positive

• why is this controversial?

  traditional approaches have focused on treating mental disorders. Seligman suggests psychology should focus on promoting positive states of mind
• the three themes:

  • education
  • workplace
  • health sector
• positive psychology is relevant in education:

  • 80,000 young people suffer with depression
  • Seligman says putting pp into the curriculum can increase happiness, self worth and results
  • Seligman- pp was tested on 347 9th grader and ppc class were more cooperative and better social skills from parents, students and teachers
• positive psychology isnt relevant in education:

  • spence and Shortt research into ppc are small scale and short term
  • Seligman - ppc may only be a pleasant addition for motivated, middle class students - lack of research into different backgrounds
• positive psychology is relevant in workplace:

  • Csikszentmihalyi - to achieve flow which leads to reduced absenteeism and increased productivity and the workplace provides 3x more oppourtunity for flow then leisure
  • Oswald - 276 ppts showed happiness increased productivity - experimental group watched 10 min comedy clip before paid math task = 12% more productive
• positive psychology is not relevant in workplace:

  • Confucius - 'choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life' so pp is a new label for old concepts
  • that to see jobs as a source of pleasure is a luxury and some people need to work tedious jobs and unable to achieve flow
• positive psychology is relevant in health sector:

  • Davidson - experimental group did a mindfulness based stress reduction programme and showed increase activity in brain areas associated wit positive emotions. all ppts were then given an influenza immunisation jab and MBSR group = more antibodies
  • Kubzanksy and Thurston - followed more then 6,000 men and women aged 25-74 for 20 yrs = ppts with high levels of 'emotional vitality' had reduced risk of coronary heart disease = lifestyle advice
• positive psychology is not relevant in health sector:

  • Davidson - not possible to establish cause and effect as MBSR group may have just had naturally better immune systems and brain activity
  • majority of research in pp is correlational so cause and effect cant be established
• ethical implications:

  • appropriate to equip young people with life long skills to manage well being
  • managing well being will act as a buffer to mental illness
  • unethical to suggest happiness is within ones control - social and economic hardships eg. 1 in 5 in uk live in poverty
• social implications:

  • investment in pp will lead to a happier and healthier society
  • happier employees will be more productive and may improve Uks overall rank for the world happiness
• economic implications:

  • buffer to mental illness = reduce NHS costs
  • more productive = economic benefits
• overall conclusions:

  • shown to have relevance across key areas of society
  • pp requires time and commitment which may not be available to all
  • more controlled and long term research needs to be conducted to convince society pp is relevant and to invest in it