Can positive psychology build a brighter future?
Positive psychology and the science of well-being is not new – we have all heard about how mindfulness can be good for us, 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 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'?
Join us as we hear from 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 on how the science of well-being could help us build a better, fairer and more sustainable world.
Professor Huppert will talk about the psychological principles that are fundamental to well-being, and the core capabilities that underlie them. She will explain how these can be applied in all areas of life - from childhood and ageing, through work, health, and relationships to society, economics, politics and the environment.
Participants will be 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 is 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 and neuropsychology 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 of the Global 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.
She is also a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and of Darwin College, Cambridge. Professor Huppert 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.
