12 AboveZero

Life Above Zero
Lesson of Positive Psychology

Happiness & health are more than the absence of unhappiness
and disease.
Traditional Psych. - much about life below zero & what goes wrong.
Positive Psych. - about life above zero -

i.e., presence of positive, not just absence of negative.
What we need to do to be happy, healthy, & live a good life or have
a happy marriage is independent of & different than just not
doing “bad” things.
Keyes - Mental health looks very different when measured directly

rather than inferred from absence of illness.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.
Continuum of Mental Health
Mental illness - high degree of mental illness symptoms.
17% - Flourishing - absence of mental illness and presence of
mental health symptoms.
60% - Moderate Mental Health - positive symptoms and low mental
illness.
17% - Languishing - life at zero - absence of mental illness but low
degree of positive mental health.
Promotion of positive health is as important as treatment of mental

illness help in going above zero.
Languishing - how to live positive life versus traditional treatment.
Contours of Positive Life
Meaning
Good life is shaped by cultural and developmental context.
Yet describe general features - comparative picture of kinds of
life choice, personal goals, strengths, traits, involvements that
increase, have temporary effects, or decrease well-being.
Seligman
1. Pleasant Life
positive emotional experiences & happiness - few negative
Broaden & Build Theory -
Positive emotions & physical, psychological, & social
resources.
Cultivating positive emotions for health & well-being.
2. Engaged Life
Active involvement in need fulfilling and personally expressive
activities & life goals.
Personal goal research - choosing “right goals”
Goals that are freely chosen, match needs and talents -
increase well-being.
Self-awareness - avoid traps of materialism and need substitutions.
3. Meaningful Life
Finding purpose, direction, coherence, transcendent
understandings.
Higher order meanings most satisfying - purpose of life.
Philosophy of life whatever it may be.
Means to a Good Life -
Can people increase their level of happiness?
Pessimism
Born three drinks ahead or behind - change?
Personality traits stable over time
Biology - emotion not made to last - treadmill of adaptation
Optimism
Estimates - Lyubormirsky & Sheldon
50% baseline happiness genetics
10% life circumstances
40% intentionally chosen activities - room for change
Examples of Increasing Happiness & Well-Being
1. Practicing Happiness
Fordyce instruction on tactics to increase 14 aspects of life
1. Become more active
2. More time socializing with others
3. More productive at meaningful work
4. Organized & planning
5. Worry less
6. Lower expectations/aspirations
7. Be more optimistic & positive
8. More present-oriented
9. Develop healthier personality
10. Develop more outgoing personality
11. Be yourself
12. Reduce negative feelings
13. Recognize close relations as critical to happiness
14. Make happiness life priority
Community college students sample
Over seven studies - weeks to a year

81% reported increase in happiness
38% reported “much happier”
Not clear which of 14 most important
But: practice doing things that make people happy
Happiness as a learnable skill or habit?
2. Intentional Activities- Lyubormirsky & Sheldon -

Choosing and following self-concordant goals
College students showed upward spiral of well-being over
academic year as long as successful
If not…fell back to prior well-being levels.
Stop following exercises also fell back.
3. Practicing Virtues
Gratitude & forgiveness exercises - increased well-being.
Developing wisdom clarifying goals & ideals.
King - writing about goals related to best possible future self
4. PPT - Seligman - Positive Psychotherapy

Mild-to-moderate depressed given homework assignments.
(virtues, signature strengths, cultivating optimistic attitudes,
savoring meaningful & pleasurable moments).
6 months to year - significant reduction in depressive symptoms
compared to placebo controls.
Some said “life changing.”
5. Well-Being Therapy (WBT)
Diverse clinical populations - 8 week sessions - 30 to 50 minutes
Worked on improved functioning on each of Ryff’s six dimensions
of well-being:
1. Self-acceptance
2. Personal growth
3. Purpose in life
4. Environmental mastery
5. Autonomy
6. Positive relations with others
Preliminary self-reports, diaries, spouse reports - encouraging.

Use well-being to counteract distress.
6. Minding Close Relationships
Quality relationships central to well-being.
Harvey & Omarzu

5 behaviors important to develop & sustain intimate
relations….garden analogy - don’t just plant.
Mindfulness & Well-Being
More general, encompassing, lasting, and “deeper”
approach.
Origins in Eastern religious meditative practices
(Buddhist zazen).
Widely used in clinical interventions - pain &
psychotherapy.
Major research reviews -populations with problems.
Mindfulness meditation associated improved mental
& physical health and relieving symptoms of disease:
e.g., hypertension, chronic pain, asthma, anxiety
etc….
Only last few years…systematic study, measures &
effects within non-clinical populations.
What is mindfulness?
1. Antidote to mindlessness
“lights are on but nobody home”
Not paying attention
State governed by rules & routine - automatic

responses
Efficient, but mindless
2. Present-centered attention & awareness
Focus on here & now - in present not for present
Observing what is in front of us - not evaluating
Increasing sensitivity of radar without scanning for

particular object - see more and see more clearly
Getting to life’s bottom line- for many not until “too late”
Awareness of own death - Cossolino & colleagues
Mindfulness Meditation
Becoming aware of what matters without confronting
own death.
Definition & Purpose

Variety of meditative self-regulation practices focus
on training attention & awareness to bring them
under greater voluntary control & foster well-being &
development of calm, clear concentration.
Not religion - don’t need to believe in anything
to accept self.
Basic idea:
Everyday consciousness is filled with unexamined
thoughts & feelings that take on life of their own. See
present through future & past…give thoughts reality they
don’t deserve.
What is difference between casual versus trained

observer -
seeing more - what is
beautiful sunset -
baseball -
trout fishing
Mindfulness Training: Seeing More of Self
How much time do you spend observing your own mind?
How it works - what it holds on to - recurring thoughts?
When do we “see” our mind at work?
Setting time aside each day to observe, not evaluate, own thought
patterns (15 to 30 minutes):
Sit - pillow straight-backed chair - alert - aligned
Focus on breath - follow in & out - not control
Attention wanders - note & back to breath
just a thought
Discover
Mind wells up endless thoughts - seem not to control
Cultivating 7 Attitudes - spill over into life
1. Non-judging - good & bad versus as it is new ways
2. Patience - let things unfold - not rush to judgment
3. Beginner’s Mind - see things for first time rather than through
established categories, memories, & experiences - boredom
4. Trust - trust in own perceptions not others’ - be yourself
5. Non-striving - eliminate effects of wishes, desires - let go of

preconceived ideas about outcomes
6. Acceptance - being yourself rather than denying unpleasant

thoughts - let go of comparisons “are” vs. “wish to be”
7. Letting go - non-attachment not giving up - seeing what mind wants

to hold on to - cultivate detachment - neutral observer of self
Mindfulness Research
• Shaprio, et. al.
- Even brief mindfulness training related to improved well-being,
self-esteem, happiness, daily positive affect, extraversion, better
relations with others, trust, empathy
- Enhances physiological, psychological, & transpersonal well-
being
Ryan & Brown - Individual Differences Approach

Mindful; Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)
Mindfulness as present-centered attention
Measured indirectly as absence of mindfulness (best statistics)
MAAS Items
I could be experiencing some emotion and not be conscious of it
until some time later.
I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s happening in the present.
I tend not to notice feelings of physical tension or discomfort until
they really grab my attention.
It seems I am running on automatic without much awareness of
what I’m doing.
I rush through activities without really being attentive to them.
I get so focused on a goal I want to achieve that I lose touch with
what I am doing right here and now.
I find myself listening to someone with one ear, doing something
else at the same time.
I find myself preoccupied with the future or the past.
I snack without being aware that I’m eating.
Reliability & Validity
Negative correlation with - self-consciousness, rumination,
absorption.
Positive correlations with attention, clarity of experience, & active
life engagement.
+ r’s with measures of well-being both SWB and
eudaimonic measures.
Practicing Zen students score high.
Higher levels of autonomy.
Self-concordant actions.
Consistency between conscious & intuitive, implicit
reactions.
Higher positive affect & lower mood disturbances.
Mindfulness & Psychotherapy
Why does mindfulness improve well-being?

Mickey - mindfulness key ingredient in all
psychotherapy.
refined awareness of emotions, reactions, self
see through defensive reactions
psychotherapy as “mindfulness coaching”
Aaron Beck - Cognitive therapy
Mindful of automatic, habitual & destructive reactions
Overcome through increased attention - i.e., being mindful
East & West Psychology

Basic structure versus piece-meal
Bottom line of improved well-being in today’s hectic world

Lose sight of idea of good life
Pay attention!!!!!!
A Final Puzzle
Make a list of all the aspects of your life and self that contribute to
your present sense of security and happiness.
Now imagine that all the external supports for security and
happiness disappear.
Buddhism - Eastern Philosophy

Whatever is left is authentic well-being, i.e., not dependent on
external supports that may come and go.
External support = false sense of security and illusionary
happiness.
- Not true or stable security or happiness.
- Money, relationships, achievements - fade, temporary
- Ultimately have to live with well-being within self not
propped up by stimulus-driven desires.
How much of well-being is inside and how much outside the self?

12 AboveZero

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Life Above Zero

Lesson of Positive Psychology

Positive Psych. - about life above zero -

Keyes - Mental health looks very different when measured directly

Promotion of positive health is as important as treatment of mental

Over seven studies - weeks to a year

2. Intentional Activities- Lyubormirsky & Sheldon -

4. PPT - Seligman - Positive Psychotherapy

Preliminary self-reports, diaries, spouse reports - encouraging.

Quality relationships central to well-being.

Harvey & Omarzu

“lights are on but nobody home”

Not paying attention

State governed by rules & routine - automatic

Efficient, but mindless

Observing what is in front of us - not evaluating

Increasing sensitivity of radar without scanning for

Awareness of own death - Cossolino & colleagues

Definition & Purpose

What is difference between casual versus trained

2. Patience - let things unfold - not rush to judgment

4. Trust - trust in own perceptions not others’ - be yourself

5. Non-striving - eliminate effects of wishes, desires - let go of

6. Acceptance - being yourself rather than denying unpleasant

7. Letting go - non-attachment not giving up - seeing what mind wants

Ryan & Brown - Individual Differences Approach

Why does mindfulness improve well-being?

Mindful of automatic, habitual & destructive reactions

Overcome through increased attention - i.e., being mindful

East & West Psychology

Bottom line of improved well-being in today’s hectic world

Buddhism - Eastern Philosophy

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