Evaluate positive approach

• What is a successful application in the army?

  Resilience training, improves aspects of resilience and reduces incidents of stress and suicide. Helps develop signature strengths
• What is a successful application in education?

  Growing number of schools using PPC to increase overall wellbeing
• UK department of children, schools and families 2007


  Set up targets to improve children’s wellbeing by 2020
• How does this approach acknowledge free will?

  We have the power to develop signature strengths and improve wellbeing, therapies help people feel empowered
• Held 2002


  placing too much responsibility on indivuals may make people feel worse
• How is this approach interactionist?

  Lyuborniesky (2005) suggested 50% of variance in happiness is due to genetics. Myers and Diener (1997) identified the role of relationships in increasing people’s sense of subjective well being
• Why is this approach nomothetic?

  Myers and Diener(1997) developed a theory of ‘who is happy’ that could be applied to everyone
• Christopher and Hickinbottom (2008)


  Approach is ethnocentric, based on western ideas
• Why is measure of happiness a weakness?

  Each individual has a different idea of what happiness means to them, too hard to develop a scientific measure of happiness
• Why is the fact this approach isn’t a new idea a weakness?

  Humanistic psychology was the first to identify that psychology is rooted in negativity (late 1960s) Seligman hasn’t credited work of humanistic psychologists such as Carl rogers and Carl jung