Positive Psychology Flashcards

Definition of Positive Psychology: Positive psychology is defined as the scientific study of what enhances life. It focuses on building positive experiences, positive traits, and positive organisations to increase the quality of life for individuals.
Historical Context: After the Second World War, psychology focused primarily on remedial treatment and pathology (what went wrong). Martin Seligman, during his presidency of the American Psychological Association (APA), shifted the focus toward the "scientific study of optimal human functioning" to help people thrive rather than just fix problems.
The Three Routes to Happiness (Authentic Happiness):
- The Pleasant Life: Aiming for positive emotions about the past, present, and future.
- The Engaged Life: Using your signature strengths to achieve "flow" and engagement in activities.
- The Meaningful Life: Using your strengths in the service of something larger than yourself.
The "Walking Worried" vs. Pathology: Unlike traditional psychology that focuses on disease, dysfunction, and pathology, positive psychology addresses the needs of the "walking worried"—relatively normal individuals seeking excellence and potential.
Common Misconceptions: Positive psychology is not a "happy-clappy" or "just smile" movement. It is an evidence-based science rooted in heavy research, data, and academic discipline.

Concept Origin: Developed by Professor Barbara Frederickson.
Mechanism: While negative emotions (like the fight-or-flight response) narrow a person's focus to a specific problem, positive emotions broaden a person's mindset.
Benefits of Positive Emotions:
- Creativity and Flexibility: Positive states encourage more flexible responses and higher interest levels.
- Resource Accumulation: This broadening effect allows individuals to build social, emotional, and intellectual resources that help them even during times of adversity.
- Success Correlation: Positive emotions are directly linked to better health, greater success, and more extensive interpersonal networks.

The Easterbrook Paradox: Based on Gregg Easterbrook's The Progress Paradox, this highlights that while standards of living in Western countries have risen significantly, happiness levels have remained stagnant over the last $50$ years.
The Hedonic Treadmill: This is the law of diminishing returns regarding material possessions. People must work harder for bigger "fixes" of satisfaction because the excitement of new items eventually palls, leading to potential dissatisfaction.
Gratification types:
- Immediate Gratification: The instant thrill of purchases or sensory pleasure.
- Delayed Gratification: The ability to work toward a goal over a long period, which leads to deeper life satisfaction.
Classification of Strengths: Created by Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson, identifying six universal virtues: Wisdom and Knowledge, Courage, Love (Humanity), Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence.

Lord Layard's Findings: Lord Layard from the London School of Economics (LSE) found that wellbeing increases when residents can shape decisions affecting their neighbourhoods. Key policy areas include:
- Emotional resilience in children aged $11$ to $13$ .
- Guaranteed apprenticeships and neighbourhood empowerment.
The Workplace and Recognition: Research by White Water Strategies indicates:
- $72\%$ of staff feel it is important to be thanked personally by senior staff.
- $2/3$ of staff feel undervalued due to a lack of "thank you" messages.
- Only $1/4$ of employees believe they receive enough praise.
- The Economy of Praise: Proper acknowledgement of staff has the equivalent perceived value of a $1\%$ pay rise, representing a potential $£5.2$ billion saving for UK businesses.

The Sheldon Cohen Cold Study: Cohen infected subjects with the common cold virus. He found that positive people reported fewer symptoms and, objectively, produced less mucus. Positive emotional states directly affect the autonomic nervous system, regulating heart rate and blood pressure.
Type A Behavior and Cardiovascular Health: Friedman and Rosenman (1950s) linked heart disease to Type A personalities (impatient, angry, driven). They famously noticed waiting room chairs were only worn on the front edges because patients could not relax.
The Nun Study: A longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease involving $678$ nuns (aged $75$ to $106$ ). Researchers analyzed personal essays written at age $22$ .
- Finding: Nuns who expressed a wide range of positive emotions lived significantly longer.
- The Data: There was a $6.9$ year difference in lifespan; the least positive died at a mean age of $86.6$ , while the most positive lived to a mean age of $93.5$ .

The Seven Learnable Skills of Resilience (Dr. Karen Reivich):
1. Emotional awareness/regulation: Identifying and controlling emotions to prevent stress.
2. Impulse control: Tolerating uncertainty and avoiding rash behavior.
3. Optimism: Realistically explaining events to see positive options.
4. Causal analysis: Looking at problems from all angles.
5. Empathy: Building social support by understanding others.
6. Self-efficacy: Knowing and using your own strengths.
7. Reaching out: Taking risks and accepting failure to find new solutions.
The AIM Model for Wellbeing (Ed Diener):
- Attending: Choosing to pay attention to the "good stuff" and training the spotlight away from self-criticism.
- Interpreting: Avoiding common thinking errors such as "wrong labels," "all or nothing" thinking, "over-generalising," and "catastrophising."
- Memorising: Actively working to beef up positive memories through vivid mental pictures and frequent replay.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Developed by Albert Ellis and Tim Beck, positive psychology utilizes these techniques to challenge faulty thinking patterns.
Dan Simmons Basketball Experiment: Half of the people watching a basketball game miss a man in a gorilla suit because they are focused on counting passes. This illustrates that if you attend only to one thing (like the negative), you will miss other realities.