The Summer School

The Summer School stems from a fruitful international collaboration between the Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna and the University of Pretoria.

It aims to train new generations of students and PhD candidates within the discipline of positive psychology with a strong emphasis on:

• understanding and exploring core concepts in Positive Psychology at personal levels;
• applying these concepts to everyday contexts, in order to promote well-being;
• exploring their applications and implications in various cultural contexts.

Positive psychology is a relatively new discipline focused on the scientific study of well-being, happiness, and personal resources, to improve the quality of life of individuals and communities. Positive psychology has a strong interdisciplinary approach and can easily be integrated into other disciplinary fields, from education and social sciences to medical sciences.

The knowledge and expertise gained within this discipline are increasingly  recommended to address the psychosocial needs of individuals, groups and communities. This is especially important as they  have to cope with the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic and other recent psychosocial stressors (wars, climate changes, economic crises). Younger generations and university students in particular are those who have reported the most consistent impact of these recent socio-economic changes on their well-being and quality of life. Previous international scientific studies have documented the beneficial effect of positive psychology interventions with university students, with a positive impact on their well-being, mental health and academic performance.