Editorial: Facilitating the Third Wave of Positive Psychology: Perspectives on the Future of the Discipline

摘要

The science of positive subjective experiences, positive characteristics (states/traits/behaviours), and positive institutions have shaped our collective understanding of the elements that make life worth living and the factors that improve- and distract from optimal functioning (Donaldson et al., 2021; Ng et al., 2021). Positive psychology has spawned a magnitude of new approaches, theories and methodologies that not only explained the conditions required for optimal functioning but also proved to be useful in many adjacent fields such as organizational studies, education, health, risk management, and even architectural sciences (Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2022). This, in turn, resulted in the creation of various new research and practice domains ranging from positive artificial intelligence (da Silva, 2020) and positive computing (Jeong et al., 2020) to positive coaching (Richter et al., 2021; Van Zyl et al., 2020) workplace design, human-robot collaboration and positive design sciences (Van Zyl & Rothmann, 2022). The science of understanding “what is right” rather than “what is wrong” has thus produced significant insights into the human condition and provided practical solutions to complex societal problems (Ryff, 2022; Worthington & Van Zyl, 2021). The discipline, however, isn’t stagnant and continues to grow and develop. Lomas et al. (2021) stated that the discipline is on the verge of a third wave of innovative research that will fundamentally alter the trajectory of its discourse. However, it’s not yet clear what the future of positive psychology will hold? What are some of the grand challenges facing this third wave of positive psychological research? Moreover, how can we, as a collective, contribute to enhancing the credibility and impact of the discipline’s future? These are some of the most challenging questions that need to be answered. With the rapid development of the field, detailed research and practice ‘roadmaps’ are thus required to set a course for future perspectives in positive psychology. This research topic aimed to address these questions by collating a series of research agendas about potential future perspectives in positive psychology. Specifically, this research topic aimed to identify the limitations in our current understanding of the different theories, models, methods and interventions on which positive psychology is built and propose a roadmap for the third wave of Positive Psychological research.