Introduction to Positive Psychology

• The father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, questioned why joy, hope, and happiness were not studied instead of focusing solely on sadness.
• Positive psychology restores the balance between positivity and negativity in psychology.
• There has been no rise in happiness despite an increase in materialistic possessions.
• An increase in depression, divorce and crime rates has occurred due to the lack of happiness.
• Current culture differs from traditional psychology, as millions seek guidance to find a happy and meaningful life.
• Positive psychology studies personal qualities, life decisions, and sociocultural conditions that promote happiness, meaningfulness, and virtue, according to Baumgardner/Crothers' definition.
• A hedonic view involves living a life of pleasure to avoid pain and gain satisfaction.
• A eudaimonic view involves looking at oneself more deeply to find more meaning.
• Subjective Well-Being is measured through life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect.
• Eudaimonic measures assess psychological well-being and the mental health continuum.
• Deiner and Kahneman found a positive correlation between money and happiness, but more money does not always guarantee more happiness.
• Higher-income nations report high satisfaction but find themselves wanting more and comparing themselves with others.
• Concepts like the hedonic treadmill, social comparison, and the stress and anxiety associated with higher income are heavily associated.
• Intrinsic motivation leads to greater happiness than extrinsic motivation.
• A trait is an internal characteristic that influences perception and feelings.
• Positive traits increase Subjective Well-Being, physical and psychological health, and virtue.
• Positive and Negative Affectivity is a characteristic experience of emotions that helps measure happiness.
• Reactives were introverted while the less reactive were more extroverted and comfortable with change, representing temperament differences.
• The Big Five personality traits include Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
• The Behavioural Activation System is an incentive to do something that will guarantee a reward while the Behavioural Inhibition System is an incentive to not do something out of fear of being punished.
• Dispositional Optimism is optimism as a personal trait and optimism as explanatory style describes how people explain negative events.
• Optimism involves more flexibility in allocating attention and better use of coping strategies, under broadened build theory.
• Healthy/Positive Illusions make individuals feel good, but are not real, while depressive realism involves realistic thoughts that keep individuals grounded but do not invoke positivity.
• Optimism develops from authoritative parental attachment.
• Authoritative parenting involves parents who are supportive and treat their children well, while authoritarian parenting involves parents who are controlling and do not treat their children well.
• Uninvolved parenting involves parents who ignore their children, and permissive parenting involves parents who constantly spoil their children and don't properly discipline them.
• Three steps to success: resources, goals (right goals/motives), and self-regulation over time.
• Requirements for successful self-regulation include a clear standard/goal, a monitoring system, motivation, and self-discipline (avoiding procrastination).
• Four basic questions for success are: Can I succeed? Do I want to do it? Why do I want to do it? What do I need to do?
• Whether an individual wants to do something involves subjective task value such as interest, utility value, attainment value, psychological costs, financial costs, and lost opportunities.
• Explaining why planning helps with goals is the subject of goals research.
• Why an individual wants to do something involves self-determination theory and the motivation continuum.
• Amotivation is zero motivation.
• Extrinsic motivation is divided into externally regulated, introjected, identified, and integrated motivations.
• Externally regulated motivation involves doing something due to outside forces while introjected motivation involves doing something to avoid feeling guilty.
• Identified motivation involves doing something because it will bring future benefits, and integrated motivation involves doing something that will give insight and value.
• Intrinsic motivation involves doing something because one wants to or because it interests him/her.
• Resources needed to complete the goal represents "What do I need to do?".
• Implementation intentions, planning, concrete versus abstract goals, and mastery versus approach versus avoidance goals are key aspects of motivation.

Explore the foundations of positive psychology with Martin Seligman's vision. Understand its role in balancing negativity and positivity, addressing the paradox of increased possessions but decreased happiness. Discover how it studies personal qualities and sociocultural conditions that promote well-being.