The future is PERMA and cross-linkage

2nd Congress of the International Association of Positive Psychology (IPPA) in Philadelphia

23-25. July 2011

Over 1200 participants from more than 60 countries, 15 lecturers, 27 workshops and 26 symposia: Just the statistic of the second World Congress of Positive Psychology is impressive.

Contentwise there were mainly two formidable achievements: Firstly the successful combination of scientific research and practical application and secondly the dialogue with other scientific concepts and intellectual edifices.

At the opening three “founding fathers” of Positive Psychology presented the current status and the future tasks.

Ed Diener impressively showed the benefits of well-being. He highlighted two important factors to increase well-being: Giving meaning and goal-directedness.

Chris Peterson encouraged no to stop now. Positive Psychology must now move on inward (neurobiology), outward (intercultural sociology), forward and backward (developmental psychology), between (individuality), and including further develop (social psychology) boldly and selflessly. New interventions and cooperations need to be developed.

Martin Seligman outlined his new theory of well-being, which needs to be explored both continually and systematically. Positive emotions, Engagement, Relation, Meaning and Accomplishment are the cornerstone of wellness. These are teachable and learnable. The time was ripe to aspire PERMA for 51% of the world’s population by 2051. Seligman also relies on the benefits of large social networks such as Google and Facebook.

The first to present was Edward Deci, the founder of self-determination theory (SDT) According to Deci the major motivation comes from within. The needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness makes people a lot more sustainable and to act than external motivators such as pressure and money. Still, Positive Psychology needs to focus more on negatives too in order to discern the positives more accurately.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the founder of the “flow” and his son, professor of cultural anthropology Mark Csikszentmihalyi, had an inspiring conversation about happiness in time and space between East and West. The benefit of "loneliness" is something that the West could learn from the East.

Barbara Fredrickson, founder of the Broaden and Build Theory of Emotion presented her latest research: love. She defines love as an interpersonal and social experience of one or more positive emotions, which is characterized by increased investment in the welfare of the loved one. XXX Biobehaviorale Verhaltenssynchronizität, seligmaneurope it die einzige website im netz mit diesem wort XXX and increased tendencies to mutual exchange. Sooner or later this leads to physical rapport, social commitment and dedication. Love is a positive response. This positive feedback affects well-being even more than just any emotionally positive experience.

Robert Vallerand, the new IPPA president, added the results of his research on compassion.

Antonella Delle Fave, the outgoing president of IPPA showed impressive figures in her report on the development of the Association and the development of a common understanding of wellbeing. The definitional confusion about what is happiness or contentment now seems to be overcome wit with the term “well-being” to some extent.

Richard Davidon finally came up with his results on how meditation and awareness alter brain structures, which could be of enormous importance for responsible Positive Psychological Practice.

In the workshops and symposia it was repeatedly emphasized that the positive psychology does no consider itself a new psychology or a new non-clinical approach. It considers itself an important independent movement within the scientific and applied psychology, whose primary goal is to contribute to the welfare of individuals, social communities and ultimately to mankind. This does not happen in contrast to previous achievements in psychology but in a useful complement and increasingly considering the role of the so-called "negative", too.

The participants were able to take participate in a variety of workshops and symposia and therefore be rewarded with practical suggestions, especially in the field of education, organization (including Positive Leadership), consulting (coaching), health and sports. The main results are published in the foreseeable future on www.ippanetwork.org, the official IPPA website.

Have fun and good luck with Positive Psychology

Yours sincerely

Philip Streit, Austrian member of the IPPA, Board of Directors and Coordinator Seligman Europe

As promised, the photodocumentation of the Second World Congress on Positive Psychology.

We hope you enjoy it.

All the best Dr. Philip Streit and the Seligman Europe Team

You may download all pictures at once as zip file.