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How parents and educators can help children to overcome ADHD and childhood depression, naturally. Lifestyle changes, educational efforts can be very effective. Many professional and other resources listed. Extensive bibliograhy and index.
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Zero Water is a water filtering system that we use at home. It works great, tastes better than Poland Spring, which isn't bad. The water tastes smooth and mellow. More economical than bottled water. Recommended.
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| Page last updated: July 28, 2009 |
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What is Positive Psychology
and the Positive Psychology Movement?
Penn State University, which could be considered the home and birthplace of Positive Psychology, states,
Positive Psychology is one of the most innovative, relatively new, approaches to psychology. It involves the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The Positive Psychology Center promotes research, training, education, and the dissemination of Positive Psychology. This field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.
Positive Psychology has three central concerns: Positive emotions, which might be considered to be related to emotion psychology, positive individual traits, and positive institutions.
Understanding positive emotions entails the study of contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and hope for the future. Understanding positive individual traits consists of the study of the strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, courage, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self-knowledge, moderation, self-control, and wisdom. Understanding positive institutions entails the study of the strengths that foster better communities, such as justice, responsibility, civility, parenting, nurturance, work ethic, leadership, teamwork, purpose, and tolerance.
Another definition of Positive Psychology states:
Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology that "studies the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive". Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent", and "to make normal life more fulfilling", not to cure mental illness.
Several humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Erich Fromm developed successful theories and practices that involved human happiness. Recently the theories of human flourishing developed by these humanistic psychologists have found empirical support from studies by humanistic and positive psychologists, such as in the area of self-determination theory.
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Photo: TED: Ideas worth sharing
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/martin_seligman.html
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Current researchers in positive psychology include Martin Seligman, Ed Diener, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, , C. R. Snyder, Christopher Peterson, Barbara Fredrickson, Donald Clifton, Albert Bandura, Shelley Taylor, Charles S. Carver, Michael F. Scheier, and Jonathan Haidt.
Background and Development of Positive Psychology:
Martin Seligman is considered the father of the modern positive psychology movement, chose it as the theme for his term as president of the American Psychological Association. The term itself first originated with with Maslow, in 1954 in his book Motivation and Personality. Seligman candidly observed that for the past fifty years clinical psychology "has been consumed by a single topic only - mental illness", echoing Maslow's comments. He urged psychologists to continue the earlier missions of psychology of nurturing talent and improving normal life. This observation by Maslow and Seligman does have much relevance.
The modern practice of psychology, and especially that of
psychiatry,
has overemphasized the
medical model and drug treatment, partly because it is fast, easy, convenient, as well as profitable for both practicioners,
hospitals and drug companies.
In doing this, much of the field of
psychiatry, especially, has become one in which symptoms are determined, a label is given to the disorder, to the person, and the next consequential step usually involves
pharmaceutical treatment, with additional therapy. The opposite of positive is negative, and this negative foundation of labeling and treatment sometimes leads to a guilty until proven innocent mentality in the psychiatric world. For this reason, persons can be labelled much too hastily, and that label can put one into a mindset of compliance and apathy with regards to improving their situation.
Positive Psychology takes the opposite approach, building on strengths, searching for the positive, not assuming that a label needs to be attached unless absolutely necessary. For this reason, it can be a much more beneficial framework or sprinboard from which to begin when considering the subject of psychology, a much needed breath of fresh air, coming not too long after atypical antipsychotics were introduced into the mainstream.
The first positive psychology summit took place in 1999. The First International Conference on Positive Psychology took place in 2002.
Ideology of Positive Psychology:
Positive Psychology does reflect ideas that have been expressed in world religions and philosohpy. The ideals of
Cristo-Judaism are somewhat reflected in this framework or theory of psychology, as well as some aspects of early Greek philosophy. Positive Psychology sometimes sounds almost religious in its discussions, applied religion, minus scripture and reference to God. Like most university science, it uses terms reflective of mankind's evolutionary development, in its defense of the movement. Individualism, self-fulfillment and the pursuit of happiness are also some of the ideals embraced by the Positive Psychology movement.
The development of the Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) handbook espouses positive traits in much the same way as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the "bible" of psychiatry, catalogs symptoms and labels of mental illness.
Some of these virtues and strengths are as follows:
1. Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective
3. Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence
4. Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
5. Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control
6. Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor,
spirituality
The Ennegram Institute Discussion Board https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/forum/post.asp?method=TopicQuote&TOPIC_ID=20688&FORUM_ID=2he
References for Positive Psychology:
Positive Psychology: An Introduction, Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000
Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions, Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005
What (and Why) Is Positive Psychology?, Gable and Haidt, 2005
A Balanced Psychology and a Full Life, Seligman, Parks, & Steen, 2004
Positive Psychology in Clinical Practice, Duckworth, Steen, & Seligman, 2005
Positive Psychotherapy, Seligman, Rashid, & Parks, 2006
Positive Health, Seligman, 2008
Penn State University. Positive Psychology
http://www.ppc.sas.upenn.edu/
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