Using the New Positive Psychology - Essay Example

Running Head: Authentic Happiness Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology of the of the Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology Authentic Happiness is an excellent piece f writing of Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University f Pennsylvania. The book provides guidance to understand the pursuance f hope and happiness as a serious, rigorous mission rather than a frivolous illusion or mere feel-goodism. As the inspirational nugget about his wise child suggests, inside Seligman the downbeat realist has plainly lurked a romantic apostle eager to get out. And as the rest f his book reveals, Seligman the scientist does not always demand the greatest stringency f laboratory work, or dwell on its inevitable limitations. The many studies he cites (and the tests he invites readers to take) on such topics as optimism, gratitude, forgiveness, and "satisfaction with the past" do not generate quite the definitive data he would have you think. As he himself says, "how you feel about your life at any moment is a slippery matter," far from easy to measure. "Perhaps neither response will seem to fit," he prefaces his optimism assessment; "go ahead anyway and circle either A or B." Yet to say that the Positive Psychology project is driven perhaps as much by motivational fervor as by methodological rigor is not to suggest that it's for softies. Seligman's appeal is to those who pride themselves more on having heads on their shoulders than on getting in touch with their feelings. He has cobbled together interesting research done over the past 30 years, since the cognitive revolution in psychology and the advent f behavioral genetics. The research challenges both the fatalistic and the facile assumptions promoted in a Freudian era that found victims everywhere in need f cathartic release from anger and guilt repressed since childhood. Seligman's "new" psychology sounds decidedly more old-fashioned. We are prisoners f our childhoods, he argues, only in the sense that "bubbliness (called positive affectivity)" is a "highly heritable trait." Otherwise, our fate is in our hands--or rather in our heads and our characters. By learning to argue rationally and accurately against the "negative" emotions with which evolution has amply armed us, and even better, by building on the "strengths and virtues" we recognize in ourselves (cross-cultural research has inspired a list f 24 to choose from), we can become more buoyant and resilient. Not least, we can discover true gratification, which brings a sense f selfless fulfillment. A grouch might complain that when Seligman turns to apply his principles to work, love, and parenting in his closing chapters, he suddenly changes his mind about the secondary importance f childhood events. He joins countless experts in saying that a "securely attached" start in life--and lots f empathetic communication ever after--helps create more purposeful workers, loyal spouses, and competent, confident, committed children. Then again, if Seligman had prescribed a flashy, original formula for the age-old pursuit f the good life, wouldn't you be skeptical The author f Learned Optimism (1991) brings two unusual credentials to the task. First, he is a scientist--a cognitive psychologist who has been a pioneer in bringing "hope into the laboratory ... [to] dissect it in order to understand how it works." Second, he claims to be (or to have been) a "dyed-in-the-wool pessimist" who spent "50 years enduring mostly wet weather in my soul"--"a grouch," in the words f his kindergartner, who one day changed her father's life by urging him to stop grumbling. "I was a whiner," his daughter told him, holding herself up as an example, but "on my fifth birthday, I decided I wasn't going to whine anymore." For Seligman, it was the epiphany that launched the now four-year-old movement he calls Positive Psychology and infused his career and life with new meaning. In Authentic Happiness, Seligman reviews a set f important values that influence ethical behavior: Wisdom and Knowledge, Self Control, Justice and Fair Guidance, Transcendence, Love and Kindness, Courage and Integrity. (Seligman, 2002) He notes that when these values are used together along with aligning actions to these principles and corporate behavioral standards, it can increase the likelihood f ethical organizational behavior. Courage and Integrity in particular is prevalent when making decisions in the corporate environment. To practice ethical decision making, the courage to do the right thing consistently without regard to personal consequences is required. Making unpopular decisions is necessary in order to allow the company to grow and excel to survive in the business world. The decisions should be based on facts and so the need to have that knowledge and experience is needed to have access to those facts and to use it to solve problems ethically and to do what is right. Utilizing ethics in making decisions is not just deciding to do what is right and it is more than preaching. It also can't be summed up as just "doing good". It has to be managed and consciously practiced. An organization's code of conduct and code f ethics are set up so that everyday ethics present themselves more as "right vs. right" rather than "right vs. wrong". This makes decisions more complicated since the solution is not based on principles but between alternatives that have differing impacts on the business. (Preston, 1992) This level f decision making in itself can present work related stress but what about the impact f technology on the stress level f the company's members Work-related stress is about the unpleasant emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety, that people experience at work in situations that they perceive as threatening to their well-being or interests, making these threats seem very real and can only worsen with lack f proper rest. Technology can be a double-edged sword that can increase productivity but at the cost f increasing stress on the employees. While it assists an employee in completing their work, it causes more stress due to that the same 'extra' work that was produced, now has yet another way f being lost due to computer failures. There are higher expectations f management for employees to get more done while the employee has to deal with additional forms f communication, emails and voice mails. These technological advances assist the manager in communicating with the employee, but the employee needs to utilize more time in order to answer these additional forms f communication. This just adds to the number f times a person is interrupted, causing concentration and effectiveness to suffer. Relatively new advances in networking, cell phones and the World Wide Web increase new sources f information and communication, placing more of a demand on employees at all levels and encroaching into the personal lives, compromising not only the work f the employee but the overall health and well-being f the employee, as well. Technology allows for multi-tasking, enabling many things to be done at the same time. As a result, a person can become unable to think clearly, becomes forgetful and incapable f having a restful sleep. This not only has a negative impact on an employee's personal life but can have financial implications on the organization as well in terms f productivity levels fluctuating, sick/vacation/mental health time ff, and insurance costs. References Gold, Sarah F. Authentic Happiness (Book). Rotella, Mark; Andriani, Lynn; Scharf, Michael; Zaleski, Jeff. Publishers Weekly, 6/24/2002, Vol. 249 Issue 25, p48 Hulbert, Ann. Wilson., Authentic Happiness (Book). Quarterly, Winter2003, Vol. 27 Issue 1, p119 Preston, T. (1992, January). Business Ethics: Commitment to Tough Decisions. Vital Speeches, January, pp. 208-211. Quinion, M. (1996, 28 December). World Wide Words. Retrieved September 28, 2005, from http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsfphrase/tp-inf1.htm. Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic Happiness. New York: Free Press. Sullivan, Kathleen., Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology To Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment (Book). Library Journal, 5/15/2004 Supplement Audio/Video, Vol. 129, p14-15 Wallace, D. (1999). Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers. Retrieved September 29, 2005, from http://www.managementhelp.org/ethics/ethxgde.htm Wellik, Jerry J.; Hoover, John H. Authentic Happiness.. Reclaiming Children & Youth, Spring2004, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p59-60 Read More