7th European Conference on Positive Psychology in Amsterdam
The 7th European Conference on Positive Psychology took place in Amsterdam on July 1-4, 2014.
The conference was attended by the following members of our laboratory: Dmitry Leontiev, Alexey Ulanovsky, Evgeny Osin and Tatiana Ivanova. One of the symposia was devoted entirely to the Russian case: our staff presented a study of the wellbeing of Russian workers with an emphasis on the role of motivation and personal resources.
The 7th European Conference on Positive Psychology took place in Amsterdam on July 1-4, 2014.
The conference was attended by the following members of our laboratory: Dmitry Leontiev, Alexey Ulanovsky, Evgeny Osin and Tatiana Ivanova. One of the symposia was devoted entirely to the Russian case: our staff presented a study of the wellbeing of Russian workers with an emphasis on the role of motivation and personal resources.
In speaking about the conference, it is necessary to quote Jan Walburg of the Trimbos Institute, one of the key organizers:
‘Positive psychology often gives outsiders the impression that it is all about positive emotions and happiness. To me that is only one part of it, as we realise more and more that positive psychology is about conditions for flourishing and thriving. Those conditions are not only in the interest of making people even happier in affluent countries, but can also benefit every individual in the world.
Positive psychology also concerns people with or without illnesses, as the motivation to flourish is an impulse that fits all human beings. We are privileged to be able to study the prerequisites for flourishing and the ways to implement this knowledge in so many places and so many settings. We meanwhile know from research that interventions that stimulate flourishing really work - for people in the workplace, for youngsters at school, for people with long-term illnesses and for many others.’
The conference opened with a report by the American researcher Barbara Fredrickson called ‘Love and Health.’ Barbara has put forward the thesis that love is a positive response. This term refers to the following:
- Interpersonal experience that is only possible with another person
- Mutual care in the details, not necessarily only with a person’s loved one in the conventional sense, but with many people
- Expression of positive emotions and the desire to share them with others
- Synchronization of the biological aspect and behaviour: eye contact, touch, facial expressions, similar postures, and gestures
- Synchronization in hormone levels, such as increased levels of oxytocin (causes a positive attitude towards other people, takes part in forming the mother-child relationship)
- Neural synchronization: the same areas of the brain are activated when communicating and other joint activities
The conference closed with a report by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who put forth a very philosophical question: Who controls the future?
According to Professor Csikszentmihalyi, people are the most complex expression of life on the planet. But we are not its masters. We have to take responsibility for maintaining the evolution of life on this planet.
We can help find the best ways to co-exist with:
- Interpersonal forces (e.g., global warming, the market economy)
- Other forms of life (plants, animals, viruses, bacteria)
- With one another – through aid in the development of social, economic and cultural structures that would make the continuation of evolution possible.