The History of Positive Psychology

The roots of positive psychology stretch back to the ancient Greeks and Aristotle’s concern with
eudaimonia (often translated from Greek as happiness), intellectual and moral virtues, and the good life.
Also, some of the core elements of positive psychology such as mindfulness, have roots in ancient
Eastern spiritual practices.

Positive psychology began as a new domain of psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman chose it as
the theme for his term as president of the American Psychological Association. It is a reaction against
past practices, which have tended to focus on mental illness and emphasized maladaptive behavior and
negative thinking.

Timelines -
Positive Psychology History
The Zeitgeist

1980's

1984

Positive Psychology

In 1984, Ed Diener coined the term "subjective well-being" as a measurement of happiness.

1980's

1985

Ed Diener

In 1985, Ed Diener published his Satisfaction with Life scale

1990's

The New Era

1997

In 1997, Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi meet to discuss the plan for launching positive
psychology into the new era

Barbara Fredrickson published a theory "broaden and build".

Build theory helps us to understand how we can move away from a survival mode way of responding to
situations into a more expansive and thoughtful approach to life.

This usefulness of positive emotions is highlighted through this new theory in the field of positive
psychology.

1999

1990's

1998

Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman was elected President of the Amercian Psychological Association. Shortly after being
elected, positive psychology became the theme of his term.

2001

The first positive psychology conference is held in Akumal, Mexico.

The first annual Positive Psychology Summit is held in Lincoln, Neb.

The first university programs in positive psychology are available at Harvard and the University of
Pennsylvania.

2002

U.S. Department of Education gave $2.8 million for Martin Seligman to develop the topic of positive
psychology in a Philadelphia high school.

Martin Seligman publishes his book called "Authentic Happiness".

2004-2009

 Sonja Lyubormirsky and Kennon Sheldon were granted $1 million from the National Institute of
Mental Health.

 This was to explore practical "intervention" pathways to permanent increases in happiness.

 First masters program in Positive Psychology at U Penn

  first doctoral program in positive psychology at Claremont Graduate University

 The pentagom approached Founder Martin Seligman to help develop a positive psychology
program in the Univ

The Zeitgeist

Positive Psychology is fascinated with the use of research, psychological theory and different techniques
to understand the positive, adaptive, creative & emotional aspects of human behavior.

Storyboard Text

Christianity (500- 1500AD)- taught that in the afterlife, true happiness was found (UWI Open Campus,
2018a).

Socrates (470- 399BC) & Plato (circa 428- 348 BC)- Advancements that good outweighs evil (Parry,
2014).

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY -REIZA PATRICE

Aristotle (384–322 BCE)- contributed knowledge on the value of morality, virtue and living a good life
(Hefferon & Boniwell, 2011).

Norman vincent peale (1898- 1993)- advanced the power of positive thinking (UWI Open Campus,
2018a).

William james (1842- 1910)- suggested that our emotions follow our physical actions and suggested the
importance of combining positivist and phonological methodology (Hefferon & Boniwell, 2011).

Renaissance (14th - 18th century)- During the time of enlightenment, persons like John Stuart Mill and
colleagues posited that happiness was maximized by moral actions (UWI Open Campus, 2018a).

HISTORY OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Abraham Maslow (1908- 1970)- believed that humanistic psychology should be based on the study of
healthy, creative individuals (UWI Open Campus, 2018). In fact, the term “positive psychology” was first
coined by Maslow (Maslow, 1954).

Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi (1990)- he established the flow state and means through which that state could
be achieved (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

HISTORY OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Martin Seligman (1991- 2006)- he completed work on how helplessness and pessimistic attitudes
garnered an interest in optimism and was elected President of the American Psychological Association
when the theme of Positive Psychology became widely known (About Education, 2013).

Donald Clifton (2002)- he came up with Strengths-based psychology. He studied successful individuals
and wanted to know what they did right to achieve top performance (Lopez, Pedrotti & snyder, 2015).

HISTORY OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (2000)- developed the theory of human motivation known as Self
Determination Theory (Srinivasan, 2015).

Emotions- they are “psychological states defined by subjective feelings but which also include
characteristic patterns of physiological arousal, thoughts and behaviours” (UWI Open Campus, 2018b, p.
21). They are said to be more prolonged that the sensations of pleasure; have beginnings and endings and
can lead to either negative or positive consequences (An, Ji, Marks & Zhang, 2017).

CONCEPTS RELATED TO PLEASURE AND POSITIVE EXPERIENCES

Pleasure describes “the broad class of mental states that is experienced as positive, enjoyable, satisfying,
gratifying and thus worth seeking” (UWI Open Campus, 2018b, p. 17). It is an important component of
happiness and can take various forms such as intense, arounsed and sharp (Peterson, 2006 as cited in UWI
Open Campus, 2018b).

Hedonic capacity refers to a dispositional ability to experience pleasure. This usually occurs after a
rewarding stimuli ( in response to stimuli that are typically rewarding (Novacek, Gooding & Pflum,
2016).

Affectivity- “the extent to which someone experiences positive or negative moods” (UWI Open Campus,
2018b, p. 23). There may be positive affect (the extent to which one experiences joy and happiness) or
negative affect (the extent to which one experiences sadness or fear) (Peterson, 2006).

CONCEPTS RELATED TO PLEASURE AND POSITIVE EXPERIENCES

Christopher Peterson (2004)- he was the co-author of Character Strengths and Virtues with Seligman and
also known for his studies of optimism, hope, character, and well-being (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

Flow- having been posited by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, refers to the idea the feeling of being in an
optimal state, like “in the zone or in the groove” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). A person is fully immersed in
what they are doing here.