What is positive psychology according to Seligman

Can psychology, in addition to curing people with mental illness, make people happier?

We define positive psychology as a scientific method whose objective is to rigorously study the bases and reasons for psychological and emotional well-being, from the origins of psychology, we have focused on the most negative aspects of the functioning of our mind, leaving aside personal growth and the importance of seeking well-being beyond the absence of problems mental.

Martin Seligman, a renowned psychologist and university professor, has focused much of his life and studies on shedding light on the study of positive psychology. Thanks to him, and to other great psychologists, we can develop our strengths by guiding them towards a more optimistic mentality. If you want to understand deeply what is positive psychology according to SeligmanWe recommend that you continue reading this article on Psychology-Online.

Index

1. Positive psychology: Seligman's definition
2. Happiness according to Seligman
3. Positive psychology techniques and exercises
4. Famous quotes by Martin Seligman

Although he began his research in psychology focused on depression and the theory of helplessness learned, Martin Seligman is known for his successful studies and work in the field of positive psychology.

Even though great minds like Abraham Maslow or Carl rogers They had already expressed the urgency in the development of emotional well-being, the term of positive psychology gained force with the arrival of Seligman's theory. This one talks about happiness as a combination of strengths, these strengths can be defined as the ways or processes through which we become virtuous, for example:

• Resilience
• Optimism
• Courage
• Persistence
• Creativity
• Vitality
• Gratitude
• Self-control
• Wisdom
• Emotional intelligence

We are talking, then, of a radical change in the world of psychology, a revolution focused on seeking support scientist on the path of well-being in all people, without making a distinction between diseases mental. Traditionally, according to Seligman himself "psychology makes unhappy people less unhappy", thus abandoning the possibility of improving the lives of many people who do not have psychopathology. Despite not denying the need to give tools to people who have a mental illness, positive psychology according to Seligman He also wants to offer such tools to all people.

Although it is true that the current conception is focused on the pathological and focuses on correcting faults and imperfections, the Positive psychology emphasizes developing competencies to improve personal well-being and prevent the onset of disease mental.

To understand what positive psychology is according to Seligman, we have to name the three dimensions of happiness or, as he names them, happy lives:

Pleasant life

This kind of life is based on look for all positive emotions that one can have and develop skills to amplify pleasure. To achieve a pleasant life we ​​must have basic needs covered such as food, security, a home... Pleasant life has some drawbacks. For example, we quickly get used to pleasures and that leads us to a continuous search that has little to do with happiness.

Commitment life

When Seligman speaks of commitment, he refers to the responsibilities that arise throughout our lives: the work, friends, partner, children... when these commitments are not a burden, but a joy, we are developing a happy and stable kind of life that projects us towards a greater well-being. When we discover our virtues and strengths and use them to generate affective bonds with our environment, we will have taken a very important step on our path of personal growth.

Positive psychology it is more than the pursuit of pleasure and happiness. There is a recipe for the good life and this is based on amplifying our strengths and, with them, rebuilding and improving all the aspects of our life that we want.

Meaningful life

Finally, it is important to talk about the most socially revered happiness. Meaningful life consists of knowing our strengths and using them to 1) belong to a collective and 2) fight in the service of something greater than ourselves. Therefore, we guide our virtues to help the personal growth of others.

The key to positive psychology is to find the perfect balance between these lives and find the one that best suits the personal needs of each one. However, the good life (life of commitment) is the one that has most been established as true well-being.

Can we achieve more well-being than we currently have?

Next, we will explain four exercises to practice positive psychology In your day to day:

1. Think of a fun day, choose a series of items that you would like to have a really nice day for you. Once you have them in your mind, book a Saturday and plan that day. Give yourself a good experience.
2. Accept that negative events are part of life, but that we have the responsibility to learn from them and thus emerge from a bad experience being stronger and wiser.
3. Think of someone who has helped you overcome a bump in your life, a relevant person who invested his efforts in your happiness. Write him a letter, empty your mind and fill the paper with gratitude. If possible, meet that person and read your letter. This exercise of kindness increases our sense of well-being while providing a good experience for another person.
4. Try to focus your life in another direction, analyze what happens to you from a more positive outlook. Controlling negative thoughts is a very effective tool to prevent possible mental illness. Life is not always going to be something perfect and wonderful, however, we must focus our thoughts on the good events that happen to us every day.

We must bear in mind that positive psychology is not only a theory, there is scientific evidence that supports it. Long-term studies of different psychological interventions have been carried out showing that people who develop their strengths best achieve greater well-being in your life. In addition, the development of positive psychology has also been shown to prevent the onset of many mental illnesses¹.

• Life inflicts the same setbacks and tragedies on the optimist as it does on the pessimist, but the optimist resists them better.
• There are physical characteristics that are inherited, such as appearance or physical coordination. Many psychological characteristics, on the other hand, are learned. Not all of our attributes contribute to success in life, but optimism is one of them, it is also one of the main ones.
• Today's psychology makes unhappy people less unhappy.
• If all we had were positive emotions, our species would have died a long time ago.
• Changing the destructive things we say to ourselves when we experience the normal life setbacks that we all experience is the core skill of optimism.
• I am trying to expand the realm of positive psychology beyond the smiley face. Happiness is only a fifth of what human beings choose to do.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is positive psychology according to Seligman, we recommend that you enter our category of Emotions.

1. Vera Poseck, B. (2006). Positive psychology: a new way of understanding psychology. Roles of the psychologist, 27(1).