Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience

This book is about savoring life—the capacity to attend to the joys, pleasures, and other positive feelings that we experience in our lives. The authors enhance our understanding of what savoring is and the conditions under which it occurs. Savoring provides a new theoretical model for conceptualizing and understanding the psychology of enjoyment and the processes through which people manage positive emotions. The authors review their quantitative research on savoring, as well as the research of others, and provide measurement instruments with scoring instructions for assessing and studying savoring. Authors Bryant and Veroff outline the necessary preconditions that must exist for savoring to occur and distinguish savoring from related concepts such as coping, pleasure, positive affect, emotional intelligence, flow, and meditation. The book’s lifespan perspective includes a conceptual analysis of the role of time in savoring. Savoring is also considered in relation to human concerns, such as love, friendship, physical and mental health, creativity, and spirituality. Strategies and hands-on exercises that people can use to enhance savoring in their lives are provided, along with a review of factors that enhance savoring. Savoring is intended for researchers, students, and practitioners interested in positive psychology from the fields of social, clinical, health, and personality psychology and related disciplines. The book may serve as a supplemental text in courses on positive psychology, emotion and motivation, and other related topics. The chapters on enhancing savoring will be especially attractive to clinicians and counselors interested in intervention strategies for positive psychological adjustment.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface. Concepts of Savoring: An Introduction. Critical Issues for a Psychology of Savoring. Toward a Model for Savoring. Types of Savoring: Some Empirical Inroads. Types of Savoring: An Integrative Conceptual View. Savoring and Time Orientation. Savoring and Human Concerns. Enhancing Savoring. Epilogue. Appendices: Self-Report Items Assessing Perceived Control Over Positive and Negative Events and Perceived Control Over Positive and Negative Feelings in Response to Events. The Savoring Beliefs Inventory. Instructions for Scoring the Savoring Beliefs Inventory. The Ways of Savoring Checklist. Instructions for Scoring the Ways of Savoring Checklist. The Children's Savoring Beliefs Inventory. Instructions for Scoring the Children's Savoring Beliefs Inventory.

Review :
"Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience is a fascinating hybrid of a book—part reflection, part theory, part survey results; it contains checklists, data, statistical tables interspersed with poetry, and diary entries." - Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, PsycCRITIQUES "The work was a pleasure to read, and certainly got me thinking about savoring experiences of my own." - David G. Myers, Ph.D. Hope College "The book supplies something that no other book does-a compendium of new and scholarly ideas on how to extract the maximum enjoyment from one's life...The writing style is clear and engaging...a good scholarly book...backed by considerable data." - Kennon M. Sheldon, Ph.D. University of Missouri/Columbia "Savoring is destined in my opinion to become a classic." - Martin Seligman, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania "This book is a must-read for those in the field of positive psychology. As is often the vase with a new field of research, the authors raise as many questions as they answer. The questions raised are the best kind: provocative, empirically testable, timely, and rich with practical applications." - Jaime L. Kurtz, The Journal of Positive Psychology, January, 2008 "The work was a pleasure to read, and certainly got me thinking about savoring experiences of my own." - David G. Myers, Ph.D. Hope College "The book supplies something that no other book does-a compendium of new and scholarly ideas on how to extract the maximum enjoyment from one's life...The writing style is clear and engaging...a good scholarly book...backed by considerable data." - Kennon M. Sheldon, Ph.D. University of Missouri/Columbia "Savoring is destined in my opinion to become a classic." - Martin Seligman, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania "This book is a must-read for those in the field of positive psychology. As is often the vase with a new field of research, the authors raise as many questions as they answer. The questions raised are the best kind: provocative, empirically testable, timely, and rich with practical applications." - Jaime L. Kurtz, The Journal of Positive Psychology, January, 2008