Positive Psychology- A New Perspective

“Happiness is not out there for us to find. The reason that it’s not out there is that it’s inside us.” -Sonja Lyubomirsky

What is Positive Psychology?

Positive Psychology emerged as a recent domain in the field of Psychology during the late 90s when the perspective was shifted from focusing on ‘what was wrong’ to ‘what was right’, The field dealt with building on what could be improved within a person and not fixing what was wrong. This was introduced as a very distinctive field of psychology as it was quite opposite of what the other fields dealt with such as trauma, negative emotions, coping mechanisms, and the rest.

It was in 1998 when the then-president of the American Psychological Association Michael Seligman suggested ‘Positive Psychology’ as the theme for his term. It emerged as a reaction to the usual aspects of negative behaviours and thoughts, and instead focused upon improving the quality of life by cultivating positive strengths and behaviours within individuals. This field mainly talks about aspects such as optimism, happiness, well-being, hope, elevation, and so on.

Interestingly, the ‘Positive Psychology movement’ was started by Seligman in the late 1990s where he put forth the idea of working on the state of being positive and upliftment. He identified how the positive aspects of happiness, well-being, gratitude, and such ideas were overlooked due to much of the focus given to the negative aspects like trauma, suffering, and pain. He introduced this sub-field so as to solely focus on aspects that make life worth living and not depleting.

How can Positive Psychology be applied in real life?

One can apply the principles of Positive psychology in their life in various ways. For instance,

• Identifying one's character strengths has been regarded as an important step to lead a meaningful and happier life.

• Identifying oneself’s strengths makes a person believe and be dependent on themselves.

• Practicing gratitude has also been shown to make happiness increase over time. This could also be as simple as writing down things that you are grateful for on a daily basis.

• Developing certain characters and positive thoughts like purpose in life could also bring an overall difference in possible outcomes .

Most importantly, the shift of one’s perspective shall remain a huge outcome of applying Positive Psychology. A shift in one’s perspective allows them to view their life through a positive lens which can lead to creating huge shifts in the quality and well-being of their life. It gives people a ray of hope, and makes them realise how dwelling in a plethora of negative emotions does not do any good, and identifying certain strengths within yourself and utilising them so as to cope up with them would lead to them having a positive outlook towards life.

Advantages of Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology can benefit you tremendously, and bring great positive outcomes in your life, with the most important being the Power of Perspective.

• Positive Psychology helps you gain a sense of Perspective which is important for having a positive mindset. The human mind tends to focus more on the negative than the positive. Hence, with the right application of Positive Psychology, your mind is allowed to stick to the positive mindset and thoughts, and helps gain an overall positive outlook towards life.
  

• Adapting a Positive Mindset helps in being more optimistic than being pessimistic as it helps our mind believe the possible positive outcomes. At the same time, adopting a positive mindset does not necessarily mean to avoid all negativity, but tells us to infuse positivity in all possible situations we are faced with.
  

• Relationships can be greatly benefitted with the right application of Positive Psychology. Researchers have indicated that one of the most important factors in human flourishing is building close relationships with others. Positive habits like responding with the other individual, showing appreciation and acceptance towards them can help build relationships greatly.
  

• A Boost in Self-Esteem is also a key factor that should be discussed here. Positive thoughts and a healthy mind help gain self-esteem which helps bring positive outcomes in your life. Various steps like setting realistic expectations, having a positive self-image, and being positive about various outcomes can help you focus on having an overall positive mindset.

Disadvantages of Positive Psychology

While there are an endless number of reasons to discuss why positive psychology is beneficial, there are a fair number of individuals who argue Positive Psychology to be not as good as it sounds.

• Positive Psychology may leave you unprepared for tough times as not all outcomes may be what you would be anticipating. One must be aware of all the possible outcomes that they may face and be optimistic, and not hold a pessimistic approach towards what they would receive.
  

• Bottling up Negative Emotions could be a result of not acknowledging your negative feelings and could lead to drastic effects on your mental health. This in-turn, would reflect on your subconscious, and may resurface quite often.
  

• An absence of balanced thinking would either make you dwell in negativity or make you overly optimistic. A perfect balance of positive and negative thoughts would help you thrive in life.
  

• Researchers only tend to focus on certain emotions, behaviours and thoughts of an individual, and not monitor them holistically. Such biases are only useful for research until they are faced with the fact that a person’s experiences cannot be broken down into various components.

Does Positive Psychology contradict the field of Psychology as a whole?

Although Positive Psychology is focused on improving happiness and well-being in general, it does not disregard the existence of negative emotions, and does not ask individuals to ignore their emotions. It creates a balance between positive and negative emotions within us and makes us aware of how one must not always dwell in the negative aspects, and look towards the brighter side as well. It tells us to not only focus on our weaknesses, but also our strengths. This enables them to be prepared for various inevitable states of mind.

Nevertheless, Positive Psychology emerged as an out-of-the-box concept initially, but was recognized as a whole domain in psychology after applying it for areas such as coaching, relationships, teaching, workplace, and the list goes on. It aims at complementing the positive bias of psychology with the negative bias to create an equilibrium over time.

References

• Courtney E. Ackerman- What is Positive Psychology & Why is it important?https://positivepsychology.com/what-is-positive-psychology-definition/

• Psychology Today-Positive Psychology https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/positive-psychology/

• Wikipedia- Positive Psychology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology

• Critique on Positive Psychology and Positive Interventions http://www.drpaulwong.com/critique-of-positive-psychology/