Human Thriving Research Articles

Science Fiction in the Anthropocene

This article catalogs major recent trends in ecological science fiction (sf), focused primarily on sf published after the completion of N.K. Jemisin's paradigm-setting Broken Earth trilogy in 2017. Major subdivisions in the genre include dystopian and antiutopian narratives about climate collapse, technocratic solutionism, reckoning with climate change as a colonial project, intergenerational conflict, and posthuman formulation. Noting that sf both as literary genre and as fan community encompasses a wide range of political perspectives ranging from reactionary hypercapitalism to utopian socialism, the article does not seek to advance any particular political position but rather seeks to name the major currents of political and ethical debate within sf in this moment of ecological crisis. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the way the sf genre, in reframing the present as the history of multiple possible futures, calls on us to act to shape that future toward human thriving.

An integrated approach to coaching for individual thriving

The purpose of coaching psychology is to apply knowledge and methods from the psychological sciences to promote human thriving. This article builds on a presentation given at the British Psychological Society’s coaching psychology conference in June 2023. It begins by arguing for the need for an integrated model of thriving that is relevant for coaching. It then reviews the history of psychological research into thriving and associated concepts and presents an overview of current models of thriving in psychology. Finally, the paper proposes an integrated model of coaching for thriving: the 4Es of energy, engagement, expansion and exploration. This model is intended to help coaches operationalise the psychological research on thriving as a focus for coaching psychology practice and research.

“The Sum Is Greater Than the Parts?”—The Role of Student Covitality in Flourishing

Existing studies have revealed associations of positive psychological traits with human thriving and flourishing. However, how these traits co-occur—known as covitality—and how it relates to flourishing remain relatively unexplored. This study aimed to investigate how student covitality as a second-order construct of four school experience-grounded positive psychological traits, namely gratitude, optimism, zest and persistence, predicts flourishing among primary school students. Participants were fourth to sixth graders (N = 1,107, 36.2% Grade 4, 32.8% Grade 5, and 31.0% Grade 6; 50.4% female) from 34 primary schools in Hong Kong (7.1% Hong Kong Island, 36.4% Kowloon, and 56.5% New Territories). In this study, structural equation modelling showed that student covitality as a second-order construct predicted flourishing directly (β = .594), and also indirectly through resilience (β = .111) and prosocial behaviour (β = .062). The findings suggest that student covitality as a latent construct better captures the mechanisms that drive student flourishing than the four individual first-order constructs of positive psychological traits. This study sheds light on future efforts in the field of children’s flourishing to consider school-related covitality as a critical variable in research and to develop school-based strategies that promote covitality in practice.

Neuro-adaptive architecture: Buildings and city design that respond to human emotions, cognitive states

Neuro-adaptive architecture has emerged as an interdisciplinary field aiming to cultivate buildings and urban environments responsive to human emotions, cognition, and well-being. Technological advances now enable unprecedented monitoring of occupants' psychological states through unobtrusive sensors, as well as adaptive modulation of environments via “smart” architectural components. If developed responsibly, these advancements hold great potential to optimize human experience and flourishing within the built milieu. However, they also present complex ethical challenges regarding privacy, consent, data security, globalization and equitable access that require thoughtful consideration. This paper provides a comprehensive review and synthesis of the opportunities and dilemmas at the nexus of neuroscience, architecture, and urban planning. Drawing from research worldwide, it examines the multidimensional issues involved and strategies for addressing them through participatory and empathic design practices. Case studies of experimental neuro-adaptive projects are discussed and recommendations provided for longitudinal evaluation of impacts on health, social outcomes, and well-being. Concepts such as cognitive ergonomics, sensory perception and emotional design, restorative urbanism, and adaptive living interfaces are explored through diverse methodologies and design hypotheses are provided for future interdisciplinary collaboration. Overall, this paper argues that responsibly optimized neuro-adaptive architecture could enhance human thriving in complex urban environments, but precautions are necessary to avoid risks to autonomy, equity or unintended consequences. Continued rigorous interdisciplinary work is imperative to navigate these opportunities and challenges, with consideration of technical, social and ethical implications at individual and societal levels.

A Time – and a Project – for Pacifism and Nonviolence Studies

Abstract Why is it time to take pacifism and nonviolence studies more seriously? I attempt to show that pacifism and nonviolence studies are not only helpful but are necessary to understand and root out a presumption about violence that has persisted throughout human history, a presumption through which the vast majority of humans on earth experience our world. I am referring to the seemingly universal human inclination to take violence for granted as a necessary – even moral – means for human thriving, safety, and progress. We are told that it is human nature to fight or flee danger. In what follows I explore the possibility that fighting and fleeing may not be natural but cultural, and that they may not exhaust human options in response to danger. I then discuss the presumption of violence and consider the role of pacifist and nonviolence studies in analyzing and even deconstructing it by exploring a reasonable alternative view.

Caregiving in Philosophy, Biology & Political Economy

Abstract Caring for the young and the old, the fragile and the ill, is central to human thriving, and has played a fundamental role in human evolution. Yet care has been largely invisible in political economy and it does not fit the prevailing philosophical, political, and economic frameworks. Care typically emerges in the context of close personal relationships, and it is not well suited to either utilitarian or Kantian accounts of morality, or to “social contract” accounts of cooperation. Markets and states both have difficulty providing and supporting care, and as a result, care is overlooked and undervalued. I sketch alternative ways of thinking about the morality and politics of care and present alternative policies that could help support carers and those they care for.

Review: Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements, by Deva Woodly

Review: <i>Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements</i>, by Deva Woodly

Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing

Thriving with Stone Age Minds: Evolutionary Psychology, Christian Faith, and the Quest for Human Flourishing

Thriving in three Northwestern Ontario communities

Disease-based models of health often fail to consider socio-economic models that perpetuate optimal health. The promotion of human thriving, rather than merely surviving, can be achieved by promoting optimal health indicators that facilitate overall wellbeing. Such interventions are those that promote a high quality of life, otherwise conceptualized as a “life worth living,” and can consist of life activities that exist outside of traditional health care intervention. Despite the continuous rise of health outcomes in Canada, it is likely that the cost associated with thriving may reduce the likelihood that optimal health will be achieved by many. Previous studies have generated the cost of thriving calculated for a single individual living in the Greater Toronto Area and have found that the cost of thriving is below the median annual income for this region. In the current study, this framework has been applied to three additional communities in Northwestern Ontario. Results indicated that when costs of thriving in Thunder Bay, Sioux Lookout, and a small remote community were compared, costs of thriving were highest in more rural and remote areas. Given the limited availability of regional data, it was not possible to generate specific total costs for all communities in this review. Overall, health promotion and wellbeing approaches can be diversified by using evidence-based, strength-based health interventions. Such approaches can be offered in conjunction with traditional public health initiatives, to better foster individual-level health (through disease reduction) and wellbeing (such as promoting hope, belonging, meaning, and purpose) within community.

Examining American Adult's Mental Well and Ill-Being During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic Using a Self-Determination Theory Perspective.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic is an international health crisis that has caused unprecedented shifts in people’s environments and has threatened people’s wellbeing. The current study uses self-determination theory (SDT: 10) to understand how people were handling the pandemic, which proposes three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) are vital for human growth and thriving. Furthermore, we examined how people’s wellbeing and ill-being changed over the course of the pandemic. Methods: A sample of 193 American adults from around the country reported on their need satisfaction and frustration as well as well and ill-being at three time periods during the pandemic (April 2020, late July/early August 2020, and late January/early February 2021). Results: There was much variability in how people were handling the pandemic, but on average, wellbeing increased, and ill-being decreased over time. Consistent with SDT, the basic needs significantly predicted well and ill-being even during such unprecedented times of disruption. Conclusion: Our results suggest that public health officials should help individuals to focus on autonomy, competence, and relatedness behaviors during times of upheaval.

Green Densities: Accessible Green Spaces in Highly Dense Urban Regions—A Comparison of Berlin and Qingdao

Recreational green spaces are associated with human thriving and well-being. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic a spotlight has been shed on the interconnection between access to these spaces, human well-being and social equity. Containment measures enacted in many cities effectively precluded people from reaching distant recreational areas during the pandemic and consequently, recreational areas close to home became particularly important. Urban density is often associated with building or population density with the assumption that if either parameter has a high value, the availability of open (green) space is low. Certain densities are associated with specific spatial qualities. Addressing challenges of sustainable development, a detailed evaluation of density is necessary to allow evidence-based arguments, planning and decision-making. In this study we develop a multi-scale analysis method for quantifying and assessing green infrastructures from settlement unit to building level to reach a differentiated view on density, arguing that density can be organized in different ways achieving very different qualities. For this purpose, we use geospatial-data analysis and in-depth neighborhood studies to compare two cities in Asia and Europe, revealing different ways of organizing density in the built environment and identifying a derivation of approaches for sustainable development in dense urban regions.

Beyond order, beyond the human

Beyond order, beyond the human

Conceptualizing Thriving: An Exploration of Students’ Perceptions of Positive Functioning Within Graduate Education

The current wellness crisis among graduate students calls on institutions of higher education to act and advocate for student thriving. While existing research on human thriving provides insight into how this experience of positive functioning can be understood across the lifespan, what it means to thrive within graduate programs—and by extension, how to support students in their ability to thrive within these programs—remains understudied. To address this gap in the literature, this study examined how graduate students describe and understand thriving within their programs of study. We thematically and quantitatively analyzed 2,287 Canadian graduate students survey responses to the question “How would you describe a student who is thriving in your program.” Findings indicate that graduate students conceptualize thriving as a complex and multi-dimensional construct involving both academic and non-academic components. The six overarching themes of achieving, engaging, connecting, balancing, enjoying, and being provide foundation for further exploration and insight into the ways that universities and post-secondary institutions can support students’ positive functioning.

A literature review of gratitude, parent–child relationships, and well-being in children

Positive psychology has highlighted the importance of personal positive qualities such as gratitude for human thriving. Reviews of research on gratitude are predominantly based on work with adults. We address this gap by considering the familial roots and well-being implications of gratitude in children. We conducted two systematic reviews examining children’s gratitude as it relates to parent–child relationships (N = 10) and children’s gratitude and well-being (N = 38). Children’s gratitude was higher when parents modeled gratitude, there was a more secure parent–child attachment, and parents employed more supportive, autonomy granting, and warm parenting. These findings align with attachment theory, social learning and emotion socialization theories, and the find-remind-and-bind theory. Additionally, children’s gratitude was positively related to greater life satisfaction, positive affect, and mental well-being in cross-sectional and intervention studies. These findings provide some support for the broaden-and-build theory, the adaptive cycle model, and the schematic hypothesis. The reviewed theoretical frameworks and empirical findings formed the basis of our proposed model whereby children’s gratitude is posited to mediate the relation between parent–child relationship factors and children’s well-being. Further, we identified several testable mechanisms that might explain why gratitude is related to well-being. Our proposed model is an important contribution to the current literature because it provides a novel, overarching synthesis of existing work on children’s gratitude that is intended to be a framework for future research to test potential mechanisms relevant to children’s gratitude development and well-being outcomes.

Development and Psychometric Validation of a Semantic Differential Measure of Character Strengths in a Sample of Singaporean University Students

Positive psychology emerged as a movement in professional psychology that emphasizes the positive psychological aspects of the individual instead of focusing on diagnosis and psychopathology. Peterson and Seligman (2004) developed and validated the 240-item Virtues in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) to assess character strengths and virtues that enable optimal human thriving. However, VIA-IS is often considered too long for use by clinicians in their private practices, as well as for researchers interested in conducting positive psychology research. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a 24-item Values in Action Semantic Differential Scale (VIA-SDS) in a sample of 231 Singaporean university students. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 4-factor measurement structure (Humanity, Optimism, Leadership, and Creativity) with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from .67 to .88. Three of the four latent variables were positively associated with happiness and negatively related to perceived stress and depression. These findings support the validity of the VIA-SDS for use as a brief clinical assessment instrument by clinicians and researchers to assess character strengths.

Philosophical chemistry: what the alchemy of Gadamer And Aristotle brings to leisure studies

ABSTRACT In this research note I argue that leisure has rarely been studied using hermeneutic philosophy and phenomenology. Yet hermeneutic philosophy offers a richly realised, empathic philosophy of egalitarian communication, anchored in respect and openness. In hermeneutic philosophy language is pre-eminent for expressing the meanings of our life experiences and how we understand them. I suggest that hermeneutic philosophy and phenomenology, entwined with Aristotle’s concept of leisure together forge a potent approach for studying and interpreting leisure meanings. Moreover, it has often been asked whether hewing to Western-centric philosophies in the unfolding of leisure meanings of people of other cultures has relevance or is appropriate. I propose that in holding to Aristotle’s holistic understanding of leisure as essential for human thriving we may come closer to more receptively hearing and understanding the voices of others when they share with us what is fulfilling and meaningful in their leisure. Therefore, I propose that the embrace of leisure as a philosophy of thriving and flourishing, entwined with a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to understanding being through language, affords a heady alchemy of philosophically forged tools for guiding leisure studies in exploring the ontological, lived experiences of leisure.

Joy as a Virtue: The Means and Ends of Joy

To grasp human flourishing and thriving, we must understand joy. However, no theoretical models explain the complexity of joy as a fruit of the Spirit, nor fully account for its impact on human life. We suggest that joy is best conceptualized as a virtue, a psychological habit, comprised of characteristic adaptations and given meaning by transcendent narrative identity. Thus joy involves knowing, feeling, and enacting what matters most. Developmental science and Christian theological approaches to teleology inform the ultimate ends to which joy is aimed. They suggest that telos, the purpose or goal of development, may be understood as a dynamic process that perpetuates human and social thriving and involves (1) the growing self, (2) mutually beneficial relationships, and (3) evolving moral guidelines that ensure an ongoing fit and flourishing of self and society. We synthesize developmental psychology, virtue science, and theology to propose a definition and framework for understanding the development of joy through thriving. In order to promote scholarship on joy and to elucidate its transformative nature, we discuss joy in light of discipleship, vocation, suffering, justice, and eschatology and identify issues for research.

The Virtues of Leonhard Euler

This essay explores ethical foundations for meeting the digital challenge via a case study of the work, life, and virtues of the greatest mathematician and natural scientist of the eighteenth century, Leonhard Euler. By biography and history one can learn of the gifts of human strength, practices, good will, dependence on others, and friendships which made possible Euler’s own astonishing corpus of work and that of many other scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technologists. Digital technology results from a combination of science (demonstrable knowledge and method), technology, engineering, and art (forms and artifacts of making and expressing), and mathematics (abstract numerical, algebraic, geometrical, formal, and digital concepts, rules, representations, and logics). Joint reflection on the biographical, historical, and natural sources of mathematics and the digital is essential for any humanization or ascesis in response to the perils and promises of digital technology for human thriving. As ethics enable and embody an ethos, so technologies are means and manifestations of a telos. Thus, thought and action for thriving through the digital needs to contemplate and conciliate the ends of humans and of the digital.

Connecting Everyday Talk and Time Alone to Global Well-Being

Abstract Theoretical explanations for associations between characteristics of social interactions and global well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, loneliness) require further development and empirical grounding. We used the Communicate Bond Belong theory to develop six hypotheses linking the frequency, type, relatedness-to-energy ratio, and volition/choice of everyday social interactions with global well-being. Hypotheses were tested using two experience sampling studies and one 28-day diary study (TotalN = 389; Totalobservations = 10,368). Results suggest that number of social interactions is associated with global well-being, and that the portion of interactions with close partners is associated with lower loneliness. Experiencing unsatiated social needs when alone was negatively associated with global well-being and greater interaction choice was positively associated with global well-being. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion about how the pattern and nature of daily sociability are reflective of human thriving.

An Honorable Harvest: It Is Time for Universal Owners to Take Responsibility for Their Portfolios

There is now an established industry dedicated to making business more responsible for its impacts on the environment and society. An alphabet soup of organizations promotes “sustainability,” “corporate social responsibility” and “ESG (environmental, social and governance) integration.” To date, the efforts have been insufficient to the task, as illustrated by our failure to address the climate and water crises, growing political instability and continuing shameful abuses of human rights in supply chains. (This is by no means a criticism of sustainability efforts — things could be much worse without them; it is instead a call to find a path to success for this vital movement.) This essay argues that current efforts are failing because they require individual companies to make difficult decisions about complex social and environmental issues. However, companies are a poor locus for these decisions because they are in competition with one another to provide a return on equity capital. Even without the pressure of competition, the calculation of optimal returns on equity is incommensurable with the calculation of what businesses must do to maintain a healthy environment and society: there is no rational way for a corporate director to compare a ton of carbon and a penny per share of profit. Businesses respond to this combination of competitive pressure and incommensurability by only implementing those sustainability measures that are compatible with optimizing returns on equity, rather than those necessary to actually solve the sustainability problem. In an economy based on market competition, we cannot rely on individual businesses to self-impose basic sustainability rules that take priority over profit. By their nature, these critical sustainability boundaries must be implemented collectively in order to be effective. While law and regulation would be the traditional avenues for addressing the broad societal concerns that comprise sustainability, governments themselves suffer from collective action issues in a global economy where jurisdictions compete for jobs and revenue. The ongoing failure of either business or government to systematically address these issues has created a crisis: business practices are eroding the environmental and social structures that undergird our civilization. If we cannot devise a method for implementing difficult decisions about carbon, inequality and other systemic issues, we will continue to just tinker around the edges of concerns that threaten human thriving, rearranging deck chairs as our global economy sinks. This essay argues that at this historical moment, the global investor community is the appropriate locus for the collective decision-making necessary for a sustainable economy. The power exerted by institutional investors through allocation and stewardship of equity capital can be used to insist on more sustainable business practices. Because they are diversified across thousands of companies, these investors can bypass the competitive bottleneck for margin and capital that holds sustainability back at the company level. I urge asset owners to consider these arguments, and to act to begin establishing sustainability parameters for all businesses, as our window of opportunity is rapidly closing.