Expert Interviews
Dr Robert Biswas-Diener
Dr Martin Seligman
Dr Michael Mosley
Sue presents a ten part interview with Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener
Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is a positive psychologist, author and instructor at Portland State University. Robert’s mother is Carol Diener and his father, the late Ed Diener, both psychologists. Robert’s research focuses on income and happiness, culture and happiness, and positive psychology.
Sue presents a ten part interview with Martin Seligman
Martin Seligman is an American psychologist, educator, and author of self-help books. Martin is a strong promoter within the scientific community of his theories of positive psychology and of well-being. His theory of learned helplessness is popular among scientific and clinical psychologists.
Sue interviews the late Michael Mosley at the Happiness and its Causes Conference
Michael Mosley was a British television journalist, producer, presenter, and qualified doctor who had worked for the BBC since 1985. He was best known as a presenter of television programmes on biology and medicine and his regular appearances on The One Show.
Playlist
Languishing to Flourishing
The Experience Machine
Dan Weijers is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Waikato and a founding co-editor of the International Journal of Wellbeing.
Dan researches wellbeing and the ethics of new technologies from a range of disciplinary perspectives and using a range of methods.
Our Hopes, Our Future
Andreas Krafft holds a doctoral degree in Management Sciences from the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), with a special focus on Organizational Psychology, Culture, and Development.
He has academic specializations in Social Psychology of Organizations, Work and Health Psychology, and Positive Psychology from the University of Zürich. Andreas is an associate researcher in future studies and a lecturer at the Institute of Systemic Management and Public Governance at the University of St. Gallen.
Furthermore, he teaches at the University of Zürich in the fields of Work and Health, at the Master of Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and at the Master of Futures Studies at the Free University of Berlin.
He is co-president of swissfuture, the Swiss Society for Futures Studies, a member of the executive board of the Swiss Positive Psychology Association, and co-director of the German-speaking Association of Positive Psychology. He has led the International Research Network of the Hope Barometer for many years and has published several scientific articles and books on hope.
Creating a Flourishing World
Prof Shige Oishi is the Marshall Field IV Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023) and the winner of the 2017 Society of Experimental Social Psychology Career Trajectory Award, the 2018 Carol and Ed Diener Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and the 2021 Outstanding Achievement Award for Advancing Cultural Psychology.
Ryan Smith is founder of TruDiagnsotic. TruDiagnostic is a CLIA certified lab and health data company which specializes in understanding and reporting insights found through Epigenetic methylation data.
Since starting in 2020, TruDiagnostic has created the largest private epigenetic database in the world with over 130,000 patients tested.
Dr. Michelle McQuaid is a best-selling author, award-winning researcher and playful change activator. An honorary fellow at Melbourne University’s Center for Wellbeing Science and one of LinkedIn’s top 10 Mental Health Thought Leaders, Dr. Michelle McQuaid transforms cutting-edge research into practical tools for thriving.
Michelle is an author of six best-selling books and numerous journal articles, a regular contributor to Psychology Today, and has published over 250 interviews with leading researchers and practitioners on the Making Positive Psychology Work podcast. With a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology and a Ph.D. in systems change, her award-winning work has been recognised globally and featured in outlets including Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, The Age and more.
Dr Denise Quinlan is a director of the NZ Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience and an adjunct Senior Research fellow at the University of Canterbury.
She teaches globally on strengths-focused leadership, resilience, and positive psychology. Throughout a flourishing career, her research has been published in international academic journals and several edited volumes. We also love Denise’s fabulous podcast.
Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is a researcher, author, and well-known executive coach. His studies have taken him to such far-flung places as Greenland, India, Kenya, and Israel where he has researched culture as it relates to wellbeing. In addition to happiness, he has researched strengths, hospitality, friendship, and leadership. Robert has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed academic articles and chapters, and has a citation count of more than 27 thousand. Dr. Biswas-Diener has authored many books, including Positive Provocation (2023), the New York Times Best Seller, The Upside of Your Dark Side (2014), and the 2007 PROSE Award winner, Happiness.
As a consultant and trainer, Robert has presented in 30 nations. He has presented keynotes and workshops to Lululemon, Deloitte, Humana, Standard Chartered Bank, Australia Department of Defense, Queensland Police, Ruby Receptionists, AARP, Cellebrite, Financial Planners Association, Australian Council for Educational Leaders, Japanese Psychological Association, Kaiser Permanente, and the World Bank, among others.
In 2024, Thinkers50 recognised Robert as one of the 50 most influential executive coaches in the world.
Mohsen Joshanloo is a personality and cross-cultural psychologist. His research focuses on mental well-being, culture, personality traits, emotions, and successful aging.
With a global research outlook, he incorporates data from countries spanning six continents. He advocates for the internationalisation of psychological science by integrating insights from non-Western cultures.
He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Keimyung University and an Honorary Principal Fellow at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Lucy Ryan is a global leadership consultant, trainer and coach with a passion for developing leaders so they feel confident to perform at their best and make a positive difference in the world.
Lucy’s 5-year doctoral project explored the experience of female leaders over 50 years, and her subsequent 2023 book ‘Revolting Women: why midlife women walk out’ was an Amazon bestseller and FT Book of the Month.
Lucy is passionate about changing the narrative of our ageing workforce – an imperative topic for organisations. She has been immersed in the field of Positive Psychology for 15 years, and the possibilities it offers for shifting our lens of hopefulness!
If a fortune-teller told 19-year-old Debbie that she would one day become a professor of purpose and impact, she would have asked for a refund.
A tragedy led her family to the Kabballah Centre – years before Madonna and other celebs joined it – where she grew up in a cult-like atmosphere until she managed to escape under threat of an arranged marriage.
Higher education and volunteering transformed Debbie’s life, and she has since devoted her entire career to studying the pro-social behaviour of individuals and companies. Today, she is an awarded and well-published professor of business management and the MBA Director at Macquarie University, Australia.
With over sixty academic articles, five books and a TED talk, she dedicates her teaching, research, and knowledge to creating impact and enabling others to find meaningfulness and purpose.
Peter Senge has been at the forefront of organizational learning since publishing his classic text The Fifth Discipline in 1990, which provided theories and methods to foster aspiration, develop reflective conversation, and understand complexity in service of shaping learning-oriented organization cultures.
In 1997, Harvard Business Review named the learning organization as one of “the seminal business ideas of the prior 75 years.”
Throughout his career, Peter has been asking, “how do we create the conditions for people to work together at their best, cultivating the innate systems intelligence that is our birthright but is all but lost in modern culture?” As an engineer by training, his work has always emphasized tools and methods, not for their own sake but as vehicles for building individual and collective capacities.
Starting with the creation of the Society of Organizational Learning (SoL) in 1997, he has focused on developing learning communities within and especially among organizations, as a way to bring about deep change that individual organizations are unable to achieve working alone. This resulted in the SoL Sustainability Consortium in 1998, pioneer businesses who saw social and ecological imbalances shaping the future, the Sustainable Food Lab in 2002, many of the world’s largest food companies and NGOs working together to make sustainable agriculture the mainstream system, and numerous learning communities in primary and secondary education, leading up to the present global Compassionate Systems community.
For this work Peter was named by the Journal of Business Strategy as one of the 24 people who had the greatest influence on business strategy in the 20th century. In addition to being the founding chairperson of SoL, he is co-founder of The Academy for Systems Change and a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Sloan School of Management. He is the co-director of the MIT Systems Awareness Lab based in the Department of Comparative Media Studies / Writing.
Peter graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in engineering. He holds an M.S. in social systems modeling and a Ph.D. in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management. His publications include The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990), The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (1994), The Dance of Change (1999), Schools that Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares about Education (2000, 2010), Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (2004, 2008), and The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World (2008).
Michael F. Steger, PhD is a Professor and author who is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of meaning, purpose, and a life well-lived.
In ‘Learn With Sue’s’ upcoming In-Conversation session, join us as we explore the topic of ‘meaning’ with Mike; specifically how to find more meaning in life, the distinction between meaning and purpose, and how research has provided us with ideas to help build meaning in life.
Professor Barbara L. Fredrickson is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she directs the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory (a.k.a. the PEP Lab, www.PositiveEmotions.org). She served as President of both the International Positive Psychology Association (2015-2017) and the Society for Affective Science (2020-2021).
Dr. Fredrickson is most known for her Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions, foundational in both affective science and positive psychology. She has published ~150 peer-reviewed articles and her general audience books, Positivity (2009, Crown, www.PositivityRatio.com) and Love 2.0 (2013, Penguin, www.PositivityResonance.com) have been translated into dozens of languages. Dr. Fredrickson is also an award-winning teacher. In 2022, she received the J. Carlyle Sitterson Award for Teaching First-Year Students and she also teaches a free, online course through Coursera, which has attracted ~337,000 learners across ~200 counties. Through this and other means, her scientific work influences scholars and practitioners worldwide, within education, business, healthcare, the military, and beyond.
Demonstrating her high impact, in 2019, Dr. Fredrickson was identified as in the top 0.01% of scientists (across 22 scientific fields) in terms of career-long scholarly impact. Dr. Fredrickson’s scholarly contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the inaugural Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology (American Psychological Association), the Career Trajectory Award (Society of Experimental Social Psychology), the inaugural Christopher Peterson Gold Medal (International Positive Psychology Association), and the Tang Prize for Achievements in Psychology, awarded to recognize exceptional career contributions to the well-being of humanity.
Dr Lindsay G. Oades PhD is an internationally acclaimed wellbeing science researcher, educator and author.
He is currently Deputy Dean and a Professor of Wellbeing Science at the Faculty of Education, at The University of Melbourne (Australia’s #1 University and now 14th in the world). He was a coordinating lead author with a UNESCO assignment examining the relationship between education and human flourishing. In 2013 he was awarded an Australian Government citation for outstanding contribution to student learning.
With over 165 refereed journal articles and book chapters related to wellbeing, recovery and coaching and five books with esteemed publishers, he is a scientific reviewer for the Australian Research Council.
Lindsay’s multidisciplinary background spanning philosophy of science and ethics, clinical, coaching and positive psychology, business and public policy provide insights into the multidisciplinary area of wellbeing. He was previously the Director of the Centre for Wellbeing Science/Centre for Positive Psychology, a co-editor for the International Journal of Wellbeing, a scientific panel member at the Institute of Coaching (Harvard University) and a was visiting researcher at Kings College London. Lindsay’s current work involves wellbeing literacy- (how we communicate about and for wellbeing) part of his new theory Thriveability Theory. Lindsay believes wellbeing is everyone’s business – a shared responsibility.
Sarah Pressman is a Professor of Psychological Science and an Associate Dean in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Irvine.
Her research focuses on the interplay between stress, psychological well-being, and health, with a focus on the physiological processes and behaviors that underlie these associations.
Sarah’s research examines the role that positive emotions, positive behaviours, and other wellbeing/mental health factors play in influencing stress and health outcomes. Sarah is especially interested in exactly how these positive factors “get under the skin” to influence our wellbeing and protect us against the harmful effects of stress.
Pathways that Sarah has examined include physiological processes such as stress hormone reactivity, cardiovascular response, immune system change
Richard Layard is the founder-Director of the Centre for Economic Performance – a leading inter-disciplinary research centre at the London School of Economics. He is currently co-Director of their Community Wellbeing programme.
Richard is an economist who thinks there is more to happiness than just the economy. In 2005 he wrote the best-selling book Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, translated into 20 languages.
He has had huge influence on making psychological therapy more widely available in Britain’s National Health Service, and in 2014 co-authored Thrive on how we can secure a better deal for mental health. In 2018 he co-authored The Origins of Happiness – an analysis of what determines our happiness, based on a range of longitudinal datasets.
Richard’s latest book “Wellbeing: Science and Policy” is the first, field-defining textbook on the subject of wellbeing science. It aims to create a whole new generation of researchers and analysts with expertise in the science of wellbeing and to integrate the social sciences by showing how each of them contributes to the goal of human wellbeing.
Eric Brymer specialises in researching the human-nature experience, with a particular focus on learning, performance and wellbeing in extreme contexts.
Eric’s expertise includes qualitative and mixed methods research design, however he specialises in applying phenomenology and ecological psychology to the human-nature relationship.
He holds a PhD in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology. Eric works with and advises governments and institutional departments and collaborates with teams across the world. He also holds research positions at Queensland University of Technology, Australia, Leeds Beckett University, UK and the University of Cumbria, UK.
Dr. Ellen Langer is a professor in the Psychology Department at Harvard University where she was the first woman to be tenured in the department.
She has been described as the “mother of mindfulness” and has written extensively on the illusion of control, mindful aging, stress, decision-making, and health. She is the founder of The Langer Mindfulness Institute and consults with organizations to foster mindful leadership, innovation, strategy and work/life integration.
Her books, written for general and academic readers, include Mindfulness, The Power of Mindful Learning, On Becoming An Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity, Counterclockwise: Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility and The Handbook of Mindfulness. Her most recent book The Mindful Body draws on her lifetime of expertise and trailblazing research by revealing the capacity that mindfulness has to transform our lives.
A passionate and compelling lecturer who presents at organizations worldwide, Langer has authored over 200 research articles and six books. Her work has led to numerous academic honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the recipient of four Distinguished Scientist Awards and the Liberty Science Genius Award.
Nic Marks is an independent policy adviser, speaker, statistician and author. He is best known for his work on the Happy Planet Index, as a fellow of the New Economics Foundation (NEF) in London. The Happy Planet Index is the first global measure of sustainable well-being which envisions a future where good lives don’t have to cost the earth.
Marks is the founder and CEO of Friday Pulse (formerly Happiness Works), an organisation focusing on changing the world of work. He has been featured in publications including the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Wired UK, and The Huffington Post. He was voted one of the Top 10 original thinkers in 2011 by Director Magazine and listed on Forbes 7 Most Powerful Ideas in 2011.
Marks’s work has led to him being invited to speak, train and host workshops at conferences and events around the world as well as closer to home in London. Notable highlights include his 2010 TEDGlobal talk in Oxford, which has been viewed more than a million times.
Dr. Isaac Prilleltensky is the former dean of the School of Education and Human Development and former vice provost for Institutional Culture at the University of Miami. He was born in Argentina and has lived and worked also in Israel, Canada, Australia, and the United States. He is fluent in English, Spanish, and Hebrew, and proficient in Italian, and has given keynote addresses in 27 countries.
Isaac holds the inaugural Erwin and Barbara Mautner Chair in Community Well-Being. He has published 12 books and over 140 articles and chapters. His interests are in the promotion of well-being in individuals, organizations, and communities; and in the integration of wellness and fairness. He is the recipient of multiple awards by the
Michael Pluess, PhD, is a Professor in Developmental Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Initially trained in chemistry and music he spent several years working in the lab and on stage before pursuing his interests in psychology. His research focuses on three areas: 1) individual differences in Environmental Sensitivity, the notion that some are more affected by the same experience than other people due to being more sensitive to environmental influences, 2) Positive Development, such as the development and evaluation of interventions aimed at promoting the development of psychological wellbeing in children and adults, and 3) Mental Health and Resilience in Humanitarian Crises, including longitudinal studies and randomised controlled trials on mental health interventions in humanitarian settings. His research has been published in the leading journals of the field.
Neal M. Ashkanasy is a Professor of Management in the UQ Business School, University of Queensland. His PhD (1989) is in social and organizational psychology from the University of Queensland. He has research interests in leadership, organizational culture, business ethics, and the role of emotions in organizational life.
Prof. Ashkanasy has published over 200 journal articles and book chapters, and is author or co-author of over 300 conference papers. His work has appeared in leading international refereed journals such as the Academy of Management Review, the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of Management, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. He has edited six books: The Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate (Sage), Emotions in the Workplace; Theory, Research, and Practice (Quorum); Managing Emotions in the Workplace (ME Sharpe), Emotion in Organizational Behavior (LEA), the Research Companion to Emotion in Organizations (Edward Elgar), and the Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate, Second Edition (Sage); and he is series co-editor of Research on Emotion in Organizations (Emerald). He also administers two e-mail discussion lists: Orgcult-L, the Organizational Culture Caucus list; and Emonet-L, the Emotions in the Workplace list, with a combined subscription membership of over 1600.
Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is widely known as the “Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology” because his research has taken him to such far-flung places as Greenland, India, Kenya, and Israel.
He is a leading authority on strengths, culture, courage, and happiness and is known for his pioneering work in the application of positive psychology to coaching.
Robert has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed academic articles and chapters, two of which are “citation classics” (cited more than 1,000 times each). He has authored eight books, including The Courage Quotient, the 2007 PROSE Award winner, Happiness, the New York Times Best Seller, The Upside of Your Dark Side and his latest book Positive Provocation.
Lord O’Donnell is a member of the House of Lords and was Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service from 2005-2011 and in 2010, oversaw the introduction of the first coalition government since the Second World War.
Gus oversaw the introduction by the Office of National Statistics of the UK’s national wellbeing data. After retiring as Cabinet Secretary he has worked intensively on wellbeing issues, helping to establish the What Works centre on wellbeing and writing on how to use wellbeing as a guide to policy. This includes ch.6 of the World Happiness Report, 2013, chairing the report on Wellbeing and Policy produced by Sir Angus Deaton, Lord Layard, Martine Durand and David Halpern (commissioned by the Legatum Institute).
Most recently, as Co- chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing, he has overseen a report on what a Spending Review based on Wellbeing would look like.
Meike Bartels, Ph.D., (1973) is University Research Chair Professor in Genetics and Well-being at the Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She published over 250 papers in peer-reviewed journal including the first molecular genetic evidence for well-being in PNAS and the first genomic variant for well-being in Nature Genetics.
She is the president of the International Positive Psychology Association and the immediate past president of the Behavior Genetics Association. She combines research with teaching and is the Director of the Research Master Genes in Behaviour and Health, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
She was awarded a prestigious European Research Council Consolidator grant to build, expand and consolidate her line of research on Genetics and Wellbeing.
John F. Helliwell is Professor Emeritus in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia, and Distinguished Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. From 2006 to 2017 he directed (with George Akerlof) CIFAR’s program in Social Interaction, Identity and Well-Being.
His books include Globalization and Well-Being (UBC Press 2002), Well-Being for Public Policy (OUP, with Diener, Lucas and Schimmack, 2009), International Differences in Well-Being (OUP, edited with Diener and Kahneman, 2010), all ten editions, 2012-2022, of the World Happiness Report, and (with Jon Hall) Happiness on a Healthier Planet, in Myers & Frumkin, eds. Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves (Island Press, 2020).
Recent papers include one with Lara Aknin and others in Lancet Public Health entitled “Policy Stringency and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A longitudinal analysis of data from 15 countries”.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Officer of the Order of Canada.
For more detail see: https://blogs.ubc.ca/helliwell/
Dr Jessica Payne started her research journey in stress and memory, and her friend, who was studying sleep, encouraged her to take a sleep class.
This led Jessica to start focusing her research on sleep, stress, cognition and emotion and how they are linked.
Listen along to this interesting session to learn more about the interaction between stress and sleep, cognition and emotions.
You can find more information at Jessica’s website, where you can download a free cheat sheet of her top three sleep tips. She is also developing a digital course focused on increasing leadership effectiveness, performance, and brain function by tapping into the power of sleep. If you would like to get exclusive early access when it launches, you can sign up here.
Dr Robert Quinn is one of the founders of Positive Organisational Scholarship and has focused on positive leadership and change in organisations for the last 35 years.
Robert’s passion for change, particularly the focus on what is meaningful for himself and others, and how he can inspire positive change, can be seen throughout his career.
Robert explains why meaning and purpose, including organisational purpose, are so important in our lives. He tells us about some of his research and experience and the extraordinary changes he has seen using Positive Organisational Scholarship principles.
Listen along to this captivating session to learn more about meaning, purpose and the importance they play in our lives and organisations.
Dr Jane Dutton has been an academic for 40 years with a PhD that integrates psychology and sociology to understand organisations.
Jane worked on Positive Organisational Scholarship with others and stepped into this space as she noticed the impact organisations have on people’s minds and people’s hearts. Jane discusses how Positive Organisational Scholarship was born and why it is so important.
Listen to this captivating session to learn more about Positive Organisational Scholarship, job crafting and how to implement these more.
Dr Denise Quinlan is a director of the NZ Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience and an adjunct Senior Research fellow at the University of Canterbury.
She teaches globally on strengths-focused leadership, resilience, and positive psychology. Throughout a flourishing career, her research has been published in international academic journals and several edited volumes. We also love Denise’s fabulous podcast.
Dr Denise Quinlan is back to delve deeper into ruthless prioritisation and why it is so important.
As we get busier, we need to be able to focus our energy and attention on where it’s needed most. Using the mental agility model, which is at the heart of resilience, we can narrow down our focus and energy to the intersection between what we care about and what we can control. These are the things we need to prioritise and communicate with our teams regularly.
Listen to this captivating session to learn more about ruthless prioritisation and its impact on individuals and teams.
Writer and psychologist Barry Schwartz frequently publishes editorials in The New York Times, applying his research in psychology to current events. His fascinating body of research addresses morality, decision making and the inter-relationships between behavioural science and society.
He is the Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College and since 2016 has been visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Barry is known for his innovative ideas that ultimately speak to what can make humans less stressed and more pleased with their lives. His work challenges us to think outside the box about the potential of humanity and to abandon our preconceived notions of what will make us happy.
He is also the author of several books such as The Costs of Living, The Paradox of Choice, Learning and Memory, The Battle for Human Nature and Practical Wisdom.
We discuss Barry’s work in our Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing. Now we get to hear from him directly! Really looking forward to everyone having this fantastic opportunity.
Marco Iacoboni is a Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences and Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab at the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center. He is a leading neurologist and neuroscientist originally from Rome, Italy and has been with UCLA since 1999.
Marco, and his team, investigate the human mirror neuron system and its role in social behaviour and disorders. His fabulous book “Mirroring People: The new science of empathy and how we connect with others” is a must-read.
I first met Marco when we were both speaking at a conference over 10 years ago in the US and it was the only time I felt compelled to go and talk to a speaker after a presentation. I love Marco’s work and expertise and for me personally, someone who combines my two great loves of Italy and neuroscience is already amazing!
Together, we will explore his key research into mirror neurons, the different types of empathy and how the ‘smart cells’ in our brain impact us! And maybe I can practise a few words of my basic Italian learning!
Dr. Tayyab Rashid is a licensed clinical psychologist at the Health & Wellness Centre, University of Toronto Scarborough. For more than 15 years, Tayyab has worked with individuals experiencing complex mental health issues including severe depression, debilitating anxiety, borderline personality disorder, and suicidal behaviour.
Dr. Tayyab Rashid shares how he started in the space of positive psychotherapy. He delves into the importance of focusing on the good of a person, whilst acknowledging pain and suffering. Tayyab sees himself as a story curator, so join Sue and Tayyab to listen to what inspires him and the experiences he has to share.
Professor Felicia Huppert is a psychologist with a long-standing research interest in the science of wellbeing and the promotion of human flourishing. Her work combines approaches from cognitive psychology and neuropsychology with a population perspective derived from epidemiology.
Felicia shares how her love of learning and curiosity led her to into the life of research. Sue and Felicia talk about the significance of context and relationships when looking at global policy, and the differences between countries when looking at their wellbeing profile, even though they might have the same satisfaction with life score. Listen along to learn more about global wellbeing and the research and progress in this space!
Ilona Boniwell discusses her recent research, which has focused on positive psychology and positive psychology coaching in the workplace. Ilona shares how she became one of the European leaders in positive psychology and how she started the European Network of Positive Psychology (ENPP).
Professor Dianne Vella-Brodrick (PhD) holds the Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology and is Deputy Director and Head of Research at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne.
Dianne is a legend in Positive Psychology research and serves on many research advisory boards, reviews papers for journals, and is hugely active in supporting others who are keen to do robust research in this space.
Dianne’s research interests include the development and evaluation of wellbeing programs, particularly in positive education and performance optimisation.
We gained valuable insight into her approach to research and were inspired by her genuine sense of humanity. She is focused on ensuring wellbeing is tangible, engaging and personalised.
“I am really trying to make wellbeing more tangible because, for a lot of people, wellbeing can be an abstract term.”
– Dianne Vella-Brodrick
We discussed how it can be a challenge for young people to engage with and use wellbeing strategies. Dianne endeavours to expose them to a whole range of practical activities so they can intuitively get a sense of what resonates with them.
She explains the scientifically based BIO-DASH program, which combines stress-reduction and wellbeing strategies with the latest technology. She emphasised that wellbeing programmes need to be fit for purpose and relevant to the target group.
In addition, we explored the topics of:
- Breathing methods and awareness of physiological response
- The layering of wellbeing interventions
- An inter-disciplinary approach to positive psychology
- Wellbeing coaching in the workplace and job crafting
- Orientation to happiness and offering multiple pathways to wellbeing
- The use of technology and wearable devices to track emotional responses
Dr Kim Cameron is the William Russell Kelly Professor of Management and Organisations at the Ross School of Business and Professor of Higher Education at the University of Michigan.
Kim’s extensive research on organisational virtuousness, effectiveness, quality culture and the development of leadership excellence has been published in more than 130 academic articles and 15 scholarly books. He is recognised as an expert on positive relational energy, which profoundly impacts both professional and personal lives.
His fascinating body of work examines scientific research around individual attraction and response to the presence of positive energy and the role it plays in organisational cultures.
Kim shared insights on his research into what happens to organisations when they downsize and the common factors of those who blossomed in the process. He talks of companies with embedded trust levels and whose culture supports empathy, compassion, and kindness.
“Virtuous activity embedded in an organisation leads to what I refer to as a culture of abundance.”
– Dr Kim Cameron
The conversation surrounded the fact that humans have an inherent tendency towards the positive. We practice the heliotropic effect of pulling towards life-giving energy.
Kim shares findings on what attributes make a person a ‘positive energiser’ within an organisation and the power of contribution to others in this context.
We discussed the unequivocal evidence surrounding the implementation of positive practices and their bottom-line impact. Productivity and profitability, increased quality, innovation, customer loyalty and employee retention are just some of the benefits!
Dr Caitlin Cowan is an NHMRC fellow at the University of Sydney whose research aims to enhance our understanding of the interactions between the brain, the gut, and the microbes within.
Informed by her work at the APC Microbiome Ireland with Professors John Cryan and Ted Dinan alongside her clinical background in child psychology, she takes a translational approach to the study of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, with a focus on how these interactions shape our development.
The gut microbiota is a vast, complex, and fascinating ecosystem of microorganisms that resides in the human gastrointestinal tract.
Our learning community thoroughly enjoyed an informative chat with Caitlin, who enlightened us with her extensive knowledge of the relationship between microbiota and psychological wellbeing.
The discussion touched on the fascinating research findings of animal studies linking symptoms of depression and anxiety to the microbiome.
Caitlin shared her knowledge on how what we eat, exercise levels, and our home environments affect our microbiomes. We learn about the difference between pre-biotics and pro-biotics and the benefits of both.
We learn how antibiotics and other medications affect the microbiome, and Caitlin shared an area of particular interest into the need to personalise treatments based on our individual micro-content. Caitlin hopes that future research in the field will shed further light on how our individual ‘microbiome signature’ is affecting us and how we can best feed and nurture it.
“There are actually more bugs and more bacterial content than we have human cells or human genes in our body.”
Dr Todd B. Kashdan is a Professor of Psychology at George Mason University and a leading authority on wellbeing, curiosity, psychological flexibility and resilience.
For over 20 years, Todd has been teaching college courses on the science of well-being.
Having published over 200 peer-reviewed articles his work has been cited over 30,000 times. He is the author of several books including “Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life”, and “The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why being your whole self – not just your “good” self – drives success and fulfillment”.
His new book “The Art of Insubordination: How to dissent and defy effectively” sums up Todd’s amazing challenge with irreverence, ask curious questions, and leverage rigorous science.
The pair share their personal insights into questioning the role of formal academic qualifications in the field of Positive Psychology and wellbeing. Todd shares one of the criticisms he has of psychology is that many researchers are focusing on singular themes, and in truth, he believes they are all in concert, they interact with each other. He considers what he does as synergising areas of research and says, “I try to look for zigging when everyone else is zagging.”
The nuisances of communication and language use with our audiences is discussed, and how emotional intelligence and the art of curiosity play into the outcomes of all learning and teaching opportunities.
Some great questions are posed: How much weight should we be placing on university or academic degrees? What is the link between cognitive intelligence and creativity?
“I would love to be known as a very nuanced researcher who asks the questions that others forget to ask about”
– Todd Kashdan
Dr Alex Linley is globally recognised as an expert in strengths. As the founder of Cappfinity in the UK, his aim of ‘strengthening the world’ focuses on leveraging expertise to apply strengths psychology to organisational development and people practices.
Alex was a Visiting Professor in Psychology throughout his academic career at the University of Leicester and Bucks New University. He has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Warwick.
The author of Average to A+ and the creator of the Strengths Profile, the leading strengths assessment, Alex, has changed the face of recruitment and development across many organisations.
Sue and Alex discuss the philosophy behind various strengths profile assessments and shed light on the fundamental need for a dynamic and flexible approach to strengths spotting. Alex believes that our strengths are neither fixed nor genetically encoded and can shift and change with the ebbs and flows of life. The conversation touches on cognitive ability testing, strengths over-play, and the future of positive psychology. Alex and Sue’s shared enthusiasm for the evidence-based application of strengths interventions shines through as they exchange thoughts and queries on this fascinating topic.
“One of the most powerful pathways that I think strengths operate through is the way that using our strengths generates positive emotion and all of the things that positive emotions then lead to.”
– Alex Linley
Tim Lomas is a senior researcher with the Wellbeing for Planet Earth Foundation, where his role involves working with Gallup to explore non-Western perspectives on wellbeing.
From 2013 to 2020, Tim was a lecturer in positive psychology at the University of East London and has since published over 70 papers and 11 books relating to wellbeing.
Tim has a wealth of knowledge around happiness, linguistics, mindfulness, Buddhism, cross-cultural enquiry and beyond.
In this intriguing chat, Tim shares how he wants to ‘break the box open’ on the definition of happiness and create a more expansive view of its’ meaning.
Without a linguistic frame of reference, how do we make sense of emotions or concepts? The pair discuss how words help us to both notice and recognise our feelings. The way we articulate our experiences plays a part in how we remember them and give meaning to them. Sue and Tim decipher the importance of language in the conceptual mapping of our wellbeing and share insight into the need for more cross-cultural inclusion and global perspectives in positive psychology.
“Often we take language for granted… like it’s just a strange tool we have, yet once you shine a light on it – it’s not just a static capacity but something we can really nurture and cultivate.”
– Tim Lomas
Dr Denise Quinlan is a director of the NZ Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience and an adjunct Senior Research fellow at the University of Canterbury.
She teaches globally on strengths-focused leadership, resilience, and positive psychology. Throughout a flourishing career, her research has been published in international academic journals and several edited volumes. We also love Denise’s fabulous podcast.
She also shared her insight and knowledge on self-compassion.
Sue has known Denise for many years and collaborates with her on our Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing programme in New Zealand. Their first meeting was scheduled for an hour in Wellington, and three hours later, they shared a cab to the airport, having barely drawn breath!
“Self-compassion is the antidote to perfectionism.”
– Denise Quinlan
Dr Robert Biswas-Diener is widely known as the “Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology” because his research has taken him to such far-flung places as Greenland, India, Kenya, and Israel.
He is a leading authority on strengths, culture, courage, and happiness and is known for his pioneering work in applying positive psychology to coaching.
Robert has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed academic articles and chapters, two of which are “citation classics” (cited more than 1,000 times each). Dr Biswas-Diener has authored seven books, including The Courage Quotient, the 2008 PROSE Award winner, Happiness, and the New York Times Best Seller, The Upside of Your Dark Side.
During our conversation, it was no surprise to find him equally humble, insightful, and thought-provoking.
He shared how he celebrates his intellectual freedom to pursue topics that interest him in a series of Positive Psychology “side hustles”. Despite his brilliant career to date, he referred to himself as “a research hobbyist” without a formal academic affiliation. Perhaps the playful resistance to label or pigeonhole his areas of expertise is reflective of his perspective on the study of Positive Psychology as a whole.
“In Positive Psychology, I have always lamented the fact that people rush to closure….”
– Dr Robert Biswas-Diener –
Through working in the fitness and rehab industry for over 30 years, Tom Roman discovered the similarity between movement behaviours and personal behaviours.
He believes all movements are learned and changed in the same way. As a result, he developed a type of training called the “Roman Method – A Client-Centred Approach to Retraining Motor Control”.
This Australian Physiotherapy Council accredited course explores how the brain learns movement and which environments best enable a participant to learn new movement skills. This method relies on many of the Principles of Positive Psychology.
Tom has experience in teaching a university course in Peer Counselling Skills, as well as, providing training in the areas of Stress Management, Motivation, Self Esteem, Leadership Development, and Communication Skills.
“Tom Roman played a significant role in supporting my physical wellbeing after being unable to walk or function due to various systems shutting down.” – Sue Langley
Recovery from injury can be overcome through combining neuroscience with movement and building on the positive. During our session with Tom, we explored how important functional movement is for our emotions, wellbeing, health and longevity.
We discussed how movement is a form of expression – it is intrinsically connected to how we relate to the world around us. Tom shared his thoughts on memory, overcoming fear, self-esteem, problem solving, and how these concepts relate to movement.
“Movement is our first primary expression and our ability to act in the world around us. It is the first thing that we learn, and if you think about it, every learned movement that we have, has an emotional connection to it.”
– Tom Roman
As Director of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, lead investigator for the International Wellbeing Study and Senior Scientist for Work on Wellbeing, Aaron has dedicated a great deal of his energy to measuring mental health and wellbeing.
In addition to his research work, Aaron is also a wellbeing consultant, social entrepreneur, holds multiple qualifications in philosophy, computing, education, and psychology, and is an author and presenter. He has an in-depth understanding of what we can do to lift our sense of wellbeing and the wellbeing of those around us – at home and work. An area of particular interest is that of personal values.
Sue and Aaron agree on how simply thinking and talking about our values can enlighten and energise people. They discuss how over the course of a lifetime our values will change.
Sue quizzes Aaron on his techniques and tools for wellbeing research. They discuss the importance of posing interesting questions and how this shapes worthwhile findings. We discuss ethical guidelines and their role in positive psychology.
In this robust chat, they deconstruct the very definition of ‘wellbeing’, and Aaron shares his insight into what the term means to different groups of people – the role of research, practitioners, and organisations. Sue and Aaron discuss the importance of further education in positive psychology and the need for more professionals qualified in this space.
“My clinical Psychology PhD research was about personal values and how that related to depressed mood. When I threw in a few wellbeing questions, what I found is a really strong relationship between knowing what your values are, living in line with them, and levels of wellbeing.”
– Aaron Jarden
Christian is a thought leader in the alignment of coaching and positive psychology and shares how the two fields can unlock potential, build on people’s strengths, enhance wellbeing, and help us achieve our optimal potential.
As the Professor of Coaching and Positive Psychology at the University of East London (UEL) and Executive Director of Growing Coaching International, Christian has developed tools and techniques to help people be the best they can be.
Christian is an executive coach, academic, consultant and author, with expertise in coaching, motivation, mental toughness and leadership. His coaching system can be applied across a range of conversational contexts and create a culture of growth for a whole community.
Christian shares that he is passionate about exceptional coaching because he thinks it can lead to transformative experiences for others. When we integrate coaching and positive psychology, it helps people to live better lives. Sue and Christian consider how time perspective plays a role in effective coaching and the skills of observation and strengths spotting.
As lifelong learners, Sue and Christian lead us on a robust discussion about all aspects of coaching. They ponder how a great coach is both grounded and genuinely in the moment.
“Positive Psychology is the difference between focusing on opportunity and focusing on those things that are getting in the way. “
– Christian van Nieuwerburgh
Ever wondered why you experience hangovers ten-fold compared to your friends? Or why you have never endured jetlag? How do we translate what our genes mean in everyday life?
James Raaff is a healthcare pioneer with over 23 years of clinical experience exploring health strategies using DNA and genomic analysis. With early beginnings in Biokinetics, James has several degrees in the health sciences, culminating in a postgraduate certificate in Integrative Medicine.
James’s work is underpinned by understanding how your specific DNA is one fundamental reason you are who you are. Your DNA makes you unique, and understanding your uniqueness is key to planning how best to look after yourself.
James shares the exciting possibilities of using our unique genetic makeup to create lifestyle balance, reduce our risk of disease, and even perform better. We discuss the growing body of science surrounding gut health and the brain and consider several key findings.
The conversation explores the complex relationship between your genetics and your environment. We are in a constant relationship with everything around us. James explains that, whilst nothing we do alters our actual genetic structure, the things we do influence how our genes express themselves.
“Genetics and genomic science describe the deepest level of individuality of a person – what makes you unique right down to a biochemical level – is defined by your genes.”
– James Raaff
At some point, we have all asked, “Does my life have meaning? What is our purpose? Why are we here?” Who better to discuss these big questions with than Dr Michael Steger – the Founder and Director of the Center for Meaning and Purpose.
Mike Steger is a Professor in Psychology and has published several books. His research has focused on understanding the factors that foster wellbeing and reduce psychological distress in peoples lives. He has spent most of his time looking at the role of meaning in life in human wellbeing.
In this interactive and intuitive session, Sue and Mike explore practical ways that each of us can create more meaning and purpose – and actively contribute to our overall life satisfaction.
Socio-cultural models of behaviour and our values are closely linked to our sense of meaning across all environments. The way we leverage meaning can open and close doors both in our personal lives and workplace.
“I like to advise leaders that employees didn’t write their job description and recruit themselves, they are showing up to do whatever they think they are supposed to do. I think it is on leaders and managers to convey that each employee matters and exactly how they matter. “
– Michael Steger
Dr Ellen Langer is a pioneer, a maverick, a leader, and an all-round fabulous human being. Described as the “mother of mindfulness”, she has written extensively on the illusion of control, mindful ageing, stress, decision-making, and health.
She has inspired many to follow in her research footsteps and as Professor of Psychology at Harvard. Ellen has several books, with a new one on the way. On top of that, she is an artist! She is the founder of The Langer Mindfulness Institute and consults with organisations to foster mindful leadership, innovation, strategy, and work/life integration.
In this insightful chat, Sue and Ellen discuss various research areas and how Ellen followed her passion in this space. Ellen shares her fascinating findings on ageing and how all her work is thoroughly linked to observation. They ponder judgement, stress, certainty and how they relate to mindlessness. Ellen shares her belief that the world can be a world where everybody wins, a more mindful world.
“For the past 40 years, I have been studying mindfulness without meditation. It is the very simple act of actively noticing new things.”
– Ellen Langer
