Dr. Martin Seligman, celebrating 50 years at the University of Pennsylvania and his work developing Positive Psychology, hosted a morning discussion on April 10 with the Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Alumni about what lies ahead post-pandemic. 

His brief introductory remarks helped to scaffold the discussion around three themes: “The World Is in Labor,” “House Arrest,” and “Hope and Optimism.” As most great teachers do, Marty wanted to hear ideas from his current and former students.  What follows is a thematic overview of an hour-and-a-half discussion that is not in chronological order but dares to capture the depth and breadth of comments and opinions about building the post-covid world. 

The World Is in Labor

Marty described the Covid-19 pandemic as a period of gestation, asking, “What kind of child will be born?” The community had many reflections on what is forming. Marty described how this moment is “a monumental victory for human agency.” We have learned so much about building and delivering vaccines and how that scientific progress can propel us forward. 

MAPP Alumni attending Marty’s talk raised ethical and moral concepts about the pandemic and its impact on society. Siena Loprinzi C’21 described how, as a person with a preference towards introversion, she has learned how much she needs others. Yet, she wondered how reintegration would work for her as she is fully vaccinated, and others still need to follow the precautions of physical distancing and masking. Mary Margaret Rogers C’20 described how “she is looking for guidance” from older adults and public officials. She spoke of how those who have faced challenging times in history can help fuel optimism and hope for others. “Re-entering the world,” she said, needs leadership, and she described how younger adults are looking for it.  

Sid Efromovich C’15 spoke of the moral issues of a pandemic. At the time of the meeting, the US had released only a tiny part of its AstraZeneca stockpile to Canada and Mexico but retained the bulk of the 20 million doses it had stockpiled. Sid spoke of the need for global solidarity to vaccinate the world’s population. (Later in April 2021, the US started to release more of its stockpile.)  Rephael Houston C’19 added that the Indian and South African governments have asked for intellectual property waivers at the World Trade Organization to make the mRNA vaccine. The mRNA technology used by both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech contain licensed University of Pennsylvania technology. This situation is a reminder that we are all stakeholders in the global vaccine rollout as Penn Alumni. Pax Tandon C’10 added, “We just need to remember that morality can be subjective - contextual to culture, etc. We can’t ‘project’ morality into others.” 

Marty noted that predictions of mass psychological trauma in Britain due to the Blitz during World War II did not come to pass, and all the extra capacity in mental hospitals “went unused.” It is easy to gather that betting against humanity isn’t a safe bet.  The tone about what is possible in the future seemed to hinge on what people thought of the current geopolitical climate. Yet, there was a lot of hope that what was being birthed could be good. 

House Arrest

Marty posited that the stage of a person's development might explain how the Covid-19 lockdowns have impacted them. Marty’s theory of human development covers two periods: expansion and contraction.  Expansion is a stage of learning and discovering what you love to do. Contraction is focusing more narrowly on your interests and things that bring you joy.  Marty surmised that “for the people who were still in the stage of expansion, finding love and work,” the lockdown “was an interruption.”  However, “for people in a contraction stage of life,” like himself, Covid-19 lockdowns resulted in fewer obligations and more time to do what they loved doing.

Marty, who serves on the scientific board of BetterUp, described how BetterUp is conducting research to better understand the concept of languishing as part of a more nuanced approach to well-being. He invited us to think about mental health as a continuum, with mental illness at one end, followed by depression and anxiety. In the middle of the spectrum is languishing, in which you're not mentally ill, but PERMA™ is low. At the other end of the continuum is well-being and flourishing, where PERMA™ is high. “We measured languishing before and after Covid, and what we found was a fairly sizable effect of people who were flourishing [with] high PERMA™ [before Covid] dropping into languishing [after Covid].” He noted the need for us to “have the tools to bring people back from languishing into high PERMA™.”

Michelle McQuaid C’09 noted similar impacts from her research on residents of Michigan. She said that their well-being declines for those making under $50,000 and people who reported being Asian. Her research also pointed to what she described as a “pool of well-being” in which struggling and thriving go hand-in-hand. Michelle discussed how normalizing struggle was an essential part of well-being. She explained that people have struggled to thrive because they had “the confidence of swimming in the backyard pool of well-being and then Covid hit and threw them into the wide ocean, and they didn't have the well-being skills to be able to survive in that ocean.” Michelle suggested reframing languishing as “not a sign that we are failing, but [as] an invitation to learning and growth” and an opportunity to tap into and develop resilience skills.

Marsha Huber C’11 also presented several insights from her research of Covid-19’s impact on the well-being of accountants working from home during the pandemic.  She noted there was a gender gap between working women and working men with children in heterosexual couples. Working men with children reported having higher levels of well-being during Covid, but working women with children reported lower levels. 

Hope and Optimism

Living through a pandemic has presented numerous challenges. Yet, MAPPsters shared consistent signs of hope and optimism. The group spoke of a variety of good things that have surfaced for them during the pandemic. The good that people described covered a broad spectrum. 

Sheri Fisher C’06 noted that now the needs of neurodiverse individuals are entering into the conversation of well-being. Travis Millman C’14 sees an opportunity in the mental health field to place a new emphasis on community well-being. Kathryn Britton C’06 spoke of how the pandemic helped to refocus people on their most important relationships. Eleanor Chin C’08 described how technology has been more able to facilitate relationships across distance and make connections more routine. Kunal Sood C’16 stated that his big lesson has been “what matters most is to live a life that's true to yourself … in service of others.”

Elaine O’Brien C’08 spoke about her concerns “around respect and love” in the context of intergenerational differences. She wondered what life would look like when we bridge the gap between the generations, allowing us to “learn from each other's gifts and make it not a divisive thing.” She sees how we can advance well-being for everyone if we take a generative approach at each developmental stage. Targeted programs across the lifespan could help people become “realistically optimistic about what our life is going to be like later” as well as help us “love people across generations.” 

There was a lot of hope in the air as the session ended. Some even decided to stick around after Marty had to exit. So many seeds of ideas were sprouting, as well as so much hope that some of them would take root. It was a fascinating discussion about possibilities and current perspectives on limitations. As the months go on, I am sure many of the ideas will take a new direction. MAPP Alumni constantly reimagine the world and dare to make a difference. 

Rephael Houston is a DHS RAND Fellow.  Rephael has expertise as a third-party mediator, coach, and resilience & peer support trainer. He holds a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Maryland, a graduate certificate in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University, and master’s degrees from the Naval War College, Georgetown University, and the University of Pennsylvania (MAPP). Rephael can be contacted at thrivingprofessionals@gmail.com.