The Harvard Magazine has an in-depth article on the psychology of happiness and personal growth.
Whereas this was previously the domain of pop psychology and self-help books, the development of ‘positive psychology’ in the last decade has attracted serious researchers determined to understand how the mind and brain support positive attributes and emotions.
We covered this topic before when The New York Times published a very well researched article on the field.
Positive psychology was initially treated with scepticism but now seems to be largely in the mainstream of psychology research and is gathering significant public attention.
Link to ‘The Science of Happiness’ from Harvard Magazine.
Link to NYT article ‘Happiness 101’.
Mind Hacks 
Hi Vaughan,
Yes, it’s incredible – there’s been a lot of press lately about positive psychology. The Economist had a different take on it, asking how to measure happiness in its early January issue. We love it that there’s so much more research available and that the research results can be used right off the bat. Thanks for the post!
~ Senia from Positive Psychology News Daily