POSITIVE: Overall Evaluation

Question 1

Nature and nature

Answer 1

• strength
• positive approach recognises the role of different factors in influencing our levels of happiness
• Lyubomirsky et al 2005 carried out a study on over 200 twins and suggested that 50% of the variance in happiness was due to genetics
• the research also suggested that 10% was attributable to circumstances and 40% to intentional activity (ie excersising)
• also central to the positive approach is the role of social factor such as relationships - Seligmans PERMA model (2011) highlights importance of relationships and social connections in helping us to achieve a meaningful life
• Myers and Diener (1997) also identified role of relationships in increasing a persons SWB
  —> interactionist

Question 2

Application

Answer 2

• strength
• applied across a range of aspect in society
• therapies such as mindfulness are informally used by many individuals through apps like Headspace
• formal mindfulness programmes such as MBCT are used in healthcare settings
• Mental Health Foundation report in 2010 highlighted benefits of mindfulness for those with psychological problems like depression but also for wellbeing in general
• positive psychology interventions are becoming widely used in schools and the workplace
• coronavirus pandemic bought attention to the importance of mental health and wellbeing for children in particular and so many schools offer well being interventions as part of their curriculum
  —> application

Question 3

Free will

Answer 3

• strength
• some highly critical of disease model advocated by other approaches in psychology particularly due to how it removed responsibility from individuals suggesting that their behaviour was determined by factors outside of his or her control like brain structure or condition processes
• positive approach suggests that humans have the free will to Devon their signature strengths and have control over their own wellbeing
• seen in use of therapies such as mindfulness as individuals re encouraged to have more awareness of their feeling and emotions
• exercise free will to control behaviour and therefore happiness
  —> free will

Question 4

Reductionism

Answer 4

• weakness
• positive psychology has a simplistic view of emotions - seen as either positive or negative but in reality they are often mixed
  -> ie hope cause uncertainty and anxiety
• Seligman said we must cultivate happy thoughts in order to be happy but negative emotions can be beneficial - Van Deurzen (2009) argued that hardship is a necessary part of life and without it we are not driven to make changes to our life and the world
• argued that positive psychology should pay more attention to the complexity of emotions and reflect the blend of positive and negative emotions in our lives
  —> reducitonist

Question 5

Nomothetic

Answer 5

• weakness
• nomothetic methods where researchers investigate large groups of people white the aim of producing general laws that apply to everybody
• it is scientific as it allows laws to be generated that apply to everyone
• methods are scientific, produce testable hypotheses and allow us to draw legitimate comparisons
• however tend to ignore the individual differences and the uniqueness of behaviour
• eg Myers and Diener aimed to develop a theory of ‘who is happy’ that can applied to everyone but does not involve individual differences
  —> nomothetic

Question 6

Scientific

Answer 6

• aim to use scientific method
• create hypothesis and use objective measures to collect data
• Seligman et al who compared 5 diff interventions - Ps randomly allocated to 5 groups, placebo control, quantify happiness
• although well being is subjective and difficult to define and self reports can be unreliable so cannot be deemed scientifically valid in all instances