Shaping positive education research to influence public policy

Abstract

Research into human flourishing has the potential to shift population well-being and influence the lives of many. Unfortunately, to date, positive psychology researchers have had limited suc-cess in getting large numbers (i.e., at a population level) of people to understand and implement the kinds of practices that could improve their well-being and help them flourish. Although positive psychology researchers have successfully amassed an evidence base, the field could be critiqued for not showing much success in translating research into public policy. We describe how researchers can improve the impact of their research by influencing policy – the vehicle that governments use to influence population well-being. We argue that positive psychology researchers require a better understanding of the policymaking processes in order to create and share an evidence base for population-level interventions.One area of positive psychology that has the potential to have a large and lasting impact on population well-being is positive education, defined as “education for both traditional skills and for happiness” (Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich,& Linkins, 2009, p. 293). Due to the long-term, deep, and timely engagement that young people have with educational institutions, as well as the significant capacity for policy to induce change, education is a high potential area for posi-tive psychology researchers wishing to influence population well-being (Seligman, 2013). This chapter uses positive education to illustrate the potential for positive psychology to influence policy and the kinds of considerations that will be necessary.