20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A new way of thinking about movies, October 31, 2008
This review is from: Positive Psychology At The Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths (Paperback)
Watching positive psychology movies has the potential to affect us in a very positive way. We watch these movies for the joy and entertainment they offer but we also get so much more from them. As you watch the many films mentioned in this book you will be inspired to discover ways to learn and grow, and to use the heroic characters that have different virtues and character strengths to model your own life. Jimmy Stewart's memorable character in "It's a Wonderful Life" is one prime example.
"Positive Psychology at the Movies" is an excellent book for teachers and students studying positive psychology. It could also be a wonderful tool for therapists who could use it to inspire strengths in their patients and to promote their personal growth and self-improvement.
This book is a fascinating depiction of all the virtues and strengths identified by positive psychology and it cites many examples of films that display each one along with practical applications after each chapter. After reading this book I've found watching the films to be a more rewarding experience for me.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Movies Can Move You, January 28, 2010
This review is from: Positive Psychology At The Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths (Paperback)
Positive Psychology at the Movies by Ryan Niemiec and Danny Wedding is a reference and research book. It is not a book you want to pick up and read from cover to cover unless you enjoy research. Yet there is so much to learn from this book. Using the model of character strengths and virtues from Positive Psychology, Niemiec and Wedding have developed an outstanding way to view movies and learn about your strengths and virtues.
There are two or three outstanding parts of the book that I would recommend to anyone interested in personal development. First, they cover every one of the strengths and virtues. Many times there is a particular strength like forgiveness or love or spirituality that you really can't see as having a place in your development. Having worked with and for top executives my entire behavioral career, I can tell you forgiveness and mercy is a difficult strength to discuss. Most people feel that they are being doormats if they forgive too easily in business. Yet, when you see what the strength looks like coming from a character in a movie, you begin to see how it really can be a strength in your own life.
Next there are several charts and lists in the book that are priceless if you want to use film to learn from or to teach from. There are lists of movies with the exact strength the main character is exemplifying and my favorite - a list of the top 100 inspiring movies in the last 100 years!
For those who teach in the field of positive psychology, this book is a treasure chest of teaching opportunities. For anyone who wants to continue their own learning and development, this is an invaluable roadmap of where to start and how to appreciate a strength using something that is in your life every day - a movie.
What I would like to see is an addendum to this great resource book. There is a company that has devoted itself to bringing thoughtful and through provoking films to wider and broader audiences. That company is The Spiritual Cinema Circle. It is a monthly, subscription based service. As a member you receive a DVD each month with a 4 - 5 films, a discussion sheet and questions to create conversation and thought around the teachings of the movies. I would like to see the Spiritual Cinema's entire catalog of movies taken through the research matrix that the authors of Positive Psychology at the Movies used. Okay, so maybe - just maybe - my strength of spirituality is coming through. And maybe - just maybe - you can see how a strength can help you develop a livelihood. Spirituality may not be on the list of top ten business skills in any education program, yet clearly I have found a way to use it in my work.
Thank you for a great book and great research.
Andrea Goeglein, PhD
Dr. Success
[...]
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Transformative Ideas, Uplifting Movies, August 15, 2011
This review is from: Positive Psychology At The Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths (Paperback)
Recently I attended an awesome course on "Applied Positive Psychology" at Boston University taught by Professor Amy Baltzell, author of "The Sweet Spot." My most affirming,and hopefully enduring, take away from this course was exposure to Martin Seligman's strength based model of signature character strengths. Since then I have used my own strengths, which I discovered by taking Seligman's Via Signature Strength Questionnaire (free and found at [...]), as a road map to a better, and more meaningful, positive, and fulfilling life. Utilizing the results of this questionnaire on myself, and people I have recommended this to in my coaching practice, has been both emotionally uplifting and an existentially profound experience. For me, coupling daily, non-sectarian meditation (although Positive psychology- see the work of Barbara Frederikson(e. g. "Positivity"- research has found both traditional religious practices and non sectarian spirituality to enhance positivity- meditation, another major Positive Psychology intervention, along with using,and being mindful of the strengths, has been a particularly potent and positive combination.
Niemiec and Wedding's "Positive Psychology does a remarkable job in giving many outstanding visual representations, and related discussions, of these strengths. Having been a film student at Harvard for a while, and being a cinamaphile- having watched 1000's of films over the last 10 years- I felt I was reaching the bottom of the barrel as far as meaningful films were concerned. Also, I had a slightly elitist notion that most modern films, particularly American, were lacking character development, affirmative values and/or meaningful messages, except perhaps in the independent film arena and a small number of feature films (Scorsese's work comes to mind here). However, there is some validity in the notion of films for pure entertainment, which Hollywood has always excelled at. However, pure entertainment movies have progressively over time devolved into dangerous escapism that reaffirm negative values and stereotypes, which I find particularly true in American films that promote gratuitous violence or sex.
International cinema has been better, and more authentic, elevating, and interesting; but the globalization of technology, finance and American pop culture has watered down and diminished the number of films, although films from the emerging markets of South Korea,China,Brazil,middle eastern countries,and Mexico...are surprisingly good but often have limited distribution and access, and for some the subtitles are an issue and the translations themselves are sometimes poor. Also, despite their aesthetic or ideological merits, many of these films offer a, often justifiable, critical or negative worldview.
Anyway, many of the movies, in "Positive Psychology at the Movies epitomizing the strengths (AKA known as virtues, referring back to the works of Aristotle (Particularly his Ethics)-offer wonderful, positive, and very entertaining films in and affirmative and wholesome way. Also, they were very helpful to me in locking in my knowledge and commitment to a positive psychology character strengths based life. Furthermore, these movies tend to be ideologically non controversial and could appeal to a very broad, and diverse, audience, This ideally could lead us to realize our difference aren't so insurmountable as they appear, and the the visual representations strengths, or the virtues, are universal.
Although this book probably is more of an outstanding reference presentation on Positive Psychology movies more than being an original book on that subject. Also it offers a very comprehensive introduction to Positive Psychology's ideas and theories, and gives the reader a comprehensive introduction to many of the major books in this emerging and exciting practical and scientifically validated field.. Moreover, Niemiec and Wedding offer educators an entire course plan syllabus for utilization in the classroom. Niemiec and Wedding offer educators an entire course plan syllabus for utilization in the classroom. which could provide a very valuable creative educational experience.
But, again, the exceptional research conducted that led to these fabulous film recommendations provided me, and hopefully other and future readers, recommendations of many great, and positive, entertaining films that would be impossible to find otherwise. Finally, in our often cynical, superficial, and terror ridden time, this book leads to all reaffirmation of all that is good, noble, and inspirational (and sometimes problematic when viewing examples of the reverse of the values), and transcends the crippling cultural divisiveness of our time. The last point is particularly noteworthy in that the films display no particular cultural political, cultural, or religious bias., and can conceivably appeal to progressives and conservatives as well. Finally, I would highly recommend using "Positive Psychology at The Movies." along with Seligman's strength-based positive psychology interventions, and would also recommend the very accessible interventions of Sonja Lyubormisky's "The How to of Happiness."
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