Positive Psychology: A Strength-Based Approach

Positive psychology is a branch of psychology intended to complement and enhance the other theories of psychology in discovering what drives and motivates us as human beings. It is an evidence-based perspective that focuses on the strengths of an individual, therefore making it a useful model for social workers, as their practice should be a strengths-based approach. Positive psychology is a relatively new theory, which emerged as a reaction to the continual focus of research on the negative aspects of behavior. Rather than focus on the latter, positive psychology attempts to examine how success, attainment, and fulfillment can achieve the goal of happiness. Despite historical references to concepts of positive psychology, it was not termed …show more content…
Metaanalyses carried out by Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener (2005) highlighted the importance of well-being by recognizing the benefits on everyday life, such as more satisfying and longer marriages, lower absenteeism at work, better physical and mental health, more self-confidence, and better coping strategies. Seligman initially suggested that there were three routes to happiness; positive emotion and pleasure, engagement, and meaning, which later became incorporated into a term he called PERMA. He discusses the importance of minimizing negative emotions, and enhancing those that are positive such as joy, happiness, satisfaction, and excitement. Referring to engagement, he stresses the significance of seeking out activities that further one’s interests, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi further expanded this notion by arguing that to achieve flow, one must identify their strengths and practice them. Park, Peterson and Seligman (2006) identified common strengths of kindness, fairness, honesty, gratitude, and judgement. Equally, they recognized strengths that are less prevalent including prudence, modesty, and self-regulation. Seligman argues that meaning, as a path to happiness, is the principle that there is something bigger than the self which one belongs to, whether that be a family, community or religion. As Seligman further …show more content…
As an evidence-based theory concerned with improving well-being and human functioning, it encompasses the values of service, strives for social justice, respects the dignity and worth of the person, and highlights the importance of human relationships in achieving happiness, in addition to demonstrating integrity, and competence by relying on evidence-based practice. However, the theory does not take into account discrimination and oppression that is inherent in social institutions. By acknowledging that humans have self-identifying strengths, the onus is on the individual to change rather than scrutinize the causes and lack of opportunities in society due to factors such as race, class, or gender. Furthermore, an examination into the lack of research in positive psychology with regard to race, gender, and ethnicity, found “that women are underrepresented as first authors, disenfranchised racial and ethnic groups are underrepresented as participants, and…concerns of women and disenfranchised races and ethnicities are still scarce” (Rao & Donaldson, 2015, p.277). It certainly seems that while positive psychology attempts in theory to improve the lives of individuals and of society as a whole, there is certainly more scope for future theory to be more focused on marginalized populations, in an effort to be more inclusive, and