Positive Approach

Question 1

What is the aim of positive psychology?

Answer 1

Aims to focus on people’s strengths rather than their weaknesses.

Question 2

What is the model for the scientific theory of happiness?

Answer 2

The PERMA model:
Positive - emotion distinction between pleasure and enjoyment.
Engagement - flow a sense of total immersion into a task.
Relationships - we are rarely alone during our happiest times.
Meaning - more important for fulfilment than the pursuit of pleasure.
Accomplishment - achieving goals gives us a sense of accomplishment.

Question 3

Who founded the positive approach?

Answer 3

Seligman

Question 4

What are the three assumptions of the positive approach?

Answer 4

-The acknowledgement of free will
-The authenticity of goodness and excellence
-Focus on the good life

Question 5

Explain the ‘acknowledgement of free will’ assumption.

Answer 5

Acknowledges that we have free will, rather than being determined by internal and external factors. We behave the way we do because we have the ability to choose, we control our own behaviour. Happiness is accessible to everyone if we make use of our strengths.

Question 6

What evidence is there for the acknowledgement of free will’ assumption?

Answer 6

Diener and Seligman (2002) explored the ties that students had to their friends and family, measured by the amount of time they invested into these relationships. Students who had the strongest ties to their friends and families were happier. This demonstrates free will, because they chose how much effort they put into the relationships with their friends and family.

Question 7

Explain the ‘authenticity of goodness and excellence’ assumption.

Answer 7

Other approaches tend to have a negative outlook on behaviour, e.g. mental illness, stress, etc. Seligman argues that positive behaviours are equally as authentic as negative ones. This means that feelings of happiness and goodness are as natural as feelings of anxiety and stress, and should be treated as such. We should celebrate the positives of human behaviour and self-improvement, rather than focusing on the negatives.

Question 8

What is an example of the authenticity of goodness and excellence?

Answer 8

Seligman believes that each of us have ‘signature strengths’ that are essential to who we are. He believes there are 24 character strengths, split into six categories: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance and transcendance.

Seligman (2001) believes that if each person has a set of core strengths that they incorporate into their daily life, then they will experience authentic happiness.

Question 9

Define the six categories of character strengths.

Answer 9

Wisdom - acquisition and use of knowledge
Courage - will to accomplish goals in the face of internal or external opposition
Humanity - interpersonal strength
Justice - civic strengths
Temperance - strengths that protect us against excesses
Transcendance - strengths that connect us to the large universe

Question 10

Explain the ‘focus on the good life’ assumption’.

Answer 10

There are three types of desirable lives: the pleasant life, the good life and the meaningful life. The positive approach believes that our behaviour is influenced by our focus on the ‘good life’.

Question 11

Define the three desirable lives.

Answer 11

The pleasant life - happiness comes from pursuing positive emotions and daily satisfaction.

The good life - happiness comes from pursuing activities that positively absorb and engage us.

The meaningful life - happiness comes from a deep sense of fulfilment by living for a purpose much greater than oneself.

Question 12

What is the therapy of the positive approach?

Answer 12

Mindfulness

Question 13

What are the main components of mindfulness.

Answer 13

1) Gaining control of thoughts
2) Meditation and mindful breathing
3) Informal practices of mindfulness

Question 14

What is meant by gaining control of thoughts?

Answer 14

Focusing on our present thoughts, feelings and emotions. Usually, we focus on the past and old feelings, or are too busy contemplating the future. Mindfulness teaches us to focus on the present, become aware of incoming thoughts and feelings, and to accept them. The goal of focusing on the present is to gain control of negative or unhelpful thoughts, and to spend less time dwelling on them.

Question 15

What is meditation and mindful breathing? How is it done?

Answer 15

Guided meditation involves getting a client to sit in a comfortable position, asking to keep their spine straight and to focus on their breathing. Then they will be encouraged to pay attention to their body sensations, thoughts and emotions. This helps to prevent the intrusion of negative thoughts.

Question 16

What are informal practices of mindfulness?

Answer 16

Once learned, mindfulness can be practised throughout daily life and amid other activities, e.g. cleaning or showering. Informal practice simply involves paying attention to your surroundings, for example if you are in the shower, noticing the sensations as the water hits your skin.

Question 17

What points can be used to evaluate mindfulness?

Answer 17

+ve Integration with other therapies
Mindfulness practices are being incorporated into other therapies, e.g. CBT. MiCBT is a four-stage therapeutic approach that incorporates mindfulness into CBT. It helps to change the process of thinking, not just the content of the thoughts.
-Effective technique

+ve Accessible to everyone
Since mindfulness can be practiced informally, it is arguably the most accessible therapy out of all the approaches. Guidance for meditation can be found online, meaning it is free and available to anyone at any time. Much better in comparison to CBT or drug therapies, as it is free and much quicker to do, with no side effects.

+ve Positive approach to therapy
Since mindfulness doesn’t involve bringing up anything from the past, so client anxiety is avoided. Mindfulness’ lack of a deterministic stance is extremely positive for the individual, as there is no patient blame and doesn’t aim to change the thought process, but rather to accept it.

Question 18

What is the classical research of the positive approach?

Answer 18

Myers and Diener (1995) Who is happy?

Question 19

What are the methodology and procedures of Myers and Diener?

Answer 19

This research is a literature review of research on the topic of happiness in the 1980s and 1990s. They used interviews and questionnaires to assess people’s sense of their own happiness (subjective well-being). This was done by interviewing people with closed questions to obtain nominal data.

They observed people’s behaviour by using beepers. Whenever it beeped, the pp had to report what they were doing/thinking at the time.

They also studied correlations of happiness.

Question 20

What were the findings of Myers and Diener?

Answer 20

Happiness & Age:
Inglehart (1990) found that all ages were equally happy - there was a mean score of 80% that were ‘satisfied with life’
Herzog (1982) found that there are different factors of happiness at different ages

Happiness & Gender
Robins and Regier (1991) found that women are 2x more vulnerable to depression, and men are 5x more vulnerable to alcoholism.

Inglehart (1990) found that 80% of men and women are ‘fairly satisfied with life’

Happiness & Culture
Inglehart (1990) found that in Portugal, 10% of people were ‘very happy’, while in the Netherlands, 40% of people were ‘very happy’.

Question 21

What is the contemporary debate of the positive approach?

Answer 21

The relevance of positive psychology in today’s society.

Question 22

What are the main arguments in the ‘relevance of positive psychology’ debate?

Answer 22

-Education
-Health
-Work

Question 23

What arguments are there for/against education?

Answer 23

For:
Kwok (2021) PERMA was applied in an educational setting in schools in Hong Kong. Since then, there has been an increase in wellbeing and a decrease in mental health problems of students.

Against:
Relies too heavily on individual schools’ enthusiasm for positive education - may not want to pay to give the staff the proper training that they need to implement it into their teaching.

Question 24

What arguments are there for/against health?

Answer 24

For:
Kubzansky and Thurston’s (2007) followed more than 6000 men and women aged 25-74 for 20 years. Pps who had high levels of emotional vitality (enthusiasm, hopefulness, etc) had a reduced level of coronary heart disease.
-Wellbeing can directly affect your health

Against:
Difficult to prove cause and affect relationship between happiness and health.
-Will happiness increase health or is it being healthy that makes you happy?

Question 25

What arguments are there for/against work?

Answer 25

For:
Flow theory - we become so caught up in activities that other things, such as worries, matter less
Csikszentmihalyi and LeFevre (1989) found that most people experience flow situations more than 3x as much at work than they do during leisure.

Against:
There’s no actual evidence that positive psychology is effective in the workplace. Based off of ‘choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’.