The good life : unifying the philosophy and psychology of well-being / Michael A. Bishop.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bishop, Michael A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Well-being.

Positive psychology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 235 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Unifying the philosophy and psychology of well-being

Place of Publication:

New York, New York : Oxford University Press, [2015]

Summary:

Philosophers defend theories of what well-being is but ignore what psychologists have learned about it. And psychologists learn about well-being but lack a theory of what it is. In The Good Life: Unifying the Philosophy and Psychology of Well-Being, Michael A. Bishop marries these complementary investigations, and the result is a powerful, new framework for understanding well-being and the good life. The network theory holds that to have well-being is to be “stuck” in a self-perpetuating cycle of positive emotions, attitudes, traits, and success. These states build upon and foster each other, forming a kind of positive causal network (PCN), so that a person high in well-being is in a positive cycle or “groove.” A person with a modest degree of well-being instantiates a PCN fragment—some positive feelings, attitudes, traits or successes, but not enough to kick-start a full-blown, self-perpetuating network. The network theory provides a framework for understanding Positive Psychology, the psychological study of well-being, as the study of the structure and dynamics of PCNs. Psychologists explore the structure of PCNs by investigating correlations and causal connections among positive emotions, attitudes, traits, and success. And they investigate the dynamics of PCNs by identifying states that establish, strengthen, or extinguish them. Bishop’s inclusive approach to the study of well-being brings together the knowledge and skills of the philosopher in her armchair and the scientist in her lab to produce a powerful, unified foundation for future scientific and philosophical investigations into well-being and the good life.

Contents:

The network theory of well-being

An inclusive approach to the study of well-being

Positive causal networks and the network theory of well-being

Positive causal networks and positive psychology

The case for the network theory: an inference to the best explanation

Issues in the psychology of happiness and well-being

Objections to the network theory.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-19-021219-5

0-19-992312-4

OCLC:

894226893