Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology Psychology is the scientific study of human or other animal mental functions and behaviors. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist. Psychologists are classified as social or behavioral scientists. Psychological research can be considered either basic or applied. Psychologists attempt to understand the whose purpose was summed up in 2000 by Martin Seligman Martin E. P. Seligman is an American psychologist and author of self-help books. His theory of "learned helplessness" is widely respected among scientific psychologists. He is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (born September 29, 1934, in Fiume, Italy - now Croatia) is a Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22. Now at Claremont Graduate University, he is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities."[1] Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent", and "to make normal life more fulfilling",[2] not simply to treat mental illness A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern associated with distress or disability that occurs in an individual and is not a part of normal development or culture. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions has changed over time and across cultures, and there are still variations in the.[2] This approach has created a lot of interest around the subject, and in 2006 a course at Harvard University Harvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Ivy League. Established in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the first corporation chartered in the United States and oldest institution of higher learning in the United States entitled "Positive Psychology" became the most popular course that semester.[3]

Several humanistic Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory psychologists—such as Abraham Maslow Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist. He is noted for his conceptualization of a "hierarchy of human needs", and is considered the founder of humanistic psychology, Carl Rogers Carl Rogers was an influential American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach to psychology. Rogers is widely considered to be one of the founding fathers of psychotherapy research and was honored for his pioneering research with the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions by the American Psychological Association, and Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory—developed theories and practices that involved human happiness. Recently the theories of human flourishing developed by these humanistic psychologists have found empirical support from studies by positive psychologists. Positive psychology has also moved ahead in a number of new directions.

Current researchers Empirical research is research that derives its data by means of direct observation or experiment, such research is used to answer a question or test a hypothesis . The results are based upon actual evidence as opposed to theory or conjecture, as such they can be replicated in follow-up studies. Empirical research articles are published in peer- in positive psychology include Martin Seligman Martin E. P. Seligman is an American psychologist and author of self-help books. His theory of "learned helplessness" is widely respected among scientific psychologists. He is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania,[2] Ed Diener Ed Diener is Joseph R. Smiley Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. He has over 240 publications, and with over 12,000 citations is one of the most highly cited psychologists according to the Institute for Scientific Information. About 190 of these citations are in the area of the psychology of well-being. For more,[2] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (born September 29, 1934, in Fiume, Italy - now Croatia) is a Hungarian psychology professor, who emigrated to the United States at the age of 22. Now at Claremont Graduate University, he is the former head of the department of psychology at the University of Chicago and of the department of sociology and anthropology at,[2] Christopher Peterson,[2] Carol Dweck, Barbara Fredrickson Barbara L. Fredrickson is a professor in the department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology,[2] Sonja Lyubomirsky,[4][5] Kennon Sheldon,[6] Jonathan Haidt Jonathan Haidt is associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on the psychological bases of morality across different cultures and political ideology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in Positive Psychology in 2001. His book The Happiness,[7] Shelley Taylor Shelley E. Taylor is a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University, and was formerly on the faculty at Harvard University. A prolific author of books and scholarly journal articles, Taylor has long been a leading figure in two subfields related to her primary, C. R. Snyder Charles Richard "Rick" Snyder was the Wright Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Kansas. Snyder is internationally famous for research in clinical, social, personality, health, and positive psychology. He received a Ph.D at Southern Methodist University, he continued in doctoral training in clinical,[2] Donald Clifton, Albert Bandura Albert Bandura is a psychologist and the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University. Over a career spanning almost six decades, Bandura has been responsible for groundbreaking contributions to many fields of psychology, including social cognitive theory, therapy and personality psychology, and was, Charles S. Carver, Michael F. Scheier, and Ilona Boniwell[8].

Contents

Background

Positive psychology began as a new area of psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman Martin E. P. Seligman is an American psychologist and author of self-help books. His theory of "learned helplessness" is widely respected among scientific psychologists. He is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, considered the father of the modern positive psychology movement,[9] chose it as the theme for his term as president of the American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the U.S. and is the world's largest association of psychologists with around 152,000 members including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants and students and has an annual budget of around $115m. The American Psychological,[10] though the term originates with Maslow Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist. He is noted for his conceptualization of a "hierarchy of human needs", and is considered the founder of humanistic psychology, in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality.[11] Seligman pointed out that for the half century clinical psychology "has been consumed by a single topic only - mental illness",[12] echoing Maslow’s comments.[13] He urged psychologists to continue the earlier missions of psychology of nurturing talent and improving normal life.[2]

The first positive psychology summit took place in 1999. The First International Conference on Positive Psychology took place in 2002.[2] In June 2009, the First World Congress on Positive Psychology took place.[14]

Historical roots

Positive psychology finds its roots in the humanistic psychology Humanistic psychology is a school of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis. It is explicitly concerned with the human dimension of psychology and the human context for the development of psychological theory of the 20th century, which focused heavily on happiness and fulfillment. Earlier influences on positive psychology came primarily from philosophical and religious sources, as scientific psychology did not take its modern form until the late 19th century. (See History of psychology The history of psychology as a scholarly study of the mind and behavior dates back to the Ancient Greeks. There is also evidence of psychological thought in ancient Egypt. Psychology was a branch of philosophy until 1879, when psychology developed as an independent scientific discipline in Germany and the United States. Psychology borders on)

Judaism Judaism is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people. Judaism, originating in the Hebrew Bible and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, is considered by Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel. According to traditional Rabbinic Judaism, God revealed promotes a Divine command theory Divine command theory is the meta-ethical view about the semantics or meaning of ethical sentences, which claims that ethical sentences express propositions, some of which are true, about the attitudes of God. That is, it claims that sentences such as "charity is good" mean the same thing as sentences such as "God commands charity& of happiness: happiness and rewards follow from following the commands of the divine.[2]

The ancient Greeks had many schools of thought. Socrates Socrates was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most advocated self-knowledge Self-knowledge is a prerequisite of self-consciousness alongside self-awareness. However, self-awareness may in itself be a necessary condition for self-knowledge to be sought after and developed in the first place. Self-awareness alone is not enough for a being to be considered self-conscious; young infants and even animals display elements of as the path to happiness. Plato's Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato was originally a allegory of the cave The Allegory of the Cave, also commonly known as Myth of the Cave, Metaphor of the Cave, The Cave Analogy, Plato's Cave or the Parable of the Cave, is an allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". The allegory of the cave is written as a influenced western thinkers who believe that happiness is found by finding deeper meaning. Aristotle believed that happiness, or eudaimonia Eudaimonia is a classical Greek word commonly translated as 'happiness'. Etymologically, it consists of the word "eu" ("good" or "well being") and "daimōn" ("spirit" or "minor deity", used by extension to mean one's lot or fortune). Although popular usage of the term happiness refers to is constituted by rational activity in accordance with virtue Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality deemed to be morally excellent and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being over a complete life. The Epicureans Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that the believed in reaching happiness through the enjoyment of simple pleasures. The Stoics Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics considered destructive emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions. Stoics were concerned with the active believed they could remain happy by being objective and reasonable Logos is an important term in philosophy, analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion. Originally a word meaning "word," "speech," "account," or "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), who used the term for the principle of order and knowledge in the.[2]

Christianity Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. Christianity comprises three major branches: Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy (which parted ways with Catholicism in 1054 A.D.) and Protestantism (which came into existence during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th continued to follow the Divine command theory of happiness. In the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in, Christianity taught that true happiness would not be found until the afterlife The afterlife is the idea that consciousness or the mind continues after the death of the body occurs, by natural or supernatural means. In many popular views, this continued existence often takes place in an immaterial or spiritual realm. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics. The seven deadly sins The Seven Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of the most objectionable vices that has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin. The final version of the list consists of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony are about earthly self-indulgence and narcissism. On the other hand, the Four Cardinal Virtues These were derived initially from Plato's scheme (see Protagoras 330b, which also includes piety ) and adapted by Saint Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, and Thomas Aquinas (see Summa Theologica II(I).61). The term "cardinal" comes from the Latin cardo or hinge; the cardinal virtues are so called because they are hinges upon which the door of and Three Theological Virtues In Christian philosophy, theological virtues are the character qualities associated with salvation. The three theological virtues are: were supposed to keep one from sin.[2]

During the Renaissance The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the and Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment is the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority, individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own interests, whether by society, or any other came to be valued. Simultaneously, creative Creativity is the ability to generate innovative ideas and manifest them from thought into reality. The process involves original thinking and then producing individuals gained prestige, as they were now considered to be artists, not just craftsmen. Utilitarian Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined solely by its utility in providing happiness or pleasure as summed among all sentient beings. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined by its outcome. The most influential contributors to this ideology were Jeremy philosophers such as John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of utilitarianism, an ethical theory developed by Jeremy Bentham, although believed that moral actions are those actions that maximize happiness Happiness is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources for the most number of people. Thus, an empirical In philosophy, empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge arises from evidence gathered via sense experience. Empiricism is one of several competing views that predominate in the study of human knowledge, known as epistemology. Empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory perception, in the science Science is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about nature and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories. As knowledge has increased, some methods have proved more reliable than others, and today the scientific method is the standard for science. It includes the use of careful observation, experimentation, of happiness should be used to determine which actions are moral. Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776). Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers, known for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Jefferson envisioned America as the force behind a great " and other proponents of democracy believed that "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are inalienable rights, and that it justifies the overthrow of the government.[2]

The Romantics valued individual emotional expression and sought their emotional "true selves," which were unhindered by social norms. At the same time, love and intimacy became the main motivations for people to get married.[2]

Research

General overview

Some researchers[15] in this field posit that positive psychology can be delineated into three overlapping areas of research:

  1. Research into the Pleasant Life, or the "life of enjoyment", examines how people optimally experience, forecast, and savor the positive feelings and emotions that are part of normal and healthy living (e.g. relationships, hobbies, interests, entertainment, etc.).
  2. The study of the Good Life, or the "life of engagement", investigates the beneficial affects of immersion, absorption, and flow that individuals feel when optimally engaged with their primary activities. These states are experienced when there is a positive match between a person's strength and the task they are doing, i.e. when they feel confident that they can accomplish the tasks they face.
  3. Inquiry into the Meaningful Life, or "life of affiliation", questions how individuals derive a positive sense of well-being, belonging, meaning, and purpose from being part of and contributing back to something larger and more permanent than themselves (e.g. nature, social groups, organizations, movements, traditions, belief systems).

<<What of a challenging life? What of meaning derived from overcoming obstacles, even self imposed tasks, limitations and obstacles?>>

These categories appear to be neither widely disputed nor adopted by researchers across the 12 years that this academic area has been in existence.

The undoing effect

In an article titled "The undoing effect of positive emotions," Barbara Fredrickson et al. hypothesize that positive emotions undo the cardiovascular effects of negative emotions. When people experience stress, they show increased heart rate, higher blood sugar, immune suppression, and other adaptations optimized for immediate action. If individuals do not regulate these changes once the stress is past, they can lead to illness, coronary heart disease, and heightened mortality. Both lab research and survey research indicate that positive emotions help people who were previously under stress relax back to their physiological baseline.[16]

Elevation

After several years of researching disgust, University of Virginia professor Jonathan Haidt and others studied its opposite, and the term "elevation" was coined. Elevation is a moral emotion and is pleasant. It involves a desire to act morally and do "good"; as an emotion it has a basis in biology, and can sometimes be characterized by a feeling of expansion in the chest or a tingling feeling on the skin.

Broaden-and-build

The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions suggests that positive emotions (e.g. happiness, interest, anticipation)[17] broaden one's awareness and encourage novel, varied, and exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this broadened behavioral repertoire builds skills and resources. For example, curiosity about a landscape becomes valuable navigational knowledge; pleasant interactions with a stranger become a supportive friendship; aimless physical play becomes exercise and physical excellence.

This is in contrast to negative emotions, which prompt narrow survival-oriented behaviors. For example, the negative emotion of anxiety leads to the specific fight-or-flight response for immediate survival.[17]

Strengths and virtues

The development of the Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) handbook represents the first attempt on the part of the research community to identify and classify the positive psychological traits of human beings. Much like the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of general psychology, the CSV provides a theoretical framework to assist in understanding strengths and virtues and for developing practical applications for positive psychology. This manual identifies six classes of virtue (i.e., "core virtues"), made up of twenty-four measurable character strengths.[18]

The introduction of CSV suggests that these six virtues are considered good by the vast majority of cultures and throughout history and that these traits lead to increased happiness when practiced. Notwithstanding numerous cautions and caveats, this suggestion of universality hints that in addition to trying to broaden the scope of psychological research to include mental wellness, the leaders of the positive psychology movement are challenging moral relativism and suggesting that we are "evolutionarily predisposed" toward certain virtues, that virtue has a biological basis.[19]

The organization of these virtues and strengths is as follows:

  1. Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, innovation
  2. Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality, zest
  3. Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
  4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
  5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control
  6. Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Positive experiences

Mindfulness

Mindfulness, defined as actively searching for novelty, is also characterized as non-judging, non-striving, accepting, patient, trusting, open, letting go, gentle, generous, empathetic, grateful, and kind. Its benefits include reduction of stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.[20]

Flow

Flow, or a state of absorption in one's work, is characterized by intense concentration, loss of self-awareness, a feeling of control, and a sense that "time is flying." Flow is an intrinsically rewarding experience, and it can also help one achieve a goal (e.g. winning a game) or improve skills (e.g. becoming a better chess player).[20]

Spirituality

Spirituality is associated with mental health, managing substance abuse, marital functioning, parenting, and coping. It has been suggested that spirituality also leads to finding purpose and meaning in life.[20]

Positive futures

Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is one's belief in one's ability to accomplish a task by one's own efforts. Low self-efficacy is associated with depression; high self-efficacy can help one overcome abuse, overcome eating disorders, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. High self-efficacy also improves the immune system, aids in stress management, and decreases pain.[21]

Learned optimism

Subjective Well-being

Subjective well-being (see also subjective life satisfaction) is an analogous term for emotional well-being or happiness elaborated by the positive psychologist Ed Diener et al. The article by Diener and colleagues "The Psychology of Subjective Well-being" (2004) seeks to further legitimize the study of happiness or well-being as within the reaches of science where previously it had been viewed by many as rather a subject confined to philosophy or religion because these subjects are considered somewhat abstract. Additionally, Snyder & Lopez define subjective well-being in their text Positive Psychology (2007) a tenet of theories of happiness in which "individual's appraisals of their own lives capture the essence of well-being." According to Snyder and Lopez consideration of different types of well-being (subjective, objective, psychological, social, etc.) provides a more comprehensive understanding of mental health.

What is Learned Optimism?

The idea of learned optimism was developed by Martin Seligman and published in his 1990 book, Learned Optimism.[22] The benefits of an optimistic outlook on are many—optimists are higher achievers and have better overall health Optimism. Pessimism, on the other hand, is much more common. Pessimists view bad events as permanent and they believe that adversity they face is their own fault. Pessimists are more likely to give up in the face of adversity or to be depressed. In Learned Optimism, Seligman invites pessimists to learn to be optimists through learning to think about reaction to adversity in a new way. The resulting optimism—that that grows from pessimism—is called learned optimism.

Seligman came to the concept of learned optimism through scientifically studying learned helplessness, which is the idea that no matter what people do, certain often negative events are still going to befall them. People who experience that phenomenon continually learn to be helpless. As he was performing tests to study helplessness further, he began to wonder why some people who were conditioned to be helpless in his lab never actually became helpless. Some subjects blamed themselves for their helplessness during the experiments, whereas others blamed the experiment for setting them up to fail. Seligman shifted his focus to attempting to discover what it is that keeps some people from ever becoming helpless. The answer was optimism. Using his knowledge about conditioning people to be helpless in the lab, he shifted his focus to conditioning people to be optimists. The result of these experiments led to defining the process of learned optimism.

Other differences exist between pessimists and optimists in the areas of permanence, pervasiveness, hope, and personalization. •Permanence: Optimistic people believe bad events to be more temporary than permanent and bounce back quickly from failure, whereas others may take longer periods to recover or may never recover. They also believe good things happen for reasons that are permanent, rather than seeing the transient nature of positive events. •Pervasiveness: Optimistic people compartmentalize helplessness, whereas pessimistic people assume that failure in one area of life means failure in life as a whole. Optimistic people also allow good events to brighten every area of their lives rather than just the particular area in which the event occurred. •Hope: Optimists point to specific temporary causes for negative events; pessimists point to permanent causes •Personalization: Optimists blame bad events on causes outside of themselves, whereas pessimists blame themselves for events that occur. Optimists are therefore generally more confident. Optimists also quickly internalize positive events while pessimists externalize them.

Seligman’s Method of Learning Optimism

Anyone can learn optimism. Whether currently an optimist or a pessimist, benefits can be gained from exposure to the process of learned optimism to improve response to both big and small adversities. A test, developed by Seligman, is used to determine an individual’s base level of optimism. This test can be accessed at [[1]], and will assess how you will more likely respond in given situations. The results of the test classify individuals as very optimistic, moderately optimistic, average, moderately pessimistic, or very pessimistic. Being in any of the bottom three categories means that learning optimism can prevent depression, help people achieve more, and raise overall physical health.

Seligman’s process of learning optimism is simple, and allows for a different way of responding to adversity that leads to talking oneself through personal defeat. It begins with the Ellis ABC model of adversity, belief, and consequence.[23] Adversity is the event that happens, belief is how that adversity is interpreted, and consequences are the feelings and actions that result from the beliefs. This is demonstrated in the example below:

• Adversity: Someone cuts you off in traffic. • Belief: You think, “I can’t believe that idiot was so rude and selfish!” • Consequence: You are overcome with anger, yelling profanity at the other driver.

This is a somewhat graphic example, but should present a good idea of what each component of ABC looks like. In the journey to learning optimism, one must first understand his/ her natural reaction to and interpretation of adversity. In order to do so, keep a journal for 1-2 days of small adversity events, and the beliefs and consequences that follow. Look for the pessimistic interpretations in the personal journal. That is what learning optimism will change.

Seligman adds to the ABC model, so his model is ABCDE. D stands for disputation, which centers around providing evidence against a belief, alternative reasons for the adversity’s occurrence, implications of the adversity, and the usefulness of moving on from the adversity. Disputation for the above traffic example might sound like this: “I am overreacting. I don’t know what situation he is in. Maybe he is on his way to his daughter’s piano recital and is running late. I’m sure I have cut people off before without meaning to, so I should really cut him a break. I am not in a hurry anyway.” A response like this can change feelings to be more hopeful and positive. Successful disputation is therefore the key to learned optimism. Successful disputation leads to energization, the E in the ABCDE model. One is energized by the positive feelings and sense of accomplishment that come from successful disputation of negative beliefs.

Empirical Findings on Learned Optimism

In a study completed by Martin Seligman, Ph.D. and Gregory Buchanan, Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and published by the American Psychological Association, learned optimism techniques were found to significantly reduce depression in a class of college freshmen. As incoming students to the university, a survey determined the most pessimistic students and they were invited to participate in the study. They were randomly assigned, half to attend a 16-hour workshop on the techniques of learning optimism, and half were the control group. In an 18 month follow up, 32% of the control group suffered moderate to severe depression and 15% suffered moderate to severe anxiety disorder, whereas only 22% of the workshop participants were depressed and 7% had anxiety issues. Those who participated in the learned optimism workshop also reported fewer health problems over the 18 month period of the study than those students in the control group.[24]

A study done by Peter Schulman at the Wharton School, published in the Journal of Selling and Sales Management, looked to determine the affects of applying learned optimism in business. After measuring the optimism levels of an insurance sales force, it was determined that the optimistic sales people sold 35 percent more, and identified pessimists were two times more likely to quit in the first year than optimists. As a result of his studies, he recommends testing sales job candidates for optimism levels to fit them to appropriate positions, training employees in learned optimism techniques, and designing an organization overall to have attainable goals set and good support from management.[25]

Finally, a study conducted by Mark Ylvisaker of the College of Saint Rose and Timothy Feeney of the Wildwood Institute looked at children with executive function impairment, meaning they have a brain functioning impairment perhaps affecting motor skills, memory, or focus ability, and relating techniques of learned optimism not to the children themselves, but to their caretakers, who oftentimes are more likely to feel helpless than optimistic in regards to caring for the child. It was found that learned optimism in caretakers of children with brain damage actually led the children to develop more functioning than children without optimistic caretakers. Optimistic rehabilitation professionals can help to augment these results.[26]

Learned Optimism in Practice

Learned optimism techniques can be very practical to apply to anyone’s life, and are used frequently today in the areas of parenting, business, and psychology.

Teaching children learned optimism by guiding them through the ABCDE techniques can help children to better deal with adversity they encounter in their lives. In addition to the same value adults can get from learning optimism, if children are taught early then the thought process of disputation becomes ingrained in them. They do not have to focus on being optimistic, but rather optimism becomes automatic and leads to a more positive life for the child.

Learned optimism is prevalent in business because more optimistic workers are more successful workers. Seligman’s focus in business is on “the personal wall” that is each individual workers constant point of discouragement. This could be preparing reports or making cold calls to potential clients. Putting the ABCDE model into practice allows workers to respond to this “wall” with a readiness to conquer rather than to feel dejected. Additionally, the ASQ—Attributional Style Questionnaire—is often used to measure optimism of job candidates during the interview process by asking the participant to write down causes for situational failures. Participants then rank the causes based on given criteria, and this helps businesses to know from the beginning whether the job candidate will be a high or low performer in his/her projected role based on his level of optimism.[27]

Learned optimism is also a big tool used to combat depression during cognitive behavioral therapy. Many people are depressed simply because they have a pessimistic outlook, and using the ABCDE to change one’s beliefs about adversity. Rather than perceiving adversity as a constant thing that cannot be overcome, and taking personal blame for that adversity, patients come out of cognitive behavioral therapy with the belief that they can control how they respond to adversity. A shift toward optimism is a shift away from depression, and that is what makes Seligman’s techniques so useful in cognitive behavioral therapy.

(1)Discovery Health. Learned Optimism Yields Health Benefits. American Psychological Association, 1997. [[2]] (2)Seligman, Martin. Learned Optimism. New York, NY: Pocket Books. 1998. (3)Schulman, Peter. Applying Learned Optimism to Increase Sales Productivity. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. Volume XIX, Number 1, Winter 1999. Pages 31-37. [[3]] (4)Ylvisaker, Mark and Timothy Feeney. Executive functions, self-regulation, and learned optimism in paediatric rehabilitation: a review and implications for intervention. Developmental Neurorehabilitation. Volume 5, Issue 2, April 2002, pages 51-70. [[4]]

Hope

Hope is a learned style of goal-directed thinking in which the person utilizes both pathways thinking (the perceived capacity to find routes to desired goals) and agency thinking (the requisite motivations to use those routes)[21]

Other findings

Application

Practical applications of positive psychology include helping individuals and organizations identify their strengths and use them to increase and sustain their respective levels of well-being. Therapists, counselors, coaches, and various psychological professionals, as well as HR departments, business strategists, and others are using these new methods and techniques to broaden and build upon the strengths of individuals who are not necessarily suffering from mental illness or disorder.

A summary of the application of positive psychology to executive coaching was presented by Dr. Anne Lueneburger, Managing Partner of North Of Neutral, in CHOICE Magazine .

How the positive psychology virtues and strengths are portrayed in movies, and how individuals can use movie viewings for self-improvement or to help others, are illustrated in a more recent book by Ryan Niemiec from the VIA Institute on Character [29]and Danny Wedding from the Missouri Institute of Mental Health [30] entitled Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths.[31]

Positive psychology research and practice is also currently being conducted and developed in various countries throughout the world. In Canada, for example, Charles Hackney of Briercrest College applies positive psychology to the topic of person growth through martial arts training, and Paul Wong, president of the International Network on Personal Meaning [32], is developing an existential approach to positive psychology.

Criticism

Positive psychology has been criticized by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich for its allegedly non-scientific approach: "Evidence is thin. Statistical significance levels are narrow. What few robust findings there are often prove to be either nonreplicable or contradicted by later research. And correlations (between, say, happiness and health) are not causations."

See also

Wikiversity has learning materials about Positive psychology

Precursors to Positive Psychology:

Notes

  1. ^ Seligman, Martin E.P.; Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2000). "Positive Psychology: An Introduction". American Psychologist 55 (1): 5–14.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Compton, William C, (2005). "1". An Introduction to Positive Psychology. Wadsworth Publishing. pp. 1–22. ISBN 0-534-64453-8.
  3. ^ Ben-Shahar, Ben (2007) "Happier - Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment", First Edition, McGraw-Hill Co.
  4. ^ http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~sonja/ppl.html
  5. ^ http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/newsletter.aspx?id=70
  6. ^ Kennon M. Sheldon Curriculum Vita
  7. ^ Ong, Anthony D. and Van Dulmen, Manfred H.M. (2006). Oxford Handbook of Methods in Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press U.S.
  8. ^ "Ilona Boniwell Research Profile". http://www.uel.ac.uk/psychology/staff/ilonaboniwell.htm.
  9. ^ Goldberg, Carey. "Harvard's crowded course to happiness." The Boston Globe. March 10, 2006.
  10. ^ Time Magazine's cover story in the special issue on "The Science of Happiness", 2005
  11. ^ The last chapter is entitled "Toward a Positive Psychology".
  12. ^ Seligman, Martin E.P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. xi. ISBN 0-7432-2297-0.
  13. ^ "The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side. It has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illness, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his full psychological height. It is as if psychology has voluntarily restricted itself to only half its rightful jurisdiction, than the darker, meaner half." (Maslow, Motivation and Psychology, p. 354).
  14. ^ Reuters, Jun 18, 2009: First World Congress on Positive Psychology Kicks Off Today With Talks by Two of the World's Most Renowned Psychologists
  15. ^ a b c d e f Seligman, Martin E.P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment.. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 275. ISBN 0-7432-2297-0.
  16. ^ Fredrickson, B. L., Mancuso, R. A., Branigan, C., & Tugade, M. M. (2000). "The undoing effect of positive emotions," Motivation and Emotion. 24, 237-258.
  17. ^ a b Compton, William C, (2005). "2". An Introduction to Positive Psychology. Wadsworth Publishing. pp. 23–40. ISBN 0-534-64453-8.
  18. ^ Peterson, Christopher; Seligman, Martin E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516701-5.
  19. ^ Peterson, Christopher & Seligman, Martin E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 51. ISBN 0-19-516701-5.
  20. ^ a b c Snyder, C.R.; Lopez, Shane J. (2007), "11", Positive Psychology, Sage Publications, Inc., ISBN 076192633X
  21. ^ a b Snyder, C.R.; Lopez, Shane J. (2007), "9", Positive Psychology, Sage Publications, Inc., ISBN 076192633X
  22. ^ Unless otherwise cited, all conceptual information and processes comes comes from Seligman's book
  23. ^ Seligman worked with Dr. Steven Hollon, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University, and Dr. Arthur Freeman, a psychiatrist at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, on this program using the ABC model developed by psychologist Albert Ellis.
  24. ^ Discovery Health 1997
  25. ^ Schulman 1999
  26. ^ Ylivisaker and Feeney 2002
  27. ^ Schulman 1999
  28. ^ Marriage Is Not the Key to Happiness, by Anne Becker, Psychology Today, March 18, 2003.
  29. ^ www.viacharacter.org
  30. ^ www.mimh.edu
  31. ^ Niemiec, Ryan & Wedding, Danny (2008). Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Virtues and Character Strengths. Cambridge, MA: Hogrefe. ISBN 978-0-88937-352-5.
  32. ^ http://meaning.ca/

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Chris Peterson coined this sentence that has become an adage in . positive psychology. . This expands one-dimensional​ thinking that character means only honesty or integrity. People are not simply kind and humble, brave and hopeful, ...

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psychology correlation - can someone please help me come up with 3 positive and 3 negative correlations?
Q. I need help to come up with three positive (+) and three negative(-) examples with relationships in human life(doesnt matter) . I need the actual correlation coefficient and explaining the relationship in plain english.. SOMeone help me please!
Asked by Eunice s - Tue Jul 21 21:49:48 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. Here's a start, just google correlations. apa.org has info, but you need to be a member to see the actual study...or use it in your university library. (psych professor)
Answered by bluegoat114 - Tue Jul 21 22:03:25 2009

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