Positive Psychology: What is it anyway?

Positive Psychology (PP) is a 'newer' buzz field that has been gaining significant momentum since we've entered the twenty first century.  It began budding as a unique field of study in 1998, when Martin Seligman, the newly elected president of the APA (American Psychological Association) confronted a missed opportunity in the field:

"I realized that my profession was half-baked. It wasn't enough for us to nullify disabling conditions and get to zero. We needed to ask, What are the enabling conditions that make human beings flourish? How do we get from zero to plus five?"

M. Seligman

Personally, I have been informally studying the concept off and on for the past five years through reflecting on personal experiences and reading a selection of authors I deem as positive life guides, such as Tolle, Donald Miller, and Coehlo.  These books were very insightful and great at providing me perspective of how a person can direct their lives towards a more positive path.

While I got a lot of joy out of the books, I had yet to affirm that these stories weren't simply isolated examples of best case scenarios from drastic positive life changes.  Playing devil's advocate I thought, sure it happened to work for them, but is there any evidence that applying this to my own life will work for me?  As a quantitative market researcher, I realized that most of these books were lacking  evidence proving these positive changes were applicable to me.  I needed to see large sample sizes, rigorous tests & controls, assumptions...I began digging deeper.

I had ample time having recently quit my job, and as it tends to do, the universe showed me an incredible documentary called, "Happy:  The Movie".  This beautiful film provides accounts from people who are flourishing and pairs the individual stories with research from leaders in the field of positive psychology to define & prove that these instances of resilience and happiness exhibited by these everyday flourishers are in fact not one offs, but are generated by common traits and circumstances the flourishing individuals had in common.  Positive Psychology bridged my gap.  It quickly began to take over my thoughts.

Prior to moving to Singapore, I set goals for things I wanted to achieve while there.  One was to keep educating myself on the field of positive psychology.  One Google search on Singapore Positive Psychology lead me to The School for Positive Psychology, which provides a 6 month graduate diploma course in Applied Positive Psychology.  Less than one month in my new home, I was enrolled.

Since formally debating & discussing PP with classmates in an academic environment, as well as reading research papers & articles in the news concerning the field, I've come across a few myths and misunderstandings regarding the area of study that I want to address which helped me better understand what PP is and is not.  The questions below were posed by our professor, who studied under Dr Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania.  Some of them are quite funny, but they do a good job at simplifying the concept.

Common Myths Concerning Positive Psychology

1)  Is PP (Postive Psych) an abandoning or rejection of the rest of psychology?  No, it's simply bringing balance to human analysis.  If you think of a scale from -10 to 10, historically psychology has focused strictly on the -10 to 0 portion of the scale.  Not to say that no one has focused on 0 to 10, but far less research and focus on defining and classifying the positive half of the scale has been performed & documented until recently.

2)  Is PP just about making people happy?  No, it's not just about happiness - it's about understanding the importance of maintaining a balance between the highs and lows.

3)  Is PP the same as positive thinking?  Positive thinking is a trait of positive psychology but it is not synonymous.  Positive thinking does not involve application.

4)  Is PP discovering anything surprising - is it just stuff my mother knows?  Yes and no.  PP is diving deeper into defining things that our mother's may have always known - such as be kind to thy neighbor - but have been able to explain the why behind it.  PP is both proving & disproving some of these common flourishing phrases we've always taken as truths by putting measurement against it.

5)  Is the science of PP descriptive or prescriptive?  In other words, are we trying to tell people how they should live?   Seligman believes science should speak for itself, therefore it is descriptive in nature.  However many researchers/psychologists in the field have taken a more prescriptive approach to drive application - ie 10 steps to success and the like.  

6)  As long as there is suffering in the world, how can we justify devoting time & resource to PP?  Investing in understanding of what makes humans flourish -- a key focus of PP -- enables us to have a proactive approach in diminishing and preventing living on the -10 to 0 portion of the scale.

7)  Are happy people stupid?  No -- and this question cracks me up because I think it's ridiculous, yet it is a common perception.  Many people believe happy people live in a bubble or make poor decisions because they don't face reality.  While this may be true for some people, PP does not by any means advocate avoiding challenges or shielding yourself from reality.

Then what is PP?

"Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal human functioning.  It aims to discover and promote factors that allow individuals, communities, societies to thrive & flourish." 

J. Haidt

What is flourishing?  You've used it a lot. 
 

“(Flourishing has been defined as)...to live within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience.”

B. Fredrickson & M. Losada

Happiness, flow, meaning, love, gratitude, accomplishment, growth, better relationships all constitute human flourishing.  While happiness was Seligman's initial focus, researchers found there was much more to the equation than simply happiness.  The focus on happiness over the years has expanded to incorporate other key components playing a role in one's view of life satisfaction.

PP is an evolving field that is moving into our everyday lives at a very quick rate.  My classmates are from all walks of life -- counselors, coaches, teachers, retirees, stay at home moms and white collared workers.  My points is that all of these people, despite their background, yearn to understand how we can improve our lives.  The concept is applicable to everyone, which is why I am so passionate about learning more.

My goal is to continue to learn as much as I can regarding the subject and let my knowledge generate a ripple effect onto those around me through work, relationships, blogging -- essentially any interaction that I share with another person.   I am open and would love to hear your ideas on the topic - if you have any questions you'd like me to pass along to me, the class or professor please send them through.  It would be excellent to get your perspective!

Next time I'll be summarizing my latest read, The Happiness Advantage, which has some very great case studies on positive techniques that drive success.  The premise is around countering the statement that success fuels happiness.  Research has proven in fact it is the opposite -- first one most be happy in order to be successful.


Enjoy Today,
Z

Interested to know more?  Check these out:

The Science of Happiness, Times Magazine

The Happiness Advantage Summary