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Before & After Copyedits


Before:
As we saw earlier, the existentialist psychotherapist Viktor Frankl (1963) argued that our approach to suffering was among the primary determinants of how we experience meaning in life.

After:
As we saw earlier, existential psychotherapist Viktor Frankl (1963) argued that our forbearance of suffering is a primary determinant in experiencing meaning in life.


Before:
HEARSAY EVIDENCE
Information offered as a truthful assertion that does not come from the personal knowledge of the person giving the information but from knowledge that person received from a third party.


After:
HEARSAY EVIDENCE
Information offered as a truthful assertion that does not come from personal knowledge but from a third party.


Before:

After all, the achievements of certain highly creative artists definitely seem to transcend what “normal” people could ever learn to accomplish.

After:

After all, certain achievements of highly creative artists transcend what “average” persons might accomplish.


Before:
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung suggested that our emotional responses to certain forms and images might be the result of innate responses from a deep collective unconscious.

After:
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung considered our emotional responses to primordial forms and universal images to be innately patterned by a deep collective unconscious.


Before:
Can Tragedy and Sadness be Beautiful?

This topic of aesthetics and positive psychology raises an interesting question about the role of tragedy in art. Why is it that people are drawn to plays, books, poetry, movies and other art forms that portray tragic stories? For instance, Shakespeare’s tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, is one of his most popular despite the fact that both lovers die unnecessarily at the end of the play. In the latest film version of the Titanic tragedy, Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet portrayed two people who fell madly in love only to be separated by the death of DeCaprio as the ship sank into the frigid Atlantic Ocean. In spite of this tragic ending, the film grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and some fans returned to see the movie over 20 times. After each viewing, they tearfully left the movie theater--having cried sympathetic tears as the lovers were separated forever by fate. Why would people voluntarily engage themselves with an artistic creation that they know will make them feel negative emotions?

People know, of course, that tragic events are part of life: they realize that in order to deal with this aspect of being human, they must confront inevitable sadness in some way. Through the medium of art, people can experience tragedy and gain at least three benefits. First, the sense of empathy for the characters reminds us of our shared humanity and may even serve to increase compassion and charity. Second, this new sense of compassion can also serve to build a resolve not to allow such tragedies to occur if we can do something about it. Third, experiencing life’s sad and tragic moments in a work of art can allow us to feel certain emotions without having to live through the actual experience itself. After all, people don’t want to really lose their lovers in tragic deaths--they just want to experience a sympathetic and empathic reaction to fictional others who have gone through such a tragedy. Paradoxically then, the power of tragedy is that we can feel real negative emotions that under the right circumstances can lead us to experience emotions of compassion, hope, relief, empathy, or courageous resolve. As a blues musician put it once, “There’s nothing like the blues to make you feel good”.

After:
Can Tragedy and Sadness Be Beautiful?

The discussion of aesthetics for a positive psychology raises an interesting question about the role of tragedy in art. Why is it that people are drawn to plays, books, poetry, movies and other art forms that portray tragic stories? For instance, the tragic play Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare’s most popular despite the fact that both lovers die at the end. In the latest film version of the Titanic tragedy, Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet portray two people who fall madly in love only to be separated by the death of DeCaprio’s character as the ship sinks into the frigid Atlantic Ocean. In spite of this tragic ending, the film grossed hundreds of millions of dollars and some fans returned to see the movie over 20 times. After each viewing they left the movie theater having cried sympathetic tears as the lovers are separated forever by fate. Why would people voluntarily immerse themselves in an artistic tragedy that they know will make them feel negative emotions?

People know, of course, that tragic events are part of life; they realize that in order to face human mortality, they must inevitably experience sadness in some way. Through the medium of art, people can experience tragedy and gain at least three benefits. First, empathy for characters reminds us of our shared humanity and may even serve to increase compassion and charity. Second, out of compassion we might resolve not to allow such tragedies to occur if we can prevent them. Third, allowing life’s sad and tragic moments through a substitute work of art enables us to feel certain emotions without having to live through the actual experiences that gave rise to them. After all, people do not want to really lose their lovers in tragic deaths. Rather, the power of artistic tragedy is a paradoxical one: that we are genuinely engaged by negative emotions can lead us to positive feelings of compassion, hope, relief, empathy, and courageous resolve. As the musician said, “There’s nothing like the blues to make you feel good.”


Before:
seek a readjustment to changing life circumstances

After:
readjust to changing life circumstances


Before
He argues that young people whose lives actively seek to nurture and develop these qualities may be described a “thriving youth.”

After:
He describes young people who actively seek to nurture and develop these qualities as “thriving youth.”


Before:
Israeli psychologist Aaron Antonovsky (1979; 1987) developed his ideas as he explored issues concerning people’s ability to cope well with trauma and stress.

After:
Israeli psychologist Aaron Antonovsky (1979; 1987) has explored people’s ability to cope well with trauma and stress.


Before:
Minding comprises five components that help enhance closeness, intimacy, caring, and commitment. These five are: knowing and being known, attribution, acceptance and respect, reciprocity, and continuity (Harvey & Pauwels, 2009). A brief advisory may be in order at this point: because much of the research on relationships can be found within these five categories, some of our discussion under each component may take considerable space. Therefore, the five categories of minding have been numbered to help you keep track of where we are in the discussion. 

After:

            Minding comprises five components that help enhance closeness, intimacy, caring, and commitment: (1) knowing and being known; (2) attribution; (3) acceptance and respect; (4) reciprocity; and (5) continuity (Harvey & Pauwels, 2009). Because much of the research on relationships can be found within these five categories, the discussion that follows is numbered accordingly.



Before:
Some researchers have already proposed perspectives on well-being that allow for the integration of positive and negative emotions.

After:
Some researchers on well-being have already integrated positive and negative emotions.


Before:
This is influenced by how we wish to present ourselves to others and is a factor in how we complete self-report assessments of our well-being.

After:
This is influenced by how we wish to present ourselves to others and is a factor in how we self-assess our own well-being.


Before:
In positive psychology as well, several researchers have proposed strategies to help enhance scientists’ abilities to answer questions about well-being and the good life.

After:
In positive psychology as well several researchers have proposed strategies to enhance a scientific determination of well-being and the good life.


Before:
Although the scientific basis for positive psychology brings a necessary and welcome addition to the study of well-being, science is a useful tool that may work best when used with other tools that examine the human condition.

After:
Although the scientific basis of positive psychology provides a necessary foundation for the study of well-being, the field can better flourish when using additional tools to examine the human condition.


Before:
Positive emotions seem to be central to some of the processes that lead to the development of positive health and even longevity.

After:
Positive emotions are central to the development of positive health and even longevity.


Before:
Finally, the mindfulness practice of actively creating novel distinctions helped musicians perform pieces that were more enjoyable to their audience.

After:
Finally, the mindful practice of actively creating novel distinctions helped musicians perform pieces that were more enjoyable for their audience


Before:
The ideas of existentialism and authenticity tend to focus on the “true self” and integrating both the joys and sorrows of life.

After:
The emphasis on authenticity in existentialism lends focus to the “true self” by integrating both the joys and sorrows of life.


Before:
There are have been two general ways to approach the question of how to calculate our well-being. The first approach advocates that we create an overall assessment of our current well-being by examining how satisfied we are with domains of life and then combine the various satisfactions into a totality of our current well-being.

After:
In general there are two ways to calculate well-being. The first examines various satisfactions with life domains to arrive at a total measure of current well-being.


Before:
McCullough (2000) observed that the ability to forgive has links to factors that promote well-being. Primarily, these involve the maintenance and fostering of healthy and supportive interpersonal relationships.

After:
McCullough (2000) observed that an ability to forgive promotes well-being, primarily by fostering healthy and supportive interpersonal relationships.


Before:
Among the most common descriptors people use to describe great religious figures is “compassionate”.

After:
A common description of great religious figures finds them compassionate.


Before:
Keltner found that stimuli for these experiences include nature, art, and observing human excellence.

After:
Keltner found that such experiences are stimulated by nature, art, and observations of human excellence.


Before:
Certainly no one would recommend a major stroke as a spiritual intervention, but Taylor’s powerful experience does add more evidence to a growing body of research that suggests spiritual experiences are associated with real, if under-utilized, biological and neurological processes.

After:
Certainly no one would recommend a major stroke as a spiritual intervention, but Taylor’s powerful experience does add to a growing body of research that associates spiritual experiences with real, if underutilized, biological and neurological processes.


Before:
Other psychologists have examined how thinking about religious ideas, concepts, and stories develop over the course of a lifetime…

After:
Other psychologists have examined how religious concepts and stories develop over the course of a lifetime…


Before:
These exercises are designed to raise your awareness of the need to interpret information, to distinguish between unsupported assertions and arguments in which supporting evidence is provided, and to recognize when some information is needed to provide evidence in support of what is asserted or to take some recommended action.

After:
These exercises are designed to raise your awareness of the need to interpret information, to distinguish between unsupported assertions and arguments providing supporting evidence, and to recognize when evidence must be provided to support what is asserted or to take some recommended action.


Before:
Unstated premiss that are shared by participants in a conversation can sometimes be recognized by noting that the unstated premise is referred to later in the conversation as if it had been stated.

After:
An unstated premiss shared by participants in a conversation can sometimes be recognized by noting when it is referred to later as if it has been stated.


Before:
As we learn more about the structure of different types of arguments, our task of finding missing premisses will be aided by a knowledge of some typical forms of argument.

After:
Learning more about the structure of different types of arguments will aid our task of finding missing premisses.


Before:
If the fact that one member of a relationship is related to a second member, and the second member has the same relationship to a third member rules out the first member standing in that relation to the third, the relationship is intransitive.

After:
If the fact that one member of a relationship is related to a second member, and the fact that the second member has the same relationship to a third member rules out the first member standing in that relation to the third, the relationship is intransitive.


Before:
Although constructing English sentences involving relationships with more than four or five terms is awkward, in theory, any number of terms can be related.

After:
Although constructing English sentences involving relationships with more than four or five terms is awkward, in theory any number of terms can be related.


Before:
A high quality treatment program contains elements indicating that an effective correctional service is being provided.

After:
A high-quality treatment program is one that provides an effective correctional service.


Before:
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE INTERVENTION
Eight treatment standards that, if practiced, have been shown to reduce recidivism above that of other methods and constitute a theory behind evidence-based correctional practices.


After:
PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE INTERVENTION
Eight treatment standards that, if practiced, have been shown to reduce recidivism below that of other methods and that constitute the theory behind evidence-based correctional practices.

Annotated edits

“Studies have found that the stories we choose to create reflect the values and perspectives of our particular culture.” [Meaning of sentence (cultural conditioning) undermines “choose.”]

Self-contradictory: considerable research exists suggesting that

Timidity: Nevertheless, it may be possible to identify a few factors that may be common to most people who wish to create a flourishing society.

Redundant: such research has focused on demonstrating