Positive: Assumptions + Therapy: Debate + Evaluate

what are the 3 assumptions of the positive approach

• acknowledgment of free will

• authenticity of goodness + excellence

• focus on good life

what is the assumption: acknowledgment of free will

• good life can be enhanced by enhancing individual strength + control over wellbeing

recognizing strengths + weaknesses

• happiness is accessible to all and we have the free will to engage in activities to increase happiness

• diner conducted a study to see factors affecting happiness - strong relationship with familly

what is a example of relationship formation for authenticity of goodness and excellence

individuals have the free will to continue activities which may increase their happiness and so entering into and mainting a relationship allows individuals to develop + express their signature strengths

what is the assumption: authencity of goodness + excellence?

• believes behaviors is too focused on negative aspects of behaviors like depression and needs to spend equal time of the positive behaviors

• Seligman argues in order to transform our lives we must enhance our individual significant strengths

• must celebrate the good than magnifying the bad

• focusing on traits that produce goodness + excellence will act as a buffer from future mental health problems

what is a example for relationship forming for the good life?

• Seligman suggest one element of the good life is positive connection to others

• happiness + good life comes from pursing activities that absorb and engage us and for many its is relationships that achieve this

• when people first enter a relationship they become obsessed and absorbed which may lead to them experiencing a good life

what is a good life

pursuing activities that positively absorb and engage us

what is the assumption: focus on the good life

• selginan states that a good life is engaging in activities to reach flow

• good life is a combination of 3 elements: positivie connection toothers, positivie indiviuals and life regulation quantities

what is meant by having a positive connection to others, according to seligman

• encompasses our ability to love, forgive and develop spiritual connections with ourselves and others

How does the assumption, authencity of goodness + excellence, apply to mindfulness

the assumption believes that individuals strive to achieve a greater life fulfilment by developing natural strengths

Mindfulness aims to enhance a person’s positive characteristics through ‘acceptance-based methods’ which encourage individual to develop core virtues like gratitude + flexibility

how does the assumption, acknowledgment of free will, apply to mindfulness

mindfulness enhances self regulation and encourages people to gain control of their thoughts + emotions , to develop a more productive attitudes

taking control of our feelings is central to increasing life satisfaction and contentment

what are the main components of mindfulness?

• gaining control of thoughts

• meditations + mindful breathing

• informal practices of mindfulness

what is significant about gaining control of thoughts during mindfulness?

• mindfulness trains us to focus on our present thoughts and emotions as we are too focused on past or contemplating future

• goal of focusing on the present is to gain greater awareness of negative thoughts that often dominate thinking

• negative automatic thinking leads to depression + anxiety → mindfulness helps individuals notice these and alter reactions

whats significant about meditation and mindful breathing during mindfulness?

• sitting meditation is most effective as it physically removes an individual from daily interaction of life

• getting a client to focus on their breathing will encourage them to pay attention to body sensation, thoughts and emotions → prevents intrusive thoughts

• helps reprocess their internal experiences and help to accept thoughts are temporary → come and go, shouldn’t react

what’s significant about informal practices of mindfulness?

• informal practice involves paying attention to your surroundings and making the conscious decision to focus on the single task

• e.g. noticing the water fall on your skin during shower

• if thoughts begin to wander, they must return back

Evaluate Mindfulness : Mindfulness based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

• MBCT is effective in preventing preventing patients who suffer recurrent depression from relapse

• Teasdale et al 2000

  • evaluated effectivness among 145 recurrently depressed patients

  • patients were randomly selected to have usual treatment or usual; treatment + 8 classes of MBCT

  • MBCT was most effective on those who suffered the most previous episodes

  • no effect on those who only had 1 episode

Evaluating Mindfulness: Group vs Individual Mindfulness

• mindfulness most effective in group setting

• Mantizios investigated group vs individual mindfulness among participants who want to loose weight

  • 170 were randomly selected and allocated for 6 weeks

  • participants who were in group setting lost more weight and lowered their levels of cognitive behavioral avoidance (avoiding social activities)

Evalauting Mindfulness: Ethics - positive approach to therapy

• client anxiety is avoided → mindfulness doesn’t drag up the past as an explanation for present

• doesn’t attribute current issues to past event → lack of determinist view is good for client

• Cognitive based therapies can result in clients feeling guilty about thinking but mindfulness teaches clients acceptance

Evaluating Mindfulness: Ethics - Mindfulness + Morality

• for those who practice mindfulness , essential in maintaining moral + ethical standards

• taught in organization to enhance leadership skills as at the heart of practise lies decision making

• study shows those with high levels in mindfulness were less likely to cheat in tasks as they uphold ethical standards

• improving our state of mind through mindfulness will result in us becoming more moral → utopian society

Evaluating Mindfullness: Risk Factors

• Mindfulness is harmful to certain people

• Thompson, Vujanovic, Feinstein

  • found individuals with a history of trauma who engage in mindfulness meditation have lead to intensification of dissociative experiences, detachment

  • highlight trauma or result in triggering trauma related response which may harm the person → decrease QoL

Evaluate Mindfulness: comparison to other therapies

• in comparison to Drug therapy its not as effective for acute situations

• mindfulness takes long and must master meditation for it to work effectively but drug therapy works within seconds

• Case study: Aerophobia

• DT gives instant relief

Whats the contemporary debate for positive approach?

Relevancy of positive psychology in today society

Positive Psychology is relevant in todays society - education

• Seligman proposed that Positive psychology curriculum can promote skills + strengths, produce measurable improvements in students wellbeing + behaviors and facilitate engagement in learning + behaviors

• Penn Resiliency Program supports Seligman claims. students on the programme showed reduced symptoms of depression compared to control. after 24 month intervention, 22% (program) vs 44% (control)

• another research were 347 students were randomly assigned to PPC class or not in which the students, parents and teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire. it found that the PCC students were more cooperative and better social skills.

Positive Psychology is relevant to society: Work

• Czikzentmihalyi’’s work shows that work can be major source of happiness when both challenge and skills are high - person is enjoying the moment but also learning new skills and increasing self esteem

• found that most people experience “flow” 3 times more during work than leisure

  • work environment provides more opportunity for positive experiences

  • if workers admitted themselves that work can be enjoyable they might work more effectively → improve QoL

Positive Psychology is relevant to today’s society: Health

Kubzansky + Thurston (2007)

• followed more than 6,000 men and women aged 25 to 74 for 20 years

• found that participants with high emotional vitality ( sense of enthusiasm and hopefulness in life) are at reduced risk or coronary heart disease

• coronary heart disease is when width of the arteries decrease so less blood is pumped

Positive Psychology isn’t relevant to today’s society: Education

• there is a lack of empirical evidence for effectiveness of PPC programmes

• Spence + Short argue that research is based on short term intervention and need for long term research - Seligman admitted to further long term research required for effectiveness of different cultures + socio-economical backgrounds

• school has limited budgets and so if positive psychology is incorporated it means other courses may be dropped → society ends up paying more for students to leave with less qualifications

Positive Psychology isn’t relevant in todays society: Work

• in societies where people are poor, money is more important and work is important for money rather than happiness → poorer people will choose work for money and not to find flow

• Myers + Diner found a +12 correlation between happiness and money

Positive Psychology isn’t relevant in today’s society : Leisure + Lifestyle

• leisure activies may increase flow but they are prohibited to many due to lack of dedicated time for leisure or because of the financial cost they incur

• difficult to asses the impact that movements such as Action for Happiness has on UK society - all variables need to be controlled to conduct objective research

  • might be wealthier people attracted to such movements and so beneficial outcomes are due to wealth than programme causing happiness

Positive Psychology isn’t relevant to today’s society : Health

• difficult to prove cause and effect between happiness and health - are people healthy because they are happy or are they happy because they are healthy

• positive psychology could be significant influence in health sector but isn’t taken seriously due to difficulty understanding clear cause + effects

Economical implications of Contemporary debate

• 1) high costs to business and economy

  • staff sickness + staff turnover costing £26 billion per year to UK economy

• 2) Oswald et al 2009 found happy workers were 12% more productive

• 3) increase in happiness may cost alot but save more in long term

  • Boorman Review estimated NHS saving £555 million with healthier work environment

  • Google found that the cost of increasing maternity leave from 3 months to 5 months , lowered staff turnover as less female staff left due to happy conditions

positive psychology must demonstrate benefits on wider scale so employers will introduce such investments

Evaluate Positive Approach - Acknowledges Free Will

STRENGTH

• believes they have the personal freedom to grow and develop their natural strengths and virtues

• psychology has been criticized for its determinist view but positive psychology questions validity of some traditional approaches which display determinist views

• traditional psychology believes the past determines present - Seligman belies such pessimism obstructs proper development

• positive psychology recognizes humans aren’t victims of their past and they posses character strengths and virtues which they must develop to enhance life → results in control over mental health and wellbeing

• free will isn’t only an option but a necessity to leading a contented life → can only achieve when they realize they have the free will to elicit change

Evaluate Positive Approach - Effectiveness of Therapy

STRENGTH

• NICE recommends mindfulness and approves it

• Mindfulness has shown to be effective in reducing relapse in recurrent depression

• this can help improve the quality of life for individuals → increase long term wellbeing

Evaluating Positive Approach - Scientific Value?

WEAKNESS

• happiness is subjective and can differ between person and so its difficult to measure happiness

• Myers + Diener ‘s literature review looked at factors affecting happiness but happiness may differ between the studies making it harder to draw conclusions

• Lazarus 2003 - criticized positive approach for its over reliance on correlational studies - cant establish cause + effect

  • advocated for more theory-driven, experimental, and longitudinal designs that could better address causality and mechanism.

Evaluating Positive Approach - Ignores Individual Differences

WEAKNESS

• ignores individual + cultural differences and proposes “one size fits all” solution

• Christopher + Hickinbotton 2008

  • suggest approach is ethnocentric based on Western ideas

  • believe America is preoccupied with the idea that positive emotions and attitudes are compulsory for a good life where the negative emotions are generally considered to be avoided

• Americans believe in being independent + always feeling good but collectivist cultures focus on group needs rather than individuals are common in about 70% of world and we need to consider these differences