Despite the rapid growth and uptake of the positive psychological perspective by researchers and general audiences, hype regarding the field's potential can lead to exaggerated claims, overinflated expectations, disillusionment, dismissal, and unintentional harms. To help mature the field, we propose Systems Informed Positive Psychology (SIPP), which explicitly incorporates principles and concepts from the systems sciences into positive psychology theory, methodologies, practices, and discourse to optimize human social systems and the individuals within them. We describe historical underpinnings of SIPP, outline the SIPP perspective, clarify epistemological, political, and ethical assumptions, and highlight implications for research and practice. We suggest that SIPP can generate possibilities for creating sustainable unimagined futures.

Background To determine if a group social skills intervention program improves social com-

The present study was designed: (1) to investigate the long-term consequences of both the presence and the severity of periventricular brain injury (PVBI) on intellectual, academic, and cognitive outcome in extremely-low-birthweight (ELBW: < 1,000 grams) children at a mean age of 11 years; and (2) to determine the nature of the underlying difficulties associated with academic problems in these children. The results indicated that ELBW children without PVBI performed as well as full-term children on intelligence, academic, and cognitive ability tests. In contrast, ELBW children with mild and severe PVBI achieved significantly lower scores than either ELBW children without PVBI or children who were born at term. A second analysis indicated that, after accounting for Full Scale IQ, working memory and phonological processing were significant predictors of reading and spelling performance in ELBW children. These findings suggest that the presence and severity of PVBI, and not ELBW status alone, is associated with performance on tests of intelligence, and academic and cognitive functioning, and that some of the same factors known to be associated with learning disabilities in full-term children contribute to learning disabilities in ELBW children.

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