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Robert Biswas-Diener (born July 27, 1972) is a positive psychologist, author and instructor at Portland State University. Biswas-Diener's mother is Carol Diener and his father is Ed Diener, both psychologists.
Biswas-Diener's research focuses on income and happiness, culture and happiness, and positive psychology. Biswas-Diener's research has led him to areas such as India, Greenland, Israel, Kenya, and Spain,[1] and he has been called the "Indiana Jones of positive psychology".[2] He obtained his PhD in 2009 on "Material wealth and subjective well-being" from the University of Tromsø.[3] Biswas-Diener is interested in looking into the difference between a procrastinator and what he calls an "incubator".[4]
Biswas-Diener is an author of books and articles and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Happiness Studies and Journal of Positive Psychology.[1] Biswas-Diener also co-founded The Strengths Project, a charity whose mission is to "help underprivileged individuals and groups realise their strengths to enhance quality of life and build on their life circumstances."[5]
The psychological study of happiness is referred to as subjective well-being. Researchers are principally interested in the measurement, causes and consequences of being happy. Biswas-Diener has contributed to the study of happiness principally through his investigations of the well-being of groups traditionally overlooked by psychologists.[6][7] These include the Amish, the Maasai and homeless people.
Positive psychologists have argued that there is a need create a taxonomy of “what goes right with people” as well as “what goes wrong with people.”[8] Previous attempts have focused on uni-dimensional approaches such as identify individual strengths. Biswas-Diener has expanded on these approaches by creating a “multi-axial” approach to comprehensive diagnosis similar to the DSM Multi-axial Approach used in clinical psychology. His positive diagnosis model includes:
Many researchers have examined the phenomenon of procrastination. Some researchers have noted that procrastination can be adaptive. Biswas-Diener has examined the work styles of people who knowingly procrastinate and allow mounting anxiety to propel them to high performance, albeit “at the last minute.”[9] He has identified this work style as “incubator.”
A major area of interest within positive psychology theory and research has been on the topic of strengths. Strengths are disproportionately represented among publications in the Journal of Positive Psychology. Biswas-Diener and his colleagues argue that strengths are potentials rather than traits and that they can be cultivated through effort.[10] Following from this argument is the idea that strengths can be over or underused and that “strengths development” is largely a matter of learning to use strengths appropriately to unique situations. They further argue that if used inappropriately strengths use may be associated with social costs or personal psychological harm.
Biswas-Diener has written that courage consists of two separable processes: managing the emotion of fear and “boosting the willingness to act”.[11] He suggests that courage consists of skills that can be learned.
