Assumptions Flashcards
Background
Officially introduced to psychology towards the end of the 20th Century by psychologist Martin Seligman.
Primary focus is the positive aspects of human nature.
The good qualities people have and how they can be nurtured.
Understanding that human behaviour is based on the belief that people want to enhance their lives, make them more meaningful and to increase their levels of happiness to reach a greater level of fulfilment.
Rather than a focus on pathology this approach focuses on understanding how people can flourish as individuals.
Acknowledgement of free will
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 and minimise negativity.
Acknowledgement of free will - example from psychology
This acknowledgement of the role of free will 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.
Individuals are able to exercise free will to be more conscious of the present and use this to increase their levels of happiness.
Authenticity of goodness and excellence
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.
Seligman (2002) - the belief that traits such as virtue and happiness are less authentic than negative traits and states that have been an obstacle in psychological research.
This is an unbalanced view, as in reality, the positive aspects of a person’s personality commonly exceeds that of the negative.
Therefore, 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.
Christopher Peterson (2006)
“The most basic assumption that positive psychology urges is that human goodness and excellence are as authentic as disease, disorder and distress.”
Martin Seligman (2002)
Theory of signature strengths.
This theory suggests that there are 24 characters strengths, including curiosity, fairness and honesty.
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.
Peterson and Seligman (2004)
The “signature strengths” have been collated into the VIA Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues (Peterson and Seligman (2004)) and further developed into an online self - report questionnaire which gives individuals a unique character profile indicating their character strengths.
Focus on “the good life”
Seligman suggests that there are three dimensions to happiness:
The pleasant life, the good life and the meaningful life.
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.
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.
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.
Seligman - positive connection to others
Abilities to love, trust, enjoy happiness, forgive and develop spiritual connections with the self and others.
Seligman - positive individual traits
Personal qualities such as integrity, morality, creativity, bravery, courage and humility.
Seligman - 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.
Focus on “the good life” - example from psychology
One example of ‘the good life’ can be seen in the key positive approach concept of ‘flow’, developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
This means 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.
