Can positive psychology build a brighter future?
On Monday 21st June 2021, we were joined by Professor Felicia Huppert, Founding Director of the Well-being Institute, University of Cambridge, and co-author of Creating the World We Want to Live In: How Positive Psychology Can Build a Brighter Future, a book about how the science of well-being could help up to build a better, fairer, and more sustainable world.
Positive psychology and the science of well-being is not new – we have all heard about how mindfulness can be good for us and the importance of ‘self-care’, and a lot of research has been carried out to determine the factors that influence our ability to feel good and function well.
But humans don’t live in isolation. Is it time to apply well-being science beyond the individual? Can we use it to improve the well-being of families, communities, societies, and ecological systems? Are we thinking long-term enough when it comes to well-being, and should we be moving from ‘me’ to ‘we’?
Felicia talked about the psychological principles that are fundamental to well-being and the core capabilities that underlie them. She explained how these can be applied in all areas of life – from childhood and ageing, to work, health, and relationships, to society, economics, politics, and the environment.
Participants were invited to reflect on their own knowledge and experience to suggest further ideas, since every action we take has a ripple effect on those around us and on the wider world.
This talk was hosted by the Intellectual Forum and the University of Cambridge ThinkLab.
More about the speaker:
Professor Felicia Huppert is a psychologist with a long-standing research interest in the science of well-being and the promotion of human flourishing. Her work brings together approaches from cognitive psychology with a population perspective derived from epidemiology. Felicia has advised governments and international bodies on the measurement of well-being, and on policies to enhance well-being. She spends part of the year in the UK, where she is Founding Director of the Well-being Institute at the University of Cambridge, and Emeritus Professor of Psychology.
Her current positions include Honorary Professor at The University of Sydney’s Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group, and Visiting Professorial Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney. Felicia is a member of the Australian Expert Group Mindfulness Initiative and Director of the Australian Compassion Council Scholars Program. She is a Fellow of the Black Dog Institute and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Prevention United, an Australian organisation committed to the promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental disorders.
Felicia is also a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and of Darwin College, Cambridge. She is past Chair of the European Network for Positive Psychology (ENPP), and a past Member of the Board of Directors of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA). She was a member of the Measuring National Well-being Technical Advisory Group of the UK Office for National Statistics, and a Member of the UN Expert Group on Happiness and Wellbeing: Defining A New Economic Paradigm.
