The Essence of Positive Psychology - Term Paper Example

Positive Psychology In order to understand the essence of positive psychology one has to have an appreciation of the history of psychology and how ithas been practiced over the years. About sixty years ago psychology and psychiatry became healing disciplines. However the practice has been about disease and the prevention of mental diseases. This practice is described as the disease model- how to prevent depression, schizophrenia, etc. Psychologists and psychiatrists spent all their time learning about negative emotions and how they promote illness. The theory and practice of positive psychology is in contrast about learning how positive emotions promote health. This does not mean that positive psychology denies painful and negative emotions and experiences. Positive psychologists are quick to explain that the practice fully acknowledges that suffering, dysfunctional families, selfishness, etc. do exist. But their aim is not to look at these negative issues and how they are causing mental illness, but instead to look for the positive emotions such as joy, contentment and general well-being, and study how people use these to create healthy families and good lives. It focuses on what is inherently good in humans- that they can feel good, that they posses normal positive strengths and abilities. Those who are attracted to positive psychology question how do people function well in life, what can be learned from them and what can be used to help others improve their own lives. The Positive Psychology Center describes it as “the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive”. The Center describes the three central concerns of positive psychology as positive emotions, positive individual traits and positive institutions. A person with positive emotions is contented with the past, is happy in the present and has hope for the future. The positive individual traits include personal strengths and virtues such as “the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self-control, and wisdom”. And the positive institutions refer to the strengths that make for better communities and families, such as “justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic, leadership, teamwork, purpose, and tolerance”. Martin Seligman is considered one of the founders of positive psychology. He explains the different levels of positive psychology when he says “the field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued subjective experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present). At the individual level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent, and wisdom. At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic.’ (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000,). He also stated that the aim of positive psychology “is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities”. He believes that there must be positive factors that are operating in individuals, communities and societies that flourish. These factors must be contributing to keeping mental illnesses away from people who exist in these circumstances. Therefore if psychologists and psychiatrists could identify and understand these factors they would be better able to help those who do suffer from mental illness, or more importantly it would mean more effective prevention of mental illnesses. Mihaly Csikszentmihaly collaborated with Seligman in 2000 to promote positive psychology. He explains that positive psychology must become a science of human strength since “prevention researchers have discovered that there are human strengths that act as buffers against mental illness: courage, future mindedness, optimism, interpersonal skill, faith, work ethic, hope, honesty, perseverance, and the capacity for flow and insight, to name several”. (Seligman and Csikszentmihaly, 2000). The four traits of humans that contribute to positive psychology have been identified as subjective well-being, optimism, happiness, and self-determination. To some these can be related to the emotions that the human experiences when they feel good about their lives. Persons in this state are intrinsically motivated to reach their potential and they look for challenges. These are the desirable states of people, communities and institutions that positive psychology is aiming for. Positive psychology has been applied in the field of relationships, especially with couples. Gable and Haidt (2005) point out that studies in couples relationships have focused mainly on the problems in the relationships and not enough on the good relationship behavior, such as displays of affections and how they laugh and have fun together. The authors also refer to preponderance of studies on negative moral emotions- how we feel when we do bad things, but little research on the positive moral emotions – how we feel when we do good things. Barbara Frederickson explores the role of positive emotions in positive psychology. She explains that positive emotions serve as markers that someone is flourishing in his life or at optimal well-being. She developed the broaden-and-build theory to further the understanding of the role of positive emotions. According to her “This theory states that certain discrete positive emotions—including joy, interest, contentment, pride, and love—although phenomenologically distinct, all share the ability to broaden peoples momentary thought-action repertoires and build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources. (2001). She explains that in any situation there are psychological processes that affects a person’s thought-action repertoire and urges the person to act in a certain way. Negative emotions are usually associated with life-threatening situations or they feel like that and so they usually evoke narrow thought-action processes so that the resulting action is quick and focused on survival, e.g. attack, or escape. Positive emotions such as joy, contentment, pride, love on the other hand are not necessarily evoked in life-threatening situations and so there is no need for survival actions. The positive emotions broaden a person’s thought-action repertoires and allow the person a wider array of thoughts and actions. Some examples of how positive emotions broaden the thought –action process include joy broadens by creating the urge to play, push the limits and play; interest broadens by creating the urge to explore and expand knowledge and self; contentment broadens by creating the urge to savor current life circumstances and incorporate into new views of self and the world; pride broadens by creating the urge to share news of achievement; love broadens by creating the urge to play, explore and savor experiences with loved ones (Hendrickson, 2001). The theory and practice of positive psychology has been applied to all aspects of human life, both in individual life and in community, group or institutional settings. For organizations to run well the people making them up must be managing their own individual lives well and also must be able to work together for optimum performance of the institution. One can see how feeling happy or optimum well-being and self-determination can be important in this situation. One of the other aspects that positive psychology has been applied to is time management; a very key concept in organizational functioning. Boniwell (2005) looks at how one’s relationship with time can contribute to their well-being. She argues that “a balanced time perspective is associated with the highest level of well-being”. As she explains, studies have shown that in fact people have more free in the past four decades yet many people complain about being rushed and not having enough time in a day. People are not only feeling busy in their work lives, but almost seem to be rushing in their leisure time. What has also been discovered, associated with this increase in time, is how that extra time is being spent. More time is being spent watching television despite the opinions that television is boring and not very stimulating. Secondly, leisure time is now being spent trying to fit so much ‘leisure’ into the time that it is defeating the purpose. As a result people are feeling more stressed by their leisure time than enjoying it. Leisure time is no longer leading to happiness, contentment, and optimum well-being. “It appears that the problem in relation to time crunch lies not in the amount of time available, not in having to manage it successfully in order to squeeze out an extra hour of a day, but in learning how to balance time in such a way that it contributes to one’s well-being and satisfaction with life” (Boniwell, 2005). Positive psychology has also been applied to families and schooling. The main idea is that if positive psychology is used to enhance strengths and virtues of children then it can help to prevent much of the behavioral issues parents and teachers have to deal with at home and in school. Parenting and teaching have commonly been done with more punitive measures as discipline actions than using rewards effectively. Therefore positive psychologists recommend a system of recognizing children’s natural talents and strengths and building on those and using reward systems instead. Terjesen et al (2004) suggest that “focusing on children’s strengths can increase the chances that they will successfully manage difficulties they confront in the present and how they will cope with future battles”. They discuss research in which school children were taught optimistic ways to view events and positive ways of solving social problems. Occurrence of depression was less in children taught in this positivistic way. Parents can also be trained to use positive psychology in helping their children with educational decisions. “Getting parents to view their child’s strengths and not focusing on his or her weakness might allow for reinforcement of the child’s capabilities from multiple dimensions of his/her life, which might lead to greater carry-over”. School counselors can also incorporate positive psychology into their practice and have greater success with some students. Using positive psychology principles to help students set goals directed towards their strengths will push the counselor and student outside of the box. Assessment scales can be redesigned to take a positive psychology approach to measuring the children’s qualities. Snyder et al. (1997, quoted in Terjensen et al, 2004) “developed the Children’s Hope scale (CHS) which identifies children who exhibit hope at high levels who can serve as models for other children and identifying children who might benefit from improvement in hopeful thinking”. Positive psychology, as can be seen from the discussion, has many applications in everyday lives of anybody. As a tool for individuals, it can direct the person to think ‘positively’ about themselves rather than spending so much time and mental energy worrying about the negatives and trying to find ways to cope with these negatives. Focusing on one’s natural strengths and abilities and using those to guide decisions and actions leads to more effective functioning in life and more importantly to feeling greater sense of joy and contentment. This is more fulfilling. Psychologists, counselors and psychiatrists can practice positive psychology with a majority of clients in many ways. Rather than spending time trying to identify the negative causes of distress and come up with ways to combat them, the client and therapist can spend the time identifying what the client does well and emphasize that in his life. People who live their lives in a positive way, using their good feelings to guide them, can be used as models for others to follow. References. Boniwell, I. (2005). Beyond time management: how the latest research on time perspective and perceived time use can assist clients with time-related concerns. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. Vol. 3 (2): 61-75 Frederickson, B. (2001). The Role of Positive Emotions in Positive Psychology The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions. American Psychologist. Vol. 56 (3): 218-226 Gable, S. & Haidt, J. (2005). What (and why) is positive psychology? Review of General Psychology. Vol. 9 (2): 103- 110 Seligman, M.E.P. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive Psychology: an introduction. American Psychologist. Vol. 55 (1): 5-14 Terjesen, M.D., Jacofsky, M., Froh.J. & DiGiuseppe, R. (2004). Integrating positive psychology in to schools: Implications for practice. Psychology in the schools Vol. 41 (1): 163- 172 Read More