By – Khushee
“The aim of positive psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best quality things in life”.
– Martin Seligman
Positive psychology is a relatively new and evolving branch of psychology that deals with giving individuals a pragmatic view of the science behind happiness. It guides individuals on the route to trace a greater outlook towards life and thus, helps in finding meaning in the purpose of living. Positive psychology is becoming a more commonly used approach to focus on mental issues, with a target to fix problems with an optimistic view. Likewise, making the person realize his potential. The interest in the field has also increased drastically, with people keen to understand not just the basis of surviving but thriving as well.
The origin
In order to understand the roots of positive psychology, it’s essential to revisit the history where the advent of mechanistic psychology took place. Although positive psychology expanded as a field in recent years, its roots can be traced back to the post-WWII period.
Pre-WWII psychological wave
Before the second world war erupted, psychology had 3 distinct goals:
- Treating mental illness
- Making life more productive and fulfilling
- Identifying and nurturing talent
Retracing to even earlier years, philosophers like Aristotle and Plato regarded how one should live a virtuous life and fulfil one’s achievements. The Arestotelian model of human nature presents two types of virtues; Virtue of thought and Virtue of character. Virtue of thought takes time and experience and evolves through teaching, while Virtue of character needs habit to develop. The model provides a core root In Gordon Allport’s review of history of social psychology, he claimed “one thing is certain: Platonic and Aristotelian strands of thought are found in all western theory, past and present”.
Post WWII psychological wave
After the second world war culminated, the primary mission of psychology shifted towards treating abnormal behaviour and mental illness. A disease model was adopted, which helped the psychologists to identify and repair psychological damage. The Veterans Administration was founded in 1946 and psychologists had begun practicing counselling with war veterans. Subsequently, the National Institute of Mental Health was established in 1947, where the aim of psychology had been fixed to study mental illnesses.
The resurgence of interest in ‘living’ a good life apart from just surviving came years after the second world war with the humanistic approach, introduced by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Parting ways from the Freudian concepts, Maslow and Rogers were keen to understand the innate drive in human beings and emphasised more on self-actualization and thus, brought a fresh perspective into psychology. The term ‘positive psychology’ was used for the very first time in 1954 by Maslow in his book “Motivation and Personality”.
A generation later, positive psychology had started to evolve as an important field within under Martin Seligman. In 1988, Seligman was elected as the President of the American Psychological Association and chose positive psychology as the central theme for his term. Considered to be the father of positive psychology, he urged psychologists to nurture talents and improve the quality of living in their mission. The focus had now shifted from mental illness to mental health. The first International Conference on Positive Psychology took place and 2009, World Congress on Positive Psychology was conducted.
A fellow colleague and co-author with Seligman, Christopher Peterson wrote (2006), Positive Psychology has a very short history) and a very long past.
Notable pioneers of positive psychology
- Abraham Maslow
First to coin the term positive psychology, Maslow put emphasis on growth and development of a person and introduced the concept of self-actualization. He did not like the fact that psychology catered only to mental disorders and ignored the importance of human potential.
- Carl Rogers
Along with Abraham Maslow, Rogers was one of the founding fathers of humanistic school of psychology. He gave the concept of ideal self and real self and stated that the congruency between the two depended on the status of the person’s positive regard.
- Martin Seligman
Known as the father of positive psychology, Seligman conducted major work related to positive psychology, once elected as the President of American Psychological Association. He presented a positive face to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Later, he developed a theory of wellbeing in which he listed 5 elements of a happy life, PERMA, an acronym for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and purpose, and Accomplishments.
- ED Diener
In 1984, Diener created a model of subjective well-being. According to him, subjective well-being is “based on the idea that how each person thinks and feels about his or her life is important.”
- Albert Bandura
Praised for his work in social cognition and modelling theory, Bandura presented a Self-Efficacy theory which is based on how a person perceives himself of the belief in their ability and performance to reach a goal.
Even though the past might not seem to be vast, positive psychology has gained immense importance over the years. Today, it is applied widely not just to fix mental issues but in the day to day setting of our lives including stress, therapy and in our ways of communication as well.
