GPHD5130: Positive Psychology – Gratitude, Compassion, and Forgiveness

This course introduces students to positive psychology as an applied discipline, tracing its intellectual roots in William James's radical empiricism and the humanistic tradition of Maslow and Rogers, and extending to its contemporary empirical research base. Students engage with the field's major theoretical frameworks, including Fredrickson's broaden-and-build theory, Seligman's PERMA model, Ryff's multidimensional model of well-being, and emerging perspectives such as the State of Being Theory of happiness, alongside foundational topics in relationships and compassion, character strengths and virtue, measurement and assessment, and the self-transcendent emotions of gratitude and awe. In this class, gratitude, appreciation, compassion, and forgiveness as practices will be highlighted, as will the integration of spirituality into positive psychology, with particular attention to the work of Lisa Miller; the field will also be situated in dialogue with transpersonal psychology. Students examine both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, critically assess the field's cultural assumptions and limitations, and develop the scholarly and practical foundations needed to apply positive psychology principles in research, clinical, and organizational contexts. Students will be expected to understand and apply principles of positive psychology in their own relationships, work, and lives.