Positive Psychology In The Workplace Essay

“Cultivate Positive Identities.” Laura M. Roberts. How to be a Positive Leader: Small Actions, Big Impact. Jane E. Dutton and Gretchan M. Sprieitzer. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2014. 54-63.

In the reading assignment, Cultivate Positive Identities, Laura Roberts talks about ways individuals, and managers can use positive thinking, to enrich their lives, and those around them. She states that, “most individuals seek to hold positive self-views, desiring to be viewed positively by others” (How to Be a Positive Leader, 2014). Together, with positive thinking methods, the author of the chapter believes that positive identities are achievable and lead to a more fulfilling life. This chapter was somewhat overwhelming to read, as it mentioned many methods and strategies involved in “cultivating positive identities”.

According to the Center, “Positive psychology is the systematic study of human strength, resilience and qualities that empower individuals and group of people to succeed” (Positive Psychology Center, 2014). Positive psychology’s founders learned through study that people usually place more emphasis on what goes wrong in their lives; they focus on their failures. For instance, divorce, financial obligations, or losing a job. It is imperative to comprehend the characteristics of undesirable experiences in an individual’s life. As an alternative to focusing on failure, focus can be placed on the positive situations in life and understand those are the occasions worth living for. Positive psychology emphasizes strengths and weaknesses, magnifying the positive aspects of life, and healing the effects of negative experiences. Positive psychology focuses on a person’s strengths and the hope of something larger then oneself to lead individuals to a more meaningful

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.

Every aspect of psychology excites me. As I take more classes, and my exposure to different theories and perspectives as well as topics and fields increases, I want to know more. The possibilities and applications of psychology are endless. When I wrote about peace and positive psychology for a career paper in an English class, my thoughts on psychology's impact expanded. Influenced by humanistic psychology, positive psychology focuses not only on the health or unhealthiness of an individual, but his or her potential to thrive and live a happy life. The prior theories have opened up the long-neglected opposite side of the spectrum of one’s psychological health. I am inspired by countless psychologists, but notably Abraham Maslow and Martin

Positive psychology and coaching psychology have certain similarities with regards to their development as responses to the status quo of the field. The status quo was deficit-based, pathology-focused, and based on essential assumptions regarding human nature. These fundamental assumptions were largely less than positive, especially when examined from a rational perspective. As responses to the status quo, positive psychology and coaching psychology are based on abundance, focused on solutions, and assumptions that people have an intrinsic tendency to desire growth and develop their potential (Linley, Woolston & Biswas-Diener, 2009, p.20). Consequently, individual grow and develop their potential when the environments they live in support their efforts. Due to the focus of these concepts, many practitioners of positive and coaching psychology tend to function differently from conventional approaches to leadership and organizational development of ability.

People can train their brain to scan for the positive and become experts at capitalizing on Happiness Advantage (Achor 91)

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.

This summer I began reading a book titled, “Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People do” By Dr. Robert Schuller. In this book he highlighted a concept describing positivity thinking. Positivity thinking is a conscious effort to always choose positivity when neutral or negative thoughts may be easy to settle for. This has help me in building a positive workplace environment. But this environment was established before this summer internship. Josh Whitman, the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (”DIA”) Director of Athletics, changed the department's atmosphere with a three word hashtag. #WeWillWin. This type of positivity thinking challenges complacency and negativity with hope. With this atmosphere established by the department's head, his subordinates must be able to buy in and promote such way of thinking. Positive and passionate professionals always seem to be on their game. These three things have assisted me in my contribution to this positivity thinking. I will explain in the following paragraphs.

There will be items provided on how psychological empowerment, empowers employees for what they want in a job or position with an Organizational. Furthermore, positive psychology is being used in businesses to address the strengths in employees to address workplace.

Some have argued that the positive movement is “an old wine in new bottles” because of the risk of stigmatizing employees who are struggling with negative emotions (Fineman, 2006), and that interventions fundamentally focused on individual issues rather than organizational issues (Hackman, 2009). On the other hand, Avey, Luthans, & Youssef, (2010) assert that POB is not an old wine in new bottles as claimed, but rather a new shift of perspective in a changing environment. The POB has emerged as an extension of positive psychology research to the workplace (Youssef-Morgan, 2014). Whereas, Van de Ven & Sun (2011) argue that change is an ongoing process that will never stop for an organization. PsyCap has expanded more because it offers different approaches for enhancing workplace positivity with high returns on investment, and employers find it appealing because it combines the “feel good” motivation impact in a typical training with the bottom line (Youssef-Morgan, 2014).

In Martin Seligman’s TED talk, he explains the values of positive psychology’s impact on creating happier lives. In 2000, Martin Seligman created a new field of psychology called Positive Psychology. This field of positive psychology is the study of positive traits and behaviors that can contribute to a positive “happier” life. In Seligman’s TED talk, The New Positive Era of Psychology, he categorizes positive lives into three categories. The Pleasant life, the life of engagement, and the meaningful life. But before he begins his speech, he explains the negative actions taken by psychology when treating people.

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).

Positive psychology is a relatively new, yet rapidly expanding field of study. It is the study of the positive facets of humanity focused heavily around well-being and happiness. Through the studies of positive psychology researchers are attempting to find ways to continuously improve quality of life and flourish as a society. Traditional psychology is obviously very complex and diverse. It is commonly accepted and referred to as the study of the mind and the subsequent behaviour and functions it carries out. Traditional psychology is an over-arching discipline and encompasses numerous different sub-sections such as human development, social behaviour, cognitive processes and health to name a few (McLeod. S., 2011). Positive psychology is another

Another vastly used concept in management theory and practice i.e. the positive psychology pursues organisational virtues and social responsibility. Positive psychology is applied in contemporary management to facilitate social relation between a leader and his subordinates to develop a sense of security and create positive emotional states of the individuals. With smaller sized team and more freedom in work,Google Inc. keeps the employees working towards a set purpose besides instilling high levels of self- motivation and work empowerment within them. Google Inc. focuses on noble tasks and convince their employees of their significance in bringing changes and peace to the world by organising the world’s information and making life better for individuals and the society(Cook 2012).Hence,it can be observed that through positive psychology,high employee satisfaction and achievement can be gained through self-motivation,self-improvement and self-inspiration by incorporating passion in their work and align them with the organization’s own’s values.This in turns improves the company’s productivity and innovation ability which will then elevate the corporation’s social and economic status.