The New Era Of Positive Psychology

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.

Happiness is the one thing we all seek unfortunately not everyone finds. In A Brave New World the author, Aldous Huxley, uses two different types of characters to portray someone as happy and someone who is not. The State uses different forms of Soma, technology, and everything but the truth to make their citizens “happy”. This book does suggest that happiness is all that really matters in life and that you should seek happiness in your own way and not through someone else.

The Power of Positive Thinking Annotated Bibliography Smith, Dr Curtis E. Applied Power of Positive Thinking. Inspiring Voices, 2014. People struggle with issues of which they seem to be lacking adequate solutions to them. In this book, Dr. Curtis presents a formula that can help us to transform hopeless situations into opportunities.

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 serves as a preemptive strategy, helps the development of positive societal institutions, and makes students more successful in life on many levels, both personal and societal. Finally, Seligman would argue that positive education has more of a lasting impact by the way of and constructive changes in student behavior.

Correspondently, psychopathology and interpersonal struggle become readily perceived since them both are not part of the standard expectations of today’s society. According to the article in 1997, the American Psychological Association under a new directive led by Martin Seligman hoped for a new preventative approached that focus on “hope, optimism, and courage” (Entwistle & Moroney, 2011, p. 298). From a Christian perspective, we suggest that the goodness of creation and humanity as the imago Dei substantiate why some of the notions of positive psychology exist (Entwistle & Moroney, 2011, p. 298).

I decided to read the entire book (349 pages) titled, Flourish, by Martin E.P. Seligman. He sectioned his book into two parts, “A New Positive Psychology” and “The Ways to Flourish.” The first part of the book, Seligman discusses his journey to discover the concept of “positive psychology.” A man who was a part of an anonymous foundation contacted him and presented Seligman with hefty funds for an opportunity of a lifetime—to study and research any subject he wishes and report on it. He chose the topic, “Positive Psychology” as the subject he would then focus a substantial amount of his time and research on. In doing so, he was able to find scientific reasoning for how people achieve happiness in their lives. Once Seligman takes the time and space to explain his concept of flourishing and positive psychology, he then focuses the second part of his book on how to implement and maintain those concepts in your life.

Many of us may have specific personality traits (dispositions to behave in a certain way, as expressed in the behavior of a person in a variety of circumstances, Cervone & Pervin, 2013) that might be negative, particularly when coping with stress and or facing challenges. Some of these traits have been due in part to inherited factors, copied from our parents or caregivers during childhood, or due to environmental influence. Regardless of the case, there is good news for all of us; we can change our brains. However, it takes persistent practice and time. We can develop new habits by training our brain.

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.

Although the specialization of positive psychology has only been researched and practices since 1998, the study of happiness connects with the work of Maslow, Rogers, and Fromm. The roots of this specialization came from Martin Seligman who chose the theme the president of the American Psychological Association in the late 1990’s. Seligman was an avid student of Maslow’s work and realized that life cannot be full circle unless the person has a balance lives with happiness. During his time as president, Seligman wrote a book entitled, “Authentic Happiness” in which he describes a reality that finds most if not all psychological professionals focusing on mental illness. Seligman (1998) suggests that psychologist works to address the client’s

Heffernan and Boniwell (2011) illustrate a number of psychological interventions that an individual can adapt in order to enhance the positive affects they encounter in their lives. In their book Heffernan and boniwell state that the latest and clearest definition of positive psychology interventions comes from the meta-analysis by Sin and Lyumbomirsky, who defined PPI as: “Treatment methods or intentional activities that aim to cultivate positive feelings, behaviours or cognitions…programs, interventions or treatments aimed at fixing, remedying, or healing something that is pathological or deficient – as opposed to building strengths – do not fit the definition of a PPI” (Sin and Lymbomirsky, 2009: 468).

In this week’s exploration in history, I watched the Ted Talk on Positive Psychology by Martin Seligman and summarized five main points he makes in the presentation. In this Ted Talk, Seligman talks about why psychology was good, not good, and how it will be good enough. First, let’s pay attention to why psychology is good. Seligman points out that for more than 60 years’ psychology has worked within the disease model and due to this now fourteen disorders are treatable, while two of them are curable. Compare this to sixty years ago when none of the diseases were treatable.

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.

The video discussion consists of a speech given by Martin Seligman entitled The New Era of Positive Psychology. In this speech, he discusses the use of psychology to make people happy. Attempting to define what is happy. What does it mean to be happy? Before, Psychology use to be to answer what was wrong with you. Seligman wanted to change that. He saw the state of Psychology as it was good, not good, but also where it could go.

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