Psychology & Mediation Services

Anne-Marie Box, Psychologist

Using Positive Psychology in Your Relationships

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3 wrong ways—and 1 right way—to respond to good news from your spouse

Close relationships is one area of life where using positive psychology can make a big difference. According to Shelly Gable, associate professor of psychology at the University of California-Santa Barbara, an important key to understanding a relationship’s strength is how it works in good times, not just whether it withstands the bad. Gable has been researching what goes right in close relationships for years. By studying hundreds of couples, she’s found that when romantic partners disclose positive news, how the other reacts matters—a lot. In fact, partners’ reactions to each other’s good news can better predict the quality of a relationship—and whether it will endure—than can partners’ reactions to bad news, says Gable. [Read more…]

Positive Psychology for Kids

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Teaching Resilience with Positive Education

Adults can help kids by encouraging them to think positively, psychology experts say

Psychologists Karen Reivich and Jane Gillham aim to use positive psychology on the youngest members of society to prevent them from later struggling with anxiety, depression, or other psychological problems. An estimated 2 million or so 12- to 17-year-olds experience clinical depression annually, and Reivich and Gillham have found that building resilience in younger children can help thwart depression before it starts. The pair has developed school-based curricula that teach educators, parents, and ultimately kids the core skills of resilience and other tenets of positive psychology. [Read more…]

How Positive Psychology Can Increase Your Happiness

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You can thank your parents—in part—for how happy you are; roughly half of human happiness is genetically determined. Another 10 percent comes from your life circumstances, like how happy you are with where you live. But because people quickly adapt to changes, swapping Midwest winters for West Coast warmth, say, won’t lead to a lasting boost in life satisfaction, according to long time happiness researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California-Riverside. What can give us a lasting boost is how we think and behave, she says: About 40 percent of our happiness is under our conscious control. [Read more…]