Positive Psychology is a movement that has become very popular in recent years and that began in the 1990s. It is the branch of psychology that has as its main focus the study and work of the strengths, virtues and talents of people , which contribute to smooth operation and enable both individuals and communities to flourish.
The main themes they include are happiness, stamina, well-being, flow state and commitment. It was headed by a former president of the American Psychological Association, Martin Seligman.
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Throughout most of its history, traditional psychology has been concerned with identifying and remedying human ills or ailments. It has largely focused on emotional distress and maladaptive behaviors, and generally ignoring positive and optimal functioning. Rather, the goal of positive psychology is to identify and empower the human strengths and virtues that make life worth living with excitement and enthusiasm. Unlike other new positive thinking movements that are associated with people like Norman Vincent Peale or Rhonda Byrne ("The Secret"), Positive Psychology seeks to find scientifically proven information about the reasons that make life more rewarding to live it . It focuses on measuring the aspects of the human condition that lead to happiness and emotional fulfillment..
Leaving aside a focus primarily on distress, sadness, disorder, and dysfunction, positive psychology shifts its scientific vision toward well-being, health, and optimal functioning. Positive psychology provides a different point of view through understanding the human experience.
Look at recent events, and suggest that problems in psychological functioning may be more profitable to treat as the absence of them, rather than making a diagnosis of mental illness. The main demand of positive psychology is that the study of health and well-being, which at bottom is as worthy of study as a disease, a dysfunction or anguish.
After years of study, different strengths associated with the satisfaction of a positive life have been described: resilience (the ability to flexibly assume extreme situations and overcome them), sense of humor, creativity, generosity, optimism , gratitude, hope, flow (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi), love and forgiveness, among others. The researchers called them "strengths of the heart." On the other hand, strengths associated with knowledge, such as love of learning and curiosity, correlate with somewhat less satisfaction with life (Park, Peterson & Seligman, 2005).
For this reason, Martin Seligman, explains the "PERMA" model, which are the five pillars to achieve personal satisfaction and happiness:
It is related to the amount of positive emotions experienced throughout the day, those sensations, no matter how small, that make us feel good. People who think positive, in addition to enjoying life more and feeling much better about themselves and others, achieve superior performance in life. It is important to learn to generate positive and cultivate emotions such as joy, interest, pride, recreation, serenity, hope, gratitude, wonder, inspiration and love, as it will help us deal with our negative emotions and the difficult events that we face on a daily basis.
It refers to the level of involvement of a task, activity or situation from a positive attitude. For this it is important that, even if the task is not to our liking, we must try to find a way to turn it into something positive, a situation that can be transformed with the use of our strengths. When this occurs, the individual experiences the famous "flow" state..
People are social animals and we need to have good relationships to maintain our optimal level of well-being. Whether they are relationships with a partner, friends, family ... the question is to nurture and take care of relationships with those people who give us positive feelings and moments.
It speaks to us of the feeling or belief of belonging and serving something higher, of finding the purpose for life, of going beyond oneself. Believing that the meaning of our existence is useful for something greater than ourselves, helps us to feel that we transcend the actions of our daily life in each one of us. Whether at the political, religious, professional family level or to save the planet, defining a meaning and giving a purpose to our projects and occupations, offers us the opportunity to act coherently and establish the priorities and values on the basis of which we want to live.
Finally, this characteristic tells us about knowing how to recognize our own successes, even if they seem insignificant, to make the positive moments and feelings related to them aware. Human beings have the need to feel competent and act with autonomy. Setting goals, developing our self-control and pursuing achievements in our lives, of whatever kind, help us to maintain continuous growth in addition to developing our potential..
The science of positive psychology operates on three different levels:
The subjective level includes the study of positive experiences such as joy, well-being, satisfaction, contentment, happiness, optimism and the state of flow. This level is about feeling good, rather than doing good or being a good person..
At the next level, the individual level, the objective is to identify the components of the "good life" and the personal qualities that are necessary to be a "good person", through the study of human strengths and virtues, the capacity for love, courage, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, wisdom, interpersonal skills and giftedness.
Finally, at the group or community level, it emphasizes civic virtues, social responsibilities, caring, altruism, courtesy, tolerance, work ethic, positive institutions, and other factors that contribute to the development of citizenship. and the communities.
Some of the main findings of positive psychology include:
Positive psychology can have quite a few real-world applications in areas such as education, therapy, self-help, stress management, and work issues. The use of positive psychology strategies in teachers, coaches, therapists and managers, can motivate others and help people understand and develop their personal strengths.
Still, we must keep in mind that positive psychology does not involve ignoring the real problems people face that other areas of psychology strive to address. "The value of positive psychology is to complement and expand the problem-focused psychology that has been dominant for many decades.".
6 VIRTUES AND 24 STRENGTHS by Martin Seligman
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