Retrospective Analysis
Using this background as a point of departure, editor Baiyin Yang has given me this opportunity to provide some retrospective analysis and editorial comment. As I indicated, positivity has considerable intuitive appeal but too often has been associated with Pollyannaish fluff and therefore may not be taken seriously as an approach to effective HRM and specifically HRD. This is why I was so adamant in following scientific criteria in developing PsyCap. I am a true believer of not only founding father of social psychology Kurt Lewin’s famous quote that “there is nothing so practical as a good theory” but also his lesser-known “no action without research, no research without action.” My aspiration is to be a scientist-practitioner. I want to offer to practitionerscientists in HRD an evidence-based positive approach that goes beyond the too-common fluff found in the self-help popular literature and used by motivational speakers. The same is true of the dictum of research methodology: “Without valid measurement you have nothing.”