Global Education Programs

Discover and discuss the nature of happiness, what helps people thrive and make a difference to everyday lives by studying MSc Applied Positive Psychology at ARU.

Arizona State University’s Master of Science in psychology with a concentration in positive psychology allows you to apply psychological concepts to promote individual flourishing and satisfaction with life. Through the lens of historical and contemporary research in positive psychology, you’ll gain a solid grounding in the basic tenets of the field, the methodologies employed and the evidence-based interventions that seek to improve peoples’ lives.

Some of our graduates choose to continue their education by completing a PhD. Continuing your education gives you the opportunity to develop your skills further and research your area of interest.

Other graduates have used their new skills to set a business. Positive Psychology Learning (PPL) was set up by two graduates and offers positive psychology courses, consultancy and coaching.

How will you help me prepare for my future career?
Positive Psychology will change the way you look at the world. From a personal perspective you’ll understand your happiness and strengths in a different way.

This Applied Positive Psychology course will provide you with a confident skill set that will support you in any career. You’ll immediately be able to apply your knowledge to day-
to-day life.

As well as learning theory and application, you will also learn to analyse and interpret a range of types of data and develop a critically reflective approach to your learning.

We are a community of learners whose vision is to lead scientific research that empowers students and teachers to not just succeed but to flourish.

Our master’s, doctoral, and certificate programs provide interdisciplinary scholarship in the social sciences to solve real-world problems and enhance quality of life in society.

The only psychology Master’s of its kind in Ireland, this pre-professional programme explicitly focuses on the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities – an attractive area for prospective employers.

During the course, you’ll cover wellbeing, mental health and community psychology, innovations in psychological practice, environmental influences, wellbeing throughout the lifespan and more.

Benefit from research-led teaching

With research and practice at its core, the programme will help you develop your theoretical and conceptual knowledge of the factors that affect wellbeing. Our research-led teaching, including interactive workshops and seminars, offers you a highly engaging learning experience.

Once you graduate, you’ll be highly sought after for assistant psychologist roles in sectors such as education, healthcare and community work. The programme is also ideal for anyone looking to pivot into areas such as research or other professional psychology training.

Positive Psychology allows you to tap into human behavior and practice transformational leadership, taking your own performance – as well as that of your team – from a point of strength to a point of extraordinary performance. In the face of epic levels of change and an imperative to innovate, implementing positive leadership approaches in the way you lead will enhance your team’s happiness, wellbeing, and productivity—enabling your company to thrive in an increasingly competitive market landscape.

Phenomena include amongst others positive emotions, the experience of meaning, resilience, character strengths, optimism, enabling social contexts and positive institutions. A basic premise of positive psychology is that human flourishing cannot be achieved simply through curing pathology and eliminating behavioural and emotional problems, but requires building and capitalising on strengths and capabilities.

Overall aims of the programme are to enable students to:

• Acquire a thorough knowledge and deep understanding of positive psychology in terms of the theory, research and intellectual background thereof;
• Acquire knowledge of a range of tools in positive psychology, develop skills for applying these in the professional contexts of the students and for finding innovative applications in new situations;
• Acquire an in depth knowledge of appropriate methods for research and data analyses.

This transformative, fully online Level 9 programme offers a deep, research-led exploration of advanced topics such as systems-based well-being, the challenges of applying positive psychology in practice, and real-world healthcare applications.

With flexible learning, live tutorials, and practical assignments, MAPPWH equips professionals to enhance resilience, improve patient care, and lead meaningful change across clinical, organisational, and research settings.

This course is a Level 9 award on the Opens in new windowIrish National Framework of Qualifications.

With live and asynchronous components, our degree offers students practical training in positive psychology skills, motivational interviewing, mindfulness, group facilitation, and program evaluation, laying the groundwork for doctoral studies and a wide range of roles in the wellness field.

1. Teaching the foundations for a fulfilling life
2. A proposal for positive practices to promote our students and collaborators’ happiness.
3. Research of the basic wellbeing principles.
4. Dissemination of the results derived from our experience and research.

In the Master’s program Positive Psychology and Well-being, you are trained in interventions to establish happiness and positive behavioral change. You can apply this within the broad domain of mental health services, schools, and companies. As of September 2025, this track is part of MSc Social Psychology.

Program and courses

Positive psychology is the scientific study of strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive in their personal life, schools and universities, companies, and mental health care. You focus on people’s strengths and talents and study concepts like creativity, happiness, developing talents and strengths, adaptive power, and psychological well-being. You will study these concepts in the context of individuals, personal life, health, education, entrepreneurship, and society in general.

• Instead of focusing on preventing human disfunctioning, a positive psychologist recognizes and trains people’s character strengths to promote optimal flourishing in work, relationships, and personal development.
• This Master’s track uses the scientist-practitioner model, with a strong link between theory and practice. You learn to conduct independent research and you put what you have learned into practice during an internship. You also attend guest lectures from professional practice.
• The program has the highest student satisfaction of all the psychology programs in the Netherlands (Keuzegids Masters 2025).
• Students from a Dutch university of Applied Sciences (hbo) can follow a one-year preparatory pre-Master’s program in Social Psychology.

You’ll get the chance to learn, debate and critically evaluate positive psychology’s new techniques and research. You’ll also have the opportunity to evaluate developing theories and applications in positive psychology, supported all the way by experienced and enthusiastic teaching staff with an excellent knowledge base. We offer expert training in research techniques, helping you to conceptualise, design and implement an independent research project that explores new ideas and approaches at the forefront of this increasingly popular subject.

Successfully completing this MSc in Positive Psychology should put you in a highly favourable position for seeking employment in relevant care professions and educational institutions, and for securing a place on a specialist psychology-related higher degree or doctorate programme.

This course is available in the following three options:

• Full-time on-campus (12 months)
• Full-time distance learning (12 months)
• Part-time distance learning (24 months)

There is a growing recognition within the world’s coaching and positive psychology community that such integration is an important step forward, providing clients with a more open-minded approach to their mental health. From the point of view of positive psychology, the course will have a strong foundation in cutting-edge theory and research relating to wellbeing. The coaching element will feature advanced training in working with clients and groups in professional capacities.

Our aim is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to be able to help people and organisations to flourish. It combines the study of cutting-edge empirical research and theory on wellbeing with the practical skills and competencies you need to apply this expertise in the real world. The result is a course designed to empower students to truly make a positive difference in the world.

Our course is accredited at Master Practitioner level by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC). After graduating you will be able to apply for the Foundation, Practitioner, Senior Practitioner and, eventually, Master Practitioner level according to your level of experience.

You will gain a scientific understanding of how humans flourish and communities and institutions can be strengthened through positive psychology. The course will equip you to apply positive psychology principles in your professional and personal life.

WHO IS THE COURSE FOR?

The course is for students looking for a scientific approach to studying wellbeing and anyone in a professional setting wanting to increase productivity. Graduates with either professional experience or post-graduate study are welcome to apply. The program is ideal for teachers, HR professionals, entrepreneurs, consultants, health or law professionals.

Please note: the Master of Applied Positive Psychology does not carry professional accreditation and is not a pathway to professional registration as a psychologist.

WHY CHOOSE THE MASTER OF APPLIED POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY WITH US?

On the Master of Applied Positive Psychology, you’ll be taught by a number of internationally recognised education experts, including Professor Lea Waters, Associate Professor Lindsay Oades, Associate Professor Dianne Vella-Brodrick, Associate Professor Aaron Jarden and Dr Peggy Kern. As students of MGSE researchers, you’ll experience evidence-based research and training with a rigorous scientific approach.

Our Centre for Positive Psychology has a reputation as one of the best in the world, and the best in Australia. The research undertaken here feeds directly into your curriculum, bringing you a thought-leading program.

The reputation of the University of Melbourne is strong and globally recognised, particularly for education where MGSE has been ranked #1* in Australia. We are at the cutting edge of teaching and research.

Thriving. It exists on the personal level. It exists on a relational level. And it exists on an organizational level. As the world rapidly shifts, we are helping it move toward something more powerful and purposeful. A world where both organizations and their people are energized and enthusiastic, finding purpose, productivity, and passion at work.

As a pioneer of Positive Organizational Scholarship, the Center for Positive Organizations is reaching a new level as the world prepares for a new time. Housed in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, we are actively and passionately helping prepare the organizations of today, create the leaders of tomorrow, and build a sustainable future of meaning for all.

Using a depth of research and a breadth of evidence, we help organizations thrive, we help inspire individuals to realize potential, and we help build students who will influence change and create impact.

We are a Center of research. A Center of evidence. A Center of action. And a Center of humanity.

Rapidly becoming one of psychology’s most transformative fields, positive psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable humans and organizations to flourish. The Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania was the first in the world to offer a degree in this rigorous field of study. Dr. Seligman, founder of the discipline of positive psychology, along with leading researchers and practitioners educate students at the cutting edge of the field.

Our program’s hybrid model allows you to explore the theory and practice of positive psychology without relocating to Philadelphia, so you can continue working full-time. The low-residency format consists of 10 required on-site visits to the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia, where students and faculty gather for intensive weekends of learning and networking. Whether you are a credentialed professional seeking to transform your workplace or career or are building a foundation for further graduate study, the MAPP curriculum allows you to apply the topics most relevant to your interests and goals.

We look forward to speaking with you about the exciting opportunities at MAPP.

This focus on the positive in the course of psychological treatment ultimately allows people to thrive and lead meaningful lives. Through the Positive Psychology certificate at the University of Utah, you will learn to apply positive psychology to topics such as intimate relationships, happiness and satisfaction, traumatic experiences, addictive thinking, and career and work. Throughout the program, students will learn applied research methods that can be used to treat clients. Students can then use the skills they gain to assist them in future careers in psychology or allied fields.

Historically, the field of clinical psychology is concerned with the assessment and treatment of psychological disorders and behavioural problems. But mental health and well-being go far beyond symptom reduction. After all, being free of symptoms does not necessarily say much about a person’s well-being, nor does having symptoms directly imply negative well-being. So what does it take to improve positive mental health? Especially in today’s modern world, with social media impact and rising rates of stress, anxiety, and depression? You will discover this and more in the specialisation in Positive Clinical Psychology & Technology.

What to expect?