In a world that often focuses on problems, challenges, and deficiencies positive psychology provides revitalizing perspective by emphasizing strengths, well-being, and the pursuit of happiness.
Dr. Martin Seliman developed Positive Psychology in the late 1990s, has garnered significant recognition as a science-based framework for personal development and flourishing. This blog will examine the principles, strategies, and benefits of positive psychology in an effort to assist you in cultivating a more optimistic and fulfilling life.
Positive psychology the science of wellbeing
Anyway, what is positive psychology? It is the science of positive human functioning and flourishing on multiple levels: biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural and global dimensions of life (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). It seeks to comprehend and promote human happiness, resilience, optimism, flow, and well-being.
Unlike traditional psychology, which often focuses on pathology and dysfunction, positive psychology shifts the spotlight to positive emotions, character strengths, and meaningful experiences. It attempts to answer such-questions as; “What makes life worth living?” “How can we thrive and flourish?”
The 5 Components of Positive Psychology:
1. Positive emotions include sentiments of happiness, joy, gratitude, love, and satisfaction. Cultivating positive emotions is essential for overall happiness and can be accomplished through a variety of activities, such as practicing gratitude, engaging in enjoyable pastimes, spending time with loved ones, and appreciating positive experiences.
2. Engagement refers to being completely absorbed in an activity or in a state of fluidity. When engrossed, you lose track of time and experience intense concentration and pleasure. Finding activities that align with one’s skills and interests can increase engagement and contribute to a sense of fulfillment and well-being.
3. Positive social connections and meaningful relationships are indispensable to our well-being. Developing and maintaining supportive relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and the community contributes to our overall contentment and mental health by fostering a sense of belonging and providing emotional support.
4. Finding meaning and purpose in life is essential for one’s well-being. It entails aligning your actions and objectives with your values, contributing to something greater than yourself, and having a sense of significance. Meaning can be discovered through one’s work, relationships, personal development, or participation in activities that have a positive influence on others or the world.
5. Accomplishment refers to the process of establishing and achieving meaningful objectives. It involves a sensation of competence, mastery, and accomplishment when overcoming obstacles or making progress. Setting objectives that are realistic and attainable, celebrating milestones, and recognizing accomplishments can improve your sense of accomplishment and well-being as a whole.
Positive psychology has three dimensions;
- subjective level – focuses on the subjective states such as love, life, relaxation, intimacy, and contentment and effects of positive emotion.
- individual level – encompasses individual traits such as courage, honesty, wisdom, persistence, creative potential as well as drive for pursue of excellence
- group level – centers on positive institution such as civic virtues, creation of healthy family and healthy work environment.
Positive Psychology goal is to contribute to positive mental health
Boosting our human strengths is beneficial to our mental health.
For instance, character strengths provide a strong foundation for resilience (ability to bounce back from adversity). Individuals who can draw upon their character strengths are more likely to persevere, maintain a positive outlook, and navigate difficult times with greater ease when confronted with setbacks. Resilience protects against the development of mental disorders such as anxiety and depression.
Character strengths influence our sense of purpose and meaning in life. When we use our strengths to pursue meaningful objectives and engage in activities that align with our values, we experience a greater sense of fulfillment and contentment. This sense of purpose serves as a guiding force, providing resilience during difficult times and decreasing the likelihood of developing mental disorders associated with a lack of purpose or direction.
Strengths of character also contribute to the formation and maintenance of positive interpersonal relationships. Kindness, empathy, and collaboration enable us to develop meaningful relationships with others. These relationships offer social support, which is crucial for maintaining mental health. Having a robust support system can reduce the negative effects of stress, prevent feelings of isolation, and improve overall health.
References:
- Compton and Hoffman (2013) Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Flourishing, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2nd edition
- https://www.ted.com/talks/seligman/positivepsychology
- Peterson and Seligman (2012) Character Strengths and Virtues: A handbook and Classification (New York: American Psychological Association & Oxford University Press, 2004). Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry (32)
- Peterson and Seligman (2006) The values in action (VIA) classification of strengths. A life worth living: Contributions to positive psychology pp.29-48
- Seligman and Csikszenmihalyi (2000) Positive Psychology
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This article truly gives me a better lens to view Positive psychology and its role on individual’s well-being. I have learned about the three dimensions of positive psychology and understand how these three dimensions can help people to flourish and achieve their goals in life. Also, I really appreciate the author on how he helped me differentiate Positive Psychology from other branches of Psychology, very well explained and it makes me want to read more. Indeed, humans are capable of change for the better, it’s a matter of classifying our strength and use it as out advantage to succeed and to identify our weaknesses and use it to learn.
In regard to the mental immune system, actually this is the first time I heard about this concept and I was amazed about it. Truly, that our body and mind need strong immunity to fight diseases and metal illnesses. The discussion about the Six Types of Human Strength makes me more eager to understand and learn more about positive psychology. Being a Psychology student, it does not safeguard me on experiencing stress and anxiety. At this time of pandemic, we all experience challenges that can kneel us down (school deadlines, family and financial problem, relationship, and more). However, learning mental immune system can robust our shield against mental illness and stress. I’m a type of person who sees the glass half full instead of half empty, I always acknowledge the positive side of all moments and this attitude helps me in building healthy well being for myself and for the people that surrounds me. Life is a long journey, its like driving a car, you choose your own path, you choose your own phase and speed, you are solely responsible to the direction you wanted to go.
A great and informative article, the study of positive psychology and wellbeing is important especially now that we are in the midst of a pandemic and people are trying to find ways on how to cope up with the distress and fear that they are experiencing. I agree that to understand human behavior, we should not solely focus on the negatives. Positive emotions are just as valid and important as negative ones that’s why we should balance it out by looking at people’s potential as well. I see positive psychology as a way for individuals to turn their deficiencies into strengths that would help them thrive and overcome the adversities that they would encounter in life.
This article gives me a chance to understand more about positive psychology and mental immune system. We do really need to focus on the positive side to be able to conquer our own fears.
This article spits out facts about psychology itself. I love how Positive psychology focuses more on the good side of human and boosting their positive behavior instead of looking on the negative side of human. I learned alot by just reading this blog/article especially the topic about boosting and taking care of our mental immune system because in this way one person could really feel a sense of relief just by feeding themselves with positive emotions, views and understanding about a situation. We all struggle at some point of our life and during thattime we could seriously develop mental illness depending on how we handle it but positive psychology gave me hope personally by thinking that their are other options to improve how we handle different kind of situation. Full thanks to the other with this very informative blog!
This is a very good article to read when one is feeling down and don’t know what to do anymore. I agree that we should embrace the negative experiences that happened to us, because this will also help us to grow more, and strengthen our human strengths and boost our mental immune system. We should focus on helping grow ourselves rather than regretting or getting stuck in bad experiences that happiness.
Truly, this article provides an enlightenment to individual by which one person should also have a stronger immune system as it helps in preventing illnesses. Having a strong mind means lessening the possibility of acquiring mental illnesses. I totally agree with this article had provided like having an unfortunate event can still lead us to a betterment as this happening contributes to growing of our well-being. Now, I can see Positive Psychology as a very essential matter today’s society. We often think of the things that are negative, but it also helps as we can reflect on these.
The article is well spread with information, ranging from how positivity could affect our health and how it is our responsibility to not take advantage of the strengths we have. During this time of pandemic this quite applicable. Most of the reads here on the internet just deal with how we could be fit physically and do not really showcase the pillar of health which is mental health. I really appreciate this article and it’s direct way of saying ” start with mentality, the rest will follow”
This blog post is well-written and insightful, and it has given me a greater understanding of Positive Psychology and the Mental Immune System.
Positive psychology enables us to recognize that we are strong in some areas but weak in others. It distinguishes us all.
The best way to understand self-improvement is to look at what leads to a safe and pleasing life
The article gave me a better understanding on what Positive Psychology is and its role towards a person’s wellbeing. I agree that in order to understand people’s behavior, we should not only focus on the negative aspects but also on the positive ones as well. Reinforcing positive emotions can also affect a person’s mental health, as it allows them to move forward and continue to grow as a person.
The article gave me a better understanding on what Positive Psychology is and its role towards a person’s wellbeing. I agree that in order to understand people’s behavior, we should not only focus on the negative aspects but also on the positive ones as well. Reinforcing positive emotions can also affect a person’s mental health, as it allows them to move forward and continue to grow as a person.
I really enjoyed reading this article because it’s very informative. It was also well-written and the topic was interesting. It gave me a clearer explanation about positive psychology and its goals to boost our immune system. I learned that Positive Psychology is more than just positive emotions. It identifies good traits and characteristics of people. This field makes the miserable people become happier. It makes our life more fulfilling not just on treating specific illnesses. Initially, positive psychology focuses on developing on our potentials that we can do.
Very informative , it gives me lots of information about the positive psychology and its importance in our lives.. As of now, we are in the middle of the pandemic and it’s really hard for a person to be positive at this time, but positive psychology helps us to see the life in different ways. Reading this article really helps me to know more about positive psychology and how is it differ to other fields of psychology. Next is the Mental immune system, honestly I didn’t know that this word is existing because all I know is the immune system hahaha, after reading this article all I can say is that, if our body needs to be strong, our mind also need to be strong in order for us to avoid all the negativity that will cause us many illnesses specially in this time of the pandemic that we cant avoid to think negative. I’d like to read more about this kind of blog/article because it can use in our daily lives and it helps me to gain more knowledge. :>
I could say that this article is really helpful in understanding how positive psychology works even it is just new in the field of psychology. By the use of Differentiating schools of thoughts makes me even more see the uniqueness of the positive psychology. Specially in this time of pandemic, It’s help me in a way wherein I can practice and learn how to enhance my strength in order to spend my time productively instead of wasting it on useless thing that might stress me and give me anxiety. It’s truly indeed that our mental health also requires a strong immune system like our body that can protect us to avoid any mental illness and despite of all things that still happening in our world we still need to be optimistic and see the bright side of it in order to move forward and continue the life we’re living.
it was a good read and very informative. The technique or the process of measuring someone’s happiness was a troublesome idea before because emotions are very subjective and it is pretty difficult to measure subjectivity. It would indeed be a great time to live if positive psychology idealogies actually works not a hundred percent but enough to create a revolutionary way of helping people.
Question: is there any form of observation technique or survey that can make it apparent if someone maybe lying about their level of happiness?
This is a timely article that people should read and be able to understand. Now that there is a pandemic and a lot of people has suffered in different ways unimaginable, it’s important to let people know that they need to take care not only of their physical health but also their mental health as they are of tantamount importance. In the Philippines, people with mental health are still stigmatized and as a result, people are afraid to seek professional help regarding their mental health. But through this article, people are informed how valuable it is to make sure we keep our mental health in check. Kudos to the author! Looking forward for more good reads.
Positive psychology and having a good well-being help us to surpass our every day lives especially during this pandemic. We all know that people are not used to be on their house for the whole day and due to this they might experience distress and anxiety which leads them to have weak well-being and experience to fell negative emotions. Positive psychology helps us to understand why do we need to have positive emotions and to have a positive well-being.
I learned a lot from this this article and I’m very happy because now I know the benefits of positive psychology in our life. I learned that being optimistic is very important because focusing on positive thinking and positive emotions, and it enable individuals to succeed and be happy in life. I also learned that the stronger our body, the healthier we are physically and mentally. Because positive psychology is about optimism, happiness, personal growth that’s why it helps us build our immune system because it helps us achieve our everyday goal. I’m amazed that self-forgiveness is also important because some people are having a hard time to forgive themselves because of their past mistakes that’s why I think that it is really helpful if they will meditate and have self-reflection. I like the six types of strengths because it helps me grow as a person, build my character strength, and wisdom. Wisdom and knowledge will surely help me to have a strong character and good judgement that will help me make the right decisions. What I like about the strengths of courage is that it will give me the confidence to believe in my own abilities and to chase for the things that are important to me such as my goals in life. I also want to have self-control and achieve stability and the strength of temperance will help me achieve that. Regarding the strength of transcendence, I know that it will help me control my emotions and be future minded so I can decide on how to properly act to certain situations in my life. I’m happy because this article gives me the opportunity to have self-reflection and always focus on the positive aspects of life. That’s why after all of the things that I learned from this article, I’m grateful to the author for sharing this wonderful knowledge that I will carry through my everyday living.
Many people, especially myself as a psychology student, would benefit from it since I will gain a greater understanding towards positive psychology. Positive psychology plays an important part in the overall picture because most people have negative perceptions of psychology and don’t understand how it works. Positive psychology will help you get a deeper view of what psychology is and to still see the positive side of it. It gives us new hope for personal growth. Mental immune system is essential, particularly now that most of us are cooped up in our homes. It is important to look after it because we can gain a lot from it. It has the potential to protect us from experiencing any serious mental illness. Positive psychology, can be a way for people to turn their weaknesses into strengths that can help them improve and conquer life’s challenges.
As an author of this, did you practice on what you write in this article?
Very interesting! I find myself hooked by this. This article is very helpful especially now that we are facing a dilemma. As I’ve read this, I learned that positive psychology’s main focus is identifying and building mental assets of people. It concerned our increasing well-being, not just only physical aspect but also our mental immune system since it affects and vital and is very beneficient in protecting us from different disorders. Truly, this article is a must read.
The human mind is always beautiful as it always sprouts new idea like the emergence of Positive Psychology, it tackles the positive way of functioning of an individual and it cultivates different aspects in our life. and also, the concept of mental immune system, it is important to take care our mind; taking care our mind does not mean ignoring the unhealthy thoughts and focusing only on the positive thoughts, we need to balance our thoughts and deal with them. The article is very informative and helpful.
I’m impressed with the article above because it tackles how important positive psychology is and it gives us an advanced idea of how it works especially that we have a positive psychology subject this term. It aims to build the potential growth and well-being of every individual. “Our strengths can protect us from mental illness” I agree in this quotation because our strengths can help us to grow more and be brave in any challenges that we might encounter in life that keep us away from some mental illness. also, it focuses on our emotion, I know that all of us have a roller coaster emotion towards anything and it was good to express because it was how you feel.
a very informative article about how important positive psychology is to individuals and how strengthening it can protect our psychological well-being from mental disorders. Applying positive psychology can help us achieve a more positive attitude and mindset along with generating positive emotions for us to attain a greater mental health
The idea of having positive psychology makes me feel so glad. I concurred so much on how positive psychology arises, the point is psychology started with the reason that something is wrong with the person and we need to find out what it is and the reason why it occurs. so it was always about the problem or the defect until Martin Seligman and Mihayli Csikszentmihalyi decided to measure happiness and contentment, and that is the start of positive psychology which focuses on the human strengths rather than the weaknesses which I think is a very clever idea. The article is so nice because it is concise and it is easy to understand, the definition and goal of positive psychology were given, straight to the point, this really helped me also to understand positive psychology even better. Before I viewed and see positive psychology as simply a way for people to know and help themselves how to be more optimistic in life in order to overcome any challenges the world has thrown at them but it is more than that. With the relation of the mental immune system, in the article, it was given with an example of relating it to the physical health of an individual which is a nice way to interpret that just like physical health, we should also give importance to our mental immune system where we should have a strong and healthy mind in order for us to prevent having a serious problem. As we notice, the definitions and examples are so simple, also the six types of human strengths were provided, almost everything basic about positive psychology is indicated but in the end, like me, I also think that for some people, it was easy for them to know what to do with their mental immune system but they will have a hard time to do it or to help themselves. sometimes, it’s just hard to be happy and okay at all times especially this time where the covid19 pandemic happened and still happening. We experience a lot of distress, it is evident that a lot of individuals are struggling with their mental health. This also shows how important the role of positive psychology, because it will teach us how we can use our every experience, reflect on it, bad (negative) or good both will help us to make our mental immune system healthier and this will help to our personal growth. Also, remember that our feelings are valid, it’s okay to be sad about something, but always remember which I also remind myself that after the rain, there comes a rainbow. Lastly, to make sense, If we are in a good state and at the very best version of ourselves, we can make better decisions, and good decisions will lead us to a happy life.
Very insightful indeed. I share the same sentiments with the author regarding the main points tackled in this article. I particularly agree that it is important to also acknowledge negative emotions and experiences as it allows us to learn from them and contributes to us being better in managing our emotions overall. I also believe that this article is very relevant as the need to boost our mental immune system is imperative now more than ever in these trying times, where people are becoming more susceptible to mental illness due to the repercussions of the pandemic and introducing the concept of positive psychology to them would be very helpful in overcoming the anxiety and distress brought about by the uncertainties at present. Through this article, I am reminded that while it is undeniable that adversities are part of life, I find comfort in knowing that as humans we are capable of bringing about positive changes in our lives and rising above those challenges to thrive.
Looking forward to more articles such as this one and continue on inspiring positive changes to your readers.
This article deserves recognition since nowadays, a lot of people didn’t recognize their own strengths but rather internalizing negative thoughts and emotions which leads them to anxiety and depression. Positive Psychology gives me an eagerness to understand in-depth on how people should flourish their own strength. It is indeed that Physical illness = Mental illness, we treat our physical illness by strengthening our immune system such as eating healthy and exercise and so does in mental illness, we absorb positive energy by enhancing it through our strengths. In addition, Positive Psychology, utilizes our strength to ameliorate our mental immunity in order for us to overcome our weakness and surpass negative energy. This article would give readers knowledge about diffrent types of strength that should be recognize in ourselves which helps us to understand further and reach our main goal.
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