FROM THE 'SCIENCE OF WELL-BEING' CONFERENCE,
ROAYL SOCIETY, LONDON,
19-20 NOVEMBER 2003
Focus: Think happy
[23 November 2003 - Sunday Times (London)] It's no joke: even scientists at the Royal Society are now taking the search for the source of happiness very seriously. ... The decision by the Royal Society to pick �the science of wellbeing� from hundreds of applications for conferences on other topics is no laughing matter. It means that the investigation of what makes people happy is being taken very seriously indeed. ... �If someone is happy they are more popular and also healthier, they live longer and are more productive at work. So it is very much worth having,� Nick Baylis said. ...

Psychologists put their heads together to discover how we can be happy for life
[20 November 2003 - The Independent (London)] Some of the brightest researchers in psychology met in London yesterday with one thing on their minds: the pursuit of happiness. They went to the Royal Society, the independent academy dedicated to promoting excellence in science, to discuss the science of well-being and the art of thinking positively. At the centre of the two-day conference is the philosophy and practice of Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the guru of how to be happy through a positive approach to life. He turned the world of psychology and psychiatry upside down five years ago by suggesting scientists should study what was going right with people's lives rather than concentrating on what was going wrong. ...

Low self-esteem 'shrinks brain'
[23 November 2003 - The Korea Herald] People with a low sense of self worth are more likely to suffer from memory loss as they get older, say researchers in a BBC News Online report. The study, presented at a conference at the Royal Society in London, also found that the brains of these people were more likely to shrink compared with those who have a high sense of self esteem. Dr Sonia Lupien, of McGill University in Montreal surveyed 92 senior citizens over 15 years and studied their brain scans. She found that the brains of those with low self-worth were up to a fifth smaller than those who felt good about themselves. ...