Assumptions Flashcards
What’s the background of the approach?
Officially introduced to psychology towards the end of the 20th Century by Seligman.
Primary focus is the positive aspects of human nature.
Understanding that human behaviour is based on the belief that people want to enhance their lives.
Focuses on understanding how people can flourish as individuals.
What are the key points of the acknowledgement of free will assumption?
Humans are in charge of their own emotions and have the free will to change how they direct them.
We are self-directing and adaptive and that a good life can be experienced if we use our strengths and virtues to enhance our lives.
Seligman states that happiness is not good genes or luck but the result of recognising our own strengths and working to develop them in order to make our lives better.
What’s an example from psychology for the acknowledgment of free will assumption?
Mindfulness.
Individuals are encouraged to become more aware of their own feelings and emotions.
Able to exercise free will to be more conscious of the present and use this to increase their levels of happiness.
What are the key points for the authenticity of goodness and excellence assumption?
Feelings of happiness and goodness are as natural as feelings of anxiety and stress.
Therefore, psychologists need to assign these positive states of mind equal attention.
The positive aspects of a person’s personality commonly exceeds that of the negative.
It is just as important to research and support individuals who are ‘ok’ and wish to develop their own personal sense of well - being.
By focusing on positive traits and self - improvement, we can view human behaviour in a much more positive way.
Qualities of goodness and excellence are just as worthy of our attention.
What is Seligman’s (2002) theory of signature strengths?
24 characters strengths.
Each individual has all of these strengths in different degrees and, according to the approach, should be encouraged to nurture and develop them to improve their well - being.
What has Peterson and Seligman (2004) done with the signature strengths?
Collated them into the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues Further developed them into an online self - report questionnaire which gives individuals a unique character profile indicating their character strengths.
What are the three dimensions to happiness according to Seligman?
The pleasant life, the good life and the meaningful life.
What are the key points of the pleasant life?
Happiness comes from pursuing positive emotions in relation to the past, present and future.
It can refer to activities that are focused on positive emotions which make us feel good.
We should also savour these experiences, being mindful of how they make us feel.
What are the key points of the good life?
Happiness comes from pursuing activities that positively absorb and engage us.
Engaging activities that absorb us and help us to reach a state of flow.
This includes focusing on our signature strengths, having positive relationships with others and working towards achieving our goals.
What are the key points of the meaningful life?
Happiness comes from a deep sense of fulfilment by living for a purpose much greater than oneself.
This refers to the state of fulfilment we get from using our character strengths for a deeper purpose.
What are the traits associated with positive connection to others?
Abilities to love, trust, enjoy happiness, forgive and develop spiritual connections with the self and others.
What are the traits associated with positive individual traits?
Personal qualities such as integrity, morality, creativity, bravery, courage and humility.
What are the traits associated with life regulation qualities?
Qualities to develop to regulate, monitor and control behaviour in order to accomplish goals.
Will include a sense of autonomy, independence, faith in decision making and wisdom to guide our behaviour.
What’s an example from psychology from the focus on “the good life” assumption?
Concept of ‘flow’, developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Reaching the state of being fully engaged in an activity.
Different activities lead to a flow state for different people.
In this state there is a balance between the level of challenge in the activity presents and the skills we have to deal with it.
What did Csikszentmihalyi (1996) suggest happens when individuals experience flow?
“Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
