The Human Pursuit of Well-Being

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Happiness and Well-Being

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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3. Happiness, well-being

   1. Can We Get Happier Than We Are?

      • Ruut Veenhoven

      Pages 3-14

   2. Self-serving Attributional Bias and Hedonic and Eudaimonic Aspects of Well-Being

      • Pilar Sanjuán, Alejandro Magallares, Rodolfo Gordillo

      Pages 15-26

   3. Affect Specificity as Indicators of National Well-Being: Representative Sample of Croatia

      • Zvjezdana Prizmić-Larsen, Ljiljana Kaliterna Lipovčan, Tihana Brkljačić

      Pages 27-38

   4. The Effect of Leisure Activities on Life Satisfaction: The Importance of Holiday Trips

      • Jeroen Nawijn, Ruut Veenhoven

      Pages 39-53

   5. From Flow to Optimal Experience: (Re)Searching the Quality of Subjective Experience Throughout Daily Life

      • Teresa Freire

      Pages 55-63

   6. Gender Differences in Psychological Well-Being and Distress During Adolescence

      • Dalila Visani, Elisa Albieri, Emanuela Offidani, Fedra Ottolini, Elena Tomba, Chiara Ruini

      Pages 65-70

   7. The Impact of Positive Affect: Two Weekly Assessment Studies on Benefits of Positive Emotions in Patients with a Chronic Painful Disease

      • Elin Strand

      Pages 71-81

   8. Studying Predictors of Posttraumatic Growth in Cancer Patients

      • Marta Scrignaro, Sandro Barni, Maria Luisa Bonetti, Maria Elena Magrin

      Pages 83-91

4. Motivation and Goals

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 93-93

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   2. It’s All About Me: Maladaptive Self-focused Attention as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Extrinsic Goals and Well-Being

      • Mami Yamaguchi, Jamin Halberstadt

      Pages 95-106

   3. The Relation of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Aspirations to Adolescent Life Satisfaction

      • Marina Merkaš, Zora Raboteg-Šarić, Dubravka Miljković

      Pages 107-119

   4. Where Does the Motivation for the Antiretroviral Therapy Come From? Assessing Existential Meaning, Personal Growth, and Motivation Toward Antiretroviral Therapy in People Affected by HIV/AIDS

      • Krzysztof Szadejko, Gabriele Covotta

      Pages 121-129

5. Personality

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 131-131

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   2. The Relationships Between Temperament, Character Strengths, and Resilience

      • Ann-Marie K. Hutchinson, Anita D. Stuart, Hester G. Pretorius

      Pages 133-144

   3. Character Strengths and Well-Being: Are There Gender Differences?

      • Ingrid Brdar, Petra Anić, Majda Rijavec

      Pages 145-156

6. Academic Performance and Coping

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 157-157

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7. Academic performance and coping

   1. Optimistic Attributional Style as a Predictor of Well-Being and Performance in Different Academic Settings

      • Tamara O. Gordeeva, Evgeny N. Osin

      Pages 159-174

   2. To Flourish, Arm or Fade Away? Proactive, Defensive and Depressive Patterns of Self-Regulated Learning

      • Darko Lončarić

      Pages 175-189

This book brings together the latest research on positive psychology from an international cast of researchers and particularly from the growing body of European researchers. The chapters describe research and practice from diverse fields of positive psychology, covering topics such as happiness and well-being, motivation and goals, personality, academic performance and coping, measurement and interventions. The book emphasizes a cultural approach to the human pursuit of well-being. It is unique in that it presents research from a range of cultures, such as Russia, Croatia, and Egypt, in addition to ten different Western cultures. This approach helps broaden our understanding of those aspects of human experience that make life worth living in diverse cultural conditions.

The book includes well-known and new authors from the field and contains selected papers that were presented at the 4th European Conference of Positive Psychology held in 2008 in Croatia.

• Dmitri Leontiev
• Giovanni A. Fava
• Happiness
• Lj. Kaliterna Lipovcan
• Positive Interventions
• Positive Psychology
• Ruut Veenhoven
• Shan J. Lopez
• Well Being

• Fac. Arts & Sciences, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia

  Ingrid Brdar

Professor at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University of Rijeka, Croatia. Teaching undergraduate and graduate in methodology and communication, post-graduated courses in statistics, communication and positive psychology. Editor in chief of the journal Psychological Topics (Psihologijske teme). Areas of research interest: positive psychology (intrinsic motivation and well-being, eudaimonic happiness, cross-cultural happiness), coping with stress, and social competence. Senior researcher in scientific project "Determinants of adolescents' optimal development and psychological well-being", financed by Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport. Current research collaboration with colleagues from seven countries on the project "Cross-Cultural Investigation of Eudaimonic Happiness". Chair of the Scientific Committee in organizing 4th European Conference in Positive Psychology and member of the scientific Committee of the 5th European Conference in Positive Psychology, to be held in Denmark in 2010. Member of the Management Board Committee of the European Network of Positive Psychology. Co-author of the Croatian university textbook in positive psychology.

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