Chapter 1 – Welcome to Positive Psychology 01/15/2014
takes a look into human strengths, away from previous weaknessoriented approach
Building Human Strength: psychology’s forgotten mission by Martin E.P. Seligman
• Before the war, psychology based on curing mental illness, making lives of people more
fulfilling and identifying high talent, after way: treat mental illness only
• Viewed human being essentiall as passive, framework around repairing damaged habits,
drives, childhoods and brains
• Prevention inmental illness come from focusing on promoting the competence of individuals
• Courage, optimism, interpersonal skill, work ethic, hope, honesty and perseverance help
against mental illness
• Best work is amplify strengths rather than repairing weaknesses
Going from Negative to Positive
There is a need to know about the good in people
Positive Psychology Seeks a Balanced, More complete view of Human Functioning
Pathological view was productive, but were incomplete in their portrayals of humankind
Develop inclusive approach that examines both weaknesses and strengths of people, as well as
stressors and resources in the environment
Views of reality that include both positive and negative
Reality resides in people’s perceptions of events and happenings in their world, scientific perspectives
thereby depend on who defines them
Negotiated by scientists and social constructions
Personal Mini Experiments Bring positive psychology into your life: ie focus on the positive that you will do tomorrow before you go
to bed, repeat it when you wake up
Life Enhancement Strategies
Mindful approach to everyday living will reveal power of positive emotions and human strengths
Goals: connect with others, pursue meaning and experience some degree of pleasure or satisfaction
(love, work and play)
• Associated with normal aging and human growth Chapter 2 – Eastern and Western Perspectives 01/15/2014
Eastern find that world is perpetual state of flux vs. Western resolve problems more linearly
Eastern move with cycle of life until the change process becomes natural and enlightenment vs.
Western search for rewards
Historical and Philosophical Traditions
Athenian Views
Aristotle moral virtues: courage, moderation, generosity, munificence, magnificence, temper,
friendliness, truthfulness, wit, justice. Friendship
Aristotle intellectual virtues: associated with wisdom
Influence of political community on development and maintenance of these virtues
• Help self actualize
Judeo Christianity
Old testament: Faith, hope, charity
Aquinas 4 cardinal virtues: fortitude (courage), justice, temperance, wisdom AND faith, hope, charity
New testament: leadership, faith, mervy,love, joy, hop, patience, hospitality
Other virtues given in proverbs, Beatitudes, Tkmund
Confucianism
Leadership and education are central to morality
Parallel to thoughts of Ristotle and Plato regarding responsibility of leaders to take charge of the group,
but also collectivist ideal of taking care of others in the group
Jen (humanity), yi (duty to treat others well), li (etiquette and sensitivity for others feelings), zhi
(wisdom), xin (truthfulness) Chapter 2 – Eastern and Western Perspectives 01/15/2014
Taoism
Dow = the way
Tao is energy that surround everyone and is a power the envelops, surrounds and flows through all
things
Cannot be taught, good and bad experiences contribute to greater understanding of the way
Humanity, justice, temperance and propriety must be practice without effort
Buddhism
Seeking the good of others, suffering if part of being and it brought on by the human emotion of desire
Nirvana: state in which self id freed from desire for anything
Brahma Viharas: virtues that are above all others in importance – love (maître), compassion (karuna),
joy (mudita), equanimity (upseka)
Hinduism
Emphasize the interconnectedness of all things
Live life so fully and correctly that one would go directly to afterlife without having to repeat life’s
lessons in reincarnated form
Attain self knowledge and strive for ultimate self betterment
Be good to others as well as to improve themselves
Karma: precious life’s good actions correlate directly with better placement in the world in this life
East Meets West
Values Systems
East West
Collectivist: group if valued above the individual, Individualist perspectives: single person held
sharing and duty of each person above the group in terms of importance,
Do for the good of the community, promote harmony, competition and personal achievement is
interdependence and collaboration, sharing emphasized
Greater respect for the past, recognize the wisdom of Look towards the future
elderly
View the world as a circle, constantly changing, search Linear world, simpler more deterministic world,
for relationships between things, you can’t understand focus on details not whole picture
the part without understanding the whole
Yin/yang in Taoism: represents circular, constantly
changing nature of the world, each part exists because Chapter 2 – Eastern and Western Perspectives 01/15/2014
of the other, ad neither could exist alone
Goald of balance: trusting in the fact that although Find a goal, and do everything to achieve it =
unhappiness occurs, it would be equally balanced by happiness
happiness
Constructs of compassion and harmony are values Construct of hope is valued
Different Ways to Positive Outcomes
Individualist and construct of hope
Hope: belief in a positive future, highly interwoven into Western thinking
Founded in JudeoChristian belief: hope was seen as way to improve life on earth during Middle Ages
Age of Enlightenment: conducive to exploration and change
Industrial Revolution as a result of this hope
Personal and individual goals exemplified by hop seem to be primary tool toward the good life
Eastern Values
Compassion
Western: Aristotle wrote on concept
Confucian:Jen (humanity) encapsulated all other virtues
Taoist: humanity must occur naturally
Buddhism: path towards transcendence through compassion
Hindu: good actions towards others
Requirement:
• The difficulties of recipient must be serious
• Recipients difficulties cannot be self inflicted
• As observers, we must be able to identify with recipients suffering Chapter 2 – Eastern and Western Perspectives 01/15/2014
Compassion= unilateral motion that is directed outward from oneself, focus on others rather than
ourselves
Capacity to feel and to do for others are central to achieving the good life
Feeling for others promotes cohesion of group
Comes more naturally to someone from collectivist culture rather than individualistic
Needed to transcend and move toward the good life, compassion asks people to think outside
themselves too connect with others
Harmony
Satisfactions of a plain country life, shared within a harmonious social network
Getting along with others allows person to be freed from individual pursuits and gain collective agency
in working out what is good for the group
Cannot be confused with conformity Chapter 4 – Developing Strengths and Living Well in A Cultural Context
01/15/2014
David Satcher on Culture in Psychology
Culture: common heritage or set of beliefs, normal and values, refer to shared attributes of one group
(race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, disability and nation of
origin)
Show if people seek help in first place, what types of help they seek, what coping styles and social
supports they have, how much stigma they attach to mental illness
Feature strengths: resilience and adaptive ways of coping
Culture of clinician and larger health care system govern societal response to a patient
• Delivery of care (diagnosis, treatment and organization/reimbursement of services)
Today: we have a bias to delivering psychological treatment
Moral: count culture as a major influence on the development and manifestation of
human strengths and good living
Understanding Culture: A Matter of Perspective
Psychology has 2 views:
1. genetically deficient and culturally deficient perspectives on handling diversity
• biological differences explained perceived gaps in intellectual capabilities between racial
groups
• could not benefit from growth opportunities and did not contribute to advancement of society
• pseudoscience used to demonstrate the presumed genetic basis of intelligence in one race vs
another (ie skull shape)
• eugenics: selective breeding
2. culturally different perspective recognizes potential of each culture to engender unique strengths
• related intellectual tendencies of certain races with their lack of resources, limited exposure to
prevailing values and customs of the day
• culturally pluralistic: uniqueness and strengths of all cultures were recognized
• culturally relativistic: interpreting behaviours within the context of culture) Chapter 4 – Developing Strengths and Living Well in A Cultural Context
01/15/2014
Positive Psychology: Culture Free of Culturally Embedded?
Educational specialties and theoretical orientations to counselling influence psychologist efforts to help
people function more optimally
3 issues: 1) effects of professionals cultural values on research and practices, 2) universality of human
strengths, 3) universality of the pursuit of happiness
Culture free positive psychology research and practice
Positive social science is descriptive and objective and results can “transcend particular cu
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