Page No 9-26
Seema Mehrotra and Ravikesh Tripathi
NIMHANS, Bangalore
.
Rapid strides have been made in the field of positive psychology across the
globe in the last one decade. The present paper reviews the published empirical
literature from India that falls within the purview of positive psychology. The
primary tool for extracting relevant studies was an electronic search of databases
covered on EBSCOhost, using pre-determined criteria in addition to a
supplementary manual search. The studies reviewed span the years from 1954
to the beginning of 2010.The themes covered ranged from folk notions of
happiness, values and wellbeing, socio-demographic, intrapersonal and
interpersonal correlates and predictors of subjective wellbeing, positive adaptation
to illness, posttraumatic growth, perceptions and expressions of positive
emotions, development of positive traits & strengths, to examining outcomes
that go beyond subjective reports of wellbeing. A large proportion of intervention
studies have been rooted in spiritual frameworks. The review indicates the nature
of issues addressed in field while bringing to light some of the areas that require
attention in further research. The paper highlights the critical need for cumulative
building of knowledge- base in the Indian positive psychology research through
adequate linkages of studies from one to another