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9 Yale J. Health Pol'y L. & Ethics 357 (2009)
Stemming the Tide of Law Student Depression: What Law Schools Need to Learn from the Science of Positive Psychology

handle is hein.journals/yjhple9 and id is 361 raw text is: Stemming the Tide of Law Student Depression: What Law
Schools Need To Learn from the Science of Positive
Psychology
Todd David Peterson* and Elizabeth Waters Petersont
INTRODUCTION     ................................................................................................ 358
I. THE RESEARCH ON LAW STUDENT DISTRESS ............................................ 365
II. WHAT LAW SCHOOLS ARE DOING ABOUT LA\V STUDENT DISTRESS .... 371
III. THE CAUSES OF LAW STUDENT DISTRESS ............................................... 375
IV. WHAT THE SCIENCE OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY CAN TEACH LAW
SCH O O LS ........................................................................................................... 385
A. WHAT IS POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE'. ............ 385
B. USING POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY TO HELP IMPROVE LAW STUDENT WELL
B E IN G   ........................................................................................................................  3 9 5
1. LEARNED OPTIMISM AND THE EMOTIONAL PARADOX OF LEGAL
E D U C A T IO N   ......................................................................................................... 39 5
2. THE BROADEN-AND-BUILD THEORY OF POSITIVE EMOTIONS ................ 402
3. THE BENEFITS OF STRENGTHS-BASED EDUCATION .................................. 406
4. APPLYING STRENGTHS THEORY TO LEGAL EDUCATION: AN EMPIRICAL
S T U D Y   .................................................................................................................. 4 0 8
C O NLUSION  ...................................................................................................... 416
A PPENDICES ...................................................................................................... 422
* Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School, B.A. Brown University,
1973, J.D. University of Michigan Law School, 1976.
t B.A  Harvard University, 2005, M AP.P., University of Pennsylvania, 2007 The authors
appreciatively acknowledge helpful comments and assistance from Shawn Achor, Naomi Cahn,
Larry Krieger, Fred Lawrence, Nancy Levit, Christopher Peterson, and Jennifer Waters. The
authors are also grateful for expert research assistance from Matthew Albanese and Michael
Hissam.

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