Prof. Em. Janek Musek

About the speaker: 

Janek Musek studied psychology (1964-1968), graduated in psychology (1968) and received his doctorate in general psychology (1975), all at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Professionally, he worked as an assistant (since 1970), assistant professor (1977), associate or assistant professor (1981), full professor (since 1988) at the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana and as an Professor Emeritus (since 2015). Courses he has taught include Introduction to Psychology, Personality and Personality Psychology, Differential Psychology, Motivation and Emotion, Cognitive Psychology, and History of Psychology. He worked as head of the Department of Psychology (1980-1982), vice-dean of the Faculty of Arts (1984-1986), vice-rector of the University of Ljubljana (1996-1998).

He researched and lectured at the Department of Psychology of the University of Ljubljana for more than fifty years. He also lectured at many other universities in Slovenia and abroad (Croatia, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany). He has participated in more than twenty research projects at home and abroad, including 11 fundamental research projects of ARIS, mostly as a project or program team leader or as a principal investigator. Main areas of research: personality psychology, individual differences, values, cognitive psychology, self-image, organizational psychology, decision-making, positive psychology, history of psychology;

He published around 200 scientific contributions, including 83 articles in international scientific journals, 40 textbooks and 42 scientific monographs. Two scientific monographs, The general factor of personality (Elsevier: Academic Press, 2017) and Personality psychology: A new perspective (Springer, 2024), have been published by the world's most reputable publishing houses. He participated in many national and international scientific conferences and congresses; he was the coordinator or organizer of several domestic and international scientific congresses. He was the mentor of 45 doctorates and 55 master's degrees.

Topic: Positive psychology: After a quarter of a century

In the quarter of a century since its formal existence, positive psychology has become established and firmly anchored in psychology and outside of it as well. It was created as a scientific and professional reaction to the mainstream psychology, which, since the beginnings of scientific psychology, paid a lot and perhaps too much attention to 'negative' phenomena, especially psychological problems, difficulties and disorders. Dealing with these phenomena is certainly welcome and more than necessary, but if it is excessive or even exclusive, then it greatly distorts the psychological image of a human being. According to the protagonists of positive psychology, such a distorted image of man needs to be balanced and corrected by taking into account the optimal, positive aspects of human nature, with aspects of psychological well-being, happiness, rapture and others. In a relatively short time, positive psychology has gained a lot of ground.

However, it must be said that positive psychology itself is not without its predecessors. Let me just mention Abraham Maslow and humanistic psychology.

Something else important happened in the aforementioned short time. Positive psychology has established itself mainly in the scientific and professional sense. But this was also joined by the not so desirable and meaningful 'flourishing' of scientifically problematic, if not charlatan, 'positive psychology', a psychology that is more of a 'flower power' movement than a serious, scientifically based psychological orientation. Therefore, one must be careful when encountering the very term positive psychology.

It is also very important that positive psychology is still developing and that new areas are always appearing in it. However, we must know that some critical views on positive psychology are also very relevant today, e.g. views that point to the appearance of illusory positivity, to the interplay of positive and negative in human life, and even to the possibility of unhealthy, 'toxic' positivity. It is also true for positive psychology that it must maintain contact with reality, which is definitely not always and exclusively positive, but it is right that it is optimistic and that it promotes optimal aspects of human nature and human behavior.