How to live well and the search for meaning have long been of intense concern to humans, perhaps because Homo sapiens is the only species aware of its own mortality. In the last few decades, empirical psychology made a major contribution to this quest. This book surveys groundbreaking work by leading international researchers, demonstrating that social psychology is the core discipline for understanding well-being and the search for meaning. Basic conceptual and theoretical principles are discussed, drawing on philosophy, evolutionary theory and psychology, followed by a review of the role of purposeful, motivated activity and self-control in achieving life satisfaction. The role of emotional and cognitive processes and the influence of social, interpersonal and cultural factors in promoting a happy and meaningful life are discussed. The book will be of interest to students, practitioners and researchers in the behavioral and social sciences, as well as to laypersons for whom improving the quality of human life and understanding the principles of well-being are of interest.

In this book, Lorraine Besser-Jones develops a eudaimonistic virtue ethics based on a psychological account of human nature. While her project maintains the fundamental features of the eudaimonistic virtue ethical framework—virtue, character, and well-being—she constructs these concepts from an empirical basis, drawing support from the psychological fields of self-determination and self-regulation theory. Besser-Jones’s resulting account of "eudaimonic ethics" presents a compelling normative theory and offers insight into what is involved in being a virtuous person and "acting well." This original contribution to contemporary ethics and moral psychology puts forward a provocative hypothesis of what an empirically-based moral theory would look like.

A profound explorationof what it means to have a good life. What do we as human beings want from life? How can we best be fulfilled in our lives, relationships and work? Csikszentmihalyi argues that human beings are at their most creative, most rewarded and happiest when they are performing in a state of flow - the state a pianist, a golfer, a snooker player are in they are performing at their best. In an unusual combination of serious pschcology and self - help, Living Well answers the questions self-help books ask but in a way that reflects the cutting edge of psychological research and thinking. The ideas of this book are thought provoking and in applying them to our lives they have the potential to be life changing.

This long-awaited new textbook will be of enormous value to students and teachers in cross-cultural and social psychology. The key strength of Understanding Social Psychology Across Cultures: Living and Working in a Changing World is how it illustrates the ways in which culture shapes psychological process across a wide range of social contexts. It also effectively examines the strengths and limitations of the key theories, methods and instruments used in cross-cultural research.

The authors present an insight into the social psychology of experience drawing upon a few classic works to help develop their argument. The signficance of their ideas for developing a contemporary psychology of experience is illustrated with material from studies focused on setting at home and at work.

In the Spring of 1997, a remarkable group of social psychologists came together at Yosemite National Park to reflect upon the field which they have been so instrumental in creating. This edited collection brings together the reflections of the nine scholars who spoke at the Yosemite conference that day and marks the 100th anniversary of Tripplet's seminal study of bicycle racers—an experiment which has often been cited as the beginning of modern experimental social psychology. The contributors: Elliot Aronson, Leonard Berkowitz, Morton Deutsch, Harold Gerard, Harold Kelley, Albert Pepitone, Bertram Raven, Robert Zajonc, and Philip Zimbardo have not only observed the development of this burgeoning discipline, collectively, they have played an essential role in crafting its young legacy.The book begins with personal histories of the researchers. Being that these personal histories are, in fact, closely connected to the most significant people, laboratories and conceptual trends of the field, these reminiscences are much more than simply histories of the course of particular individuals' lives; they are at the same time histories of the discipline itself. Subsequent chapters turn to the field's historical roots: its origins, course of theories, methods, and approaches. But all chapters share a common theme: an examination of the ways that the lives and experiences of social psychology's most prominent living scholars have helped to shape the history of the field itself.

This definitive work--now extensively revised with virtually all new chapters--has introduced generations of researchers to the psychological processes that underlie social behavior. What sets the book apart is its unique focus on the basic principles that guide theory building and research. Since work in the field increasingly transcends such boundaries as biological versus cultural or cognitive versus motivational systems, the third edition has a new organizational framework. Leading scholars identify and explain the principles that govern intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, and intergroup processes, in chapters that range over multiple levels of analysis. The book's concluding section illustrates how social psychology principles come into play in specific contexts, including politics, organizational life, the legal arena, sports, and negotiation. New to This Edition *Most of the book is entirely new. *Stronger emphasis on the contextual factors that influence how and why the basic principles work as they do. *Incorporates up-to-date findings and promising research programs. *Integrates key advances in such areas as evolutionary theory and neuroscience.

Since the middle of the twentieth century, virtue ethics has enriched the range of philosophical approaches to normative ethics, often drawing on the work of the ancient Greeks, who offered accounts of the virtues that have become part of contemporary philosophical ethics. But these virtue ethical theories were situated within a more general picture of human practical rationality, one which maintained that to understand virtue we must appeal to what would make our lives go well. This feature of ethical theorizing has not become part of philosophical ethics, although the virtue theories dependent upon it have. This book is an attempt to bring eudaimonism into dialogue with contemporary philosophical work in ethical theory. It does not attempt to replicate the many contributions to normative ethics, in particular to thinking about the virtues. Instead, it attempts to contribute to metaethics -- to thinking about what we are doing when we think about normative ethics. In particular, it attempts to contribute to contemporary philosophical debate on the nature of what is good for us, on what we have most reason to do, on what facts about both those ideas consist in, on the nature of values and value facts, and the nature of the reasons for respect for others we might have. Its aim is to mark off space in these debates where a way of thinking about ourselves and our agential, practical, natures as the ancients did can enrich our thinking about those deep and important questions. In this way the book makes a case for what we might call Virtue Eudaimonism.

Precise shifts in the ways people make sense of themselves, others, and social situations can help people flourish. This compelling handbook synthesizes the growing body of research on wise interventions--brief, nonclinical strategies that are "wise" to the impact of social-psychological processes on behavior. Leading authorities describe how maladaptive or pejorative interpretations can undermine people’s functioning and how they can be altered to produce benefits in such areas as academic motivation and achievement, health, well-being, and personal relationships. Consistently formatted chapters review the development of each intervention, how it can be implemented, its evidence base, and implications for solving personal and societal problems.