Abstract
Interest in human happiness is at least as old as the advent of philosophy. It is framed in American society in terms of "the pursuit of happiness," starting with the Declaration of Independence.' The intensive study of the pursuit of happiness as a separate field, however, arguably has a more recent origin. Many scholars trace it to a revolution in the discipline of psychology that started in 1998 when Martin Seligman, the new president of the American Psychological Association, introduced the term "positive psychology" in his inaugural speech. Seligman decried the common focus of psychology "on repairing damage using a disease model of human functioning." Positive psychology is, instead, "the study of the traits and conditions that lead to human thriving.... It presupposes that happiness and well-being are not merely the absence of depression and anxiety, but rather are a whole host of states, traits, and emotions that combine to make life worth living." This article demonstrates that the study of happiness has major implications for the field of conflict resolution.