Podium Presentation - 20 minutes International Positive Psychology Association 8th IPPA World Congress 2023

MAPPing the impact of 10 years of applied positive psychology post-graduate training in Portugal: A qualitative study (#196)

Sara Ascenso 1 , Helena Marujo 2
  1. Royal Northern College of Music, School of Academic Studies, Lecturer, Manchester, UK
  2. School of Social and Political Sciences, Center for the Administration of Public Policies - CAPP, University of Lisbon, Associate Professor, Lisbon, Portugal

Background

The year of 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of a MAPP programme in Lisbon, Portugal. This allowed to introduce, for the first time in the country, a structured educational programme covering individual wellbeing, resilience and post-traumatic growth, public happiness, happiness economy and public policy, organizational wellbeing, community wellbeing and positive nations. Throughout the decade, nearly 200 professionals from a wide variety of fields including business, health, education, communication, sports, architecture and the performing arts, have completed the programme. 

Aims

This presentation shares the results of a large-scale qualitative study investigating the impact of this training on students’ flourishing. 

Method

An open-ended questionnaire was sent to all alumni who successfully completed one of the two versions of the programme: the Executive Masters in Applied Positive psychology (3 semesters) or the post-graduated diploma in Applied Positive Psychology (2 semesters). The questionnaire prompted students to reflect on how they experienced the programme, with broad questions covering personal significance, professional significance, social significance, highlights and challenges and suggestions for improvement.

Results

Data collection is ongoing until December 2022. To date, 83 students, ranging from 26 to 74 years of age, have provided a full dataset. Thematic analysis will be used as the analysis strategy and Keyes (2002)’s proposal as the theoretical framework on flourishing aiding result interpretation.

Conclusion

 The themes emerging from the data will allow to ascertain the main areas of impact of higher education positive psychology training.

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