ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at several paths by which research contributes to the elucidation of positive mental health: the direct assault, the multiple criterion approach, and the evaluation of fundamental research on personality. Neither the strategy of direct assault nor that of multiple criteria turns out to give much assistance on the problem, although the empirical relationships brought to light by research that follows either strategy may aid us in the volitional decision as to where to draw the boundaries. Both seem likely to come out with distinctions already built into the procedure of investigation, either explicitly or surreptitiously. Both are compatible with either narrower or more expanded conceptions of mental health. An illustration of the frontal assault may be found in the more rigorous program of research into excellence of human functioning that has been in progress for some time at the California Institute for Personality Assessment and Research.
