ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some different definitional approaches to courage, and what each one implies about courage as a positive psychology construct. One of the earliest psychological definitions of courage is from Lord who, in 1918, defines courage occurring when the more base sentiment of fear is overwhelmed by a more noble sentiment, with "sentiment" roughly corresponding to what we would call emotion today. Following the behaviorist and then cognitive revolutions, Rachman defines courage solely in terms of acting despite feeling fear. Courage as taking a worthwhile risk fits well within the positive psychology domain as a path for people to do things they find valuable. Being able to act despite risk allows individuals to enact their other virtues. Research courage to date provides some important suggestions for everyday life. Individual differences should also predict the valuation of the goal of a potentially courageous action, and thus the likelihood of assuming a risk to meet it.
