ABSTRACT
This book examines a diverse range of groups and organisations that constitute what might be labelled the 'happiness industry', one will consider their impact in the light of social identity theory and the social identity approach within social psychology. The social identity approach provides a framework to understand why one type of club membership, a type of work organisation or whatever can lead to a positive self-concept and positive social identity for one person, yet have quite opposite effect for another person. The possible intolerance and avoidance of negative emotions in our culture, especially as promoted early on positive psychology, creates a social context in which people believe that they should rid themselves of negative emotions. However, in order to understand conflict and prejudice, one needs to move away from these single-process models in psychology to dual-process and multi-process models. The psychoanalytic approach developed by Freud includes preconscious, conscious and unconscious systems that are typically in conflict with each other.
