Colloquium, Sonja Lyubomirsky, University of California - Riverside

TITLE:  Whither Happiness? When, How, and Why Might Positive Activities Boost Versus Undermine Well-Being

ABSTRACT: Most people around the world report wanting to be happy. Fortunately, decades of research suggest that individuals can deliberately increase their own happiness via such practices as gratitude or kindness. In this talk, I will introduce the positive activity model (Lyubomirsky & Layous, 2013), which describes when and why positive activities are more (or less) successful at boosting well-being. Then, I will propose several key moderators and mechanisms by which engaging in presumably happiness-increasing activities may actively backfire.