TED Tuesday: The Happy Secret to Better Work

For a couple of decades now, a small group of psychologists has been urging the field to study the "positive" side of things. The leaders of this movement believe that psychologists spend too much time focusing on the negative and that we should try to understand how people can become "Self-actualized," that is, reach their full potential. They have given their movement the unoriginal title "Positive Psychology." I must admit that I've always been skeptical -- no one has yet convinced me that health is anything but the absence of mental illness -- but in recent years my stance has softened a bit. In other words, I think Monty Python was on to something. This funny and rather informative talk details the ideas behind the movement as well as some recent research that you may be able to apply to your own life.

Ed

Ed enjoys all forms of entertainment and has an unnatural love for quantitative methodology. He operates out of a basement in Northern Virginia (@edomaniac).

---

This post originally appeared on Stuff Smart People Like. Subscribe to the Podcast.