Positive Psychology and Positive

Education
Kathryn Asbury
 Positive Education
• What do you want for your children?
Happiness, confidence, love, fulfilment
• What do schools teach?
Discipline, literacy, achievement, success

“I want you to imagine that schools could, without

compromising either, teach both the skills of well-being
and the skills of achievement I want you to imagine
positive education.” (Seligman, 2011, Flourish)
Should wellbeing be taught in schools?
• Seligman argues YES, because:
– High rates of mental ill health, especially depression,
among children and adolescents. Average age of
onset has reduced from 30 (1960s) to 14 (now).
– Life is generally better now than 50 years ago. We
are materially better off and we live in a more equal
society but life satisfaction has not improved.
– Greater wellbeing enhances the traditional goal of
education. Positive mood enhances attention,
concentration, clarity of thought etc.
 Penn Resiliency Programme
GOAL: Increase student ability to handle day-to-day
problems that are common in adolescence.
• Teaches optimism, assertiveness, creative brainstorming,
decision-making, relaxation and coping skills (using
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy techniques).
• More than 20 studies (including RCTs- randomised control
tests) have found that:
– PRP may reduce symptoms of depression and conduct
problems but evidence is not very robust – see Bastounis et al,
2016.
– Effects can endure for over 2 years.
 Beyond Resilience: Strath Haven Positive
Psychology Curriculum
• Seligman et al. designed a broader programme and
tested it using an RCT design.
• Goals of programme:
– Help students identify their signature character strengths.
– Increase their use of those strengths in daily life.
– Promote resilience, positive emotion, meaning and
purpose, and positive social relationships.
• Randomly assigned 347 ninth graders to language arts
classes (half with positive psychology programme and
half without).
IN CLASS ACTIVITY
 Strath Haven: Findings
• Modest but statistically significant
improvements were seen in:
– engagement in learning,
– enjoyment of school,
– achievement (for lower ability pupils)
• Social skills improved (empathy, cooperation,
assertiveness, self-control) according to both
parent and teacher reports.
 PERMA model of happiness
Building more choices
in curriculum

Showing emoticons to
children in early age
Adding, modelling

Feed back with progress

 Seligman’s VIA classification of character
strengths

https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/
 Blank slate theories of ‘character’
“We are all a sort of camelions,
that still take a tincture from
things near us.”
John Locke, 1693, Some Thoughts Concerning
Education

“character strengths that matter

so much to young people’s
success are not innate; they don’t
appear to us magically as a result
of good luck or good genes.”
Paul Tough, 2012, How Children Succeed
 GRIT
Angela Duckworth

• Combination of high persistence and

high passion. The more GRIT(passion,
preservance) you have, the more time
you spend on task.

• Grit has been found in some studies to

be uncorrelated with intelligence.

• Seligman says:
Achievement = Skill x Effort
 IN CLASS ACTIVITY

1. 3
2. 2
3. 4
4. 5
5. 4
6. 3
7. 4
8. 5
 Mindset: Carol Dweck
• Researching young children’s
responses to failure and noticed
some didn’t seem to mind.
• When she pursued this she found
that some students felt that they
weren’t failing, but learning.
• ‘Mindset’ (fixed vs growth).
• A student’s theory of intelligence is
a key belief that strongly affects
their achievement motivation.
 FIXED MINDSET
• Intelligence as a fixed trait.
– People are born with a certain amount of intelligence and that amount remains static throughout
the lifespan.

• People with fixed mindsets worry that:

– They don’t have as much intelligence as other people.
– If they find a task difficult or challenging it proves they are not very bright – undermines their self
identity and self worth.

• People with fixed mindsets need to appear intelligent and so they:

– Prefer easy tasks, within their comfort zone.
– Avoid challenges, give up easily and see effort as a waste of time.
– Feel threatened by others’ success.
– Don’t use feedback well.

• People with fixed mindsets have been found to achieve less over time, regardless of their
ability. They don’t give themselves opportunities to grow and develop. Risk averse.
 GROWTH MINDSET
• Intelligence is something that can be developed through effort, instruction
and dedication over time.

• People with growth mindsets are ‘Learners’ who don’t worry about
appearing intelligent but focus on progress:
– Embrace challenges.
– Keep going when things get difficult.
– See effort as the path to mastery.
– Learn from criticism.
– Learn from and find inspiration in others’ success.

• Some believe a growth mindset can be taught and growth mindedness has
been found to lead to higher achievement.
– But results are not generally very strong e.g.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/c
hanging-mindsets/
 Follow-Up Activity
• Watch Martin Seligman’s TED
talk on Positive Psychology:
https://www.ted.com/talks/mar
tin_seligman_on_the_state_of_
psychology?language=en
• Consider how the constructs
Seligman studies – and also
constructs like mindset and grit
- relate to Big 5 personality
measures like conscientiousness
and openness to experience.
 References
• Bastounis, A., Callaghan, P., Banerjee, A., & Michail, M. (2016). The effectiveness of the Penn Resiliency
Programme (PRP) and its adapted versions in reducing depression and anxiety and improving explanatory
style: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of adolescence, 52, 37-48.
• Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict
achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child
development, 78(1), 246-263.
• Duckworth, A. L., Kirby, T. A., Tsukayama, E., Berstein, H., & Ericsson, K. A. (2011). Deliberate practice spells
success why grittier competitors triumph at the National Spelling Bee. Social Psychological and Personality
Science, 2(2), 174-181.
• Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-
term goals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(6), 1087.
• Kern, M. L., Waters, L. E., Adler, A., & White, M. A. (2015). A multidimensional approach to measuring well-
being in students: Application of the PERMA framework. The journal of positive psychology, 10(3), 262-271.
• Kern, M. L., Waters, L. E., Adler, A., & White, M. A. (2015). A multidimensional approach to measuring well-
being in students: Application of the PERMA framework. The journal of positive psychology, 10(3), 262-271.
• Yeager, D. S., Hanselman, P., Walton, G. M., Murray, J. S., Crosnoe, R., Muller, C., ... & Paunesku, D. (2019). A
national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement. Nature, 573(7774), 364-369.
 References 2
Martin Seligman’s Positive Psychology Center
website contains a lot of links to useful and
relevant studies: https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/
(you can also assess your own signature
strengths on www.authentichappiness.org).