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This volume examines the questions of what constitutes a good life and how one can achieve happiness and well-being, and analyses different ways in which people can strive for a good life. First, it presents an overview on important concepts in psychology that are related to living a good life. Then, a new approach is introduced: the concept of art-of-living as a holistic way to reach happiness. Empirical studies are reported involving a questionnaire for measuring art-of-living, and the validity of the questionnaire is demonstrated with respect to a wide range of concepts. In addition, the volume provides results from empirical studies, showing that, and how, art-of-living and happiness can be enhanced. Several intervention studies are described in detail, which have been performed with different groups of subjects, including pupils, university students and employees. Also, results of interviews are summarized, which were held with people who had been nominatedas exemplary artists-of-living. The volume concludes with a description of art-of-living in autobiographies, and presents suggestions for further research with respect to art-of-living.
List of contents
Part I. Introduction and Theory.- Chapter 1. Introduction: Advantages of Using the Concept ''Art-of-Living''.- Chapter 2. Theory: Art-of-Living: Philosophical Background, Psychological Concept.- Part II. Development and Validation of a Questionnaire for Measuring Art-of-Living.- Chapter 3. Study 1: Preliminary Combined Qualitative and Quantitative Survey: How do People Think about Art-of-Living.- Chapter 4. Study 2 and 3: A Multidimensional Questionnaire for Measuring Art-of-Living.- Chapter 5. A Questionnaire for Measuring Art-of-Living: A Revised Form.- Chapter 6. Daily Measuring of Art-of-Living.- Chapter 7. A Situational Judgement Test for Measuring Art-of-Living.- Chapter 8. Can Art-of-Living Be Estimated from the Peer Perspective.- Chapter 9. Further Validation.- Part II. Enhancing Art-of-Living and Happiness.- chapter 10. Interventions Studies: How to enhance Art-of-Living and Happiness.- Part IV. Outlook.-Chapter 11. Artists-of-Living: Interviews with Individuals Who Where Nominated as Artists-of-Living.- Chapter 12. Art-of-Living in Movies, Novels and Dramas.- Chapter 13. Future Research of Art-of-Living.
About the author
Bernhard Schmitz, Prof. Dr., holds a full professorship at the department of psychology of the University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany.He studied mathematics at the university of Düsseldorf and psychology at the University of Technology (TU) Berlin. Both studies he finished with a diploma.He got his doctoral degree at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and his habilitation at the TU Berlin. He worked for more than 20 years at the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development in Berlin, former directors P.M. Roeder, Paul B. Baltes and J. Baumert.The research of B. Schmitz deals with trainings in self-regulation, diaries and time-series analyses and, now with positive psychology, especially with art-of-living.He published numerous articles and books about time-series and self-regulation. He is member of the editorial board of “Metacognition and Learning” and “Learning and Instruction”. He was for four years editor of themost important German psychological journal “Psychologische Rundschau”.
Summary
This volume examines the questions of what constitutes a good life and how one can achieve happiness and well-being, and analyses different ways in which people can strive for a good life. First, it presents an overview on important concepts in psychology that are related to living a good life. Then, a new approach is introduced: the concept of art-of-living as a holistic way to reach happiness. Empirical studies are reported involving a questionnaire for measuring art-of-living, and the validity of the questionnaire is demonstrated with respect to a wide range of concepts. In addition, the volume provides results from empirical studies, showing that, and how, art-of-living and happiness can be enhanced. Several intervention studies are described in detail, which have been performed with different groups of subjects, including pupils, university students and employees. Also, results of interviews are summarized, which were held with people who had been nominatedas exemplary artists-of-living. The volume concludes with a description of art-of-living in autobiographies, and presents suggestions for further research with respect to art-of-living.
