For the Love of Counseling Theories: Positive Psychology

(criticalscience, 2011)

Founders: Martin Seligman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The following video of Dr. Seligman gives a brief description of Positive Psychology...

(youtube, 2009)

Dr. Seligman is currently the director and founder of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, his following website called Authentic Happiness is very insightful, check it out...ttp://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

(authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu, 2006)

Definition: Wikipedia 2013 defines Positive Psychology in Dr. Seligman's words, "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving individuals, families, and communities." Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent" and "to make normal life more fulfilling", rather than merely treating mental illness (Wikipedia, 2013)

Goals: Also according to Wikipedia 2013, Positive psychologists are concerned with four topics: positive experiences, enduring psychological traits, positive relationships

and positive institutions.

Methods: Some methods include short happiness questionnaires, to long detailed questionnaires. "Happiness" encompasses many different emotional and mental phenomena. One method of assessment is Ed Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale. This 5-question survey corresponds well with impressions from friends and family, and low incidences of depression (academicroom.com, 2013). Seligman and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania developed positive psychotherapy as a way to treat depression by building positive emotions, character strengths, and sense of meaning, not just by reducing negative symptoms such as sadness. According to academicroom.com 2103, this therapy uses a combination of 12 exercises (a few are named below) that can be practiced individually or in groups:

Using your signature strengths. Identify your top five strengths and try to use them in some new way daily.
Three good things. Every evening, write down three good things that happened that day and think about why they happened.
Gratitude visit. Write a letter to someone explaining why you feel grateful for something they’ve done or said. Read the letter to the recipient, either in person or over the phone.

Key Terms: Flow, mindfulness, optimism, the good life, helplessness

The next video of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains the FLOW state of being.