Below is one of my Positive Psych papers on human flourishing **)
Introduction
Martin Seligman, often
regarded as a founding father of the academic discipline of Positive
Psychology, has stated that his challenge to society is to have 51% of the
world population flourishing by 2051. Today
this would equate to the combined populations of China,
India, United States, Indonesia and the subsequent
fifteen most populated countries in the world; that’s roughly 4.6 billion
people (Worldometer, 2012). Many have
questioned the attainability of the goal commonly referred to as Flourish 51, highlighting
that present estimates indicate we are only at a flourishing population of 7%
to 33% (So, 2009), and that despite
several developed countries’ increasing GDP over the past fifty years,
happiness has remained stagnate (Sachs, 2012).
While those facts are undeniable, I will
explain how and why Flourish 51 is attainable given current circumstances. First examining the importance of defining
what it means to flourish, second addressing individual and societal objectives
required to outline how to achieve this goal, and closing by justifying why having
the majority flourishing is a real possibility.
Flourish 51:
Aligning on the Goal
We must begin by having a common definition of what we
mean by a flourishing society. Similar
to an SFBT approach, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, until we have a clearly
defined solution or goal, we can not assess what actions are most important to
help us realize the end result. Flourishing
is fairly new to the world of positive psychology and was not regarded as mainstream
until 2011. In the mid-2000’s, Csikszentmihalyi’s
research on ‘flow’ was tied to happiness as a key driver. Researchers had always stipulated that
happiness could be derived from engaging activities, but the link was not
inextricable and took time to establish (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Deiner’s findings on relationships and life-satisfaction
also indicated there was something still unexplained going on beneath the
surface of why some were happier than others (2002). Other
researchers, including the more subjective Huppert & So, claim a person is
flourishing if they ‘perceive’ they are flourishing (2009). After about a decade of novel and
exploratory happiness research, Martin Seligman decided it was a good time to
shift focus to the key drivers of happiness, a concept known as ‘flourishing. Comprised of five different components
hereafter referred to separately or, together, as PERMA: positive emotions, engagement, relationships,
meaning and accomplishments (Peterson & Seligman, 2010), ‘flourishing‘ has
replaced ‘happiness‘ as the new focus on positive psychology, and is leveraged
to guide metrics on how we measure societies’ well-being. Flourishing individuals are strong in most,
if not all, facets of PERMA, and because of this, PERMA has been adopted as an
accepted definition and guideline to measuring flourishing in people.
In order to achieve Seligman’s goal in 2051, the majority
of society must become able to create PERMA-strengthening moments. Throughout the remainder of this paper, I
will explain how to create these PERMA-strengthening moments and will use ‘happiness’
and ‘flourishing’ interchangeably, defining them in the context of PERMA.
Flourish 51: Accomplishing
the Goal Together
How do we get from 7% to 51% over the next thirty-nine
years? One person at a time? One community at a time? The answer is both. Research indicates we must look at
flourishing from two approaches:
individually and communally.
“A society cannot flourish without some sense of shared purpose. The
current pursuit of self-realisation will not work. If your sole duty is to
achieve the best for yourself, life becomes too stressful, too lonely – you are
set up to fail. Instead, you need to feel you exist for something larger, and
that very thought takes off some of pressure.”
(Layard, 2005)
Like the yin and the yang, balance is required to succeed. In general, western societies operate more as
individualists whereas eastern societies operate more communally. Balancing individual and community needs is
the principle that will enable us to sustain and grow a flourishing society; therefore,
actions must be taken on both levels in order to reach the 51% cumulative goal.
Current nations
regarded as flourishing societies notoriously have a very good sense of
community and trust (So, 2009), which can lead to higher quality relationships
(R) and positive emotions (P) with respect to PERMA. 64% of people in Norway
say “Yes, most people can be trusted”; Norway ranks in the top 10 of
global happiness index. Conversely, in Brazil, only 5%
believe most can be trusted and they rank in the bottom 50% on the happiness
index list (So, 2009; Sachs 2012). Evaluating trust in societies is crucial to
creating a nurturing environment for flourishing. In many cities, trust in other members of
the community is low, but adopting trust initiatives such as those spawned by
New York’s ‘broken window theory’, which repaired broken windows, remedied
other environmental maladies in a community, and in turn saw decline in
criminal activity, is one way communities can increase trust (Wilson &
Kelling, 1982).
Educational reform to adopt PERMA into children’s
learning plans is also one way to reach critical mass and influence at least
two generations over the next thirty-nine years. Research has indicated students who have had
positive psychology infused with literature courses showed a significant
difference in school performance than those who did not – even two years after
the test was run (Chamberlain, 2011). If we can push this through the governing
bodies of educational systems, we will create a broader and sustaining positive
impact.
Flourish 51:
Individual’s Contribution
Individually, we need to assess what activities
strengthen PERMA within ourselves; I will now talk about how I envision myself
living in this world and for this purpose. Character strengths influenced my plan of
action; specifically, thinking about how I can use my top 3 strengths in a
creative, new way to lead to longer-term happiness (following the advice of Seligman,
2005). According to the Classification
of Character Strengths, my strengths are tied to humanity and wisdom: kindness, love, social intelligence,
curiosity and vitality (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). I have always gained a lot of positive
emotion, meaning, and engagement while teaching. Because
of this, over the next two years, I plan make a move into a career in the
education industry. Another goal that
will contribute to my personal flourishing is to pursue my Masters in Applied
Positive Psychology. My strength of
curiosity will be appeased by pursuing this objective and it will also provide
a platform for me to investigate which educational discipline I should step
into that will enable me to influence the most people. I have considered being a personal coach as I
enjoy connecting with people and helping them one-on-one, but currently, I feel
more impact can be gained from influencing the masses. My strength of curiosity means that I also desire
to learn, which is beneficial because it coincides with being in the academic
realm. This idea agrees with me because I
want to influence the ‘community’ aspect described previously and strongly believe
the education system is a great way to leverage my key strengths. Consequently, this influence should provide a deep
and sustained impact at the community level as well due to the ‘ripple effect’ achieved
with youth, a group who is more likely to voice their opinion and initiate or
adopt change.
Ensuring a flourishing majority in society from both
an individual and societal ends will set us up for overall success, but it is
also important to realize that 2051 is still far in the future and it can be
easy to be temporarily excited and focus on the goal now, only to become
disinterested in it later. Unless
continuous monitoring of success and validation processes are put into place,
the probability of us achieving, or even changing current flourishing levels at
all is very slim. With any goal,
especially one with a substantial timeline, it is important to set up tracking
systems to keep a pulse on improvement and ensure we aren’t losing
concentration. Interim progress reports
can be essential tools to maintain excitement, hope and fuel encouragement
necessary for success.
Flourish 51:
Why we Can
Martin Seligman set the goal for 51% by 2051 because
it is attainable. Thirty-nine years
before slaves were freed, citizens of the United Sates would not have thought emancipation
was a real possibility either, but the truth lies in history. When society and individuals make the choice
to evolve together, anything is possible.
Driving awareness of what ‘flourishing’ means at an individual level
will echo and accelerate the push for broader changes at the communal
level. Flourish 51 is far more than a
social reform solely within the context of positive psychology; it is one piece
of a larger revolution of the human condition.
By 2030, the office of the UN-Secretary General expects, for the first
time, we will live in a world where everyone’s basic needs are met (food,
water, shelter) (Sachs, 2012). College
graduates today more and more seek jobs with meaning and not just jobs that pay
(Sachs, 2012). It is clear that focus is
shifting to well-being, and this momentum is still accelerating.
Society is evolving faster than ever: each day an
individual has increasingly more power to influence hundreds, thousands, even millions
around the globe. Today’s smaller,
increasingly-connected, world is breeding ground for epidemic social
change. If we can agree to harness and
work towards the same goal, we will succeed.
Thirty-nine years ago, US Troops were withdrawing from
Vietnam ending the Vietnam War with the signing of peace, the American
Psychological Association declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder, the
Endangered Species Act of 1973 was signed into law to "protect species and
the ecosystems upon which they depend";
and Singapore was just eight years old. . .consider how far we’ve come
and imagine how far we can go. As
Mahatma Ghandi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I mean to be.
References
Chamberlain, J. (2011, October).
Flourish 2051. 42(9), 56.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
New York:
Harper and Row.
Diener, E., Oishi, S., & Lucas,R. E. (2002). Subjective well-being: The
science of happiness and life satisfaction. In C.R. Snyder & S.J. Lopez
(Ed.), Handbook of Positive Psychology. Oxford
and New York : Oxford University
Press.
Huppert, F.A. & So, T.T.C. (2009). What percentage of people in Europe
are flourishing and what characterizes them?
Retrieved August 12, 2012, from
Layard, R. (2005). Happiness: Lessons from a New Science. New York: Penguin.
Peterson, C. & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues:
A handbook and classification. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological
Association.
Sachs, J.D. (2012). The World Happiness Report. Earth
Institute Columbia
University.
Seligman, M.E.P. (2011). Flourish:
A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. New York: Free Press
Seligman, M.E.P. & Steen,
T.A. (2005). Positive Psychology
Progress: Empiracle Validation of
Interventions. Retrieved August 12, 2012,
from
Wilson, J.Q. & Kelling, G.L. (1982, March). Broken windows: the police & neighborhood
safety. The Atlantic Monthly, 249, 29-38.
Worldometer Popluation Estimates.
Retrieved August 12, 2012 from http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
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