What Is POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Información - Transcripción

What Is (and Was, and Is Not) Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions. Defined in this way, positive psychology has a long history, dating back to William James's writings on what he termed "healthy mindedness" in 1902, to Allport's interest in positive human characteristics in 1958, to Maslow's advocacy for the study of healthy people in lieu of sick people in 1968, and to Cowan's research on resilience in children and adolescents.

However, for reasons we shall discussed later, psychology literature has until very recently focused on the study of disorder and damage instead of on what it makes life worth living.

The recent positive psychology movement grew out of recognition of this imbalance and a desire to encourage research in neglected areas. What are some neglected areas? A sampling of the research topics covered by the 60 scholars who have taken part in the Positive Psychology Summer Institute in the past 3 years provides a nice illustration of some of them. Many of the scholars are studying areas that were not truly neglected, such as attachment, optimism, love, emotional intelligence, and intrinsic motivation.

But others are studying areas of human experience about which there was very little published research before the year 2000, such as gratitude, forgiveness, awe, inspiration, hope, curiosity, and laughter. Some are studying well-being or flourishing in unusual or understudied populations, including Latinos or South Asians in the USA. If these research programs seem worthwhile and interesting and you agree that our field is better off with an understanding of flourishing to complement our understanding of despair, then you too may be a positive psychologist.

However, positive psychology does not imply that the rest of psychology is negative, although it is understandable that the name may imply that to some people. In fact, the large majority of the gross academic product of psychology is neutral, focusing on neither wellbeing nor distress. Positive psychology grew largely from the recognition of an imbalance in clinical psychology, in which most research does indeed focus on mental illness. Researchers in cognitive, developmental, social and personality psychology may not believe that things are so out of balance.

However, even in these fields, we believe that there are many topics that can be said to have two sides, and although a great flurry of research occurs on the negative side, the positive side is left to lie fallow . For example, in the two areas with which we are most familiar, this imbalance is evident. In the field of close relationships, many studies have examined how couples respond to each other's misfortune (e.g., with social support) or their bad relationship behaviour (e.g., criticisms and infidelities), but little is known about how couples respond to each other's triumphs (e.g., savoring positive events) or good relationship behavior (e.g., compliments and displays of affection). And there are volumes of work examining how couples and families resolve conflict but very few studies examining them having fun and laughing together. In the area of morality, there are thousands of published studies on the negative moral emotions, the emotions we feel when others do bad things (anger, contempt, and disgust) or when we ourselves do bad things (shame, embarrassment, and guilt); however, there are only a few empirical studies of the positive moral emotions, the emotions we feel when others do good things (gratitude, admiration, and moral elevation).

Despite these inequalities, positive psychology's aim is not the denial of the distressing, unpleasant, or negative aspects of life, nor is it an effort to see them through rose-colored glasses. Those who study topics in positive psychology fully acknowledge the existence of human suffering, selfishness, dysfunctional family systems, and ineffective institutions. But the aim of positive psychology is to study the other side of the coin—the ways that people feel joy, show altruism, and create healthy families and institutions—thereby addressing the full spectrum of human experience.

Moreover, positive psychology makes the argument that these positive topics of inquiry are important to understand in their own right, not solely as buffers against the problems, stressors , and disorders of life (because we believe the evidence is clear that many positive processes shield us from negative outcomes, a point that I shall return to later). Sheldon and King defined positive psychology as "nothing more than the scientific study of ordinary human strengths and virtues," one that "revisits the average person". In this definition is the acknowledgment that our field as a whole is relatively silent regarding what is typical, because what is typical is positive. Indeed, 9 of 10 Americans report being "very happy" or "pretty happy". And, contrary to the notion that this is unique to American soil, studies have consistently revealed that most people across the globe score well above the neutral point on measures of life satisfaction and even people who many might assume would be very unsatisfied with their lives, such as slum dwellers in Calcutta, are actually quite satisfied with their lives.

Thus, despite the very real impact of the negative aspects of life documented in the past few decades of psychological research, most people are doing well, and we, as psychologists, tend to overlook the greater part of human experience and the majority of people, families, groups, and institutions.

The question is now why a Positive Psychology Movement, and Why Now? Why do we need a movement in positive psychology?

The answer is straightforward. The science of psychology has made great strides in understanding what goes wrong in individuals, families, groups, and institutions, but these advances have come at the cost of understanding what is right with people. For example, clinical psychology has made excellent progress in diagnosing and treating mental illnesses and personality disorders. Researchers in social psychology have conducted groundbreaking studies on the existence of implicit prejudice and negative outcomes associated with low self-esteem. Health psychology has shown us the detrimental effects that environmental stressors have on our physiological systems. And cognitive psychology has illuminated the many biases and errors involved in our judgments. These are all important findings in our field, but it is harder to locate corresponding work on human strengths and virtues.

The recent movement in positive psychology strives toward an understanding of the complete human condition, an understanding that recognizes human strengths as clearly as it does human frailties and that specifies how the two are linked. Only a balanced, empirically grounded, and theoretically rich view of human experience can fulfill the mission of our field, as outlined by William James's description of psychology as "the science of mental Life, both of its phenomena and their conditions".

Thank you very much.