Paul T. P. Wong

Last updated
Paul T. P. Wong

Ph.D.
王载宝
Paul T. P. Wong.jpg
Wong speaking at the Lotus Foundation in Taiwan, 2013
PronunciationWáng Zàibǎo
BornApril 1, 1937 (1937-04) (age 86)
Tianjin, China
NationalityCanadian
EducationPh.D., University of Toronto, 1970
Occupations
  • President, Meaning-Centered Counselling Institute Inc.
  • Adjunct Professor, Saybrook University
  • Professor Emeritus, Trent University
  • Professor Emeritus, Trinity Western University
OrganizationInternational Network on Personal Meaning
Known for
  • Meaning Therapy
  • Second Wave Positive Psychology
SpouseLilian C. J. Wong
Children2
Website www.drpaulwong.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Paul T. P. Wong is a Canadian clinical psychologist [1] and professor. His research career has gone through four stages, with significant contributions in each stage: learning theory, social cognition, existential psychology, and positive psychology. He is most known for his integrative work on death acceptance, [2] meaning therapy, [3] and second wave positive psychology (PP 2.0). [4] He has been elected as a fellow for both the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association.

Contents

Wong is the Founder and President of the International Network on Personal Meaning [5] and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy. With more than 300 publications in journals and book chapters, his major books are the two editions of The Human Quest for Meaning: A Handbook of Psychological Research and Clinical Applications (1998) and The Human Quest for Meaning: Theories, Research, and Applications (2012), as well as TheHandbook of Multicultural Perspectives on Stress and Coping (2006).

Wong is currently adjunct professor at Saybrook University [6] and Professor Emeritus of Trent University [7] and Trinity Western University. [8] At the latter, he was the Founding Director of the Graduate Counselling Psychology Program. He also taught at the University of Texas at Austin, York University, and the Graduate Division of the University of Toronto.

Personal life

Wong was born in Tianjin, China in 1937 and migrated to Hong Kong in 1948. He came to Canada as an international student in 1961, earning his B.Th. from the Toronto Bible College (now Tyndale University College and Seminary) in 1964 and B.A. in Honours Psychology from Carleton University in 1967. In 1970, he earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Toronto.

Wong's career straddles two domains: psychology and Christian ministry. He first served as the Founding Pastor of the Chinese Gospel Church in Toronto in the early 1960s, and then started the Peterborough Chinese Christian Fellowship in the 1970s while teaching at Trent University. He was involved in resettling the boat people in the 1980s. Afterward, he founded the graduate program in counselling psychology at Trinity Western University in the early 1990s. During his tenure, he started a neighbours-together program and received a Cultural Harmony Award from VanCity for his community outreach. [9]

Research

Wong's research career has covered several domains in psychology: learning theory, social cognition, existential psychology, and positive psychology.

Learning theory

Wong's first decade of research in the area of animal learning focused on how to develop persistence in animals in spite of frustration or pain. Through a variety of intermittent reinforcement and punishment schedules, he taught animals persistence in overcoming prolonged failure. [10] [11] [12] This series of research provided an animal model of the positive psychology of optimism and grit as well as the empirical basis for his deep-and-wide hypothesis of negative situations. [13] His research on persistence has also led to Rosenbaum's development of learned resourcefulness. [14]

Social cognition

In the area of social cognition, Wong's main contribution was the demonstration of spontaneous attribution, both causal and existential. [15] [16] As well, Wong demonstrated that internal and external control are two separate dimensions rather than opposite poles on the same continuum. [17] This finding later led to the development of the dual-system model of adaptation [13] and the dialectical approach to positive psychology. [4] [18] [19]

Wong's main contribution to stress and coping research is the resource-congruence model [20] [21] and the Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM). [22] Wong also made the case that effective coping needs to be a part of positive psychology in his second wave of positive psychology (PP 2.0). [23] [24]

In the area of positive aging and dying, Wong redirected the concept of successful aging from an emphasis on physical and biological factors to a psychological and spiritual orientation. [25] [26] [27] [28] Wong also developed the Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R), which includes three kinds of death acceptance as positive ways to cope with the reality of death. [29]

Existential psychology

Wong developed a pluralistic and integrative meaning therapy. [30] [31] Based on Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy, [32] [33] [34] meaning therapy also incorporates cognitive behavioral therapy, [35] positive psychotherapy, [3] [36] and research findings on meaning and purpose. [37] [38] Wong's main conceptual contribution to meaning therapy is identifying four components of meaning: Purpose, Understanding, Responsible Actions, and Enjoyment/Evaluation (the PURE model). [30] Meaning therapy interventions focus on self-transcendence, such as reframing bad situations into some larger meaningful context and pursuing some life goal that is larger than oneself. [39] Currently, he is a Virtue Scholar of the collaborative working group on Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life, [40] funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Positive psychology 2.0

Wong's integration of existential psychology with positive psychology resulted in Existential Positive Psychology, [41] [42] which recognizes the existential concerns and dark side of human existence. Later, this was broadened to become the second wave of positive psychology (PP 2.0), [4] which acknowledges the importance of the dialectical Yin-Yang principle and Asian indigenous psychology. [19] PP 2.0 is based on the foundation of the co-existence of opposites as essential for human development and flourishing.

Wong has given positive psychology away [43] through his Meaningful Living MeetUp group since 2011. [44] Participants learn basic principles of meaning and new ways of relating to each other. This outreach program was intended to improve mental health at the grassroots level. [45]

International psychology

Wong's contribution to cross-cultural and international psychology is threefold. The first was his emphasis on the importance of cross-cultural perspectives in stress and coping and positive psychology. [23] [46] [47] [48] In addition, he has been organizing the Biennial International Meaning Conference since 2000. [49] At the ninth Biennial International Meaning Conference, he organized the first Second Wave Positive Psychology Summit. [50]

His research on death acceptance and the meaning of life impacted Taiwan's Life and Death Education. [51] He has given lecture tours in Taiwan and was awarded the 12th Global Love of Life Medal from the Chou Ta-kuan Cultural & Educational Foundation, the Lifetime Achievement Award in Life Education by the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health, and the Rising Great Compassion Award from the Buddhist Lotus Hospice Care Foundation.

Selected publications

Wong has published over 300 articles and chapters and authored or edited 11 books and monographs. [52] The following is a selected list of his most cited papers.

Selected awards and honors

Related Research Articles

Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both conscious and unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feelings, and motives. Psychology is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Biological psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups.

Psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome problems. Psychotherapy aims to improve an individual's well-being and mental health, to resolve or mitigate troublesome behaviors, beliefs, compulsions, thoughts, or emotions, and to improve relationships and social skills. Numerous types of psychotherapy have been designed either for individual adults, families, or children and adolescents. Certain types of psychotherapy are considered evidence-based for treating some diagnosed mental disorders; other types have been criticized as pseudoscience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Frankl</span> Austrian Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist, philosopher and author (1905–1997)

Viktor Emil Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, who founded logotherapy, a school of psychotherapy that describes a search for a life's meaning as the central human motivational force. Logotherapy is part of existential and humanistic psychology theories.

Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that arose in the mid-20th century in answer to two theories: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism. Thus, Abraham Maslow established the need for a "third force" in psychology. The school of thought of humanistic psychology gained traction due to key figure Abraham Maslow in the 1950s during the time of the humanistic movement. It was made popular in the 1950s by the process of realizing and expressing one's own capabilities and creativity.

Logotherapy was developed by neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl and is based on the premise that the primary motivational force of an individual is to find a meaning in life. Frankl describes it as "the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy" along with Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology.

Integrative psychotherapy is the integration of elements from different schools of psychotherapy in the treatment of a client. Integrative psychotherapy may also refer to the psychotherapeutic process of integrating the personality: uniting the "affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological systems within a person".

Person-centered therapy, also known as person-centered psychotherapy, person-centered counseling, client-centered therapy and Rogerian psychotherapy, is a form of psychotherapy developed by psychologist Carl Rogers and colleagues beginning in the 1940s and extending into the 1980s. Person-centered therapy seeks to facilitate a client's actualizing tendency, "an inbuilt proclivity toward growth and fulfillment", via acceptance, therapist congruence (genuineness), and empathic understanding.

Existential psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy based on the model of human nature and experience developed by the existential tradition of European philosophy. It focuses on concepts that are universally applicable to human existence including death, freedom, responsibility, and the meaning of life. Instead of regarding human experiences such as anxiety, alienation and depression as implying the presence of mental illness, existential psychotherapy sees these experiences as natural stages in a normal process of human development and maturation. In facilitating this process of development and maturation existential psychotherapy involves a philosophical exploration of an individual's experiences while stressing the individual's freedom and responsibility to facilitate a higher degree of meaning and well-being in his or her life.

Salutogenesis is the study of the origins of health and focuses on factors that support human health and well-being, rather than on factors that cause disease (pathogenesis). More specifically, the "salutogenic model" was originally concerned with the relationship between health, stress, and coping through a study of Holocaust survivors. Despite going through the dramatic tragedy of the holocaust, some survivors were able to thrive later in life. The discovery that there must be powerful health causing factors led to the development of salutogenesis. The term was coined by Aaron Antonovsky (1923-1994), a professor of medical sociology. The salutogenic question posed by Aaron Antonovsky is, "How can this person be helped to move toward greater health?"

Emotionally focused therapy and emotion-focused therapy (EFT) are a set of related approaches to psychotherapy with individuals, couples, or families. EFT approaches include elements of experiential therapy, systemic therapy, and attachment theory. EFT is usually a short-term treatment. EFT approaches are based on the premise that human emotions are connected to human needs, and therefore emotions have an innately adaptive potential that, if activated and worked through, can help people change problematic emotional states and interpersonal relationships. Emotion-focused therapy for individuals was originally known as process-experiential therapy, and it is still sometimes called by that name.

Clark E. Moustakas was an American psychologist and one of the leading experts on humanistic and clinical psychology. He helped establish the Association for Humanistic Psychology and the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. He is the author of numerous books and articles on humanistic psychology, education and human science research. His most recent books: Phenomenological Research Methods; Heuristic Research; Existential Psychotherapy and the Interpretation of Dreams; Being-In, Being-For, Being-With; and Relationship Play Therapy are valuable additions to research and clinical literature. His focus at the Michigan School of Professional Psychology was the integration of philosophy, research and psychology in the education and training of humanistic clinical psychologists.

Future-oriented therapy (FOT) and future-directed therapy (FDT) are approaches to psychotherapy that place greater emphasis on the future than on the past or present.

Existential counselling is a philosophical form of counselling which addresses the situation of a person's life and situates the person firmly within the predictable challenges of the human condition.

Kirk J. Schneider is a psychologist and psychotherapist who has taken a leading role in the advancement of existential-humanistic therapy, and existential-integrative therapy. Schneider is also the current editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. His major books are Existential-Humanistic Therapy (2010), Existential-Integrative Therapy (2008), The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology (2001), The Psychology of Existence (1995), Rediscovery of Awe (2004), Awakening to Awe (2009), and "The Polarized Mind" (2013).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death anxiety</span> Anxiety caused by thoughts of death

Death anxiety is anxiety caused by thoughts of one's own death, and is also referred to as thanatophobia. Individuals affected by this kind of anxiety experience challenges and adversities in many aspects of their lives. Death anxiety is different from necrophobia, which refers to an irrational or disproportionate fear of dead bodies or of anything associated with death. Death anxiety has been found to affect people of differing demographic groups as well, such as men versus women, young versus old, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meaning-making</span> Process of understanding changes in life

In psychology, meaning-making is the process of how people construe, understand, or make sense of life events, relationships, and the self.

Second wave positive psychology is a therapeutic approach in psychology that attempts to bring out the best in individuals and society by incorporating the dark side of human existence through the dialectical principles of yin and yang. This represents a distinct shift from focusing on individual happiness and success to the dual vision of individual well-being and collective humanity. PP 2.0 is more about bringing out the "better angels of our nature" than achieving optimal happiness or personal success. The approach posits that empathy, compassion, reason, justice, and self-transcendence will improve humans, both individually and collectively. PP 2.0 centers around the universal human capacity for meaning-seeking and meaning-making in achieving optimal human functioning under both desirable and undesirable conditions. This emerging movement is a response to perceived problems of what some have called "positive psychology as usual."

The International Network on Personal Meaning (INPM) is a nonprofit organization devoted to advancing meaning-centred research and interventions. It was founded by Paul T. P. Wong in 1998. Inspired by Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, Wong wanted to expand Frankl's vision to include the contemporary positive psychology movement. Therefore, the INPM provides a "big tent" for both existential-humanistic psychologists and positive psychologists in their biennial International Meaning Conferences and their journal, the International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Lomranz</span> Israeli professor of Psychological Sciences

Jacob "Jacky" Lomranz is a professor emeritus at The School of Psychological Sciences at Tel Aviv University. He was a former head of the M.A. program for clinical-gerontological psychology at the Ruppin Academic Center.

Elisabeth Lukas is an Austrian psychiatrist and is one of the central figures in logotherapy, a branch of psychotherapy founded by Viktor Frankl. Lukas is an author of 30 books, translated into 16 languages.

References

  1. College of Psychologists of Ontario. (2013). Paul T. P. Wong. Retrieved from https://members.cpo.on.ca/public_register/show/1252
  2. Wong, P. T. P., Reker, G. T., & Gesser, G. (1994). Death Attitude Profile – Revised: A multidimensional measure of attitudes toward death (DAP-R). In R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.), Death anxiety handbook: Research, instrumentation, and application (pp. 121-148). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
  3. 1 2 Wong, P. T. P. (2015). Meaning therapy: Assessments and interventions. Existential Analysis, 26(1), 154-167.
  4. 1 2 3 Wong, P. T. P. (2011). Positive psychology 2.0: Towards a balanced interactive model of the good life. Canadian Psychology, 52(2), 69-81.
  5. "About". www.meaning.ca. International Network on Personal Meaning. Retrieved 2016-03-23.
  6. Saybrook University. (2016). Paul Wong. Retrieved from http://www.saybrook.edu/faculty/byname/Paul_Wong/
  7. Trent University. (n.d.). Psychology faculty. Retrieved fromhttp://www.trentu.ca/psychology/Faculty.htm
  8. Trinity Western University. (2015). Paul Wong. Retrieved fromhttp://twu.ca/directory/faculty/paul-wong.html
  9. Bolsta, Phil (2012-06-13). "My Video Interview With Dr. Paul Wong on Meaning and Purpose". Triumph of the Spirit. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  10. Wong, P. T. P. (1977). A behavioral field approach to instrumental learning in the rat: I. Partial reinforcement effects and sex differences. Animal Learning & Behavior, 5(1), 5-13. doi:10.3758/BF03209123
  11. Wong, P. T. P. (1995). A stage model of coping with frustrative stress. In R. Wong (Ed.), Biological perspectives on motivated activities (pp. 339-378). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
  12. Wong, P. T. P. (2006). The positive psychology of persistence and flexibility. Positive Living Newsletter. Retrieved from http://meaning.ca/archives/presidents_columns/pres_col_feb_2006_persistance-and-flexibility.htm
  13. 1 2 Wong, P. T. P. (2012). Toward a dual-systems model of what makes life worth living. In P. T. P. Wong (Ed.), The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications (2nd ed., pp. 3-22). New York, NY: Routledge.
  14. Rosenbaum, M. E. (1990). Learned resourcefulness: On coping skills, self-control, and adaptive behavior. New York, NY: Springer.
  15. Wong, P. T. P., & Weiner, B. (1981). When people ask “Why” questions and the heuristic of attributional search. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 650-663.
  16. Wong, P. T. P. (1991). Existential vs. causal attributions. In S. Zelen (Ed.), New models, new extensions of attribution theory (pp. 84-125). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.
  17. Wong, P. T. P., & Sproule, C. F. (1984). Attributional analysis of locus of control and the Trent Attribution Profile (TAP). In H. M. Lefcourt (Ed.), Research with the locus of control construct: Limitations and extensions (Vol. 3, pp. 309-360). New York, NY: Academic Press.
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  20. Wong, P. T. P. (1993). Effective management of life stress: The resource-congruence model. Stress Medicine, 9, 51-60.
  21. Wong, P. T. P., Reker, G. T., & Peacock, E. (2006). The resource-congruence model of coping and the development of the Coping Schema Inventory. In P. T. P. Wong, & L. C. J. Wong (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural perspectives on stress and coping (pp. 223-283). New York, NY: Springer.
  22. Peacock, E. J., & Wong, P. T. P. (1990). The Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM): A multidimensional approach to cognitive appraisal. Stress Medicine, 6, 227-236.
  23. 1 2 Wong, P. T. P., & Wong, L. C. J. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of multicultural perspectives on stress and coping. New York, NY: Springer.
  24. Wong, P. T. P., Wong, L. C. J., & Scott, C. (2006). Beyond stress and coping: The positive psychology of transformation. In P. T. P. Wong, & L. C. J. Wong (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural perspectives on stress and coping (pp. 1-26). New York, NY: Springer.
  25. Reker, G. T., Peacock, E. J., & Wong, P. T. P. (1987). Meaning and purpose in life and well-being: A life-span perspective. Journal of Gerontology, 42, 44-49.
  26. Reker, G. T., & Wong, P. T. P. (1988). Aging as an individual process: Towards a theory of personal meaning. In J. E. Birren, & V. L. Bengston (Eds.), Emergent theories of aging (pp. 214-246). New York, NY: Springer.
  27. Wong, P. T. P., & Watt, L. (1991). What types of reminiscence are associated with successful aging? Psychology and Aging, 6, 272-279.
  28. Reker, G. T., & Wong, P. T. P. (2012). Personal meaning in life and psychosocial adaptation in the later years. In P. T. P. Wong (Ed.), The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications (2nd ed., pp. 433-456). New York, NY: Routledge.
  29. Wong, P. T. P., Reker, G. T., & Gesser, G. (1994). Death Attitude Profile – Revised: A multidimensional measure of attitudes toward death. In R. A. Neimeyer (Ed.), Death anxiety handbook: Research, instrumentation, and application (pp. 121-148). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
  30. 1 2 Wong, P. T. P. (2012). From logotherapy to meaning-centered counseling and therapy. In P. T. P. Wong (Ed.), The human quest for meaning: Theories, research, and applications (2nd ed., pp. 619-647). New York, NY: Routledge.
  31. Wong, P. T. P. (in press). Integrative meaning therapy: From logotherapy to existential positive interventions. In P. Russo-Netzer, S. E. Schulenberg, & A. Batthyany (Eds.). To thrive, to cope, to understand: Meaning in positive and existential psychotherapy. New York, NY: Springer.
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  33. Wong, P. T. P. (2014). Viktor Frankl’s meaning seeking model and positive psychology. In A. Batthyany, & P. Russo-Netzer (Eds.), Meaning in existential and positive psychology (pp. 149-184). New York, NY: Springer.
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  35. Wong, P. T. P. (1997). Meaning-centered counselling: A cognitive-behavioral approach to logotherapy. The International Forum for Logotherapy, 20(2), 85-94.
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  39. Wong, P. T. P. (2016). Self-transcendence: A paradoxical way to become your best. International Journal of Existential Psychology and Psychotherapy, 6(1). Retrieved from http://www.drpaulwong.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Self-Transcendence_A-Paradoxical-Way-to-Become-Your-Best-2016-Aug-15.pdf
  40. Virtue, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life. (2015). Scholars. Retrieved from https://virtue.uchicago.edu/page/scholars
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  44. Meaningful Living Project. (2016). Meaningful living group. Retrieved from http://www.inpm.org
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  46. Wong, P. T. P., & Ujimoto, K. V. (1998). The elderly: Their stress, coping, and mental health. In L. C. Lee, & N. W. S. Zane (Eds.), Handbook of Asian American psychology (pp. 165-209). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  47. Leong, F. T. L., & Wong, P. T. P. (2003). Optimal human functioning from cross-cultural perspectives. In B. Walsh (Ed.), Counseling psychology and optimal human functioning (pp. 123-150). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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  51. Chang, S-M. (2016). The development and implementation of life education in Taiwan: A meaning-centered positive education. Meaning Conference. Retrieved from http://meaning.ca/conference/shu-mei-chang/
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