What is positive psychology?

Positive psychology is the science of happiness and wellbeing. It is the study of psychological health, as opposed mainstream psychology which focuses on psychological illness. A common misconception is that positive psychology is all about positivity, and because of it’s name it’s an easy mistake to make. The title however, actually refers to a focus on improving our psychological health beyond a neutral state of wellbeing to a state of satisfaction, fulfilment and a place where we can feel fantastic and experience superior human functioning.

The Birth of Positive Psychology

Prior to World War II psychological scientists committed to three main missions;

1. curing mental illness.

2. Making the lives of all people more fulfilling.

3. Identifying and nurturing talent.

But once the war ended psychological scientists focused almost exclusively on mental illness. Over the course of 5 decades the vast majority of all scientific research within the field of psychology was driven towards repairing what was broken, the short comings, the misery, the malady and the malfunction. This formed the foundation of mainstream psychology and has been enormously successful and taken great strides in understanding, relieving and even curing many disorders (1). But mental wellbeing is not simply a lack of mental illness.

In 1999 Professor Martin Seligman made a presidential mission statement to the American Psychological Association (APA) reminding us that psychology set out with three areas of focus, not just one and proposed to redress the imbalance within psychology:

’Psychology is not just the study of weakness and damage, it is also the study of strengths and virtues. Treatment is not just fixing what is broken, it is nurturing what is best within ourselves’ Martin Seligman (2)

And with this, the scientific discipline of positive psychology was born.

Mainstream psychology works within the medical disease model where the focus is on taking a human from a health deficit to neutral. From illness to no illness. Positive psychology takes a human beyond neutral, to a state of greater wellbeing. Below is a very simplified illustration of the difference in focus between the psychologies.

Positive psychology isn't exclusively for the mentally well, there is a significant and growing body of evidence to show that positive psychology interventions can also benefit people who are diagnosed with clinical depression (3,4), anxiety and people with psychiatric or somatic disorders (5). While wellbeing and psychopathology (mental illness) are two separate constructs, they are connected. There is a significant amount of evidence that shows promoting wellbeing through positive psychology can reduce symptoms of mental illness and help prevent relapse or recurring symptoms (6).

Health is a positive concept

It is important to remember that positive psychology, while it doesn't focus on mental illness, is holistic, it does not exclude negative experiences or negative emotions. It simply places its primary focuses on improving mental health rather than curing mental illness. In order to flourish we must embrace our whole selves, the light and the dark sides and everything in between. Health is a positive concept (7).

Positive psychology is currently generating research in well over 200 topics across 21 broad themes, including: Happiness, behavioural change, optimism, resilience, life satisfaction, posttraumatic growth, relationships, leadership, positive emotions, mood, self-efficacy, motivation, self-regulation, mindfulness, gratitude, creativity, mental toughness, altruism, citizenship behaviour and education (8).

Image by Rusk & Waters (9)

Over time, the happiness puzzle aims to offer you bitesize education across these themes and show you practical tools and interventions that you can apply to your life to help you optimise your own wellbeing. We will share lots of little puzzle pieces with you, some you will resonate with and others you wont. So take your pick of all the puzzle pieces and create your own unique picture of happiness.

references:

1. Linley, 2009. Positive psychology (history), in S. Lopez (ed.) The encyclopaedia of positive psychology, Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

2. Seligman, M. E. P, 1999. The president's address. American Psychologist, 54, 559-562.

3. Sin, N.L. and Lyubomirsky, S. 2009. Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: a practice friendly meta-analysis, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(5): 467-87.

4. Schotanus-Dijkstra, M. Pierersea, M.E. Drossaerta, C.H.C. et al, 2017. Possible mechanisms in a multi component email guided positive psychology intervention to improve mental well-being, anxiety and depression: a multiple mediation model, The Journal of Positive Psychology.

5. Chakhssi, F., Kraiss, J.T., Sommers-Spijkerman, M. et al. The effect of positive psychology interventions on well-being and distress in clinical samples with psychiatric or somatic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry18, 211 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1739-2.

6. Lamers S, Westerhof GJ, Glas CA, Bohlmeijer ET. 2015. The bidirectional relation between positive mental health and psychopathology in a longitudinal representative panel study. Journal of Positive Psychology. ;10(6):553–60.

7. World Health Organisation, 1986. The 1st International Conference on Health Promotion, https://www.who.int/teams/health-promotion/enhanced-well-being/first-global-conference, Ottawa.

8. Hart, R. 2021. Positive Psychology: the basics, Oxon. Routledge.

9. Rusk, R.D. Waters, L.E. 2013. Tracing the size, reach, impact, and breadth of positive psychology. The journal of Positive Psychology. 8(3), 207-221.