POSITIVE INTERVENTIONS IN THE WORKPLACE

• Extending the generalizability of positive interventions (practicing gratitude, kindness, savoring) to the workplace.
• Understanding the effect of happiness on job satisfaction, empowerment, and organizational citizenship behaviors.
• Exploring cultural differences in the success of positive interventions with employees in France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Taiwan, and Africa.

POSITIVE ACTIVITIES AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT

• Exploring the relationship between positive activities and self-improvement efforts. Can expressing gratitude help bolster people’s efforts towards self-improvement?
• How and why might different positive activities (e.g., expressing gratitude, committing kind acts) lead to greater or worse self-improvement?

GRATITUDE

• Investigating the mixed emotional experience of expressing gratitude.
• Exploring whether gratitude can motivate individuals to become more productive, healthier, and more generous.
• What types of gratitude, or ways of expressing gratitude, are most effective in motivating positive behaviors?

HEDONIC ADAPTATION

• Do some people adapt to positive or negative experiences faster than others?
• What are the mechanisms by which people adapt to life experiences?

MONEY AND HAPPINESS

• Exploring the relationship between money and happiness.
• The role of materialism. How and why might rising aspirations affect well-being? Are there any cultural differences?
• Thrift and happiness. Do thrifty decisions make people happier? How can people spend money to maximize happiness and thrift?

​CONSUMER EXPERIENCE

• How can the consumer’s overall experience be improved?
• Exploring the relationship between social media and happiness.
• Investigating how the social media experience can be modified to maximize satisfaction and well-being.