Positive Psychology II Midterm

Positive Psychology Definitions

Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living (Peterson, 2008)

Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions (Gable and Haidt, 2005)

Positive psychology is the scientific study of ordinary strengths and virtues (Sheldon & King, 2001)

Are the ideas of positive psychology new? What do the founders claim?

- The ideas aren't entirely new because the topics covered in positive psych have been studied in the past, but after WWII, most of psychology focused on negative aspects of life (like depression, anxiety, mental illness, etc.)

Why has clinical psychology focused on studying illness rather than what helps people flourish?

- healing trauma from WWII (PTSD, etc.)

- negative experiences are more urgent and obvious than positive experiences

- The diagnostic system is completely focused on suffering

Criticisms of positive psychology

- makes it sound like every other discipline of psychology is negative

- puts greater emphasis on positivity
- can create unrealistic expectations of happiness
- can be misused commercially to push toxic positivity/productivity self-help

difference between pos psych and humanistic psych

pos psych focuses on quantitative data while humanistic psych focuses on qualitative data.

humanistic psych focuses on the self, while pos psych focuses on both the self and collective well-being.

Modern Positive Psychology Movement

Martin Seligman's APA Address in 1998 launched the current movement

Founders of pos psych

Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Examples of crime victims who forgive

Marietta Jaeger, Amish schoolyard shooting victims

Marietta Jaeger

Victim of her daughter’s kidnapping and killing. Her daughter, Susie, was kidnapped when she was 7. In order to cope with the loss, she forgave the kidnapper and even visited his grave when he killed himself with his mother because she knew how hard it was to lose your child.

Amish schoolyard shooting victims

Individuals from the Amish community who lost loved ones in the tragic shooting at an Amish school in Pennsylvania. They demonstrated remarkable forgiveness towards the shooter and his family.

Martin Seligman's story of founding pos psych

His daughter said how when she turned 5, she stopped whining, so he should be able to stop being a grouch. Then by seeing the goodness in his daughter, he realized that he had a depressive outlook on life, so he needed to learn a different way of learning

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's story of founding of pos psych

He wanted to know how so many people that experienced such awful experiences could get through these experiences.

Religious Antecedents

Major World Religions Offer Extensive Teachings about "The Good Life"

Some examples.....

Eastern Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism

Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam

Values and Ideas that positive psych shares:

- forgiveness of the self and others

- kindness towards self and others

- mindfulness/meditation

- gratitude/thankfulness

- meaning

- enlightenment

- charity

Philosophical Antecedents

Aristotle, Stoic Philosophers (Xeno of Citium), Epictetus

Aristotle

Studied at Plato's Academy

Established the Lyceum in Athens

Tutored Alexander the Great

Nicomachean ethics, De Anima

Xeno of Citium

Founded Stoic Philosophy

Survived shipwreck and lost his fortune

Focuses on cultivating virtues and altering how we respond to life's circumstances

Epictetus

"It is not things that trouble us, but our judgements about things"

"We cannot choose our external circumstances but we can always choose how we respond to them"

Stoicsm

- Can transform destructive emotions through reason and achieve an inner calm

- Cardinal virtues

---wisdom

---courage

---justice

---temperance

Early Psychological Foundations

William James, Carl Jung, Abraham Maslow, Victor Frankl

William James

- American psychologist and philosopher

- Believed religion was an important topic of study in psychology

- In "Varieties of Religions Experience" (1902) wrote about "The Healthy Minded Soul"

----Talks about how some people are unbelievably/unreasonably positive' "congenital happiness"

Carl Jung

- Founder of Analytical Psychology

- Focused on potential for human growth through meaning and spirituality

- Importance of integrating the unconscious

Abraham Maslow

- Focused on fulfilling human potential - not what was wrong

- hierarchy of needs

- coined the phrase "positive psychology"

Victor Frankl

- Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor

- Key founder of existential therapy

- focused on helping people find meaning

Aristotle on Happiness

- Happiness is a central purpose of human life. We seek happiness as an end in itself - not for something else

What Aristotle thinks happiness is NOT

--Pleasure seeking

--Amusement

--Making money

What Aristotle thinks happiness is

- A virtuous life that requires exertion

- Finding the mean (path between two excesses)

- Contemplation

Contrasting Views on Happiness

Hedonic View vs. Eudaimonic View

Hedonic View

- Aristippus (4th century BC Greek Philosopher)

- Goal of life is to experience maximum pleasure

- Happiness is the total sum of the hedonic moments

Eudaimonic view

- Aristotle's approach

- Living according to your authentic self and deepest values

- Reaching your highest potential

- Morality and virtue is essential to happiness

PERMA

What you need for well-being

Positive emotions

Engagement (finding flow)

Relationships

Meaning

Achievement

Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions (Fredrickson, 2001)

- Positive emotions (1) broaden momentary thought-action repertoires and (2) build enduring personal resources

- positive emotions undo lingering negative emotions

- positive emotions fuel psychological resiliency

- positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward improved emotional well-being

Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions (Fredrickson, 2001) Negative vs. Positive emotions

Fear- urge to escape

Anger - urge to attack

Disgust - urge to expel

Joy - urge to play

Interest - urge to explore

Contentment - urge to savor

Pride - urge to share

Positive emotions lead to broadened mindsets while negative emotions lead to narrowing mindsets.

Cross-Cultural Views of Happiness

North American Contexts vs. East Asian Contexts

North American:

- happiness tends to be defined by personal achievement

- motivated to maximize positive affect

- predicted by self esteem

East Asian:

- happiness tends to be defined in terms of interpersonal connectedness

- motivated to maintain a balance of positive and negative affects

- predicted by "perceived embeddedness of the self" in relationships

Lottery Winners and Accident Victims (Brickman et al., 1978)

Studied paralyzed accident victims, lottery winners, controls

On scale 0 (worst possible thing) to 5 (best possible thing)

--lottery winners rated it as highly positive event (3.78)

--accident victims rated it as highly negative (1.28)

Rated happiness before even, present, and future

--winners of the lottery were not significantly happier or less happy than control (people from phone book)

--winners of the lottery reported less "mundane pleasure" (everyday events that occur)

--accident victims rated themselves as happier in the past than controls and happier in the future than controls.

--no difference in future happiness between accident victims and control

Studies on Money and Happiness

- income and happiness are positively correlated, but it is not a strong correlation

---holds true with "general life satisfaction" not with moment-to-moment happiness

- the link between money and happiness is stronger for poorer than richer people

- link between money and happiness stronger when nations (instead of individuals) are compared

- as economic fortunes improve in countries, happiness ratings often don't improve.

Getting More Enjoyment from Money

- spend on experiences vs. things

- spend on many small pleasures vs. fewer big ones

- spend on satisfying experiences

- spend on others, not yourself

- spend to give yourself more time (ex. spend on instacart to literally save time or spend on gym membership and eating healthy in order to live longer)

- savor the anticipation of purchases

Materialism definition

prioritizing the goal of getting money and having many possessions

materialism trends

- materialism inversely correlated with life satisfaction and happiness; positively correlated with depression, anxiety

Kasser et al (2014) - materialism findings in studies

12 year longitudinal study of adolescents/early adults

- decreased materialism over time --> mental health improved

- increased materialism --> mental health declined

replicated with college seniors, adults in iceland following 2008 economic crash

three-session intervention to decrease materialism in adolescents. Compared to control conditions, materialism decreased and self-esteem increased.

Quoidback et al (2010) - savoring and money findings

Study 1: Adult employees at a Belgium university

-- Random assignment: money prime vs. control condition (money prime is showing someone a picture of money and then control condition is picture blured)

-- Wealth predicted lower ability to savor positive emotions

-- money prime had lower savoring scores

Study 2: taste test - U of British columbia

-- people exposed exposed to money prime spent less time savoring chocolate

Are people happier after marriage?

Longitudinal study (15 years) of individuals who married during study.

- on average, people get an initial boost for about two years in life satisfaction - then revert to baseline happiness.

- variability in trends - some people show trajectories inconsistent with hedonic adaptation

hedonic adaptation

people get used to events or stimuli that elicit emotional responses. We become accustomed to most life changes

- reduces the impact of positive and negative experiences

- evolutionarily adaptive?

Types of love

passionate love and companionate love

passionate love

- state of intense longing, desire, and attraction

- assists with building relationship

- cannot endure too long

- release of dopamine

companionate love

- deep affection, connection, liking

- helps develop committed and stable relationship

- grows over time

The myth of "true love" (Haidt, 2006)

true love is passionate love that never fades; if you are in true love, you should marry that person; if love ends, you should leave that person because it was not true love; and if you can find the right person, you will have true love forever.

love supporting strong marriages

strong companionate love, with some added passion, between two people who are firmly committed to each other.

hedonic adaptation prevention model (HAP)

- two reasons that positive emotions from positive life changes decrease:

---become accustomed to positive stimuli - take for granted as "new normal"

---increase aspirations - "searching for more"

- two ways of slowing/preventing adaptation:

---continued appreciation of the life change

---continued variety in experiences

tips to counter hedonic adaptation in relationships

- importance of Appreciation

---helps maximize satisfaction in relationship

---feel more positive about oneself and more connected

---focus on what you have - not comparing to others

- important of Variety

---dynamic changes have a more sustained impact on happiness

---may impact dopamine system

- important of Surprise

---we're more likely to pay attention to novel stimuli.

- engage in expanding activities (Aron)

---novel activities that teach new skills - challenge to grow

--- increase in relationship satisfaction compared to "pleasant activities"

Approach versus Avoidance Goals in Relationships (Gable)

Approach

-striving for positive experiences in relationship

- no decline over six months in sexual desire

Avoidance

- avoid conflict or rejection

- decline over six months in sexual desire

Responding to a partner's good news

Constructive vs. destructive and active vs. passive.

- Constructive and active :D = enthusiastic support, eye contact, authentic

- Constructive and passive :/ = low energy, delayed response, quiet

- destructive and active :((( = quashing the event, dismissive, demeaning

- destructive and passive :( = turns focus inward, avoiding, ignore speaker

responses to positive events in relationships

- responses to positive event discussions better predictor of relationship well being than responses to negative event discussions. (self report and observational data)

heritability estimate (happiness) Bartels (2015)

heritability estimate: look at slides

meta-analysis of studies examinging genetic contributions to life satisfaction, happiness

well-being (100 independent studies, n = 56,000)

---heritability: 36%

satisfaction with life (9 independent studies, n = 48,000)

---heritability: 32%

Hemispheric differences in happiness

Left hemisphere is more active when processing positive emotions

Right hemisphere is more active when processing negative emotions.

Wanting vs. Liking

- wanting and liking involve different systems in the brain

- dopamine activates wanting system

---PET scan of addict thinking about smoking crack activates amygdala and nucleus accumbens

---stimulation of lateral hypothalamus (rats)

---suppressing dopamine reduces wanting but not pleasure of drugs

- opioids

---involved directly in liking

---hedonic hotspots: nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, pons

- seratonin

---disengage negative emotion system

---modulate positive and negative emotions?

Maximizer vs satisficer (Schwartz 2004)

Maximizer:

- seek and accept only the best

Satisficer:

- willing to settle for good enough

Maximizers

- svaor positive events less and have more dificulty coping with negative events

- after negative events- take longer to recover well-being

- ruminate more

- less happy, more depressed

Do maximizers make better choices?

objectively - yes; subjectively - no. Maximizers do a lot of research and think very hard about their decisions, so they make maybe the objectively “best” choices. However, they are usually not satisfied no matter what they do because they tend to focus on what they might have missed.

Maximizers vs. perfectionism

Perfectionists don't expect to met the standards, while maximizers do

Forgiveness is...

- responding to someone who wronged you by letting go of angry feelings, thoughts, and behavior

AND

- developing a more peaceful, positive approach toward the offender

Decisional vs. emotional forgiveness (Worthington, 2007)

Forgiveness is not...

forgetting

condoning

legal pardon

reconciliation

Hostility...

-predicts chronic health problems better than body mass or smoking

- is related to coronary heart disease, decreased longevity

- is related to increased depression, less life satisfaction, and poorer coping strategies

Unforgiving thoughts cause increased symptoms of physiological stress

conflict and post-divorce adjustment in children

- post divorce parental conflict adversely affects children more than parental marital status

- children in high conflict divorces are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems

forgiveness obstacles

- severity of wrongdoing

- absence of apology or remorse

- frequent reminders of how hurt

- offender still engages in hurtful behavior

- sacred violation

- others around you haven't forgiven

ideas for intervention notes (don't need to study at all)

- center the intervention around the child

----give motivation to forgive

- teach about forgiveness and what it's not

- give workbook practices (letting go and looking at different stages of forgiveness)

- have people recognize where they are in their forgiveness journey

- teach benefits of forgiveness

- think about the future and what they want their relationship to be like in the future (this can also bring in their child and think about how you want to be able to coparent successfully and happily)

- talk about one thing you appreciate about their ex. What did your relationship look like before?

- have person talk about the positives of their past instead of completely focusing only on negative

1. teach about what forgiveness is and isn't and then the benefits of forgiveness

2. where are you in readiness for forgiveness

3. how do you think your child feels about/views your relationship with your ex.

4. goal of the intervention - what step are we striving to be at by the end of the intervention

5. activity to practice forgiveness: letter to self or ex. practice gratitude toward the other person or past relationship

6. provide them with skill for future. When you realize you're getting angry or upset about your ex, refocus on your child and think about how your behaviors and feelings will affect your child.

Rye et al. (2005) common wrongdoings in past relationships

149 divorced participants

--infidelity, broken commitment, emotional/verbal abuse, theft/financial wrongdoing

pretest, one-week posttest, six-week follow-up

nominated an observer to complete ratings

random assignment to three different groups

---secular, religious, and waitlist

Intervention steps for forgiveness in relationships (i dont know if you need to remember these, maybe just review)

- Go over confidentiality

- Looking back at the journey we've traveled

- Anger and the "grudge sludge"

- the effects of anger on children

- coping with anger

recognize that you control how you think about your circumstances

- recognize that you control your own emotional reaction

- recognize that you control how you explain your ex-spouse's behavior

- recognize you control what you say and do

- tips for lowering the temp when communicating with your ex

- reframing the wrongdoing

- an opportunity for growth

- spiritual coping strategies

- daily affirmations

- reading about forgiveness

- identify and plan for anger triggers

- our own need for forgiveness

Benefits of Forgiveness (know this)

- lower stress

- less depression

- less rumination

- may have benefits for your children

- may improve your spiritual life

Steps in the forgiveness process (know this)

REACH

- Recall the hurt

- Empathize with the offender

- Altruistic gift (forgiveness is an act of altruism)

- commitment to forgive

- holding on to forgivness

Rye Forgiveness intervention findings

- intervention participants improved more than comparison participants on self-reported forgiveness (forgiveness increased)

- forgiveness knowledge increased

- secular participants improved significantly more than comparison participants on depression (depression decreased in secular group)

- spiritual/religious strategies were commonly reported by participants from BOTH intervention conditions (just because they didn't teach religious methods, but people used them

General forgiveness intervention findings (also Rye)

- correlational and experimental studies suggest that forgiveness is related to better mental health

- many divorce individuals value forgiveness, which can be facilitated through group interventions

- for many, religion may be integral to the forgiveness process

Retributive vs. restorative justice

Retributive justice focuses on punishment, while restorative justice focuses on repairing harm and rebuilding relationships

shame vs. guilt

shame is externally driven by how people view you. guilt is more focused on the specific action and how you personally feel bad about it.

components of self-forgiveness

4 Rs

take Responsibility

have Remorse

Restoration (restore the harm that has been done)

self-Respect

What are some contraindications for self-forgiveness

- if the person is still engaging in the harmful behavior

- if the person didn't do the harmful action that they think they are responsible for (ex. if a kid thinks it's their fault that their parents got divorced)

- if the person doesn't take responsibility for what they did

What are some special populations that might benefit from self-forgiveness?

- veterans

- people with substance abuse problems

- people convicted of a crime

define self-compassion

recognition of your own suffering. Self-kindness and care

define self-forgiveness

a process in which a person (a) accepts responsibility for having harmed another; (b) expresses remorse while reducing shame; (c) engages in restoration through reparative behaviors and a recommitment to values;and (d) thus achieves a renewal of self-respect, self-compassion, and self-acceptance (Cornish and Wade, 2015)

components of self-compassion (Neff)

- self-kindness

- Sense of common humanity (everyone has challenges and you're not the only one going through what you're going through)

- mindfulness

What self-compassion is NOT

Self-pity

--- self-pity is when you're immersed in your own problems and you don't recognize other people, whereas self-compassion recognizes that other people are going through what you're going through

Self-indulgence

--- self-compassion causes motivation and it doesn't cause people to just indulge in whatever you want

Self-esteem

--- self-esteem is how positively you view yourself. Self-compassion is not dependent on feeling good about yourself/better than others.

What areas have self-compassion been researched with?

emotional well-being, motivation and health, interpersonal functioning, self-esteem

self-compassion and emotional well-being

higher self-compassion is linked to higher emotional intelligence, wisdom, connectedness. and lower depression and anxiety

self-compassion and motivation and health

higher self-compassion is linked to higher motivation, higher personal initiative, lower procrastination and other self-handicapping behavior, less likely to smoke, more likely to stick to diet and exercising, higher intrinsic motivation, less performance goal oriented

self-compassion and interpersonal functioning

higher self-compassion is linked to more emotionally connected, less aggressive behavior, increase in relationship satisfaction, greater compromise, greater empathy

self-compassion and self-esteem

even when controlling for self-esteem, self-compassion has strong effects on well-being

decisional vs. emotional forgiveness

Decisional forgiveness involves a conscious choice to forgive someone, while emotional forgiveness refers to the process of letting go of negative feelings associated with the offense.

Is there a dark side of happiness?

Yes. Sometimes negative emotions are necessary and constantly seeking happiness may not be healthy/beneficial. Placing excessive emphasis on achieving happiness can also lead to frustration and disappointment.

apartheid

Extreme institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa

Nelson Mandela

South African anti-apartheid political leader. Became South Africa's first black president.

F.W. de Klerk

The last State President of apartheid-era South Africa who played a significant role in dismantling apartheid and initiating the transition to a multiracial democracy.

Desmond Tutu

A South African Anglican bishop and social rights activist who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work against apartheid and was a key figure in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

key people in ending apartheid in South Africa

Nelson Mandela, F.W. de Klerk, Desmond Tutu

ubantu

Philosophy that emphasizes human interconnectedness and communal relationships
'I am because we are'

conditions for amnesty

Fully disclose their involvement in political crimes and show that their actions were politically motivated.

restoration vs. retributive justice

Restoration seeks to repair harm and foster reconciliation, while retributive justice focuses on punishment for wrongdoing.

Rwanda Genocide (1994)

A mass slaughter of the Tutsi minority by the Hutu majority government in Rwanda, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 800,000 people

Hutu and Tutsi

Two ethnic groups in Rwanda; prior to the genocide, tensions between the Hutu majority and Tutsi minority escalated, leading to the genocide where the Hutu government targeted Tutsi individuals.

Gacaca Courts

Court for Rwanda genocide. Lay people decide opposed to having a council. 1.7 million people convicted and punished. Based, at least in part, on eye-witness testimony