Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman introduced the concept of positive psychology in 1998, advocating for a shift in
focus within the field. He emphasized moving away from solely studying negative aspects of
human behavior towards understanding and promoting the positive aspects. Seligman's call was
for psychology to explore and enhance the best in human behavior. Positive psychology emerged
as a response to the imbalance in psychology, focusing too much on weaknesses and not enough
on strengths. Seligman advocated for studying joy and courage to promote healthy human
functioning. Early examples of positive psychology research include studies on gifted children
and happiness in marriage. The humanistic movement in the 1960s also emphasized the
importance of studying positive aspects of human nature. Positive psychology allows for the
scientific study of hope, forgiveness, and positive emotions without compromising scientific
credibility.
Health Psychology
Positive psychology and health psychology share common ground in understanding the impact of
emotions on health. While negative emotions like stress and anxiety can harm our health by
suppressing the immune system, recent research suggests that positive emotions can have the
opposite effect, aiding in maintaining both mental and physical well-being. The intricate
pathways and mechanisms linking emotions to health involve the brain, nervous system,
endocrine system, and immune system, with ongoing research shedding light on these
connections.
Positive emotions such as joy, contentment, interest, love, and pride play a crucial role in
broadening people's thought-action repertoires and building enduring personal resources.
Positive psychology emphasizes the value of these emotions in enhancing physical well-being,
emotional health, coping skills, and intellectual functioning. Understanding the biological
foundation of emotions highlights the significance of positive emotions in our lives, comparable
to negative emotions in terms of biological and evolutionary importance.
Focus on Research: Living Longer Through Positive Emotions—The Nun Study
The Nun Study conducted by Danner, Snowdon, and Friesen from the University of Kentucky
focused on the relationship between positive emotions and longevity in a sample of 180 nuns.
The study aimed to understand if positive emotions could predict longevity by analyzing
autobiographies written by the nuns in the 1930s and 1940s. Researchers counted the number of
positive-emotion words and sentences in the autobiographies to draw conclusions. The study
highlighted the connection between emotions, temperament, coping mechanisms, and health
outcomes, suggesting that emotional expressiveness could impact longevity.
The study analyzed the emotional lives of women and their relationship to mortality. Positive
emotions early in life were linked to longevity. For every 1% increase in positive emotion
expression, there was a 1.4% decrease in mortality rate. The most cheerful nuns lived around
10.7 years longer than the least cheerful ones. By age 80, 60% of the least cheerful group had
died compared to only 25% of the most cheerful sisters. The probability of survival to an
advanced age was strongly connected to early-life positive emotion expression.
The Nun Study found that sisters with a positive outlook had higher odds of survival to age 90
and beyond compared to less cheerful sisters. The survival odds increased with positivity, with
the most positive sisters having over half the chance of surviving to age 94, while the least
positive sisters had only a 15% chance. This suggests that being positive and happy may
contribute to living longer according to the study's results.
Clinical Psychology:
Clinical psychologists are moving away from solely focusing on treating mental illness towards
also emphasizing prevention and promotion of positive mental health. They aim to define criteria
for mental health that mirror those used for diagnosing mental illness, shifting from a disease
model to a more holistic approach that includes flourishing. This shift involves developing
models that identify the personal characteristics and lifestyle associated with positive mental
health.
Developmental Psychology:
Developmental psychologists have traditionally focused on studying conditions that pose risks to
healthy development, initially assuming that children facing adversity would be at a heightened
risk for deficits. However, a shift occurred in the 1970s when attention was drawn to the
resilience displayed by individuals facing significant life challenges. This resilience, along with
the concept of posttraumatic growth, highlights the positive psychology emphasis on human
strengths and coping abilities.
Survey Research and Subjective Well-Being
Public opinion polling has been a valuable research tool for social psychologists and sociologists,
evolving from national surveys on opinions to include quality-of-life measures like subjective
well-being (SWB) studied by Ed Diener. SWB measures life satisfaction and emotional
experiences, with studies showing that material success like money has a weak link to happiness.
Despite dreams of winning the lottery, studies indicate that money does not significantly impact
long-term happiness.
Social/Personality Psychology and the Psychology of Religion
Social psychologists emphasize the importance of satisfying social relationships for health and
happiness. They highlight cultural differences in concepts of well-being and happiness,
cautioning against the negative effects of materialism on life satisfaction. Personality
psychologists focus on identifying positive traits and personal strengths. Overall, the text
discusses the impact of social relationships, cultural influences, materialism, and positive traits
on happiness and well-being.
Social psychologists emphasize the importance of satisfying social relationships and support for
health and happiness. They highlight cultural differences in concepts of well-being and
happiness, cautioning against the negative effects of materialism. Personality psychologists focus
on positive traits like optimism and self-esteem, as well as the role of religion and morality in
well-being. Virtues such as forgiveness and gratitude are shown to enhance life satisfaction for
both givers and recipients.

UNIT-4
Gratitude
Gratitude belongs to the virtue category of Transcendence. Transcendence is the act of rising
above something to a superior state. The character strengths listed under this category are those
that help us to connect to the larger universe and provide meaning to our lives.
Gratitude includes a sense of appreciation towards someone or something, a sense of beneficence
towards the other, and a motivation to act kindly towards the other (Fitzgerald, 1998). Simply
put, gratitude is a sense of thankfulness in response to something received which can be tangible,
e.g., a birthday card made by your little niece; or intangible, e.g., cool evening rain after a
blazing summer day. In both cases, one experiences a sense of grace, of being blessed by the
kindness of a human being, object or event. The experience of gratitude generates several
positive emotions. We may feel humbled or inspired to be more kind ourselves. Gratitude fosters
kindness and love, and therefore contributes to deeper interpersonal connections.
Personal gratitude refers to thankfulness that one feels and expresses towards an individual for
the psychological or instrumental help they have provided.
Transpersonal gratitude transcends the person. It refers to thankfulness that one feels and
expresses towards a higher power, God or life.
Trait gratitude is what we refer to as the character strength of gratitude. It involves a stable, long
term, sustained attitude and daily practice of gratitude.
State gratitude refers to the momentary feelings of gratitude that an individual experiences in
response to specific situations.
Gratitude is valued across cultures and religions. An example is the tradition of Thanksgiving
celebrated in countries across the world! In India, various regional festivals celebrate gratitude,
e.g., pongal (the harvest festival of Tamil nadu) is the Tamil equivalent of Thanksgiving.
Gratitude and Well-being Psychological benefits of practicing gratitude have been observed in
the following ways:
• greater optimism
• greater religiousness and spirituality
• strengthening of interpersonal relationships
• improved self-regulation
• enhanced happiness and well-being
• better physical and mental health
Gratitude was found positively correlated with well-being and negatively correlated with
psychological distress in University students (Mason, 2019). Tan et al. (2021) reported the
significance of gratitude practice in alleviating psychological pain and suffering associated with
physical diseases as well. Gratitude interventions have also shown an increase in sport
satisfaction and decrease in athlete burnout in college-level student athletes (Gabana et al.,
2019). Some of the gratitude interventions include (i) ‘gratitude visit’ (writing and delivering a
letter to someone who had helped you significantly at some point in your life), and (ii) making a
list of ‘three good things’ in your life every day for a week. Overall, an attitude of gratitude has
significant benefits in terms of individual, interpersonal and social well-being.
Kindness
Kindness is a character strength under the virtue category of Humanity. Strengths of humanity
include positive traits that are manifested in the form of caring one-to-one relationships with
others. Kindness means being nice to others - showing compassion and care, being concerned
about their well-being and performing good deeds for them. This care, affection and attention
directed towards the other is for their own sake as human beings, not out of a sense of duty or
principle. Acts of kindness could be big (e.g., donating blood in the hospital) or small (holding
the door open for the person entering behind you). These could also be directed towards a
stranger (e.g., offering your seat to an elderly person while riding on a bus) or be performed
within the context of deeper interpersonal relationships (e.g., taking care of an ailing parent).
Kindness involves giving your time, energy, money to support others. Kindness, generosity,
nurturance, care, compassion and altruistic love describe a type of other-orientation; an
orientation where you give attention and affection to the other for their own sake and not because
they serve some purpose for you. Thus, acts of true kindness are not performed with an
expectation of a favour being returned, even though reciprocity may be one of the outcomes. In
that sense, such loving compassion is unconditional, much like the ‘unconditional positive
regard’ Carl Rogers spoke about.
Compassion and Altruism
Compassion, experienced as loving kindness, involves taking action to reduce the other’s
suffering. You feel a tenderness towards the pain of the other and do something to provide relief.
This relief could be instrumental (e.g., feeding/ clothing a homeless person) or emotional (e.g.,
being there for another person in their time of grief). In Hindu traditions, compassion is called
daya and is one of the three central virtues along with charity and self-control. In the Buddhist
tradition, compassion is understood as karuna. It is at the heart of the Buddha’s teachings.
Altruism is understood as selflessness. Truly altruistic acts that go beyond generosity towards our
kith and kin, or an expectation of reciprocity can help us to evolve spiritually. True selflessness
removes the egoistic boundaries between ‘me and them’ and sees all humanity as one.
Kindness and Well-Being
Studies have shown that kindness, compassion, generosity, and altruism have significant impact
on well-being. Symeonidou et al. (2019) studied the effects of a kindness intervention on
subjective well-being. Adult participants were divided into two groups. The experimental group
was asked to record their kind actions daily for 7 days along with their feelings and thoughts
associated with those actions. Participants in the control group were asked to write their daily
routine also every day for a week. All participants were also asked to complete a subjective well-
being measure pre-, post- and 2-months after the intervention. Results showed that subjective
well-being was significantly enhanced for participants who received the kindness intervention.
An example of kindness in action is volunteerism. Volunteering for social causes not only
benefits the cause/beneficiary but also has implications on the wellbeing of the benefactor. It
enhances the psychological, emotional, and social well-being of volunteers (Balashov et al.,
2018). Volunteering enhances our connections with others, gives a sense of mastery, boosts self-
esteem, and adds meaning and purpose to our life.