Well-Being Shimmers in a Sampling of MAPP14 Capstones

From the beginning of the MAPP journey, the capstone is a term that all MAPPsters quickly learn. For every MAPP student, the capstone, comparable in many ways to a master’s thesis, is the culminating project of an intense year. For some, the topic is chosen before the first day of immersion week, with each paper written throughout the year bringing them another step closer to its completion. For others, each new subject matter within the study of positive psychology presents an additional opportunity for capstone consideration, and a topic is not chosen until the last minute (or even beyond)! Each capstone reflects its writer’s individual interest, viewpoint, and assertion about the world of positive psychology, and the topics chosen are varied and diverse.

My own capstone, “Weaving a Colorful Life Tapestry: Serene Gratitude, Post-Traumatic Growth, and Breast Cancer,” is a reflection on my personal experience with breast cancer through the lens of post-traumatic growth, with a focus on the positive emotions of gratitude and serenity. I didn’t settle on my topic until later in the spring, and I was surprised that my journey brought me to such a personal topic. Reflecting on my own experience with my capstone, I was curious to know how my MAPP14 classmates chose and pursued their topics and what, if anything, they plan to do with them in the future. Recently, I spoke with a few of my classmates and was delighted that they were excited to share their topics and processes with me.

What was your capstone topic?

Anna Lucas (C’19): My capstone is “Cultivating Connection: A Conceptual Model Identifying, Facilitating and Inhibiting Factors Across Three Levels of Community.” I explored the intersection of community, connection, and wellbeing. I investigated the ingredients necessary for authentic human connection (AHC), and then applied that recipe across communities.

Carolyn Biond (C’19)i: My capstone is “Flourishing Partners: Leveraging Positive Psychology in a Peer Support Model to Promote Well-Being for Recovering Addicts.” I researched what is known about the etiology of addiction and learned that there is so much that we don’t understand about how and why it manifests in some people and not others, even when they have similar family histories and personal experience. I believe that there are some secret ingredients related to resilience and post-traumatic growth that we need to continue exploring to help prevent and treat addiction.

Kellie Cummings (C’19): My capstone is “A Theory of Moral Excellence: How Business Leaders Stay True to Themselves.” I looked at moral leadership in business leaders.

Sarah Rosenblum (C’19): My capstone is “Positive Jewish Education: A Pathway to Thriving in 21st Century Jewish Education.” I created a framework called J-GLOW to serve as a guide to implement positive education while focusing on Jewish values of gratitude, love of learning, optimism, and well-being. I searched for overlapping themes between positive psychology and Judaism.

Sari Wilson (C’19): My capstone is “The Happy Saint: The Call to Holiness is a Call to Happiness.” I was particularly interested in the intersection between positive psychology, character and virtue, and spirituality – specifically centered in the Roman Catholic faith.

Why did you choose this topic?

Anna: Though positive psychology is dedicated to the flourishing of individuals, organizations, and communities, I saw a gap in the literature around community application. I have worked in diverse communities around the country, and I wanted to create a framework I could use to enhance community connection, within and between communities.

Carolyn: As a recovering person, I wanted to understand how positive psychology can support people to recover from addiction and shift into flourishing. Addiction can be considered to be an epidemic in our culture, and the relapse rate is documented as high as 90%. We need new tools to address this problem, and I think positive psychology can provide those. Then the learning can be applied more broadly to benefit everyone searching for greater wellbeing!

Kellie: During the 2008/2009 global financial crisis, I led a team of writers at a large financial services organization and found it was very difficult for us to communicate with our customers in the aftermath of a situation caused by wanton greed. I wanted to use my experience to learn more about how business leaders make difficult moral decisions.

Sarah: I attended Jewish day school and am passionate about the future of Jewish education. I am involved in various Jewish organizations, teach at a Hebrew school, and have a partnership with The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston. I saw that there was a clear need and interest in the concept of thriving instead of just surviving.

Sari: As a child in the Catholic faith, I always felt like saints were on some sort of pedestal, which is an unreachable goal. Of course, the way Mother Teresa lived her life is incredibly inspiring, but I often left youth group meetings feeling as if I would never measure up. During MAPP, as I learned about the practical application of virtue through character and recognized the unique character strengths we ALL have, I started to realize that the world actually doesn't need more Mother Teresas, but it does need a "Sari Wilson.” I think teens and kids (and adults) can feel like they need to be someone else in order to assert worth in our society, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! In fact, our health and well-being increase when we become more of who we are.

How did you arrive at this topic? When did you know this was “The One?”

Anna: I chose my topic by asking myself three questions: “What do I know or what unique experiences do I have? What gaps do I see in the field of Positive Psychology? What do I want to learn?” These questions provided a helpful framework which allowed me to narrow down my many interests and identify my core intention. I determined my subject toward the end of February and secured my advisor in early March.

Carolyn: I think most people who are struggling with addiction have a strong desire to recover but can’t stay the course for a number of reasons, biological, psychological and environmental. My thinking was that when you help people create a vision for a flourishing life, giving up the old way of life becomes more attractive and possible. Through my capstone, I sought to provide specific tools and activities to promote wellbeing, based in the positive psychology research, that people can practice with. From my learning in MAPP, I knew how effective a peer-support model can be for learning and changing behavior, and how important supportive relationships are to wellbeing. Helping people to make lifelong friends who can support their recovery is a secondary goal of this model.

Kellie: Reflecting on my experience in 2008, as a student of positive psychology I studied what goes right instead of examining how people allow their greed to become destructive. This led me to conduct a qualitative exemplar study of people who chose to do the right thing even when it was very difficult. In order to qualify for the study, business professionals had to have either risked their job security or hopes for a promotion by standing up for what they believed. By meeting that plus two additional qualifications, these individuals qualified to be moral exemplars in this study. In total, I interviewed 20 moral exemplars.

Sarah: Throughout MAPP I realized there were many intersecting values and themes between positive psychology and Judaism. Jewish education enrollment has been on the decline in the non-orthodox community, and I believe positive psychology can help make Jewish education more relevant and meaningful for students today. I hope this can help ensure these Jewish traditions are passed on for future generations. I decided this was a topic I was passionate about, and I saw a need in the field since positive education has primarily been focused on non-religious schools. I had many different ideas before this topic and ultimately decided on this topic in the spring semester of MAPP after many conversations with my advisor, Amy Rosenthal.

Sari: I really wanted to integrate concepts already prevalent in Catholic teaching (virtue) with modern mental health research. The increase of adolescent mental health issues is alarming, and I believe that we need to help alleviate these challenges through returning to teaching virtue in the Church. This was a natural integration since character strength research builds on ancient wisdom and faith traditions like Roman Catholicism.

OK, last question… What are your plans for the future? Do you intend to operationalize your capstone in some way?

Anna: This past March, as physical distancing and safer-at-home ordinances went into effect around the country, I saw a real need for authentic connection in the midst of COVID-19. I created a 6-week virtual program called Spark Connection with the mission of strengthening participants' connection to themselves, the people in their lives, and the world. I also created a community-building workshop that goes deeper into the community application of my research, and I facilitated one of these workshops with a group of city leaders this spring. You can read more about these programs on my website.

Carolyn: I have just launched a wellbeing consultancy, Well Beyond, which puts much of my capstone into practice. My services are for anyone seeking personal growth and greater wellbeing, so are not limited to those in recovery. So much of the journey of wellbeing and thriving is universal. We are all so much more alike than we are different.

Kellie: I plan to expand my original study and interview a wider range of people, as well as host webinars related to the topic of moral leadership. Interestingly, when I asked people what they relied on to stay true to themselves, I suspected many would refer to their religion or an artifact that represented their deeper values. What I discovered, however, was that moral exemplars form trusting relationships with people who share their values and in a time of crisis; when their values are being challenged by an external event, exemplars seek out these values-based relationships for affirmation. So, when it comes to upholding our values, “Other people really do matter.”

Sarah: This last year I have been fortunate to be able to apply my capstone through several consulting projects and professional development programs. It’s been wonderful to lead a five-part positive Jewish education course series to 25 Jewish educators and principals in Houston, give webinars to groups of up to 350 participants, and be a keynote speaker at a Jewish conference on thriving. I’m excited to see the interest in this area expand, and I feel lucky that the timing aligned with my capstone so I can contribute to the field and collaborate with other passionate educators.

Sari: I am so excited about bringing my capstone out into the world! My advisor, Kathryn Wessling (MAPP 13), Angela Mattern, and I are working on creating a website and podcast called The Happy Saint to help individuals discover their strengths and help them to flourish through practice and prayer.