We spend most of our lives trying to feel more meaning and happiness. We strive to discover
and live what many psychologists and philosophers call ‘the good life. Could it be possible
that, through science, we can figure out what ‘the good life’ consists of and teach
that to everyone? That, in a nutshell, is what positive psychology hopes to do. Positive
psychology is an exciting subbranch of study within psychology and is defined as the scientific
study of what makes life most worth living. In this video, I’ll go over what positive
psychology is and where it came from, some of its findings and teachings, some of the
controversy around it, and my thoughts about the subject.
Positive psychology began as a formal disciple in psychology in 1998 when its founder Martin
Seligman, chose it as a theme for his term as president of the American Psychological
Association.
Seligman echoed the work of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow when he stated that psychology
had focused too much on what’s wrong with people and not enough on what’s right. Psychology
has “moved too far away from its original roots, which were to make the lives of all
people more fulfilling and productive,” he said, “and too much toward the important,
but not all-important, area of curing mental illness.”
See, as a response to Freud and psychology in general, Maslow and other humanistic psychologists
wrote about how curing mental illnesses and neurosis isn’t enough to give patients a
good quality of life. One may have their depression and neurosis cured but live life like a statue
feeling no positive feelings. So, positive psychologists believe we should study and
discover what it is that gives humans positive emotions like happiness, meaning, and fulfillment
to have a better quality of life.
Despite being a recent branch of study, positive psychology has exploded in popularity received
hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money in a short period of time.
So, I’ll go over some of the findings from research into positive psychology thus far.
Then, I’ll cover some of the theory that’s being taught by some of the core influencers.
Research of positive psychology has covered many areas, including happiness set-point
levels (or the theory that one’s happiness on average is genetically determined), personality,
marriage, parenting, intelligence, age, and more.
One major theme discovered is that shifting one’s perspective can help increase and
even maximize the potential for happiness in many of our everyday lives.
For example, a 2005 study showed that practicing gratitude is a big contributor to happiness
in life.
Another study found that spending time with people who are naturally happy increasing
your overall levels of happiness.
Studies have also found what doesn’t influence happiness too.
For instance, a 2009 study showed that people overestimate the impact of money on their
happiness. Money does have some influence, but attaining high levels of wealth will not
drastically implant one’s happiness levels.
Research has indicated that happiness and well-being are not just present-oriented but
have a past and future element.
For instance, research by Roy Baumeister found that what we call ‘happiness’ is present-oriented,
rooted in the moment, while what we refer to as ‘meaningfulness’ is more focused
on the past and future and how they link to the present.
This differentiation has lead to some interesting findings. For instance, “givers” experience
more meaning, while “takers” experience more happiness in life.
This are just a small sample of what research in positive psychology has found. As you can
see, all these findings suggest that there’s some behavior or action that we can take that
will in most cases, improve our quality of life.
That leads to the question, is there any core theory that has evolved within positive psychology?
Well, there no one accepted theory at the moment on what well-being and living the good
life specifically is and how to come about it. Still, the theory of Seligman and co-founder
of positive psychology Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, are heavily quoted and used.
in his book Authentic Happiness, Seligman has theorized that what constitutes being
happy and living the good life can be grouped into three different theories of life. These
are
1. The Pleasant life - or the "life of enjoyment," which examines how people experience and savor
positive feelings and emotions primarily in the present.
2. The Good Life - or the “life of engagement” examines the beneficial effects of immersion,
absorption, and flow, a concept written in length Csikszentmihalyi, which is an experience
when there is a positive match between a person's strength and their current task.
3. The Meaningful Life or "life of affiliation," which examines how individuals derive a positive
sense of well-being and purpose from life. This includes examining how people derive
well-being from aspects larger than themselves like movements, social groups, and belief
systems.
Segliman further investigated ‘The Meaningful Life’ and what well-being precisely is in
his 2011 book Flourish where he devised what’s call the PERMA model.
PERMA is an acronym now recognized within positive psychology to help define and explain
human well-being in greater depth. It includes five core features including...
Positive Emotions - Part of having high well-being involves experiencing positive emotions and
enjoying yourself in the present.
Engagement - If you’re not fully engaged in anything it’s hard to have a sense of
well-being. When we’re engaged in something we like to do, we lose sense of time and become
absorbed in that activity.
Relationships: Humans appear hardwired for relationships and without deep relationships,
our well-being can suffer.
Meaning - just experiencing positive emotions in the moment isn’t enough to significantly
improve well-being. Humans also need a sense of meaning and purpose greater than ourselves.
Accomplishment / Achievement: When we have goals and accomplish them, we have higher
states of well-being. To enhance well-being then, he furthers, one
needs to investigate ways to incorporate these five key points into one’s life.
Now there’s far more to theory and research behind positive psychology which I can get
into if you want, but let’s take a look at a few of the main criticisms of this movement.
There are many, but three main ones seem to stick out most.
#1. Positive Psychology is Not a Real Science This is a criticism of psychology in general.
Positive psychology relies too much on subjective reports from individuals as no one can truly
empirically measure another person’s states of consciousness experience. Those that research
positive psychology acknowledge this and seem dedicated to continue to look for more objective
and more scientific ways to investigate well-being. #2. increased Commercialization.
Positive psychology is rapidly growing in popularity which has ushered in many people
attempting to capitalize on its success. This has lead to criticism that this branch of
psychology is turning into something equivalent to MLM-esq selling system in which speakers,
coaches, and authors water down research use positive psychology's brand to sell false
promises of blissful happiness in exchange for monetary gain. Increasing numbers of coaching
systems, courses fo r sale, and best-seller books are rapidly popping up.
In fact, right on the website PositivePsychology dot com website, (note, this site doesn’t
appear to be affiliated directly with Seligman or the PositivePsychology center) you can
see courses that promise happiness if taken in exchange for, in some cases, thousands
of dollars. For a branch of rigorous scientific study, this is obviously, not normal.
#3. Significant Ties to Religious Organizations. The Templeton Foundation, originally established
to promote evangelical Christianity and still pursuing goals related to religious understanding,
has recently helped establish the Positive Psychology Center at the Pennsylvania where
Seligman taught. It appears to be positive psychology’s biggest private sponsor which
raises concerns in the scientific community. Will an institute affiliated with religion
attempt to influence studies and findings that point well-being toward adopting religious
Christian principles?
Philosophers, including, Mike Martin of Chapman University’s say positive psychology has
already left science and is entered the realm of ethics. He points to some of Seligman’s
latest work in which he claims one now needs to adopt certain moral virtues and ethical
theories similar to the Christian tradition in order to have well-being in life.
Now, however, despite the criticisms, I think positive psychology and more-so, evidence
-based studies into human well-being can do some good this century. I think there’s
evidence that what constitutes ‘the good life’ for most people can be learned about,
taught, and increase people’s well-being, at least to some degree. We’ll now more
for sure how much happiness and well-being can be improved once more research is out
of course, which that in itself is a very good thing. The increasing commercialization
inside of positive psychology is concerning, though, and hopefully some of the main founders
and influencers in the movement will take more action in order to separate the research
and findings from the coaching, consulting, and happiness gurus before positive psychology
in general is branded as just fake pseudoscience. Then we’ll all have to wait another several
decade before serious research into humanistic studies and human well-being are taken seriously
again.