Positive Psych Midterm 1

3 missions of psychology before WW2

curing mental illness, making the lives of all people more fulfilling, and identifying and nurturing high talent

Gestalt therapy

Founded in 20/30s, was used when WW2 was going on & boomed afterwards

• focus on the whole person

WHO and positive psychology’s definition of health

a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

Mental disorders in Ancient Greece

Hippocrates — mental disorders were the accumulations of humours (blood, phlegm, black bile, or yellow bile)

• treatment: bleeding, theraputic baths, laxatives

Mental disorders in Europe in the Middle Ages

Seen as moral deviations or demonic possessions

• treatment: exorcisms, executions

  • dependant on class → if you were noble they would interpret that you had an accumulation of humors

Mental disorders throught history

People with less severe mental disorders were tolerated and lived in their community

• treatment: none (even though it always existed)

Mental disorders in the Pre-industrial Revolution

Increase in urban environment turned “madness” into moral deviation and a public order issue

• treatment: Urban or City “hygiene” (a police issue) → keep them out of well behaved society

  • also depended on class

  • mental disorders, homeless, sex workers, criminals were all institutionalized

Asylums

Mental disorders became a Psychiatric issue again (Philippe Pinel 1790s)

• isolation → person must be removed from the context that caused their mental disorder

• no violence (but definition of violence was different)

• discipline, organization, routine, authority

Consequences of asylums

• psychiatric hospitals became overcrowded

• rise of theories of degeneration and eugenics → “criminal behaviour is hereditary”

• “there is no cure, no treatment” to mental disorders

The refrom in Italy

Most radical → terminating asylums

• build community based psychiatric care

The reform in France

More liberty → decentralization

The reform in Latin America

Caracas declaration → committed to the whole continent to reform its structure

1. Release those residing in psychiatric hospitals

2. Diversion of potential new admissions

3. Development of special services for care (not successful bc their families couldn’t be reaches or they were not reintroduced to society)

The assumptions of reform

1. treatment would be more humane

2. treatment would be more therapeutic

3. it would be more cost effective (not successful)

Limitations of reform

1. release of those residing in psychiatric hospitals → families resistant to re accept the patients OR they lost contact with them

2. diversion of potential new admissions → some patients still needs acute care

3. development of special services for care → costs a lot of money

Life’s 3 most important outcomes

1. connecting with others (love)

2. pursuing meaning (work)

3. experiencing pleasure or satisfaction (play)

individualism

a. a sense of independence

b. a desire to stand out relative to others

c. the use of the self or the individual as the unit of analysis in thinking about life

d. orientation towards the future

collectivism

a. co-dependence

b. conformity or the desire to fit in

c. perception of the group as the fundamental unit of analysis

d. greater consideration of the past

collectivists view success as

luck, and less as something to be “proud” of

Life History Theory

All species “have” to solve 2 problems: survive and reproduce

• resources are limited → energy and time

• resources spent on one thing can’t be spent on a different thing → i.e Trade offs (big trade offs = growing or reproducing)

• natural selection

**Most research done in WEIRD countries with white participants & university students

Life History for humans

In harsh and unpredictable environments it is more advantages to invest in reproduction earlier and more often

Brazil Favelas boys

“what makes for a good life?”

• get initiated into the drug gangs

• buy stuff

• earn respect in the favelas

• provide for their mothers

Brazil Favelas girls

“what makes for a good life?”

• spousing a drug gang leader

• having a child

Life’s virtues

• help others

• do right

• become better

Tripartite model of happiness

Happiness as well being

Hedonic well-being

Related to how much pleasure you experience (not everything that is goos is pleasurable)

• short term gratification

Eudaimonic well-being

Related to realizing your true potential, finding your purpose (not all that is meaningful is pleasurable)

• long term gratification

Survey with 1.7 million people around the world showed that satiation occurs between

$60,000 - 90,000

Emotional component

People from collectivist cultures might not report high rates or at all because pride or excitement may be seen as harmful to social harmony

Which culture does this saying resonate with: “the further away from yourself the compliment comes from, the more valuable it is”

Collectivist culture

Individualists experience excitement as

High activation positive affect

Collectivists experience calmness and serenity as

Low activation positive affect

Measuring reliability

• test retest

• internal consistency

• interrater reliability

Face validity

ask experts if it looks valid when they look at it

Content validity

Does its contnents measure what it needs to

Criterion validity

Design 2 similar tests to see if they have similar results

Discriminant validity

Not too close of a relationship between similar tests

CSF - Clifton Strengths Finder

Talent + knowledge + skills = strengths

• internal consistency a = .52 - .79

• test re test 1 week - 6 moths r > .7

• convergent validity with Big Five

• 34 themes

• different youth versions

VIA - Values in Action Classification of Strengths

Authors revised virtues from Toaism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judeo-Christianity and made them into a list if strengths

• internal consistency a = .75 - .90

• good proxy/third-party rater correlation

• 24 strengths from 6 virtues

• different youth versions

Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale

A classic 33-item self-report personality inventory — measures respondent's tendency to answer questions in culturally sanctioned, socially desirable ways rather than revealing true feelings or behaviors

• correlated with VIA prudence and spirituality

Ipative scores

Compares you with you, forced choice (ie. only option of MOST and LEAST)

• discounts your likelihood to score higher or lower

Developing a scale

1. review of literature and theory

2. interview the target population

3. develop the items\

4. collect data

5. exploratory factor analysis

6. new round of collecting data

7. confirmatory factor analysis

8. reliability and validity

VIA criteria

1. it should be fulfilling, that is, it must either contribute to your own ability to live “the good life” or help others to live good lives

2. it should be morally valued

3. acting on it should never hurt or diminish other people

4. it should have an opposite that is clearly negative

5. it must be trait like

6. it shouldn’t overlap with other strengths

7. it should have consensual paragons

8. it should have prodigies

9. it should be absent from people

10. it should be encouraged by society

Pierre Bourdieu

Fish in the water

• the most obvious realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about

• we think some things are just “natural”

Yosso’s cultual wealth model

6 forms of cultural wealth

• aspirational, familial, social, navigational, resistant, linguistic, cultural capital

what is capital

accumulated labours

Hay’s ADDRESSING framework

• identifying minority groups

• can use in therapy of different situations

• better to ask the client an open ended question

What are the tenants of this course

1. All science has to agree

2. Most people are not WEIRD

3. 3. Make it applicable

The Cambridge Handbook of Social Represenations

Inclusive theory: our reality is constructed ex. colours exist in our head but feel very real

Guida de Abreu

How children understood home math and school math

• strategies to solve problems can be cultural

• Those were successful in home mathematics were less successful in school mathematics and visa versa

• Conclusion

  • the more engaged children were with “how mathematics” the more likely they were to experience difficulties in school

  • one’s culture is more memorable to them

  • our deepest beliefs are the hardest to see

Serge Mosocovici

Our understanding or the meaning of things does not come or is not given by the things themselves, they are represented between social subjects

Social representations

Systems of values ideas and practices that serve to establish social oder and facilitate communication

3 tenets of social representations

1. how we understand our social and physical surroundings depends on our cultural and political context

2. humans are agentic, our actions are volitional, purposive, and meaningful

3. we are inherently social

Resilience

• the capability of a body to recover its size and shape after deformation caused especially by compressive stress

• an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change

Resilient children

• having an adult that you can rely on helps with resilience

• some children raise themselves and they’re still functional

• 700 children in high risk were evaluated

  • the 80% tjhat bounced bacl mentioned that having a supportive adult was a big component in being able to do so

individual protective factors for psychological resilience in children

problem solving skills, self regulation skills, positive self perceptions, faith and sense of meaning in life, positive outlook on life, talents valued by self and society

family & close relationships protective factors for psychological resilience in children

positive attachment relationships, close relationships, authoritative parenting, positive family climate, organized home environment, parents with protective qualities, involved parents, SES advantages, connections to pro social peers, prosocial romantic relationships

Community protective factors for psychological resilience in children

effective schools, neighborhoods with high collective efficacy, high public safety, good emergency services, good public health services

resilience definition

the universality of protective factors

Two observations about the Big 5

• the group into five factors was a decision based on statistics (missing validity → no theoretical foundation, maybe found things by choice?)

• it may not be ideal for different cultures

Resilience portfolio model

Feeling and expressing gratitude, compassion, generosity, or forgiveness can increase strengthen social resources (more likely to seek support)

Limitations to resilience portfolio model

Focus on the individual or the family

• macrolevels are usually included as risk or deficits

  • racism, prejudice, discrimination

  • access to resources

  • social vulnerability

Positive youth development is

Strength, Development plasticity, Internal developmental assets, External developmental assets

What we need to achieve positive outcomes

4 external assets

1. support (community, school, family)

2. empowerment

3. boundaries and expectations

4. constructive use of time

4 internal assets

1. commitment to learning

2. positive values

3. social competencies

4. positive identity

Mentoring

Big Brothers and Big Sisters

• youth 10-16 primarily in single parents households

• big brother and big sister volunteers

• matching & meeting 3x months 4h/meeting

• mentors as friends

Penn Resilience Program

• 12 sessions based on cognitive behavioural therapy

• awareness of thought patterns

• engaging in more adaptive behaviours — working on behaviours that bring the consequences that you intended

Erik Erikson’s theory

• infancy, early childhood, play age, school age, adolescence, early adulthood, middle age, old age

• goes on longer that piaget’s stages

• each stages is necessary to go to the next one

Successful aging

• Rowe and Kahn

• Vaillant

• Carr and Weir

  • all pretty similar love, work, play