Positive Psychology Introduction PDF

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY three nodes: ***INTRODUCTION TO POSITIVE the subjective node, which encompasses PSYCHOLOGY**** things like positive experiences and states across pas...

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY three nodes: ***INTRODUCTION TO POSITIVE the subjective node, which encompasses PSYCHOLOGY**** things like positive experiences and states across past, present and future (for example, happiness, optimism, wellbeing); The term “positive psychology” coined by Maslow (1987). He defined positive the individual node, which focuses on psychology as the study of psychological characteristics of the ‘good person’ (for health … the study of the good man, of the example, talent, wisdom, love, courage, secure and of the confident, of the creativity); and democratic character, of the happy man, the group node, which studies positive Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) : institutions, citizenship and communities The field of positive psychology at the (for example, altruism, tolerance, work subjective level is about valued subjective ethic) (Positive Psychology Center, 1998). experiences: Wellbeing, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and optimism GOALS OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: (for the future); and flow and happiness (in - To positively impact the client’s the present). life—-main goal is to improve the clients’ life Definition: is a scientific approach to - Increase positive emotions studying human thoughts, feelings, and - Identify and develop their strengths, behavior, with a focus on strengths instead unique, talents of weaknesses,(Peterson, 2008). - Enhance their goal-setting and striving Psychology after World War II became a - Build a sense of hope into the science largely devoted to healing. It client’s perspective; concentrated on repairing damage using a - Cultivate the client’s sense of disease model of human functioning. happiness and wellbeing; - Nurture a sense of gratitude in the The aim of positive psychology is to client; catalyze a change in psychology from a - Help the client build and maintain preoccupation only with repairing the worst healthy, positive relationships with things in life to also building the best others; qualities in life. - Encourage the client to maintain an optimistic outlook; NOTE: Goal 1- biggest goal Goals 2-10= milestone on the way to Goal 1 KEY FOUNDERS/ HISTORY emotions come after we have physically - Professor Seligman had committed acted out. to achieve before World War II: “curing mental illness, making the Humanistic psychology lives of all people more fulfilling, and The humanistic movement introduced and identifying and nurturing high talent solidified qualitative inquiry as an Greeks imperative paradigm to research human - Aristotle’s (384–322 BCE) greatest thought, behaviour and experience, adding contribution to philosophy is a holistic dimension to psychology. In a arguably his work on morality, virtue nutshell, humanistic psychology is the and what it means to live a good psychological perspective that emphasizes life. As he questioned these topics, the study of the whole person. he concluded that the highest good Applied positive psychology is the for all humanity was indeed application of positive psychology research eudaimonia (or happiness). to the facilitation of optimal functioning. Utilitarianism -promote optimal functioning across the full range of human functioning, Jeremy Bentham and carried on by John Stuart Mill, is a philosophy that argued that *****BASIC CONCEPT****** the right act or policy from government is HAPPINESS- that which will cause ‘the greatest good for the greatest number of people’, also known Happiness is an emotional state as the ‘greatest happiness principle’, or the characterized by feelings of joy, principle of utility. Utilitarianism was the satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment. first sector that attempted to measure happiness, creating a tool composed of Two key components of happiness (or seven categories, assessing the quantity of subjective well-being) are: experienced happiness. Utilitarianism influences some areas of positive The balance of emotions: Happiness psychology today, such as subjective is generally linked to experiencing wellbeing and the pleasurable life. more positive feelings than negative. Life satisfaction: This relates to how William James satisfied you feel with different areas of your life A brilliant scholar, William James is best known for his contribution to psychology through his widely read text, His chapter, ‘The Emotions’, is most relevant for positive psychology to acknowledge. He suggests there that Happiness is often referred to as hedonic or subjective wellbeing (SWB) in the academic literature. SWB consists of: A cognitive component: Our general satisfaction with life (SWL), in which we evaluate how well we are (for example, health, relationships, work and money). An emotional component: The frequency of positive affect ( that we experience during a defined period of time SWB = SWL + Positive affect – Negative affect Happy in the moment: This indicates that a person is experiencing particular positive emotions in this moment, that they interpret as happiness. Happy with life: generally doing well in terms of their wellbeing and SWL. Happy person: This use of the term refers to happiness as a personality trait that suggests that a person is typically cheerful and upbeat TYPES OF HAPPINESS Hedonia: Hedonic happiness is derived from pleasure. It is most often associated with doing what feels good, Eudaimonia: This type of happiness is derived from seeking virtue and meaning. fulfilling responsibilities, investing in long-term goals, concern for the welfare of other people, and living up to personal ideals. THEORIES AND MODELS: RYFFS MODEL SELF DETERMINATION THEORY Autonomy Competence - is the tendency to self-regulate - interested and open, to seek one’s behaviour learning/mastery opportunities (promote - in resist coercion, pressure, and acquisition of new skills). control; to regulate one’s behaviour in accordance with -and exploration of surroundings. one’s own needs demand. -The tendency to experience satisfaction - volition and the desire to freely from learning for its own sake choose actions consistent with one’s integrated sense of self;  Relatedness -is the tendency to feel connection and caring with group members belong’ and overlaps with Bowlby’s WHO Definition: Realizing potential, coping with life’s stresses, PERMA MODEL working productively, and - by Martin Seligman to explain contributing to the community. well-being. Wellbeing combines both hedonic Positive Emotion and eudaimonic elements. - Joy, gratitude, hope, and other positive emotions Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Engagement -deep involvement in activities that absorb us Deficiency Needs: Physiological, fully. Referred as “flow”, focused on task that Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem is challenging but achievable Growth Needs: Self-Actualization, Relationship Self-Transcendence - Supportive relationship, social Self-actualization: Fulfilling one’s connection, contributes to our potential, peak experiences. happiness Meaning Rogers' Fully Functioning Person - Sense of purpose, finding meaning of life Characteristics: Openness to Accomplishment experience, existential living, - Goals and striving for success self-trust, creativity contributing to overall werllbeing Connection to eudaimonic well-being through personal growth and Wellbeing as a balance of feeling good fulfillment. (hedonia) and functioning well (eudaimonia). Social Wellbeing Model (Keyes) Hedonia: Pleasure, comfort, gratification Five Dimensions: Eudaimonia: Living virtuously, personal 1. Social Integration growth, meaningful life 2. Social Acceptance Hedonia vs. Eudaimonia 3. Social Contribution Hedonia: Focus on positive emotions, 4. Social Actualization happiness 5. Social Coherence Eudaimonia: Focus on moral values, growth, self-actualization Both concepts are distinct yet strongly correlated.  Flow theory - by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi after his – a theory now known as intrinsic Complete concentration motivation -(merging of action and awareness). - lived experience was like when things were going well and when - The activity must initiate a complete people were performing at their merger of the activity and all best. consciousness. - Flow is defined as ‘the intense experiential involvement in -All attention is within the activity and moment-to-moment activity,. there is no room for consciousness. Sense of control. Several conditions are needed to facilitate the flow experience. These - This stems from the activity’s include: ability to allow us to lose Structured activity with clear goals and selfconsciousness, thereby immediate feedback. This means that the gaining a sense of control over activity must have rules and a clear what we are doing. outline in order to help orientate the person doing it. Transformation of time Balance of challenges versus skills. - where time speeds up, and before you know it, you’ve been engaging - we must have a delicate balance in the activity for hours when it felt between our skills level and the like minutes. Or, as in dance, time challenges at hand. can slow down, where a minute - If the challenge is too far above feels like hours, seconds like our current skill level, then this will minutes. Basically, there is a produce anxiety. definite distortion of time from the - If it is too low, it will produce reality of the clock. boredom. - person has no skill and there is no Activity for the sake of activity (and a challenge (such as TV watching) wish to repeat). This component refers to then they will exist in a channel of the activity’s ability to make you want to apathy do it all over again. No rewards, no external forces.  Personal growth: Understanding our own potential, willingness to grow and Finally, there is another potential openness to new experiences facilitator of the flow experience and that is your personality. They have skills that ; Social actualisation: Believing that enable them to have an innate general people, groups, organisations and curiosity in life, persistence, low communities can evolve positively; self-centredness and an ability to be Purpose in life: Setting life-goals, and motivated by intrinsic rewards (Nakamura having a sense of direction, purpose and and Csikszentmihalyi, 2005). These meaning; people would be described as having an autotelic personality and are more Social contribution: Feeling that our life susceptible to experiencing flow. has value, and that we can contribute and make a difference to others; Environmental mastery: The ability to manage or navigate our environments; MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM MODEL Social coherence: Taking an interest in society, and the ability to comprehend society and culture; The mental health continuum model developed by Keyes (2002) originated Autonomy: Being self-directed according from the idea that, similar to the diagnosis to internal standards; of mental illness, wellbeing should be conceptualised as a constellation of Positive relationships: Having close, “symptoms” that together demonstrate nurturing, trusting and satisfying “flourishing” – a state of complete mental relationships health, which entails emotional wellbeing, psychological wellbeing and social ; Social integration: Experiencing a sense wellbeing. Keyes (2005) therefore defined of belonging to a group or community the following symptoms of flourishing: Flourishing is a state in which “an Continuous positive affect: Being cheerful individual feels positive emotion toward or in good spirits, happy, zestful, calm or life and is functioning well psychologically peaceful. and socially” (Keyes, 2003, p. 294). Life satisfaction: Being satisfied with life In addition, flourishing individuals are overall or with particular domains. identified as people with low occurrence Positive functioning: Scoring high on the of mental illness. Flourishing with some following criteria: Positive attitudes mental illness symptoms / moderately toward ourselves and self-acceptance; healthy is a group within the flourishing Positive attitude toward others and social category that are functioning well despite acceptance; having a moderate illness.  Languishing is described as a state of strengths are defined as core positive “quiet desperation” whereby “an individual qualities that reflect people’s identities is devoid of positive emotions toward life, and values. is not functioning well psychologically or Signature strengths are a particular type socially, but has not been depressed. In of character strength. They are seen as short, languishers are neither mentally ill “positive traits that a person owns, nor mentally healthy” celebrates and frequently exercises” (Peterson & Park, 2009, p. 29). Signature STRENGTH AND VIRTUES strengths are more distinctive than other strengths since they capture and define Defining virtues and character strengths people’s fundamental nature or Virtues are “acquired excellences in uniqueness, and are more genuine and character traits, the possession of which natural for people to convey than other contributes to a person’s completeness” strengths. (Emmons, 2003, p. 121). Character Resilience transpires when protective adversarial growth, perceived benefits, factors outweigh risks Some scholars thriving and positive adaptation. described resilience as a collection of capacities, traits or resources that enables people to respond to stressors in productive ways. These are often described as protective factors that can buffer individuals against the risks presented to their wellbeing by the adversities that they are contending with. From this perspective resilience is described as an equation: a state where the person’s protective factors outweigh the risks (Masten, 2015). Resilience is an indication of an effective adaptation process and positive outcomes The Connor–Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) (Connor & Davidson, 2003) is a 25-item scale that measures resilience and can be used both in clinical and non-clinical populations. The Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) (Friborg, Hjemdal, Rosenvinge, & Martinussen, 2003) is a 37-item scale that examines intrapersonal and interpersonal protective factors which help to facilitate healthy adaptation. Posttraumatic growth is described as the experience of positive change that a person may experience as a result of the struggle with a major life crisis (Tedeschi, Shakespeare-Finch, Taku, & Calhoun, 2018). The term posttraumatic growth is often used interchangeably with stress-related growth,