Rob Kaiser Chairs Panel on “The Perils of Accentuating the Positive”, 4-26-2007
KDI leads panel on the “The Perils of Accentuating the Positive” at the 22nd annual conference of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology in New York City.
THE PERILS OF ACCENTUATING THE POSITIVE
Rob Kaiser (Chair)
A sea change is brewing in psychology, where a traditional emphasis on dysfunction and pathology is being replaced by a focus on promoting individual growth, flourishing, and fulfillment. Known as positive psychology, this movement seeks to correct an imbalance toward fixing what’s wrong by emphasizing the positives. It has become wildly popular in practice, especially in the area of management development where leaders are urged to quit wasting time working on their weaknesses and instead focus on their strengths. But there are certain half-truths and hidden dangers in this seductively appealing philosophy. This session features veteran consultants, pioneering scholars, and new research that bring out these concerns and help practitioners avoid the hidden traps in strengths-based development.
(Download papers with title links below)
- Morgan W. McCall, Jr., University of Southern California, Every Strength a Weakness
- Rob Kaiser and Bob Kaplan, Kaplan DeVries Inc., When Strengths Run Amok
- Michael Benson and John P. Campbell, University of Minnesota, The Complexity of Personality-Performance Relationships
- Robert Hogan, Hogan Assessment Systems, The Ambiguities of Effectiveness
- Rob Silzer, HR Assessment and Development Inc., Discussant
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