The Intrigue of Positive Psychology and Why You Should Make It a Part of Your Life Part 1

Simply put, “Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living” (Peterson, 2008).

In a few more words Peterson states (2008),

Positive psychology is a scientific approach to studying human thoughts, feelings, and behavior, with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses, building the good in life instead of repairing the bad, and taking the lives of average people up to “great” instead of focusing solely on moving those who are struggling up to “normal”.

Dr. Martin Seligman is often called the Father of Positive Psychology. But to many, he is one of the leading researchers in the whole field of psychology. Seligman created an evidence-based model to explore optimal human functioning and lasting wellbeing. Positive psychology focuses on helping individuals use their character strengths to identify their vision of what they want and turn it into reality. The basic idea is that to work towards a state of contentment, we must first understand how a pleasant, engaged, and meaningful life looks. Seligman originally believed in doing so by highlighting individual strengths and leveraging them to help people achieve their personal definition of happiness. Instead of using happiness, he now refers more frequently to flourishing, which he and other researchers have found to be more easily measured. Seligman also added accomplishment to his early definition of positive psychology, claiming that most people seek to feel a sense of achievement in order to function optimally.

One of the benefits of practicing a positive psychological outlook is SUCCESS! Not only does success make us happier, but feeling happy and experiencing positive emotions actually increases our chances of success.

(Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005).

More On the Founder: Martin Seligman

You might have heard of Dr. Seligman, as his research formed the foundation for the theory of learned helplessness during the 1960s and 70s. Learned helplessness explains how humans and animals can learn to become helpless and feel they have lost control over what happens to them. Seligman connected this phenomenon with depression, noting that many people suffering from depression feel helpless as well. His work on the subject provided inspiration, ideas, and evidence to back up many treatments for depressive symptoms, as well as strategies for preventing depression. Tired of the negative bent of the psychology research conducted at the time, Seligman reasoned that, if helplessness can be learned, so too should positive traits like optimism. He believed that if helplessness encourages depression, so too may optimism encourage resilience. He was right! Seligman’s findings became the groundwork for his resilience programs administered widely to children and members of the military.

In 1998, Seligman was elected president of the American Psychological Association. He proposed a new subfield of psychology with a focus on what is life-giving rather than life-depleting. The foundational paper of this new field, positive psychology, was published in 2000 by Seligman and the “founding father” of flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Since 2000, thousands of researchers around the world have established a base for the application of positive principles to coaching, teaching, relationships, work, and other life domains.

*This is the first of two parts for this article. Please continue reading Part 2 of this article here.