Positive Psychology Essay

Great Essays
Introduction:
They say that a team is only as strong as its weakest member. But, does this hold true for an individual - that a person is only as strong as their weakest characteristic? Positive psychologists would say no.

Positive psychologists wish to aid people on their journey through life by emphasizing on one’s personal growth through one’s character strengths and the refinement of one’s weaknesses. By focusing on personal growth, rather than comparing oneself to others, one is able to focus on trying to do better than they did the previous day, and realize that failure is simply a state of mind.1

The ideals of the field of positive psychology align with those of the education system, for both exist to enhance the mind of the individual
…show more content…
But, many schools do not help students deal with their personal lives. This task, is left for the student, and can be extremely …show more content…
Clifton and Raft also stated that “positive emotions as an essential daily requirement for survival”.8
Positive emotions in a workplace, or to be more specific, positive psychology in an educational setting forms the term, “positive education”. Positive education is not a curriculum that exists with day to day lessons with a chapter test at the end of the curriculum, but instead exists in the daily classroom setting through the direction of a teacher in order to cultivate hope, gratitude, serenity, resilience, use character strengths, and improve on character

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Heritability Of Happiness

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Happiness is something that greatly improves the quality of life in each individual. Are we truly able to control our level of happiness? If we are, then this would mean that we can control our quality of life as well. Some psychologists argue that individuals are able to control up to 40% of their happiness, while others reject this idea due to lack of evidence and other controlling factors.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Martin Seligman: Learned Helplessness Martin E. P. Seligman is the Leadership Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches a course called Positive Psychology that studies character traits, positive emotions, and intuitions of humans. Seligman believes that Positive Psychology can make the world a better place if people are were aware of its benefits. Seligman's overall goal is to train other psychological professionals about the importance of his positive psychological theory.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the 20th century, Carl Rogers came to be known as one of the most influential American psychologists to date and one of the founders of the humanistic approach. He is best known as the founder of “client-centered” or “non-directive” therapy and who stressed the importance of acceptance, genuineness, and empathy in fostering human growth. Originally studying theology in Vermont, Rogers eventually turned to clinical and educational psychology at the Teachers’ College of Columbia University. He came about during the Great Depression, when the scale of suffering demanded psychological attention. By then, Rogers was working at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and it was the work he did with these underprivileged kids that prompted the development of his client-centered approach.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Freud's produced a psychodynamic hypothesis that identity creates through cognizant and oblivious. The most vital idea of this hypothesis is that the cognizant and oblivious are frequently clashes. Life is a tradeoff including dynamic adjust of different strengths. The five phases of improvement comprise of first the oral stage where nervousness creates accordingly of holding sustenance. The second being butt-centric stage where uneasiness emerges because of wrong can preparing.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    One of the three major roles a School Psychologist is responsible for is providing interventions for their students. These interventions take three forms: academic assessment, behavior intervention, and psychological assessment. According to the New York Association of School Psychologists, in 1989 there was tremendous growth of people getting jobs as school psychologists, and a dramatically corresponding increase in the number of state associations resulted. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) developed many journals, newsletters, and studies focused on School Psychology throughout the years 1969-1989.…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I thought the world was a dark chasm which we all drifted towards and could never escape. I thought to live was pointless, an existence we were all damned to. We were all destined to be tainted. I was pessimistic. I took pride in it.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pursuing Good Life

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I decided to read Pursuing the Good Life: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology by Christopher Peterson. As this book has 100 reflections I decided to only pick one sections of this book to discuss. Throughout this report I will discuss Positive Emotions and Experiences and thirteen different areas of positive emotions and positive experiences. Part of a good life is experiencing things that make you feel good and happy, such as, pleasure, satisfaction, engagement with friends or family. Throughout this book I have focused on things that I do everyday and did not realize what I was doing.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    This multifaceted approach is beneficial in understanding the complexing and influence on a person’s life experiences and situation. When identifying the benefits of strengths perspective, this concept has the ability to be utilized in micro, mezzo and macro settings which allows social workers the flexibility to use through various levels of the society. On a micro level, an individual that identifies their strengths might use it to help overcome a stressful situation that in turn makes them stronger and empowered. On a mezzo level, a family might identify a strength within their nuclear family such as ability to speak up when they are upset. This strength can be utilized to help talk though a family issue or problem.…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction In recent years, the field of Psychology has deviated some of its focus from negative emotions to positive emotions. This was brought on by Martin Seligman (President of American Psychological Association in 1998) who suggested that the field move away from the traditional focus of remedying damage in people’s lives, and to instead place focus on building and understanding positive qualities and strengths within people (Reeve, 2015). This recent emergence of positive psychology has paved the way for new theoretical perspectives and therapeutic models, in particular meaning focused coping and the integrated meaning making model.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions. Wilhelm Wundt first began research for psychology psychologists have developed from around the world to bring us five main perspectives of psychology, known as, the five schools of thought. The five schools of thought help people to understand why people do certain motions, how people interact with each other, where we develop our mannerisms, and to have a deeper understanding of the human mind, through: biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic perspectives. Biological psychology is the study of the physiological bases of behavior, which follows “the relationship between psychological processes and the underlying psychological events” (Britannica,…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As stated by Yuuki Asuna, “Life isn’t just doing things for yourself. It’s possible to live in such a way that other people’s happiness, makes you happy too.” Doing something for oneself is selfish and pointless. Happiness has been pursued by the people who come to America, wanting the American dream, to be happy and get what they want. Not being happy even have a negative connotation to it.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psychology Reflection

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Throughout this semester in Intro to Psychology, I have gained a deeper understanding of the entire field of psychology. This has allowed me to better understand how and why people act in certain ways. I have learned about human tendencies, different health or psychological disorders, and a variety of other human characteristics. Through this knowledge base that I have gained during my time in this course, I have learned more about myself and what influences how I experience and view the world. A few concepts that I have applied to my own life and influence me, deal with the ideas of mindset, motivation style, and my developing understanding of social situations.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are known not only for their work in the field of psychology but, more specifically for their focus on the humanistic domain of psychology. The humanistic approach of psychology focuses on the individuals’ potential and emphasizes the importance of growth. Maslow and Rogers had very similar perspectives about individuals and their strengths. They both believed human beings are innately good and that mental and environmental problems is what make individuals deviate. Even though most of their approaches are similar, they also have differences within their theories such as the way individuals reach self-actualization.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    I feel that habits are shaped by our learned responses. Knowing how hard it is to break habits that have not served me well, such as eating junk food and not exercising as much as I should, I do believe that that these habits are automatic. During times of stress, I find myself reaching for a bag of chips without thinking. I have also driven to places on mental autopilot and then had to ask myself how I arrived there, my mind so focused on other things that my driving habits just automatically lead me to my physical location.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Positive emotions lead to positive attitudes about someone and their surroundings, so if you have a good emotional wellness, you will also have a good view of yourself. (Green, Amy. “What Are the 7 Dimensions of Wellness?” Alive, 18 Jan. 2017, www.alive.com/health/ seven…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays