POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

There is a relatively new field of study in Psychology that is focused on the understanding and building of human strengths. This approach is called Positive Psychology or Strength Psychology. The aim of Positive Psychology is to help people grow, on a continuum from languishing or being in a state of constant sameness, to flourishing. This fresh methodology is considered to be a complement to traditional Psychology, which tends to emphasize healing the damage an individual has accumulated. Proponents of Positive Psychology have difficulty with conventional Psychology, viewing it’s focus on illness and problems like depression or stress as being a negative approach to healing.

Dr. Martin Seligman, PhD., at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of “Authentic Happiness” is the most highly identified proponent of Positive Psychology. He believes that by celebrating what’s right within and around us, we can release a positive energy that can help transform what’s wrong. Dr. Seligman believes anyone can learn to develop a positive attitude towards life, regardless of his/her background, experience or culture. Once this positive focus is developed into a habit, they would then ask themselves, when faced with unpleasant circumstances, “what’s right with this situation?” instead of only asking “what’s wrong here?”. The key being that the person now would have a vision of what is possible. This is not to say that people should ignore or discount their problems. Rather, the goal is to educate us on the value of positive emotions as an effective aspect of mental health.

Researchers are beginning to demonstrate that by applying our positive emotions to a situation, we’re able to bring about an openness that fosters freedom, creativity, exploration and even fun. This is in contrast to negative emotions that are known to cause physical and psychological tension. In other words, stress!

Certainly the negative emotions we feel at times are legitimate and adaptive. This means that they evolved because they served a useful purpose to our survival, such as helping humans protect themselves from attack. However, these negative emotions can also cause us to focus narrowly resulting in less flexible behaviour. Examples of negative emotions include fear, anger and guilt.

There is growing evidence that suggests that positive emotions help us broaden our ability to think and act appropriately as well as build durable personal resources, such as wisdom, courage, decision-making and empathy. Examples of positive emotions include joy, love/affection and gratitude.

Over the past few years, Dr. Fredrickson and Dr. Diener, two of the distinguished Psychologists mentioned later in this article, have each presented their work to members of the BC Psychological Association and other mental health workers. Dr. Ed Diener, PhD., is a well-known educator and researcher, whose research focuses on several areas, most notably, the measurement of subjective well-being.

Subjective well-being is the scientific name for how people evaluate their lives. People can evaluate their lives in terms of life satisfaction or feelings of fulfillment, in terms of evaluating their marriage or work, or in terms of their ongoing emotional feelings about what is happening to them. Many scientists prefer the term "subjective well-being to the word "happiness" because it is an umbrella term that includes the various types of evaluation of one's life one might make - including self-esteem, joy, fulfillment and so forth. The key is that the person himself/herself is making the evaluation of life - not experts, philosophers, or others. Thus, the person is the expert here: Is my life going well, according to the standards that I choose to use?

Author and researcher Dr. John Gottman, PhD., has developed a ‘cost-benefit’ ratio to explain how we are affected by positivity and negativity. He determined that humans are predisposed to react much more strongly to a negative. What this means is that losses affect us more than do gains. In effect, the negatives that we feel weigh more to us than the positives. Therefore, he proposes that it actually takes six positive statements, thoughts or feelings to counteract just one negative statement, thought or feeling. At that point, Dr. Gottman believes we would simply be at a state of neutrality or zero on a feeling scale. To achieve a positive score of plus one on this scale, a person would have to experience 7 positives to make up for every single negative!

In the end, if the assessment of our current state is that we are unhappy, or over-stressed, it is most likely due to a lack of personal strength being brought on by the amount of negativity surrounding us and within us. One possible solution to this state of unhappiness could be to help build–up our own strength by learning skills that will assist us in remaining focused on our positive emotions.

So, for your first strengthening and transformative lesson, the next time you experience doubt about yourself or something else, rather than reciting the common skeptical expression “I’ll believe it when I see it”, which keeps you stuck because ‘it’ may or may not ever happen, try saying “I know I won’t be able to see it until I first believe it to be possible”!

By tapping into your optimism and conviction, you enhance the strengths you need to propel yourself forward. Continuing to think in a positive manner soon becomes a healthy habit resulting in a sense of personal strength and well-being.

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, PhD., another researcher in this area, has found that positive emotions are an active ingredient within trait resilience. Trait resilience is a strength, and describes an individual who is able to bounce back quickly from a difficult circumstance. These individuals achieve this resilience precisely because they can and do actually access their positive emotions.

Therefore, if the negative emotions narrow our perspective and positive emotions broaden it, positive emotions should be efficient and effective antidotes for the lingering aftereffects of those negative ones. Furthermore, this resilience might be able to help buffer depression and fuel post-crisis recovery and growth.

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