New reading in positive psychology

Speakers at the Applying the Science of Positive Psychology to Improve Society symposium at Claremont Graduate University are touting their new books.

Cameron, Kim (2008). Positive Leadership: Strategies for extraordinary performance. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. "Shows how to reach beyond ordinary success to achieve extraordinary effectiveness, spectacular results, and what Cameron calls 'positively deviant performance' — performance far above the norm. Citing a wide range of research in organizational development and psychology as well as real-world examples, Cameron shows that to go from successful to exceptional, leaders must learn how to create a profoundly positive environment in the workplace."

Diener, Ed (2009). Well-Being and Public Policy. Oxford Press. Presents the case for national measures of subjective well-being to be used for policy purposes. Available April 2009.

Diener, Ed and Robert Biswas-Diener (2008). Happiness: Unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing. This father and son team presents scientific evidence revealing that happiness is not overrated, and is good for people's health, social relationships, job success, longevity and altruism.

Dutton, Jane E. (2009). Exploring Positive Identities and Organizations: Building a theoretical and research foundation. Psychology Press. "The goal of this book is to forge new ground on identity research through cutting edge compilation of articles by leading identity scholars. Identities will be looked at the individual, dyadic, group and organizational levels. The goal is to stress the positive and have the authors concentrate on what is beneficial, valuable and good in some way." Available May 20.

Fredrickson, Barbara L. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking research reveals how to embrace the hidden strength of positive emotions, overcome negativity, and thrive. Crown Press. The author lays out 10 forms of positivity — joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love — and provides scientific evidence to illustrate her findings that maintaining a 3:1 positivity ratio of positive thoughts to negative emotions creates a tipping point between languishing and flourishing. The book includes compelling case studies, concrete tips, a Positivity Self Test and a tool kit for decreasing negativity and raising the positivity ratio. Available Tuesday, January 27.

Lyubomirsky, Sonja (2008). The How of Happiness: A scientific approach to getting the life you want. London: Penguin Press. "Offers a comprehensive guide to understanding what happiness is, and isn't, and what can be done to bring us all closer to the happy life we envision for ourselves."

Rath, Tom and Barry Conchie (2008). Strengths Based Leadership: Great leaders, teams, and why people follow. New York: Gallup Press. Using data from Gallup's StrengthsFinder program, this new version provides specific strategies for leading with your top five strengths and enables you to plot the strengths of your team based on the four domains of leadership strength revealed in the book.

What are your favorite positive psychology books? Click on comments.