This article explores connections between positive psychology, an area of recent attention across disciplines, and the attitudes and behaviors that mark collaborative relationships.
Excerpts: "Fredrickson's Broaden-and-Build theory provides a compelling explanation for the promise of collaboration as a strategy to insert more energy, optimism, creativity, and hope into the work of educators... A collaborative team that provides social support can being the broaden-and-build spiral. People with relationships to other individuals they trust and depend upon are healthier, more productive, and happier." (p.77)
"People who want to be expert collaborators may have to develop an attributional style characterized by specific and unstable attributions. Specific and unstable attributions mean that another person's choices are seen as discrete and changeable. They are not seen as predictive of broad categories of behavior. For example, if a parent does not keep an appointment, I have several options in who I think about it. I can think that the parent was unavoidably detained and will probably show up at the next appointment, or I can think that the missed appointment illustrates the parent's abdication of responsibility for the child's welfare. Obviously, the first alternative allows for persistence in the face of difficulty, persistence that may otherwise be hindered by a sweeping, negative attributional style." (p.79)