Positive Psychology For Dummies

Averil Leimon, Gladeana McMahon

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780470721360
• eBook ISBN: 9781119996965
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Why do some people achieve greater success and happiness than others? The key is positive psychology.

For most of its history, psychology has focused mainly on the darker side of human behaviour - depression, anxiety, psychosis and psychopathic behaviour. In 1998, Martin Seligman became president of the American Psychological Association and inspired a movement to focus on the positives in human behaviour.

Positive Psychology For Dummies:

• Taps into the burgeoning media focus on happiness and positive mental attitude
• Provides key information on the origins, theory, methods, practitioners and results of positive psychology
• Demonstrates how to understand what makes you tick, how to hone positive emotions and how to use positive philosophy for success in both your personal and working lives.
• Is perfect for a wide audience, from those wanting to get more out of their life, to psychology students or counsellors

About the author

Gladeana McMahon is co-author of Performance Coaching For Dummies. She is regarded as one of the UK's top ten coaches.
Averil Leimon is co-author of Performance Coaching For Dummies. She is a business psychologist and a leading UK leadership coach.

Part I

Getting to Grips: Introducing Positive Psychology

In this part . . .

This Part provides you with an overview of what positive psychology is all about, and lets you in on what to expect from the book. Here’s where you come to find out what positive psychology is and how it differs from your usual psychology. Check out the number of ways positive psychology can be used, and use this part to decide which bits interest you most. Read here, too, about the impact of positive thinking on health, happiness and wellbeing.

Chapter 1

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

In This Chapter

Finding out about positive psychology

Seeing where positive psychology applies

Recognising the benefits of being positive

So what is this positive psychology you have heard about, and how relevant is it to your life? It has been quite traditional for people to consider you a bit stupid if you take a positive, optimistic view of life. They assume that you are just not getting the picture, that you are naive and don’t have a realistic view of life. Positive psychology has changed all that. At last there is a growing body of evidence that says something different: that being positive is an appropriate and constructive behaviour that is more likely to lead to success and wellbeing, and that there are ways of thinking and behaving that you should cultivate in order to have a good life. This chapter gives you the basics of positive psychology – the story of how it came about, some of the findings and what may interest you elsewhere in the book.

Putting the Positive in Psychology

Positive psychology is the scientific study of what enhances life. It is all about building positive experiences, positive traits and positive organisations, leading to an increased quality of life for people. Here is how it began.

Looking for a message

You find the name of Martin Seligman appearing repeatedly when people talk about positive psychology. When he became President of the American Psychological Association (with the biggest vote in the history of that organisation) he had already contributed hugely to the realm of psychology, developing theories that were widely respected by the psychology profession. However, as the new president, he looked for a theme to focus on. While gardening with his young daughter Nikki, Seligman had a moment of revelation after she advised him to try ‘to stop being such a grouch’. As a result he decided to embark on the ‘scientific study of optimal human functioning’ – that is, what it was that made people thrive.

Seligman described psychology as ‘losing its way’ after the Second Word War. Because of the need for remedial treatment at that time, and the consequent government funding available, psychology focused almost exclusively on what went wrong in people rather than on how to access and maximise the very best of people’s potential – especially for positive emotions such as happiness.

Being authentically happy

Initially, Seligman’s work focused on what it took to be truly and genuinely happy. He initially proposed three routes to happiness, through living:

The pleasant life

The engaged life

The meaningful life

You can find out more about these ways of living in Chapters 6–8.

Positive psychology has developed rapidly since Seligman’s original work through research into a vast array of areas such as mapping human strengths, measuring wellbeing, the development of wisdom and the development of positive health.

Building an evidence-based case

We don’t mean to get too heavy right away but we want you to be very clear about one thing – this is sound, serious stuff. It is real psychology with all the usual emphasis on research and data. It isn’t some happy-clappy, hippy, ‘just smile and be positive’ nonsense! It isn’t about putting on a happy face, whistling a merry tune and hoping for the best. We are talking real science, heavy research and big studies. The aim is to make all that accessible to you so you can start to get the benefit without having to drag you into too much science, but you would miss out on some of the fun if you didn’t know about the amazing research findings that underpin everything we say throughout the book.

So is everything else negative psychology?

But what is all the fuss about this positive version of psychology? After all, we don’t usually refer to the rest of psychology as negative psychology, do we? Yet that is what psychology has come to mean to many people: the study of the abnormal, of what goes wrong in life, of your deepest fears and all the dark, deep underpinnings of the mind that you would rather weren’t brought to light. It isn’t an accurate reflection of the body of psychological work over the years, but people still tend to back ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Part I: Getting to Grips: Introducing Positive Psychology
• Part II: Doing the Time Warp: Past, Present and Future
• Part III: What Positive Psychology Can Do
• Part IV: Positive Psychology in the Real World
• Part V: The Part of Tens