Pavlov published his foundational work on classical conditioning, and psychologists closely studied the development of infants to determine factors that influence sensorimotor skills, language and cognitive function , and emotional stability as adults.
Psychologists B. Skinner and Carl Jung were both modern behaviorists , and their work deeply shapes the way we perceive and discuss personality , self-development, and habit formation. For years, psychologists had further studied the human psyche and classified groups of behaviors and attitudes into illnesses, diseases, or disorders.
Donald Clifton further dedicated research to strengths-focused assessments that changed the way we understand career fulfillment and employee engagement. Today, positive psychology is applied by professionals in a variety of fields. Organizations use positive psychology to study employee engagement, retain key talent, improve job satisfaction, and match individuals to their most effective roles within their companies.
Key research gives insight when providing constructive feedback or creating mental and physical wellness programs within the workplace. Positive psychology plays a crucial role in nearly every department, and empowers leaders to motivate employees with a better understanding of happiness.
Marketing professionals use positive psychology in the science of story. As marketers, we tap into the deepest emotions of our audiences. We speak to their past experiences, current circumstances, and future hopes and dreams. We understand the importance of identity and the value of positive communication. The next generation of psychologists such as Seligman, Ed Diener, and Mihaly Csiskzenmihalyi are working to scientifically study the effects of positive emotions and the ways in which they affect health, performance, and overall life satisfaction.
More importantly for us, their studies have shown that happiness can be taught and learned. Positive Psychology] takes you through the countryside of pleasure and gratification, up into the high country of strength and virtue, and finally to the peaks of lasting fulfillment: meaning and purpose. In contrast, Seligman extols the East Asian tendency to quietly deal with difficult situations. He cites studies that find that those who refrain from expressing negative emotions and in turn use different strategies to cope with the stresses of life also tend to be happier Seligman , p.
After making headway with these strategies for dealing with negative emotions of the past and building hope and optimism for the future, Seligman recommends breaking habituation, savoring experiences and using mindfulness as ways to increase happiness in the present.
Many studies have shown that positive emotions are frequently accompanied by fortunate circumstances e. For example, one study observed nuns who were, for the most part, leading virtually identical lifestyles. It seemed that the nuns who expressed positive emotions more intensely and more frequently in their daily journals also happened to outlive many of the nuns who clearly did not.
Another study used high school yearbook photos of women to see if the ultimate expression of happiness a smile might also be used as an indicator as to how satisfied they might be 20 years later.
In short, positive emotions are frequently paired with happy circumstances. And while we might be tempted to assume that happiness causes positive emotions, Seligman wonders, instead, whether positive emotions cause happiness. If so, what does this mean for our life and our happiness? The strengths and virtues […] function against misfortune and against the psychological disorders, and they may be the key to building resilience. He and Dr.
They used good character to measure its efficacy because good character was so consistently and strongly linked to lasting happiness. In order to remain true to their efforts to create a universal classification system, they made a concerted effort to examine and research a wide variety of religious and philosophical texts from all over the world Seligman , p.
Seligman clarifies the difference between talents and strengths by defining strengths as moral traits that can be developed, learned, and that take effort.
Talents, on the other hand, tend to be inherent and can only be cultivated from what exists rather than what develops through effort Seligman , p. For example, many people consider musical ability as more or less inherent and can only be strengthened.
On the other hand, one can cultivate the strength of patience, which can lead to the virtue of temperance. Seligman provides a detailed classification of the different virtues as well as a strengths survey that is available on his website: www. Positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, inauthenticity, depression and, as we age, to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die Seligman , p.
Here Seligman states, rather dismally, that there are no shortcuts to happiness. Investing oneself into creative work creates a greater sense of meaning in life and accordingly, a greater sense of happiness. Seligman goes one step further than Csikszentmihalyi by exploring the experience of flow and the loss of self-consciousness that is involved in acts of altruism and of kindness. Kindness […] consists in total engagement and in the loss of consciousness. The exercise of kindness is a gratification in contrast to pleasure.
As a gratification, it calls on your strengths to rise to an occasion and meet a challenge, particularly in the service of others. How can we use our strengths and virtues to achieve a meaningful life?
One example could be a gifted martial artist who experiences great pleasure in perfecting her skills in karate and winning prizes in tournaments.
McMahon, note that sages in the past have discovered some of the insights of positive psychology, often writing with more depth and eloquence. Aristotle noted that happiness is more than amusement and requires virtue and moderation.
Jesus preached gratitude and kindness. For five years, as a teacher and former head of school, I traveled around the country, talking to students about heroes and heroines of American history, acknowledging their strengths and their imperfections, and, through a Q and A, encouraging students to differentiate heroic men and women from celebrities. But I believe positive psychology relies too much on lists and practices and not enough on biographies of exemplary lives.
He has no use for the self-esteem movement in education that excludes achievement and offers facile optimism. He believes that critical thinking, the reigning goal in all schools, should be supplemented by nonintellectual strengths; that middle school students should learn to dispute catastrophic thoughts and adopt an optimistic, explanatory style; and that all students should learn life skills such as empathy, grit, and resilience.
Schools and teachers trained in positivity have improved in both achievement and mental health. It embraces history, civics, literature, journalism, education, gender relations, and religion. History is not merely a tale of woe, literature an insistence on tragedy. Fifty years ago, men dominated psychology graduate departments and studied conflict, stress, and dominance. Seligman analyzes presidential elections and concludes that the more optimistic candidate usually wins.
He predicts that the Enlightenment belief in reason, science, and progress will win out. Seligman criticizes a fearful God of the Old Testament and its nullification of human agency. In a world with less and less suffering, the crucifix, he argues, loses much of its appeal. He is, however, sympathetic to religion, recognizing that it contributes to well-being by promoting social bonds and praising kindness. At the conclusion of The Hope Circuit , Seligman repudiates skepticism and suggests there is a hope circuit in the brain that anticipates positivity in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Seligman can come across as reactionary. He criticizes the narcissism and excessive individualism that he says erupted in the s and which persist today. He stresses character more than personality. A moralist, he criticizes popular culture and people who are indifferent to great thinkers and comfortable with contentment. It has made its way into K—12 schools through a renewed emphasis on social-emotional learning.
It has influenced schools in Australia and the United Kingdom and has made inroads into corporations promoting advancement at work , the military contributing to a psychologically fit army , and hospitals boosting immune systems. Hundreds of magazine articles and dozens of books have been published on positive psychology.
Thousands of researchers have produced papers on it. Online, a reader can fill out questionnaires that probe individual well-being and recommend exercises to improve it. The International Positive Psychology Association sponsors a world congress whose members include geneticists, economists, and professors of business education.
The Nordic countries rank high. America is number eighteen. Very poor countries do not fare well. He is not, however, dogmatic. He concedes that positive psychology is a young science inclining to hyperbole. He insists on the importance of welcoming criticism. He agrees with Ed Diener, his colleague in the movement, that applying the insights of positive psychology is an art.
Seligman wants to improve the emotional life of normal people and worries that positive psychology may become a fad of the privileged at Davos and the Aspen Institute. Can positive psychology appeal to Americans who work hard at unskilled jobs, often two jobs, to clerks who are bored, to construction workers who come home tired, and who in the evening prefer entertainment?
To the majority who have a job, not a calling? Can it appeal to those who equate happiness with money and pleasure, not character or meaning? Is it utopian to expect a high percentage of men and women to center their lives around flow and meaning, wisdom and transcendence, virtue and gratitude, and to self-actualize? Still, taking into account sages of the past and common sense, recognizing our rudimentary knowledge of the brain, conceding the imperfect nature of social science techniques, and acknowledging the fallibility of human beings and the sudden swings of history, the conclusions of positive psychology can validate experience and offer hope:.
He is warm, meditative, and very articulate. Our conversation is wide-ranging. I recommend he look at Samuel Smiles, author of Self-Help and the Victorian champion of free will, character, and perseverance. My interview with Martin Seligman occurred before we knew of the coming pandemic. Scientists are starting to map the most complex structure in the universe, our brain, and to understand how billions of neurons, hundreds of genes, and dozens of hormones influence our well-being.
Positive psychology is just beginning to connect with this new frontier of human understanding. Living with a pandemic we knew was possible but believed scientists could somehow predict and prevent, we may have to settle on new watchwords— resilience and endurance. The phrase "pursuit of happiness" feature prominently in NEH-supported projects on the founding, the th anniversary of which is the object of A More Perfect Union , a major initiative at NEH.
In recent years, NEH grants have supported the development of several undergraduate courses on the nature of happiness.
Skip to main content.
0コメント