Positive Approach Flashcards
What are the three assumptions of the positive assumption?
- Acknowldegment of free will
- Focus on the ‘good life’
- Authenticity of goodness and excellence
What does the acknowledgment of free will suggest about human behaviour?
Humans are able to dictate their own emotions and can self-direct them. This can lead to living a ‘good life’
What case study supports the acknowledgment of free will and describe it?
Deiner and Seligman (2002)
Found that student with had stronger ties to family and friends were happier
Acknowledgment
What does Deiner and Seligman’s (2002) study suggest?
We can control our own happiness, by choosing to engage in activities that make us happy, reducing those feelings of low mood
Compare the acknowledment of free will to a determinitstic approach
Biological approach
What is meant by focus on the ‘good life’?
- This refers to the factors that contribute most predominately to a well lived life.
- The qualities that define the good life are those that enrich our lives, make life worth living and make a strong character
What are the three dimensions to happiness with explanations?
- Pleasant life=activities that make you feel good
- Good life=Activities that absorb us and help us to reach a state of flow
- Meaningful life=Using our character strengths for a deeper for a deeper purpose
What is the case study to support for focus on the ‘good life’?
Mihaly
* Different activities lead to a flow state for different people.
* It needs to be a balance between the level of challenge the activity presents and the skills we have to deal with it
What is meant by a state of flow?
You can’t feel anything,time stops,you are one with the activity
What is meant by the authenticity of goodness and excellence?
This suggests that positive emotions are just as important as negative ones
Rather than focusing on symptoms and trying to fix the problem, the approach develops the individual’s positive traits
What is a theory that supports the authenticity of goodness and excellence with a description?
Seligman’s theory of signature strengths
Character strengths that are most essential to who we are. Each individual has their own strengths and should be encouraged to nurtue and develop them to improve their well-being
What’s the therapy for the positive approach?
Mindfulness
What are the aims of mindfulness?
- Allow people to control their own mind
- Enhance a person’s positive characteristics
What are the components of mindfulness?
- Gaining control of thoughts
- Meditation and mindful breathing
- Informal practice of mindfulness
How does mindfulness allow people to gain control of their thoughts and give an example
- Mindfulness teached people focus on preseant thoughts and feelings,instead of worrying about the past or future
- If we become aware of negative thoughts, then we can have control over them and how we react to them
Example=Budhist Origins/Traditions implies an awareness,attention and alertness
What are the four main breathing teachniques?
Belly breathing,Breath count, Mindful breathing and Breathing visualisation
What should guided meditation do for the patinet/individual?
Meditation should help the individual to realise that thoughts and emotions are impermanent. Therefore, we shouldn’t fixate or react automatically
What is the example for meditation and mindful breathing
NICE recommends mindfulness as a preventative treatment for those with recurring depression
Describe informal practice of mindfulness
Making the mind focus on just one single task and absorbing everything about the surroundings
What is midfulness based stress reduction (MBSR)?
- Aims to adress prolonged periods of stress
- Incorprates meditation,yoga and mind-body exercises
- Makes the experiance a challenge rather than a chore
What are the two effectiveness points of mindfulness?
Research to support and methodolgical issues with the supporting research
Specifically depression
What is the research support for the mindfulness therapy?
Crane (2014): people who have experianced three or more previous episodes of depression, MBCT reduces the recurrence rate over 12 months by 40-50% compared with usual care
What are the last two points for the research support paragraph for mindfulness therapy?
- Based on this facr, the NICE have reconmmended that MBCT can be used in cases of three or more episodes of depression
- Strength as it shows that mindfulness in combination with cognitive therapy can be successful in the treatment of MH disorders
Describe the methodological issues with supporting research paragraph for mindfulness therapy
- Methodology not as rigorous as it should have been
- Studies into PP small scale,often pilot studies,as mindfulness is still a new concept
- Issues as there is a lack of evidence comparing effectiveness of mindfukness to other more established interventions
- Weakness=leads us to question whether there is enough scientific evidence to support the use of mindfulness as a therapy for MH disorders
What are the three ethical issues and strengths of the mindfulness therapy?
Highly ethical, accessible and negative effects
Describe why mindfulness is a highly ethical therapy
- Non-invasive process
- As a therapy has few side effects and takes a highly positive attitudes towards well-being~promotes free will empowers people to make changes in their lives
- Compared to CBT mindfulness does not place pressure onto the client/Compared to drug therapy no serious side effecrs that would have an impact on the progress of therapy
- Strength=mindfulness requires less pressure compared to other therapies and less risk of side effects or having an unpleasant experiance~patients less likely to feel guilty about their thought processes
What is the counterarguement to mindfulness as a highly ethical therapy?
- Several apps,websites abd courses that allow people to be taught the basics of mindfulness and how to practice techniques
- Example=headspace is a popular app used for mindfulness
- Strength=allows people to receive the therapy despite their financial situation or mobility
Describe how mindfulness can have negative effects
- Practice is easy to understand but no everyone is able to benefit from it nor can they use meditation to their advantage
- Example=some studies show benefits from consistant mindfulness practice in just 8wks,it doesn’t mean that it works for every~for example the ‘dark night’ phenomenon is rare but a serious potential side effect of prolonge meditation
- Weakness=some people who attempt mindfulness feel worse than when they started
