Customer Reviews

Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (Oxford Library of Psychology)

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Coming from a philosophical background, and this book being only the second text on positive psychology I've read after Haidt's "The Happiness Hypothesis," I was thoroughly blown away by the scope of this gargantuan collection of essays. Like any anthology it has its perks and dull points. The first section of essays is admirable in trying to sketch out the goals and direction of the young evolving science and proposing applied methods that distinguish it from clinical psychology/counseling psychology. The next two sections are somewhat dry, however the third section picks up concerning practical concerns of the development of individuals over their lifespans, from positive psychology's forecasted role in child developmental programs to giving an empirical analysis of wisdom and life-longings.

The sections on "Cognitive Approaches" and "Interpersonal Approaches" were by far the most intriguing. The topics of creativity, mindfulness, time, optimism, hope theory, self-efficacy, problem solving appraisal, curiosity, and courage among others are covered extensively each in their own essays. These sections are especially reminiscent of Aristotelian and Nietzschean virtue theories and take up the task appropriate of positive psychology of giving more scientific analyses of long held cross cultural consensus on virtues and various prosocial behaviors. If positive psychology is to grow as a newly demarcated field of study and not be a mere recapitulation or Aristotelian atavism it must couple this scrutinizing scientific eye with the guiding passion of the ancients. Overall, this text is worth the read and although some essays may not have appealed to me, other essays may advance other readers' personal research. It is a dense read and not for the timid reader.

This weighty volume offers a lot of technical information written in a very academic style.
Unfortunately the obvious striving for academic detail and rigor comes at the expense of readability and interest, with the result that it feels like reading a collection of narrow academic journal articles rather than readable overviews.
The first edition managed to marry both rigor and readability better

Everything you could ever want to know about positive psychology wrapped into one book. A great variety of articles ranging in topic and skill level.

Though it looks like a heavy text, this book's division into smaller sections of articles makes it an engaging read.

I took a positive psychology class, didn't do too well (obviously by my grading of this book) and solely for the fact that the book was very long! It was long beyond necessity. The points brought up were very simple, nothing too complex, yet worded in such ways to sound academic and lofty.

If you have to buy this book for this agnostic/atheistic-foundation class in college or wherever, I highly recommend you to consider petitioning for another book or just avoiding this class.