Lecture 7

• Positive psychology is focused on states, behaviors, and assets that underpin positive psychological states and experiences of meaning.
• Despite a fast rise to prominence criticised by leading psychologists, positive psychology has domains of application in clinical settings, organizations, education, public policy and communities, and coaching.

Positive Psychology & Clinical Psychology

• Explores applications of positive psychology in clinical domains and focuses on changing assumptions, understanding clinical disorders, positive interventions, and interpreting therapies.

Positive Psychology & Organizational Psychology

• Positive organizational scholarship guides the study and intervention within organizations, and is often tied to productivity.
• Evident via relational leadership frameworks, organizational change initiatives, and attention to employee perceptions/connections at work.

Belonging

• Social connectedness gives individuals a sense of belonging from group memberships
• Belonging to groups represents overt presence of group ties and interactions
• A consequence of lacking social contact can lead to shortened lives, while diverse social networks can make things like catching the common cold less likely and support is similar to healthy behaviors.

Older Adults

• Less connected individuals with chronic illnesses visit their physician and require rehospitalization more.
• Group ties become more important for preserving cognitive health as people age
• This occurs through social integration, social support, and social identity

Evans' Study

• Examined personal experiences with COVID-19 and group membership and their influence on conspiracy beliefs, risk perception, and health behaviors by studying 46,000 participants and how direct and indirect experiences with COVID-19 impacted pandemic beliefs and actions.
• Direct experiences with COVID-19 were linked to higher conspiracy beliefs and lower risk perception.
• Indirect experience led to lower conspiracy beliefs, higher risk perception, and greater adherence to public health measures.
• Group membership influenced how individuals perceived the pandemic, reinforcing or diminishing beliefs based on their social or political context and impacting effective health communication during crisis.

Social Prescribing

• A holistic approach primarily in Canada, connecting patients with community resources and activities to address social determinants of health and improve overall well-being.
• Referrals are provided to support groups for mental health or chronic conditions, volunteering, participation in arts and culture, and access to healthy food and nutrition.
• Connects patients with non-clinical services (e.g., exercise, arts, volunteering) to address social and emotional needs.
• Pathway: Identification → Referral → Assessment → Engagement → Follow-up.
• Goals include improving well-being, reducing isolation, and lessening healthcare burden.
• Is growing in provinces like Ontario, BC, and Quebec with pilot programs integrating social services into healthcare

WISE Interventions

• Brief interventions that shift beliefs or perspectives.
• Based on a precise focus, shifting how people make sense of matters can have positive outcomes.
• These interventions focus on the need to understand, integrity, and belong.

Do I Belong?

• Belonging uncertainty is feeling lonely or disrespected etc., and asking does it mean I don't belong?
• When people question their belonging, they can be more apt to worry that daily adversities mean that they, or people like them, do not belong in general
• Demonstrated through daily diary studies involving adversities.

Belongingness Intervention

• A legitimate narrative for understanding common adversities and challenges to belonging.
• Conveys norms via social proof, and can be interactive and applied to one's own life
• Changes attributions to reduce inferences of nonbelonging, shifting behavioral tendencies and social interactions.
• Activities provide information about normative experiences, use illustrative stories, and interactive components.
• Stories describe challenges to belonging, followed by an improvement and can be written from the perspective of members and address numerous goals.
• Often involves pluralistic ignorance, counterstereotypical, teacher-student relationships, friendships, imposter syndrome, followed by saying-is-believing activity
• A narrative constitutes a structured, relatable story used to foster belonging.
• Narratives normalize struggles and promote connection by showing shared experiences.

Important points

• Social prescription, is a concept that connects patients with non-clinical services to address social and emotional needs; it is growing in provinces like Ontario, BC, and Quebec with pilot programs integrating social services into healthcare
• When creating narratives to promote belongingness, it should be a structured, relatable story showing normalization of struggle.
• Belongingness interventions often focus on pluralistic ignorance, counterstereotypicals, close friendships, and imposter syndrome.
• Pluralistic ignorance corrects the false belief that one's struggles are unique.
• Counterstereotypical exemplars highlights individuals who challenge stereotypes.
• Close friendships emphasizes personal connections for belonging.
• Impostor syndrome addresses self-doubt by sharing similar experiences.
• Examples in which positive psychology is applied include programs to boost resilience in education, job satisfaction in the workplace, and strength-based approaches in healthcare.
• Positive psychology is applied through programs to boost resilience and academic success in education.
• Strategies to enhance job satisfaction and productivity is a workplace application for positive psychology
• Strength-based approaches to improve patient recovery in healthcare exemplify an application of positive psychology.