George E. Vaillant, MD

Positive Psychology and Successful Aging

Oslo Kongressenter, Sunday October 28 and Monday 29, 2007

"Worry less about cholesterol and more about gratitude and forgiveness"
- George E. Vaillant, MD

What can you do to increase the likelihood of living a happy, healthy, fulfilling life into your sixties, seventies, eighties and beyond? This two-day workshop is built on the premise that positive psychology and developmental psychology constitutes an empirical science. Dr. Vaillant offer a life-cycle perspective based heavily on contemporary research. For more than five decades Harvard Medical School has studied the basic elements of adult human development, analyzing the health and happiness of hundreds of individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Workshop Schedule »

Dr. Vaillant will reveal several keys to why some people turn out to be more resilient than others. Psychological approaches to life feature strongly in outcomes. For example, developing coping and defense strategies that allow one to see life optimistically, despite the ordinary tragedies of life, is very important to a long, good life, as Dr. Vaillant outlines. Having a solid marriage, forming new friendships and keeping one's mind active is also important. Citing the importance of developing the "right attitude" about life, Dr. Vaillant suggests that people, "Worry less about cholesterol and more about gratitude and forgiveness." His surprising conclusion is that individual lifestyle choices play a greater role than genetics, wealth, race, or other factors in determining how happy people are in later life. Think diet and exercise are the keys to a long, healthy life? Think again.

Positive Psychology is a recent movement of researchers who concentrate on and empirically document what makes individuals, workplaces, schools, and so on, prosper and flourish, rather than diagnosing and fixing what is wrong with them. Positive Psychology is increasingly recognized as having potentially major, lasting benefits for individuals, organizations and even nations. Recognizing these advantages, principles from positive psychology are now increasingly being implemented into education, health care, management and public policy.

Positive Psychology: The Characteristics of Highly Adaptive and Optimally Functioning People (Day 1, Sunday 28 October)

1. A brief history of the origin of the Positive Psychology Movement
2. Faith, hope and joy: The neurobiology of positive emotions
3. Positive experiences: Well-being and resilience
4. Defenses and coping strategies: How to see life optimistically, despite the ordinary tragedies of life
5. How to identify and nurture purpose, tolerance and flourishing
6. Spirituality and religion: Yes, there is a difference
7. Hope in a wider context: The state of the world and political concerns

Successful Aging, Part 1: Findings from the Harvard Study of Adult Development (Day 2, Monday 29 October)

1. A life-cycle perspective: Critical transitions and the expansion of developmental psychology
2. Unlocking the doors to health and happiness in late life
3. The pursuit of lifelong learning, creativity, play and enrichment at work
4. Generativity: Forging new friendships and helping the next generation
5. Integrity: Finding inner peace with all the experiences of life and the world

Successful Aging, Part 2: Round-table conference - "From Knowledge to Action" (Day 2, Monday 29 October)

In the second part of the workshop on Monday 29 of October, Norwegian researchers and policy-makers will expand with their own views on Dr. Vaillant's presentation. During this round table conference, researchers affiliated with the Senter for Seniorpolitikk, policy-makers and attendees will be invited to discuss implications of the findings from the Harvard Study of Adult Development, and point to areas of education, health care, management and public policy that require attention.

Clinical Training (Both Day 1 & 2)

Through illustrations and examples of application, attendees will learn specific interventions and how to adapt these interventions to various age groups and settings - all with the goal of helping individuals with adaption to life, aging well and live more fulfilled lives. The workshops will be of practical value to clinicians, managers, researchers, educators, and others.

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George E. Vaillant, MD, Harvard Medical School Positive Psychology and Successful Aging George Vaillant, MD, is a professor of psychiatry and co-director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a 50-year-old longitudinal study of 824 individuals followed from their teens into old age. He has received numerous awards including the APA 2007 Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Vaillant has published extensively, including several books and 19 articles in Archives of General Psychiatry and 21 articles in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Currently Dr. Vaillant has 8 articles in press as well as a new book titled Faith, Hope and Joy: The Neurobiology of Positive Emotions.

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Target audience:

Health clinicians, researchers and advanced students in medicine and the social sciences, educators, policy-makers, the media and others interested in positive psychology and successful aging.

Course approvals:

Evidence is approved as a non-profit continued education provider by the the Norwegian Psychological association (NPF), the Norwegian Medical Association (Dnlf), the Norwegian Nurses Council (NSF) and the joint association of social educators, child welfare specialists and social workers (FO). Applications for CME credits will be submitted.