Positive psychology studies the strengths, emotions and virtues that enable people and communities to prosper and realise their potential. This article outlines the areas explored by positive psychology, and highlights how it differs from both regular psychology and positive thinking.
Defining positive psychology
Positive psychology is the science of mental wellbeing. Martin Seligman, the American psychologist and the President of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Centre, defines it as the:
“ … scientific study of optimal human functioning that aims to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive.”
In short, while regular psychology usually starts from a negative, e.g. trying to correct a weakness or imbalance, positive psychology takes the reverse approach, focussing on developing positive aspects such as potential and strengths.
Positive psychology does not try to discredit or work against regular psychology. As stated by the Positive Psychology Centre:
“Psychology’s concern with remedying human problems is understandable and should certainly not be abandoned. Human suffering demands scientifically informed solutions. Suffering and wellbeing, however, are both part of the human condition, and psychologists should be concerned with both.”
Although it is a relatively recent scientific concept (it was officially launched as a field of study in 1998), positive psychology’s themes have been debated by scholars and philosophers for centuries.
Positive psychology is not positive thinking
Positive psychology is different from positive thinking in a few key areas. The main distinction is that the former is grounded in empirical and replicable scientific study, whereas the latter tends to focus on motivational theories and concepts.
Another differentiation is that positive thinking urges an ‘up’ mindset at all times, whereas positive psychology recognises that this is not always appropriate – it advocates the use of negative or realistic thinking when necessary. In decision-making or problem-solving, for example, a negative perspective is often required to ensure objectivity or accurate risk assessment.
Finally, whereas positive thinking is often quite prescriptive in its advice, positive psychology is more descriptive. It doesn’t necessarily tell people what choices to make, but will outline the consequences of those choices so that informed and reasoned decisions can be made.
‘Happiness’ is only one aspect of positive psychology
‘Happiness’ is “the overall experience of pleasure and meaning”. It is a key aspect of positive psychology, but it is too simplistic to be its exclusive focus, as many mistakenly believe to be the case.
Instead, positive psychology examines factors relating to positive emotions, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. To adequately study these aspects requires a broader and more complex scope than merely determining what makes people ‘happy’, and are dealt with in the three levels of positive psychology.
The three levels of positive psychology
Positive psychology operates on three levels:
The subjective level – the ‘pleasant life’. Dealing with emotions, this level is about feeling good, rather than doing good or being a good person. It concerns the study of positive experiences such as joy, well-being, satisfaction, contentment, happiness and optimism.
The individual level – the ‘good life’. Sometimes referred to as the ‘engaged life’, this level looks to identify the personal qualities that are necessary to be a ‘good person’. It studies human strengths and virtues, future mindedness, capacity for love, courage, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, wisdom, and interpersonal skills.
The group level – the ‘meaningful life’. The third level examines civic virtues, social responsibilities, nurturance, altruism, civility, tolerance, work ethics, and other factors that contribute to the development of citizenship and communities. It looks at deploying one’s strengths to service something larger than oneself. For example, belonging to and serving institutions such as education, religion or even family.
Exploring positive experiences and feelings
There are many different states or mindsets a person can experience that generate positive feelings. These are never permanent, depend on the circumstances at the time, and will come and go throughout a person’s life.
Some experiences and feelings that are frequently referred to in positive psychology include:
Pleasure. In direct terms, ‘pleasure’ means to feel good. It can be intense, aroused and sharp (in which case it can be termed ‘joy’ or ‘ecstasy’) or it can be quiet, mellow or calming (and could be termed ‘contentment’ or ‘serenity’ in these instances). To comprehensively study pleasure would be to examine themes including biology, sociology, culture and emotional intelligence in order to derive why and how humans experience pleasure, and how it makes them feel.
Flow. Informally, this is known as being ‘in the zone’ and is when an individual is fully immersed in what they are doing. This could be something as simple as getting engrossed in a book to a more challenging activity such as planning an organisation’s strategy. A person in ‘flow’ will experience a sense of personal control over the activity at hand, effortlessness of action, an intrinsic natural reward from their efforts, absolute focus on the activity at hand, and complete comfort at working within their skill set and ability.
Success. Generally, ‘success’ is defined as succeeding at something. But positive psychology doesn’t take this interpretation at face value – a successful person isn’t necessarily a happy one. Instead, it examines the reciprocal relationship between success and happiness: not only can success contribute to happiness, but happiness also leads to more success.
Optimism. This can be defined as a general sense of confidence about the future, characterised by a broad expectancy that outcomes are likely to be positive. An optimist is likely to experience less distress than their counterpart, a pessimist, when dealing with difficulties in their lives. Psychologists believe that optimism is conducive to problem-focused coping, humour, making plans and of accepting the reality of a negative situation. They also believe that, while some people will be genetically disposed to optimism more than others, optimism is something that can be learned. Professional positive psychologists do not, however, consider pessimistic feelings as negative in every circumstance. As highlighted above, failure to focus on possible consequences can mean that adequate protection against risks is not taken. Pessimists are also more likely to be prepared for when things in their lives go wrong. (Although, it is likely that optimists are better equipped to take stock and recover from adversity.)
Hope. Hope is closely related to optimism, but the two are not identical. Rick Snyder, a leading thinker in the field, states that ‘hope’ represents the ability to conceptualise goals, find pathways to these goals despite obstacles, and have the motivation to follow these pathways. With its perspective of “I can do this”, it is easy to see hope as a mandatory element in positive psychology. Hope is fundamental to becoming properly motivated, and staying focussed on tasks and activities. As discussed below, hope is also thought of as a key character strength.
Virtues and character strengths
After a period of extensive research, Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson (Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan) identified and classified people’s fundamental positive psychological traits. They outline six classes of virtue, known as ‘core virtues’, each one of which is made up of measurable character strengths:
Wisdom and knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective.
Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality.
Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence.
Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership.
Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility and modesty, prudence, self-regulation.
Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humour, spirituality.
Positive psychology professionals (which include therapists, counsellors and coaches, as well as psychologists) use these virtues as a theoretical framework to assist them in developing practical applications to help individuals and communities correctly identify their strengths in order to increase and sustain their respective levels of well-being.
Finding out more about positive psychology
There are numerous useful resources devoted to the field of positive psychology that can be used to study the subject in more detail. Of particular interest are:
Reference:
Created by the University of Pennsylvania, this website is an excellent research source for both beginners and practitioners of the subject. It boasts a wealth of academic papers that are available to download, and has a helpful Frequently Asked Questions section.
Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (Oxford University Press, 2004)
This book, by two of the leading thinkers in the field, details the six core virtues of positive psychology, and the character strengths that make them up. It is considered a seminal work in the field of positive psychology.
Ilona Boniwell, Positive Psychology in a Nutshell, (PWBC, 2006)
This publication, by a senior lecturer from Oxford Brookes University, is written in an informal and easy-to-understand style, and provides a very readable overview of the subject.
Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2006)
For those seeking a more in-depth analysis of positive psychology, Christopher Peterson’s work is grounded in scientific research and provides a detailed and thorough look at the subject.
Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszenthmihalyi, ‘Positive Psychology: An Introduction’, American Psychologist, January 2000, vol. 55, pp 5-14.
Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2006), p48.
Rick Snyder, Strategies for Accentuating Hope (John Wiley and Sons, 2002), p 388.
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