Towards Flourishing

Wissing,et.al. 2014

The emerging field of positive psychology has received increasing recognition in the South African context, as seen by the rapidly growing volume of South African research and its inclusion in various undergraduate training programmes at South African tertiary institutions. How do we live the good life? How do we care? What is a life well lived? What is happiness and what is a meaningful life? Is it possible to thrive and flourish in life with all its brokenness, challenges and pain? Towards flourishing is a unique South African textbook that attempts to find scientific answers to the above questions and to explore the assumptions behind them.

Towards flourishing: contextualising positive psychology reflects on the different facets or components (the what) of well-being, the surrounding explanations and theories, and how to enhance well-being in individuals and groups (i.e. the application of scientific knowledge in practice and the evaluation of its outcomes).

Contents include the following:

• Feeling good and functioning well, and its benefits
• Harmonising hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives on well-being
• Bio-psychosocial facets of well-being
• Theories on character strengths, resilience, hope, meaning, self-determination and more
• Positive relations, societies and institutions
• Well-being and global trends, differences and comparisons
• Activities to enhance well-being

Towards flourishing aims to be accessible to a broad market, in particular undergraduate students at universities, colleges and other tertiary institutions where positive psychology forms part of the curriculum.