Cd Positive Psychology

Front 1

Seligman (2009) proposed that a positive psychology curriculum in schools would: 1) promote valuable skills; 2) produce improvements in well-being and behaviour; 3) facilitate learning. He also found PPC students to be more cooperative and have better social skills. The Penn Resiliency Program (PRP) has shown to reduce symptoms of depression to 22% (compared to a control group who had 44%). Seligman also reported

Back 1

Most research that supports PPC has only focused on short-term effects or has only used small sample groups and so therefore perhaps we should consider the possible long-term implications before 'rolling-out' a PPC across schools, especially as there will undobtedly be cost implications.

Seligman himself admits that there is currently an insufficient evidence base to assess if a PPC will benefit students from a wide variety of socioeconmic backgrounds.

Front 2

Csikzentmihalyi's (C) Flow Theory posits that work can be a major source of happiness as it offers both challenge and allows us to learn new skills. C& LeFevre (1989) reported that work offered us 3x the opportunities for flow as leisure activities. This research generally contrasts with the general belief that people are happier when not in work and hence PP this has helped challenge our beliefs.

Back 2

Is it really a new idea? - Confucius (551 B.C) claims 'choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life'. Therefore has PP told us anything we didn't already know?

Most people do not work because of the greater opportunity to experience flow, but because they have mortgages, bills and families to look after

Front 3

Presenteeism, staff turnover, staff sickness cost the UK economy £26 billion in 2008 - Happy workers 12% more productive (Oswald, 2009). Work places that have adopted strategies that monitor the well-being of their workers (like Google) have found that costs have been outweighed by lower staff turnover.

Back 3

Individuals in less developed countries, the amount of happiness derived from work is not a top priority.

Google (a prodigious user of PP) need to attract the very best employees; in less skilled sectors there is perhaps less motivation on the part of employers to spend money creating a 'happy' workplace.

Front 4

C & LeFevre (1989) proposed that to increase happiness, people needed to be more conscious of and more active in how they use their leisure time. Organisations such as 'Action for Happiness' want to create a happier life by offering advice on how to achieve this.

Back 4

Many people aren't able to 'actively engage' in their leisure activities as suggested as they are inhibited by time or cost implications. PP has tended to be an attractive option to middle class individuals, so we cannot really clarify if any real benefit has been derived from the PP strategies or just the fact that middle class people are likely to be able to more easily access flow inducing leisure activities.

Front 5

Medical professionals could issue 'happiness advice' in addition to other medical advice. Kubansky & Thurston (2007) found participants with high levels of 'emotional vitality' were much less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease.

Back 5

It is unclear from research such as Kubansky & Thurston if the people were healthier because they were happier or if they were happy because they were healthier? ONS (2016) reports that those who self-reported their health to be 'very good' also had the highest mean happiness score, with happiness levels dropping as health assessments dropped.

Front 6

Most people want to live a happy life, so PP can potentially offer most people some helpful advice on how to do this in many sectors of their life, suggesting PP COULD be very relevant to many.

Back 6

However many people don't get to control if their school or workplace operates using PP principles and so it is difficult to really estimate if PP is relevant in any or all sectors of a person's life