Lesson 6:

Approaches Used in
Positive Psychology
PSYC 19 POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
 Overview
Subjective Well Being & Instrument
Hope and Optimism
Wisdom and Courage
Mindfulness and Flow
 What is
happiness?
 HAPPINESS

Positive Affect
Subjective Well-Being
Various positive
How people evaluate
emotions, feelings and
their own lives in terms
moods that we
of cognitive (life-
frequently experience
satisfaction) and
and easily recognise
affective explanations
(Boniwell, 2008)

Three The Pleasant Life

Having many pleasures in life and the

routes to
skills to amplify them

The Good Life

Knowing your signature strengths,

happiness and recreating your life (work, love,

friendship, leisure, parenting) to use
those strengths to have more ‘flow’ in

Seligman life

The Meaningful Life

(2002)
Using your signature strengths to
serve something that you believe is
larger than you are
 Adaptation Theory
Strong reaction to recent events
High levels of happiness after winning the lotto
Returns to set-point (3 months)

Linked to ‘zero-sum’ theory

Happy and unhappy periods are cyclical

Hedonic Adaptation Prevention Model

Discrepancy Theories
SWB is a function of comparison processes
Social, past-self, internalised standards

Status anxiety & Materialism

Linked with lower SWB and depression

Too much Choice

Satisficers vs Maximizers
 Global Measures of
Happiness
1.Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999)
2.Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985)
3.PANAS Questionnaire (Watson et al., 1985)
4.Meaning of Life Questionnaire (Steger et al., 2006)
5.Flow Experience Scale (Csikszentmihalyi , 1988)
 Global Measures of
SWB
Strengths Weaknesses

•Psychometrically sound •Requires accurate reflection and unbiased

•Valid assessment of one’s happiness
•Reliable •Influence of immediate circumstances
•Efficient •Sensitive to information accessed before
•Cost effective measurement
•Social comparisons
 Experience Sampling
Method (ESM)
More suitable (than global measures) for assessing the
affective component
frequent positive affect and infrequent negative affect

Aggregate of momentary affective experiences encountered

throughout daily life
Comes from Csikszentmihalyi’s work on ‘flow’
Costly & requires a great deal of participants’ time and co-
operation
Day Reconstruction
Method (DRM)
Short-term daily diary of distinct episodes
Appropriate for large scale data collections of SWB
indicators
More cost-effective than ESM, but also requires a lot of
participants’ time
Provides unique and novel information about what people do
and how they feel in their everyday lives
ARE YOU
HAPPY?
It appears that most of us are indeed
happy (Myers, 2000).

Five ways to wellbeing – two recent

studies, The Foresight Report and
Gallup’s most recent world poll, have
shown similar finding. The findings
suggest that there are five necessary
elements for wellbeing
The
Connect (relationships)
Be active
Take notice

Foresight
“stop to smell the roses”
Keep learning
Give (random acts of

report kindness)
 Career wellbeing
The Gallup Social wellbeing
Financial wellbeing

organisation Physical wellbeing

Community wellbeing
 Who is
happy?
In reality, and from hundreds of thousands of data sets, it
appears that most people are indeed happy (Myers, 2000).
Although it is rare to be at the high end, the majority of
people on Earth score in the ‘somewhat satisfied set-point
(Diener and Diener, 1995: 653).
 Five ways to
well-being
Two major studies have recently revealed similar findings from
their research endeavors. The Foresight Report and Gallup’s
most recent World Poll suggest five necessary elements for
well-being. This section will review these two reports before
going into more detail on the specific well-being facilitators.
The Foresight Report
The Foresight Report was conducted by the New Economics
Foundation (NEF) to review all evidence-based research on
ways to well-being. After reviewing over 400 pieces of well-
being scientific research from around the world, Aked et al.
(2008) suggested five consistent findings throughout the
research that would increase well-being. Based on scientific
evidence the five ways to well-being include:
Connect
Be active
Take notice
Keep learning
Give
Five essential elements
for well-being
Based on new research from the Gallup organization, Rath and
Harter (2010) reveal ‘five essential elements for wellbeing’.
Although they do not cover what may be morally important in
life, these elements include, in order of importance:

Career well-being
Social well-being
Financial well-being
Physical well--being
Community well-
being
What makes
us happy?
Income and SWB
Relationship and SWB
Marriage and SWB
Employment or Work and SWB
Health and SWB
Religion and SWB
 Religion and SWB
In order for a religion to enhance well-being, Diener and Biswas-
Diener (2008) propose that the elements needed are:
Comforting beliefs in what awaits us on the ‘other side’.
Social support from a community.
Connecting to something permanent and important can give
comfort, meaning, and a sense of identity.
Growing up religiously may influence a solid upbringing with a clear
set of values and morals to abide by.
Experience rituals that excite, amaze, and involve the congregation
and its followers
Age, gender, and education
Scientists have found that elderly individuals are as happy as their
younger counterparts. With regards to gender, there appear to be no
significant differences between the happiness levels of men and
women (Diener et al., 1999b; Nes et al., 2008). Finally, people who score
high on well-being tend to have higher educational attainment than
those who score lower on the scales.
Theories of Subjective well-being

Diener (1984) proposed two approaches to understanding

causation within SWB research: bottom-up and top-down
causation. Bottom-up approaches attempt to find which
particular variables cause SWB. Top-down approaches
attempt to understand SWB as producing certain outcomes
(Headey et al., 1991).
Theories of Subjective well-being

Genetics and SWB

Dynamic Equilibrium Theory
Set Point Theory
Epigenetics
Adaptation Theory
Hedonic Adaptation Theory
Discrepancy Theory
Relative Standard Model
Paradox of Choice
As nations become richer and consumers become more
demanding, our world is packed with choices, alternatives, and
variations to most everything for sale. Freedom of choice has
now been replaced with the ‘tyranny of freedom’, where more
choice isn’t necessarily a good thing (Schwartz, 2000;
Schwartz et al., 2002).

Paradox of Choice
An abundance of choice has led to three leading problems for
consumers and citizens of Western societies. These include:
■ Information problems.
■ Error problems.
■ Psychological problems.
Paradox of Choice
When it comes to decision-making, Schwartz has separated
individuals into two categories: satisficers versus maximizers.
Satisficers are individuals who are able to choose items that
meet their minimum criteria and go for ‘what’s good enough’.
Maximizers, on the other hand, are individuals who fixate on
searching for all the possible options and look for the best
possible choice.
Paradox of Choice
Furthermore, researchers have identified that there are
several pitfalls associated with being a maximizer including:
■ Regret at not getting the best choice or anticipating regret
in the future.
■ Opportunity costs.
■ Escalation of expectations.
■ Self-blame.
■ Time.
Goal
Theories
and
"Commitment to a set of goals provides a
Subjective sense of personal agency and a sense of
Well-being structure and meaning to daily life"
(Diener et al., 1999: 284).
Goal
Diener and Biswas-Diener (2008) propose
Theories an ‘AIM approach’ for creating a ‘happy
and mindset’. According to Diener and Biswas-
Subjective Diener, there are three basic components
to a positive attitude and happy mindset
Well-being
that we need to engage in
Attention
Interpretation
Memory
Goal
Interpretation
Theories According to Diener and Biswas-Diener
and (2008), there are six main destructive
Subjective thinking patterns that individuals tend to
default to when interpreting events:
Well-being
■ Awfulizing.
■ Distress intolerance.
■ Learned helplessness.
■ Perfectionism.
■ Negative self-fulfilling expectancies.
■ Rejection goggles.
Hope &
Optimism
Hope
It is defined as the determination to achieve goals plus the belief
that many pathways can be generated.

It is a goal directed thinking in which the person utilizes pathways

thinking (the perceived capacity to find routes to desired goals)
and agency thinking (the requisite motivations to use those
routes).
The Hope Three main things that make up the
Theory hopeful thinking:
by Goal - Approaching life in a goal-
Synder oriented way
Pathways - Finding different ways to
achieve your goals
Agency - Believing that you can
instigate change and achieve these
goals
The Hope Synder characterizes hopeful thinkers as
Theory people who are able to establish clear
by goals, imagine multiples workable
Synder pathways toward those goals, and
persevere, even when obstacles get in
their way.
Optimism
It described by Scheier and Carver as the stable tendency to
believe that good rather than bad things will happen.

It assumes that when a goal is of sufficient value, then the

individual would produce an expectancy about attaining that goal.
 TWO MAIN SCHOOLS OF
THOUGHT REGARDING
OPTIMISM

Dispositional optimism Explanatory style

Expectancy
Confidence
Dispositional
Optimism
It is defined as a personality
trait relating to generalized
outcome expectancies.
Optimists are
characterized by their
broad expectancy that
outcomes are likely to
be positive
Pessimists are
characterized by the
future anticipation of
negative outcomes.
 Two Main Elements of
Dispositional Optimism
Expectancy
It is the most crucial element as it has a direct link with
expectancy value theories of motivation, which posit that all
behaviour is a result of the desire to obtain a person’s values
or goals.
In order to achieve the goal, it must have value and spark
motivation to continue (Scheier and Carver, 2009).

Confidence
It is the second element and is highly influential on
optimism.
If confidence is high that the goal can be achieved, then the
person is more likely to act. If there is doubt, then the
person will disengage.
Explanatory Optimists explain negative
Style events by inferring external,
unstable or local causes:
The event was caused by
Also known as the Attribution
something/someone other
style
than myself (external), by
something that will
It refers to the way in which probably not persist
one explains the causes and (unstable) or by something
influences of previous that is probably limited to
positive and negative events this specific circumstance
in order to create (local).
expectancies about the
future.
Explanatory
Pessimists explain negative
Style events by inferring internal,
stable or global causes: The
Also known as the Attribution event was caused by myself
style (internal), by something
that is chronic (stable), or
It refers to the way in which by something that is
one explains the causes and pervasive and will affect
influences of previous other situations as well
positive and negative events (global).
in order to create
expectancies about the
future.
Dispositional Optimism vs Explanatory Style
The main difference between the two schools of thought is that
attributional style recognizes optimism as a learned skill and not a
stable personality trait.

Attributional style is concerned with the question of why good and

bad events happened whereas dispositional optimism focuses on
what will probably happen in the future.
Benefits of It protects against an urge to
withdraw from social activities

Optimism It protects against drinking

problems
Optimists are able to recover
Optimists tend to experience
from disappointments more
less distress during adversity
quickly
than pessimists.
It leads to higher life
It is associated with living
satisfaction
longer.
Optimists form better
Optimists tend to be relationships
unrealistically optimistic about
their ability to control their
own health but this can lead
them to persist with health-
promoting behaviours
DEFENSIVE PESSIMISM
It is based on the ability to think of, and plan, for the worst-case
scenario of a situation; hence defensive pessimists like to be
prepared and cover all angles.
It serves as a cushion to the potential blow of failure, motivates
reflection and rehearsal, and is used as a strategy to ‘harness’
anxiety for motivation.
Defensive pessimists set their sights unrealistically low and think
about how to solve potential problems in advance of a daunting
task (Held, 2004).
UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM
They tend to perceive risk as lower than average. There tends to be
an optimistic bias in risk perception, with optimists viewing
themselves below average for such occurrences as cancer, heart
disease, failure and heartbreak.
In the case of serious traumatic events such as death, fire, flood or
violence, optimists may not be well prepared
Engaging in blind optimism may be unhealthy for long-term
physical and psychological well being.
 THE THREE ‘SELVES’ IN
OPTIMISM

Self-confidence Self-esteem Self-efficacy

Self-confidence Self-esteem Self-efficacy

It is thought of as: It is defined as ‘the It is the expectation

‘being certain in your disposition to that one can master
own abilities and experience oneself as a situation, and
about having trust in competent to cope produce a positive
people, plans or the with the basic outcome based on
future challenges of life and beliefs about our
as worthy of happiness’ personal
Confidence in the (Hewitt, 2009). competence or
self and the situation effectiveness in a
is important for given area.
perseverance
towards goals.
Wisdom &
Courage
The four

cardinal virtues Wisdom

wisdom is characterized as

prudence(wisdom) the predecessor of

​justice courage (In some cases)

​fortitude(courage) some people even reason

and that wisdom can make

​temperance courage unnecessary

 Robinson's (1990) review of early Western classical dialogues revealed

Three distinct conceptualization of

wisdom

1. That found in persons seeking a

contemplative life (the Greek

term sophia) Theoretikes- the theoretical

thought and knowledge

2. That of a practical nature, as

devoted to truth and

displayed by great statements

distinguishing it from

(Phronesis) Phronesis (practical wisdom)

3. Scientific understanding

(episteme)
Theories of
Implicit Theories of

Wisdom Wisdom
Implicit Theories of Wisdom Three dimensions of the construct
- folk theories of a construct that describe
Clayton (1975) (Identified through the use of a statistical procedure

known as multidimensional scaling)

its basic elements of wisdom first were

described by Clayton
1. Affective
Explicit Theories of Wisdom ( empathy and compassion)
- theories detailing the observable

manifestations of a construct 2. Reflective

- the soundest of which presently include
(intuition and introspection)
the Balance theory of wisdom

(Sternberg, 1998)
3. Cognitive
Berlin wisdom paradigm

(experience and intelligence)

(Baltes & Smith, 1990; Baltes &

Staudinger, 1993, 2000).

 Baltes (1993) analyzed cultural-

The six qualities of wisdom

Sternberg (1985)
historical and philosophical

writings and found that wisdom

1. Reasoning ability 1. Addresses important/ difficult

matters of life
2. Sagacity 2. involves special or superior

3. Learning from ideas and

knowledge, judgement, and

environment advice
3. Reflects knowledge with

4. Judgement
extraordinary scope, depth, and

5. Expeditious use of
balance applicable to specific life

information situations
6. Perspicacity 4. Is well intended and combines

mind and virtue

5. is very difficult to achieve but

easily recognized.
Explicit Theories of Wisdom
Erik Erickson: Piaget: Robert sternberg:
The final stage

of personality
The product of the final
As a balance

development. stage of cognitive

between practical

He view
development; the
intelligence and tacit

wisdom as
application of dialectical
knowledge applied to

part of
thinking to solving
solving problems to

optimal
complex problems achieve the greater

development. good to all

Dialectical operations-
logical argumentation in

pursuit of truth or reality.

Explicit Theories of Wisdom

Balance Theory of wisdom- "the

process in relation to the goal of

wisdom."
Berlin wisdom paradigm- define

wisdom as the "ways and means of

planning, managing, and

understanding a good life."

The three metacriteria that are specific

to wisdom:
1. Life-span contextualism
2. Relativism of values
3. Managing uncertainty
 Developing wisdom:

Piaget (1932), Jung (1953), and Erikson (1959) provided building blocks for 20th-century

wisdom theorists.
Piaget's work has been extended beyond formal operations to
include "dialectical operations" (Riegel, 1973).
The work of Erikson and Jung gave modern theorists clues about
how resolving conflict leads to enhanced discernment and
judgment.
Sternberg proposed that knowledge, judicial thinking style,
personality, motivation, and environmental context precede
wisdom.
Baltes and Staudinger (2000) suggested that fluid intelligence,
creativity, openness to experience, psychological-mindedness,
and general life experiences "orchestrate" to produce wisdom.
Wisdom grows as people learn to think flexibly to
solve problems, and such problem solving entails
recognizing ideas according to place and culture.

"Two heads are better than one,"

the importance of "guidance by mentors or other wisdom-enhancing 'others"
 Courage
courage has been portrayed as a precursor

Courage
of wisdom.
sometimes is viewed as the virtue that

makes all virtuous behaviors possible.

can help overcome obstacles that make the

practice of other virtues more difficult.

Is valued
Selected Scholarly Definitions of

Courage
 Implicit Theories of courage
In the Values In Action classification
Laypeople's views of courage system, Peterson and Seligman (2004)

courage was conceptualized as a core

result of the survey conducted by O'Byrne, Lopez,

and Petersen (2000) human virtue comprised of such

strengths as:
some perceive courage as an

attitude
others see it as a behavior
valor​
some refer to mental strength,
authenticity
others write of physical strength. enthusiasm/zest
some claim that courage involves
industry/perseverance
taking a risk, whereas others

accentuate the role of fear.

In a similar model, O'Byrne et al. (2000) identified the

three types of courage

1. Physical courage
involves the attempted maintenance of societal
good by the expression of physical behavior grounded in the

pursuit of socially valued goals

2. Moral courage
is the behavioral expression of authenticity in the face of the

discomfort of dissension, disapproval, or rejection

3. Vital courage
refers to the perseverance through a disease or disability even

when the outcome is ambiguous

Psychological courage
as Putman (1997) described it, is strength in facing one's

destructive habits.

Courageous behavior may result in a

sense of equanimity, or calmness; an

absence of regret about one's life; and

personal
integrity
"To understand wisdom fully and

correctly probably requires more

wisdom than any of us have"

(Sternberg, 1990). Likewise, to

understand courage may require a

good bit of wisdom.

Mindfulness and
Flow
Mindfulness
mindfulness is an active search for novelty
Process of cultivating awareness
Flexible state of mind (an openness to novelty, a process of
actively drawing novel distinctions)
Behavior may be guided rather than governed by rules and
routines
State of being in the moment
Being Mindful requires to:
Overcome the desire to reduce
uncertainty in daily life

Override a tendency to engage in

automatic behavior

Engage less frequently in evaluations of

self, others and the situation
 Qualities of Mindfulness
Nonjudging
observing the present moment by moment
without evaluation
Nonstriving
observing the present moment by moment
without evaluation
Acceptance
Open to seeing and acknowledging things as
they are in the present moment
 Qualities of Mindfulness
Patience
Allows things to unfold in their time
Trust
trusting that life is unfolding as it is supposed to
Openness
creating possibility by paying attention to all
feedback in the present moment
Letting Go
Nonattachment, not holding on to thoughts,
feelings, experiences
 Qualities of Mindfulness
Gentleness
Characterized by a soft, considerate, and
tender quality
Generosity
Giving in the present moment within a context
of love and compassion
Empathy
The quality of feeling and understanding
another person's situation
 Qualities of Mindfulness
Gratitude
The quality of reverence, appreciating and
being thankful for the present moment

Lovingkindness
cherishing, a quality filled with forgiveness
and unconditional love
 Living with Mindfulness
Being Mindful of Emotions
-with Mindfulness meditation, one can learn
to be less judgmental

Being Mindful of Eating

-increasing one's awareness of eating
may benefit those who are trying to make
changes in their eating habits
 Living with Mindfulness
Mindful Stretching Exercises
-gentleness stretching and strengthening
exercises done very slowly with moment -to-
moment awareness of breathing and of the
sensations that arise is yoga

Mindful Breathing and Sitting as a

Meditation
-mindful breathing and sitting help to
relax and focus the mind
 Benefits of Mindfulness
Stress Reduction
mindfulness-based training enables people to be
more selective about their emotional experiences
Decreased Emotional Reactivity
those who has more experience in mindfulness
meditation didn’t react as strongly
Improved Focus
meditators significantly outperformed the non-
meditators on all measures of attention
 Benefits of Mindfulness
Increased Working Memory
working memory decreased in those who spent
the least time practicing mindfulness but
increased in those who spent the most time
practicing

Better Relationships
mindfulness can improve one’s ability to
communicate emotions and successfully
respond to stress in relationships
Flow
"optimal experience"
A state of mind in which a person becomes fully immersed in an
activity.
The intense experiential involvement in moment-to-moment
activity
“the holistic sensation that people feel when they act with total
involvement.”
 Conditions needed to

Facilitate Flow Experience

Structured activity with clear goals and
immediate feedback.
that the activity must have rules and a clear
outline in order to help orientate the person
doing it
Balance of challenges versus skills.
in order to reach and maintain positioning within
the flow channel, we must have a delicate balance
between our skills level and the challenges at hand
 Conditions needed to

Facilitate Flow Experience

Complete concentration
in order to reach and maintain positioning
within the flow channel, we must have a
delicate balance between our skills level
and the challenges at hand
Sense of control.
characteristic for flow is the feeling of
heightened control over one’s actions
 Conditions needed to

Facilitate Flow Experience

Transformation of time.
This element is the unique experience of
where time speeds up, and before you know
it, you’ve been engaging in the activity for
hours when it felt like minutes.
 2 Approaches for

Applying Flow
change environments to facilitate flow
(can shape activity structures and
environments to foster flow)

help others find flow

(therapists can help assist individuals in
finding flow, which in turn can lead to
higher levels of performance and
increased positive affect)
 Activities in which we

experience flow:
sports and activity
dance participation
creative arts
sex
socializing
studying
listening to music
reading
paradoxically working
 Benefits of Flow

Increased Positive Emotions

Bring about higher grades
Higher levels of commitment
Academic Achievements
Greater Engagement
Leadership Development
Thank
you!!