Hart & Sasso_2011

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Mapping the Contours of Contemporary Positive Psychology

Kenneth E. Hart and Thomas SassoUniversity of Windsor

This paper seeks to quantify scholarly interest in the rapidly emerging field of Positive Psychology (PP)

and to empirically map the contours of the discipline using six different methodologies. Results document

extraordinary growth in the last decade and confirm that scholars in this area have devoted the lion’s

share of their attention to two of the three ‘Pillars’ of PP as proposed by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi

(2000): (1) the study of positive subjective experience and (2) positive personal traits. While interest in

positive institutions has been somewhat sparse, there has been increased concern with the topics of

‘resilience’ and eudaimonia (broadly defined). The latter developments help to dispel the myth that PP

is an elite endeavour solely concerned with Pollyanna-style ‘happiology’ in people who find themselves

in idyllic circumstances. Hopefully the results of our content analysis of the field will encourage

instructors who teach PP to provide their students with a well-balanced curriculum, one that accurately

reflects the heterogeneity of the field, and one that mirrors recent scholarly trends.

Keywords: definition, positive psychology, review, domains, temporal trends, specializations

As Noted by Yen (2010),

“over the past 10 years, there has been a literal explosion of work

within the new subdiscipline of positive psychology. Commanding

record enrollment rates in undergraduate psychology courses across

North America and around the world, and attracting a considerable

amount of media attention, positive psychology has become positively

faddish. It is Harvard’s most popular course, having recently sup-

planted introductory economics. . . . Within the academy, the field has

rapidly established itself through a large and growing body of re-

search data, journals, books, articles and special issues, international

associations and conferences, funding, dedicated research centers,

and courses and graduate programs.” (p. 67 )

While a number of authors have noted that increased attention is

being given to Positive Psychology (PP), pronouncements of a

boom have rarely been substantiated by empirical research that has

approached the question using a quantitative methodology. In the

current article, we document the growth of scholarly interest in PP

by performing a year-by-year count of citations contained in

PsycINFO. At the same time, in an effort to contribute to ‘bound-

ary work,’ we also empirically map the contours of the field using

six different methodologies. To briefly preview our findings, we

were able to confirm anecdotal observations (e.g., Yen, 2010)

suggesting PP has experienced extraordinary growth in the past

decade. Our empirical efforts to demarcate PP’s self-narrationyielded a heterogeneous picture. Content analyses of subdomains

of concern to PP suggest a complex identity, one that is incongru-

ent with the popular cultural stereotype that depicts PP as an elite

endeavour concerned solely with grinning yellow smiley faces and

Pollyanna-style positive thinking. We conclude our paper by en-

couraging instructors who teach PP to make use of the current

results so as to provide students with a well-balanced and com-

prehensive curriculum, one that accurately reflects the empirically

determined breadth and scope of the field.

What Is the Evidence for a Boom?

Wong (2011) agrees with Yen (2010) in suggesting PP has

rapidly become a ‘hot’ topic in academic circles and in the popular

culture. While anecdotal accounts touting the PP boom are plen-

tiful, research is lacking that documents changes in the extent of interest in the academy over time. There is also a dearth of

empirical evidence to quantify how much scholarly attention has

been given to specific topic areas and whether interest is burgeon-

ing equally in these emerging subdomains of inquiry. Thus, we do

not know whether the boom that has ostensibly occurred since the

year 2000 is generalised or localised to a few constructs/processes.

The concern of the current paper, is to characterise trends within

the broad scholarly literature that is indexed in PsycINFO.

With regards to prior research in this area, results of a prelim-

inary effort to take stock of developmental trends in the field of PP

have been reported by Lopez et al. (2006). Unlike the current

study, which examined trends in psychology as a whole, Lopez et

al. (2006) assessed temporal trends in the prevalence of PP content

in the counselling psychology literature. Based on their prior

knowledge of the field, these authors identified (on an a priori

basis) a total of 35 concepts/processes they deemed of central

concern to PP. They then performed a content analysis to assess

mention of these topics in 1,135 articles published in four coun-

selling psychology journals. Results showed that PP constructs

were represented in 25% of the literature during the 20-year period

of the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1990s, PP content increased in

popularity, showing a prevalence of 34%. During the first five

years of the 2000s, scholarship bearing on PP concepts/processes

increased to 40%. These findings suggest that increased efforts

have indeed been made over time to integrate PP into the field of

Kenneth E. Hart and Thomas Sasso, Psychology Department, University

of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kenneth

E. Hart, Psychology Department, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario

N9B 3P4, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]

Canadian Psychology © 2011 Canadian Psychological Association2011, Vol. 52, No. 2, 82–92 0708-5591/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0023118

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counseling psychology. The escalating pattern of citations of PP

content reported by Lopez et al. (2006) has recently been repli-

cated in a paper that examined PP content in health psychology

journals (Schmidt et al. 2011). Thus, there is empirical evidence

that PP has become increasingly popular, at least in these two areas

of specialization. Results reported by Lopez et al. (2006) have

recently been replicated in a paper that examined PP content inhealth psychology journals (Schmidt et al. 2011).

In a third empirical study, Froh, Heubner, Youssef, and Conte

(in press) took stock of the interface of PP and scholarly literature

in the specialised area of school psychology. Their methodology

involved a content analysis of 1,168 articles published in four

school psychology journals, and their goal was to perform a

frequency count of the occurrence of any of 76 concepts/processes

they felt typified core concerns of PP. Results showed that PP

constructs were represented in 27% of the literature during the last

50-year period. Of special concern to the current study is the temporal

trend they presented in Figure 1 of their paper. Froh et al. (in press)

show the proportion of scholarly output devoted to PP has not in-

creased subsequent to the year 1998 (the year Seligman first issued his

call for PP scholarship). The flat trajectory of the 50-year publication

trend is inconsistent with results of Lopez et al. (2006) and Schmidt

et al. (2011). It also fails to support narrative pronouncements of rapid

growth of PP (see Wong, 2011 and Yen, 2010).

The null results of Froh et al. (in press) are surprising given

anecdotal evidence hinting at rapid infiltration of PP into the

domain of school/educational psychology. Examples of this trend

can be seen in the recent publication of The Handbook of Positive

Psychology in Schools (Gilman, Huebner, & Furlong, 2009), the

recent call for papers by the Journal of Positive Psychology on

work connecting PP to education, and recent landmark publica-

tions in peer review journals (e.g., Seligman, Gillham, Reivich,

Linkins, & Ernst, 2009, and Lopez & Louis, 2009).

To summarise, prior empirical efforts to quantify the growth of scholarship involving PP concepts/processes have produced find-

ings that are limited in their generalisability and mixed in terms of

their conclusions. Evidence strongly indicates scholarly efforts to

integrate PP into counseling and health psychology have increased

over time. However, for the area of school/educational psychol-

ogy, the data for escalation is less convincing.

The first purpose of the current paper is to extend existing

inquiry by evaluating the extent to which PP content is represented

in the broad range of behavioural science literature that is indexed

in PsycINFO. To this end, we performed frequency counts of PP

content using ‘keyword’ searches. Each count covered a 2-year

period, starting in 1990 and ending in 2009. Because we assessed

a 20-year period, we were able to determine whether and to what

extent interest in PP has accelerated subsequent to 1998, the year

that Seligman gave his inaugural message as the President of the

American Psychological Association.

With regards to coding of PP content, we did not make use of the

a priori list of 35 PP terms identified by Lopez et al. (2006) or the

more comprehensive list of 76 used by Froh et al. (in press). Ourprocedure for coding was different in a number of ways. To parse the

many PP constructs/processes into a smaller number that is more

manageable, we adopted a post hoc approach that capitalized on

converging findings of narrative data derived from four different

methodologies. These methods are described more fully later in this

paper. Briefly, one of the methods involved a content analysis of 53

published narratives that purported to define the field of PP.

A cluster analysis of these definitions produced six main themes

or clusters (results shown in Table 1). The labels we gave to these

themes informed our coding of PP content. The terms we included

in our ‘keyword’ searches of PsycINFO were also informed by a

content analysis of topics represented in PP course syllabi (results

shown in Tables 3 and 6) and contents of tables of contents of PP

books (results shown in Table 7). Finally, we also asked CanadianPP scholars to identify topic areas they felt were core to the field

(results shown in Table 2).

Convergence of the results of these four methods provided

labels for our keyword search of PsycINFO. Convergence also

enabled us to extend prior empirical research that addressed the

question of whether PP is expanding its influence on the discipline

and profession of psychology. A unique contribution of the current

study is that it promises a more precise characterisation of the

specific nature of developmental trends. Our efforts to organise

and distill a wide range of PP content resulted in the identification

of clusters or themes. Our taxonomy permitted us to document the

presence or absence of growth in scholarship within eight different

subareas of PP specialization. These clusters of content, in turn, ledus to restrict our PsycINFO ‘keyword’ searches to concepts/

processes related to the following eight themes: (1) resilience, (2)

happiness, (3) life satisfaction, (4) character/strengths/virtues, (5)

meaning and purpose in life, (6) flourishing/thriving, (7) the good

life, and (8) the life worth living. For the themes 6, 7, and 8 we

conducted exact phrase searches. For themes 1 through 5, we searched

using a variety of synonymous terms. Where appropriate, we ex-

cluded irrelevant content (e.g., semantic meaning in linguistics).

Empirical Documentation of the Growth of PP

Scholarship

The first research method that we used to document the osten-

sible rise of academic interest in the field of PP involved a 20-year

count of papers that have been published in peer-reviewed sources

that involved concepts and terms related to PP. Our literature

searches were conducted in the summer of 2010, and results are

visually depicted in Figures 1, 2, and 3. What is not shown in the

Figures is our search of the term ‘PP.’ When PP was entered into

a PsycINFO keyword search as an exact phrase, just over 10,000

citations were located over the 20-year span from 1990 to 2009

When the term ‘PP’ was entered in a title search of PsycINFO, 866

hits were identified. In light of the counts shown in Figure 1, we

conclude the scope of PP-related scholarship is not adequately

captured by the term PP.Figure 1. Growth of scholarly interest in positive psychology: A search

of keywords found in PsycINFO.

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Figure 1 represents composite or aggregate (sum score) values

depicting levels of publication for the eight subdomains of PP thatare noted above. Inspection of Figure 1 reveals the following.

Since the year 1998 there have been more than 20,000 PP-related

references published in PsycINFO. This finding suggests wide-

spread popularity as reflected in a high level of scholarly interest and

scholarly output. Figure 1 also documents a developmental trend in

which scholarly output in the PP subdomains under consideration has

substantially increased since Seligman gave his APA Presidential

Address. We conclude that, as a disciplinary area of inquiry, PP is not

merely surviving; it is thriving and flourishing!

Given that the field of PP comprises a number of subdomains and

that levels of scholarly interest may vary as a function of the nature of

these areas, we performed a number of ‘area-specific’ keyword

searches of the PsycINFO database. We conducted the subdomain

analysis in hopes that such an increased level of specificity would

enable us to empirically evaluate whether PP is nothing more than the

study of happiness and positive emotions. By painting a more fine-

grained picture of the field, we felt this would help clarify the

branches of PP and bring its various themes into bold relief.

In taking stock of the published literature, we examined publication

rates within each of the following eight topic areas: (1) ‘resilience,’ (2)

‘happiness,’ (3) ‘life satisfaction,’ (4) ‘character and/or strengths

and/or virtue,’ (5) ‘meaning and purpose,’ (6) ‘flourishing,’ (7) ‘the

good life,’ and the (8) ‘life worth living.’ Synonyms for most of these

terms were also searched. For instance, a number of synonyms for

happiness were searched. Some of these included ‘positive emotions,’

‘zest,’ ‘gratitude,’ and the like. For each search, exclusionary criteriawere implemented where appropriate. For instance, we screened out

false positives related to linguistics and etymology (when searching

the PP subdomain ‘meaning/purpose’ in life, mentions of semantic

meaning were excluded). We also excluded articles that had the term

‘purpose’ in the title or as keyword when it had nothing to do with

purpose in life. Finally, in regards to PsycINFO searches of meaning/

purpose in life, we did our best to include relevant contributions to the

‘goal-striving’ literature.

The histogram shown in Figure 1 represents aggregate statistics.

In other words it collapses across the eight subdomains that we

adopted for consideration. Because of its monolithic nature, the

levels of scholarly output depicted in Figure 1 may be hiding

divergent trajectories of growth amongst the different facets. To

provide a more differentiated picture of developmental trends

extending back over the last two decades, we present Figures 2 and

3. The main criterion used to distinguish between the two Figures

was the base-rate of PsycINFO citations. Given the base-rate was

higher in Figure 2, we refer to the subdomains depicted there as

‘Tier 1’ constructs. By comparison, we refer to the three topic

areas depicted in Figure 3 as ‘Tier 2’ constructs.

In looking at Figures 2 and 3, it is apparent that PP scholar-

ship has been accelerating since Seligman’s 1998 inauguration

speech. From 1998 to 2002, many (but not all) of the sub-

domains of PP experienced a pivotal transitional period. With

Table 1

Taxonomy of PP Themes Derived From 53 Published Definitions

Themesa Frequencyb Consensusc

Theme 1 views the core of PP as the study of virtues, character strengths, positive personality traits andrelated attributes and abilities, and talents. 21 39.6%

Theme 2 views the core of PP as the study of phenomena indicative of happiness, positive emotionalwell-being, subjective sense of fulfillment, and satisfaction with the quality of life. 18 34.0%Theme 3 views the core of PP as the study of the developmental process of becoming, growth,

fulfillment of capacities, actualization of potential, and development of the highest/authentic self. 11 20.8%Theme 4 views the core of PP as involving the “good life” or “life worth living.” 9 17.0%Theme 5 views the core of PP as involving thriving and flourishing. 7 13.2%Theme 6 views the core of PP as involving optimal or adaptive functioning/behaviour, otherwise known

as resilience (positive coping under conditions of stress/hardship). 6 11.3%

a We adopted a liberal approach to forming the themes. Concepts that were judged to reflect similar underlying content were grouped together. b Weexamined a total of 53 published definitions of positive psychology. The frequency statistic reflects the number of published definitions that includedcontent pertinent to each theme. c Given that some of the 53 published definitions that we examined were multi-factorial in nature, the cumulative percentexceeds 100.

Table 2Taxonomy of PP Themes Offered by 39 Canadian Scholars

Themesa Frequencyb Consensus

Theme 1: Happiness/positive subjective experience/subjective well-being, satisfaction, & quality of life 14 25.9%Theme 2: Resilience/coping/adaptive behaviour/optimal functioning/adaptive functioning or behavioural adjustment 11 20.4%Theme 3: Virtues/character strengths/positive personality traits/positive personal qualities 10 18.5%Theme 4: The becoming process/growth/progressive fulfillment of potential/development/movement towards truest self 9 16.7%Theme 5: The “good life”/“life worth living” 7 13.0%Theme 6: “Thriving”/“flourishing” 3 5.5%

a We adopted a liberal approach to forming the themes. Concepts that were judged to reflect similar underlying content were grouped together. b Eachof the 39 respondents to the questionnaire was asked to provide their understanding of positive psychology. The frequency statistic reflects the number of responses that included content pertinent to each theme, thus the frequency total was out of 54.

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the exception of the subdomain of resilience, a positively sloped

linear pattern of growth seems to characterise interest in PP in

the decade of the 1990s. As can be seen in Figures 2 and 3, in

the past decade, the pattern of growth seems to have increased

exponentially. However, a microanalysis of the growth trajec-

tories of each of the PP subdomains under consideration sug-gests differential patterns of growth over time.

As noted above, we have labelled the five most popular topic

areas as Tier 1 themes. These are shown in Figure 2. Within the

Tier 1 cluster, it is clear that the area of ‘resilience’ has captured

the lion’s share of scholarly interest (especially in the last six

years). Thus, in terms of rank order of scholarly attention, the

PP subdomain of resilience ranks first. Inspection of Figure 1

shows that while resilience leads the field, there is also a

considerable amount of contemporary interest in the topics of

‘happiness,’ ‘life satisfaction,’ ‘character strengths/virtues,’

and ‘meaning and purpose.’ Curiously, for reasons unknown,

Figure 2 shows scholarly output during the past four years

decreased for ‘Character, Strengths and Virtues’ (CSV), and

failed to grow for meaning/purpose (MP) in life. By way of

contrast, Figure 2 documents that output has continuously in-

creased for each of the other three branches of PP scholarship.

Figure 3 depicts developmental trends in PsycINFO scholarship

that have focused on what we have come to call Tier 2 themes. In

rank order of their popularity, these themes include ‘flourishing,’

‘The Good Life,’ and ‘the Life Worth Living.’ It is a curious fact

that interest in the Tier 2 concepts seems to have reached a plateau

in the last four years. One possibility is that the actual rate of recent

growth is still accelerating, but that scholars may have relabelled

these subdomains differently using newer terms such as eudaimo-

nia, well-being, or the virtuous life. In considering the plateaus, it

may also be argued that the three Tier-2 concepts can all be

grouped together as reflecting the subdomain of the meaningful

life or purposeful living. As can be seen in Figure 2, work on

meaning/purpose in life has waned since 2007. In addition to the

Tier 2 terms (F, TGL, LWL) falling out of favor, another expla-

nation for the plateau pattern shown in Figure 3 involves a ‘satu-

ration’ theory. According to this line of speculation, the “band-wagon” may be full to capacity. Thus, the three constructs may

simply be failing to attract new scholars. Finally, interest in Tier 2

constructs in existing scholars may be fading. In this regard, it will

be interesting to see in the future whether Seligman’s (2011) book

entitled “Flourish” will reinvigorate scholarly interest in a concept

that may have recently plateaued in popularity.

In closing this section of the paper, we would like to speculate

on possible reasons for why the publication trends are so different

when comparing the rates for the 1990s and the first decade of the

new millennium. A possible contributing factor is that English

speaking scholars have heeded the call issued by Seligman in his

APA Presidential ‘call to arms.’ Thus, Seligman and his team at

the University of Pennsylvania may be given partial credit for the

widespread growth of interest in PP over the past decade. At thesame time, it is likely that the co-occurring influx of research and

infrastructure funding has also nurtured the growing popularity of

PP amongst psychologists. In this regard, the best known benefac-

tor of PP is the John Templeton Foundation, who funded a massive

“forgiveness” initiative in 1997–1998. Growth can also be attrib-

uted to other grant-making agencies such as the Fetzer Institute,

the Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Mayerson Foundation.

We also wish to go on record by saying that findings reported in

Figure 2 tentatively suggest that ‘resilience’—not happiness—may

prove to be the Alpha dog of PP. Perhaps Kristjansson (2010) was

premature to pronounce ‘happiness’ as the hub or core of PP. We

suggest that ‘resilience’ and positive coping (in the face of adver-

sity) may offer a gravitational centre to the PP of the next gener-

Figure 2. Number of publications in PsycINFO for five subdomains of

PP scholarship: Tier 1 themes. R ϭ Resilience; Hϭ Happiness; LSϭ Life

Satisfaction; CVSϭ Character and Strengths/Virtues; and MP ϭMeaning

and Purpose.

Figure 3. Number of publications in PsycINFO for three additional

subdomains of PP scholarship: Tier 2 themes. F ϭ Flourishing; TGL ϭ

The Good Life; and LWL ϭ Life Worth Living.


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ation. It could be, as Wong’s (2011) model of PP 2.0 suggests, that

the ongoing maturation of PP has broadened the scope and identity

of PP, resulting in a model that is more balanced, more humane,

and more sensitive to harsh existential realities of life.

What Exactly Is Positive Psychology?

In the next section of the paper we extend the work of Snyder et al.

(2006), Schmidt et al. (2011), and Froh et al. (in press). Our goal is to

make further efforts to clarify the nature of PP and better define its

boundaries. We will describe the use of four different methodologies

in our quest to answer the question “What, exactly, is PP?”

Definitions of PP Published in PsycINFO: Method 1

Our first methodology was to compile a list of 53 published

definitions of PP culled from the scholarly literature published in

PsycINFO, thus excluding popular culture definitions.1 We then

carefully analysed the definitions. This resulted in six subdomains

or themes. The verbatim narratives for the 53 definitions served as

the raw data upon which we conducted a concept analysis. Fol-

lowing an inductive method, we developed a coding scheme on a

post hoc basis which formed the basis for the development of

themes or subdomains. The coding scheme emerged from iterative

keyword searches of the definitions themselves. In repeatedly

combing through the 53 definitions, we conducted frequency

counts of many types of keywords that reflected PP concepts and

PP phenomena. Using a thesaurus type of approach, we identified

clusters of concepts that shared similar features. For instance, the

key terms of ‘happiness’ and ‘positive emotions’ have similar

meaning. Because of their shared meaning, we combined them into

the same category. As a result of this type of a process, like

phenomena were clustered together and ‘themes’ emerged. These

themes were then rank ordered on the basis of the level of con-sensus among the 53 definitions. For instance, results shown in

Table 1 suggest the theme of ‘happiness and subjective sense of

emotional well-being’ was ranked second in terms of how often it

was identified in the 53 definitions of PP. Thus, while ‘happiness’

(liberally and broadly defined) is clearly a core member of the

conceptual subdomain that constitutes the subject matter of PP, it

is not ranked first, at least not according to the current analysis.

Table 1 provides a rank ordered summary description of the six

basic subdomains that we were able to discern based on the method-

ology described above. The content areas with the highest levels of

interauthor consensus are featured in the Table and are described

below.

While six core clusters were identified, the theme of ‘virtues/

character strengths’ was ranked highest in terms of the level of

interauthor definitional consensus. Inspection of Table 1 shows

that 21 of the 53 definitions (almost 40%) explicitly or implicitly

endorsed ideas that we have grouped under Theme 1. Inspection of

the contents of this cluster suggests a view that defines PP as the

study of ‘virtues,’ ‘strengths of character,’ and related ‘positive

personality traits,’ ‘abilities,’ and ‘talents.’

Which other clusters factored into the “top three” list? As can be

seen in Table 1, the theme with the second highest level of

interauthor consensus involved ‘happiness.’ According to the sec-

ond definitional theme, PP is popularly understood as involving

the study of ‘happiness,’ ‘positive emotional well-being,’ ‘subjec-

tive sense of fulfillment,’ and ‘satisfaction with the quality of life’

(synonyms were included as well). Eighteen of the 53 definitions

(34%) included some reference to this subdomain. Rounding out

the “top-three list” was definitional Theme #3, which suggested PP

involves the study of the developmental process of ‘becoming.’

Key terms and main ideas within this category included ‘growth,’

‘fulfillment’ (of capacities), ‘actualization’ (of potential), and ‘de-velopment of the highest/truest/authentic self.’ Eleven of the 53

definitions (20.8%) included reference to this subdomain, suggest-

ing a high level of interauthor consensus.

Lesser ranked, but still important, themes were as follows. Table

1 shows the fourth theme suggested PP deals with the scientific

study of ‘the Good Life’ or ‘life worth living.’ Nine of the 53

definitions (17%) included content that mapped onto this area.

Definitional theme 5 identified the core of PP to be the study of

‘thriving and flourishing.’ These terms were mentioned in seven of

the 53 definitions (13.2%). The sixth and final theme defined the

core of PP as the study of ‘positive functioning’ under conditions

of stress. Key terms that we coded for inclusion in this cluster were

‘adaptive functioning,’ ‘adaptive behaviour,’ ‘resilience,’ or ‘cop-

ing’ (abbreviated as ‘resilience/coping’).Given that there is a lack of consensus as to what the field of PP

entails, faculty who are considering teaching a course in this area

clearly need to exercise discretion when designing their syllabi.

Results shown in Table 1 suggest a possible structure for thematic

organisation of content. Syllabi that communicate a broad spec-

trum of themes will ensure that students receive a balanced un-

derstanding of the field. Of course, instructors who give attention

to broad and general constructs, such as the ‘good life’ or the ‘life

worth living’ or ‘thriving,’ ought to be careful to educate students

about definitional ambiguities.

It should be noted that most of these definitions came from

American scholars, thus it is possible that the six-cluster structure

that emerged from our analysis may have been culturally biased. Inthe next section we shift our attention to Canadian perspectives on

PP.

Definitions of PP Offered by Canadian Scholars:

Method 2

The second method we used to clarify the definitional bound-

aries of PP involved asking over 100 Canadian PP scholars to

disclose their personal understandings of the field. Collated and

distilled results derived from 39 of these faculty members are

discussed below. These results also reveal that PP is far more than

the study of ‘happiness.’

In February and March of 2010 we conducted a PsycINFOsearch for the purpose of identifying Canadian scholars who were

publishing on topics related to the concepts identified in Table 1.

Using this method, 155 scholars were identified who were based in

Canada. Of these, valid e-mail addresses were obtained for 138.

E-mails were sent asking for responses to 15 questions. Of rele-

vance to the current analysis are replies to an open ended question

which asked “could you briefly give us your understanding of what

PP means to you”? Thirty-nine scholars returned valid data in time

1 For a complete verbatim list of the 53 published definitions of PP from

2000–2009 used for this analysis, please contact the first author.

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for inclusion in the current analysis, thus the response rate was

only 28.26%. Each narrative response was coded for key terms

indicative of PP content. Using a thesaurus-type method, com-

monly mentioned (high consensus) terms were clustered together

to form groups or themes. No a priori structure was imposed;

instead, clusters emerged inductively.

Table 2 summarizes the rank ordered results showing the vari-ous types of understandings of PP that emerged from a content

analysis of the 39 Canadian scholars who we surveyed. When

interpreting our statistics, it should be noted that some of the

respondents provided multiple key terms. For this reason, the

absolute numbers of the coded key terms sum to 54, not 39.

The highest level of interscholar consensus involved the theme

that PP deals with ‘happiness.’ To be classified into Theme 1, our

coding scheme was rather broad, including key terms such as

‘positive emotional wellbeing,’ ‘subjective sense of fulfillment,’

and ‘satisfaction with the quality of life.’ Our results showed these

exact terms or synonyms of these terms were endorsed a total of 14

times, for a consensus rate of 25.9%. The theme that was ranked

second expressed the view that PP involves the study of ‘resil-ience/coping.’ To be classified into Theme 2, our coding scheme

was rather broad, including key terms such as ‘positive function-

ing’ (under conditions of stress), ‘adaptive functioning,’ and

‘adaptive behaviour.’ These terms or synonyms of these terms

were endorsed a total of 11 times, for a consensus rate of 20.4%.

Rounding out the top three high consensus understandings of PP

was a theme suggesting PP deals with the study of ‘virtues/

character strengths,’ ‘positive personality traits,’ ‘talents,’ and

‘interests.’ These key terms or synonyms were endorsed a total of

10 times, for a consensus rate of 18.5%.

Lesser ranked themes were as follows. Ranked fourth was a

theme suggesting a main concern of PP is studying the develop-

mental process of ‘becoming’ (16.7% consensus). Ranked fifth

was the idea that PP involves the scientific study of ‘the Good

Life’ or ‘life worth living’ (13.0% consensus). Finally, ranked

sixth and last was the theme that PP is the study of ‘thriving’ or

‘flourishing’ (5.5% consensus).

Consistent with results shown in Table 1, Table 2 illustrates a

wide diversity of understandings of the field of PP. Although

‘happiness’ was ranked number one, it is clear that Canadian

scholars do not subscribe to the view that PP solely involves the

study of ‘happiness.’ In the next section, we shift to an analysis of

American faculty who have taught PP at the undergraduate level.

Definitions Offered in American PP Course Syllabi:

Method 3

In a further effort to provide an empirically based answer to the

question “What is PP?” we downloaded eight American PP course

syllabi published on Seligman’s PP website (www.positivepsychology

.org). Using the content of the outlines as our database, we thenconducted a count of keywords indicative of PP concepts.

A taxonomy of cluster groupings was formed on a post hoc basis

using an inductive method. This cluster analysis resulted in the iden-

tification of five main themes. These especially popular topic areas

were rank ordered in terms of how often they were represented across

the different syllabi. As was the case in all the categories, membership

in a given theme was granted if the key terms shown in Table 3 were

used or if conceptually similar terms were used.

As shown in Table 3, two themes tied for the rank of ‘most

popular.’ Most (87.5%) of the syllabi included content related to

Theme 1, which referred to ‘happiness’ and closely aligned con-

cepts. Thus there was high consensus among the eight syllabi that

‘happiness’ is a key facet of the field of PP. The second theme that

tied for the rank of ‘most popular’ included content related to key

terms such as ‘relationships,’ ‘forgiveness,’ and ‘gratitude.’

Seventy-five percent of the syllabi included content related to the

third conceptual cluster, which mapped onto the theme of ‘virtues’/

‘strengths of character.’ Results shown in Table 3 are consistent

with results shown in Tables 1 and 2 in the sense that all three

tables suggest PP is not one-dimensional. In the next section, we

shift to an analysis of Canadian faculty who have taught PP at the

undergraduate level.

Definitions Offered in Canadian PP Course Syllabi:

Method 4

We also obtained a sample of syllabi of PP courses taught at

Canadian universities. In ‘recruiting’ the syllabi, we searched

course catalogues contained in websites of all 83 Canadian uni-

versities. These searches were completed between the months of

March and June 2010. We also emailed all psychology department

chairs in Canada, asking them to identify faculty who have taught

PP. This search resulted in the identification of nine universities in

Canada (10.8%) where PP had been taught as a stand-alone course

at the undergraduate level. Considering there were no universities

in Canada offering undergraduate PP courses before 2004, the

Table 3Taxonomy of PP Themes Found in Eight American Course Syllabi

Themesa Frequencyb Consensusc Citation referenced

Theme 1: Happiness/positive emotions/subjective well-being/flow 7 87.5% 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8Theme 2: Interpersonal/relationships/forgiveness/gratitude 7 87.5% 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8Theme 3: Virtues/character strengths/values/talents/interests 6 75% 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8Theme 4: Resilience 4 50% 2, 4, 7, 8Theme 5: Hope/self-efficacy/perceived control 4 50% 2, 3, 6, 8

a We adopted a liberal approach to forming the themes. Concepts that were judged to reflect similar underlying content were grouped together. b Weexamined a total of eight course syllabi. The frequency statistic reflects the number of syllabi that included content pertinent to each theme. c Given thatsome of the syllabi touched upon multiple themes, the cumulative percent exceeds 100. d Numbers shown in the citation reference column correspondto syllabi shown in Table 4.


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10.8% base rate in 2010 suggests there has been a growth of

interest in teaching PP over the past six years.

From the initial population of nine, we were able to obtain

syllabi for eight of the courses. We believe these results may

provide a reliable first estimate of the ways in which Canadian

faculty who teach PP understand the field. Table 5 reports a

summary of the collated and distilled contents of the Canadiancourses. Our analysis of core content of these syllabi identified six

themes that were especially popular. Similar to the methodology

used with the American syllabi, themes were formed inductively

on a post hoc basis. The themes that emerged were then rank

ordered in terms of how often they were represented across the

different syllabi.

As can be seen in Table 5, three themes ranked as the ‘most

popular.’ Themes with exceptionally high intersyllabus consensus

included ‘happiness’ (100%), ‘virtues/strengths’ (87.5%), and ‘inter-

personal’ PP content (62.5%). Results shown in Table 5 are consistent

with results shown in Tables 1 through 3. All four tables suggest PP

is multifaceted. Furthermore, it appears that there is a reasonably high

level of concordance between what is being taught in PP (i.e., Tables

3 and 5), what is being researched in PP (i.e., Figures 2 and 3), and the

proposed core constructs of PP (i.e., Tables 1 and 2). Thus, there is a

high degree of thematic convergence between constructs considered

to be at the core of PP and what is being taught and researched. In the

next section, we report the results of a cluster analysis of tables of

contents of PP textbooks that are suitable for use in undergraduate

teaching.

Definitions of PP Offered in Published Undergraduate

Textbooks: Method 5

In a fifth and final effort to provide an empirically based answer

to the question “What is PP?,” we examined the tables of contents

of 14 PP textbooks that we judged to be potentially suitable for usein undergraduate courses. We excluded handbooks, technical

books, and narrowly focused research specialty books. We also

excluded most of the PP trade books written for general public

audiences. Books upon which our analysis is based are included in

the reference list of this article. As in our prior analyses, our goal

was to identify core subdomains.

Our approach involved an inductive method in which key concepts

found in tables of contents were grouped together to form themes. We

adopted a liberal approach to conducting our cluster analysis. Super-

ficially dissimilar concepts that we felt were indicative of similar

underlying content were grouped together. For example, books that

mentioned ‘happiness’ were clustered into the same thematic cluster

as books that mentioned ‘subjective well-being.’ The content clusters

or themes that we identified were then rank ordered in terms of how

often they were represented across the different books.

As can be seen in Table 7, a number of different clusters

emerged and these showed varying levels of consensus. The top

ranked cluster that had the highest rate of endorsement involved

the ‘happiness’ theme. Content related to happiness was repre-

sented in the tables of contents of 100% percent of the books we

examined. Approximately 93% of the books included content

related to Theme 2, which centered on ‘virtues/character

strengths.’ Fifty-seven percent of the books included content re-

lated to Cluster 3, which included real world application of PP

principles (e.g., work, health, family, relationships).

PP in Canada and America

Results reported in the current paper permit a limited comparison of

Canadian and American perspectives on PP. While not reported in

any of the tables, we did ask the 39 Canadian scholars who have

published in the field of PP whether they saw any noticeable differ-

ences between the American view of PP and the Canadian perspec-tive. Results showed that 52.6% did not see a difference. A further

18.4% said there was a difference, while 28.9% were unsure.

When we probed the seven Canadian scholars who saw Canadian–

U.S. differences, an emerging consensus was uncovered in which the

Canadians perceived themselves as being more heavily invested in PP

research that incorporates the ecological context(s) of well-being and

living ‘The Good Life.’ In this regard, when contrasting their view to

American-style PP research, one of the Canadians referred to the latter

using the term ‘self-contained individualism.’

We tentatively propose that Tables 2 and 5 may offer insights

into the Canadian experience, while Tables 1, 3, 4, and 7 may be

more indicative of the American experience. Inspection of the data

reveals that academics in both countries are similar in strongly

endorsing the themes of ‘happiness’ and ‘virtues/characterstrengths’ as core aspects of PP.

Our results also indicate that PP academics in Canada and the

United States are similar in terms of their perceptions of ‘resil-

ience’ as an established subdomain within the field. Inspection of

the tables show that ‘resilience’ consistently emerged as a core

theme. However, with one exception (see Table 2), subject matter

of ‘resilience’ was consistently ranked lower than subjects of

‘happiness’ and ‘virtues/character strengths.’ The comparatively

low ranking of ‘resilience’ is paradoxical given results depicted in

Figure 2 which show very high levels of scholarly interest in the

topic of resilience, especially in the last five or six years.

A satisfactory explanation for the ‘resilience gap’ is not imme-

diately available. However, it is possible that the pictures of PPrevealed in Tables 1, 3, 5, and 7 reflect the state of the field before

the contemporary ‘boom’ in the resilience domain over the past 5

or 6 years. In this regard, it should be noted the differentiated

picture of PP shown in Table 2 reveals a fairly recent snapshot that

was obtained from Canadian scholars who were surveyed in Feb-

ruary and March 2010. That ‘resilience’ emerged in Table 2 as the

second highest ranked subdomain may reflect the contemporary

scientific zeitgeist shown in Figure 2. An additional explanation

for the ‘resilience gap’ involves the intellectual identity that might

be held by scholars who are publishing on the topic of resilience.

It is possible that a disproportionate segment of these scholars fail

to see themselves as being aligned with Positive Psychology (e.g.,

child psychologists in developmental psychopathology, or social

work scholars concerned with social justice issues).

General Discussion

Given that PP is just as much a popular culture movement as it is

a fledgling academic discipline, it is not surprising that many people

misunderstand the core content that preoccupies PP scholars. Our

purpose in conducting the current research was to use the data to

educate educators about the nature of PP. We approached this goal by

mapping the various subdomains of PP using diverse methodologies

that are amenable to quantification. We believe the findings of our

analyses provide the first ever empirically derived approximation of

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the scope and boundaries of the field. Hopefully, future research will

extend and refine our results. While the results provided in Tables 1

through 7 and Figures 1 through 3 reflect more than narrative con-

jecture, we wish to acknowledge a number of methodological weak-

nesses. In some instances we had small sample sizes. Two additional

limitations involved the fact that our coding scheme methodology wasunderspecified and we did not perform inter-rater reliability analyses

when performing our concept analyses and when identifying emer-

gent themes. As a result, selection bias and other idiosyncratic biases

could have distorted the findings.

Until replicated by future research, this study should be consid-

ered a preliminary inquiry that supports and extends conclusions

offered by Lopez et al. (2006) and Schmidt et al. (2011). These

authors provide evidence to suggest scholarly interest in integrat-

ing PP concepts into the fields of counselling psychology and

health psychology have increased markedly, especially since the turn

of the millennium. Our own findings support the external validity of

the counselling and health results. In particular, our results extend

prior research by showing the burgeoning field of PP also seems to be

having a more generalized impact on the field of psychology as a

whole. A unique contribution of the current study is that it provides

one of the first efforts to take stock of the field of PP. Hopefully

continued empirical inquiry along this trajectory will improve on our

methodology so as to better quantify and better characterise the nature

and extent of the generalised impact.

Despite the fact that caution should be exercised in drawing

inferences, results of the content analyses reported here support

narrative pronouncements of a boom in the field of PP (see Yen,

2010 & Wong, 2011). Our efforts to empirically map the contours

of the field also provide a clearer identity of the nature of the

various subdomains that we believe constitute the emerging field

of PP. Developmental trends in terms of the degree of scholarly

interest in these subdomains may have implications for forecasting

the future of PP. Hopefully, our data-driven approach to under-

standing the parameters of the field will prove useful to postsecondary instructors who are responsible for educating the next

generation of scholars. In particular, we hope our findings provide

teachers with empirical guidelines for picking and choosing topics

for purposes of lesson planning.

When considered in the aggregate, the five sets of results we

have reported in Tables 2 through 7 support conjecture offered by

Kristjansson (2010) who pronounced ‘happiness’ is a core sub-

domain in the field of PP. The fact that there is convergent

consistency to this pattern across the different methodologies that

we employed suggests there is strong empirical endorsement for

the conclusion that PP is deeply concerned with the study of

‘happiness’ and other synonymous concepts.

Additional findings, however are inconsistent with Kristjansson’s

(2010) suggestion that happiness is “the gravitational hub” of PP.

The trends that we observed in our empirical findings draw atten-

tion to a more complex picture. We found an apparent agreement

amongst academics that ‘happiness’ and ‘virtues/character

strengths’ are twin core concerns to the field of PP. The strong

endorsement of these two subdomains may reflect high levels of

interest in the theoretical concept known as ‘eudaimonia.’ As

noted by Huta (in press), there is confusion and controversy

regarding the nature of eudaimonia. While its status as a philo-

sophical and theological construct is well established, the status of

Table 4

Descriptive Information for Analyzed Undergraduate American Course Syllabia

Professor Course Institution

1. Peterson (2006) Special Seminar in Psychology: Positive Psychology University of Michigan2. Froh (2006) Positive Psychology Hofstra University

3. Rashid (2006) Positive Psychology: An Experiential Course Farleigh Dickinson University4. Shafe (2006) Resiliency and Positive Psychology Rollins College5. Markus/Curhan (2006) The Science of Well-Being Stanford University6. Ben-Shahar (2006) Positive Psychology Harvard University7. Compton (2006) Psychology of Happiness Middle Tennessee State University8. Haidt (2004) Flourishing University of Virginia

a American course syllabi were found at the website www.positivepsychology.org.

Table 5

Taxonomy of PP Themes Found in Eight Canadian Course Syllabi

Themea Frequencyb Consensusc Citation referenced

Theme 1: Happiness/positive emotions/subjective well-being/flow 8 100% 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8Theme 2: Virtues/character strengths/values/talents/interests 7 87.5% 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8Theme 3: Interpersonal/relationships/forgiveness/gratitude 5 62.5% 2, 3, 4, 5, 6Theme 4: Health 4 50% 2, 3, 4, 5Theme 5: Meaning/self-efficacy/hope/perceived control 4 50% 1, 4, 6, 7Theme 6: Resilience/coping 3 37.5% 5, 6, 7

a We adopted a liberal approach to forming the themes. Concepts that were judged to reflect similar underlying content were grouped together. b Weexamined a total of eight course syllabi from Canadian institutions. The frequency statistic reflects the number of syllabi that included content pertinentto each theme. c Given that some of the syllabi touched upon multiple themes, the cumulative percent exceeds 100. d Numbers shown in the citationreference column correspond to syllabi shown in Table 6.


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eudaimonia as a scientific concept is underdeveloped. As a scien-

tific concept, Huta (in press) has identified two schools of thought.

The first conceptual camp views eudaimonia as an outcome or type

of well-being that is characterised by subjective feelings of vitality

and other positive phenomenological experiences. The second

point of view sees eudaimonia as a style of living characterised by

the mindful pursuit of human excellence and intentional striving

toward authenticity. We believe the two schools of thought pro-

posed by Huta (in press) may correspond to the two high-

consensus subdomains of PP that we have documented in the

current study. It is possible the ‘happiness’ cluster we observed in

our analyses maps onto the experiential/phenomenological (well-

being) model of eudaimonia. This understanding comprises a point

of view suggesting eudaimonia ought to be defined as a subjective

outcome (of factors such as virtuous living, etc). Similarly, it is

possible that our identification of the theme ‘virtues/character

strengths’ relates to the Huta’s ‘lifestyle model’ of eudaimonia.

Before moving to a comparison of Canadian and American

understandings on PP, we wish to take a moment to briefly

mention a breakthrough article by Kristjansson (2010) entitled“Positive Psychology, happiness, and virtue: The troublesome

conceptual issues.” As noted by Wong (2011) there has been a

noticeable lack of critical conceptual scrutiny addressing the topics

of happiness/positive emotions and virtue. Kristjansson’s paper

serves as a correction of this oversight. Among other contributions,

he offers a pluralistic model of happiness that goes beyond the

hedonic model, and draws attention to the political and ecological

aspects of PP. For instance, he suggests that people in Rwanda and

Calcutta are probably less interested in achieving happiness by

developing their character virtues than they are in facilitating

change in the kind of society in which they live.

This suggestion is part of Kristjansonn’s philosophical analysis

of whether or not PP has been co-opted in service of conservative

political individualism. In this regard, recall that some of the

Canadian scholars who were surveyed felt an allegiance to the

ecology of PP. This is an approach we feel aligns with the PPcontent domain involving ‘resilience’. Consistent with Wong’s

(2011) model of PP 2.0, Kristjansson also proposes that PP ought

to be less negative about life’s negatives and instead be more

positive about life’s adversities and hardships. This latter senti-

ment is something that we have noticed is being borne out with

increased frequency in the scholarship on ‘resilience’ that has

become progressively more popular in the last five or six years

(see top most line in Figure 2 and Theme 2 in Table 2).

Conclusions

Our goal was to take stock of the field by empirically mapping

the contours of emerging themes. We accomplished this task byusing six different research methodologies. Results document ex-

traordinary growth in the last decade and confirm that scholars in

this area have devoted the lion’s share of their attention to two of

the three ‘Pillars’ of PP as proposed by Seligman and Csikszent-

mihalyi (2000): (a) the study of positive subjective experience and

(b) positive personal traits. Thus, our findings suggest the vision of

PP put forward at the turn of the millennium by Seligman and

Csikszentmihalyi (2000) is a fairly accurate description of the state

of the field a decade later. Coupled with the fact that interest in

Table 6

Descriptive Information for Analyzed Undergraduate Canadian Course Syllabi

Professor Course Institution

1. Dick Day (2011) Positive Psychology McMaster University2. Gregory Gunn (2010) Positive Psychology St. Mary’s University

3. Ulrich Schimmack (2010) The Science of Well-Being University of Toronto Mississauga4. Kenneth Hart (2009) Intro to Positive Psychology University of Windsor5. Stan Sadava (2009) Intro to Positive Psychology Brock University6. Sherry Beaumont (2006) Positive Psychology University of Northern British Columbia7. Paul Wong (2006) Positive Psychology of Meaning Tyndale University College8. John M. Zelenski (2004) Personality & Well-Being Carleton University

Table 7

Taxonomy of PP Themes Found in 14 Undergraduate Textbooks

Themea Frequencyb Consensusc

Theme 1: Happiness/subjective well-being/life satisfaction/quality of life 14 100%Theme 2: Virtues/character strengths/positive traits 13 92.86%Theme 3: Application of PP in real world (i.e., work, health, relationships, family) 8 57.14%Theme 4: Meaningful life/best self/actualization 6 42.86%Theme 5: Resilience/coping 5 35.71%Theme 6: Religion/spirituality 5 35.71%

a We adopted a liberal approach to forming the themes. Concepts that were judged to reflect similar underlying content were grouped together. b Weexamined a total of 14 undergraduate level positive psychology textbooks. These are identified in the Reference list. The frequency statistic reflects thenumber of textbooks that included content pertinent to each theme. c Given that some of the textbooks touched upon multiple themes, the cumulativepercent exceeds 100.

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positive institutions (the third pillar) has been somewhat sparse is

the fact that contemporary PP has witnessed an increase in schol-

arship on the topic of resilience under conditions of hardship. The

later comprises a topic area that was not originally foreseen by

Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000).

We find it curious and significant that the rise in scholarship on

resilience and positive coping is coupled with a rise in PP scholarshipin eudaimonia. We tentatively interpret this pattern as evidence that

helps dispel the widespread cultural and scientific myth that PP is an

elite endeavour solely concerned with the study of Pollyanna-style

hedonic ‘happiology’ in research participants who find themselves

living in idyllic circumstances. In contrast to this stereotype, the

contours of the boundaries we have identified suggest a new identity

is emerging for PP in the second decade of the millennium.

This neophyte identity extends the boundaries of the field be-

yond the study of ‘enjoyable feelings’ and ‘happy thinking’ in

fortunate people who are privileged to live in pleasant circum-

stances. Resilience research (e.g., positive coping in stressful con-

texts/posttraumatic growth) acknowledges that—in the face of

harsh ecological conditions—there is hope for the morphing of the

experience of suffering, and possibly hope for the transformation

of the conditions that give rise to this suffering. Continued research

within this emerging subarea may eventually show that (while the

less fortunate in society may not be able to achieve high levels of

hedonic happiness) people facing harsh realities may still be able

to achieve a type of eudaimonia characterised by a subjective sense

of meaning and purpose and a style of virtuous living marked by

a quest for authenticity.

The resilience aspect of contemporary PP that we have de-

scribed in the current study is consistent with a second gener-

ation model of PP that Wong (2011) has called “PP 2.0.”

Wong’s PP 2.0 complements the three pillar model originally

proposed by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000). It does so

by broadening the scope of the field to include the study of people who function in troubled human ecologies marked by the

existential realities of lack and limitation. Dana Dunn of Mora-

vian College is helping to lead the resilience field in this

direction, having published seminal peer-reviewed papers in

Rehabilitation Psychology. Some of her titles include “Pros-

pects for a Positive Psychology of Rehabilitation” (Dunn &

Dougherty, 2005) and “Defining the Good Life Following Ac-

quired Physical Disability” (Dunn & Brody, 2008). Hopefully,

continued work along the trajectory of PP 2.0 will encourage

instructors who teach PP to provide their students with a well-

balanced curriculum, one that accurately reflects the heteroge-

neity of the field and one that mirrors recent areas of growth

(such as ‘resilience’) that were not anticipated by the founders.

Acknowledging the multifacted nature of PP seems particularly

important because the prevailing cultural stereotype suggests PP is

monolithic and homogeneous. Despite the fact that we were able to

demonstrate PP is broad in scope, Western media has chosen to

characterise the field as having a single minded obsession with

‘hedonic happiness.’ Thus, online, radio, print, and televised

pieces have marketed PP as concerning nothing more than grin-

ning yellow smiley faces. This media-fueled identity of ‘Happiol-

ogy’ makes it difficult for PP educators and researchers to be taken

seriously and do their work effectively. In this regard, leading PP

scholar Barbara Fredrickson has expressed her frustration with the

media in a media interview in which she was quoted as saying

“The curse of working in this area is having to distinguish it from

Chicken Soup for the Soul” (Ruark, 2009).

The narrow scope unidimensional popular understanding of PP

is illustrated in a recent two-part series of articles published in

Psychology Today. In these articles VanNuys (2010a, 2010b) took

PP to task, asking whether the science of happiness is overrated

and whether this has generated a cultural backlash. VanNuys aptlyidentifies Barbara Ehrenreich’s (2010) best-selling pop psychol-

ogy book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive

Thinking Has Undermined America as evidence of a backlash.

Unfortunately, like many people, Ehrenreich mistakenly equates

PP with nonscientific ‘happiology.’ Results of our own research

suggest this characterisation misrepresents the truth: scholars who

embrace PP 2.0 (such as Dana Dunn) simply do not recommend

that clients should be encouraged to adopt a passive style of

denial-based coping that involves the naıve and mindless repetition

of wishful or magical thoughts.

Given this larger cultural context of misunderstanding, I (K.H.)

am not surprised to observe that university students who register in

my PP courses come to class with ready-made stereotypes. Overthe past four years, I have observed a consistent trend in which

some of my students will express surprise in their (end of semes-

ter) teaching evaluations that the course that was delivered was not

the simplistic ‘bird course’ they initially expected it to be. I have

also noticed that similar culturally transmitted stereotypes seem

prevalent among my colleagues. As a reaction against this back-

drop, I have become increasingly involved in a quest to debunk

counterfeit PP and educate my students and my peers about the

true nature of authentic PP.

In conclusion, this paper provides evidence to support the ex-

ternal validity and generalisability of results of prior research

demonstrating PP has increasingly infiltrated scholarship in the

specialized areas of counselling psychology (Lopez et al., 2006)and health psychology (Schmidt et al., 2011) psychology. The

current paper also provides a formalised extension, into the larger

academic domain, of my local pedagogical efforts to correct mis-

perceptions of the boundaries of PP. The research we have de-

scribed provides an empirically based reality check meant to

educate stakeholders about the true nature of PP. We used six

different research methods in our efforts to shed light on the many

contours of the domain.

Hopefully, the current findings will encourage instructors who

teach PP to correct student misconceptions that PP is nothing but

Pollyanna-style ‘happiology.’ Ideally, future students who receive

postsecondary education in PP will receive a well-balanced curricu-

lum, one that accurately reflects the heterogeneity of the field, and onethat mirrors recent areas of growth such as resilience and positive

coping in ecologies marked by challenge and hardship. Giving more

attention to difficult circumstances will help silence critics (e.g., Held,

2005) who accuse PP of being elitist. At the same time, it will also

help create a more expansive ‘new generation’ identity in which the

field becomes more balanced, more humane, and more in touch with

harsh existential realities. In this regard, we look forward to the day

that undergraduate textbooks acknowledge there has been growth,

differentiation, and metamorphosis in the past decade and that PP 2.0

(see Wong, 2011) captures the next generation of scholarship in the

continuing evolution of the field.


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Resume

Cet article vise a quantifier l’interet des chercheurs a l’egard de la

psychologie positive (PP), domaine qui connaıt une evolution

rapide, et d’en definir les limites au moyen de six methodes

distinctes. Les resultats temoignent d’une croissance extraordinaire

au cours de la derniere decennie et confirme que les chercheurs ontconsacre la plus grande part de leur attention a deux des trois

piliers de la PP definis par Seligman et Csikszentmihalyi (2000) :

1) l’etude de l’experience subjective positive, et 2) les traits de

personnalite positifs. Si l’interet a l’egard des institutions positives

a ete quelque peu rare, l’interet pour les sujets de la resilience et de

l’eudemonie s’est rapidement accru. Les deux derniers elements

contribuent a dissiper la notion erronee que la PP est une entreprise

essentiellement elitiste qui ne s’interesse qu’au bonheur de gens

vivant des situations idylliques. Les auteurs esperent que leur

analyse du domaine incitera les educateurs a presenter la PP afin

d’offrir aux etudiants une formation equilibree, qui temoigne a la

fois de l’heterogeneite et des tendances recentes.

Mots-cles : definition de la psychologie positive, empirique, de-termination du contenu

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Received September 12, 2010Revision received February 4, 2011

Accepted February 7, 2011 Ⅲ

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