POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Ψ

Chapter 1. Introduction and History of Positive Psychology

Helena Carmel L. Estoque | BS PSYC

Topic Outline • conscious action, not conscious reaction

I. Introduction to Positive Psychology
A. Choices There are times in life wherein we have no control over particular
B. Response Ability, Freedom of Choice things, but we can always choose how we respond to them.
II. History of Positive Psychology
A. How is psychology? Reactive Proactive
i. GOOD: Two Victories of the cannot be controlled (ex. thought
Disease Model emotions)
ii. NOT GOOD: Three Costs of the reacting to the past rather acting before a situation
Disease Model than anticipating the future becomes a source of
B. What is positive psychology? pt. 1 confrontation or crisis
i. Dr. Martin Seligman
ii. Nikki and the Weeds • Do things without regrets.
C. What is positive psychology? pt. 2 • Take accountability. You have the freedom of choice.
i. Science of Positive Psychology
ii. Can psychology make people II
happier? – Three “Happy” Lives HISTORY OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
iii. Are there things that lastingly Before World War II, psychology had 3 distinct missions:
change those lives? – Positive
1. Cure mental illness. ✔️
Interventions
2. Make the lives of all people happier, productive, and
I fulfilling. ✖️
INTRODUCTION TO POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 3. Identify and nurture high talent and genius. ✖️
Choices
Our choices play a big part to our happiness and well-being. How is psychology?
• Life is all about choices. Choices have consequences. GOOD: Two Victories of the Disease Model
• You are free to do whatever you want, but you should 14 of mental disorders are now treatable; 2 are curable (but
always take responsibility for the consequences of debatable as it depends on the degree of the disorder).
your choices in life.
• Everything in your life is a reflection of a choice you A science of mental illness developed.
have made. If you want different results, start making • taxonomy and reliable diagnosis
different choices. • measuring fuzzy concepts (ex. depression, anger,
schizophrenia, etc.) with rigor
In making choices, with every benefit, there is a cost. • discover causes by longitudinal and experimental
methods
o look across time at the same people, for
example, people genetically vulnerable to
schizophrenia and ask what the contributions
of mothering/genetics are
o isolate third variables by doing experiments
on mental illnesses
• classify mental disorders
• invent drug and psychological treatments (Rx – drug,
Tx – therapy)
• test the efficacy and effectiveness of treatments
o in random-assignment, placebo-controlled
designs
o throw out things that didn’t work, keep the
things that actively did

Change your behavior from:
Stimulus → Response → Learning by Association
(ex. Operant & Classical Conditioning)
to:
Stimulus → Choice/Freedom to Choose → Rational &
Purposeful Behavior
Response Ability, Freedom of Choice
Noun, def.
• self-authorship (the ability to choose our response)
• creative empowerment (using creativity to step out of
old patterns and create change)
Conclusion: Psychology and psychiatry of the last 60 years can
claim that we can make miserable people less miserable.
NOT GOOD: Three Costs of the Disease Model
Psychologists and psychiatrists…
• (moral) became victimologists and pathologizers;
o view of human nature: if you were in trouble,
bricks fell on you
o responsibility and the fact that people made
decisions and choices were forgotten
• forgot improving normal lives and high talent; and

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POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Ψ
Chapter 1. Introduction and History of Positive Psychology
Helena Carmel L. Estoque | BS PSYC

o forgot about a mission to make relatively Efficacy and Effectiveness

untroubled people happier, more fulfilled, and • conduct studies to determine which interventions make
more productive people lastingly happier
o “high talent,” “genius” – became a dirty word,
meaning no one works on that (probably due Can psychology actually make people happier?
to the fixed mindset that believes that such Three “Happy” Lives
qualities are innate and unchangeable) The Pleasant Life (PA). Positive Emotion
• in their rush to do something about people in trouble a life having as much positive emotion as you possibly can, and
and to repair damage, it never occurred to them to the skills to amplify it
create positive interventions—interventions that make • as many pleasures as possible
people happier. • learning the skills to amplify them, that stretch them
over time and space – savoring, mindfulness
WHAT IS POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY?
Psychology should be: Drawbacks of the Pleasant Life/Positive Emotion
• as concerned with building human strength as with • 50% heritable and not very modifiable
repairing weakness o domino effect: feeling stretches to the whole
• as interested in building the best things in life as in day, one’s feelings can affect others’ feelings
repairing the worst • habituates/fleeting
• as concerned with making the lives of normal people
fulfilling and with nurturing high talent as with healing The Good Life (Engagement). Eudaimonian Flow
pathology a life in your work, parent, love, leisure; time stops for you
(according to Aristotle)
Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, PhD
• learned helplessness → depression Pleasure Flow
• taught depressed children and adults skills of optimism has raw feel – you know it’s no feeling – one with the
→ learned optimism happening; it’s thought and music, time stops, intense
feeling concentration/absorption
Quotes:
• “The biology of mental illness or psychotherapy for Recipe for the Good Life
mental illness was not about prevention. Prevention is • Know what your highest strengths are.
not about repairing damage.” • Recraft your life (work, love, play, etc.) to use them as
• “The focus of prevention, then, should be about much as you possibly can.
taking strengths—hope, optimism, courage, • Derive thereby more flow.
interpersonal skill, honesty, temperance, love, future-
mindedness—and building on them to buffer The Meaningful Life. Meaning
against depression.” most venerable of the happinesses, traditionally; very parallel to
• “Psychology is not just the study of weakness and eudaimonia or the condition of human flourishing
damage; it is also the study of strength and virtue. • knowing your signature strengths
Treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is • using them to belong to and in the service of something
nurturing what is best within us.” larger than you
• positive institutions
Science of Positive Psychology
Measurement Are there things that lastingly change those lives? Yes.
• measure different forms of happiness (visit Positive Interventions
www.authentichappiness.org to take tests of Testing Procedures:
happiness) • naughty thumb of science
Classification • random assignment
• Classify the strengths and virtues that looks at the sex • placebo-controlled
ratio; how they’re defined, how to diagnose them, what • long-term studies
builds them and what gets in their way Examples:
Causation Discoverable – discover the causes of the positive
• Have a Beautiful Day. Assign yourself to design a
states
beautiful day and use savoring and mindfulness skills
• relationship between left hemispheric and right to enhance those pleasures.
hemispheric activity as a cause of happiness
• Gratitude Visit. Moving way to express your deep
• extremely happy people are extremely social appreciation and gratitude to someone who has made
(correlational data) a big difference in your life.
Interventions (Tx & Rx) • Strengths Date. Couples identify their highest
• we could begin to look at interventions over the strengths on the strengths test and design an evening
centuries (ex. from Buddha to Tony Robbins) using these strengths.
• about 120 interventions have been proposed that • Fun versus Philanthropy. Doing good for others will
allegedly make people happy make you feel good (highest level of feel-good). The
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POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Ψ
Chapter 1. Introduction and History of Positive Psychology
Helena Carmel L. Estoque | BS PSYC

happiness afterglow of the fun was nothing compared

to the lasting happiness of doing altruistic acts.