Positive Psychology is one of the most recent currents of psychology, and it is not surprising that it has aroused a lot of interest. It is based on the study of the positive experiences and traits of individuals, as well as their strengths, virtues, motivations and abilities; how these help improve their quality of life and develop human potential.
Generally psychological theories focus on pathologies and negative behaviors. On the contrary, Positive Psychology proposes strategies to achieve and optimize people’s strengths. Thus, it proposes focusing attention more on prevention than treatment.
Below we will see in detail What are the foundations of Positive Psychology? how it appeared and what objectives it proposes.
The antecedents of Positive Psychology date back to the 1920s and 1930s in the works of Terman and Watson, in which mention was made of some important concepts and themes such as talent in students, the care of infants and psychological factors involved in marital happiness.
Before World War II, psychologists focused on actions that made individuals’ lives more productive and fulfilling, so identified and reinforced talents and strengths in patients to face various situations.
However, as a result of the war, the general focus of psychology changed so that it was primarily concerned with evaluating mental disorders and trying to alleviate human suffering. In opposition to this trend focused on pathology, authors such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow within the humanist current, worked on some ideas of strengths and happiness of the human being, establishing a precedent from which Positive Psychology would later emerge.
At the end of 1990, Martin Seligman, an American psychologist and educator, decided to change the dominant approach and presented his proposal of Positive Psychology for the first time at the ceremony in which he was named president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). in English) in 1998. From that stage onwards, many researchers oriented their work towards the study of the psychological potential of human beings.
Another important author is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi a Hungarian psychologist who proposed the term flow as a positive mental state, has also conducted studies of factors that contribute to the motivation, challenge and success of individuals.
One of the fundamental components within the theory is temperament, since it is considered one of the most important predictors of the levels of positive experiences that a person will feel. There are also character strengths, which are psychological traits or characteristics that occur in different situations over time and their consequences are usually positive. Some are: optimism, interpersonal skills, faith, work ethic, hope, honesty, perseverance and ability to flow.
Furthermore, from Positive Psychology a categorization of positive emotions was made, depending on the time in which they are visualized: in the present there are joy, tranquility, euphoria, pleasure and the optimal experience; those of the past are satisfaction, complacency, personal fulfillment, pride and serenity; and in the future there is optimism, hope, faith and trust.
Currently there is sufficient evidence that positive emotions promote health, personal growth and well-being of the individual. They increase people’s intellectual, physical and social resources so that they can respond in the best way when unexpected or difficult situations arise.
The conquest of happiness, according to Seligman
On the other hand, Seligman proposed the model “The Three Ways to Happiness” (1999) which were:
The pleasant life
The committed life
The meaningful life
Several years later he changed his proposal a little and created the PERMA model (for its acronym in English), with the 5 components that are present in people who claim to be happy. With this he changed his object of study, from happiness to well-being. Each element must meet 3 properties to be considered within the theory:
Recognize the benefits of positive emotions in all aspects of the individual’s life.
2. Commitment
Make a commitment to ourselves, focus on our strengths and seek to have optimal experiences. Generation of pleasure derived from commitment to the effective task and the ability to experience flow experiences.
3. Positive relationships
Increase our social skills to interact with other people.
4. Meaning
Search for the meaning, meaning and purpose of our life.
5. Achievement
Personal agency that allows the growth and development of human capabilities.
Another theory of Positive Psychology is the theory of Flow, proposed by Csikszentmihalyi. Flow, in simple terms, is the state in which the person gives oneself completely to an activity for pleasure, everything flows and time flies. It normally occurs when a balance is reached between the challenges posed by the task and the skills that the individual has to solve it.
Bárbara Fredrickson and the proposed Expansion – Construction
One more theory is the Expansion – Construction proposal, by Dr. Bárbara Fredrickson, social psychologist. The main idea is that positive emotions cause changes in cognitive activity, expand the possibilities of action and improve physical resources. According to this model, there are 3 sequential effects of positive emotions:
This new experimentation based on Positive Psychology increases personal resources, which can be used in various contexts and under other emotional states. Traditional psychology models, focused on negative emotions, deal with how these have the function of activating basic defense mechanisms for survival. On the other hand, this model presents positive emotions as personal growth drivers and construction of different thoughts and actions, which can be used depending on the present situation.
You may be interested: “Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection”
Its use as a psychological intervention
The main fields of application of the proposal are the clinical, health and educational areas. In the clinic and health area, what is sought is the generation of prevention and treatment strategies for problems derived from negative emotions, mainly depression, stress and anxiety. It is proven that patients with affective and anxiety disorders have lower performance in daily tasks and find it much more difficult to solve problems. The goal is to promote positive emotions to create a barrier against psychological disorders.
Within the educational, focuses on the extrinsic motivation of students, academic motivation, generation and optimization of strengths. This favors students’ reactions to situations they have to face. Furthermore, in those institutions that promote achieving goals to obtain rewards, motivation increases and conflictive attitudes of children and young people decrease.
At the moment is beginning to be implemented in the organizational area ; The objective is to provide tools to generate strategies to improve the work environment and consequently the effectiveness of processes and greater productivity on the part of employees.
And to learn more about Positive Psychology…
Here are some recommendations of books in which the main theme revolves around positive psychology:
“Flow”: a psychology of happiness, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
“True happiness”, by Martin EP Seligman.
“The science of well-being: foundations of positive psychology”, by Carmelo Vázquez and Gonzalo Hervás.
“Intelligent optimism: psychology of positive emotions”, various authors.
“Overcoming adversity: the power of resilience”, by Luis Rojas Marcos.
“Flow in business”, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
“Is your bucket full? Strategies to boost your positive emotions”, by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton.
“Positive Psychology: the scientific and practical explorations of human strengths”, various authors.
“The science of happiness”, by Sonja Lyubomirsky.
“The uselessness of suffering”, by María Jesús Álava Reyes.
“The Blooming Life” by Martin EP Seligman.
“Psychologically speaking”, various authors.
“The Happiness Trap” by Russ Harris.
“The habits of a happy brain”, by Loretta Graziano.
“Positive psychology: the awareness of happiness”, by Alan Carr.
