Psychology- positive psychology

• Assumption one - Acknowledgement of free will


  Humans have the power to choose how they react to a situation and what they do in the future. It suggests humans have free will to develop their signature strengths and have control over their wellbeing . This means happiness is accessible to everyone. Theres evidence that a belief in free will and personal control is associated with a greater subjective well-being.
• Assumption one example


  This can be seen in the use of mindfulness and quality of life therapy, where individuals are encouraged to become more aware of their own feelings and emotions. Exercise free will and personal control is associated with a greater subjective wellbeing
• Assumption two- Authenticity of goodness and excellence

  Psychology has become too focused on negative aspects of personality like stress and depression. Just as important to research and support individuals who are 'ok' and wish to develop their own personal sense of wellbeing. By focusing on more positive traits and self improvement.
• Assumption two example 


  Seligman's theory of signature strengths. 24 character strengths including curiosity, fairness and honesty. Each individual has all of these strengths and should be encouraged to nurture and develop them to improve their well being
• Assumption three - Focus on the ' good life' 


  Seligman suggested three dimensions to happiness. 1. The pleasent life- activities focused on positive emotions that make us feel good. 2. The good life- engaging in activities that absorb us and help us to reach a state of flow. Having positive relationships and working towards goals. 3. The meaningful life- fulfilment we get from using our character strengths for a deeper purpose
• Assumption three example

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Reaching a state of being fully engaged in an activity. Balance between level of challenge the activity presents and the skills we have to deal with it
• Relationship formation

  Friendship. Forming positive relationships with others with others improve our subjective well-being and help us achieve the good life. Engaging in ​activities and helping us reach a state of flow. This might include activities we do with our friends such as playing sports. Often being with others we get the most out of positive experiences in our lives like when we share good news. It encourages the formation of friendship bonds
• Main component 1- raising awareness and gaining control of thoughts 


  Meditation and breathing techniques help increase well being . Techniques help becomes more aware of current moment, not worrying about past or future. Allows to develop the ability of accepting their thoughts and not allowing them to control their emotions. Help us recognise problems,before they arise, improve mental health, well being
• Main components - different forms of mindfulness,


  Example - meditation - individuals pay attention to sensations in different parts of the body without reacting to them. Example - informal practises- making decisions to focus attention on particular tasks. Often, we engage in tasks while thinking about other things. Ideal focus on present moment and sensations of a single activity. Example- online- growth in popularity of mindfulness leads to abundance of online apps
• Main component - MBSR(Mindfulness based stress reduction)


  MBSR developed 1970s by Jon kabat-zinn. Individual is trained in series of classes. Pps given educational material,practising meditation and yoga. Given home practise assignments. Able to practise in ways that suits them, encouraged to incorporate them into everyday life and practise regularly
• Strength of mindfulness

  Can be integrated with other therapies. For example, mindfulness based CBT is a four stage therapeutic approach which incorporates mindfulness with CBT. While traditional CBT attempts to modify unrealistic thoughts, MiCBT helps to change the process of thinking not just the content. This suggests mindfulness is a effective technique
• Weakness of mindulness

  Group mindfulness may be more effective than individual. Mantzios and Giannou investigated PPS who were trying to loose weight. 170 PPS were randomly assigned to practise meditation for six weeks either in a group or individually. The PPS in a group lost more weight and lowered their levels of cognitive behavioural avoidance. Suggests benefits of individual mindfulness need to be viewed with caution
• Ethical implication

  Avoidance of risk of harm. Client anxiety is avoided. Does not focus on helping change the process of thinking, encourages an acceptance of the process of thinking, for this reason is less frustrating compared with other therapies such as CBT. Suggests more ethical theory as it doesn't create a sense of guilt but teaches clients to acceptance.
• Ethical implication of mindfullness

  Mindfullness is seen as essential in maintaining moral and ethical standards. Mindfullness is being taught in organisations to enhance leadership skills. Ruedy and Schweitzer demonstrated how individuals who were high in mindfullness were less likely to cheat on a task , and more likely to uphold ethical standards. Suggests improving our state of mind through mindfulness will result in us becoming more moral.
• Methodology - Myers and Diener


  Meta analysis. Included a range of methods, correlations , interviews and questionnaires and observations.
• Main findings - Myers and diener

  Age- no real difference . A survey of roughly 170,000 people from 16 different countries revealed no time of life is notably happier or unhappier than others. What makes us happy differs.

  Culture- large differences found in nations differ in happiness even when income differences are controlled. For example, in Portugal about 10% of people are very happy whilst in the Netherlands 40% of people said the same .
• Main findings - Myers and diener

  Relationship- those with more friends are happier. People who can name several friends are healthier and happier then people who have few or no friends. Married people are more likely to describe themselves as very happy than those divorced.

  Faith- religious people report higher levels of happiness. Surveys have shown that people who are strongly religious are twice as likely to say they are very happy. Faith seems to help people to cope with a crisis.
• Adaptation


  Events within the last three months have a significant effect on well being as the response to either positive and negative events fades over time
• Values and goals

  Having goals and making progress towards them can predict well being
• Things like money are only important if they are relevant to a person's life goal
• Factors such as age, sex, money were dismissed as important indicators of happiness</b>
• Factors that predict happiness

  • Personality traits
  • Relationships
• Researching who's happy can help people rethink their priorities
• Evaluating methodology

  Myers and diener
• Ethical implication of Myers and diener 


  No manipulation of IV. However, some of the studies may have caused anxiety or stress to their participants by asking about their well being
• Social implication- Myers and diener 


  Sensitive research. Highlight the differences between groups in society. Research could be used to help better understand how to build a world that enhances human well being
• Strengths of the positive approach


  Moves the focus of psychology beyond explaining and treating disorders and illness. Shifts attention from an interest in negative states to positive states to build on what's right about human nature. Suggests it makes people feel empowered and able to improve their wellbeing. However placing too much responsibility on individuals for their happiness could mean people end up feeling worse.
• Strength of the positive approach

  Doesn't propose a determinist account of human behaviour. Positive psychologists recognise that humans are self regulating and are not victims of their past. They possessed their character strengths and virtues which can be developed to enhance life and result in greater fulfilment. Suggests a free will outlook strengthens the views of the approach.
• Weaknesses of the positive approach

  Not a new idea. Positive potential of human beings was first celebrated by Abraham Maslow and the humanistic psychology movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Some critics maintain figures like seligmen ignore the work of psychologists such as Maslow,Rogers and jung who were among the first to criticise existing approaches in psychology as being rooted as negative. Suggests neither unique nor novel in recognising the deficit in psychological research we need to understand where it has come from which is a downfall of the approach
• Methodologies of measuring happiness


  1. Defining happiness has proved challenging as each individual will have a different idea about what happiness means to them

  2. Advances in neuroscience have allowed researchers to objectively measure the emotional experiences of happiness

  3. Positive emotions were found to be more likely to activate the basal ganglia than negative emotions
• It may not be possible to measure happiness as a discrete emotion itself
• More research is needed to fully understand the measurement of happiness, limiting the positive approach