Positive Psychology Therapy

12 Key excerpts on "Positive Psychology Therapy"

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  eBook - ePub

  Therapist's Guide to Positive Psychological Interventions

  • Jeana L. Magyar-Moe(Author)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Academic Press

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 4. Positive Psychological Interventions

  Research to date reveals a number of positive psychological approaches to therapy and specific activities and exercises based on the principles of positive psychology that therapists can utilize in their treatment of clients. The overarching practices of Strengths-Based Counseling, Strengths-Centered Therapy, Positive Psychotherapy, Quality of Life Therapy, Well-Being Therapy, and Hope Therapy are reviewed first. Then, a variety of individual exercises designed to promote one or more positive psychology constructs are defined.

  4.1. Positive Psychological Models of Therapy

  4.1.1. Strengths-Based Counseling

  Strengths-Based Counseling is a model for conducting therapy based on the premises of counseling psychology, prevention, positive psychology, positive youth development, social work, solution-focused therapy, and narrative therapy (Smith, 2006 ). Although the model was created specifically for use with adolescents, the principles appear applicable for use with adult populations as well. The model is based on 12 propositions (see Table 4.1 ) that outline the basic principles of Strength-Based Counseling, which is then carried out in a series of ten stages.

  Table 4.1

  Twelve Propositions that Outline the Basic Principles of Strength-Based Counseling (Smith, 2006 ).

  1. Humans are self-righting organisms who are constantly working to adapt to their environments. Strengths develop as people try to right themselves. 2. Strengths develop as a result of internal and external forces and as part of the human driving force to meet basic psychological needs. 3. All people have the capacity for strength development and for growth and change. Strength development is a lifelong process that is influenced by the interaction of individual’s heredity and the cultural, social, economic, and political environments in which they find themselves. All people have a reservoir of strengths, some of which have been tapped and others have been left unexplored and unrecognized. Strengths can be learned or taught. All people also have a natural drive for positive growth and a natural tendency to seek the realization and/or expression of their strengths and competencies.

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  Positive Psychology

  The Basics

  • Rona Hart(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Quality of Life Therapy (Frisch, 2006) defines quality of life as the “subjective evaluation of the degree to which our most important needs, goals, and wishes have been fulfilled” (p. 22). The programme combines cognitive behavioural therapy techniques with positive psychology interventions. It was initially developed for clinical populations, but today it is applied in non-clinical populations. It can be delivered in a group setting requiring 15–18 meetings, or individually with the guidance of a therapist. Research that tested the efficacy of the programme revealed that it can promote quality of life and improve symptoms of mental illness.

  The programme covers 16 life domains: health, self-esteem, learning, values, money, work, play, love, helping, children, relatives, neighbours, creativity, friends, home, and community. It also applies the CASIO model of life satisfaction as an outline for the therapy, involving:

  • Circumstances: The situations that the person is facing;
  • Attitudes: The person’s interpretation of these circumstances;
  • Standards that the person has set for fulfilment or achievement;
  • Importance: How important the situation is for the person’s happiness or wellbeing;
  • Overall satisfaction with life.

  Positive Psychotherapy

  Positive Psychotherapy (Seligman, 2018) is designed to increase wellbeing and alleviate psychopathology, through building people’s strengths and increasing positive emotions and meaning. It is mainly aimed at people who are unwell, and offered in the context of individual or group therapy.

  Positive Psychotherapy is founded on Seligman’s PERMA model of wellbeing (see Chapter 3

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  What Is the Good Life?

  Perspectives from Religion, Philosophy, and Psychology

  • Drew Collins, Matthew Croasmun, Drew Collins, Matthew Croasmun(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Baylor University Press

    (Publisher)

  Clearly, the teleology between positive psychology and Christian theology approaches differs in major ways. The telos for positive psychology might be defined as optimal function- ing, in the form of maturity or flourishing of individuals and society. In the Christian narrative, the telos is a right relationship with God through identification with the finished work of Jesus Christ. One of positive psy- chology’s distinctive contributions is an empirical test of the elements of flourishing espoused by Christianity or various other traditions advocated in this volume. For example, there is Buddhist positive psychology, Hindu positive psychology, and Muslim positive psychology. Toward that end, positive psychology is primarily, though not exclusively, concerned with the concept of mechanism: What are the processes by which practices and beliefs contribute to and promote flourishing? A Positive Psychology Vision 205 Introduction From its early days, the aim of PP has been to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from an exclusive preoccupation with remediating weak- ness and distress to amplifying human flourishing by building strengths and virtues. Historically, psychologists have known much more about problems and how to mitigate them than how to move people beyond the zero point of distress and pathology to a life that is not simply better but actually good. A positive psychological perspective advocates for a focus of scientific theory and research on understanding the entire breadth of human experience, from loss, suffering, illness, and distress to connection, fulfillment, health, flourishing, and well-being. The foundational assump- tion of PP is that the good life is not the troubled life reversed, avoided, or undone. PP has grown by leaps and bounds over the past two decades. It constitutes a vital, active, and influential field of research within psychol- ogy.

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  Virtues and Vices in Positive Psychology

  A Philosophical Critique

  • Kristján Kristjánsson(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Its official manifesto as a movement appeared three years later (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), and soon afterwards eminent University of Michigan professor Christopher Peterson was drafted as the movement’s ‘director of virtue’. To put it as succinctly as possible, positive psychology is the study of human happiness: ‘the conditions and processes that contribute to the flour- ishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions’ (Gable & Haidt, 2005, p. 104), with special emphasis on the moral virtues and character strengths that sustain a thriving, well-rounded life. Recent years have witnessed an exponential growth in the output and influence of positive psychology, a growth that amazes even its most ardent supporters. The movement has drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants, and an international conference on its ideology, held in Philadelphia during the summer of 2009, attracted fifteen hundred delegates from fifty-two countries. Some commentators say that Seligman and his colleagues are already the greatest entrepreneurs in the history of psychol- ogy and that positive psychology is the largest growth industry in psychol- ogy. At such top universities as Harvard, the positive psychology class has become the most popular psychology course offered. In an age of increasing academic fragmentation and grand narrative scepticism, in which we have been told in no uncertain terms by postmodernists that ‘Leviathans’ are out and ‘Lilliputians’ are in, there is suddenly a strong sense of a major social scientific movement in the making, with its own steering committee and manifesto. The Contexts of Positive Psychology 3 Positive psychology is a theory with enormous scope, and it leaves few of life’s stones unturned. It aims not only at revolutionising the way academic psychologists look at their subject, but also at the way we bring up our kids and how we educate them in the home and at school.

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  Well-Being

  Individual, Community and Social Perspectives

  • J. Haworth, G. Hart, J. Haworth, G. Hart(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Nowadays people studying creativity look at the community of practice from which it Positive Psychology and Well-Being 35 emerges, adopting more of a systems lens that looks at the interaction between the creative individual, the domain they are working in and the norms of the field this occurs within over time (Csikszentmihalyi 1999). Positive development In contrast a lot of the positive psychology approaches advocated so far aim at improving the well-being of individuals, for instance, identi- fying your natural strengths and trying to find work which allows you to exercise them or reframing work to give you a chance to exercise one of your main strengths, e.g. seeing most encounters as an opportunity to be kind to others. Another approach encourages people to be more appreciative and to count their blessings, for example to be thankful for several good things that happen each day before going to bed. One exercise encourages people to be explicitly grateful, for example to make a point of telling someone how grateful you are to them and why. Many positive psychology strategies stress the importance of finding and acting on meaning to obtain a fulfilled and useful life. Fava’s well- being therapy, Seligman’s work on learned optimism and Snyder’s work on developing hope use variants of cognitive-behavioural techniques to encourage people to work towards desired goals. This is of course a very Western notion of the route to happiness and well-being. Eastern spir- itual practitioners would be much more likely to advocate detachment from emotion and desires and the development of compassion towards others. One interesting theoretical approach is Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self- determination theory. This argues that autonomy, a feeling of compet- ence or mastery and relatedness with others are central human needs and that well-being is more likely when these needs are met and less likely when they are not.

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  Positive Psychology

  A Critical Introduction

  • Giovanni Moneta(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Bloomsbury Academic

    (Publisher)

  We have anticipated in Chapter 2 (section The Ratio of Positive to Negative Emotions) that Corey Keyes developed a novel conception of mental health as a continuum ranging from languishing to flourishing. The first section of this chapter reviews in greater depth the distinction between mental illness and mental health and focuses on the dynamic relation between the two constructs. Although the goal of Positive Psychology Therapy is clear and distinct from the goal of traditional therapies, there is as yet no systematic and specific Positive Psychology Therapy. Undoubtedly, the most novel and distinct form of Positive Psychology Therapy has been developed by Seligman and collaborators to target virtues and character strengths in order to become authentically happy. Chapter 4 (section Character Strengths and Virtues) reviewed the conceptual model guiding interventions aimed at improving one’s signature strengths to achieve authentic happiness. The second section of this chapter reviews some of the techniques that have been developed to achieve authentic happiness, and reviews preliminary evidence on their effectiveness. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions, which we reviewed in Chapter 2 (section The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions), posits that positive emotions can have a profound and long-lasting healing effect. Positive emotions have never been a popular topic in the field of traditional psychotherapy. Yet, in an interesting conceptual paper Barbara Fredrickson argued that the induction and manipulation of positive emotions occurs in many forms of traditional therapy, and this might be a key reason why those therapies are effective. This in turn implies that a bit of positive psychology has resided in traditional therapies well before the birth of positive psychology as an independent field of psychology

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  Current Psychotherapies

  • Danny Wedding, Raymond Corsini(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Magyar-Moe, J. L. (2009). Therapist’s guide to positive psychologi-cal interventions . New York: Elsevier Academic Press. This five-part book introduces and integrates positive psy-chology with counseling and psychotherapy. It has a good section on positive psychological tests and measures and a comprehensive chapter on several positive psychology inter-ventions, each described in detail. The final part of the book discusses ways of carrying out a treatment plan infused with positive psychology. Flückiger, C., Wusten, G., Zinbarg, R., & Wampold, B. (2009). Resource activation: Using clients’ own strengths in psychother-apy and counseling . Boston: Hogrefe. This 68-page guide offers practical clinical strategies that will help clinicians ask meaningful questions assist clients in iden-tify their character strengths. The book emphasizes that the activation of client resources by focusing on strengths is not incompatible with distress remediation. Stephen, J., & Linley, A. (2006). Positive therapy: A meta-theory for positive psychological practice . London: Routledge. From two leading voices in the applied positive psychology field, this book argues that therapy is not so much about what you do as how you do it, emphasizing the influence of the views clinicians hold about human nature. Niemiec, R., & Wedding, D. (2013). Positive psychology at the movies: Using films to build virtues and character strengths (2nd ed.). Boston: Hogrefe. This book uses films as a vehicle to introduce students to the core principles of positive psychology. An exhaustive appen-dix lists hundreds of films that offer particularly good exam-ples of virtues and character strengths. Conoley, C. W., & Scheel, J. M. (2017). Goal focused posi-tive psychotherapy: A strengths-based approach.

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  Frameworks for Practice in Educational Psychology, Second Edition

  A Textbook for Trainees and Practitioners

  • Barbara Kelly, Lisa Marks Woolfson, James Boyle(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Jessica Kingsley Publishers

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 14 Positive Psychology as a Framework for Practice Stephen Joseph Introduction

  The aim of this chapter is to discuss the application of the Positive Psychology framework to educational psychology, and in particular to reflect on how Positive Psychology leads us to reflect on the fundamental assumptions underpinning practice. There have always been psychologists who have been interested in understanding optimal functioning, most notably the humanistic psychologists, but it is only within the past two decades that interest in this has developed among a new generation of psychological practitioners and scholars who identify themselves as positive psychologists. The term ‘Positive Psychology’ was used by Martin E.P. Seligman in his presidential address to the American Psychological Association (APA) (Seligman 1999) in order to describe his vision for the future of psychological science. Seligman realised that psychology had largely neglected the latter two of its three pre-Second World War missions: curing mental illness, helping all people to lead more productive and fulfilling lives, and identifying and nurturing high talent. It was with that realisation that Seligman stated: ‘The aim of positive psychology is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities’ (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000, p.5).

  In this chapter I will consider the implications of Positive Psychology for educational psychologists (EPs). I will begin by discussing, first, practical applications of Positive Psychology to educational psychology – in particular, how Positive Psychology can inform the everyday practice of educational psychology through its explicit focus on the positive side of human experience. I will then go on to consider theoretical perspectives about how Positive Psychology provokes re-examination of the fundamental assumptions underpinning the practice of educational psychology.

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  21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook

  • Stephen F. Davis, William Buskist, Stephen F. Davis, William F. Buskist(Authors)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  The results of posi-tive psychology research have a tremendous potential to facilitate optimal human functioning, but just like clinical psychology practice, it is critical that the applied practice of positive psychology be firmly grounded in empirical sci-ence. Efforts have been made in recent years to highlight how the findings of positive psychology might be used most appropriately in applied settings, but the degree to which “life coaches” or other purported positive psychology prac-titioners follow such guidelines is unclear. Although life coaches may use the findings of positive psychology and be helpful to clients, they are not bound by any licensing or ethical standards and are not necessarily pursuing the scientific exploration of positive psychology topics. Although positive psychology is broadly conceived as the study of the factors that make life worth living, three particular areas of study have been identified as the “pil-lars” of positive psychology and have been the focus of the majority of positive psychology research to date (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000): (a) the study of positive sub-jective experiences or positive emotions (e.g., contentment and joy), (b) the study of positive individual differences or traits (e.g., hope and curiosity), and (c) the study of positive institutions (e.g., good schools and healthy work-places). Most research to date has focused on examining the first two of these pillars, and we will do the same in this chapter. Specifically, we will discuss the current state of research in the areas of positive emotions, character strengths, and positive mental health. Positive Emotions Some positive psychology scholars have begun to explore questions about the potency and potentialities of positive emotions.

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  Psychology Applied to Modern Life

  Adjustment in the 21st Century

  • Wayne Weiten, Dana Dunn, Elizabeth Hammer(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  This subfield emerged as a reaction to the larger discipline’s predominant focus on psychological problems. By providing needed balance, positive psychology can encourage people to fo- cus on the positive aspects of daily living. ● Although it is a new area, many of the issues positive psychol- ogy explores have been studied outside the mainstream areas of the discipline for some time. Positive psychology provides an organiz- ing framework for older and newer concepts related to well-being and the good life. ● Positive psychology explores three related lines of behavioral research: positive subjective experiences (such as good mood and positive emotions), positive individual traits (including hope, resil- ience, and gratitude), and positive institutions (such as beneficial work environments, good schools, and solid families). POSITIVE SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES ● Positive subjective experiences entail the positive but usually private thoughts and feelings people have about their lives. Positive moods are global, longlasting reactions to events, whereas positive emotions are accute, distinct responses that last for shorter periods of time. Positive moods and emotions promote particular thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. ● Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build model explains why positive emotions lead to new and beneficial ways of thinking and acting. Whereas negative emotions narrow people’s thoughts, positive ones widen people’s perspectives, creating future emotional and intellectual resources in the process. ● Flow is a psychological state marked by complete involvement and engagement with interesting, challenging, and intrinsically rewarding activities. Flow occurs when a person’s skills are bal- anced by challenges that are just manageable. ● Mindful behavior is marked by attention and response to novel features of daily experience, whereas mindlessness occurs when individuals engage in familiar or rote actions that require little ac- tive thought.

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  Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Positive Psychology

  • Ciarrochi, Joseph V., Kashdan, Todd B.(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Context Press

    (Publisher)

  In ACT, mindfulness serves two main pur- poses: to overcome psychological barriers that get in the way of acting on your core values and to help you engage fully in the experience when you are acting on your values. Thus the outcome ACT aims for is mindful, values-guided action. In technical terms, this is known as “psychological flexibility,” an ability that ACT sees as the very foundation of a rich, full, and meaningful life. What Is Positive Psychology? Instead of being viewed as a movement or a paradigm shift, positive psy- chology is best viewed as a mobilization of attention and financial resources to previously ignored topics (Duckworth, Steen, & Seligman, 2005). For decades, psychology has emphasized the reduction of distress Mindfulness & Acceptance for Positive Psychology 4 and disorder. While this emphasis has led to efficacious treatments for a variety of psychological problems, the primary reasons for living have been ignored. Nobody lives to be merely free of distress and disorder, and the positive is not merely the absence of distress and disorder. There are other ingredients to a life well lived, and these ingredients have been the focus of positive psychology research and practice. When first introduced to the world, Seligman and Csiksentmihalyi (2000) mapped out the terrain covered by positive psychology. The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about valued experiences: well-being, contentment, and satisfaction (in the past); hope and opti- mism (for the future); and flow and happiness (in the present). At the personal level, it is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal competence, perseverance, forgive- ness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, and wisdom. At the group level, it is about the civic virtues and institutions that move indi- viduals toward better citizenship: responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, tolerance, and work ethic.

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  The Science and Application of Positive Psychology

  • Jennifer S. Cheavens, David B. Feldman(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Finally, the subjective-individual quadrant (on the upper left) encompasses inter- ventions addressing individuals’ thoughts and feelings. As such, these interventions fit most people’s typical impression of psychotherapy. Developers of PPIs in this cate- gory have generally taken two stances: Some have proposed modifications to existing therapies, while others have created new methods. Adopting the first stance, Alex Harris and colleagues (2007) suggest that ther- apists should “infuse counseling with a strength orientation” (p. 5). In particular, they suggest that therapists should pay careful attention to the language they use with clients. Framing problems using strengths-based language may not significantly change what therapists do, they argue, but it might alter the tone of the messages they deliver. For example, in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), therapists often present a technique known as cognitive restructuring as a way of changing their cli- ents’ distorted, negative thinking. From a positive-psychology perspective, however, therapists could describe this technique as a method for learning more constructive and helpful ways of thinking. In fact, Harris, Thorsten, and Lopez argue that the en- tire therapeutic endeavor should be presented as a way of increasing satisfaction with life rather than decreasing dissatisfaction. Indeed, preliminary studies of patients with mood and anxiety disorders show that bringing a strengths-based orientation to CBT improves outcomes over tradition- al CBT approaches (Flückiger et al., 2009; Flückiger & Grosse Holtforth, 2008). In one study (Cheavens et al., 2012), clients with Major Depressive Disorder received 16 weeks of CBT, with one important catch: Half received CBT techniques designed to compensate for their weaknesses, and half received CBT techniques designed to capitalize on their strengths.

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