A01=Michael Bishop
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Michael Bishop
automatic-update
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HPM
Category=HPQ
Category=JM
Category=QDTM
Category=QDTQ
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Format=BB
Format_Hardback
Language_English
PA=To order
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
softlaunch
Product details
- ISBN 9780199923113
- Format: Hardback
- Weight: 340g
- Dimensions: 150 x 213mm
- Publication Date: 26 Feb 2015
- Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Philosophers defend theories of what well-being is but ignore what psychologists have learned about it, while psychologists learn about well-being but lack a theory of what it is. In The Good Life, Michael Bishop brings together these complementary investigations and proposes a powerful, new theory for understanding well-being.
The network theory holds that to have well-being is to be "stuck" in a self-perpetuating cycle of positive emotions, attitudes, traits and accomplishments. For someone with well-being, these states -- states such as joy and contentment, optimism and adventurousness, extraversion and perseverance, strong relationships, professional success and good health -- build upon and foster each other. They form a kind of positive causal network (PCN), so that a person high in well-being finds herself in a positive cycle or "groove." A person with a lesser degree of well-being might possess only fragments of such a network -- some positive feelings, attitudes, traits or successes, but not enough to kick start a full-blown, self-perpetuating network.
Although recent years have seen an explosion of psychological research into well-being, this discipline, often called Positive Psychology, has no consensus definition. The network theory provides a new framework for understanding Positive Psychology. When psychologists investigate correlations and causal connections among positive emotions, attitudes, traits, and accomplishments, they are studying the structure of PCNs. And when they identify states that establish, strengthen or extinguish PCNs, they are studying the dynamics of PCNs. Positive Psychology, then, is the study of the structure and dynamics of positive causal networks.
The Good Life represents a new, inclusive approach to the study of well-being, an approach committed to the proposition that discovering the nature of well-being requires the knowledge and skills of both the philosopher in her armchair and the scientist in her lab. The resulting theory provides a powerful, unified foundation for future scientific and philosophical investigations into well-being and the good life.
Michael A Bishop is Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
