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  • Positive Psychology on the College Campus by John C. Wade, Lawrence L. Marks, and Roderick D. Hetzel
  • Alan M. Schwitzer
Positive Psychology on the College Campus
John C. Wade, Lawrence L. Marks, and Roderick D. Hetzel
New York, NY: Oxford, 2015, 376 pages, $69.95 (hardcover)

Student development theory and higher education practice traditionally have been informed by closely related fields such as the various specialties of professional psychology. In particular, counseling psychology’s historical emphasis on individuals’ adaptive strengths, inner resources and resiliencies, and psychological well-being is especially consistent with the higher education goals of promoting student growth, development, adjustment, and success (Moores & Popadiuk, 2011). Most recently, positive psychology has emerged from the counseling psychology literature as a field of study that is useful for looking beyond deficits in a person’s functioning and instead focusing on positive characteristics and facilitative institutional experiences.

Positive Psychology on the College Campus, edited by John C. Wade, Lawrence L. Marks, and Roderick D. Hetzel, applies this scientific study of positive emotions, positive character, and positive institutions to student development work. As a result, this new book is a timely addition to the literature, informing contemporary practices to support student success. The book’s lead authors are college counseling center psychologists who were motivated by the ways the positive psychology approach had enhanced their counseling center work to examine its potential for “applications beyond the counseling center and to almost all areas of student affairs work” (Wade, Marks, & Hetzel, 2015; p. ix). The resulting text is as an introduction to the topic written for practitioners throughout higher education. The book is logically organized and comprises 15 chapters. These are divided up so that the first 4 chapters introduce readers to the dynamics of positive psychology theory in the context of today’s campuses, and then the remaining chapters offer applications of the theory to practice inside and outside the classroom.

In chapter 1, Laurie A. Schreiner builds the case for a close alignment between the priorities of higher education and the goals of positive psychology. On one hand, Schreiner acknowledges the modern importance of institutional outcomes related to student persistence, graduation, and career. On the other hand, she reminds readers that U.S. higher education also has traditionally set out to positively influence character development, psychosocial and cognitive development, and the growth of fulfilled individuals who will be active contributors to society. Whereas a narrower institutional emphasis on admissions standards, graduation rates, and career outcomes potentially can lead to a deficit view of students – identifying mostly gaps in adjustment and areas of poor functioning to which campuses must respond with remediation—a broader view of institutional success that retains an emphasis on student development outcomes allows for practices that can facilitate students’ growth as fulfilled individuals and can create institutional climates in which the potential for thriving across diverse student populations is intentionally advanced. Because positive psychology focuses more on talents, strengths, and resilience than on deficits and remediation, it is presented in the chapter as a good strategy for achieving this broader approach to institutional outcomes. [End Page 620]

The next chapters expand on these themes. In chapter 2, Frank Shushok Jr. and Vera Kidd describe the most recent cohort of U.S. college students: Millennials. This is an especially useful chapter for readers who are relatively unfamiliar with generational viewpoints. The chapter presents the primary features characterizing the Millennial generation of students—including, for example, their exposure to rapid cultural change, immersion in technology and social connectedness, high levels of education, diversity, self-expressiveness, experience of relatively protective family backgrounds, intellect, priority on relevance, service-orientation, as well as their experience of heightened pressure to succeed and high expectations. The chapter balances these unique generational features with a discussion of the ways in which Millennials also share with each previous generation of adolescents and young adults the compelling identity questions of “What are my gifts and talents?” “Why am I in college and will I be successful?” and “How can I matter?” The main point of the chapter is that positive psychology approaches are an effective fit with the developmental characteristics Millennials bring with them to campus. In...

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