Just as Africa and the West have traditionally fit into binaries of Darkness/Enlightenment, Savage/Modern, Ugly/Beautiful, and Ritual/Art, among others, much of Western cultural production rests upon the archetypal binary of Trickster/Epic, with trickster aesthetics and commensurate cultural forms characterizing Africa. Challenging this binary and the exceptionalism that underlies anti-hegemonic efforts even today, this book begins with the scholarly foundations that mapped out African tri...

The Social Protests of 2020: Visceral Responses to Police Brutality, COVID-19, and Circumscribed Sexuality collects voices from various Black intellectuals — university professors, a scientist, media communication specialist, poets, a visual artist, and political activists — to illustrate how the simultaneity of high-profile political events in the summer of 2020 manifest in our consciousness at one time. Reflecting the contributors’ honest visceral responses, the chapters reveal the angui...

Looking for an introduction to positive psychology that offers real-life examples? This overview of the science of happiness supplies case studies from some of the world's most successful organizations and describes ways to experience the personal impact of this exciting scientific field.Rather than focusing on treating what is "wrong" with a person, positive psychology seeks to understand and foster the things that drive happiness, creativity, and emotional fulfil...

**The first book by the creator of COURSERA®'s most popular online course in 2015, "A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment"Could the same traits that drive your career success also be keeping you from being happier?**Fifteen years after getting his MBA, Raj Raghunathan spent some time with his old classmates. He noticed that though they’d all done well, there didn’t appear to be much correlation between their academic success and career success. What Raj found even more curiou...

The definitive, practical handbook on positive psychology and character strengths for practitioners working in coaching, psychology, education, and business – start using strengths today! This book is the epitome of positive psychology: it takes the "backbone" of positive psychology – character strengths – and builds a substantive bridge between the science and practice. Working with client's (and our own) character strengths boosts well-being, fosters resilience, improves relationships, a...

Positive emotions have been linked with better health, longer life, and greater well-being in numerous scientific studies. On the other hand, chronic anger, worry, and hostility increase the risk of developing heart disease, as people react to these feelings with raised blood pressure and stiffening of blood vessels. But it isn't easy to maintain a healthy, positive emotional state. People often misjudge what will make them happy and content. Positive Psychology, a Special Health Report fr...

Mental health professionals provide better care to their clients when they care for themselves. This acclaimed highly practical guide--now revised and expanded with even more self-care strategies--helps busy psychotherapists balance their personal and professional lives. The book presents 13 research-informed self-care strategies and offers concrete methods for integrating them into daily life. Featuring examples and insights from master therapists, every chapter concludes with a self-care...

This book provides a clear and engaging description of group dynamic processes. Vignettes, case examples, and activities provide an experiential flavor to the book that will deepen the reader’s understanding of key concepts. Activities are also useful experiential teaching and learning tools for studying group dynamics and allow participants to engage in the group dynamic process itself. Another attractive feature of the book is a series of reflections by an individual who participated in ...

Engaged teaching recognizes that educators need to offer more than lesson plans and assessments for students to thrive in the 21st century. Equip your students to be resilient individuals, able to communicate effectively and work with diverse people. The authors contend that students must develop their emotional and social skills as thoroughly as their academic skills, and that teachers must cultivate this growth.

For more than thirty years, On Being a Therapist has inspired generations of mental health professionals (and their clients) to explore the most private, confusing, and sacred aspects of helping others. In this thoroughly revised and updated sixth edition, Jeffrey Kottler explores many of the challenges that therapists face in their practices today, including pressures from increased technology, economic realities, and advances in theory and technique. He also examines the stress ...

The importance of improving and maintaining employees’ psychological health is now widely recognized by occupational health researchers and practitioners, business leaders, human resource professionals, and policy makers alike. Indeed, a growing body of research has established that psychological well-being is one of the most important factors in job performance.The Mindful and Effective Employee offers an evidence-based workplace training program based on acceptance and c...

Although there are as many answers to the question of how organizations can gain competitive advantage in today's global economy as there are books and experts, one lesson seems very clear: traditional answers and resources are no longer sufficient. This seminal book offers not only an answer regarding how to gain competitive advantage through people, but also a brand new, untapped human resource--psychological capital, or simply PsyCap. Generated from both the positive psychology movement...