for positive psychology interventions. At follow-up from three to six months, effect sizes are small, but still significant for subjective well-being and psychological well-being, indicating that effects are fairly sustainable. Heterogeneity was rather high, due to the wide diversity of the studies included. Several variables moderated the impact on depression: Interventions were more effective if they were of longer duration, if recruitment was conducted via referral or hospital, if interventions were delivered to people with certain psychosocial problems and on an individual basis, and if the study design was of low quality. Moreover, indications for publication bias were found, and the quality of the studies varied considerably. The results of this meta-analysis show that positive psychology interventions can be effective in the enhancement of subjective well-being and psychological well-being, as well as in helping to reduce depressive symptoms. Additional high-quality peer-reviewed studies in diverse (clinical) populations are needed to strengthen the evidence-base for positive psychology interventions.

/pdf/positive-psychology-interventions-a-meta-analysis-of-2z2s6jnojf.pdf

Positive psychology interventions: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies

There is a pressing need to enhance the availability and quality of mental health services provided to persons from historically disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups. Many previous authors have advocated that traditional mental health treatments be modified to better match clients' cultural contexts. Numerous studies evaluating culturally adapted interventions have appeared, and the present study used meta-analytic methodology to summarize these data. Across 76 studies the resulting random effects weighted average effect size was d = .45, indicating a moderately strong benefit of culturally adapted interventions. Interventions targeted to a specific cultural group were four times more effective than interventions provided to groups consisting of clients from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Interventions conducted in clients' native language (if other than English) were twice as effective as interventions conducted in English. Recommendations are provided for improving the study of outcomes associated with mental health interventions adapted to the cultural context of the client. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

/pdf/culturally-adapted-mental-health-intervention-a-meta-wekn8xsfco.pdf

Culturally adapted mental health intervention: A meta-analytic review.

The authors investigated the short- and long-term (5-month) effectiveness of a theoretically driven, programmatic rape prevention intervention on a sample of primarily White and Black college men. A racially diverse sample was included, and the potential effectiveness of both a culturally relevant and a traditional colorblind intervention was assessed. In contrast to earlier investigations, which have consistently reported an overall rebound of scores at the follow-up assessment, results from a hierarchical cluster analysis indicated 3 patterns of treatment response: improving, deteriorating, and rebounding. Results also indicated that Black students in the culturally relevant treatment condition were more cognitively engaged in the intervention than their peers in the traditional treatment condition.

Examining Immediate and Long-Term Efficacy of Rape Prevention Programming with Racially Diverse College Men.

We hypothesized that semester goal attainmentprovides a route to short-term psychological growth. In an attempt to enhance this process, werandomly assigned participants to either a goal-training program or to a control condition.Although there were no main effects of program participation on later goal attainment, importantinteractions were found. Consistent with a “prepared to benefit” model,participants already high in goal-based measures of personality integration perceived the programas most useful and benefited the most from the program in terms of goal attainment. As a result,they became even more integrated and also increased in their levels of psychosocial well-being andvitality. Implications for theories of short-term growth and positive change are discussed, as is theunanswered question of how to help less-integrated persons grow.

http://web.missouri.edu/~sheldonk/pdfarticles/JP00.pdf

Personal Goals and Psychological Growth: Testing an Intervention to Enhance Goal Attainment and Personality Integration

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Examining Immediate and Long-Term Efficacy of Rape Prevention Programming with Racially Diverse College Men.

Personal Goals and Psychological Growth: Testing an Intervention to Enhance Goal Attainment and Personality Integration