UNIT 1

Traditional Psychology

Introduction

 Before World War II, psychology had three distinct missions:

o curing mental illness

o making the lives of all people more productive and fulfilling

o identifying and nurturing high talent.

 Right after the war, two events—both economic—changed the face of psychology.

o In 1946, the Veterans Administration was founded, and thousands of psychologists found out that they

could make a living treating mental illness

o In 1947, the National Institute of Mental Health was founded, and academics found out that they could

get grants if their research was described as being about pathology.

 This arrangement brought many substantial benefits. There have been huge strides in the understanding of and

therapy for mental illness.

Focus on Negatives

 Generally, in human behaviour the “bad is stronger than the good”.

 Part of the reason for the power of the negative is that we seem to assume that life is generally going to be good,

or at least ok.

 This assumption may reflect our everyday experience, in which good or neutral events are more frequent than

bad ones.

 As a result, negative events and information stand out in distinct contrast to our general expectations.

 Research supports this idea that because positive events are more common in our experience, negative ones

violate our expectations and are consequently given more attention.

 Aversive events and negative behaviours may represent threats to our survival, therefore justifying, in an

evolutionary survival sense, greater attention and impact.

 Another reason for psychology’s focus on the negative may be that psychologists are simply human, studying

what attracts the greatest attention and what has the greatest impact on human behaviour.
The Disease Model

 Martin Seligman argues that the dominance of the disease model within psychology has focused the field on

treating illness and away from building strengths.

 The disease model has produced many successes in treating psychopathology.

 Based on the disease model, psychology has built an extensive understanding of mental illness and a language

to describe the various pathologies that affect millions of people.

 Eliminating illness does not ensure a healthy, thriving, and competent individual.

 This fact points out that another contributor to psychology’s focus on the negative has been the well-intentioned

desire to reduce human misery, guided by the disease model.

Toward the Positive Psychology Movement

 Psychology came to see itself as a mere subfield of the health professions, and it became a victimology.

 We saw human beings as passive foci:

o Stimuli came on and elicited responses (what an extraordinarily passive word).

o External reinforcements weakened or strengthened responses, or drives, tissue needs, or instincts.

 Conflicts from childhood pushed each of us around.

 Psychology’s empirical focus then shifted to assessing and curing individual suffering.

 There has been an explosion in research on psychological disorders and the negative effects of environmental

stressors such as parental divorce, death, and physical and sexual abuse.

 Practitioners went about treating mental illness within the disease-patient framework of repairing damage:

damaged habits, damaged drives, damaged childhood, and damaged brains.

 The message of the positive psychology movement is to remind our field that it has been deformed.

 Psychology is not just the study of disease, weakness, and damage; it also is the study of strength and virtue.

 Treatment is not just fixing what is wrong; it also is building what is right.
 About the Development of Positive Psychology

Introduction

 Psychology after World War II became a science largely devoted to healing.

 It concentrated on repairing damage using a disease model of human functioning.

 The aim of positive psychology is to catalyse a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing

the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life.

 To redress the previous imbalance, we must bring the building of strength to the forefront in the treatment and

prevention of mental illness.

 The field of positive psychology at the subjective level is about positive subjective experience:

o well-being and satisfaction (past)

o flow, joy, the sensual pleasures, and happiness (present)

o optimism, hope, and faith (future)

 At the individual level it is about positive personal traits—the capacity for love and vocation, courage,

interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, high talent,

and wisdom.

 At the group level it is about the civic virtues and the institutions that move individuals toward better citizenship:

responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic.

Martin Seligman

 Martin Seligman may have been the first contemporary psychologist to call this new perspective “positive

psychology.”

 In his 1998 presidential address to the American Psychological Association, Seligman made a plea for a major

shift in psychology’s focus from studying and trying to undo the worst in human behaviour to studying and

promoting the best in human behaviour.

 Seligman’s hope was that positive psychology would help expand the scope of psychology beyond the disease

model to promote the study and understanding of healthy human functioning.

Other Researchers Contributing to the Development of Positive Psychology

 Terman’s (1939) – studied gifted children and determinants of happiness in marriage

 George Gallup (1920) – origins of research on subjective well-being

is born with positive inner potentials, and that the driving force in life is to actualize these potentials

Positive Prevention

 In the last decade psychologists have become concerned with prevention, and this was the theme of the 1998

American Psychological Association meeting in San Francisco.

 We have discovered that there are human strengths that act as buffers against mental illness: courage, future-

mindedness, optimism, interpersonal skill, faith, work ethic, hope, honesty, perseverance, the capacity for flow

and insight.

 Disputing

o The skill of disputing is used at the heart of learned optimism.

o The amplification of this skill is based on the principle that all individuals possess it but usually

deploy it in the wrong place.

o So, in learned optimism training programs, we teach both children and adults to recognize their own

catastrophic thinking and to become skilled disputers.

o This training works, and once you learn it, it is a skill that is self-reinforcing.

o It has been shown that learning optimism prevents depression and anxiety in children and adults,

roughly halving

their incidence over the next 2 years.

 The Nikki Principle

o The Nikki principle holds that by identifying, amplifying, and concentrating on these strengths in people

at risk, we will do effective prevention.

Positive Therapy

 There are three serious anomalies on which present specificity theories of the effectiveness of psychotherapy

stub their toes.

o Effectiveness studies as opposed to laboratory efficacy studies of psychotherapy, show a substantially

larger benefit of psychotherapy.

o When one active treatment is compared with another active treatment, specificity tends to disappear or

becomes quite a small effect.

o Add the seriously large placebo effect found in almost all studies of psychotherapy and of drugs.
 Introduction to Positive Psychology

Definition

 Martin Seligman’s call for a positive psychology was aimed at refocusing the entire field of psychology.

 Positive psychology has been described in many ways and with many words, but the commonly accepted

definition of the field is this: Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living

(Peterson, 2008).

 Positive psychology focuses on the positive events and influences in life, including:

o Positive experiences (like happiness, joy, inspiration, and love).

o Positive states and traits (like gratitude, resilience, and compassion).

o Positive institutions (applying positive principles within entire organizations and institutions).

 Positive psychology is the scientific study of the personal qualities, life choices, life circumstances, and

sociocultural conditions that promote a life well-lived, defined by criteria of happiness, physical and mental

health, meaningfulness, and virtue.

Goals of Positive Psychology

 To positively impact the client’s life—this goal is above all others, and all others feed indirectly into this goal.

 The main goal of coaching is to improve the client’s life.

 Positive psychology coaching is no different.

o Increase the client’s experience of positive emotions.

o Help clients identify and develop their strengths and unique talents.

o Enhance the client’s goal-setting and goal-striving abilities.

o Build a sense of hope into the client’s perspective.

o Cultivate the client’s sense of happiness and wellbeing.

o Nurture a sense of gratitude in the client.

o Help the client build and maintain healthy, positive relationships with others.

o Encourage the client to maintain an optimistic outlook.

o Help the client learn to savour every positive moment

Pillars of Positive Psychology

 Positive psychology is built on the study of –

o positive individual characteristics (such as personal strengths and human virtues that promote mental

health)

o positive social institutions and communities that contribute to individual health and happiness

Themes in Positive Psychology

 Happiness as a central focus of positive psychology can be broken down into three components:

o the pleasant life

o the engaged life

o the meaningful life

 The Pleasant Life

o It reflects the emphasis in positive psychology on understanding the determinants of happiness as a

desired state— what some people might call the good life.

 The Engaged Life

o The engaged life is an aspect of happiness focused on active involvement in activities (e.g., work and

leisure) and relationships with others that express our talents and strengths and that give meaning and

purpose to our lives.

o Such involvements promote a zestful and healthy life.

 The Meaningful Life

o A meaningful life is an aspect of happiness that derives from going beyond our own self-interests and

preoccupations.

o This is a deeper and more enduring aspect of happiness that stems from giving to, and being involved

in, something larger than your self—what Seligman and his colleagues (2006) call positive institutions.
 Western Perspectives in Positive Psychology

Hope as Part of Greek Mythology

 The classic Greek myth of Pandora's box is a story about the origin of hope.

 There are two versions of the story

o In the first one, hope is a cruel hoax

o In the second one, hope is an antidote

Religious Hope in Western Civilization

 The history of Western civilization parallels the histories of Judaism and Christianity.

 This is why the phrase Judeo-Christian heritage often is linked to Western civilization.

 These timelines highlight significant happenings in the history of religion: the opening of Notre Dame

Cathedral, the building of the west facade of Chartres Cathedral, and the publishing of St. Thomas Aquinas's

Summa Theologica.

 Hope in religion, impressive human endeavours can result from a hopeful disposition.

 In each case, an active verb is connected to a noun that refers to an outcome-an achievement.

 From the years of the Middle Ages (500-1500), such paralysis precluded the purposeful, sustained planning and

action required by a hopeful, advancing society.

 The fires of advancement were reduced to embers during this dark millennium and kept glowing only by a few

institutions such as the monasteries and their schools.

 Eventually, as the Dark Ages were ended by of the brightness of the Renaissance and its economic growth and

prosperity, hope was seen as more relevant to present life on Earth than to the afterlife.

 Therefore, the religious hope that focused on a distant future, after life on Earth, became somewhat less

important as the Renaissance emerged.

Revision of the History of Hope in Western Civilization

 The positive beliefs and hope of Western civilization solidified after the Renaissance.

 Beginning in Italy around 1450 and extending to approximately 1600, the Renaissance produced changes in the

customs and institutions that had dominated Europe for the previous millennium.

 During this period, people also began to view themselves as individuals rather than as representatives of a class.
 Moreover, this emerging interest in the merits of personal achievement led to a focus on doing things related to

this life.

 The period following the Renaissance, from approximately 1700 to the late 1700s, is known as the Age of

Enlightenment.

 This era marked the emergence from an immaturity characterized by unwillingness to use one's own knowledge

and intelligence.

 The Enlightenment reflected the nature of hope because of its emphases on rational agencies and rational

abilities.

 These qualities were interwoven in the dominant belief of the age, that reason brought to life with the scientific

method led to the achievements in science and philosophy.

 The Industrial Revolution reflected a turning point in the progress of humankind because it provided so many

material and personal benefits.

 Perhaps even more important, the Industrial Revolution created amenities that most citizens could obtain and

enjoy.
 Eastern Perspectives in Positive Psychology

Confucianism

 Confucius, or the Sage, as he is sometimes called, held that leadership and education are central to morality.

 The attainment of virtue is at the core of Confucian teachings.

 The five virtues deemed central to living a moral existence are –

o jen (humanity, the virtue most exalted by Confucius)

o yi (duty)

o Ii (etiquette)

o zhi (wisdom)

o xin (truthfulness)

 The power of jen stems from the fact that it was said to encapsulate the other four virtues.

 The concept of yi describes appropriate treatment of others and can be defined as the duty to treat others well.

 The concept of Ii promotes propriety and good manners along with sensitivity for others' feelings.

 Finally, the ideas of zhi and xin define the importance of wisdom and truthfulness, respectively.

Taoism

 Lao-Tzu (the creator of the Taoist tradition) states in his works that his followers must live according to the Tao.

 According to Taoist traditions, the \difficulty in understanding the Way stems from the fact that one cannot teach

another about it.

 Instead, understanding flows from experiencing the Way for oneself by fully participating in life.

 In this process, both good and bad experiences can contribute to a greater understanding of the Way.

Buddhism

 Buddhism gives an important place to virtue, which is described in several catalogues of personal qualities.

 Buddhists speak of the Brahma Viharas, virtues that are above all others in importance. These virtues include –

o love (maitri)

o compassion (karuna)

o joy (mudita)

o equanimity (upeksa)
Hinduism

 The main teachings of the Hindu tradition emphasize the interconnectedness of all things.

 The idea of a harmonious union among all individuals is woven throughout the teachings of Hinduism that refer

to a single, unifying principle underlying all of Earth.

 The quest of one's life is to attain ultimate self-knowledge and to strive for ultimate self-betterment.

 Good action is also encouraged in the sense that, if one does not reach ultimate self-knowledge in one's life and

thus does have to return to Earth via reincarnation after death, the previous life's good actions correlate directly

with better placement in the world in this life process is known as karma.

 In this next life, then, the individual must again strive for self-betterment, and so on throughout his lives until

the goal of ultimate self-knowledge is attained.

East Meets West

 Value System

o Whereas most Western cultures have individualist perspectives, most Eastern cultures are guided by

collectivist viewpoints.

o In individualist cultures, the main focus is the single person, who is held above the group in terms of

importance.

o Competition and personal achievement are emphasized within these cultures.

o In collectivist cultures, however, the group is valued above the individual, and cooperation is

accentuated.

o Closely related to the interdependence that is prized within collectivist cultures are the concepts of

sharing and duty to the group.

o In addition, value is placed on staying out of conflict and going with the flow within the Eastern ways

of thinking.

 Orientation to Time

o In Western cultures such as the United States, we often look to the future.

o Indeed, some of the strengths we seem to value most e.g., hope, optimism, self-efficacy, reflect future-

oriented thinking.

o In Eastern cultures, however, there is a greater focus on, and respect for, the past.

 Thought Processes
 o Stark differences exist in the very thought processes used by Westerners and Easterners, and this results

in markedly divergent worldviews and approaches to meaning making.

o Researchers have posited that happiness is a state commonly sought by Easterners and Westerners alike.

Different Ways to Positive Outcomes

 Compassion

o The idea of compassion has origins in both Western and Eastern philosophies.

o Within the Western tradition, Aristotle often is noted for early writings on the concept of compassion.

o Likewise, compassion can be traced in the Eastern traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and

Hinduism.

o Possessing compassion helps the person to succeed in life and is viewed as a major strength within the

Eastern tradition.

o Feeling for fellow group members may allow identification with others and development of group

cohesion.

o Furthermore, acting compassionately fosters group, rather than personal, happiness.

o Compassion also may come more naturally to the person from a collectivist culture than to someone

from an individualist culture.

 Harmony

o In Western history, the Greeks are said to have viewed happiness as the ability to exercise powers in

pursuit of excellence in a life free from constraints.

o Thus, the good life was viewed as a life with no ties to duty and the freedom to pursue individual goals.

o There are clear distinctions in comparing this idea of happiness to Confucian teachings, in which duty

(yi) is a primary virtue.

o In Eastern philosophy, happiness is described as having the satisfactions of a plain country life, shared

within a harmonious social network

o In this tradition, harmony is viewed as central to achieving happiness.

o In Buddhist teachings, when people reach a state of nirvana, they have reached a peacefulness entailing

"complete harmony, balance, and equilibrium".