Positive Institutions: Organizations, Laws, and Policies

Publication Date

1-11-2018

Document Type

Book Chapter

Organizational Units

Sturm College of Law

Keywords

Human flourishing, Positive psychology, Law firm cultures, Well-being, Positive institutions, Positive law firms, Positive law schools, Social architecture, Policy subjective well-being measures, Mindfulness, Thinking architecture, Learning architecture, Thinking games

Abstract

We analyze how institutions in the form of organizations, laws, and policies can help foster human flourishing, and provide examples of the role that institutions can play by changing individual preferences and values. First, we analyze how to apply positive psychology to redesign law firm cultures to enable attorneys, clients, and communities to thrive. Second, we investigate how to empower law students, law professors, and other law school constituencies. Third, we demonstrate how to apply positive psychology to foster innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Fourth, we identify some complexities of utilizing subjective well-being measures to evaluate the impacts of laws and policies. Finally, we develop implications from positive psychology about what governments and others can do to support individuals, communities, and societies to thrive. Our goal is to provoke discussion about positive psychology’s role in developing institutions in the form of organizations, laws, and policies that help individuals, communities, and societies.

Rights Holder

Oxford University Press

Language

English (eng)

Extent

20 pgs

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by Oxford University Press. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This book chapter was originally published as Positive Institutions: Organizations, Laws, and Policies, by Peter H. Huang, Anne M. Brafford, Debra S. Austin, and Martha Knudson, in The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology, 3rd Edition, Edited by C.R. Snyder, Shane J. Lopez, Lisa M. Edwards, and Susana C. Marques. Jan, 2018.

Publication Title

The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology

First Page

832

Last Page

851

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