Positive Psychology At Gable And Haidt

In the video titled “The Happy Secret To Better Work”, Shawn Achor really outlines how being happy and staying positive can really change your life. In other words Achor is referring to positive psychology. When referring to the world around us Achor really believes the majority of people focus on only the negatives and not the positives. He also talks about how that reality might not be what shapes us but in actuality it is our brain that puts a lens on how we perceive things and that may change our happiness. Achor also outlines another trait of our brain, which is that we as humans set progressing goals that never seem to be fulfilled due to human nature. He finishes his presentation by giving the audience some ways to help reverse the way we see the world and help our work and life in general.

The field of positive psychology, founded by Martin Seligman (1998), seeks to influence individuals whose lives are “neutral” and increase their psychological well-being. Positive psychology offers a unique perspective on mental health through focusing on individual strengths rather than dysfunction, pathology, and mental illness (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). The goal of positive psychology is to assist individuals in creating meaningful lives through the promotion of positive emotions, individual character strengths, as well as, eudemonic happiness, as key components to optimal mental health. Like many other contemporary theories, positive psychology borrows principles and

The pursuit of happiness is the universal search for a life an individual can feel content and satisfied with. However, as stated in class, happiness is a fleeting emotion rather than a prolonged state. Once an individual achieves a sense of happiness it is only a matter of time before they return to the starting point of their quest. Therefore, happiness alone is not enough to elicit a good life. On a similar note, in 2004, Professor Martin Seligman gave a TED talk that addressed the current direction of psychology. He believed the extent of psychology had become the ability to “make miserable people feel less miserable” rather than “[making] relatively untroubled people happier.” As a result, he and his colleagues developed positive psychology, a branch of psychology that promotes the components of happiness, well-being, and fulfillment to achieve a satisfactory life. The purpose of this project is to learn about your well-being and discover ways to increase the quality of your life through positive psychology.

In a true clinical setting, a patient is free to express feelings and experiences to facilitate self-healing through positive intervention techniques. With the data available on positive psychology, many clinicians may be tempted to utilize a particular positive intervention with the belief it will make a tremendous impact on the patient. However, this may be unhealthy for the patient who may need to experience negative or difficult emotion to work through the issue they are dealing with. Nonetheless, positive therapy has a definitive useful role in psychological treatment and “adds a deeper dimension to the treatment setting” (p. 404). Therapists who use this type of therapy, however, should remember not to “become a slave to the ‘tyrannies of optimism’” (Seligman, 1990, p. 292; as cited in La Torre, p. 404).

In class on Monday, we had a very engaging presentation on positive psychology and how flourishing shapes our perspective to be the successful young adults we are today. Positive psychology is the study of promotion for successful functioning. Building enabling conditions for a life worth living is vital to being satisfied with our lives and within ourselves. A few enabling conditions for a life worth living for my own perspectives is my resilience, my supportive buffers, and using my signature strength to help others.

The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” (Chuck Palahniuk). The first concept I learned is positive psychology, and unexpectedly I have applied this concept throughout my life for the last sixteen years without realizing it until this course. People who employ positive psychology are those who make people happy throughout the course of their life and are optimistic during difficult times to cope with the challenges (Franzoi, 2014, pg. 8). People who incorporate positive psychology into their life have less stress and are tend to be happier and healthier. Positive psychology brings similar effects to positive emotions like happiness and pleasure as clinical psychology that treats depression and anger (Max, 2007).

The term happiness continues to perplex psychologists. With the recent study of positive psychology or the study of happiness, psychologists have unintentionally attached a negative connotation to all other emotions. However, all emotions, even the ones coined as negative, are valuable to humans. An analysis of human emotions proves that feelings of sadness, anger, fear, and happiness are equally beneficial to human development because they allow for a safer and more open mind-set.

Defining the meaning of life and the conditions, traits and features of a well-lived life is a question that throughout history engrossed theologians, philosophers, artists and, more recently, positive psychologists. This essay outlines findings from a selection of the literature and research to answer this question with the aim of identifying whether happiness is the true sign and the ultimate goal and marker of a well-lived life. This review of the literature has yielded findings that possessing a disposition towards gratitude is not only indicated to be present in a well-lived life, but can enhance and improve mental, physical and spiritual life outcomes.

Positive Psychology is defined as “…the scientific study of human flourishing, and an applied approach to optimal functioning. It has also been defined as the study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals, communities and organizations to thrive” (Gable & Haidt, 2005, Sheldon & King, 2001, as cited by Positive Psychology Institute). According to Martin Seligman, one of Positive Psychology’s pioneers, positive psychology consists of three major components- “pleasure and gratification”, “strength and virtue”, & “meaning and purpose”. He believes that the road to “lasting fulfillment” is a journey in which an individual must pass through each component in chronological order. (Seligman)

According to Seligman (2000), positive psychology is a science that “promises to improve the quality of life” through positive individual traits, experiences and institutions (p.5). Positive psychology plays an essential role and articulates a view of good life, which can show what actions of a person would lead to well-being and into positive individuals (Seligman, 2000, p.5). Seligman formed this focus of positive psychology to study the happiness and well-being of individuals. He believed this exclusive new focus emphasizes attention on individuals’ flourishment and their ability to thrive in their commonalities and institutions. Similar to Seligman, Gable and Haidt (2005) believed that positive psychology takes an aim to study “the other side of the coin”; the ways people express their emotions and build healthy relationship with their families and institutions (p.104-105). According to Linley, Govindji and West (2007), positive psychology has grown into the study of what is right for people, particularly within the topics of strengths and happiness (p.44-45).However the negatives in life are not forgotten it is simply overridden by the focus of what makes people thrive in happiness (Gable & Haidt, 2005, p.104).Therefore the focus of positive psychology alternated from pathology to forward growth of people to be simply defined as the “science of optimal human functioning” (Linley, Govindji and West, 2007

“Positive psychology is a relatively new branch of psychology that shifts the focus from what is clinically wrong, to the promotion of wellbeing and the creation of a satisfying life filled with meaning, pleasure, engagement, positive relationships and accomplishment.” (Black Dog Institute, 2012). That means, to change the way individuals think and act. From this moment on, Positive Psychology will help someone on creating and keeping mental health.

Happiness is the meaning and purpose for life. Humans have been in search for that fulfillment since the beginning of time. This thirst for happiness caused psychologist to emergi with the study of positive emotions in other words positive psychology. Positive psychology is a study of positive emotions, positive characters traits and positive institutions; which lead to the study of individuals well-being. Researchers are still in search of finding what is the core solution that can increase people's happiness for a lifetime. However, they have found one major thing that might increase happiness is the cultivation of gratitude.

The concepts of Positive Psychology are explored through an intrapersonal, interpersonal, and pro-social lens using empirical research as the basis. The paper examines the history, intentions and scope of positive psychology in relationship to personal experiences and character traits that lead to personal effectiveness. The specific Areas of Focus examine the major principles of Positive Psychology and their importance with regards to; changes in emotional states, cognitive processes and experiences in juxtaposition with current research. The concepts and principles are then applied to current

There have been numerous studies in the realm of Positive Psychology and the effects it can influence in other sectors of a person’s overall wellbeing, especially in terms of attaining a positive mindset and treatment of negative general disorders, the short term benefits of a positive psychological outlook and the long term health and lifestyle benefits that are produced from it. In a 2006 journal article, Park, Peterson & Seligman stated that character strengths that were most associated with positive life satisfaction, and thereby positive psychology attaining a positive lifestyle, were hope, zest, gratitude and love. This paper examines how a person

Positive psychology, which has emerged recently, is the scientific study of human thriving. Psychology traditionally focuses on dysfunction—on people with mental illness or other psychological problems and how to treat them. Positive psychology, by contrast, is a relatively new field that examines how ordinary people can become happier and more fulfilled. In his 1998 APA presidential address, Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, argued that psychology had become too focused on curing mental illness according to a disease model, and that, for all intents and purposes, it had become a “victimology” (Seligman, 1998). What was needed, he averred, was a new “science of human strengths,” a positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).