In a field often associated with diagnosing disorders and alleviating distress, 英格丽·韦戈尔德博士, a professor in the bet365官网 of bet365官网’s 心理学系 in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences, is flipping the script. 她的使命不仅是帮助人们生存，还要帮助他们茁壮成长。
For more than 17 years, Weigold has been teaching and researching an area of psychology that focuses not on what’s broken, but what’s working: positive psychology. 这个子领域强调优势、成长和幸福，挑战了传统的观点，即心理学只研究问题或病态。
“People think of psychology as the study of people who have a problem or as the study of the brain,” she says. “But we also need to look at what’s good in life.”
Weigold教授本科生和博士生，提供积极心理学的高级课程，探索幸福、乐观、感恩和意义。 It's open to students who have completed 30 credit hours and a required Introduction to Psychology course — students who are ready to ask a different kind of question: not “What’s wrong with me?” but “What’s right with me?”
“One of the coolest things about positive psychology is that we use this in practice with clients as well,” Weigold explains. “We’re teaching research-based techniques they can use in their own lives.”
她课程的核心是一个赋权的信息：每个人都有优势，学习如何培养这些优势可以带来有意义的成长。 学生们首先要对积极心理学中确定的24种性格优势进行评估。 From there, they choose one of their top strengths — whether it’s leadership, humor, kindness or perspective-taking — and create a semester-long project to develop it.
“At the end of the class, some students have told me this made them a better person,” she says with a smile. “That’s the kind of feedback that sticks with you.”
魏戈尔德很快指出，积极心理学不是要忽视现实或假装一切都很好。 “One of the biggest myths is that it’s all about being happy and ignoring the tough stuff. But that’s not what it is. At its best, it’s a way of working with the reality of life — living a better life while dealing with internal and external stressors.”
她在自己的临床实践中体现了对幸福感和适应力的双重重视。 “I think it can help with different issues people have, such as depression or anxiety. It’s also very helpful for increasing quality of life, meaning making, and positive emotions. It’s good not just for decreasing distress, but for increasing well-being.”
她的研究也印证了这一观点。 In her recent study, “College as a Growth Opportunity: Assessing Personal Growth Initiative and Self-determination bet365官网ory,” published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, Weigold and her co-authors examined how college students intentionally use their time in school for personal growth. 研究结果令人信服：积极追求成长、感到自主、有能力和有联系的学生心理健康程度更高，职业承诺也更强。
“College is such a time of growth and change,” she says. “It’s the perfect opportunity to help students tap into their personal strengths and internal motivations.”
Weigold’s research focuses on human agency—people’s belief in their ability to affect their environment—and personal growth initiative, which she describes as “an individual’s active desire to grow in personally relevant domains.” Her work, especially with college and international student populations, highlights the transformative power of believing in one’s ability to change and improve.
在课堂上，她把她的研究带入了生活。 她热情地谈论如何利用健康资源，帮助学生建立积极的习惯，以及创造有意义和实用的课堂体验。
She also includes a link to the bet365官网’s wellness website on her syllabi — ensuring students know what’s available to support them physically, emotionally and socially. “We have to remind them that there’s so much here to help.”
她的影响超出了课程作业。 She mentors graduate students, encourages research in strength-based interventions, and is part of a movement that’s giving positive psychology its rightful place in mainstream psychology education. “Seventeen years ago, there wasn’t much about this in our theories class. 书中有关于它的章节。 It’s becoming a respected approach.”
一些心理学家现在专门研究力量疗法。 Others incorporate it alongside cognitive-behavioral approaches, adjusting their methods to fit each client’s needs. Weigold两样都做。
也许她的方法最强大的地方在于它的普遍性。 “This is what people want,” she says. “Not just to stop having problems — but to be happy, to be engaged in life, to live a good life.”
Media contact: Cristine Boyd - cboyd@uakron.edu; 330-972-6476