Positive Psychology: What It Is, Books, Techniques And Exercises

Positive psychology is a new approach within the discipline of psychology. This consists of a scientific study on positive individual experiences and traits, as well as institutions and programs that promote people’s psychological well-being and quality of life. This formally emerged in 1999 at the hands of Martin Seligman, considered the father of this current. However, interest and reflection on happiness was already present in authors such as Aristotle or Spinoza.

From psychology, other authors such as Maslow or Rogers also formulated theories about human well-being, but in the absence of empirical and methodological foundation. Despite this, these authors, among others, are considered direct antecedents of Seligman’s positive psychology. The father of positive psychology decided to expand the object of study of psychology, including positive processes and emotions as well as the virtues and strengths of human beings in the development of their potential.

From his perspective, psychology throughout its history had always adopted a point of view focused on illness and the negative aspects of the human psyche. For this reason, it decided to apply a salutogenic and non-pathological approach, as until now, so that the concept of health does not only imply the absence of disease, but also the consideration of subjective well-being and the factors that make it possible. Therefore, Martin Seligman and positive psychology They focus on the analysis and research of the bases of human happiness and the aspects that favor personal growth and development based on individual strengths and capabilities.

Positive psychology is based on the idea that positive emotions enhance health and prevent illness, as well as stimulate growth and psychological well-being. This is because a optimistic attitude It allows the development and optimization of the resources and skills available to the person, as well as increasing resilience or the ability to overcome adversity, and coping with various circumstances.

In short, positive psychology is well-being and quality of life by promoting, stimulating and maximizing the positive aspects.

How positive psychology is applied in daily life

Despite being a still young and recent trend, this approach has already developed various theories, relevant constructs and instruments for its measurement, as well as has aroused interest from other branches of psychology. It is for the latter, that the positive psychology applied to other fields It is currently a reality:

• The positive psychology at work Its objective is to increase the satisfaction of workers and improve the organizational climate, which in turn has an impact on their performance and work performance.
• In the areas of the clinical psychology and health this approach influences the intervention framework through the development of therapeutic techniques and strategies that promote positive experiences and emotions as a way of preventing and addressing pathologies derived from suffering or psychological discomfort.
• Finally, in the educational context from a positive perspective It focuses on optimizing the different strengths, skills and specific competencies of students through the development of a pedagogical environment that allows their stimulation and expression. In this way, you increase your self-efficacy, self-esteem and motivation, which in turn maximizes your human potential.

Below we offer you a list of the most representative books on positive psychology:

• Flow: a psychology of happiness (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)
• authentic happiness (Martin Seligman, 2002)
• The science of happines (Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2007)
• The science of well-being: foundations of positive psychology (Carmelo Vázquez and Gonzalo Hervás, 2009)
• Overcoming Adversity: The Power of Resilience (Luis Rojas Marcos, 2010)
• 59 seconds: think a little, change a lot (Richard Wisheman, 2010)
• The life that blooms (Martin Seligman, 2011)
• The art of not making life bitter: the keys to psychological change and personal transformation (Rafael Santandreu, 2011)
• Practice happiness (Tal Ben Shahar, 2011)
• Intelligent optimism: Psychology of positive emotions (María Dolores Avia and Carmelo Vázquez, 2014)

To achieve the goal of increasing people’s subjective well-being and quality of life, a series of techniques have been developed and applied from positive psychology:

1. Self-reinforcement

Self-reward fosters positive self-esteem and self-concept. Three routes are distinguished for self-reinforcement; The first of them are the self praise the second the small ones rewards at specific times and the third consists of carrying out a rewarding activity after doing another one that we don’t find particularly pleasant but we want to increase its frequency.

2. Training in attributions

It involves teaching people to appropriately attribute successes and failures through training in identifying thoughts, modifying them, and internal self-talk. For success, it is recommended to develop a vision of it as internal, that is, the responsibility of the person themselves, stable or present most of the time, and global, applicable to all situations. On the other hand, it is advisable to learn to perceive failure as unstable which implies it will not always happen, and specific, it is not going to occur in all the circumstances of our lives. In the case of whether the failure is internal or external, we must be able to discern it in the most objective way possible, but remembering that if it is both our responsibility and the result of chance, it is unstable and specific.

3. Mental rehearsal

It refers to the visualization of carrying out an activity in the way the person wants to do it, within parameters of realism. For this training, a state of relaxation is necessary, which in the imagination projects itself and not another person, creating a visualization as detailed as possible To confer realism, the person must not appear making mistakes, but rather successfully performing the task, and the scene must have a normal temporal rhythm, neither accelerated nor slowed down.

4. Relaxation techniques

Other techniques of positive psychology are relaxation techniques, such as Jacobson’s progressive relaxation training, meditation, yoga, different types of breathing and mindfulness exercises.

5. Rewarding activities

Make a list of different activities that are enjoyable and have meaning for the person, then schedule them based on the available schedules. Practicing tasks that we find comforting produces relaxation and makes it difficult for stress to appear. It is recommended to change activities from time to time so as not to always do the same ones, work on creativity and in this way take risks and leave the comfort zone.

6. Use of humor

Sometimes humor becomes a tool used in positive psychology therapy. Fears or problems are ridiculed with the aim of minimizing and decatastrophicizing them so that the person can obtain another perspective of their difficulties and reduce the level of mental tension.

7. Pleasant scenes

Before carrying out a difficult activity or situation, it can help to mentally project pleasant or pleasant images, whether past or future. This technique is beneficial for distracting the mind from negative thoughts and anxiety, achieving a more positive attitude for coping with circumstances.

8. Letters

Another positive psychology technique is cards, both letters of gratitude and forgiveness. The first consists of writing to another person what we are grateful for and giving it to them, which will make both people feel good. Forgiveness letters are based on the idea that the accumulation of resentment and anger slows down our personal growth, and can also cause harm to both parties involved. Therefore, the expression of how we have come to feel, explicit forgiveness and the reasons for this is recommended.

There are a large number of positive psychology exercises that can be done from home if you want to work on a more positive attitude and develop your own potential. Some of these are the following:

1. Strengths exercise

This positive psychology exercise consists of thinking and writing down what we believe are the qualities we possess; We can help ourselves with other people, with tables of strengths in which each one of them is described, or previously make a list of achievements and successes achieved, so that the identification of capabilities and competencies is easier.

2. Self-esteem exercise

This task is called a self-esteem tree, so you have to draw a large tree and write:

• Achievements: in the cup those things that he believes he has achieved.
• Name: on the trunk the proper name of the person.
• Qualities: at the roots the characteristics, qualities, strengths or own abilities. This exercise makes it possible to quickly visualize successes and allows you to add more objectives achieved throughout the days.

3. Gratitude exercise

Another positive psychology exercise is to practice gratitude. This can be done by writing a gratitude journal, in which you write three positive things about the day before going to sleep, or through the appreciation of stable elements of one’s own life that we have not stopped to consider the importance of, such as friendships for years, family, etc. To do this we have to do an analysis, reflection and review of our life and what factors in it give us positive emotions.

4. Emotional self-awareness exercise

Record of emotions for a week, writing down as many emotions as possible experienced throughout a day and the situations that caused them. You can also make a description of what you felt. This positive psychology exercise facilitates emotional attention and identification.

5. Appreciation exercise

When we are going to start a project or try to achieve a goal, a good exercise is to draw a path on a piece of cardboard that ends in a goal. Along the path to achieving the objective, it is necessary to include those learnings, new paths or opportunities that have taken place. In this way, we obtain a graphic representation that helps you appreciate the path and not only the goal.

6. Regulation exercise

Provide a space regularly, more than once a week, where you can sit quietly for half an hour without distractions or stimuli. In these minutes you have to reflect on what worries and worries you. Once the time has passed, you must continue doing other activities normally. This exercise allows you to have a own space for reflection and concern so when a negative thought attacks you throughout the day you will be able to contain it and postpone it for that half hour of analysis.

7. Acceptance exercise

To carry out this positive psychology exercise, it is useful to write on a post-it or green sheet those situations that you have managed to accept including at least a couple of strategies or techniques that made this task easier for you. On another post-it or yellow paper write those situations in which you have difficulty accepting and they cause you some discomfort or suffering. Next, think about how the strategies from the situations that have been overcome could be applied to those that have not yet been overcome, or what aspects of these could be transferred to the situations in yellow.

• “Psychology cannot tell people how they should live their lives. However, it can provide them with meaning for effective personal and social change.” Albert Bandura.
• “Research has shown that the being positive opens our minds and causes us to see the world differently. When we inject positivity our vision increases, when we inject negativity our vision shrinks.” (Barbara Fredrickson)
• “The good news is that there are a large number of internal circumstances under our voluntary control. If we decide to change (and keep in mind that none of these changes come without real effort), our level of happiness is likely to increase exponentially and lastingly.” (Martin Seligman)
• “Psychology doesn’t just focus on unhealthy behaviors. It also helps in education, work, marriage and even sports. Psychologists work to help people build strengths in all these domains.” Martin Seligman.
• “Flow is the process of achieving happiness through control of the inner life. The optimal state of internal experience is order in consciousness. This happens when we focus our attention (psychic energy) on realistic goals and when our abilities match the challenges we face.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
• “Control of consciousness “It determines the quality of life.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Positive psychology: what it is, books, techniques and exercises we recommend that you enter our Personal Growth and Self-Help category.