Autumn School "Resources for Psychological Wellbeing"

How are motivation, self-regulation and well-being related? What are the socio-cultural predictors of psychological well-being? What are the basic psychological needs of human beings? How does changing the goal affect well-being? These and many other questions were discussed by the Laboratory staff within the framework of the autumn school "Resources of psychological well-being" for students, postgraduates and scientific-pedagogical workers (18-22 September).

The opening of the school began with a lecture on "Motivation, self-regulation and well-being" by the Head of the Laboratory, Professor, PhD - Dmitry Leontiev. In the lecture an attempt was made to build a conceptual general theoretical framework using exactly this order of words (as in the topic), as it corresponds to the logic of discussing these key concepts through their interaction with each other. In continuation of the second day, an associate professor of the University of Paris Nanterre (France), PhD - Evgeny Osin - gave a lecture on "Sociocultural predictors of psychological well-being". The lecture raised the questions of what is a "good society" from the point of view of positive psychology, what are the social predictors of well-being: money, social system, freedom, relationships, as well as the role of culture in well-being, in particular, individualism and collectivism, the role of values, the evolution of values and the dynamics of well-being.

This is an amazing event. It's the first time I've participated in this format, actually. And it is such a straightforward scientific intensive. I tried to take notes during all the presentations, and I noted a lot of interesting thoughts. And I will return to these notes in the future, reflect on them, and use them somehow in my scientific work, and simply in my life practices. So I am grateful to all the speakers at this event for sharing their experience and knowledge. 

Dmitry Korshunov, Research Assistant at the International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation HSE University, 2nd year Master's student of the Positive Psychology Master's Programme 

The second day of the school continued with a presentation by Evgeny Osin on the psychological well-being of Russians. The discussion posed two research questions: what we know about well-being in the context of Russian culture, and what are the dynamics of Russians' well-being and what does it depend on. This theme was supported by Tamara Gordeeva, Leading research fellow of the Laboratory, PhD, in her lecture "Well-being and migration intentions of Russian youth", where Tamara examined the problem of migration through the prism of positive psychology.

Thank you very much for the organisation, and for such an atmosphere. I had this school at the end of my postgraduate entrance exams. So it was very pleasant and important to hear about well-being and happiness in the evenings. So many valuable insights, and very in-depth topics presented by all the speakers. And taking with me a baggage of insights that are yet to be thought about. May there be more such events.

Elena Dvorskaya, student of the Department of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University​​​​​​​

The third day of the school was entirely devoted to a lecture by Martin Lynch, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of Rochester (USA), on "Basic psychological needs from the perspective of self-determination theory". Martin Lynch discussed the problem of motivation within the framework of self-determination theory and its relationship to well-being, explained in detail the idea of basic psychological needs and the criteria for their identification, and considered practical applications of the available data.

Thank you all very much for preparing the classes, lectures, and all the material in general. It so happened - perhaps not by chance - that throughout the school my colleagues, who are not psychologists, began to use many terms from positive psychology in their speech. And before the school started, I had a question: we know so much, we have so much information, so much theoretical understanding of everything, but where is it all on the practical plane? And now it seems to me that the ideas are being implemented, spreading. And I wish that we would participate actively in this process, not to leave it to the natural course of things, but to try to introduce it even more on our own. Because all research results are very productive and can contribute to the improvement of various areas of human life.

Nikita Kolachev, Research Assistent at the International Laboratory of Positive Psychology of Personality and Motivation HSE University

The next day of the school was devoted to presentations by Elena Rasskazova, Leading research fellow of the Laboratory, PhD, Associate professor at Lomonosov Moscow State University. At the first lecture "Changing the goal and psychological well-being" Elena proposed the idea that the ability to refuse the goal can act as an important personal resource, which provides psychological well-being of a person. In the second lecture "Possibilities of the third wave of cognitive therapy in work with psychological well-being" some connections of the third wave of cognitive behavioural therapy with the possibilities of improving subjective well-being and positive psychology in general were discussed.

I would like to highlight in a separate way the moment of how beautiful this space was in itself, in which it was possible to ask actual questions and share our opinions live, and perhaps just to be in a kind of belonging and satisfy my need for connection, and just enjoy something very beautiful, and tune in to this beautiful autumn and scientific life. Thank you so much for the inspiration!

Antonina Novikova, 2nd year Master's student of the Positive Psychology Master's Programme

At the end of the autumn school, Dmitry Leontiev gave a lecture "Positive Psychology 2.0 and 3.0: Personal Strength in Difficult Times", where the peculiarities of the development of positive psychology as a scientific field and its connection with other directions were discussed. In the framework of the round table with the participation of all lecturers the main outcomes of the school and the directions in which the development of positive psychology can go were discussed. 

After each lecture, a discussion with the school participants was organised, where everyone could ask questions and offer their own ideas and comments on the proposed topic.