POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: What is it, Books, Techniques and Exercises

Since ancient Western philosophy, the analysis of human well-being and the conditions that make it possible has been one of the great questions of humanity. However, it was not until the beginning of the 21st century that psychology began to investigate scientific way the concept of happiness, positive emotions, strengths and capacities of people. If you want to know one of the most recent approaches to psychology, continue reading this article from Psychology-Online: Positive psychology: what is it, books, techniques and exercises.

Index

1. Positive psychology: what is it
2. Positive Psychology: Books
3. Positive psychology: techniques
4. Positive psychology: exercises
5. Positive psychology: phrases

The positive psychology it is a new approach within the discipline of psychology. This consists of a scientific study on positive individual experiences and traits, as well as of the institutions and programs that favor the psychological well-being and quality of life of the people. This formally arises in 1999 from the hand of Martin Seligman, considered the father of this current. However, the interest and reflection on happiness was already present in the past in authors such as Aristotle or Spinoza.

From psychology, other authors such as Maslow or Rogers also formulated theories about human well-being, but in the absence of an empirical and methodological foundation. Despite this, these authors, among others, are considered direct antecedents of Seligman's positive psychology. The father of positive psychology decided to expand the object of study of psychology, including positive emotions and processes, as well as the virtues and strengths of human beings in the development of their potential.

From his perspective, psychology throughout its history had always adopted a point of view focused on disease and the negative aspects of the human psyche. Therefore, he decides to apply a salutogenic and non-pathological approach, as up to now, so the concept of health does not implies only the absence of disease, but the consideration of subjective well-being and the factors that enable. Therefore, Martin Seligman and positive psychology They focus on the analysis and investigation of the bases of human happiness and the aspects that favor personal growth and development based on individual strengths and capacities.

Positive psychology is based on the idea that positive emotions enhance health and prevent disease, in the same way that they stimulate growth and psychological well-being. This is because a optimistic attitude allows the development and optimization of the resources and skills available to the person, as well as increases resilience or the ability to overcome adversity, and coping with various circumstances. Ultimately, positive psychology is well-being and quality of life by promoting, encouraging and maximizing the positive aspects.

Despite being a still young and recent current, this approach has already developed various theories, relevant constructs and instruments for their measurement, as well as has aroused interest from other branches of the psychology. It is for the latter, that the positive psychology applied to other fields is currently a reality:

• The positive psychology at work Its objective is to increase employee satisfaction and improve the organizational climate, which in turn affects their performance and job performance.
• In the areas of the clinical psychology and health, this approach influences the intervention framework through the development of therapeutic techniques and strategies that promote positive experiences and emotions as a form of prevention and approach to pathologies derived from suffering or discomfort psychic.
• Finally, in the educational context from a positive perspective focuses on optimizing different strengths, abilities and specific competencies of students through the development of a pedagogical environment that allows their stimulation and expression. In this way, you increase your self-efficacy, self-esteem and motivation, which in turn maximizes your human potential.

Here is a list of the most representative books of positive psychology:

• Flow: a psychology of happiness (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990)
• Authentic happiness (Martin Seligman, 2002)
• The science of happines (Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2007)
• The Science of Wellness: Foundations of Positive Psychology (Carmelo Vázquez and Gonzalo Hervás, 2009)
• Overcoming adversity: the power of resilience (Luis Rojas Marcos, 2010)
• 59 seconds: think a little, change a lot (Richard Wisheman, 2010)
• The life that flourishes (Martin Seligman, 2011)
• The art of not making life bitter: the keys to psychological change and personal transformation (Rafael Santandreu, 2011)
• Practice happiness (Tal Ben Shahar, 2011)
• Intelligent Optimism: Psychology of Positive Emotions (María Dolores Avia and Carmelo Vázquez, 2014)

To achieve the objective of increasing subjective well-being and the quality of life of people, a series of techniques have been developed and applied from positive psychology:

1. Self reinforcement

Self-reward fosters self-esteem and a positive self-concept. Three pathways for self-reinforcement are distinguished; the first of them are the self praise, the second the small rewards at specific moments and the third consists of making a rewarding activity after doing another one that is not particularly pleasant but we want to increase its frequency.

2. Attribution training

It involves teaching people to properly attribute successes and failures through training in the identification of thoughts, their modification, and internal self-dialogue. For success it is recommended to develop a vision of him as an internal, that is, responsibility of the own person, stable or present most of the time, and global, applicable to all situations. On the other hand, it is convenient to learn perceive failure as unstable, which implies it will not always happen, and specificIt will not happen in all circumstances of our life. In the case of whether the failure is internal or external, it must be discerned in the most objective way possible, but remembering that if it is both our responsibility and the result of chance, this is unstable and specific.

3. Mental rehearsal

It refers to the visualization of the performance of an activity in the way the person wishes to do it, within realistic parameters. For this training a state of relaxation is necessary, that in the imagination projects itself and not to another person, create a visualization as detailed as possible To confer realism, the person should not appear to be making mistakes, but rather successfully performing the task, and the scene should have a normal time rhythm, neither accelerated nor slowed down.

4. Relaxation techniques

Other techniques of positive psychology are relaxation techniques, such as training in Jacobson's progressive relaxation, meditation, yoga, different types of breathing Y mindfulness exercises.

5. Rewarding activities

Make a list of different activities that are enjoyable and have a meaning for the person, then schedule them based on the available schedules. The practice of tasks that are comforting to us make us relax and make stress difficult. It is recommended to change activities from time to time so as not to always do the same, work on creativity and thus take risks and get out of the comfort zone.

6. Use of humor

Sometimes humor becomes a tool used in positive psychology therapy. Fears or problems are ridiculed with the aim of minimizing and de-catastrophizing them so that the person can obtain another perspective of their difficulties and reduce the level of mental tension.

7. Pleasant scenes

Before carrying out a difficult activity or situation, it can help to mentally project pleasant or pleasant images, whether past or future. This technique is beneficial for distracting the mind from negative thoughts and anxiety, achieving a more positive attitude to cope with circumstances.

8. Cards

Another of the techniques of positive psychology are the letters, both thank you and forgiveness letters. The first ones consist of writing to another person what we are grateful for and giving it to them, which will make both people feel good. Letters of forgiveness are based on the idea that the accumulation of resentment and anger slows our personal growth, and that it can also cause harm to both parties involved. For this reason, the expression of how we have come to feel, explicit forgiveness and the reasons for it is recommended.

There are a large number of positive psychology exercises that can be done from home if you want to work on a more positive attitude and the development of your own potential. Some of these are as follows:

1. Strengths Exercise

This exercise in positive psychology consists of thinking and writing down what we think are the qualities that we possess; We can help ourselves from other people, from tables of strengths in which each one of them are described or previously make a list of achievements and successes achieved, to make it easier to identify capacities and competencies.

2. Self-esteem exercise

This task is called a self-esteem tree, so you have to draw a large tree and write:

• Achievements: in the glass those things that are believed to have achieved.
• Name: on the trunk the proper name of the person.
• Qualities: in the roots the characteristics, qualities, strengths or own capacities. This exercise makes it possible to quickly visualize the successes and allows you to add more goals achieved throughout the days.

3. Gratitude exercise

Another positive psychology exercise is practicing gratitude. This can be done by writing a gratitude journal, in which you write three positive things of the day before going to sleep, or through the appreciation of stable elements of our own life that we have not stopped to consider the importance of them, such as friendships for years, family, etc. To do this, we must do an analysis, reflection and review about our life and what factors in it give us positive emotions.

4. Emotional self-awareness exercise

Record of emotions during a week, noting the maximum possible of emotions experienced throughout a day and the situations that originated them. You can also make a description of what was felt. This exercise in positive psychology facilitates emotional attention and identification of them.

5. Appreciation exercise

When we are going to start a project or try to achieve a goal, a good exercise is to draw a path on a cardboard that ends in a goal. Along the way towards the achievement of the objective, it is necessary to include those learnings, new paths or opportunities that have taken place. In this way, a graphic representation that helps to appreciate the road and not just the goal.

6. Regulation exercise

Give up a space on a regular basis, more than once a week, where you can sit quietly for half an hour without distractions or stimuli. In these minutes you have to reflect on what worries you and worries you. Once the time has passed, you have to continue doing other activities normally. This exercise allows you to have a own space for reflection and concern, so when a negative thought assails you throughout the day, you will be able to contain it and postpone it for that half hour of analysis.

7. Acceptance exercise

To carry out this exercise in positive psychology, it is useful to write on a post-it or green sheet those situations that you have managed to accept including at least a couple of strategies or techniques that made this task easier for you. On another post-it or yellow paper write those situations where you have a hard time accepting and they cause you some discomfort or suffering. Next, think about how the strategies of the overcome situations could be applied to those that are not yet, or what aspects of these might carry over to the situations where yellow.

• “Psychology cannot tell people how they should live their lives. However, it can provide meaning for effective personal and social change. ” Albert Bandura.
• “Research has shown that being positive opens our minds and produces that we can see the world differently. When we inject positivity our vision increases, when we inject negativity our vision shrinks. " (Barbara Fredrickson)
• “The good news is that there are a large number of internal circumstances under our voluntary control. If we decide to change (and keep in mind that none of these changes come without real effort), our level of happiness is likely to increase exponentially and lastingly. " (Martin Seligman)
• “Psychology doesn't just focus on unhealthy behaviors. It also helps with education, work, marriage, and even sports. Psychologists work to help people build strengths in all these domains. " Martin Seligman.
• “Flow is the process of achieving happiness through control of the inner life. The optimal state of inner experience is order in consciousness. This happens when we focus our attention (psychic energy) on realistic goals and when our abilities match the challenges we face. " Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
• “Control of consciousness determines the quality of life. " Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

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 Positive psychology: what is it, books, techniques and exercises, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

• Contreras, F., & Esguerra, G. (2006). Positive psychology: a new perspective in psychology. Diversitas, 2(2), 311-319.
• Gallardo, M. T. S. (2017). Applied Positive Psychology Exercise Manual: Simple Exercises to Increase Well-being. Official College of Psychologists of Madrid.
• Park, N., Peterson, C., & Sun, J. K. (2013). Positive psychology: research and applications. Psychological therapy, 31(1), 11-19.