What is positive psychology?
Positive psychology is all about exploring the bright side of human nature. Instead of dwelling on our flaws and problems, it focuses on our strengths and virtues. This field gained recognition when Martin Seligman highlighted the need to balance the study of psychology, shifting away from excessive attention to human suffering and weaknesses.
From an evolutionary perspective, we tend to pay more attention to negative events because they could be threats to our survival. The assumption that life will generally be okay gets violated. Think of it as our built-in alarm system.
Sigmund Freud’s theories often dug into the darker motives behind our actions, suggesting that even seemingly good deeds might have self-serving roots. The negative nature of human behavior even emerged in the infamous Milgram experiment, where people followed harmful orders under authority figures.
Positive psychology aims to change this narrative. Seligman wants to move beyond merely treating mental illness and understand what makes people mentally healthy. Mental health isn’t just the absence of mental illness.
Positive psychology has found its way into various branches of psychology:
Developmental psychology looks at resilience and post-traumatic growth, where some people thrive despite difficult childhoods.
Clinical psychology, once focused solely on treating mental illness, now also promotes positive mental health.
Health psychology explores how positive emotions can improve physical health by countering the negative effects of stress and other harmful emotions.
Personality psychology emphasizes traits like optimism, self-esteem, and pursuing meaningful goals as the building blocks of happiness.
Happiness, according to Seligman, consists of a pleasant life, an engaged life, and a meaningful life. Research even suggests that positive emotions can lengthen our lives.
In a nutshell, while it’s crucial to address the negatives in life, there’s immense value in understanding the physical and emotional benefits of positivity. It’s the interplay between our inner qualities and external circumstances that determines why some people are happier than others.