Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths

Ryan M. Niemiec, PsyD, (pronounced “Knee-mick”) is education director of the VIA Institute on Character, the global, nonprofit positive psychology organization that educates people about the latest science and practice of character strengths. Niemiec is a licensed psychologist, certified coach, and inter - national workshop leader. He is adjunct professor at Xavier University. His specialty areas are character strengths (research and practice), mindfulness meditation, and positive psychology movies. He has writ - ten a number of articles and book chapters on these topics, and is author of Mindfulness and Character Strengths (2014) and coauthor of Movies and Mental Illness (2010). In 2011, Niemiec received the Distinguished Early Career Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (Division 46). Niemiec received a specialization in film studies from Michigan State University, and is the film edi - tor of PsycCRITIQUES, and consulting editor for the Psychology of Popular Media Culture. Niemiec’s signature strengths are hope, curiosity, fairness, appreciation of beauty, love, and perspective. Danny Wedding, PhD, MPH, is associate dean for management and international programs for the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP), Alliant International University. He is based in San Francisco, but oversees psychology training programs in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Mexico City. Wedding is the editor of PsycCRITIQUES and the series editor for Advances in Psychotherapy: Evidence- Based Practice, a collaborative effort between Hogrefe publishers and the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12 of the American Psychological Association). He is a former APA Congressional Science Fellow and a former Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, and he is the past president of three American Psychological Association divisions: Media Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and International Psychology. He is also the coauthor or coeditor of 13 books and numerous articles and book chapters. Wedding’s signature strengths are zest, love of learning, curiosity, gratitude, kindness, and love.