POSITIVE

PSYCHOLOGY &
THRIVING
By: Kiaya Robinson
What Makes You Happy?
Are You Happy?
Are You Down? Watch This…..
I am Happy. I love my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8ZuKF3dxCY
What Is Positive Psychology?
 Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and
processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal
functioning of people, groups, and institutions
(Review of General Psychology)
OR…..
 Positive psychology is the study of positive human
strengths, traits, motives, virtues, and behavior, with
the avowed goal of understanding how to optimize
these qualities in people’s lives (Psychological Topics)
What Does It Mean To Thrive?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF_mBJcsXac
How was positive psychology invented?

 Martin Seligman
 Had an epiphany with five-year old daughter in the
garden a few months later of being elected president of
the American Psychological Association
 “Daddy, I want to talk to you.” “Yes, Nikki?” “Daddy, do
you remember before my fifth birthday? From the time I
was three to the time I was five, I decided not to whine
anymore. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And if
I can stop whining, you can stop being such a grouch.”
The Positive Psychology
Movement
 In January 2000, Seligman and
Csikszentmihalyi claimed that psychology
was not producing enough “knowledge of
what makes life worth living”
Seligman also claims there is imbalance of
psychology
-100 to 0 to 0 to 100+
What’s the goal(s) of positive psychology?

 The aim of positive psychology is to begin to

catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from
preoccupation only with repairing the worst things
in life to also building positive qualities
 aims for the optimal balance between positive and
negative thinking. . . . Positive psychology is a
supplement to negative psychology, not a substitute
What are some Positive Psychology topics/themes?

 Gratitude
 Meaning
 Forgiveness
 Cooperation
 Relationship satisfaction
 Organizational citizenship
 Basis virtues/strengths
 Experiences of savoring, flow, intrinsic motivation, and happiness
 Optimism
 Resilience
 Personal growth
 Hope
 Spirituality
 Well-being and health
Criticisms/Challenges of Positive Psychology

 If there is a positive psychology, then the rest of

psychology must be negative psychology?
 People who study positive psychology fail to recognize
the very real negative sides of life, preferring a
Pollyanna (or positivity bias) view of the world.
 The calculus of well-being
 The development of positivity
 Neuroscience and heritability
 Enjoyment vs. pleasure
So, why positive psychology? Do we still
need a positive psychology movement?

 Psychology has been unbalanced

 The movement accelerates the

progress that can be made on

“positive topics”
The future of positive psychology
 The future task of positive psychology is to
understand the factors that build strengths, outline
the contexts of resilience, ascertain the role of
positive experiences, and delineate the function of
positive relationships with others
 Needs to understand how all of these factors contribute to
physical health, subjective well-being, functional groups,
and flourishing institutions
 Needs to develop effective interventions to increase and
sustain these processes
Is Positive Psychology important in Health
Psychology?

 There has been little research about positive

emotions and health until….
 In 2005, the Harvard Medical School examined the
relationships between positive emotions and health.
 Examined whether positive emotion may protect against the
specific disease outcomes of hypertension, diabetes
mellitus, and respiratory tract infections
 Measured two emotions: hope and curiosity
 Were derived from two scaled, trait hope and trait curiosity
 Randomly selected 5,500 patients age
 ranged from 55 to 69 years old in a urban and suburban settings
Continued…..
 Mailed questionnaire assessed emotions, health
behaviors, and demographic information
 The questionnaires were send back to the researchers after a year
of the administration
 In results, they were able to found higher levels of hope
were associated with a decreased likelihood of having or
developing a disease. Higher levels of curiosity were
also associated with decreased likelihood of
hypertension and diabetes mellitus.
 Suggest that positive emotion may play a protective role in
the development of disease.
Are you still not happy?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WisXFOD8Jk
References
Seligman, M. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000).
Positive Psychology: An Introduction. American Psychologist, 55(1),
5-14.
Gable, L.S.; Haidat, Jonathan. (2005). What (and Why) Is Positive Psychology?
Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 103-110.
Sheldon, K.M. (2009).
Providing the Scientific Backbone for Positive Psychology:
A Multi-Level Conception of Human Thriving.
Psychological Topics, 2(1), 267-284
Held, S.B. (2005). The “Virtues” of Positive Psychology.
Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 25(1), 1-34.
Richman, L.S., Kubzansky, L., Maselko, J., & Kawachi, I. (2005).
Positive Emotion and Health: Going Beyond the Negative.
Health Psychology, 24(4), 422-429