Last Updated on March 16, 2023 by Mike Robinson
Positive psychology is a new approach within psychology that allows for studying the dimensions of a normal person without disease and what their strengths are. It is the scientific study of the optimal functioning of the human being. And it shifts its focus to health, well-being, achievement, and quality of life.
It was defined by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi in 2000 as the area of scientific study of positive experiences, positive individual traits, and programs that help people improve their quality of life. The founders of positive psychology propose and emphasize the positive aspects of the human being.
It is a branch of psychology that appeared more than 15 years ago and seeks to seek and understand through scientific research those aspects and processes that are behind the positive qualities of the human being.
They seek to study the strengths, positive emotions, and virtues of the human being and what their consequences are for life, aspects that have been catapulted by the dominant medical model for years.
For example, in an analysis to see the number of positive and negative publications (between 1872 and 2003), it was possible to verify that the study of the negative subjects was twice that of the positive ones.
The three basic pillars of positive psychology (Seligman, 2009) are the following:
- Study of positive emotions (pleasant life)
- Study of strengths and virtues (engaged life)
- The study of positive institutions (meaningful life)
History of Positive Psychology
The formal beginning of positive psychology is quite recent and was made by Martin Seligman in a conference to begin his term as president of the American Psychological Association in 1999. It has barely been more than a decade.
However, it is true that, to speak of its origins, we can go back a long time ago.
The truth is that well-being has been present over time. Western philosophy, for example, has always tried to analyze the conditions for attaining well-being.
And different authors, among whom we can highlight Aristotle, Spinoza, and Schopenhauer, have reflected on happiness.
In psychology, we also find authors like James, Allport, Rogers, and Maslow.
Happiness and the adequate and optimum functioning of the human being have been studied, for example, in the hands of Maslow through self-realization or of Allport with psychological maturity.
Psychology has recently begun to consider subjective well-being, the strengths of human beings as factors for study, and what factors make people happier.
Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi
It is in the year 2000 that the expression “positive psychology” first appears in print. Positive Psychology, by Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, argue that perhaps this is the most formal beginning.
It all comes out at an informal meeting held by these two researchers during their vacation, which Seligman attends, looking at his 5-year-old daughter and realizing that psychology has always been based on illness and has not cared about the positives.
Seligman realizes that psychology has been focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the human psyche, based on the reductionist medical model and setting aside human strengths.
During the twentieth century, this conception began to change, also based on the fact that health was no longer considered the simple absence of disease.
To be healthy and to have health requires not only a lack of illness but a complete state of well-being. The approach begins to be more autogenic.
To do this, we need to study the positive resources people have and promote the strengths of each one of us.
Its authors, Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, define it as the scientific study of human strengths and the adoption of open perspectives focused on the potential of the human being, noting their motivations and their characteristics.
Positive discipline is considered necessary because, in psychological reality, it is necessary to take into account not only the negative aspects but also the positive ones to better understand people clinically.
The debate within positive psychology
There has been a debate about the existence of positive psychology as an independent branch within psychology that will be in charge of analyzing what the positive factors of the human being are.
This new branch would be in charge of studying happiness and well-being and not focus on psychopathology and deficits.
The debate has arisen because some researchers argue that this area of psychology is nothing new since psychology, by definition, also takes care of these aspects.
However, many others contend that the fact that it is not something completely new does not imply that it cannot be offered as an individual plot where it can be explored in a more profound and open way, rediscovering what it can offer.
What is true is that psychology has focused for many years on studying the pathological and what makes people unhappy.
So much so that the psychologist continues to be a professional to go to treat symptoms, psychopathology, and perform psychotherapy.
Positive psychology aims to:
– Expand the vision of psychology to stop focusing on harm and psychopathology and focus on the strengths, virtues, and potentialities of the person.
Share a common language about all the positive traits of the human being.
• Provide scientific rigor to the positive study of the human being.
– Promote well-being and fullness in all human beings.
Investigate everything that relates to the subjective and psychological well-being of individuals.
And with all this, he has managed to put on the table the study of new areas of psychology that were previously considered irrelevant.
The most important ideas
Happiness
The construct of happiness is one of the central aspects of positive psychology. It is not a new concept, since happiness has been part of the hedonic and eudaimonic philosophical currents.
The perspective of hedonic happiness or “subjective well-being,” that is, the level of satisfaction of the person regarding his life and the level of positive and negative affect he has.
On the other hand, we find the eudemonic perspective, initiated by Aristotle, that speaks of happiness as personal well-being.
Subjective well-being
As we have said in the construct of happiness, subjective well-being is born from the hedonic perspective, since the authors find that it comes from vital satisfaction, positive affection, and negative affection.
They are three different entities among them, although they are related, and for that reason it conforms to this construct that includes all three.
Personal well-being
Within this perspective are different models. One of the most important would-be Ryff’s.
Within that model there are different domains of appropriate personal development, which include autonomy, control, personal acceptance, growth, and positive relationships with purpose.
Other authors, such as Ryan and Deco, argue that there are two aspects: first, the human being satisfies his basic needs, and then the goals are congruent with his own life.
Seligman and Peterson, for example, propose a model that includes a list of 24 strengths, among which are curiosity, love of learning, critical thinking, creativity, perseverance, honesty, and love.
Positive Emotions
Another of the most relevant constructs is positive emotion, such as love or humor, for example.
One such example is the Flow of Csikszentmihalyi (1997), which is a feeling of pleasure or intrinsic well-being when a person becomes absorbed in the task he is performing and loses the temporal notion.
Resilience
Another of the interesting aspects of positive psychology is the optimal functioning of people, as well as the variables that relate to it.
For example, in traditional psychology, it has been studied which factors lead to certain pathological reactions to be able to intervene and prevent.
However, from this perspective, we would focus on survivors or those who do not end up developing any problems, i.e., do not present any disorder. We would talk about resilient people.
Resilience is the ability of people to adapt to traumatic situations and gain strength from the experience.
Optimism
Interest in the study of optimism also comes from Seligman, who proposes the Theory of Learned Indefension and later becomes interested because optimism could also be so.
Optimism is the psychological characteristic that predisposes people to see and judge the future more positively. It is considered one of the most interesting constructs to promote well-being in individuals.
Optimism could act as a moderating factor in a person’s health and behavior, as it would motivate him to adopt behaviors that promote change.
Creativity
The study of creativity has made a comeback, whether it is in works of art, thoughts, or innovative problem solving. The interesting thing is that creativity is something that we can learn and develop.
Strengths
It is about the strengths of each person, which are psychological characteristics that arise in different situations over time and have positive consequences.
Strengths create positive emotions and are barriers that protect against illness.
Other concepts studied from positive psychology include well-being, satisfaction with life, and quality of life.
How are positive psychology constructs measured?
The novelty of positive psychology also lies in the scientific study, which defines and uses novel concepts related to the field of happiness.
There are instruments to measure the level of satisfaction with life and to measure positive and negative affect, all based on the hedonic perspective of happiness. For example, the PANAS Scale (Watson, Clark, and Tillage, 1988)
For example, to measure the virtues proposed by Seligman and Peterson, we find the VIA ( Values in Action) , which has 240 items with 5 possible answers where you can assess what level a person has in each of them.
He defines 24 strengths in six categories, which are: wisdom and knowledge; courage; humanity and love; justification; temperance; and transcendence.
To measure optimism, we have the Life Orientation Test (LOT), Schemer and Carver, which evaluates expectations for the future.
The most relevant applications
Positive psychology opens up great areas for research and treatment, not only in the field of research and psychotherapy but also affecting teaching and the quality of human life.
Testing results were available on different techniques, and we now know that they are effective through experimental studies and with significant changes in the groups studies involving Positive Psychology.
These techniques aim to increase the well-being and happiness of people through, for example, optimism, kindness, forgiveness, and gratitude.
His involvement includes not only clinical psychology but also the fields of organizational psychology and educational psychology.
The different studies prove that, for example, identifying strengths provides greater happiness and fewer depressive symptoms.
Optimism also predicts the outcomes of people’s projects.
We also associate strengths with better health and greater performance in managers.
Is positive psychology important?
Positive psychology is important given that it is a field within psychology that seeks to improve the quality of people’s lives by focusing on the positive aspects of those who have them.
Positive psychology is young but endowed with scientific rigor, solid studies, and positive changes in people’s lives.
This discipline aims to give new knowledge about the human psyche, to solve not so much the problems of the human being but rather to improve the quality of life without losing sight of the scientific methodology.
It aims to define what makes life worth living—the aspects that lead us to be happy, to prosper, and to live a life with meaning and fullness.
