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Building on the introduction to positive psychology and positive education in Chapter 1, the aim of Chapter 3 is to focus on wellbeing and positive education in secondary schools. This includes an overview of approaches to intervening in mental health (‘traditional’ and those which draw on the principles of positive psychology) that have been used in schools, and the factors that can influence their outcomes. When and how to apply interventions across three levels: the system, the community, and the individual, are also explored, alongside four different approaches: whole school, whole class, small group, and one-to-one. The chapter draws on up-to-date research and practical experience in secondary school settings, and includes a case study of Positive Psychology in Practice, based on the delivery (by the author) of a multi-component PPI (mPPI) – The Hummingbird Project, which has now been delivered to approximately 4,000 students in 24 secondary schools across the North West of England. The effectiveness of the mPPI, key lessons learned and insights gained are shared, including how to overcome the challenges of working in a culture not conducive to positive education.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of an individual oriented positive psychology intervention on positive emotions, self‐efficacy, and work engagement.

The online self‐enhancement intervention program consists of three types of online assignments: happiness assignments, goal setting assignments, and resource building assignments. The authors expected the self‐enhancement intervention group to show a significantly stronger increase in the outcome variables compared to a self‐monitoring control group.

The results revealed that the self‐enhancement group showed a stronger increase in positive emotions and self‐efficacy compared to the control group, but not on engagement. Additional analyses showed that the positive effects of the self‐enhancement intervention are present for employees who are initially low in engagement, but not for those medium or high in engagement.

The study was conducted via a semi‐public web site. The participants were all working in different organizations throughout the country and did not have the advantage of having the support of their supervisors and colleagues who were participating in a similar intervention.

Positive psychology interventions should target employees who are low in engagement, because they have the most unused potential and therefore have more to gain.

Traditionally speaking, individual interventions are carried out when something is wrong or malfunctioning, and with the sole objective of fixing it. The intervention presented in this paper includes the entire workforce, because it is based on the belief that improving employee well‐being is relevant for all.

Positive psychology (PP) interventions have been suggested to be beneficial in the treatment of dual diagnosis (DD). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perspective of psychosocial intervention (PSI) workers to explore the potential of a positive strengths-based approach in DD recovery.

A qualitative approach was employed with PSI workers who attended and observed a positive intervention delivered to DD clients. A focus group explored what these practitioners are already doing that resembles PP and their opinion regarding the utility of such interventions in recovery.

Findings revealed that practitioners were already engaging in positive practice, however, randomly and infrequently with limited impact. Although this new approach was found valuable, potential challenges were identified and a possible discrepancy between staff views of clients and clients’ views of themselves in terms of their potential was detected.

The study involved a small and homogeneous sample. Further research is necessary to investigate staff views and ways of integrating PP with traditional treatment.

Rather than merely attending to the psychological problems and dealing with symptoms, it is also necessary to directly target well-being to enable people to flourish with consideration of their readiness to change.

Addressing a gap in the literature, the present study explored positive themes in current practice and forms part of the evaluation of a newly developed strengths-based approach for individuals with coexisting problems.

Syrian refugees in the Netherlands frequently suffer from mental health problems. It is argued that mental health not only consists of the absence of psychiatric disorders but also of the presence of mental well-being. However, there is little attention to the mental well-being of refugees, and no intervention exists that focuses on fostering the mental well-being of refugees. Therefore, the new culturally sensitive positive psychology intervention “Mosaic” was developed and implemented in collaboration with the target audience and local partners. Mosaic is offered in the Arabic language, and the content is focused on (re)finding purpose in life and (re)discovering life values and subsequently acting upon these values. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of Mosaic on the mental well-being of Syrians in the Netherlands.

The effect of Mosaic on the mental well-being of Syrians in the Netherlands is assessed by conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a waitlist control group.

Postintervention within sample t-tests showed that the intervention group (n = 66) experienced significantly more overall mental well-being, emotional well-being and purpose in life right after participating in the intervention when compared to the preintervention measurement. The effect on purpose in life persisted six months later. These improvements were not found among the control group (n = 60).

Mosaic is the first positive psychology intervention in the Netherlands that was developed for and in collaboration with Syrian refugees. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is also the first study in the Netherlands and one of the first ones in Europe that assesses the effect of positive psychology for refugees specifically.

Traditionally, the focus in psychology has been to relieve suffering in matters such as mental illness. In forensic interventions, the focus has been similar, with an emphasis on the removal of offence‐related behaviours and thinking. That is, therapy has focused on ‘fixing’ what appears to be broken. More recent thinking in the positive psychology literature focuses on the importance of enhancing well‐being and happiness in clients and enhancing the client's own strengths and positive experiences. In turn, positive psychology adopts a strengths‐based approach to working therapeutically with clients. Positive psychology has a number of potential implications for working with forensic clients and the delivery of therapy and relapse prevention blocks. This paper will explores the potential application of positive psychology literature to offending behaviour interventions. Specifically, it focuses on the process of relapse‐prevention and self‐management, within the framework of the Self‐Regulation Model of the Relapse Process (SRM‐RP).

This chapter is on positive education in primary schools (including pre-schools), and how programmes that use interventions from positive psychology (PPIs) can have positive effects (academic and for well-being), on children in this age group (up to 11 years). It explores some of the key challenges of implementing PPIs at younger ages and why, compared to secondary schools, limited studies of PPIs in pre- and primary schools exist. Based on the author’s personal experience of successfully delivering a multiple PPI (mPPI) in a primary school in the United Kingdom, the chapter also presents a case study. In particular, a mPPI known as Hummingbird Primary, adapted from the Hummingbird Project which has successfully been delivered in high schools; see Chapter 3. The case study presents an overview of the mPPI, the impact it had and some of the lessons learned. The chapter concludes with recommendations for educators wishing to implement PPIs in a whole primary school setting.

Despite the now sizable body of research documenting the importance of emotions and emotion regulation in the workplace, there is relatively little research investigating methods for improving emotional well-being in organizations. Moreover, well-being interventions that have been historically predominant in psychology are deficient in a variety of ways. In light of these deficits, researchers in other areas of psychology have begun to investigate the role of self-guided activities in enhancing the positive aspects of emotional well-being and emotion regulation. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of self-guided activities and interventions. To this end, we provide a review and discussion of various theoretical ideas and specific interventions that have been, or could be, adapted into self-guided activities to boost emotions and emotional regulation skills in the workplace. The chapter is meant to provide practical guidance to employers, organizations, and individual employees interested in using self-guided activities to improve well-being and emotion regulation at work.

The aim of this chapter is to introduce the aims of the book, how it is structured and introduce the main concepts of positive psychology and positive education. This includes a brief history of positive psychology and how it led to its application in schools as positive education. The chapter introduces positive education, what it is, why wellbeing is important in education and some of the main frameworks for positive education being used in schools. A rationale for why the focus of this book is on positive education and at all levels of those involved in education in the UK is also provided. Namely, to address whether positive education is too positive for the UK (Robson-Kelly, 2018).

Parents ‘matter’ to schools for their child’s education and parents ‘matter’ in relation to their child’s wellbeing. Indeed, in his synthesis of over 800 studies, Hattie (2008) equated the benefits of parental engagement with schools as being equivalent to adding two or three further years to their education. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to look at parents in relation to wellbeing through positive education and, as part of this, the concept of positive psychology parenting too. Drawing on scientific research, the benefits of positive psychology to parents and families, alongside some of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ parents can better engage with schools, will be presented. A Positive Psychology in Practice case study of Bounce Back, a freely available, online introduction to positive psychology designed to give parents and carers an introduction to several different concepts, approaches, and hands-on techniques, based on the principles of positive psychology, will also be provided. This case study will also present Bounce Back as an intervention, giving parents and carers practical advice on how best to use this online resource, as well as information on how to implement some of the wider ideas from positive education at home to help them better understand, and intervene in, their own and their family’s wellbeing.