POSITIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY

ASSIGNMENT

Q. Discuss the implications of Seligman’s Theory of Happiness using Research evidence.

Martin Seligman is a pioneer of Positive Psychology (the term itself was coined by Abraham
Maslow), not simply because he has a systematic theory about why happy people are happy,
but because he uses the scientific method to explore it. Through the use of exhaustive
questionnaires, Seligman found that the most satisfied, upbeat people were those who had
discovered and exploited their unique combination of “signature strengths,” such as
humanity, temperance and persistence. This vision of happiness combines the virtue ethics of
Confucius, Mencius and Aristotle with modern psychological theories of motivation.
Seligman’s conclusion is that happiness has three dimensions that can be cultivated: the
Pleasant Life, the Good Life, and the Meaningful Life.

The Pleasant Life is realised if we learn to savour and appreciate such basic pleasures as
companionship, the natural environment and our bodily needs. We can remain pleasantly
stuck at this stage or we can go on to experience the Good Life, which is achieved through
discovering our unique virtues and strengths, and employing them creatively to enhance our
lives. According to modern theories of self-esteem life is only genuinely satisfying if we
discover value within ourselves. Yet one of the best ways of discovering this value is by
nourishing our unique strengths in contributing to the happiness of our fellow humans.
Consequently, the final stage is the Meaningful Life, in which we find a deep sense of
fulfilment by employing our unique strengths for a purpose greater than ourselves. The
genius of Seligman’s theory is that it reconciles two conflicting views of human happiness,
the individualistic approach, which emphasises that we should take care of ourselves and
nurture our own strengths, and the altruistic approach, which tends to downplay individuality
and emphasizes sacrifice for the greater purpose.

ACCORDING TO SELIGMAN, WE CAN EXPERIENCE THREE KINDS OF

HAPPINESS:

1) pleasure and gratification

2) embodiment of strengths and virtues 3) meaning and purpose.
Each kind of happiness is linked to positive emotion but from his quote, you can see that in
his mind there is a progression from the first type of happiness of pleasure/gratification to
strengths/virtues and finally meaning/purpose.

The Pleasant Life: Past, Present & Future

Seligman provides a mental “toolkit” to achieve what he calls the pleasant life by enabling
people to think constructively about the past, gain optimism and hope for the future and, as a
result, gain greater happiness in the present.
Dealing with the Past
Among Seligman’s arsenal for combating unhappiness with the past is that which we
commonly and curiously find among the wisdom of the ages: gratitude and forgiveness.
Happiness in the Present
After making headway with these strategies for dealing with negative emotions of the past
and building hope and optimism for the future, Seligman recommends breaking habituation,
savouring experiences and using mindfulness as ways to increase happiness in the present.

Optimism about the Future

When looking to the future, Seligman recommends an outlook of hope and optimism.

The Role of Positive Emotion

Many studies have shown that positive emotions are frequently accompanied by fortunate
circumstances (e.g., longer life, health, large social networks, etc). Many empirical findings
have already emerged:

First, a remarkable similarity in the relative endorsement of the 24-character strengths by

adults around the world and within the United States (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2005a) has
been discovered. The most commonly endorsed (“most like me”) strengths, in 40 different
countries, from Azerbaijan to Venezuela, are kindness, fairness, authenticity, gratitude, and
open-mindedness, and the lesser strengths consistently include prudence, modesty, and
selfregulation. The correlations of the rankings from nation to nation are very strong, ranging
in the .80s, and defy cultural, ethnic, and religious differences. The same ranking of greater
versus lesser strengths characterizes all 50 U.S. states—except for religiousness, which was
more evident in the South—and holds across gender, age, red versus blue states, and
education. These results may reveal something about universal human nature and/or the
character requirements minimally needed for a viable society (cf. Bok, 1995).

Second, a comparison of the strength’s profiles of U.S. adults and U.S. adolescents revealed
overall agreement on ranking yet a noticeably lower agreement than that found between U.S.
adults and adults in any other nation have been studied (Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2005b).
Hope, teamwork, and zest were more common among U.S. youths than U.S. adults, whereas
appreciation of beauty, authenticity, leadership, and open-mindedness were more common
among adults. As we focus on the deliberate cultivation of character strengths, we should be
as concerned with how to keep certain strengths from eroding on the journey to adulthood as
we are with how to build others from scratch (Park & Peterson, in press-b).

Third, although part of the definition of a character strength is that it contributes to fulfilment,
strengths “of the heart”—zest, gratitude, hope, and love—are more robustly associated with
life satisfaction than are the more cerebral strengths such as curiosity and love of learning
(Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004). This pattern is found among adults and among youths as
well as longitudinal evidence that these “heart” strengths foreshadow subsequent life
satisfaction (Park et al., 2005b). One more finding to note: Self-regulation among parents,
although not strongly associated with parental life satisfaction, is positively linked to the life
satisfaction of their children (Park & Peterson, in press-a).

An important fact that has emerged in the last few years is that happiness is causal and brings
many more benefits than just feeling good. Happy people are healthier, more successful, and
more socially engaged, and the causal direction runs both ways (Lyubomirsky, King, &
Diener, in press).

Experimental Evidence
In a research, participants were divided in groups assigned with various exercises. Two of the
exercises—using signature strengths in a new way and three good things—increased
happiness and decreased depressive symptoms for six months. Another exercise, the gratitude
visit, caused large positive changes for one month. The two other exercises and the placebo
control created positive but transient effects on happiness and depressive symptoms. Not
surprisingly, the degree to which participants actively continued their assigned exercise on
their own and beyond the prescribed one-week period mediated the long-term benefits.
Participants in all conditions (including the placebo control condition) tended to be happier
and less depressed at the immediate post-test (after doing their exercise for one week). One
week later and at every testing period thereafter, however, participants in the placebo control
condition were no different than they had been at baseline. Participants in the gratitude visit
condition were happier and less depressed. In fact, participants in the gratitude visit condition
showed the largest positive changes in the whole study. This boost in happiness and decrease
in depressive mood was remarkable.
The results were straightforward. There was a significant effect for adherence to the exercise
on happiness scores at all time periods and a significant effect for adherence to the exercise
on depression scores at the 1-month follow-up. The interaction between continuing the
exercise and adherence to the exercise was significant for happiness scores, indicating that
participants who continued the exercises were the happiest.