Coordinator of the Research Team on Positive Development and Optimal Functioning: This area of research is focused on the study of optimal functioning through the lens of Positive Psychology and developmental psychology. Our research projects have been aimed at studying the quality of subjective experience in daily life, crossing personal and contextual variables, in order to understand positive patterns of human functioning (through cognitive, affective, motivational and behavioral dimensions). Studies include mixed-method approaches, using traditional retrospective self-report (e.g., scales and questionnaires) and the innovative methodologies based in real time measures (e.g., Experience Sampling Method – ESM).
Topics of research include: well-being, happiness and optimal experience (flow) studied in different normative life contexts, such as leisure, family and school, and also in clinical contexts (individual and group interventions), mainly focused on adolescents’ lives. Currently, projects aim at studying positive developmental trajectories of adolescents using an integrated and equally weighted focus on both positive and negative functioning in adolescence. Following a positive clinical psychology approach, the study of these characteristics bases the elaboration and implementation of rigorous evaluated individual and/or group interventions to promote positive development and optimal functioning or to treat disorder and distress through positive variables. The main aim is to expand knowledge about contributors to negative outcomes in life and the onset of psychopathology, and how they can be buffered by well-being and optimal functioning variables.