The Oxford Handbook of the Positive Humanities

This handbook examines the new and rapidly growing field of the positive humanities--an area of academic research at the intersection of positive psychology and the arts and humanities. Written by leading experts across a wide range of academic disciplines, the volume begins with an overview of the science and culture of human flourishing, covering historical and current trends in this literature. Next, contributors consider the well-being benefits of engagement with the arts and humanities, marking out neurological, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social pathways to human flourishing. These pathways lead to detailed investigations of individual fields within the arts and humanities, including music, the visual arts, philosophy, history, literature, religion, theater, and film. Along the way, the book thoroughly synthesizes theory, research, and exemplary practice, concluding with thought-provoking discussions of avenues for public engagement and policy. With its expansive coverage of both the field as a whole and specialized disciplinary and interdisciplinary drivers, The Oxford Handbook of the Positive Humanities advances the literature on the theory and science of well-being and extends the scope of the arts and humanities.

Louis Tay is the William C. Byham Associate Professor in Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Purdue University. He is coeditor of Big Data in Psychological Research and the Handbook of Well-Being. He served as the Founding Research Director of the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project and is the founder of ExpiWell, a technology platform for experience sampling research and well-being development. James O. Pawelski is a Professor of Practice and the Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the Founding Director of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program and the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project, which has been designated a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. As a philosopher who has worked in positive psychology and related areas for more than twenty years, he has authored and edited four books for academic and lay audiences and is the editor of the Oxford University Press book series on the Humanities and Human Flourishing.

- Part I: An Overview of the Positive Humanities - Chapter 1: Introduction: The Role of the Arts and Humanities in Human Flourishing - Louis Tay and James O. Pawelski - Chapter 2: The Positive Humanities: Culture and Human Flourishing - James O. Pawelski - Part II: Historical and Current Trends - Chapter 3: The Humanities and Human Flourishing - Darrin McMahon - Chapter 4: Towards a Contextual Model of Arts and Humanities Engagement and Human Flourishing - Yerin Shim - Chapter 5: Flourishing Effects of Integrating the Arts and Humanities in STEM Education: A Review of Past Studies and an Agenda for Future Research - Hoda Vaziri and Norman M. Bradburn - Part III: Flourishing Outcomes of the Arts and Humanities - Chapter 6: Art, Music, and Literature: Do the Humanities Make our Lives Richer, Happier, and More Meaningful? - Erin Westgate and Shigehiro Oishi - Chapter 7: Lessons for Positive Arts and Humanities from the Science of Meaning in Life - Alexis N. Wilkinson and Laura A. King - Chapter 8: Cultivating Psychological Well-Being through Arts-Based Interventions - Olena Helen Darewych - Chapter 9: The Neuroscience of Well-Being: A General Framework and Its Relation to Humanistic Flourishing - Yoed N. Kenett and Anjan Chatterjee - Chapter 10: How to Encourage People to Engage with the Arts and Humanities: Suggestions from Self-Efficacy Theory and Research - James E. Maddux and Evan M. Kleiman - Chapter 11: Understanding and Improving Emotion Regulation: Lessons from Psychological Science and the Humanities - Joseph Ciarrochi, Louise Hayes, and Baljinder Sahdra - Chapter 12: Character and Virtues in the Arts and Humanities - Willibald Ruch and Fabian Gander - Chapter 13: Holocaust and Humanity: Depicting Realities While Creating Pathways for Future Upstanders, Strengths Use, and Flourishing - Edward Jacobs, Michael Berenbaum and Ryan Niemiec - Part IV: Pathways from the Arts and Humanities to Flourishing - Chapter 14: The Role of Passion in the Arts and Humanities: How Quality of Engagement Matters - Robert J. Vallerand, Anna Sverdlik, and Arielle Bonneville-Roussy - Chapter 15: Flow in the Arts and Humanities: On Cultivating Human Complexity - Katherine Vrooman, Kelsey Procter Finley, Jeanne Nakamura, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Chapter 16: Stories for Good: Transportation into Narrative Worlds - Kaitlin Fitzgerald and Melanie Green - Chapter 17: Awe, Approached - Piercarlo Valdesolo - Chapter 18: The Role of Reflection in Transformative Learning: Staff and Student Experiences - Camille Kandiko Howson and Saranne Weller - Chapter 19: Creativity and Human Flourishing - Mark Runco - Chapter 20: The Flourishing Congregations Project: Character Strengths Pathways to Enhance Well-Being Beyond the Individual - Rachel Hershberg, Ryan Niemiec, and Irwin Kula - Chapter 21: No Man is an Island: How Community Arts and Social Support Underpin Well-being - Katie Wright-Bevans and Alexandra Lamont - Chapter 22: A Walk in the Sun: The Awakening of Human Flourishing in Creative Youth Development - Ivonne Chand O'Neal - Chapter 23: Love and Other Positive Emotions in Social Practice and Contemporary Visual Art - Claire Schneider and Barbara L. Fredrickson - Part V: Disciplinary Considerations - Chapter 24: Music and Flourishing - Alexandra Lamont - Chapter 25: Visual Arts and Community Well-being - Lois Hetland and Cathy Kelley - Chapter 26: Film and Meaning - Keith Oatley - Chapter 27: Embodiment and Containment: Flexible Pathways to Flourishing in Theatre - Thalia R. Goldstein and Kristen Hayes - Chapter 28: Philosophy and Well-being - Justin Ivory and Valerie Tiberius - Chapter 29: History and Human Flourishing: Using the Past to Address the Present - Peter Stearns - Chapter 30: Practical Wisdom: What Philosophy and Literature Can Add to Psychology - Barry Schwartz - Chapter 31: Contributions of Reading Fiction to Well-being: Positive, Negative, and Ambiguous Consequences of Engaging with Fiction - David Kidd - Chapter 32: The Holiness of Wholeness: Religious Contributions to Human Flourishing - Kenneth I. Pargament, Serena Wong, and Julie J. Exline - Chapter 33: Insight and Sight: The Interplay between the Humanities and Business and the Impact on Student Well-being - Anne M. Greenhalgh, Douglas E. Allen, and Jeffrey Nesteruk - Chapter 34: The Medical Humanities: Embracing the Interdisciplinary Art of Medicine and Healthcare - Faye Reiff-Pasarew - Part VI: Public Engagement and Public Policy - Chapter 35: Investigating the Contributions of the Public Humanities to Human Development - David Kidd - Chapter 36: A New Concept for Museum "Museotherapy": Promoting Health, Well-Being and Therapy through Art - Nathalie Bondil and Stephen Legari - Chapter 37: Humanities and Public Policy: Forging Citizens and the Nation - Daniel Fisher, Beatrice Gurwitz, Cecily Erin Hill, Stephen Kidd, and Scott Muir - Chapter 38: The Contribution of the Arts to Flourishing and Health - Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt and Alan Howarth