CLASSIFICATION AND MEASURES OF HUMAN STRENGTHS

Objectives
1. Understanding the early classification of illness
2. Understanding three basic qualification systems of
human strengths: The Gallup Themes of Talent
The Values in Action (VIA) Classification
of Strengths The Search Institute’s 40
Developmental Assets
Early Classification of Illness
Work on the classification of illness had a 2000-year head start on the more
recent efforts to classify strengths and positive outcomes. Therefore, it is easy to
understand why we have better understandings of human weaknesses than we do
of strengths. The earliest attempt to define a set of virtues is contained in
Confucian teachings dating to 500 BC, where Confucius systematically addressed
jen (humanity or benevolence), li (observance of rituals and customs), xin
(truthfulness), yi (duty or justice), and zhi (wisdom). In the 21st century, two
classifications of illness have attained world-wide acceptance. First, the World
Health Organization’s International Classifications of Diseases (ICD) is in its 10th
edition and continues to evolve. Second, the American Psychiatric Association’s
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) now is in its 6th iteration as the DSM-IV-
TR (Text Revision). The ICD is broader in scope than the DSM in that it classifies
all diseases, whereas the DSM describes only the mental disorders. Currently, no
classification of human strengths or positive outcomes has achieved worldwide
use or acceptance. Some classifications and measures, however, have been
created, refined, and broadly disseminated in the last decade.
Three Classification Systems
The Gallup Themes of Talent as measured by the Clifton Strengths Finder
and the Clifton Youth Strengths Explorer.
The Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Strengths as measured by the
adult and youth versions of the VIA Inventory of Strengths.
The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets as measured by the Search
Institute Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors.
The Gallup Themes of Talent: Buckingham & Clifton (2001)
First, Donald Clifton believed that talents could be operationalized, studied, and
accentuated in work and academic settings. Specifically, he defined talent as
“naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be
productively applied” and manifested in life experiences characterized by
yearnings, rapid learning, satisfaction, and timelessness. Second, he considered
success to be closely allied with personal talents, strengths, and analytical
intelligence. After several months of collecting data, the researchers decided on
the 180 item pairs (360 items, 256 of which are scored) and the 34-theme version
currently available. Although some theme names have changed since 1999, the
theme definitions and 180 item pairs have not been altered.
Clifton Strengths Finder Themes:
Achiever Futuristic
Activator Harmony
Adaptability Ideation
Analytical Includer
Arranger Individualization
Belief Input
Command Intellection
Communication Learner
Competition Maximizer
Connectedness Positivity
Consistency Relator
Context Responsibility
Deliberative Restorative
Developer Self-Assurance
Discipline Significance
Empathy Strategic
Focus WOO (Winning Others Over)
Across samples, most scales (i.e., themes) have been found to be internally
consistent (despite containing as few as four items) and stable over periods
ranging from 3 weeks to 17 months. Specifically, the coefficient alphas have
ranged from .55 to .81 (.70 or above is a desirable psychometric standard) with
WOO having the highest internal consistency (.81) and Connection and
Restorative having the lowest (both below
.60).Regarding the stability of scales, most test-retest correlations were above .70
(considered appropriate for a measure of a personal trait). Regarding construct
validity, the theme score intercorrelations support the relative independence of
themes, thereby showing that the 34 themes provide unique information.
Today, the Clifton Strength Finder is available in 17 languages, and it is
modifiable for individuals with disability. It is appropriate for administration to
adolescents and adults with reading levels at 10th grade or higher. Although it is
used to identify personal talents, the related supporting materials can help
individuals discover how to build on their talents to develop strengths within their
particular life roles. It should be noted, however, that this instrument is not
designed or validated for use in employee selection or mental health screening.
Another caveat also is warranted: namely, given that Clifton Strengths Finder
feedback (presented as your “Five Signature Themes”) is provided to foster
intrapersonal development, using it for comparisons of individual’s profiles is
discouraged.
The Gallup Organization developed a new talent classification system and a
measure that is appropriate for children and youth (age 10 to 14). This is called
the Clifton Youth Strengths Explorer. Strengths Explorer developers believed that
knowledge about young people’s strengths will help in directing their energies to
maximize their potentials. The version of the Strengths Explorer tested in the
summer of 2005 taps 10 themes (Achieving, Caring, Competing, Confidence,
Dependability, Discoverer, Future Thinker, Organizing, Presence, and Relating).
When respondents complete the measure, they will receive a Youth Workbook
summarizing their top their top three themes and including action items and
exercises that, if completed, could help youth capitalize on their strengths. Parent
and educator guides also will be available so that caregivers can help youth in
developing their positive characteristics.
The Values in Action (VIA): Peterson & Seligman (2004)
Peterson and Seligman make the point that we currently have a shared language
for speaking about the negative side of psychology, but we have no such
equivalent terminology for describing human strengths. The VIA classification
system, originally commissioned by the Mayerson Foundation, was generated in
response to two basic questions:
1. How can one define the concepts of ‘strength’ and ‘highest potential,’ and
2. How can one tell that a positive youth development program has succeeded
in meeting its goals?
MEASURES OF HUMAN STRENGTHS & POSITIVE OUTCOMES
Objectives
1. Understanding how to Measure Human Strengths
2. Understanding Values in Action Inventory of Strengths
3. Get knowledge about The Search Institution’s 40 Developmental Assets
4. Capitalizing on Positive Emotions & Strengths
5. Describing and understanding Positive Outcomes
6. Describing Diagnostic Criteria for Flourishing
7. Describing Self-Report Measures of Well-being
VIA Strengths: The Really Big 24
Upon applying 10 criteria for strength (e.g., a strength is morally valued in its
own right; a person’s display of a strength does not diminish other people) to a
long list of potential constructs, 24 strengths were identified and then organized
under 6 overarching virtues (wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity, justice,
temperance, and transcendence) thought to “emerge consensually across cultures
and throughout time.
Value in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS)
The measure of this system of virtues and strengths, the Values in Action
Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), was designed to describe the individual
differences of character strengths. The development of the measure was
influenced by a tool once known as the “wellsprings” measure, and it “took
inspiration from the Gallup Organization’s Strengths Finder measure by wording
items in extreme fashion (“I always . . .”) and by providing feedback to
respondents concerning their top -not bottom -strengths of character”.
The 240 items (10 for each strength), answered with a 5-point Likert scale, can be
completed in about 30 minutes. The feedback report consists of the top 5
strengths, which are called signature strengths.
The Search Institution’s 40 Developmental Assets (Benson et al., 1998)
The Search Institute’s development Assets (Benson et al., 1998), which originally
were conceptualized in the 1980s in response to the question “What protects
children from today’s problems?”
The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets are considered commonsense,
positive experiences and qualities and are identified as reflecting primary
contributors to the thriving of young people. The Developmental Assets
framework categorizes assets according to external and internal groups of 20
assets each. The 20 external assets are the positive experiences that children and
youth gain through interactions with people and institutions; the 20 internal
assets are those personal characteristics and behaviors that stimulate the positive
development of young people.
The 156-item survey, Search Institute Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and
behaviors, was developed in 1989 and revised in 1996. The measure (appropriate
for children and youth) describes the respondent’s 40 Developmental Assets,
along with 8 thriving indicators, 5 developmental deficits, and 24 risk-taking
behaviors. Unfortunately, there is little information in the public domain about its
psychometric properties integrated into a model of psychological well-being. Self-
acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy, and
positive relations
with others are the six components of Ryff’s conceptualization of positive
functioning. His model of well-being has been investigated in numerous studies,
and the findings reveal that the six dimensions are independent, though
correlated, constructs of well-being. Specifically, Ryff and Keyes (1995) conducted
an analysis of the six-part well-being model and found that the multidimensionalmodel was
a superior fit over a single-factor model of well-being.
Integrated Model
Keyes also suggests that complete mental health can be conceptualized via
combinations of high levels of emotional well-being, psychological well-being, and
social well-being. Individuals with these high levels are described as flourishing.
Accordingly, individuals who have no mental illness but who have low levels of
well-being are described as languishing.
Developing Strength in living well -Cultural Context
Culture is broadly defined as a common heritage or set of beliefs, norms and values (U.S. DHHS*,
1999). It refers to the shared attributes of one group; a system of shared meanings. All cultures also
feature strengths, such as resilience and adaptive ways of coping, which may buffer some people
from developing certain disorders.

*DHHS- Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. David Satcher (16th surgeon general of the United States) spoke on the crucial influences of
culture on mental health in a convention, which summarizes as follows:

1. “Culture counts” in the consideration of etiology (the cause of something, such as an illness),
effects, and treatment of educational and psychological problems.

2. Psychologists need to incorporate cultural issues into their conceptualizations of psychological

problems and treatments.

3. Culture must be viewed in a broad sense as including facets such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, disability, and nature of origin (Hays, 2008).

UNDERSTANDING CULTURE: HISTORY

In the 20th century, Psychology encountered with the topic of individual differences. Over the last 100
years, psychology moved from identifying differences associated with culture to the identification
and appreciation of individual uniqueness.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, anthropologists and psychologists often referred to race and
culture as determinants of positive and negative personal characteristics and behaviors. Research
paradigms, influenced by sociopolitical forces, produced findings those were generally consistent
with the belief that the dominant race or culture was superior to all other racial or ethnic minority
groups within the U.S.

This led to a culturally deficient perspective, (i.e. a view that identifies a host of environmental,
nutritional, linguistic, and interpersonal factors that supposedly explain the physical and
psychological growth of members of selected groups) which highlighted the inferiority of certain
racial and cultural groups.

Another view that was prevalent earlier was the genetically deficient perspective, which is a view of
human diversity that suggests that biological difference explains perceived gaps in intellectual
capabilities among racial groups. Proponents of this perspective believe that inferior intelligence
cannot benefit from growth opportunities and do not contribute to the advancement of society. On
the other hand, the culturally different perspective recognizes the potential of each culture to
develop unique strengths (Sue & Sue, 2003).

By the middle of the 20 th century, most psychologists abandoned the belief that race predetermined
cognitive capacities and life outcomes. Indeed, the focus shifted from race to “culture deficiencies”
evidenced in the daily lives of some people. In the culturally deficient approach to understanding
differences among people, it was hypothesized that people were lacking in certain psychological
resources because they had limited exposure to the prevailing values and customs of the day.
Although this model focused greater attention on the effects of external variables than the earlier
model, it nevertheless continued to apply a biased, negative, and oversimplified framework for
appraising the cognitive capacities of racial or ethnic minority group members (Kaplan & Sue, 1997).
Recently, researches and practitioners have begun to consider culturally pluralistic (i.e. recognizing
distinct cultural entities and adopting some values of the majority group) and culturally
relativistic (i.e. interpreting behaviors within the context of the culture) explanations of the
diversities inherent in positive and negative human behaviors.

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: CULTURE FREE OR CULTURALLY EMBEDDED?

Positive psychology scientists and practitioners are committed to studying and promoting optimal
functioning. Although they share this common goal, it is pursued in different ways. They focus on the
client’s strengths and help move people toward positive life outcomes. The extent to which positive
psychology research and practice is viewed as culture free rather than culturally embedded may
shape the foci and methods of these practitioners.

Since 1998, the debate about cultural influences on positive psychology research and practice has
been conducted at conventions and in classrooms. The three recurring issues appear to involve (1)
the effects of professionals’ cultural values on their research and practices, (2) the universality of
human strengths, and (3) the universality of the pursuit of happiness. The extremes of each of these
three positions are depicted below:

Culture Free Issue Culturally

Embedded

NO Cultural values of the researcher and practitioner influence YES

their daily work.

YES There are numerous human strengths that are valued NO

universally.

YES The pursuit of happiness is common across cultures. NO

CULTURE-FREE POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Those advocating the culture-free approach hold that positive social science is descriptive and
objective and that its results can “transcend particular cultures and politics and approach
universality” (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). These professionals argue that the cultural values
of researchers and practitioners do not influence their professional work. The underlying logic is that
rigorous scientists use well-developed methods and validated tools; similarly, conscientious and
effective therapists use validated assessments and interventions. Regarding the universality of
human strengths, Peterson and Seligman (2004) detail their comprehensive search for virtues and
strengths that are valued by all people across cultures (the Values In Action classification of
strengths), which are deemed positive in all cultural groups.

CULTURALLY EMBEDDED POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

This perspective is closely associated with ongoing efforts to contextualize all research and practice
efforts. Specifically, culture-sensitive recommendations for research, practice, and policy making
(APA, 2003) encourage professionals to develop specific competencies to help account for cultural
influences on psychology.
Ø Professionals who believe that all strengths are culturally embedded concede that a core group of
positive traits and processes might exist across cultures, also hold that most positive traits and
processes manifest themselves in very different ways for different purposes in different cultures.

Ø For example, in some cultures forgiveness focuses on the restoration of respect and relational
repair, emphasizes a spiritual component and is facilitated by a third party, the latter being rare
(Sandage, Hill & Vang, 2003). Thus, in this example, the manifestation of forgiveness is different due
to cultural values.

Ø Constantine and Sue (2006) have noted that suffering and transcendence are the goals for some
individuals who adopt an Eastern perspective on positive psychology, on the notion of happiness.
Thus, it may be a simple by-product of the life process.

Living well in Every stage of Life

Developmental researchers discovers about what works across the life span. The life span is
described across childhood (birth to age 11years) , youth (12 – 25 years) , adulthood (26-59 years)
and older adulthood (60 – death). Resilience researchers and positive youth development scholars
have shared interests in the positive traits and outcomes of young people. Professionals who study
resilience identify the “ naturally occurring” personal and environmental resources that help children
and adolescents to overcome life’s many challenges. Positive youth developmentalists put findings of
resilience researchers and other positive psychologists into action and give growth a nudge by
designing and conducting programs that help youth capitalize on their personal assets and
environmental resources.

A) Resilience in childhood

In the 1970’s , developmental scientists began to study children who succeeded in life despite severe
challenges. These children who triumphed in the face of adversity were referred to as “resilient”,
and their stories captivated the interests of their clinicians , researchers, and laypeople. Resilience is
meant as bouncing back .

Masten , Cutuli, Herbers and Reed (2009) defined resilience as “a class of phenomena characterized
by patterns of positive adaptation in the context of significant adversity or risk”. Resilience is an
inferential concept , in that two major judgements must be rendered to diagnose resilience. There is
a judgement that individuals are atleast “doing ok” with respect to a set of expectations for behavior.
There must be significant exposure to risk that has posed a serious threat to good outcomes.

Dr Emmy Werner , called the “mother of resiliency”, is a person focused resilience researcher. She
identified resilient people and then got to know them really well over time. Werner collaborated
with her colleague , Ruth Smith , in a study involving a cohort of 700 children born on the island of
Kauai (Hawaii) from 1955 to 1995. From birth on, psychological data were collected from children
and adult caregivers , many of whomworked in jobs associated with sugarcane plantation used to
dominate the island. At birth , one- third of these children were considered at high risk for academic
and social problems because their deficits in family support and home environment (eg parental
alcoholism and domestic violence). Of the at risk students, one-third appeared to be invulnerable to
the undermining risk factors. Two primary factors accounted for the resiliency of these children: (1)
born with outgoing dispositions and (2) they were able to engage several sources to support (better
care during infancy , intelligence and perceptions of self worth contributed to positive outcomes.)
The other two-thirds of the children in high risk group did develop significant life problems in
childhood or adolescence. By their mid-30s, however , most research participants in the Kauai study
reported that they had bounced back from the challenges faced earlier in their lives. More than 80%
of the original high risk group had bounced back. In retrospect, many of those who were resilient
attributed their buoyancy to the support of one caring adult (eg. Member , neighbor , teacher,
mentor).

B) POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

The teachers, counselors and psychologists who are committed to positive youth development
recognize the good in our youth and focus on each child’s strength and potential. Building on
Pittman and Fleming’s definition (1991), Lopez and McKnight (2002) articulate how components of
development interact over time to yield healthy adults:

“Positive youth development should be seen as an ongoing, inevitable process in which all youths are
engaged and all youths are invested.” Youth interact with their environment and positive agents to
meet their basic needs and cultivate assets. Through their initiative, momentum builds and youth
who are capable of meeting basic needs challenge them to attain other goals, youth use assets to
build additional psychology resources that facilitates growth. Positive youth development generates
physical and psychological competencies that serve to facilitate the transition into an adulthood
characterized by striving for continued growth.

Some developmentalists focus their helpful efforts on youth who are not struggling with major life
problems but do not possess the personal assets or environmental resources needed to reach many
goals as their transition into adulthood. Positive youth developmental programs come in many
forms , including structured or semi- structured activities, organizations providing activities and
positive relationships (eg Boy’s Club , YMCA , YWCA), socializing systems promoting growth (eg.day
care centres , school , libraries, museum) and communities facilitating the coexistence of programs is
determined by the extent to which they promote the good and prevent the bad in today’s youth.

The Penn Resiliency Program (Gillham and Reivich , 2004) is a highly structured life-skills
developmental program that is offered to school children for a fee. A highly trained facilitators
conducts the scripted sessions in the classroom. The 12 sessions focus on awareness of thought
patterns and on modifying the explanatory style of students to change the attributions for events so
that they are more flexible and accurate . Extensive evaluation of the program demonstrated its
effectiveness at preventing the bad and promoting optimism and better physical health. Colleges
and universities as socializing system, also can promote positive youth development.

C) THE LIFE TASKS OF ADULTHOOD

Lewis Terman (Terman and Oden,1947)spent most of his life studying intelligence, which he viewed
as an adaptive quality that would lead directly to life success an more specifically , to national
leadership .In 1920s , Terman began an ambitious study of 1500 intellectually gifted children (IQ
>140) who were nominated by teachers in California schools, the study participants nicknamed
themselves the ‘Termites’. These participants were physically hardy during childhood and typically
were healthier than the peers. Most of the children graduated from college and secured professional
jobs. Although , many termites were productive in their jobs, few went on to be national leaders as
Terman hypothesized. It should be emphasized , therefore, that elevated childhood IQs did not
guarantee adult successes and better mental health .
Although Terman’s prediction regarding adult prowess of bright children were not borne out ,his
sample has revealed information about adult development. On the negative side of human
functioning , Peterson, Seligman , Yurko, Martin , and Friedman (1998) studied the Termites
childhood responses to open ended questions and found that an explanatory style that was
characterized as CATOSTROPHIZING (explaining bad events with global causes)predicted risks of
mortality by lifestyle choices. Given these findings , it would seem that genius level IQ and good
health in childhood do not protect individuals from making bad choices that lead to poor health and
premature death.

Primary tasks of adulthood:

George Vaillant reviewed Terman’s sample data . 90 women in Terman sample were interviewed by
Vaillant to examine the generazibility of his findings on adult development from all his male sample .
These data helped Vaillant build on existing developmental theories and identify the life tasks
associated with adulthood. Guided by Eric Erickson’s(1950) stage theory of development , Vaillant
mapped out and refined six tasks of adult development :

1) Identity – developed during adolescence or early adulthood , when people’s views , values and
interests begin to become their own rather than a reflection of their caregiver’s beliefs.

2) Intimacy – with development of identity, a person is more likely to seek an interdependent

,committed relationship with another person and thereby achieve intimacy.

3) Career Consolidation- it is a life task that requires development of social identity . engagement
with a career is characterized by contentment compensation, competence and commitment.

4) Generativity – people become involved in the building of a border social circle through a
“giving away” of self.

5) Keeper of meaning- it has a perspective on working of the world and of people and this person
is willing to share that wisdom with others. The keeper protects traditions and rituals that may
facilitate the development of younger people .

6) Integrity – the task of developing integrity brings peace to a person’s life. In this stage ,
increased spirituality often accompanies a greater sense of contentment with life.

Mastery of these tasks is the object of adulthood . Intentional work oneach of these task leads
sequentially to work on next task, and the mastery of all tasks is the essence of successful aging.

D) SUCCESSFUL AGING

The study of successful aging is based on the Mac Arthur Study of Successful Aging and the
prospective study by Valliant.

The term successful aging was popularized by Robert Havighurst (1961) when he wrote about
“adding life to years” in the first issue of The Gerontologist. He also primarily scholared in healty
aspects of getting older.

Rowe and Kahn (1998) , summarized the finding from MacArthur Study Of Successful Aging ,
proposed three components of successful aging: a) avoiding disease , b) engagement with life, and c)
maintain high cognitive and physical functioning . These three components are aspects of “maintaing
a lifestyles that involves normal valued and beneficial activities” . Valliant simplifies the definition
further by characterizing successful aging as joy love and learning.
MacArthur Foundation Study Of Successful Aging was conducted by John Rowe and his collegues .
They investigated physical ,social , and psychological factors related to abilities, health and
wellbeing .

Positive psychologists focuses more on life engagement as they address in their research and
practice on successful aging the two components of life engagement is social support and
productivity parallel the life persuits of love , work and play. Social support is most potent when it is
mutual; the support given is balanced by support received. Two kinds of support are important for
successful aging : socio-emotional support (liking and loving) and instrumental support (assistance
when someone is needed). The positive effects of social ties were shown to vary according to the
individuals gender and baseline physical capabilities. Gender also influenced how married
participants received social support. Men received emotional support from their spouses , whereas
women drew more heavily on their friends and relatives and children for emotional support.

If positive psychology is to grow as a field , we believe that it is crucial to understand the unfolding
developmental processes from childhood to older age.
Principles of pleasures

According to Sigmund Freud(1936) pleasure principle is the demand that an instinctive need to be
gratified regardless of the consequences.

Many principles of pleasures that have been linked to good living. In psychoanalytic theory, the id is
the part of the unconscious dedicated to pleasure and base drives. The pleasure principles are driven
by the id. According to Freud, the id rules the personality in infancy and early childhood, and the ego
and superego develop later. The influence of the ego and superego can mitigate the influence of the
id , but the pleasure principle still remains an important part of the underlying personality.

The principles of pleasures are

1. Understanding Positive affect: Affect is the person’s immediate, physiological response to a

stimulus, and it is typically based on an underlying sense of arousal.

Positive affect refers to the extent to which an individual subjectively experiences positive moods
such as joy, interest and alertness. Positive affect is one aspect of pleasurable and positive
experiences. It is more closely related to mood states.

The content of negative affect states can be described best as general distress.

2. Positive emotion: “Emotions, "I shall argue , involve judgments about important things , judgments
in which, appraising an external object as salient for our own well being , we acknowledge our own
neediness and incompleteness before parts of the world that we do not control”(Nussbaum, 2001)

These emotional responses occur as we become aware of painful or pleasurable experiences and
associated affect.and evaluate the situation.

Positive Affect

Affect: affect is a person’s immediate response to o stimulus, and it is typically based on an

underlying sense of arousal. Specifically, professor Nico Frijda (1999) reasoned that affect involves
the appraisal of an event as painful or pleasurable –that is, its valence- and the experience of
autonomic arousal

Emotions, in everyday speech, are any relatively brief conscious experience characterised by intense
metal activity and high degree of pleasure or displeasure. Emotion is often intertwined with mood,
temperament, personality, disposition and motivation.

Happiness: a positive emotional state that is subjectively defined by each person.

Subjective well-being: it involves the subjective evaluation of one’s current status in the world.
Diener et al 1984 defines subjective well-being as a combination of positive affect (absence of
negative affect)and general satisfaction ( i.e., subjective appreciation of life’s rewards).

It is used as a synonym for happiness

SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING

Subjective well-being involves the subjective evaluation of one's current status in the world. More
specifically, Diener defines Subjective well-being. (1984, 2000, Diener, Lucas and Oshi, 2002) as a
combination of positive affect (in the absence of negative affect) and general life satisfaction (i.e
subjective appreciation of life’s rewards). The term subjective well-being used as a synonym for
happiness in the psychology literature. Almost without exception, the more accessible word
happiness is used in the popular press in lieu of the term Subjective well-being.

Hans Selye (1936) is known for his research on the effects of prolonged exposure to fear and anger.
Consistently, he found that physiological stress harmed the body yet had survival value for humans.
Indeed, the evolutionary functions of fear and anger have intrigued both researchers and lay people.
Given the historical tradition and scientific findings pertaining to the negative affects, their
importance in our lives has not been questioned over the last century.

Historically, positive affects have received scant attention over the last century because few scholars
hypothesized that the rewards of joy and contentment went beyond hedonic (pleasure-based) values
and had possible evolutionary significance. The potentialities of positive affect have become more
obvious over the last 20 years (Fredrickson, 2002) as research has drawn distinctions between the
positive and negative affects David Watson (1988) of the University of Iowa conducted research on
the approach-oriented motivations of pleasurable affects including rigorous studies of both negative
and positive affects. To facilitate their research on the two dimensions of emotional experience,
Watson and is collaborator Lee Anna Clark (1994) developed and validated the Expanded Form of the
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X), which has become a commonly used measure in
this area. This 20-item has been used in hundreds of studies to quantity two dimensions of affect:
valence and content. More specifically, the PANAS-X taps both negative (unpleasant) and "positive"
(pleasant) valence. The content of negative affective states can be described best as general distress,
whereas Positive Affect includes joviality, self-assurance, and attentiveness.

Using the PANAS and other measures of affect, researchers systematically have addressed a basic
question; "Can we experience negative affect and positive affect at the same time? (See Diener
Emmons, 1984 Green, Salovey, & Truax, 1999.) For example, could we go to an engaging movie and
come out feeling both pleasure and fear? Although negative and positive affects once were thought
to be polar opposites, Bradburn (1969)

SUBIECTIVE WELL-BEING ASA SYNONYM FOR HAPPINESS

Building on a utilitarian tradition and the tenets of hedonic psychology (which emphasizes the study
of pleasure and life satisfaction). Diener (1984; 2000; Diener et al., 2002) considers well-being to be
the subjective evaluation of one’s current status in the world. More specifically, well-being involves
our experience and our appreciation of life's rewards. Given this view, Diener defines Subjective well-
being as a combination of positive affect (in the absence of negative affect) and general life
satisfaction. Furthermore he uses the term subjective well-being as a synonym for happiness (The
Satisfaction component often is measured with the Satisfaction With Life Scale, Diener, Emmons,
Larsen, & Griffin, 1985).

Subjective well-being emphasizes peoples’ reports of their life experiences. Accordingly, the
subjective report is taken at face value. This subjective approach to happiness assumes that people
from many cultures are comfortable in focusing on individualistic assessments of their affects and
satisfaction and that people will be forthright in such personal analyses (Diener et al., 2002). These
assumptions guide the researchers' attempts to understand a Person's subjective experiences in light
of his or her objective circumstances.

DETERMINANTS OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING

When examining college students' (from 31 nations) satisfaction in various life domains, financial
status was more highly correlated with satisfaction for students in poor nations than for those in
wealthy nations (Diener&Diener, 1995). Moreover, the people in wealthy nations generally were
happier than those in impoverished nations. Within-nation examination of this link between income
and well-being reveals that, once household income above the poverty line, additional bumps in
income are not necessarily associated with increases in well-being. When wel1- being data are
divided further by categories of economic status: it appears that there is strong relationship between
the two among the affluent.

Data specific to Western samples indicate that married men and women alike report more happiness
that those who are not married (never married, divorced, or separated;Lee, Seccombe & Shehan,
1991). The link between subjective well-being and being married holds of all ages, income and
educational levels, and racial-ethnic backgrounds (Argyle, 1987). Not surprisingly, marital quality also
is positively associated with personal well-being (Sternberg &Hojjat, 1997).

HAPPINESS+ MEANING= WELL-BEING

Psychologists who support the hedonic perspective view subjective well-being and happiness as
synonymous. Alternatively, the scholars ideas about well-being are more consistent with Aristotle's
views on eudaimonia believe that happiness and well-being are not synonymous. In this latter
perspective, eudaimonia is comprised of happiness and meaning Stated in a simple formula, well-
being = happiness + meaning. In order to subscribe to this latter view of well-being, one must
understand virtue and the social implications of daily behavior. Furthermore, this view requires that
those who seek well-being be authentic and live according to their real needs and desired goals
(Waterman, 1993). Thus, living a eudaimonic life goes beyond experiencing "things pleasurable," and
it embraces flourishing as the goal in all our actions. Both hedonistic and eudaimonic versions of
happiness have influenced the 21st-century definitions.

21ST-CENTURY DEFINITIONS OF HAPPINESS

Modern Western psychology has focused primarily on a post materialistic view of happiness (Diener
et al., 2002) that emphasizes pleasure, satisfaction and life meaning. Indeed, the type of happiness
addressed in much of today’s popular literature emphasizes hedonics, meaning and authenticity. For
example, Seligman (2002) suggests that a pleasant and meaningful life can be built on the happiness
that results from using our strengths.

History of Subjective well being

Subjective well being is defined as a person’s cognitive and affect evaluations include emotional
reactions to events as well as cognitive judgments of satisfaction and fulfillment. Thus, subjective
well-being is a broad concept that includes experiencing high levels of pleasant emotions and moods,
low levels of negative emotions and moods and high life satisfaction.

HISTORY OF SUBJECTIVE WELL BEING RESEARCH

Utiliatarian’s such as Jeremy Bentham, however, argued that the presence of pleasure and the
absence of pain are the defining characteristics of a good life. Thus the subjective well-
being researchers, focusing on the emotional, mental, and physical pleasures and pain that
individuals experience. Although there are other desirable personal characteristics beyond whether a
person is happy (Ryan and Deci, 2001; Ryff and singer, 1998), the individual with abundant joy has
one key ingredient of a good life.
In 1925, Flugel studied moods by having people record their emotional events and then summing
their emotional reactions across modern experience sampling approaches to measuring subjective
well-being online as people go about their everyday lives. After World War 2, survey questionnaires.
The pollsters studied large numbers of people who were often selected to produce representative
samples of nations. George Gallup, Gerald Gurin and his colleagues, and Hdley Cantril pioneered the
use of large-scale surveys as an assessment technique. They asked people questions such as, “how
happy are you?” with simple response options varying from “very happy” to “not very happy.”

Although early subjective well-being studies were characterized by very short scales, many important
discoveries were made. In 1969, for example, Norman Bradburn showed that pleasant and
unpleasant affects are somewhat independent and have different correltes- they are not simply
opposites of one another. Thus, the two affects must be studied separately to gain a complete
picture of individuals well-being. This finding had important implications for the field of subjective
well- being: it showed that clinical psychology’s attempts to eliminate negative states would not
necessarily foster positive states. The elimination of pain may not result in a corresponding increase
in pleasure; riding the world of sadness and anxiety will not necessarily make it a happy place.

Wilson reviewed the relatively small amount of research on “avowed happiness” in 1967, and Diener
[1984] provided a review of the much larger database on subjective well-being that had accumulated
by the mid- 1980. By that time, the field was becoming a science. In 2005, Lyubomirsky, king, and
Diener published another Psychological Bulletin reviewing the consequences of happiness.

MEASURMENT OF SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING

Early survey instruments usually posed a single question about people’s happiness or life satisfaction.
As the field matured, more multi-item scales appeared, with greater reliability and validity than the
single- item instruments. Lucas, Diener, and Suh [1996] demonstrated that multi- item life
satisfaction, pleasant affect, and unpleasant affect scales formed factors that were seperable from
each other, as well as from other constructs such as self esteem.

THEORETICAL APPROACH TO SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING

Many theories of happiness have been proposed since Aristotle’s insights. These theories can be
categorized into three groups; (a) need and goal satisfaction theories; (b) process or activity theories;
and (c) genetic and personality predisposition theories. The first constellation of theories centers on
the idea that the reduction of tensions (eg., the elimination of pain and the satisfaction of biological
and psychological needs) leads to happiness. Freud’s pleasure principle and Maslow’s hierarchical
needs model represent this approach. In support of this view, Sheldon, Eliot, Kim, and Kasser (2001)
activities that match their level of skills. He called the state of mind the results from this matching of
challenges and skill “flow,” and he argued that people who often experience flow tend to be very
happy. Goal researchers agree that having important goals and making progress toward goals are
reliable indicators of well-being, and therefore goals theories can combine the elements of need
satisfaction and pleasurable activity in explaining subjective well-being.

HEDONIC ADAPTATION

Since Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman’s famous study that compared lottery winners to patients
with spinal cord injuries, many have to believe that human beings can and do adapt to many life
events, and that life events do not have a significant long term effect on ones well-being. Large scale
longitudinal projects revealed that people do not adapt to drastic changes in life circumstances such
as becoming disabled, divorced, or unemployed. Namely, many unfortunate individuals who
experience these radical changes in life circumstances do not return to their pre- incidence level of
happiness and therefore the concept of set point should not be deemed fixed.

Wilson, Gilbert and their colleagues have begun exploring the underlying mechanisms of hedonic
adaptations, using an experimental method. For instance these researchers have shown that
providing an explaination for a positive event sped up hedonic adaptation to the event. When a
positive event occurred, an individual would feel happy for longer period of time if he or she did not
find out why this event happened. The effort to alter hedonic adaptation had just begun. Clearly, the
scientific investigation into how to prevent hedonic adaptation to a positive event is an exciting
research agenda and will likely make an important contribution to subjective well-being research and
positive psychology in the future.

THE EFFECT OF INTERVENTIONS

Fordyce (1977, 1983) created an intervention program based on the idea that people’s subjective
well-being can be increased if they learn to imitate the traits of happy people, such as being
organized, keeping busy, spending more time socializing, developing a positive outlook, and working
on a healthy personality. He found that the program produced increases in happiness compared to a
placebo control, as well as compared to participants in conditions receiving only partial information.
Most impressive, he found lasting effects of the intervention in follow ups evaluations 9-28 months
after the study.

Recently, a number of additional effective interventions on happiness have been reported, ranging
from kindness interventions and gratitude interventions to variant of the writing intervention. Recent
intervention studies are clearly promising. However, more diverse dependent variables and
measuring instruments would be desire able, as well as explorations of which interventions are most
beneficial, and why.

Emotional Intelligence

 “The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand

emotions and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth.” Salovey and Mayers (2000)

 According to Byron Stock(2007)“Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to acquire and apply
knowledge from your emotions and the emotions of others.” You can use the information
about what you are feeling to help you make effective decisions about what to say or do (or
not to say or do) next.

We need EI to

 ·improves relationships with human beings

 ·improves communication with people

 increase creativity;

 learn from mistakes

 to reduce stress levels;

 managing change more confidently;

 enjoy the work wholeheartedly

 feeling confident and positive in attitude
unit 3
What is self efficacy?

Self-Efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to succeed in achieving an outcome or reaching a goal. This
belief, specific to a task or an area of knowledge or performance, shapes the behaviors and strategies
that help one pursue their goal. Self-efficacy is informed by five influences (also known as sources):
performance experience, vicarious experience, social persuasion, imaginal experience, and physical
and emotional states.

Self efficacy as below

A person’s self-efficacy can be influenced by the following:

• Performance experience refers to one’s previous and related experiences, which can influence their
perception of whether or not one has the competence to perform the task at hand. This tends to be
what influences self-efficacy the most. • For example, Alex feels more confident about preparing a
great science fair project this year, after having placed in the top 3 at last year’s fair.

• Vicarious experience refers to the observed performances and experiences of others like oneself in
a similar situation. • For example, although public speaking makes her nervous, Angela feels better
about her upcoming speech to the student body after having watched her best friend deliver a
speech that was well-received by their peers.

• Social persuasion refers to verbal encouragement or discouragement about a person’s ability to

perform. Typically, the more credible the source, the more impact this source is likely to have on a
person’s self-efficacy. • For example, when John’s teacher reminds him how much John has improved
his writing since the beginning of the year, new writing assignments seem less daunting.

• Imaginal experience refers to a person’s use of their imagination to envision his or her success at a
task. • For example, before her match, Karen visualizes herself making the plays her soccer team has
successfully used before to feel more confident about her ability to defeat their opponents at this
upcoming game.

• Physical and emotional states refer to how one experiences physical sensations and emotional
states when facing the task or challenge. • For example, Nick feels anxious before the band recital,
but he takes a moment to breathe and reframe this emotion as excitement to perform before his
family and friends. He finds that this helps him to feel better about how he will do in his
performance.

Defining Self-Efficacy – Different levels in different contexts.

A person’s level of self-efficacy can vary for different subject areas or tasks. Likewise, even within a
subject area, a student can have different levels of self-efficacy for different tasks.

For example, while a student may feel high self-efficacy in understanding a concept in science, he or
she may still feel a lack of confidence in math. Moreover, the student can have high self-efficacy
about scoring high on a science exam, but not feel as confident about his or her ability to build an
outstanding science fair project.

A Definition

Self-efficacy is the belief we have in our own abilities, specifically our ability to meet the challenges
ahead of us and complete a task successfully (Akhtar, 2008).

General self-efficacy refers to our overall belief in our ability to succeed, but there are many more
specific forms of self-efficacy as well (e.g., academic, parenting, sports).

Although self-efficacy is related to our sense of self-worth or value as a human being, it has at least
one important distinction.

Differentiating Self-Efficacy from Self-Esteem and Growth Mindset

Self-Esteem Self-Efficacy Growth Mindset

Definition Refers to a person’s Refers to a person’s Refers to the belief that

more general sense of belief that she can do one’s abilities can change
self-worth. what’s necessary to over time as a result of
successfully achieve a effort, perseverance, and
specific goal or task. practice.

What does this answer? Who am I? What is my Can I do this? Can I grow in this area?
worth?

Example “I am a competent “…and I have Although I haven’t

person and a good confidence that I can mastered it yet, I know
learner...” master linear equations that I can get better at it
if I study hard, try new
strategies, and seek out
help.”

Relationship to Self- High self-efficacy and a Having high self-efficacy with a growth mindset
Efficacy growth mindset across can help a student navigate setbacks successfully.
various goals can Even as a student experiences failure, noticing a
contribute to overall gradual improvement in skills over time will give
positive self-worth (i.e., the student confidence that he or she can
self-esteem). ultimately achieve the goal (self-efficacy) by
increasing effort and abilities (growth mindset).
 Having

Why Self-Efficacy Matters

Self-efficacy determines how one feels, thinks, motivates themselves, behaves, and performs.
Individuals with high self-efficacy:

Have better self-regulation

 ·Are more resilient in the face of obstacles •

 Demonstrate stronger academic performance and achievement·

 Are more motivated in their work zones

 Set more challenging and higher academic goals·

 Are better prepared to adapt to and succeed in their first year of college.·

 Go on to have more successful in careers and are

 open to a wider range of career choices·

 Are happier all around.

Optimism

Hope and optimism are hallmarks of psychological health. Both terms have been used in
common language for centuries to describe people who hold positive expectations about the
future.

The study of hope and optimism also reveals key themes in the development of psychology over
the past 30 years,including our grasp of

(a)The centrality of goal-striving to human behavior,

(b)How people’s understanding of the causal structure of life events is related to their
subsequent emotions and motivation,and

(c) Factors contributing to the positive range of human experience, including Physical and
psychological health beyond the absence of illness

Role

 Hope and optimism both involve positive expectations about the future,but only optimism is
defined strictly in these terms. Optimism is the extent to which individuals expect desired
outcomes to happen in the future, and expect undesired outcomes not to happen.As
individuals drop in their expectation of desired outcomes and gain in their expectation of
undesired ones,they move from the positive pole,optimism,to the negative pole,pessimism.
 Optimism has most often been conceived as a character traitor strength, which people
possess in varying degrees. As such,it is a relatively enduring and beneficial aspect of how
individuals approach a wide range of situations. The term ‘optimistic’ has also been used to
describe specific perceptions (e.g.,of low risk)or self-evaluations(e.g.,of high ability) that are
overly positive or inflated in comparison with objective standards. Although such
 perceptions may be unrealistic,they can soothe people’s worries and doubts in a difficult
situation, and encourage continued striving toward goals.

Different aspects of hope

Hopeisapositivefeelingandmotivational state, but one that intrinsically involves beliefs about

theself and one’s own actions as they relate to the attainment of desired outcomes. These
beliefs, as articulated in Snyder’s influentialtheoryofhope,includeasuccessfulsenseofagency,
which refers to the energy required to attain goals, and pathways, which refers to the means of
attaining goals. Hope is alsotypicallyregardedasastableindividualdifference.

People with high hope, as opposed to those with low hope, more often think about different
routes to their goals, more fully specify these alternate routes, and more frequently tell them-
selves that they can and will accomplish their goals.

As with other personality traits,hope and optimism emerge from a combination of genetic and
environmental influences, as well as cultural and historical ones, operating over the lifespan.
Indeed, each of the broad dimensions of temperament that can be observed in infancy or
childhood, and that have a probable biological basis, may set the stage for hope and optimism in
adulthood.

There may be no simple mapping between the infant temperaments and adult traits of hope and
optimism, people’s reactions to unfamiliarity throughout their childhood and youth will still
shape their adult personality development in terms of how they view the future or the
unknown.

Some hopeful or optimistic adults will have a high tolerance for unfamiliarity and uncertainty
throughout their lives, others will have arrived at being hopeful or optimistic by nurturing self-
views or world- views that reduce their fear of the unknown.

A vast literature now attests to the adaptive consequences of hope and optimism despite
carefully reasoned arguments and substantial research effort,it has been hard to find contexts in
which these traits do not have adaptive effects.

It is useful to note that just two broad categories of adaptive outcomes follow directly from the
theory of hope and optimism as positive motivationalstates. These categories are (a) effort and
persistence at goal- directedtasks,and

(b)Positive and negative feelings that arise from ongoing goal pursuits. Other broad categories,
which have emerged as extensions of research on the initial two, include

(c)The use of adaptive coping strategies,and

(d)Positive physical and psychological health outcomes related to the length and quality of
people’s lives.We review these categories, in turn, in this section. In each case, although we may
rely on research illustrations that are specific to hope or optimism, the adaptive consequences
are applicable to both concepts.
Effort and Persistence
The willingness to keep trying in the face of problems or setbacks is a defining quality of both
hope and optimism. Accordingly, numerous studies of hope and optimism have shown this
behavioral outcome, covering a wide range of goaldomainsandsettings.

In the case of optimism,we review some relevant issues in the areas of health and risk
perception below.

Positive and Negative Feelings

When people expect positive outcomes, they are apt
tofeelrelativelygoodabouttheircurrentsituation,evenifitisa
challengingone.Tobeginwith,negativefeelingswillbelower: that is, the challenging aspects of a
situation will be less frustrating, distressing, and depressing to individuals who expect things to
work out alright in the end, as compared withthosewhoholdnegativeexpectations.

Secondlypositive feelings will be higher: that is, by maintaining effort and persistence, hopeful
and optimistic individuals will increase their chances of ultimately reaching their goals and will
have thepositivefeelingssuchashappiness,interest,andenthusiasm that come with each step of
progress along theway. Based on these traits numerous studies havelinked optimism to the
absence of distress and depression in individuals facing a variety of stressors: for example,
students entering university, caregivers to people with a major illness or disability, terror/trauma
survivors, new parents, couples facing infertility, surgical patients, patients with progressive
diseases such as cancer or AIDS, or older adultsexperiencing falls.

Hopehasalsobeenlinkedtopsychologicaladjustmentin challenging settings or circumstances of

academics, physical health,sport,interpersonalrelationships,andpsychotherapy, among others.In
one study, trait hope scores were related to the positive and negative feelings individuals had
about their goals and positive individuals had better performance scores.

Coping with Problems

To say that people who are hopeful and optimistic tend to redouble their efforts and maintain a
favorable affective balance when confronted with stressors further suggests that
theseindividualshaveeffectivewaysofcopingwithproblems.

Physical and Psychological Well-Being

Wheneffectivecopingis added withproblemstoalistofadaptive consequences that already
includes goal-directed effort and attainment, and more positive and fewer negative emotions,
we might next begin to wonder about the accumulation of these benefits of hope and optimism
over time.

Several studies and research now suggest that hope and optimism have effects
onphysicalaswellaspsychologicalhealth,throughwhichthey can extend and improve the quality of
people’slives.

Issues

Misperception of Personal Risks

Virtually all models of judgment and decision-making incorporate perceived risk as an
influencesmotivation and action. The study of health behaviors, where, for example, an
individual’s motivation to obtain a preventive medical exam for cancer is thought to depend, in
part, on the likelihood that heorsheperceivesofdevelopingthedisease.Ifhighlyhopeful
 oroptimisticindividualsperceiveautomaticallythatdeveloping cancer is unlikely to happen to
them, they should be correspondingly disinclined to obtain the preventive exam –
andthereforevulnerabletomissingthebenefitsofearlydetection.

The danger is most acute to those hopeful or optimistic

individualswhomayalsohaveavarietyofobjectiveriskfactors
forthedisease,intheformoftheirotherhealthbehaviors,age, dwelling, occupation, family history,
and soon.

Failure to Disengage from Unattainable Goals

Thereasonsforgoal-un-attainability aremanifold,fromaginganddevelopmentalchanges,tosocial
and cultural constraints, negative life events, or even conflict with other goals for the limited
time, attention, energy, and materialresourcesthatpeoplehaveavailabletodevotetoallof their
pursuits.

Wrosch and colleagues have proposed and

providedevidenceforamodelofadaptiveregulationofunattainable goals. Highly hopeful and
optimistic individuals should have extra difficulty with the first step of this process,
disengagement.Therefore,incomparisonwithlesshopefuloroptimistic individuals, they may be
less likely to thrive when confrontingunattainablegoals.

Conclusions
The roots of hope and optimism are the accessible products of cognitive processes –
includingattribution,socialcomparison,andrecallofprevious instances of successful agency and
pathways. Hope and optimism are frequently conceived as traits, andare
empiricallyasstableandinfluentialasanyaspectofpersonality,

Hope and optimismemphasizeoncertaincauses,

comparisonstandards,ormemoriesthatkeepthefuturelookingbright.

People who feel invested in the future take better care of themselves in the present. Using
adaptive goal regulation, risk regulation, emotional
management,orcopingwithproblems,hopefulandoptimisticpeoplemakethemostoftheiropportuni
ties in life, and the least of their difficulties.

Hopeandoptimism are self-fulfilling beliefs about the future. By encouraging better self-
caretoday,theypavethewayforbetterphysicalandpsychological well-being tomorrow – the better,
in turn, forpeople to enjoy the results of their current goal pursuits and to form the goals that
they will be pursuingnext.

Two Universal virtues

Wisdom and courage.

Wisdom (prudence) and courage (fortitude) to be two of the four cardinal virtues (along with justice
and temperance).

Philosophers and theologians consider wisdom (prudence) and courage (fortitude) to be two of the
four cardinal virtues (along with justice and temperance).
These primary virtues, traditionally ranked in the order prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance,
“are cognitive and motivational dispositions that in themselves designate not only adaptive fitness
for individuals’ achievements, but also the idea of convergence of individual goal achievements with
becoming and being a good person from a communal and social-ethical point of view” (Baltes, Glück,
& Kunzmann,2002,p.328).The cardinal virtues facilitate personal development; good living through
practicing them may foster the development of social resources that spark the growth of other
people. Both wisdom and courage can in form human choices and fuel pursuits that lead to
enhanced personal functioning and communal good. Courage also can help overcome obstacles that
make the practice of other virtues more difficult. Wisdom and courage often have been studied
together,although their intermingling may cause difficulties in distinguishing them.

Courage has been portrayed as a precursor of wisdom. The logic here is that the capacity for
courageous action is necessary before one can pursue a noble outcome or common good that is
defined by wisdom. Courage sometimes is viewed as the virtue that makes all virtuous behaviors
possible.Irrespective of their relative power or import ,we believe that a discussion of implicit and
explicit theories of wisdom and courage will help in understanding their importance in our daily lives.

Wisdom is characterized as the predecessor of courage. In contrast to this perspective, courage has
been portrayed as a precursor of wisdom. The logic here is that the capacity for courageous action is
necessary before one can pursue a noble outcome or common good that is defined by wisdom.

Courage sometimes is viewed as the virtue that makes all virtuous behaviors possible. Irrespective of
their relative power or import, we believe that a discussion of implicit and explicit theories of
wisdom and courage will help in understanding their importance in our daily lives.

Theories of wisdom

Wisdom often is referenced in ancient maxims (e.g., Yang, 2001) and in philosophical reviews.

For example, Robinson’s (1990) review of early Western classical dialogues revealed three distinct
conceptualizations of wisdom:

(1) That found in persons seeking a contemplative life (the Greek term Sophia);

(2)That of a practical nature, as displayed by great statesmen (phronesis);and

(3)Scientific understanding(episteme).Aristotle added to the list of types of wisdom by

describing theoretikes, the theoretical thought and knowledge devoted to truth, and distinguishing it
from phronesis (practical wisdom). (See the comments of classics professorsas shared by
RogerMartin.)

From 1975, psychologists began to scrutinize the concept of wisdom. These scholarly efforts
produced a commonsense psychological understanding of wisdom. Implicit theories (folk theories of
a construct that describe its basic elements)of wisdom first were described by
Clayton(1975,1976;Clayton&Birren, 1980) and then further explicated by German psychologist Paul
Baltes’s (1993) analysis of cultural-historical occurrences .Knowledge

Implicit theories of wisdom

Clayton’s (1975) dissertation study was one of the first systematic examinations of the wisdom
construct. She had people rate similarities between pairs of words believed to be associated with
wisdom (e.g., empathic, experienced, intelligent, introspective, intuitive, knowledgeable, observant).
Through a statistical procedure known as multidimensional scaling, she identified three dimensions
of the construct:

(1) Affective (empathy and compassion),

(2) Reflective (intuition and introspection), and

(3) Cognitive (experience and intelligence)

In a later study, Sternberg(1985) asked 40 college students to sort cards(each describing one of 40
wise behaviors) into as many piles as they thought necessary to explain their contents. Again, a
multidimensional scaling procedure was used, and the following six qualities of wisdom were
identified:

(1) Reasoning ability,

(2) Sagacity (profound knowledge and understanding),

(3) Learning from ideas and environment,

(4) Judgment,

(5) Expeditious use of information, and

(6)Perspicacity (acuteness of discernment and perception). The meaning of wisdom also is

communicated in our everyday language.

In this regard Baltes (1993) analyzed cultural-historical and philosophical writings and found that
wisdom

(1) addresses important/difficult matters of life;

(2) Involves special or superior knowledge, judgment, and advice;

3) Reflects knowledge with extraordinary scope, depth, and balance applicable to specific life
situations;

(4) is well intended and combines mind and virtue ;and

(5)i s very difficult to achieve but easily recognized.

Wisdom may also differ in cultural contexts, Personal qualities such as compassion, open-
mindedness, humbleness, and others may be a part of a description of a wise person in these Eastern
cultures, while intelligence, problem-solving, and planning may be more emphasized in Western
cultures (Yang,2008).

Explicit Theories of wisdom

In his (1932) stage theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget describes the qualitatively different
kinds of thinking that occur during childhood and adulthood. Children typically move from the
sensori-motor stage (in which the child’s world is experienced through sensing and doing)to the pre-
operational stage(in which the child’s world is framed in symbolic thought) to the concrete
operations stage (in which the child’s experience begins to be understood through logical thought)
during the first 12 years of life. During the formal operations stage, people develop the ability to
reason by systematically testing hypotheses.
Life-span theorists (e.g., Erikson, 1959) view wisdom as part of optimal development. For Erikson,
wisdom reflects a maturity in which concerns for the collective good transcend personal interests. In
Orwoll’s (1989) study of people nominated as wise, this Eriksonian integrity was accompanied by
elevated concerns for the collective good.

Yale Psychologist Sternberg theorized that the tacit knowledge underlying practical intelligence (i.e.,
“knowing how” rather than “knowing what”) is used in balancing self-and-other interests within the
environmental context to achieve a common good (Sternberg, personal communication, October 8,
2003).

According to Sternberg, wisdom involves forming a judgment when there are competing interests
that lack a clear resolution. For example, a wise approach to resolving a conflict over a proposed ban
of cigarette smoking on a college campus would consider the interests of all people (smokers,
nonsmokers, students, faculty, visitors, etc.);review the options for serving the interests of those
people, and act to best serve the common good. As such, balancing personal interests and actions
and sharing a wise judgment may entail exceptional problem-solving ability.

The two basic criteria, factual and procedural knowledge, indicate that wise performance
necessitates expertise. According to Bales, such expertise requires people to “know what” (i.e.,
knowledge about topics such as human nature and development, individual differences, social
relations and norms, etc.) and to “know how” (i.e. developing strategies for dealing with problems
and giving advice, resolving life conflicts, and planning for and overcoming obstacles that could
thwart problem solution).

Factual knowledge, or the behavior that is the “product” of that knowledge, could be evaluated with
the following question: “To what extent does this product show general (condition humana) and
specific (e.g., life events, institutions) knowledge about life matters and the human condition as well
as demonstrate scope and depth in the coverage of issues?”(Staudinger&Baltes,1994,p.149)

Becoming wise

Erikson emphasized that wisdom is gained through resolving daily crises, specifically those involving
integrity and despair. Jung, with his interests in family-of-origin issues, proposed that wisdom
develops through the resolution of psychic conflicts pertaining to individuating from the family unit.

Theorists such as Baltes (1993), Labouvie-Vief (1990), and Sternberg (1998) suggest that wisdom
builds on knowledge, cognitive skills, and personality characteristics (discussed by Piaget, Jung,
Erikson, and others), and that it requires an understanding of culture and the surrounding
environment. Moreover, wisdom develops slowly through exposure to wise role models.

Sternberg proposed that knowledge, judicial thinking style, personality, motivation, and
environmental context precede wisdom, and 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.

Common areas of wisdom.

Meeks & Jeste (2009) reviewed the wisdom literature and identified common areas. From their
review, they created the six sub-components of wisdom:

1. Prosocial attitudes/behaviors: promotion of common good, empathy, social cooperation, and

altruism

2. Social decision making/pragmatic knowledge of life: understanding others’ emotions and

motivations and using the information to make “wise” social decisions

3. Emotional homeostasis: self-control and impulse control; ability to manage oneself in challenging
situations

4. Reflection/self-understanding: Self-knowledge

5. Value relativism/tolerance: perspective-taking behavior

6. Acknowledgment of and dealing effectively with uncertainty/ambiguity: navigating uncertainty

and acknowledging/accepting the limits of what one knows.

Peterson and Seligman (2004) define wisdom as “knowledge hard fought for, and then used for
good (p. 39).” They describe it as a noble virtue or trait — one that people appreciate in others.

To date, five strengths fall beneath the wisdom umbrella in their research:

 Creativity

 Curiosity

 Judgment

 Love of Learning

 Perspective

Courage

In our attempt to define courage, It would t be categorized as a virtue, or an intrinsic trait which has
positive moral components, and an altruistic nature. Courage is the ability to choose to move
forwards, hold steady, or move away in the presence of a dominant sense of fear, lack of control, and
where the balance of probability is a negative outcome which affects us.

The concept of walking towards a personal loss, or away from a personal gain in favor of doing the
right thing, and acting altruistically would suggest that courage is certainly a virtue.

Where courage surfaced in the instant that fear started to win, or hope started to fade, and the
individual chose to face their greatest fear in the form of acceptance, and walk towards the outcome,
embrace it, or make peace with it. So if hope pulls us towards a goal, and fear pushes us away from
one, courage has the ability to overcome the push of fear where we choose to walk towards it.

The polar model of hope and fear suggested that where we “hoped that it wouldn’t” happen, we
would “fear that it would”. It is courage that gives us the ability to fight. Essentially, this is madness
and entirely altruistic. Altruism of course, in its purist form always benefits the greater good, or the
needs of the many, and this suggests that courage is an advancement mechanism, in the same way
that fear is a survival mechanism. Maslow, (1943) suggests that for transcendence to occur, we have
to be free of danger, and the basic needs. Courage may well be a nemesis to this theory, and those
who operate altruistically have maybe discovered an ace-card, or way of cheating this concept
(O’Byrne et al. (2000) identified the three types of courage as physical, moral, and health/change
(now referred to as vital courage).

Physical courage involves the attempted maintenance of societal good by the expression of physical
behavior grounded in the pursuit of socially valued goals (e.g., a firefighter saving a child from a
burning building).

Moral courage is the behavioral expression of authenticity in the face of the discomfort of
dissension, disapproval, or rejection (e.g., a politician invested in a “greater good” places an
unpopular vote in a meeting).

Vital courage refers to the perseverance through a disease or dis- ability even when the outcome is
ambiguous (e.g., a child with a heart transplants maintaining her intensive treatment regimen even
though her prognosis is uncertain).

Physical courage has evolved slowly from the Greek andreia, the military courage of the brave
soldier in ancient Greece. Finding the rugged path between cowardice and foolhardiness
distinguished a Greek soldier as courageous. From ancient to present times, this disposition toact
appropriately in situations involving fear and confidence in the face of physical danger seems to be
universally valued (Rorty, 1988).

For example,ErnestHemingwaywasamajorwriteronthetopicofcouragein20th- century America. His

fascination with physical courage in a variety of areas such as the battlefield, the open sea, and the
bullfighting arena seemed to mirror the American fascination with staring danger in the face and
persevering. In fact, the “Hemingway code” of living a life characterized by strength, knowledge, and
courage provided a code of conduct for many Americans. Jack Rachman’s research on courage
stemmed from his realization that courage was the mirror image of fear. He noticed that, when faced
with physical jeopardy, some people dealt with the perceived danger better than others.

Therefore, Rachman (1984) worked with paratroopers, decorated soldiers, and bomb squad
members to gather information on the nature of fear and its counterpart, courage.

· He found that courageous people persevere when facing fear and thereafter make quick
physiological recoveries.

· He also suggested that courageous acts are not necessarily confined to a special few, nor do they
always take place in public. In regard to this latter point, he became intrigued by the inner battles
and private courage displayed by his psychotherapy clients.

· He concluded that clearly there was more to courage than andreia and related physical
conquest of danger.

Being courageous and practicing courage

Many theorists suggest that in everyday circumstances it is perhaps more a sense of discomfort or
disquiet that can trigger the use of courage. That is, the feeling of conflict between the life we’re
living and the life we want to live. This theory suggests that psychological courage is a necessary part
of an ongoing process:

· The first part is about recognizing the need for self-reflection,

· The second is about using courage to practice self-reflection and

· The third requires us to engage our psychological courage to do something about it.
· And this is where the four strengths associated with courage can be used to help us to learn how
to engage with the mechanism of courage in order to initiate the kind of change that will reduce our
disquiet.

Integrity

The first strength, integrity, is about acting with authenticity; being true to yourself in terms of your
values and ethics but also about being honest about who you are. That is, about taking responsibility
for how you think and feel and what you do. While it is not about seeking perfection — because such
a thing cannot exist — it is about rooting out the things about us that stop us from achieving our
goals and actively managing or changing those things. While this might, at first glance, look contrary
to the idea of integrity, integrity has an adaptive component to it, allowing us to modify our behavior
so that we can be more effective in living an authentic life.

The desire to live an authentic life is universal and has been a topic of instruction in religion and
philosophy for millennia, yet we still struggle to understand what it means and to apply it to our daily
lives. Arguably, all that we really need to understand is that at the core of most ideas around
integrity and authenticity is that we not only need to know ourselves, but we need to beourselves
as well. And this is where the strength of bravery is enacted.

Bravery

Bravery, in the context of psychological courage, is expressing moral courage in the face of opposition
— that is, opposition from others and the innate opposition we tend to hold around truly knowing
and accepting ourselves. The difficulty attached to developing psychological courage is that it can
really only be drawn upon within moments of trouble or disquiet. It relies on us being on the edge of
some kind of precipice, where something has to give. It relies on us being at the point where, to be
able to move forward, we must take a deep breath and choose a different path or accept a difficult
truth. In essence, it requires change.

It should be remembered though, that there is a very big difference in asking for support and being
proactive and asking for support and being passive. The first requires bravery and action: asking for
what we need and using that help actively. The second passes on action and responsibility to others
— that is, we rely on someone else to “fix” what needs changing, rather than acting to elicit
change ourselves. This difference between action and passivity is where the third strength of
persistence comes in.

Persistence

Persistence is an important strength attached to psychological courage because it reinforces the fact
that this kind of courage isn’t about one moment in time, but instead many moments — in the face
of many obstacles both internal and external. As such, psychological courage itis about planning and
understanding the challenges you will face and how you might manage them as the change process
is enacted.

This means drawing on, or building from, our ability to self-regulate so that when we enter the zone
between the now and the achievement of our goals,

we can maintain our courage to work through risk, fear and uncertainty. It means being realistic
about timeframes, about the hurdles we may expect to encounter and having multiple strategies to
deal with these, including drawing on our social supports.
It is about taking action. Action inevitably takes courage and is intrinsically linked to risk. When we
find the source(s) of our dissatisfaction, we need to act to change what needs to and can be changed
as well as to manage what needs to be managed. This process, like the process of discovery, takes
time, conscious effort and commitment;, we exhibit the final strength linked to psychological
courage: vitality.

Vitality

Vitality is being wholehearted in your approach to life. It is about launching yourself into each and
every day prepared to succeed and prepared to fail. Our psychological courage prepares us for all
that may come, the good and the bad, the dreams that come true and the hopes that are dashed.
Psychological courage in this context is accepting that with life comes pain and disappointment but
that this fact shouldn’t diminish our sense of hope, wonderment or determination to keep moving
forward.

Taking back control

While all of these strengths help us to define psychological courage, at the heart of it is a need to
take ownership and control over self. Typically, we seek external explanations for our discontent or
failings. We see the failings of others as influencing our own: a romantic partner who doesn’t “get”
us, a boss who isn’t fair, family members who expect too much., yet bringing a mirror to our own
thoughts, feelings and behaviors is really the most valid place to look.

we can control ourselves, what we think, what we feel and how we respond to what is happening
around us. Yet we often abdicate this control when we look to others to make us happy, to provide a
smooth path to our goals, to give us the life we think we deserve and to take responsibility when
things go wrong.

To counteract this instinctive desire to keep our egos safe from the truth, we need to remember
that wecreate the world we live in: with our choices, with the way we interpret the events that
happen to us and the people we give our power to.

Persistence is an important strength because it reinforces the fact that this kind of courage isn’t
about one moment in time, but instead many moments — in the face of many obstacles both
internal and external.

It’s about unpacking the parts of life that aren’t satisfactory and then identifying the fears, habits,
behaviors and choices we’ve made and continue to make that may be inadvertently holding us back
from having it. It is a process of slowly but surely uncovering and taking ownership of the things that
don’t feel right and finding solutions to them.

Many times these solutions aren’t going to require huge shifts in life but instead more subtle
changes. For example, discontent in a relationship doesn’t necessarily mean divorce or a split, nor
does discontent in a job necessarily require a complete change of career. Instead, it could simply be a
matter of recognizing that our ways of seeing life mean that we focus on problems and not problem-
solving. It could be a matter of improving our communication skills, learning to understand our
triggers or sensitivities and developing strategies to better manage them. It could be about learning
to appreciate our strengths and successes, expanding our skill set at work, becoming more assertive
or selfish, or understanding the patterns that exist in our lives.
All of these outcomes rely on psychological courage and the leap we must take to engage it. Bringing
more psychological courage to life can bring all kinds of opportunities leading us towards the life we
want to live and the person we want to be.

What is an optimal experience?

Optimal experience is a positive and complex condition in which cognitive, motivational and
emotional components coexist in a coherent and articulated reciprocal integration. Positive
psychological features, optimal experience has been sometimes misunderstood as a state which
automatically brings about well-being and development. However outcomes of optimal experience
are not automatically positive, they vary according to the features of the associated activities and to
the values system of the cultural environment.

Within the psychological literature on well-being, flow or optimal experience has been often
misinterpreted as an emotion, as a purely cognitive construct, or as a component of the motivational
system. It is a multifaceted experiential state, in which cognitive, motivational and emotional
components coexist in a coherent and complex reciprocal integration (Delle Fave &Massimini, 2005a;
Delle Fave, Bassi, &Massimini,2008).

Optimal experience, or flow, within positive psychology, has received worldwide attention since its
birth (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975/2000):

It depicts the psychological mental state of a person who is immersed in an activity with energized
concentration, optimal enjoyment, full involvement, and intrinsic interests, and who is usually
focused, motivated, and positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand (Csikszentmihalyi,
1975/2000, 1990).

It is therefore clear because fundamental to its very definition, the experience of flow has an intrinsic
relation with the situation, and particularly with the interplay between personal characteristics and
the features of the contextual surround: provided that a balance and match is realized between high
individual’s skills and high contextual challenges. Indeed, a wide range of activities that are
associated with flow refer to distinct settings and activities, like work.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is “remembering to pay attention to our present moment

experience(Shapiro&Carlson,2009;Black,2011)

.” Mindfulness is a mind-body practice that has been found to benefit both psychological and
physical health.The primary psychological change that occurs during mindfulness practice is an
increased awareness of thoughts,feelings,and sensations in the present moment.

Mindfulness practice can help you to be come aware of the space between noticing experiences
and reacting to them by letting you slow down and observe the processes of your mind (Black,
2010).

The ultimate goal of mindfulness practices for you to take advantage of this space so you can make
more intentional decisions—to wake up from living life on autopilot, based on unproductive habits of
mind (Black, 2010; Walach et al., 2007).

Mindfulness can help in several ways. First, being mindful can help you become more aware of your
emotions before they escalate and control you. Instead of recognizing your anger only after you lash
out at someone, you can catch your anger whenit is still mild and take steps to diffuse it.
Furthermore, mindfulness can help you look at your thoughts and emotions with more objectivity.
Instead of letting minor events trigger negative thinking, mindfulness lets you take a step back to
recognize you are feeling stressed or a step back to recognize you are feeling stressed or anxious and
this anxiety may be influencing your thoughts.

Problems with regulating emotions fall into two categories,either repression or excessive reactivity.
Instead of ignoring emotions completely or acting on every emotion impulsively, mindfulness
provides a third option: “being with “emotions. By holding your emotions in mindful awareness, you
can separate your raw emotions and the accompanying sensations from the thoughts you have
about them. This would be the difference between thinking about all the reasons you are upset and
simply recognizing you are upset.Being with your emotions in this way lets you observe your
emotions closely until they naturally pass, and it also lets you intentionally make decisions about
how to respond to the information your emotions provide.

According to the American Psychological Association, some empirically supported benefits of

mindfulness include the following (Davis & Hayes, 2011):

Psychological Benefits

• Increased awareness of one’s mind

• Significantly reduced stress, anxiety, and negative emotions

• Increased control over ruminative thinking (a major cause and symptom of depression and
anxiety)

• Increased mental flexibility and focus

• More working memory

• Decreased distracting thoughts

• Decreased emotional reactivity

• Increased capacity for intentional, responsive behaviors

• Increased empathy, compassion, and conscientiousness of other’s emotions

Physiological Benefits

• Enhanced immune system functioning

• Increased brain density and neural integration in areas responsible for positive emotions, self-
regulation, and long-term planning

• Lowered blood pressure

• Lowered levels of blood cortisol (a major stress hormone)

• Greater resistance to stress-related illnesses such as heart disease

Spiritual Benefits

• Increased self-insight and self-acceptance

• Increased acceptance of others

• Increased compassion and empathy

• Increased sense of morality, intuition, and courage to change

• Increased control over automatic behaviors

• Increased self-discipline.

Mindfulness practice if it involves the follow- in basic components:

1. Direct involvement of one of your five senses–Focusing on one of your senses grounds you in the
present moment. It also provides you with the opportunity to separate the sensory experience from
the thoughts you are having about it.

2. An “anchor” – The anchor serves as the object of attention during mindfulness practice. For
example, if you are being mindful of your breath, you should try to maintain a continual awareness
of the physical sensation of your breath entering and leaving your body. This could mean feeling the
air entering and exiting your nostrils, or even the sensation of your lungs expanding and contracting.
The exact sensation doesn’t matter as long as you can keep focused on it. Some other common
examples of anchor s are the sound of a bell, or the taste and texture of food. The range of
possibilities is practically limitless, so feel free to experiment.

3. Returning to the anchor – This is where the power of mindfulness practice comes from. Chances
are you will only be able to remain focused on your anchor for a few moments before becoming
distracted. This is OK and to be expected. When you realize you have lost focus,gently refocus your
attention on the anchor.

With time and practice, your mind will begin to settle into calmness and you will find yourself able to
focus for longer periods. While at first you may only notice yourself drifting from your anchor long
after you start daydreaming, eventually you will start to notice distractions (such as thoughts or
sensations) as they arise. Instead of being lured away from your anchor by these distractions, it will
be easier to simply notice them and let them pass. A helpful metaphor to keep in mind is that your
distractions are like clouds passing in the sky—notice them without judgment and then let them pass
without a trace.

FLOW

Csikszentmihalyi was struck by the fact that when work on a painting was going well,the artist
persisted single-mindedly, disregarding hunger, fatigue, and discomfort—yet rapidly lost interest in
the artistic creation once it had been completed.

Flow research and theory had their origin in a desire to understand this phenomenon of intrinsically
motivated, or autotelic, activity: activity rewarding in and of itself (auto = self, telos = goal), quite
apart from its end product or any extrinsic good that might result from the activity.

The researchers focused on play and games,where intrinsic rewards are salient.

The general characteristics of optimal experience and its proximal conditions,finding that the
reported phenomenology was remarkably similar across play and work settings. The conditions of
flow include:
• Perceived challenges,or opportunities for action, that stretch (neither over matching nor under
utilizing) existing skills; a sense that one is engaging challenges at a level appropriate to one's
capacities

• Clear proximal goals and immediate feedback about the progress that is being made.

• Being “in flow” is the way that some interviewees described the subjective experience of
engaging just-manageable challenges by tackling a series of goals,

• Continuously processing feedback about progress,

• And adjusting action based on feedback.

• Under these conditions, experience seamlessly unfolds from moment to moment, and one enters
a subjective state with the following characteristics:

Intense and focused concentration on what one s doing in the present moment merging of action
and awareness

1. Loss of reflective self-consciousness(i.e.,loss of awareness of oneself as a social actor)

2. A sense that one can control one’s actions; that is, a sense that one can in principle deal with the
situation because one knows how to respond to whatever happens

3. Next the Distortion of temporal experience(typically,a sense that time has passed faster than
normal)

4. Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, such that often the end goal is just an
excuse for the process.

In the 1980s, work on flow was assimilated by psychology primarily within the humanistic tradition of
Maslow and Rogers (McAdams, 1990) or as part of the empirical literature on intrinsic motivation
and interest (e.g., Deci & Ryan, 1985; Renninger, Hidi, & Krapp, 1992). In recent years, a model of the
individual as a proactive, self-regulating organism interacting with the environment has become
increasingly central in psychology (for reviews, see Brand-
sta¨dter,1998;Magnusson&Stattin,1998).This is highly compatible with the model of psycho- logical
functioning and development formed in concert with the flow concept(Csikszentmihalyi & Rathunde,
1998; Inghilleri,1999).

Flow, Attention, and the Self

To understand what happens in flow experiences, we need to invoke the more general model of
experience,consciousness,and the self that was developed in conjunction with the flow concept
(Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988).

Accordingtothismodel,peopleareconfronted with an overwhelming amount of in-

formation. Consciousness is the complex system that has evolved in humans for selecting
information from this profusion, processing it, and storing it.

Informationappearsinconsciousness through the selective investment of attention. Once attended to,

information enters awareness, the system encompassing all of the processes that take place in
consciousness, such as thinking, willing, and feeling about this information (i.e., cognition,
motivation, and emotion).

The memory system then stores and retrieves the information. We can think of subjective
experience as the content of consciousness.

The self emerges when consciousness comes into existence and becomes aware of itself as
information about the body, subjective states, past memories, and the personal future. Mead (1934;
cf. James, 1890/1981)

distinguished between two aspects of the self, the knower (the “I”)

and the known (the “me”).

In our terms, these two aspects of the self reflect

(a) The sum of one’s conscious processes and

(b) The information about oneself that enters awareness when one becomes the object of one’s own
attention. The self becomes organized around goals (see Locke, this volume; Snyder, Rand, &Sigmon,
thisvolume).

Spirituality
According to positive Psychology the notion that people want to be the best that they can be, as
they should is well founded.

A major component of positive psychology is the promotion of one’s inner strength.

Positive psychology was founded on the notion that people want to be the best that they can be, as
they should. But more so, because it aims to use what is already within us, but has yet to be
recognized, to promote wellness and fulfillment which impacts society as a whole in a positive and
productive manner. A major component of positive psychology is the promotion of one’s inner
strength, thereby enabling them to better interact with others, and to react to others with
confidence putting them on an even playing field as opposed to being submissive, timid, and
insecure benchwarmers.

The term spirituality is derived from the Latin word spiritus (breath of life) or, simply stated, that
which keeps our spirit alive . It is a shared notion worldwide that spirituality moves one toward love,
peace, hope, connected-ness, compassion, wellness, transcendence, and a sense of wholeness But
fully understanding spirituality is very dependent on one’s perspective and whether they are the type
to adhere to sets of beliefs and rituals that make up religion.

Although seemingly congruent to many, spirituality and religion are not one in the same. Spirituality
views all religions as valid, similar to the analogy that all roads lead to Heaven. Spirituality invites one
to question and also to choose their own actions, all the while being willing to assume the
consequences of their choices.

A religious person would not agree with that statement because:

a. Religion carries on the teachings of a sacred book

b. There are numerous sacred books (et. al., The Christian Bible, The Qur'an, The Vedas)that are in
accordance with the religion they teach.

Religion, on the other hand, looks down upon those who question and has an assembly of rules that
are to be followed under all circumstances; hence the term faith. Faith is a core concept in religion
from which no one can waver. Hebrews 11:1 states that “faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen” (King James Version).

We cannot physically see, but have faith in our natural laws of inertia and gravity assuming they will
always are and remain constant. Religious people have faith and believe the words on the pages of
their sacred text although they have no concrete proof,

however the Journal of Affective Disorders explains that research reveals that “high-power believers
may be onto something, especially if they are suffering from mental illness “Furthermore, believers
in God or a higher power respond better to therapeutic treatment and show improved psychological
wellness than non-believers

Peterson and Seligman (2004) observed that spirituality is universal: “Although the specific content
of spiritual beliefs varies, all cultures have a concept of an ultimate, transcendent, sacred, and divine
force” (p. 601).

If a belief in the transcendent is so much a part of the human experience, isn’t it curious that
research on spirituality and religion is so under-represented in the field? People can take a virtually
limitless number of pathways in their attempts to discover and conserve the sacred.....Pathways
involve systems of belief that include those of traditional organized religions (e.g. Protestant, Roman
Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim), newer spirituality movements (e.g. feminist, goddess,
ecological, spiritualistic) and more individualized worldviews.

Benefits of Spirituality

Research suggests that religious and spiritual beliefs have tremendous positive benefits to individuals
and societies.

Listed below are some of the benefits of religion reviewed in the Peterson and Seligman Handbook
(2005). For references to specific studies, see p. 609 in the Handbook.

1. Among young people in particular, being religious is associated with reduced smoking, drug, and
alcohol use. Young people who engage in religious practices (like going to church) are also more likely
to have better grades and delay having sex.

2. Being religious has positive benefits for relationships. People who actively participate in religious
activities and who view religion as important are less likely to experience conflict in their marriage
and more likely to perceive their spouses as supportive. Religious parents are also more likely to
parent consistently and less likely to have highly conflictual relationships with their teenagers.

3. Religious beliefs and practices are predictive of other virtues such as altruism, volunteerism,
kindness, and forgiveness. Similarly, religious institutions actively promote displays of these values
(especially volunteerism and philanthropy) are associated with community well-being.

4. Finally, religious beliefs are broadly associated with the ability to cope with stressful life events.
Prayer and the social support from a religious community play a strong role in positive coping.
Some research on religion and coping suggests that the benefits of religion have to do more with
how you are religious-your religious style or orientation--than whether you are religious. I will briefly
review two ways to think about religious style below.

Religious Orientation or Style and Coping

Gordon Allport, the famous personality theorist, made the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic
religious orientation. Put simply, an extrinsically oriented person seeks out religion because it
provides comfort and security, but he or she would also be motivated by guilt or external sources of
pressure (family, social pressure, etc.). In contrast, an intrinsically orientated person is motivated
more by faith and a search for meaning and purpose in life. Some evidence suggests that individuals
with an intrinsic orientation are better able to cope with stressful life events since this orientation
leads them to find meaning in what has happened.

Others researchers highlight how differences in one’s religious/spiritual problem solving style can
affect our ability to cope with adversity. Four styles have been identified:

1. A self-directing style – Individuals with this style are calling the shots. Though they may believe in
a higher power, they rely on themselves to solve/handle any problems.

2. A deferring style – Individuals with this style are more passive. They wait for God to handle the
situation.

3. A collaborative style – Individuals with this style see themselves as working with God to deal with
the problem at hand.

4. A surrendering style – Individuals make a conscious decision to relinquish those aspects of the
situation that are truly beyond their control.

The collaborative style seems to be adaptive in a wide range of situations in that individuals tend to
feel empowered (with God on their side) and motivated to do what they can to improve the
situation. The self-directing style is also generally effective, largely because people tend to fare better
when they perceive a situation as controllable. The noteworthy exception to this is when the
situation is extreme and (by objective standards) largely uncontrollable. In extreme, uncontrollable
situations like the death of a family member, the surrendering and deferring styles are often the
most adaptive. When nothing can be done to prevent or undo the event, surrendering control
provides an overwhelmed person with relief.

See Gall et al. (2005) for a nice review of how individual differences in religious
orientations/problem-solving styles can affect coping.

Building Spirituality

Below are some suggestions for cultivating spirituality developed by Dr. Jonathan Haidt from the
University of Virginia:

· For five minutes a day, relax and think about the purpose of life, and where you fit in.

· For five minutes a day, think about the things you can do to improve the world or your
community.

· Read a religious or spiritual book, or go to a religious service every day.

· Explore different religions. You can do this by going to a library, looking on the Internet, or
asking your friends about their religions.

· Spend a few minutes a day in meditation or prayer.

· Invest in a book of affirmations or optimistic quotes. Read a few every day.

What is compassion?

The importance of compassion is widely recognized and it is receiving increasing research

attention. Most of the world's religious traditions place compassion at the center of their belief
systems. International professional bodies in healthcare, education and the justice system also
emphasize the importance of compassion.

An evolutionary perspective on compassion can be traced to Darwin (1871), who stated that “those
communities which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members would flourish
best, and rear the greatest number of offspring” (p. 130).

Current theorists also note that compassion is reproductively advantageous, being part of the care-
giving system that has evolved to nurture and protect the young (e.g. Gilbert, 2005, Goetz et al.,
2010). Compassion can be seen as having evolved from an adaptive focus on protecting oneself and
one's offspring to a broader focus on protecting others including and beyond one's immediate
kinship group (de Waal, 2009). Compassion may also have evolved in primates because it is a
desirable criterion in mate selection and facilitates cooperative relationships with non-kin (e.g. de
Waal, 2009, Keltner, 2009). Within the healthcare domain, compassion is believed to have numerous
practical advantages. It has been argued that treating patients compassionately has wide-ranging
benefits, including improving clinical outcomes, increasing patient satisfaction with services, and
enhancing the quality of information gathered from patients (Epstein et al., 2005, Redelmeier et al.,
1995 Sanghavi, 2006). research has focused on the developmental trajectory of compassion and has
found relationships between parenting styles and children's levels of sympathy and caring
(Eisenberg, VanSchyndel, & Hofer, 2015) and between attachment security in childhood and capacity
for compassion in adulthood (see Gillath, Shaver, & Mikulincer, 2005, for a review).

Definitions

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “compassion” stems from the Latin “compati”,
meaning “to suffer with”. In the literature, there appears to be a broad consensus that compassion
involves feeling for a person who is suffering and being motivated to act to help them (e.g. Goetz et
al., 2010, Lazarus, 1991). Lazarus defines compassion as: “Being moved by another's suffering and
wanting to help” (p. 289). Goetz et al. define it as: “the feeling that arises in witnessing another's
suffering and that motivates a subsequent desire to help” (p. 351).

Compassion is not only about feeling touched by a person's suffering, but also about wanting to act
to help them. Compassion is a fundamental tenet of Buddhist philosophy (it is, in fact, emphasized by
all the main world religions but Buddhist perspectives on compassion have been given greater
prominence in the psychological literature)

H H The Dalai Lama (1995) defines compassion in comparable terms as: “An openness to the
suffering of others with a commitment to relieve it”.

Kanov et al. (2004) argue that compassion consists of three facets:

· noticing,

· feeling,

· And responding.

1. ‘Noticing’ involves being aware of a person's suffering, either by cognitively recognizing this
suffering or by experiencing an unconscious physical or affective reaction to it.

2. ‘Feeling’ is defined as responding emotionally to that suffering and experiencing ‘empathic

concern’ through adopting the person's perspective and imagining or feeling their condition.

3. Finally, ‘responding’ involves having a desire to act to alleviate the person's suffering. “A deep
awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it” (Gilbert, 2009, p. 13) a

Gilbert (2010) sees compassion as consisting of six ‘attributes’:

· Sensitivity,

· Sympathy,

· Empathy,

· Motivation/caring,

· Distress tolerance

· And non-judgment.

1. ‘Sensitivity’ involves being responsive to other people's emotions and perceiving when they
need help, which appears to correspond to Kanov et al.'s ‘noticing’ facet.

2. ‘Sympathy’ (defined as showing concern for the other person's suffering) and ‘empathy’ (defined
as putting yourself in their shoes) together appear to correspond to Kanov et al.'s ‘feeling’ facet.
Finally,

3. ‘Motivation’ to act is akin to Kanov et al.'s ‘responding’ facet.

Feldman and Kuyken (2011) describe compassion as: “An orientation of mind that recognizes pain
and the universality of pain in human experience and the capacity to meet that pain with kindness,
empathy, equanimity and patience” (p. 145).

To summarize compassion can be called a behavioral process consisting of the following five
elements that refer to both self- and other-compassion:

1) Recognizing suffering;

2) Understanding the universality of suffering in human experience;

3) Feeling empathy for the person suffering and connecting with the distress (emotional resonance);

4) Tolerating uncomfortable feelings aroused in response to the suffering person (e.g. distress, anger,
fear) so remaining open to and accepting of the person suffering; and

5) Motivation to act/acting to alleviate suffering.

Benefits of practicing compassion

1. Compassion promotes social connection among adults and children. Social connection is
important to adaptive human functioning, as it is related to increased self-esteem, empathy, well-
being; and higher interpersonal orientation (Seppala et al., 2013).
2. Compassion is related to increased happiness (Shapira & Mongrain, 2010).
3. Compassion is related to higher levels of well-being (Zessin et al., 2015).
4. Compassionate love is associated with higher patient survival rates, even after adjusting for
social support and substance use effects (Ironson et al., 2017).
5. Patient-reported clinician empathy and compassion is related to increased patient satisfaction
and lower distress (Lelorain, Brédart, Dolbeault, & Sultan, 2012).
6. Brief expressions of compassion expressed by doctors are related to decrease in patient anxiety
(Fogarty, et al., 1999).
7. Compassion has a mediating effect on the link between religion and aggression among
adolescents. Stated another way, a relationship between religion and aggression was lower among
youths rated higher in compassion and self-control (Shepperd, Miller, Tucker, & Smith, 2015).
8. Compassion-focused therapy is reported as a promising therapeutic approach for individuals
with affective disorders characterized by high self-criticism (Leaviss & Uttley, 2012).
9. Compassion promotes positive parenting by improving parent-child relationships (i.e., more
affection and less negative affect; Duncan, Coatsworth, & Greenberg, 2009). Consequently, there are
various mindfulness-based parent training approaches and parenting books with a specific focus on
compassionate parenting (i.e., Parenting From Your Heart: Sharing the Gifts of Compassion,
Connection, and Choice, Kashtan, 2004; and Raising Children Compassionately: Parenting the
Nonviolent Communication Way, Rosenberg, 2004)
10. Compassion within classrooms is related to increased cooperation and better learning (Hart &
Kindle Hodson, 2004).
11. Compassion for teachers as expressed by colleagues is linked to increased teacher job
satisfaction, organizational commitment, and sense of emotional vigor (Eldor & Shoshani, 2016).
12. Compassion expressed as a function of service work is related to improved health and well-being
among volunteers (Black & Living, 2004; Yum & Lightfoot, 2005).
13. Self-compassion has a number of proven psychological benefits, such as reduced PTSD symptom
severity (Thompson & Waltz, 2008), and lower levels of psychopathology in general (MacBeth &
Gumley, 2012).
14. Self-compassion is linked to more positive aging (Phillips & Ferguson, 2013).
15. The combination of self-compassion and optimism is beneficial for depression-vulnerable people
(Shapira & Mongrain, 2010).
16. Self-compassion during smoking cessation training is associated with reduced smoking among
participants with low readiness to change, high self-criticism, and vivid imagery during the treatment
program (Kelly, Zuroff, Foa, & Gilbert, 2010).
17. Low habitual self-compassion and high self-criticism are related to a higher risk of depression
(Ehret, Joorman, & Berking, 2014).
18. Self-compassion is linked to various aspects of general well-being, such as (Neff et al., 2007).
19. Self-compassion reduces burnout and fosters important adaptive qualities among medical
professionals (Mills & Chapman, 2016).
20. Self-compassion buffers the negative impact of stress (Allen & Leary, 2010).

Forgiveness and Love.

Forgiveness has strong philosophical and religious roots, even though forgiveness is not solely a
religious virtue. Forgiveness lends an understanding to what it means to live in harmony with others
as it provides a moral compass (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

What do I understand by forgiveness?

The common view of forgiveness, in many ways, is flawed. We say “forgive and forget,” but when we
forgive we don’t forget. Forgetting is by no means an inherent part of forgiving, nor should it be. So
too, we refer to forgiveness as “burying the hatchet.” But when we bury the hatchet, the hatchet is
still there, just under a bunch of dirt, or we could say, a bunch of denial. Buried or not, we still need
to find peace with what's happened.

· Forgiveness, as we relate to it, is letting the other person “off the hook.” We equate it with
absolution; excusing the other from blame, guilt or responsibility for what they did. We imagine it as
symbolically setting them free from having to carry the burden of suffering that we believe they
caused. Forgiveness is different for every human being that lives it.

· For some, it comes on suddenly, blessedly, without having to think about or try and create it.
For others, it’s a more deliberate process that requires effort and practice. And for others, it’s a
permanent destination and once discovered, never slips away. But it can also be a feeling that comes
and goes and ebbs and flows.

· There’s no right way to find or live forgiveness; any path to and version of it will do. And yet,
despite the fact that there are infinite paths to and colors of forgiveness, certain key components
exist in its sentiment, aspects of forgiveness that essential to its basic nature

What is forgiveness then? .

· Forgiveness has strong philosophical and religious roots, even though forgiveness is not solely a
religious virtue. Forgiveness lends an understanding to what it means to live in harmony with others
as it provides a moral compass (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

· Konstad (2010) proposes that forgiveness did not exist in antiquity. He explains that early
Greeks and Romans managed their anger and vengeance with strategies that differ from modern
forgiveness. For example, Aristotle identified calmness as the emotion that was opposite to anger,
and was willing to appease another’s anger entirely on relations of status and power. In his view,
payback could be efficacious if there was a down-ranking. Offering over anger to the transgressor
who would humble themselves would demonstrate that the transgressor was inferior and below the
transgressed (Nussbaum, 2016).

· Forgiveness may be understood as a prosocial change in a victim’s thoughts, emotions, and/or

behaviors toward a blameworthy transgressor. A variety of conceptualizations of forgiveness as a
response can be found in the published literature (McCullough & Worthington, 1994; Scobie &
Scobie, 1998.
when people forgive, their responses (i.e., what they feel and think about, want to do to, or how they
actually behave) toward people who have offended or injured them become less negative and more
positive—or prosocial—over time (McCullough, Pargament, & Thoresen 2000b).

Six important concepts in forgiveness

Six important concepts in forgiveness that recur.

First, is the concept of agency: forgiveness is a choice made by the individual who was transgressed.
To get to this choice is a personal matter that does not have a specific time frame, but individuals can
prolong the hurt they experience by sustaining rumination and unforgiveness (Worthington &
Scherer, 2004).

Second, in unforgiveness, the rumination that characterizes this state necessarily pushes out time
and energy spent on other aspects of life that contribute to well-being, such as the joys of close
relationships, meaningful work, and other aspects of well-being that may not be fully expressed. Our
future becomes a regurgitation of past experiences (Lyubomirsky, 2008).

Third, forgiveness is for anyone who perceives they have been transgressed (Enright, 2001). It is not
for the transgressor. That is the most frequent mistake that prevents an individual from forgiving.

Fourth, forgiveness is a process that is easier when one demonstrates high trait forgiveness (TF), but
through the models and steps of the leading researchers, one may be able to move through the
process forgiveness, and this experience can increase trait forgiveness (Peterson & Seligman, 2004;
Worthington & Scherer, 2004).

Fifth, unforgiveness destroys our physical health and psychological well-being. It shows up in many
health-related complaints and can be a cause of ill health and psychological ailment (Toussaint,
Owen, & Cheadle,)

Finally, and critically, when we find ourselves stuck in a condition where we must have a relationship
of any sort with someone we feel has transgressed us, forgiveness is even more important, as it
enables the individual to remain psychologically stable. One may not be able to fully forgive in this
situation of continued transgression, but one may be able to remain psychologically steady and
strong (Enright,)

Meaning

Forgiveness is, in part, a willingness to drop the narrative on a particular injustice, to stop telling
ourselves over and over again the story of what happened, what this other person did, how we were
injured, and all the rest of the upsetting things we remind ourselves in relation to this unforgivable-
ness. It's a decision to let the past be what it was, to leave it as is, imperfect and not what we wish it
had been.

Forgiveness means that we stop the “shoulda, coulda, woulda been-s “and relinquish the idea that
we can create a different (better) past. Forgiveness also suggests an openness to meeting the
present moment freshly. That is, to be with the other person without our feelings about the past in
the way of what’s happening now.

Forgiveness involves being willing and able to respond to what’s happening in the present moment
and not react through the lens of anger and resentment, the residue from the past. In meeting now,
freshly, we stop employing the present moment to correct, vindicate, validate, or punish the past.

Psychological Components of forgiveness.

· A primary component of the forgiveness process also includes our attention and where we
choose to direct it.

· The process of forgiveness invites and guides our attention away from the other person, away
from what they did, haven’t done, or need to do. It takes the focus off of them; off waiting for and
wanting them to be different, and moves towards ourselves, our own experience, and our heart.

· We stop trying to get compassion or acknowledgment out of the other, stop trying to get them
to see and know our pain, to show us that our suffering matters.

· It means that we lose interest or simply give up the fight to have the other get it, get what
they’ve done, get that we matter. The struggling to get something back from the other in part
because we take on the role of our own caring witness, decide to offer ourselves the compassion we
so crave, that we’ve tried so hard to get from the other.

· True forgiveness means acknowledging that our suffering matters—to us, the one who’s lived
it—whether or not the other person ever agrees with us.

· Forgiveness, ultimately, is about freedom. When we need someone else to change in order for
us to be OK, we are a prisoner. In the absence of forgiveness, we’re shackled to anger and
resentment, uncomfortably comfortable in our misbelief that non-forgiveness rights the wrongs of
the past and keeps the other on the hook. And, that by holding onto that hook, there’s still hope that
we might get the empathy we crave, and the past might somehow feel OK. When our attention is
focused outward, on getting the other to give us something, so that we can feel peace, we’re
effectively bleeding out not only our own power, but also our capacity for self-compassion.

· What we want from the other, the one we can’t forgive, is most often, love. Forgiveness is
ultimately about choosing to offer ourselves love—and with it, freedom

Positive Psychology and Forgiveness

A misconception about positive psychology is that we are to always be happy (Kern, 2017), . The
study of forgiveness in positive psychology is an example of adaptive responses to life circumstances
that are less desirable. Peterson and Seligman (2004), in an effort to define the characteristics of
character strength and the expression of human potential, set out with the help of scholars and
practitioners to develop a classification of character strengths and virtues and their associated
metrics. Six broad categories of virtues remain valued by moral philosopher and religious thinkers
across history; wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence (Peterson &
Seligman, 2004, p. 13).

Forgiveness in our health

Health is defined as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity” (Official Records of WHO, no. 2, p. 100). Empirical research implies
that forgiveness is related to health outcomes because it helps to intercede between and reduce
physiological responses to the stress reaction (McCullough et al., 2000). Indirect mechanisms are
thought to also affect the forgiveness-health connection, such as the presence of social support,
relationship quality, and religious implications (Worthington & Scherer, 2004). A few areas of health
that have been studied and developed in the forgiveness literature include the effects on the
autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular and vascular diseases, the immune system, chronic pain
and autoimmune disorders, anxiety and depression, HIV, and longevity.
Multiple types of forgiveness have been studied as predictors of mortality as well as psycho social,
spiritual and health parameters in forgiveness effects on longevity. In the United States, adults ages
66 and older were assessed in forgiveness, health, religiousness/spirituality, and socio-demographics
(N = 1,232) (Toussaint, Owen, & Cheadle, 2012).

HPA axis. Reprinted from Dartmouth Journal of Undergraduate Science. Retrieved

Table of Contemporary forgiveness

Researcher Focus Model Description

Dr. Robert Enright Mental and physical benefits: incest ●Process Model Uncovering your anger,
survivors, adult children of of Forgiveness deciding to forgive,
alcoholics, heart patients, others working of forgiveness,
●Four Phases of
discovery and release
Forgiveness
from emotional prison
Enright
Forgiveness
Inventory

Dr. Everett Forgiveness and virtues ●REACH Model R: Recall my hurtful

Worthington ●Forgiveness and reconciliation acts, E: Emotionally
replace unforgiveness
●Marriage and Family ●Religion
with empathy A:
and Spirituality ●Assessment Scales
Altruistic gift of
selfforgiveness, C:
Commit to the
emotional
selfforgiveness H: Hold
on to the self-
forgiveness

Dr. Fred Luskin ●Stanford Forgiveness Project Know exactly how you
feel, make a
●Forgiveness in psychological, The 9-steps to
commitment, find
relational and physical health Forgiveness
peace, right
perspective, stress
management, give up
expecting things from
other’s, positive goals,
remember a life well
lived is your best
revenge, amend your
grievance story

Dr. Loren Toussaint ●Religious and spiritual forgiveness ● Sierra Leone Epidemiological,
Forgiveness population-based
● Mental and physical health and
Project ●Mind, surveys
well-being
Body, Spirit Lab Psychophysiological and
neuro-endocrine
 measures to assess the
effects of forgiveness.

Conclusion

Forgiveness can serve as a powerful, self-administered salve, and important tool in the positive
psychology toolkit that help individuals take adaptive action to increase their well-being, as
forgiveness contributes to our physical health, well-being and longevity. Forgiveness might not
relieve the pain of the past, but can remove pain from our future.

Increasing Happiness in Yourself: David Myers (1993)

David Myers (1993) described following principles for happiness:

• Realize that enduring happiness doesn’t come from success

• Take control of your time

• Act happy

• Seek work and leisure that engages your skills

• Join the “movement” movement

• Give your body the sleep it wants

• Give priority to close relationships

• Focus beyond the self

• Keep a gratitude journal

• Nurture your spiritual self

Discovering the Adaptive Potential of Emotion-Focused Coping

Intense emotions were seen as dysfunctional and opposed to rationality. Research in the 20Th century
often supported this view of emotional experiences by linking them with maladaptive outcomes in
life. Annette Stanton, a positive psychologist at the University of California at Los Angeles,
considered the adaptive potential of emotion-focused coping (i.e., regulating the emotions
surrounding a stressful encounter), she found that there was a problem in how emotions were
defined and measured in some of the research.
Stanton, Danoff-Burg, Cameron, and Ellis (1994) found that scales assessing emotion-focused
coping contained items in which the respondent had to engage in self-deprecation or admit to having
distress or psychopathology whenever he or she acknowledged experiencing intense emotion.
Responses to items such as “I blame myself for becoming too emotional” and “I get upset and let my
emotions out” most probably would have been positively correlated with responses to items about a
negative view of self or about general distress.

What is Emotion-Focused Coping?

Stanton, Paras, and Austenfeld (2002) stated that “coping through emotional approach might
be said to carry adaptive potential, the realization of which may depend on the situational context,
the inter-personal milieu, and attributes of the individual.” What they call emotional approach
involves active movement toward, rather than away from, a stressful encounter.

Stanton, Kirk, Cameron, and Danoff-Burg (2000) identified two related but distinct processes involved
in approach-oriented emotion-focued coping:

1. Emotional Processing

2. Emotional Expression

Emotional Processing:

 Emotional Processing or attempt to understand emotions include:

 I realize that my feelings are valid and important.
 I take time to figure out what I am really feeling.
 I delve into my feelings to get a thorough understanding of them.
 I acknowledge my emotions.

Emotional Expression:

 Emotional expression or free and intentional displays of feeling include:

 I feel free to express my emotions.
 I take time to express my emotions.
 I allow myself to express my feelings.
 I let my feelings come out freely.

Research on Functions of Emotional Approach

Using their revised measures, Stanton et al. (2000) studied the impact of emotion-focused
coping on women’s adjustment to breast cancer. Over a 3-month period, women who used emotion-
focused coping perceived their health status as better, had lower psychological distress, and
had fewer medical appointments for cancer related pain and ailments, as compared to those who
did not.

Working with an undergraduate population, Stanton, Kirk, Cameron, and Danoff-Burg (2000) found
that students who were dealing with a parent’s psychological or physical illness coped better with
their stressors if they were assigned to sessions that matched their emotional approach tendencies

Advantages of Emotional Coping

This coping approach may foster a better understanding of our experiences and direct our
attention to central concerns (Frijda, 1994). Furthermore, over time we may develop the tendency
to face our stressors directly and repeatedly (instead of avoiding them on occasion) and thereby
habituate to certain predictable negative experiences.

Neurobiological Basis of Emotional Responses

On the neurobiological level, Depue (1996) points to the involvement of the behavioural activation
system, and LeDoux (1996) reveals that a particular brain structure, the amygdale, plays a
significant role in processing matters of emotional significance. Specifically, LeDoux suggests
that, under stress-free life circumstances, our thinking is governed by the hippocampus, but during
more stressful times, our thought processes-and hence aspects of our coping-are ruled by the
amygdale.