Aymee uses theories from positive psychology to help her clients reach optimal human flourishing and high-sense of well-being in their life, work, and their body and soul. She also uses happiness teachings from Dr. Bob Nozik, a happiness expert, as well as guidance from Robert Muller, Ph.D. former UN Assistant Secretary General who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 19 times. To address the physiological component of one's brain chemistry she also uses techniques put forth by Jinendra Swami, the messenger of sustainable happiness.
Positive Psychology has garnered mass attention of the BBC, CNN, NPR, Canadian TV, Today Show, and now in 2006, Harvard has their first ever class on happiness. This class happens to be the most popular class on campus!
When the former President of the American Psychological Association (APA), Dr. Martin Seligman was confronted by his five year old daughter for being such a grump, he had an epiphany. He realized that most of psychology had focused on what was wrong with human beings instead of what was right. He did some quick research to find out some statistics and realized his hunch was right. The number of psychological articles published on negative states i.e. depression exceeds positive states by a ration of 17:1. (Diener & Lucas, 2000) To give a current glimpse into the unbalance of the literature, a topic search in the psychology academic database, PsycINFO on November 2nd, 2006 for depression yields 112,646 articles and the topic of subjective well-being (happiness) yields 1,571 entries. It was clear that a change needed to occur; hence Dr. Seligman introduced Positive Psychology (PP) to the APA in 1998. Supported by empirical research the field operates under the following definition:
"The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about positive subjective experience: well-being and satisfaction (past); flow, joy, the sensual pleasures, and happiness (present) and constructive cognitions about the future – optimism, hope, and faith. At the individual level it is about positive personal traits – the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, futuremindedness, high talent, and wisdom. At the group level it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance and work ethic." (Seligman, 2002, p. 3)
With the concentration on the positive aspects of human nature, positive psychology aims to mobilize a change in traditional psychology from its preoccupation with the repair of the worst things in life to understand and emphasize the building of the best qualities in life.
With the term positive psychology, there is an explicit attached value assumption. Positive psychology suggests a value of positive meaning both good and desirable. Held (2003) and Norem (2003) suggest that introducing positive psychology could imply that anything that is not positive psychology is negative psychology. The PP movement rejects this claim while they explain that positive psychology came about as an attempt to balance the predominant orientation of mainstream psychology (the disease and medical model). Linley and Joseph (2003) use Hegel's (1931) work on idea integration to understand how positive psychology is coming to synthesize with the traditional psychology as traditional psychology was in the stage of thesis the introduction of positive psychology takes the role of antithesis and after time, they move into synthesis or integration.
Prior to World War I, psychology pursued three missions: "…curing mental illness, making the lives of all people more productive and fulfilling and identifying and nurturing high talent." (Seligman, 2002, p. 4) At this time there were few psychologists that focused on the positives in the human experience. One of the main contributors from the beginning of the 20th century, James (1902) explored the role that transcendent experiences can play in stimulating optimal human functioning (See Rathunde, 2001). Carl Jung's work also is considered part of this positive paradigm because of his concept of individuation which encourages people to become all that they can be. Jahoda (1958) was one of the first to contemplate the true sense of what constitutes mental health in a positive capacity.
After World War II, two main events took place that encouraged psychologists to focus on the first of the aforementioned missions; curing mental illness. The first was the introduction of the Veterans Administration in 1946, whereas psychologists of the time realized they can make a good living by treating mental illness. The next main event was in 1947 when the U.S. congress passed the "Mental Health Act" which allocated funds to open the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). (Seligman, 2002; Keyes, 2006) Academics of the time realized they could get their research funded if it was based on the pathology model of psychological disease. (Seligman, 2002) Basically the other two missions beyond curing mental illness (making the lives of all people more productive and fulfilling & identifying and nurturing high talent) were minutely focused on and as a result psychology became mainly a healing science that used a disease centered model. (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) The main premise of this pathology model was that damage was done and it needed repair. However, even though most research was centered around pathology, the NIMH was interested in reports on subjective well-being theory and research. (Keyes, 2006) Yet most of the reports were from the pathology paradigm because only a fraction of the research budget was applied to mental health opposed to mental illness. (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)
Assumptions of Positive Psychology
Thinking about the positives of human nature is not an entirely new concept. PP draws from ideas reaching as far back in time as Aristotle as well as Humanistic and Buddhist psychology. The roots of the main assumptions for this field are grounded in Aristotelian philosophy. Aristotle viewed human nature in a way that humans were "meant" or intended to be something. One of his central concerns was for the question of character or personality and what it takes for an individual human being to be a good person. He believed there must be a highest good at which all human activity ultimately aims and at that end of human life there would be happiness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotelian_ethics on November 2nd, 2006) Moreover, Aristotle believed that inside of each human lies a spirit or a "daimon" which guides us to pursue the activities and goals that are right for us and when acting in accord with this spirit, we would be lead to eudaimonia, or well-being. If we acted against this spirit it would lead us to ill-being. (Aristotle, n.d.) PP focuses on positive (good) experiences and positive (good) character or virtues and hence associates with the Aristotelian view of human nature.
In the same vein, PP also draws from the work of Horney (1951) whereupon he delineated three possible positions of human nature. The first position being that people are generally sinful and driven by primary instincts. The second is that within human nature it is inherently both a good side and a bad side. Thirdly there is an evolutionary force that guides people toward realizing their true potential. Older more traditional versions of psychology generally relate more with Horney's first position and PP relates primarily more with the second and third. Rogers (1959, 1964) specified this third position even further with his concepts of actualizing tendency and the organismic valuing process (OVP). The actualizing tendency refers to a force that is believed to lie within us that is constructive, directional and developmental. Similar to the "daimon" or spirit Aristotle wrote about. The OVP refers to the ongoing valuing and choices we make throughout our lives and the extent to which they are in line with our true organismic nature. (Rogers, 1967)
All three perspectives proposed by Aristotle, Horney, and Rogers agree there is a constructive developmental tendency within human nature and when given the appropriate expression lead to well-being. Positive psychology has adopted these fundamental assumptions to guide knowledge put forth by the movement. In summary, the major assumptions of PP are as follows: there is always meaning and hope in life, regardless of the circumstances (Frankl, 1963), all people are motivated to fulfill their human potentials and lead a life that is happy, meaningful and worth living (Rogers, 1959, 1964; Maslow, 1968; Aristotle, n.d.), people are capable of transcending their limitations and fulfilling their purposes and missions in life (Aristotle, n.d.; Frankl, 1963, Yalom, 2001), and all people have strengths in their character (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
Allies to Positive Psychology
The traditional psychology field mostly ignored the possibility of human strength or human goodness until the introduction of positive psychology. However, there were existing fields whom slightly represented this side of human psychology such as Humanistic psychology, person- centered and Buddhist psychology. (Sheldon & Kasser, 2001) Specifically, Maslow's (1968) work on self- actualization and Roger's (1963) work on the fully functioning person. Positive psychology founders explain what differentiates this movement from the others is that these previous fields did not yield the empirical research that is the backbone held as the corner stone of positive psychology. (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2001; Peterson & Seligman, 2004) The field of positive psychology aims to be allies to these other fields yet maintains its commitment to strict empirical research. (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2001; Peterson & Seligman, 2004)
Positive Psychology Literature
There has been an explosion of literature in this new field since its inception in 1998 that support and further articulate the aforementioned assumptions of human nature. For an exhaustive comprehensive overview of the main themes of this movement see Snyder and Lopez (2002) Handbook of Positive Psychology. For the purpose of further explicating the positive psychology movement, I will briefly explain a few pivotal papers from the field then expand more in depth on a two concepts relevant for the present research study: gratitude and character strengths and virtues.
Exploring the effects of experiencing positive emotions Barbara Frederickson (1998) introduced the Broaden- and- Build Theory of Positive Emotions to explain the procedure of how positive emotions were important to survival. According to the theory, positive emotions expand cognition and behavioral tendencies increasing our ability to access our best self. Soon after Frederickson was convinced that experiencing positive emotions was good for human nature, she started to ask about the ratio of positive to negative emotions. She teamed up with Losoda (1999) who specializes in non-linear dynamics of team performance and the two of them researched the amount of experienced positive emotions to negative emotions to find that human flourishing can be achieved when we feel a minimum of 2.9 positive emotions. In the same paper, Frederickson and Losada (2005) define human flourishing as ". . .optimum flourishing characterized by four key components: (a) goodness, indexed by happiness, satisfaction, and superior functioning, (b) generativity, indexed by broaden thought – action repertoires and behavioral flexibility; (c) growth, indexed by gains in enduring personal and social resources; and (d) resilience, indexed by survival and growth in the aftermath of adversity.
Another major contribution to this field was put forth by Csikszentmihalyi (1990) with his concept of flow. Flow is a mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. (Csikszentmihalyi,1990)
The experience of positive emotions, happiness, and flow are just a few areas I wanted to highlight that have come from the PP movement. Other topics in this field include love, optimism, hope, wisdom, humor, creativity, spirituality, humility, compassion, and forgiveness to just name a few. Positive psychology has catapulted a paradigm shift in traditional psychology to encourage research toward the beauty of the human experience thus resulting in a flux of theoretical and empirical literature to help our human experience be the best it can be. There are dozens of examples of topics under the umbrella of positive psychology.
Applied Positive Psychology
Applied Positive Psychology takes on a new definition. "Applied positive psychology is the application of positive psychology research to the facilitation of optimal functioning." (Linley & Joseph, 2004 p. 4) Applied positive psychologists may work at the level of the individual, group, organizational, community or the societal level. They work to promote optimal functioning in the human experience. Linley and Joseph (2004) offer six points to further elaborate on the definition of applied positive psychology.
- Facilitation: Opposed to giving a prescription, applied positive psychologists are facilitative in helping people achieve their objectives.
- Optimal Functioning: The term optimal functioning broadly encompasses a range of valued psychological processes and outcomes. Incorporating valued subjective experiences (well- being, hope, and flow), positive individual traits (such as forgiveness, emotional intelligence, and wisdom), or civic virtues that promote good citizenship (such as responsibility, nurturance and altruism. The optimal functioning of oneself and others can be facilitated through the use of positive character strengths and acting as good citizens (positive processes) which will typically lead to both individual and collective well-being (positive outcomes)
- Value position: A value position has been stated and made explicit. It is open to scrutiny, criticism, and amendment. Third, the value position should not be prescriptive in telling individuals how they should live their lives.
- Levels of Application: Awareness about which level of application is being used, be it individual, group, community, society, and/ culturally.
- Full Range of Human Functioning: As mentioned previously, traditional psychologists treat their clients to alleviate distress, applied positive psychologists will help their clients to move beyond the distress into the neutral point and beyond to achieve optimal functioning.
- A collective identity, not a new specialty: The aim is to afford a collective identity and common language for professional psychologists who work in positive psychological ways and connect those interested in the brighter sides of humanity.
