positive psychology
a field of psychological theory and research that focuses on the psychological states (e.g., contentment, joy), individual traits or character strengths (e.g., intimacy, integrity, altruism, wisdom), and social institutions that enhance subjective well-being and make life most worth living. A manual, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, serves this perspective in a manner parallel to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for the categorization of mental illness. [term coined by Abraham Maslow and adapted by U.S. psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman (1942– )]