Chapter 1 - Positive Psychology Flashcards
What is positive psychology?
The scientific and applied approach to uncovering people’s strengths and promoting their positive functioning / people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives. Emphasis is on positive outcomes or study of assets or what is right with people, going beyond the study of deficits commonly found in psychology. It uses science as a foundation and not new age pseudo knowledge.
Psychology should be just as concerned with human strengths as with weakness, should be just as interested in building the best things in life as it is in repairing the worst, just as concerned with making lives of normal people fulfilling and nurturing high talent as with healing pathology. The beginnings of a SCIENCE of positive psychology: What makes life worth living.
How did positive psychology start?
Maslow coined the term in the 1950s, but Seligman started the interest in 1998 because of his status as President of APA
Pre-WWII Psychology’s aims were these three things (before it got off track with only ONE of them for a long time)
- cure mental illness
- make all lives more productive and fulfilling
- identify and nurture high talent
it focused only on #1, and positive psychology thinks it is important to work on all three
The three pillars of positive psychology are
- study of positive subjective experience 2. positive personal traits 3. positive institutions
ABC - affect,behavior,cognition
8 Key topics in positive psychology
- Resilience, 2. Happiness, 3. Life Satisfaction, 4. Character/strengths/virtues. 5. Meaning and purpose, 6. flourishing/thriving, 7. the good life, 8. the life worth living.
Temporal Orientations of wellbeing/contentment/satisfaction, flow/happiness and hope/optimism
Past is associated with well-being, contentment, satisfaction. Present is associated with flow and happiness. Future is associated with hope and optimism.
Positive traits at the individual level may be…
capacity for love, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, spirituality, talent, wisdom, kinesthetic/athletic
Positive traits at group level/institutions…
civic virtues, positive institutions, responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, work ethic
What are the three pieces to freedom in regards to building strengths.
- choice: deciding life’s direction 2. change: altering typical behavior patterns 3. control: affecting life’s outcomes
belief in change and freedom matters.
What are maximizers and satisficers?
Satisficing are individuals who are pleased to settle for a good enough option, not necessarily the very best outcome in all respects. A satisficer is less likely to experience regret even if a better option presents itself after a decision has already been made. Compared to satisficers, maximizing individuals are more likely to experience lower levels of happiness, regret, and self-esteem. They also tend to be perfectionist. maximizers feel compelled to examine each and every alternative available. Maximizers rely heavily on external sources for evaluation. Rather than asking themselves if they enjoy their choice, they are more likely to evaluate their choices based on its reputation, social status, and other external cues. In contrast, statisficer asks whether her college choice is excellent and meets her needs, not whether it is really “the best.”
The take home lesson is that to make “best” choices, listen to your gut feelings, don’t worry about getting the very best all the time, and evaluate each outcome on its own merits rather than against others.
Choice : more or less?
No choice is bad, too much is bad, want to find medium.
We response differently when we have no choices
Example: Head & Shoulders reduced to 15 from 26 varieties and sales increased 10% (Schwartz, 2000)
Reactance: motive to reestablish self-control when threatened
Entity vs incremental views (fixed vs growth mindset)
In the social science discipline of psychology, a fixed mindset is referred to as the belief that change cannot and does not occur in the brain; the level of a person’s intelligence cannot change. In other words, you either have a high level of intelligence, or you do not.
By contrast, the concept of a growth mindset entertains the option that intelligence can in fact change, not only by learning new things, but also by the various experiences a person has over a lifetime. A growth mindset thrives on challenge and does not see failure as fatal, but rather as an opportunity to see the world and life from a new perspective.
Luck
Fan vs. Performer Superstition – a belief you will do well (due to some kind of superstition) will generally create a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Having an internal vs an external locus of control will affect you very differently.
Constraints
There are some things in which we have constraints. We need to have a realistic optimism. Difference between realistic and unrealistic optimism. Youth often is unrealistic. Other examples smoking/pregnancy/drunkdriving (us vs them) and expecting 4.0 when not possible anymore.
In a theoretical framework that will help assist positive psychology practitioners in developing practical applications for the field. There are six classes of virtues that are made up of 24 character strengths:
Wisdom and Knowledge Courage Humanity Justice Temperance Transcendence
