Positive Psychology - Class Flashcards
Positive psychotherapy
Humans spend a disproportionate aamount of time thinking about what goes wrong and little on what goes right in life.
Why would we be ‘genetically endowed’ to focus on negativity?
- To prevent it from happening again
- To prevent danger from occuring
Top tv shows
Most seem to focus on stories of evil, death, deceit, conflict, and conspiracy
Theories we will talk about?
Cognitive Person-Centered Behavioral ACT Interpersonal Existential
What do most theories focus on
What is wrong with a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
They almost always say they want to feel ________
Happy
Psychotherpay is effective
- Psychotherapy outperforms placebos and outperforms or is longer lasting than medication
- We have well-researched threatments for most disorders
How many clients don’t see a benefit from therapy
30-32%
How many tend to get worse
5-10%
What is the most common disroder
Depression
Two main treatments for depression
BDT and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
65% effective
Therapy stops when…
symptoms diminish
Psychopathology results when…
Clients’ inherent capacitices for growth, fullfillment, and happiness are thwarted by socioculturual factors
Hedonic treadmill
Human tendency to return to a stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events
The hedonic treadmill exists because of two things
- Rising aspirations
- Social comparison
Percents of happiness
10% - Circumstances
40% - Intentional Activity
50% - Set Point
Hedonism (Artistippus; Epicurus)
A happy life ha[[ens when one maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain - immediate sensory gratification
Caveats; The pattern of pleasure and pain across one’s life certainly matters
Peak-End Theory; It doesn’t matter how long the experience lasts but rather peoples summary evaluations of experiences are measured by the peaks (high and low) and how it ends
Eudaimonia (Artistotle)
Being true to one’s inner self; true happiness entails identifying one’s virtues, cultivating them, and living in accordance with them.
Eudaimonia can trump pleasure and hedonism
Flow
A person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity
Characteristics:
Optimal balance between skill and challenge
Must be voluntary
Must leave us feeling invigorated or satisfied; no faux-flow
Flow leads to the building of psychological capital
Happinesss has been reconceptualized into three measurable areas
Postive emotions - the pleasant life
Engangement - the engaged life
Meaning - the meaningful life
The pleasant life
- The past
Contentment, fullfillment,pride, and serenity - The present
Savoring, and mindfulness - The future
Hope, optimism, faith, trust, and confidence
The engaged life
- Pursuit of engangement, innvolvement, and absorption in work, intimate relations, and leisure
- Achieve flow = balance of skills sufficien to meet challenges
- Flow and engagement has to be achieved with acticities that move beyond sensory pleasures
The meaningful life
- using signature strengths to belong to and serve something bigger than oneself
