Positive Psychology

• Positive Psychology emphasizes the importance of both hedonic and eudaimonic happiness for overall well-being and flourishing.
• Research has shown that people who experience more positive emotions are less likely to develop mental health problems such as depression or anxiety disorders.
• ·      Hedonism: oldest approach to well-being and happiness
• Hedonism focuses on pleasure and basic component of the good life
• Hedonism: Basic form – belief that pursuit of well-being is fundamentally pursuit of individual sensual pleasures and avoidance of harm, pain, and suffering
• Hedonism is about maximizing of pleasure and minimizing of pain and is the oldest approach to well-being and happiness
• Positive psychology focuses on positive functioning on a number of levels, such as biological, personal, relational, and cultural
• Hereditability indicates that most people have an average level of happiness called a set point
• Extrinsic motivation is controlled motivation – driven by external rewards or guilt and not congruent 
• Intrinsic motivation is autonomous motivation – self chosen and congruent with one’s true self 
• Extrinsic (controlled) and Intrinsic (autonomous) These are important to understand mental health, achievement, and well-being as for understanding of basic motivation
• Grouping intrinsic goals to facilitate larger goals, e.g. social interactions that could lead to a long-lasting relationship is called personal striving
• The father of Positive Psychology is Martin Seligman
• ·      Divine command theory: search for happiness
• Divine Command Theory:  Happiness is found by living in accord with the commands or rules set down by a Supreme Being 
• Divine Command Theory: theory holds that if one follows the commands, there will be rewards and vise versa. 
• ·      Broaden and Build: Barbara Fredrickson for positive emotions 
• Broaden and Build - Purpose of positive emptions is markedly different from purpose of negative emotions 
• Broaden and Build - Positive emotions help preserve organism by providing nonspecific action tendencies that can lead to new adaptive behavior
• Broaden and Build - Changes in cognitive activity lead to new thought-action tendencies (think different, act different)
• Broaden and Build - Broadening our options maximizes our future resources 
• Top Down: Overall evaluations that reflect how we evaluate and interpret our experiences. (Temperament leads to evaluating events positively or negatively)
• Bottom-Up: Overall measure of our current well-being by examining how satisfied we are with domains of life then combine various satisfactions into totality. (What happens to lead you to happiness or unhappiness?)
• Self-Determination Theory: Competence, Relatedness, Autonomy
• SDT: Competence - mastery experiences that allow a person to deal effectively with her or his environment
• SDT: Relatedness - need for mutually supportive interpersonal relationships 
• SDT: Autonomy - need to make independent decisions about areas in life that are important to the person
• SDT sub theory - organismic-integration theory 
•  Engagement: views well-being as a function of how absorbed we are in the activities of life 
• Engagement: Activity theory – process of being fully involved in an active life 
• Eudaimonia: Life lived in a certain way (according to values and virtues that are most desirable and most indicative of the highest good)
• Positive Psychology: scientific study of ordinary human strength and virtues
• Association of positive psych with ordinary human strengths and virtues is that: it enhances their experiences in work and relations.
• Classification system: Flourishing - high well being/low mental illness
• Classification: Struggling - high well being/ high mental illness
• Classification: Languishing - low well being / high mental illness
• Classification: Floundering: low well being/ low mental illness
• Greek and Roman major theories of good life: Contemplative Life - self-reflection
• Greek and Roman major theories of the good life: Active life - engagement with life
• Greek and Roman major theories of the good life: Fatalistic life - accepting what can't be avoided