Assumption Flashcards
What does the positive approach focus on?
Free will
Who created the s approach?
Martin Seligman, professed at the uni of pennsylvania
What does the Martin Seligman generally say?
Learned helplessness to explain why some individuals might develop depression
Develops when individuals feel unable to control events in their lives
Suggest that certain individuals lack behavioural control over the events in their environment, which in turn undermines their motivation to makr changes and attempts to to alter situations
What is assumption one?
Acknowledgement of free will
What does the acknowledgment of free will say?
Humans have free will to dictate their own emotions, they can self direct those emotions
If we self direct out emotions effectively and become adaptive we can have a good luck
Happiness isn’t due to genes or luck, it’s a result of recognising our strengths and developing them
Assumption one what if denier and seligman study if very happy people?
Looks at the tries students had to friends , family, measuring them
in terms of how much time and they invested in these relationships
-Found that students who had stronger ties to friends and family were happier
-Found a negative correlation between depression and level of happiness
-Suggesting we have free will to control our own happiness and choose to engage in activities that make us happy, reducing those feelings of low mood
What is free will?
We respond at got to event around us, we choose our own course of action and have responsibility of our behaviour and we are not determined by internal and external pressures
Why does the very happy people study demonstrate free will?
This demonstrates we are in control of our happiness in that we can choose to engage in activitys and relationship that we know what makes us happy and lifts our mood
What is assumption 2 of the positive approach?
Focus on the good life
What is the assumption 2 focus on the good life mean?
Our behaviours influenced by our focus in the good life
-Referes to factors that contribute most predominantly to a well lived life
-Quality’s that define the good life and make life worth living and make a strong character
Assumption 2 the good life
What does seligman say the three laws are to happiness?
The pleasant life
The good life
The meaningful life
A2- what is the pleasant life?
Activity’s focused on positive emotions that make us feel good and learning the skills that amplify this for example eating your favourite food or listening to your favourite song
A2- what is the good life?
Engaging in activity’s that absorb us and help us to reach a state of flow, where it feels like toke stops, this includes focusing on our signature strengths, having positive relationship with others and working towards achieving it
A2- what is the meaningful life?
The state of fulfilment we can g set from using our character strengths for a deeper purpose
e.g. we might use our strengths to help campaign for an issue we feel strongly about, like the environment
A2- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi- the positive concept of flow?
When we reach a state of being fully engaged in an activity
Different activity’s lead to a flow state for different people
Needs to be balanced between the level of challenge the activity presents and the skills we have to deal with it
What is flow?
You can’t feel anything, time stops, you are one with the activity
What is assumption 3?
Authenticity of goodness and excellence
A3- Authenticity of goodness and excellence, what does this mean?
Other approaches have a negative outlook on behaviour, positive psychology provides balance to this by focusing on the goodness of humans
Our positive traits like happiness are neglected as we focus on the negative, this approach essentially says that the positive emotions are just as important as the negative ones
Approach takes a positive attitude with treating mental illness, rather than focusing on symptoms and trying to fix the problem this approach develops the individuals positive traits
A3- if we used this assumption how would we use this to treat mental illnesses?
By mindfulness, therapy’s such as this encourage patients to develop core values like gratitude and optimism, therefore depressive symptoms like low mood and lack of motivations can be improved by focusing on positive traits just as much as focusing on the negative
A3- What are seligman’s theory if signature strengths?
Refers to character strengths that are essential to who we are
The most satisfied upbeat people are those who had discovered and exploited their unique combination of signature strengths (love of learning, bravery, humour, creativity and persistence)
Each individuals has all of these strengths so should be encouraged to develop them to improve their well being
A3- why is it important to think about signature strengths when explaining behaviour?
Because individuals discover this strength, allow them to improve their quality of life, might allow us to understand why people aren’t feeling satisfied in life e.g. in cases where people are suffering depression
