Tribhuvan University

Tri-chandra Multiple College

Ghantaghar, Kathmandu

An assignment (term paper) of Contemporary Theories and Trends

Submitted by : Submitted by:

Ms. Prabina Karki Respected Sir

Roll no. : 13 Mr. Prabin Shrestha

2nd Semester Lecturer

M.A. in Psychology M.A. in Psychology

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 History of Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology is a framework for understanding happiness in everyday life. Maslow, in his

foundational textbook Motivation and Personality, recognized a disparity between the clinical

psychology focused on mental illness and a pragmatic approach to helping individuals create full

and healthy lives. Over 50 years later, psychologists are using powerful data collection and

artificial intelligence to study the factors leading to fulfillment, and the application of their research

affects the way we understand leadership, marketing, and inspiration.

Pre-Modern Cognitive Psychology

Although Maslow coined the term, the history of positive psychology has roots tracing back to

1908, in an address to the American Psychological Association where William James challenged

his peers to question why some people live fully engaged lives and others don’t. Even earlier,

philosophers in Ancient Greece such as Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato contemplated what it meant

to live a virtuous life, and how a person could hope to achieve fulfillment.

Modern psychology left the realm of thought experiment and entered scientific study in the late

19th century, when a link was firmly established between local regions of the brain and specific

motor skills and behavior. Wilhelm Wundt, one of the earliest psychologists, published the

groundbreaking Principles of Physiological Psychology in 1874. In less than three decades,

psychology as a research science flourished, and theories such as operant and classical

conditioning shaped the behaviorist paradigm of the early 20th century.

Modern Behavior

Behaviorism as a systematic approach was built on physiology and the premise that all behaviors

are reflexes learned in response to stimuli or previous experiences. Pavlov published his

foundational work on classical conditioning, and psychologists closely studied the development of

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infants to determine factors that influence sensorimotor skills, language and cognitive function,

and emotional stability as adults. Psychologists B. F. Skinner and Carl Jung were both modern

behaviorists, and their work deeply shapes the way we perceive and discuss personality, self-

development, and habit formation.

It wasn’t until 1998 that positive psychology became a scientific area of study. Now considered

the founding father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman’s presidential address to the APA

clearly drew a line between the disease model of early psychologists and the positive model we

understand today. For years, psychologists had further studied the human psyche and classified

groups of behaviors and attitudes into illnesses, diseases, or disorders.

Post-Modern Positive Psychology

Positive psychology shifted the focus to “what works” instead of “what’s broken.” Christopher

Peterson, a co-author with Seligman and professor at the University of Michigan, theorized that

contentment with the past, happiness in the present, and optimism for the future are defining pillars

of positive psychology. Donald Clifton further dedicated research to strengths-focused

assessments that changed the way we understand career fulfillment and employee engagement.

Today, positive psychology is applied by professionals in a variety of fields. Organizations use

positive psychology to study employee engagement, retain key talent, improve job satisfaction,

and match individuals to their most effective roles within their companies. Key research gives

insight when providing constructive feedback or creating mental and physical wellness programs

within the workplace. Positive psychology plays a crucial role in nearly every department, and

empowers leaders to motivate employees with a better understanding of happiness. (Sandor, 2017)

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Introduction

Positive psychology is the study of the "good life", or the positive aspects of the human experience

that make life worth living. As an art, it focuses on both individual and societal well-being. Positive

psychology began as a domain of psychology in 1998 when Martin Seligman chose it as the theme

for his term as president of the American Psychological Association. It is a reaction against

psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which have focused on "mental illness", meanwhile emphasizing

maladaptive behavior and negative thinking. It builds further on the humanistic movement, which

encouraged an emphasis on happiness, well-being, and positivity, thus creating the foundation for

what is now known as positive psychology. (Wikipedia, n.d.)

Definition

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).

To push this brief description a bit further, positive psychology is a scientific approach to studying

human thoughts, feelings, and behavior, with a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses, building

the good in life instead of repairing the bad, and taking the lives of average people up to “great”

instead of focusing solely on moving those who are struggling up to “normal” (Peterson, 2008).

(Ackerman, 2020)

Antecedent Influences

Humanistic psychology is a perspective that emphasizes looking at the whole individual

and stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficacy, and self-actualization. Rather than

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concentrating on dysfunction, humanistic psychology strives to help people fulfill their potential

and maximize their well-being. (Cherry, 2019)

Behaviorism refers to a psychological approach which emphasizes scientific and objective

methods of investigation. The approach is only concerned with observable stimulus-response

behaviors, and states all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment. (McLeod,

2017)

Contributors

Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman is not called the “father of positive psychology” for no reason. To many, he is

one of the leading researchers in the whole field of psychology.

Born on August 12, 1942, in New York, Seligman is now a lead educator, researcher, and author

of several bestselling books that make positive psychology accessible to everyone interested.

He served as the director of the clinical training program of the University of Pennsylvania for 14

years. His work revolves around the topics of learned helplessness, positive psychology,

depression, resilience, optimism, and pessimism.

“The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe that bad events will last a

long time, will undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. The optimists, who are

confronted with the same hard knocks of this world, think about misfortune in the opposite way.

They tend to believe that defeat is just a temporary setback or a challenge, that its causes are just

confined to this one case.” – Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism, 1991.

Today Seligman is the Zellerbach family professor of psychology and the director of the positive

psychology center at the University of Pennsylvania. (Pennock, 2019)

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In 1996, Dr. Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association, by the

largest vote in modern history. His primary aim as APA President was to join practice and science

together so both might flourish - a goal that has dominated his own life as a psychologist. His

major initiatives concerned the prevention of ethnopolitical warfare and the study of Positive

Psychology. Since 2000 his main mission has been the promotion of the field of Positive

Psychology. He received his A.B. from Princeton University, Summa Cum Laude (Philosophy),

1964; Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (Psychology), 1967; Ph.D., Honoris causa,

Uppsala University, Sweden, 1989; Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris causa, Massachusetts

College of Professional Psychology, 1997; Ph.D., Honoris causa, Complutense University, Spain,

2003; and Ph.D., Honoris causa, University of East London, 2006. He is expanding Positive

Psychology to education, health, and neuroscience, and has applied his research to groups. His

goal is to make the world happier.

Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman is the Director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and Zellerbach

Family Professor of Psychology in the Penn Department of Psychology. He is also Director of the

Penn Master of Applied Positive Psychology program (MAPP). He was President of the American

Psychological Association in 1998, during which one of his presidential initiatives was the

promotion of Positive Psychology as a field of scientific study. He is a leading authority in the

fields of Positive Psychology, resilience, learned helplessness, depression, optimism and

pessimism. He is also a recognized authority on interventions that prevent depression, and build

strengths and well-being. He has written more than 350 scholarly publications and 30 books.

Dr. Seligman's books have been translated into more than 50 languages and have been best sellers

both in America and abroad. Among his better-known works are The Hope Circuit (Public Affairs,

2018), Flourish (Free Press, 2011), Authentic Happiness (Free Press, 2002), Learned Optimism

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(Knopf, 1991), What You Can Change & What You Can't (Knopf, 1993), The Optimistic Child

(Houghton Mifflin, 1995), Helplessness (Freeman, 1975, 1993) and Abnormal Psychology

(Norton, 1982, 1988, 1995, with David Rosenhan). His book Character Strengths and Virtues: A

Handbook and Classification, was co-authored with Christopher Peterson (Oxford, 2004). His

work has been featured on the front page of the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News

and World Report, the Reader's Digest, Redbook, Parents, Fortune, Family Circle, USA Today

and many other popular magazines. He has been a spokesman for the science and practice of

psychology on numerous television and radio shows. He has written columns on such far-flung

topics as education, violence, happiness, and therapy. He has lectured around the world to

educators, industry, parents, and mental health professionals.

Dr. Seligman is the recipient of various awards, including the American Psychological

Association (APA) Award for Lifetime Contributions to Psychology (2017), the Tang Award for

Lifetime Achievement in Psychology (2014), the APA Award for Distinguished Scientific

Contribution (2006), the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for Research in

Psychopathology (1997), and the Distinguished Contribution Award for Basic Research with

Applied Relevance from the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology (1992).

He also received two awards from the American Psychological Society - the James McKeen

Cattell Fellow Award for Applications of Psychological Knowledge (1995) and the William James

Fellow Award for Contributions to Basic Science (1991).

Dr. Seligman's research and writing has been broadly supported by a number of institutions

including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Aging, the National

Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the

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MacArthur Foundation. His research on preventing depression received the MERIT Award of the

National Institute of Mental Health in 1991.

For 14 years, Dr. Seligman was the Director of the Clinical Training Program of the University of

Pennsylvania’s Department of Psychology. He was named a "Distinguished Practitioner" by the

National Academies of Practice, and in 1995 received the Pennsylvania Psychological

Association's award for “Distinguished Contributions to Science and Practice." He is a past-

president of the Division of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

(POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY CENTER, 2020)

C.R. Snyder

Charles Richard "Rick" Snyder (1944–2006) was an American psychologist who specialized in

positive psychology. He was a Wright Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology at the

University of Kansas and editor of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. Snyder was

internationally known for his work at the interface of clinical, social, personality and health

psychology. His theories pertained to how people react to personal feedback, the human need for

uniqueness, the ubiquitous drive to excuse transgressions and, most recently, the hope motive.

(wikipedia, n.d.)

C. R. Snyder, Ph.D. (deceased) was the Wright Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology at

the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Internationally known for his work at the interface of clinical,

social, personality, and health psychology, his theories have pertained to how people react to

personal feedback, the human need for uniqueness, the ubiquitous drive to excuse transgressions

and, most recently, the hope motive. He received 31 research awards and 27 teaching awards at

the university, state, and national levels. In 2005, he received an honorary doctorate from Indiana

Wesleyan University. Snyder has appeared many times on national American television shows,

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and he has been a regular contributor to National Public Radio. His scholarly work on the human

need for uniqueness received the rare recognition of being the subject matter of an entire Sunday

cartoon sequence by Gary Trudeau. All of these accomplishments were packaged in a graying and

self-effacing absent-minded professor who says of himself, “If you don’t laugh at yourself, you

have missed the biggest joke of all!”. (Snyder, Lopez, & Pedrotti, 2010)

Chris Peterson

Christopher was one of the giants of positive psychology and did pioneering work in the field. He

produced two prodigious books that helped to establish the approach. These are A Primer In

Positive Psychology and, together with Martin Seligman, Character Virtues and Strengths. He

wrote an ongoing blog for Psychology Today. This was called The Good Life: Positive psychology

and what makes life worth living.

He received awards for outstanding teaching. One of these was The Golden Apple Award, voted

for by students at The University of Michigan, where he was the Professor of Psychology and

Organizational Studies.

“Peterson offers his readers a marvelous blend of lucidity, originality, humor, kindness and

scholarship. This is a book that should entice many thousands of readers into a lifetime of interest

in psychology.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of Flow, wrote:

“Chris Peterson, one of the founding fathers of Positive Psychology, has written a wonderfully

engaging and deeply stimulating introduction to this swiftly growing field. Intellectual history is

interwoven with data, research findings with backstage gossip, to produce a delightful classic.”

The book takes readers on a remarkable journey through Positive Psychology. Featuring a

comprehensive Who’s Who of people in the field, the chapter titles include:

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Happiness.

Character Strengths

Values.

Interests, Abilities and Accomplishments.

Wellness.

Enabling Institutions.

The Future of Positive Psychology.

This book stands alongside another volume as one of the key foundations for Positive Psychology.

This second book is Character Strengths and Virtues. Chris wrote this with Martin Seligman and

a group of distinguished collaborators.

Positive Psychology is the scientific study of human beings at their best. This includes exploring

the field of human virtues. These are the qualities of moral excellence that are admired across

different philosophies, religions and cultures.

There are obviously many views on how people should live a good life. Chris, Martin and their

colleagues collected data on both the philosophical guidelines and practical examples of moral

excellence in different cultures.

After extensive research, the team settled on six key virtues, though these are obviously

interlinked. Each virtue included several key strengths. Here is an overview of these qualities.

The 6 virtues and the 24 character strength are :

I. Wisdom and Knowledge

Creativity

Curiosity

Open-mindness

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 Love of learning

Perspective

II. Courage

Bravery

Persistence

Integrity

Vitality

III. Humanity

Love

Kindness

Social intelligence

IV. Justice

Citizenship

Fairness

Leadership

V. Temperance

Forgiveness and mercy

Humility

Prudence

Self-control

VI. Transcendence

Appreciative of Beauty and excellence

Gratitude

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 Hope

Humour

Spirituality (Mike, n.d.)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is Claremont Graduate University’s Distinguished Professor of

Psychology and Management. He is also the founder and co-director of the Quality of Life

Research Center (QLRC). The QLRC is a nonprofit research institute that studies positive

psychology, the study of human strengths such as optimism, creativity, intrinsic motivation, and

responsibility.

Csikszentmihalyi received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Since receiving

his doctorate, he has served as the head of the Department of Psychology at the University of

Chicago and of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lake Forest College.

Csikszentmihalyi is known for his research on the experience of flow, a psychological concept

he introduced in his best-selling book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Harper

Perennial, 1990). The book has received much praise and attention, being described by the Library

Journal as “…an intriguing look at the age-old problem of the pursuit of happiness and how,

through conscious effort, we may more easily attain it.” Though published in the early 1990s, Flow

has continued to draw attention from both researchers and the general public and has been

translated into more than 20 languages. Since then, Csikszentmihalyi has written numerous books

and articles on managing flow. In 2004, Csikszentmihalyi delivered a TEDTalk titled “Flow, the

Secret to Happiness,” which has more than 3.5 million views.

He has been the principal investigator on eight grants in the last 10 years, receiving funding from

the Public Health Service, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Getty Trust, the Sloan Foundation, the

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W.T. Grant Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation, for a total of over

$10 million. He is a member of the American Academy of Education, the American Academy of

Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Studies. (SCHOOL OF SOCIAL

SCIENCE, POLICY & EVALUATION, n.d.)

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 References
(n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology

Ackerman, C. E. (2020, February 11). Positive Psychology.com. Retrieved from

https://positivepsychology.com/what-is-positive-psychology-definition/

Cherry, K. (2019, june 5). verywellmind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-

humanistic-psychology-2795242

McLeod, S. (2017). Behaviorist Approach. Simply Psychology. Retrieved from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html

Mike. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.thepositiveencourager.global/christopher-petersons-work-on-

positive-psychology-with-videos/

Pennock, S. F. (2019, November 20). Positive Psychology.com. Retrieved from

https://positivepsychology.com/who-is-martin-seligman/

POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY CENTER. (2020). Penn Arts & Sciences. Retrieved from

https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/people/martin-ep-seligman

Sandor, R. (2017, July 25). Science of Story. Retrieved from https://scienceofstory.org/history-positive-

psychology/

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, POLICY & EVALUATION. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.cgu.edu/people/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi/

Snyder, C. R., Lopez, S. J., & Pedrotti, J. T. (2010). Positive Psychology. SAGE Publications. Retrieved

fromhttps://books.google.com.np/books/about/Positive_Psychology.html?id=T3aW7gWMgpQC

&redir_esc=y

wikipedia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R._Snyder

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