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Alyssa Chirumbolo- Positive psychology fact

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Alyssa Chirumbolo- Positive psychology fact

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I personally love spending time outdoors because I love nature, exploring new places, and hiking. I feel a sense of peace and freedom when I am outdoors and I happened to come across a study that supports the idea that people are happier outdoors than they are indoors.

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"Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be," said Abraham Lincoln. As it turns out, the president wasn't too far off from what scientists would themselves conclude a century and a half later. Indeed, in recent years, we've learned that happiness is far more than something which all men have an equal right to pursue. Happiness is a human function. Below are 30 fascinating facts about happiness, according to science.

Doing a good deed triggers a high in the brain.

If you want to be happy, spend time with other happy people.

Sleep contributes greatly to our happiness.

The world's happiest people feel a sense of community.

Your politics could be to blame for your unhappiness.

Happiness keeps the doctor away.

Listening to music can boost your mood.

Want to feel happier? Turn the radio on! According to a 2013 research study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, listening to "happy" (i.e. positive, upbeat) music can effectively boost our moods. A similar study done the same year and published in Science further explained why this is. When we hear a song we especially like, or when we hear a new song and decide we like it, the brain's reward system kicks into gear.

A happy baseball player lives longer.

Fortunately, you don't have to play baseball to enjoy a longer life.

Being happy can lead to better heart health.

Laughter really is the best medicine.

Being outdoors can increase our happiness.

Happy people are more likely to have happy children.

'Stop and smell the roses' is actually really good advice.

Those who are paid by the hour are usually happier.

Marriage makes us happier - well, most of us.

Money isn't everything.

The science behind happiness is full of surprises, and this is one of them. According to a study found in the Journal of Socio-Economics and highlighted in Fast Company magazine, people would overwhelmingly choose to have relationships (either friendships or romances) in lieu of $100,000, if their happiness depended upon their choice.

Dress for the way you want to feel.

Happiness is a natural stress reliever.

Want to be happier? Get off Facebook.

Certain foods incite happy feelings.

Deciding to be happy is a big part of overall happiness.

Petting dogs makes us happy, but is that really so surprising?

Some jobs are happier than others.

Your general happiness is tied to your sex life.

Puberty ruins everything, including happiness.

Hearing another person laugh may trick us into feeling happy.

Carpe diem - you won't regret it.

Disciplining your children is doing them a major favor.

Fake it 'til you make it.

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30 Facts About Happiness, According to Science - Online Psychology Degree Guide

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"Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be," said Abraham Lincoln. As it turns out, the president wasn't too far off from what scientists would themselves conclude a century and a half later. Indeed, in recent years, we've learned that happiness is far more than something which all men [...]

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My definition of positive psychology involves taking care of your body, health, and overall life by partaking in activities and surrounding yourself with those that you not only enjoy but that benefit your life and well-being in some way.

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The fact I am going to talk about is how positive psychology has three levels, the first level being the subjective level, the second is the individual level, the third is is the group level. The subjective level focuses mainly on feelings, the individual level pertains to a combination of the feelings in the subjective level and virtues, and the last level, the group level, is about positive interactions with your community.

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Can Positive Psychology Really Help You Lead a Happy Life?

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Positive psychology is one of the newest branches of psychology to emerge. This particular area of psychology focuses on how to help human beings prosper and lead healthy, happy lives. While many other branches of psychology tend to focus on dysfunction and abnormal behavior, positive psychology is centered on helping people become happier.

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My definition of positive psychology is an important aspect to incorporate into your life to remain positive in the various areas of life that determine weather you are creating as much happiness as possible.

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https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/the-psychology-of-happiness-scientific-facts-for-a-more-positive-life-bcc0dfbb50b1

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Happiness... Elusive, yes. Fleeting, perpetually. Absolute, only at the bottom of a jar of Nutella...
We all spend our entire lives trying to achieve happiness, but it is difficult to define its meaning, fully grasp this ephemeral, intangible, weird thing we all hanker...

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The Psychology of Happiness: Scientific Facts for a More Positive Life

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Happiness... Elusive, yes. Fleeting, perpetually. Absolute, only at the bottom of a jar of Nutella... We all spend our entire lives trying to achieve happiness, but it is difficult to define its meaning, fully grasp this ephemeral, intangible, weird thing we all hanker...

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Postive psychology is being able to find what makes an individual happy in life and to apply that happiness in life so that you live to fullest. This can include experiences or characteristics a person has that make them happy.

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In this study conducted at an elementary school, students who performed kind acts experienced significantly higher increases in peer acceptance. In other words, people who are kind to others are more well-liked. This contributes to their own personal popularity as they help other people.

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Written by joshua becker ·

"People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness."
In An Introduction to Positive Psychology, Dr. William Compton describes positive psychology as seeking "to make normal life more fulfilling." It utilizes the scientific method (hypothesis, prediction, study, research, analysis) to understand the positive and emotionally fulfilling aspects of human behavior. It is the study of what actions, pursuits, and motivations best contribute to the good life.

I enjoy reading positive psychology. The more I discover, the more I am reminded that happiness is rarely found in material possessions or worldly pursuits. Our most fulfilled lives are discovered living for greater causes.

These pursuits are available to us regardless of our heritage, background, or socioeconomic standing. They are freely available to anyone who chooses to dedicate their lives to them.

10 Positive Psychology Studies to Change Your View of Happiness

1. From Wealth to Well-being? | Harvard Business School, 2009. While there does appear to be some correlation between happiness and income when basic needs are not yet met, people tend to overestimate the influence of wealth on happiness by 100%. Money does not lead to nearly as much happiness as people think it will.

2. Buying Experiences, not Possessions, Leads to Greater Happiness | San Francisco State University, 2009. The study demonstrates that experiential purchases, such as a meal out or theater tickets, result in increased greater well-being than material possessions. These experiences tend to satisfy higher order needs, specifically the need for social connectedness and vitality-a feeling of being alive.

3. The Science of Gratitude | University of Pennsylvania, 2005. One of the greatest contributing factors to overall happiness in life is how much gratitude we show. And a noticeable difference can be experienced with as little as three expressions each day ("Thank you for...").

4. Trust, Morality, and Oxytocin . Claremont Graduate University, 2011. Based on research findings, psychologists believe humanity's trust, empathy, and morality increase as their levels of oxytocin increase. Neuroeconomist Paul Zak explains the simple act of eight hugs a day can increase internal oxytocin levels and result in a happier you and a better world.

5. For a Better Day, Smile. | Michigan State University, 2011. People who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts can significantly and immediately improve their mood. Simply put, one easy way to improve your mood right now is to recall pleasant memories-and smile because of it.

6. The Dynamic Spread of Happiness | University of California, San Diego, 2008. In this significant study, people who were surrounded by happy people were more likely to lead happy lives in the future. So if you want to discover more happiness in your life, make a point to surround yourself with joyful people.

7. Kindness Counts | University of British Columbia, 2012. In this study conducted at an elementary school, students who performed kind acts experienced significantly higher increases in peer acceptance. In other words, people who are kind to others are more well-liked. This contributes to their own personal popularity as they help other people.

8. People who Exercise on Work Days are Happier | University of Bristol, 2008. People's moods significantly improve after exercising. They are also more productive and equipped to manage stress in their workday.

9. Is Volunteering a Public Health Intervention? | University of Exeter Medical School, 2013. Evidence suggests volunteering benefits mental health and even, survival. Donating time to causes you believe in not only improves well-being and overall life satisfaction, it is also linked to decreased depression and a lower risk of dying early.

10. Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness | University of California Berkeley, 2008. This study suggests that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much money they earn. Specifically, spending more of one's income on others results in greater happiness. So go ahead, be generous. You'll be glad you did.

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10 Positive Psychology Studies to Change Your View of Happiness

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Written by joshua becker · "People wait all week for Friday, all year for summer, all life for happiness." In An Introduction to Positive Psychology, Dr. William Compton describes positive psychology as seeking "to make normal life more fulfilling." It utilizes the scientific method (hypothesis, prediction, study, research, analysis) to understand the positive and emotionally fulfilling aspects of human behavior.

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Domenick https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.schoolofcoachingmastery.com/coaching-blog/bid/94238/positive-psychology-25-fun-facts-about-love-2-0?hs_amp=true

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Positive psychology can be used to bolster the mental health––and by extension, strengthen the physical health––for the elderly during the aging process:

"By taking preventive steps, one can take care of the body and the mind, and that can help stave off some of the devastating illnesses associated with age and live a full, meaningful and energetic life."

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-45576-001

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Domenick Positive psychology to me is the application of psychology to make positive impacts in someone's life.

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Positive Psychology - a branch of psychology focused on the character strengths and behaviors that allow individuals to build a life of meaning and purpose—to move beyond surviving to flourishing.

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Positive Psychology is important to study because it helps us discover that living a more positive meaningful life can help with avoiding mental illness, correct negative behaviors, and improve happiness and overall productivity.

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One of the biggest questions of the age and any age is: How can one be truly happy? This is the question positive psychology and its related research aims to answer.

The endless pursuit of happiness and the tireless quest to live a fulfilled life have led to the growth of an entire industry dedicated to prioritizing our well-being by providing countless programs, guides, remedies, and tips on how to live a positive and optimistic life.

Recent global developments - including the coronavirus pandemic and witnessing the killings of unarmed Black people at the hands of police - have brought many of us to a state of misery and despair. Many of us who feel the weight of these events are seeking to focus on ways that we can emphasize positivity in our communities and in ourselves - highlighting the very things that give life more meaning. This is where positive psychology can play a role in your mental wellness.

Whatis Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology is the science and study of life's positive qualities - well-being, happiness, satisfaction, and the ability to thrive in our day-to-day lives. The field studies what goes into building a life of purpose, rich with meaning that allows the individual to flourish.

In his TED Talk on positive psychology, Martin Seligman, a leading authority in the field, highlighted three aims of psychology, stating their importance to the overall study of happiness.

"Psychology should be just as concerned with human strength as it is with weakness," he said. "It should also be as interested in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst, and it should just be as concerned with making the lives of normal people fulfilling, and with nurturing high talent as with healing pathology," he added. Generally, these aims form the basis of positive psychology.

Christopher Peterson, another renowned psychologist, defined positive psychology simply as the scientific study of what makes life most worth living. It is a scientific approach to studying human thoughts, feelings, and behavior while emphasizing strengths instead of weaknesses, building the good in life while repairing the bad, and making people's lives great rather than adequate.

Positive psychology focuses on influences like optimism, hope, happiness and joy, but it is more than just dealing with positive emotions. This field of psychology also covers traits like character strengths, self-esteem, and well-being, how such traits can be applied to our life, work, and interpersonal relationships, and how all those aspects come together to contribute to the attainment of a meaningful life.

What are the Three Levels of Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology isn't limited to feeling a sense of individual well-being itself, rather proponents of this science often refer to the "Three Levels of Positive Psychology":

Subjective level: the subjective level centers around feelings of happiness, well-being, optimism, and similar emotions or feelings as they relate to your daily experience.

Individual level: the individual level combines the subjective level feelings of well-being with the qualities or virtues that make you a well-rounded person, such as forgiveness, love, and courage.

Group level: the group level focuses on positive interaction with your community, and includes traits like altruism, social responsibility, and other virtues that strengthen social bonds.

Why Positive Psychology is Important

Positive psychology's main aim is to encourage people to discover and nurture their character strengths, rather than channeling their efforts into correcting shortcomings. Positive psychology highlights the need for one to shift their negative outlook to a more optimistic view in order to improve quality of life.

According to the theories of positive psychology, positivity is one of the main driving forces of life. Each of us routinely experiences both good and bad outcomes , but it's often feels easier to focus on the negative outcomes, ignoring the ways we could harness the effect of good things to remedy the bad. For much of its history psychological research focused on psychological defects and anomalies that make some of us different from others, the diagnoses that explain negative actions and patterns of behavior. These diagnoses include the mental health challenges that many of us struggle with including anxiety and depression.

Research into positive psychology, however,focuses more on scientific explanations for positive thoughts and actions. Positive psychology does not deny the existence of flaws and foibles in our thoughts and behavior, but it argues that equal consideration should be given to people's strengths and virtues.

Positive psychology is important because discovering what leads people to live more meaningful lives can translate to better strategies for managing mental illness, correcting negative behaviors, and increasing our happiness and productivity. For example, rather than analyzing the underlying traits associated with drug addiction, a positive psychologist might study the resilience of those who have managed a successful recovery and promote such resilience among future patients.

Positive Psychology and the PERMA Model

Fostering well-being is a primary focus in positive psychology. Higher levels of well-being are linked to increased productivity, a longer lifespan, and more satisfying relationships. In this regard, Seligman proposed the PERMA model to explain and define well-being in a broader sense. PERMA is an acronym for the five elements of well-being, and it has become a widely recognized model in the field of positive psychology. Below is a quick breakdown of the PERMA theory:

P - Positive emotions:

Experiencing positive emotions has a major impact on boosting well-being. Positive emotions may spring from fostering gratitude and forgiveness about past events, enjoying oneself in the moment, and being optimistic about the future.

E - Engagement:

To enhance your well-being, it is also important to develop a sense of engagement. You can do this by completely absorbing yourself while doing something you enjoy and excel at. This sense of engagement produces an experience known as 'flow', a sensation you have when your skills are sufficient for a particular challenge with a particular goal in mind. The concept of "flow" was coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly, a leading figure in the field of positive psychology.

R - Relationships:

As social beings, individuals often rely on building connections with other people to thrive, and the support we derive from these connections can give life purpose and meaning.

M - Meaning:

Experiencing positive emotions alone is not enough to lead a happy life. Seligman suggests that finding meaning is the highest form of happiness. Meaning can be achieved by applying your personal strengths to the service of something larger than you - like a social cause - a substantial contribution to a community you're a part of, or a charitable duty.

A - Accomplishment:

There is no doubt that when we achieve our goals and succeed, we feel a sense of fulfillment. If the drive to accomplish these goals doesn't exist, a true sense of well-being is difficult to attain.

Experiencing the Personal Benefits of Positive Psychology

The theory of positive psychology suggests that building on the positive aspects of actions or situations can create the conditions for a generally happier and more fulfilled life.

Happiness cannot only be built on amplifying pleasant experiences or living a life of engagement, however, but also by living a life filled with purpose and meaning. Therefore, you can improve your engagement by pursuing hobbies that you are interested in, taking the time to use your skills to excel in your interests, and opt for a career path that's suited to the things you're passionate about.

What is an Example of Positive Psychology?

According to Seligman's suggestions, you can enhance your sense of authentic happiness by focusing on doing more of the things that make you happy, so that you can enjoy your daily routines and experience more positive emotions. You should also work to improve the quality of your relationships and work on building stronger bonds with your friends and loved ones.

If you feel as though you aren't finding meaning in your work or relationships, Seligman also recommends that you turn to personal hobbies or volunteering and discover new ways in which you can find purpose by impacting the lives of others. Most importantly, focus on achieving your goals while maintaining a healthy balance between your ambition and the other elements that matter in life, such as self-care and companionship.

How is Positive Psychology Applied?

Positive psychology has also been a subject of criticism and accused of advancing misleading ideas about positivity. As a result, the principles of positive psychology are sometimes dismissed as bearing more in common with self-help tactics than scientifically-proven theories.

However, positive psychology techniques are now being utilized in other traditional aspects of therapy, with confirmed results supporting its effectiveness. The practice of well-being therapy, developed by psychologist Giovanni Fava from the University of Bologna, focuses on the self-observed well-being of the patient, rather than solely on their self-reported distress.

Carol Kauffman, director of the Coaching and Positive Psychology Initiative At Harvard University's McLean Hospital, outlined four techniques for integrating positive psychology into traditional therapy methods in the Harvard Mental Health Letter. These techniques mainly involve reversing the focus of therapy from negative events and emotions to more positive ones, developing a language of strength, balancing the negative and positive aspects of certain actions or situations, and building strategies that foster hope, such as identifying skills to tackle a particular problem and shifting focus to those skills.

Though the principles of positive psychology suggest that success can be built on personal strengths, it's also important to work on your weaknesses and achieve a healthy balance, so that you can attain a more fulfilled life. If you're interested in more information about positive psychology and a more personalized and tailored approach to living your best life, try the convenience of working with a licensed online therapist.

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What is Positive Psychology and How Can It Help? | Talkspace

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One of the biggest questions of the age and any age is: How can one be truly happy? This is the question positive psychology and its related research aims to answer.

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“Research has shown that psychological health assets (eg, positive emotions, life satisfaction, optimism, life purpose, social support) are prospectively associated with good health measured in a variety of ways” (Park et al., 2016).

Park N, Peterson C, Szvarca D, Vander Molen RJ, Kim ES, Collon K. Positive Psychology and Physical Health: Research and Applications. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2014;10(3):200-206. Published 2014 Sep 26. doi:10.1177/1559827614550277

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Research and Applications

Nansook Park, PhD, Christopher Peterson, PhD, † Daniel Szvarca, BS, Randy J. Vander Molen, BA, Eric S. Kim, MS, and Kevin Collon, BA

Abstract

Positive psychology is the scientific study of a healthy and flourishing life. The goal of positive psychology is to complement and extend the traditional problem-focused psychology that has proliferated in recent decades. Positive psychology is concerned with positive psychological states (eg, happiness), positive psychological traits (eg, talents, interests, strengths of character), positive relationships, and positive institutions. We describe evidences of how topics of positive psychology apply to physical health. Research has shown that psychological health assets (eg, positive emotions, life satisfaction, optimism, life purpose, social support) are prospectively associated with good health measured in a variety of ways. Not yet known is whether positive psychology interventions improve physical health. Future directions for the application of positive psychology to health are discussed. We conclude that the application of positive psychology to health is promising, although much work remains to be done.

Keywords: positive psychology, health psychology, health, well-being, positive interventions

'. . . a happy, engaged, and fulfilling psychological and social life is not just a consequence of good health, it is what leads people to live a healthy and long life.'

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

-World Health Organization1

Most would agree with this statement, but over the years, it has been largely a slogan. More recently, theory, research, and applications from the perspective of positive psychology have helped articulate the meaning of health and well-being. Positive psychology is an umbrella term for the scientific study of the various contributors to a healthy and thriving life for the self and others (eg, positive emotions, life meaning, engaging work, and close relationships).2 It is the study of strengths, assets, and positive attributes. The topics of concern to positive psychology are broad indicators of psychological, social, and societal well-being.

Research has shown that not only are physical, mental, and social well-beings important components for complete health, but they are also interconnected. Evidence is accumulating that a happy, engaged, and fulfilling psychological and social life is not just a consequence of good health, it is what leads people to live a healthy and long life.

This article provides a brief overview of what positive psychology is and addresses how theories, findings, and especially applications from positive psychology might pertain to physical health.

What Is Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology is a perspective within psychology that studies optimal experience, people being and doing their best.2-4 It challenges the assumptions of the disease model. Positive psychology assumes that life entails more than avoiding or undoing problems and that explanations of the good life must do more than reverse accounts of problems. Someone without symptoms or disorders may or may not be living well. Positive psychology urges attention to what is taking place on the other side of the zero point of being problem-free. It calls for as much focus on strength as on weakness, as much interest in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst, and as much attention to fulfilling the lives of healthy people as to healing the wounds of the distressed. Research findings from positive psychology are intended to contribute to a more complete and balanced scientific understanding of human experiences and ways to foster thriving in individuals, communities, and societies.

One of the triggers for the introduction of positive psychology was the realization that since World War II, psychology as a field had devoted much of its effort to identifying, treating, and-occasionally-preventing problems such as anxiety and depression.3 The yield of these problem-focused efforts has been impressive, but a myopic view of the human condition has resulted. It is as if psychology has viewed people as only fragile and flawed.

The goal of positive psychology is to complement and extend the problem-focused psychology, and an important idea from positive psychology is that one way to solve problems is by identifying and leveraging individual and societal strengths and assets.5

The topics of concern to positive psychology can be divided into 4 related topics2,3:

Positive subjective experiences (happiness, gratification, fulfillment, flow)

Positive individual traits (strengths of character, talents, interests, values)

Positive interpersonal relationships (friendship, marriage, colleagueship)

Positive institutions (families, schools, businesses, communities)

The value of positive psychology is to use the scientific method to sort through various claims and hypotheses about what it means to live well or poorly and to identify the relevant circumstances in each case.

Positive Psychology and Health

Can physical health be clarified by a positive perspective in the same way that psychological well-being has been clarified? To return to the definition of health by the World Health Organization with which this article began,1 a positive perspective urges us to look beyond the mere absence of disease and infirmity to define what it means to be healthy in positive terms.6-8 Positive health can be characterized not only as a long and disease-free life but additionally in terms of

Less frequent and briefer ailments

Greater recuperative ability

More physiological reserves

Chronic but nondebilitating diseases

Familiar within the field of epidemiology are the population-level concepts of DALYs (disability adjusted life years), HALYs (health-adjusted life years), and QALYs (quality-adjusted life years), which combine measures of morbidity and mortality into the same index.9 Along these lines, HLEs (happiness-adjusted life expectancies) measure the quality of life in a nation by forming the product of the average life expectancy and the average happiness (aka subjective well-being, life satisfaction) in that nation.10 Positive health concerns itself with the individual-level analogues of these constructs.

The field of positive health as we envision it overlaps with allied approaches concerned with disease prevention, health promotion, and wellness. The value of positive health as an approach in its own right is that it makes explicit the need to consider good health as opposed to the absence of poor health. Studies of "wellness" often end up being studies of illness, much as studies of mental "health" are often studies of mental illness.

Concern with positive health leads to an examination of health assets, individual-level factors that produce positive health in one or more of the ways that it might be defined, over-and-above the frequently studied risk factors for poor health, like high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and a sedentary lifestyle.8 Among the psychosocial risk factors frequently examined with respect to poor health are anger, anxiety, depression, and social isolation. By the logic of a positive perspective, the mere absence of these negative states and traits is not all that matters for physical health. Important as well are positive states and traits, and the contribution of these in their own right needs to be studied, controlling for negative states and traits as well as other usual-suspect risk factors.

There have been extensive studies on negative psychological factors such as stress, depression, hostility, and their effects on increased risk of various health problems.11 However, less known is whether certain positive psychological factors play a protective role against health risks. Research has shown that positive and negative emotions are not opposite and are only modestly correlated.12,13 Experiencing each of those emotions is also involved in the activation of different brain regions.14

For the past several years, researchers have examined the contributions of health assets, especially psychological ones, to good health, while they have controlled for established risk factors. Researchers need to examine both risk factors and health assets to understand relationships between both positive and negative psychological factors as they together contribute to health outcomes.

Carefully conducted research shows that positive health assets indeed predict good health assessed in a variety of ways.15 Among the positive psychology health assets foreshadowing good health are

Life meaning and purpose26-29

Helping others and volunteering30-32

Good social relationships33-35

Spirituality and religiosity36,37

There has been growing evidence that positive psychological characteristics affect health and longevity using various research methods including longitudinal prospective and experimental designs.

Perhaps, among the most well-known long-term studies that showed the possible link between positive psychological assets and health outcomes is The Nun Study.38 A group of American nuns who were members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame wrote autobiographical essays in their early 20s when they joined the Sisterhood. Six decades later, researchers who had accessed the convent archive scored the emotional content of 180 essays in terms of positivity, and investigated whether they were related to the mortality of nuns. Indeed, positive emotional content was significantly related to longevity. The nuns who expressed more positive emotions (those in the upper 25%) in their essays, strikingly, lived on average 10 years longer than those expressing fewer positive emotions (those in the bottom 25%). In other words, happier nuns lived longer than less happy (but not depressed) nuns. Putting this in context, unhealthy behavior like smoking costs on average 7 years of one's life.2

In another experimental study, Cohen and his colleagues examined the relationships between positive emotions and the vulnerability of catching the common cold.39 With 334 healthy adult volunteers in the community, they first measured both positive emotional experience, such as happy, pleased, lively, and relaxed, and negative emotional experiences, such as depressed, anxious, and hostile, over a few weeks using self-reports. Afterward, participants were invited to the study lab and exposed to rhinoviruses through nasal drops and monitored in quarantine for the development of the common cold. The researchers found that higher positive emotional experiences were related to lower risk of developing a cold and fewer reports of symptoms, while negative emotional experiences were not significantly related to catching a cold, but associated with reports of more symptoms. In short, this study showed that experiencing positive emotions was linked to greater resistance to developing the common cold.

The health benefits of positive psychological assets have been documented in different cultural settings as well. For instance, in Japanese culture, the most commonly used indicator of subjective well-being is the sense of "life worth living" ( ikigai).29 In a population-based prospective cohort study with 43, 391 adults in Ohsaki, Japan, lack of the sense of "life worth living" ( ikigai) was significantly associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality over time. Those who reported having an ikigai in their life in a survey were more likely to be alive at a 7-year follow-up compared to their counterparts who did not find a sense of ikigai. Interestingly, the increase in mortality risk was due to an increase in mortality from cardiovascular disease and external causes such as suicide, but not to morality from cancer. Having a sense of "life worth living" ( ikigai) often means having a purpose in life and realizing the value of being alive which could serve as a motivation for living.

In our own study with US adults, having life purpose played a protective role for heart health.27 At a 2-year follow-up, the higher level of life purpose was prospectively related to lower risks of incidence of myocardial infarction among people with coronary heart disease at the baseline.

One of the ways to achieve a sense of life meaning and purpose is through helping others and doing regular volunteer work in communities. Research has shown that among elders, people who volunteer regularly are healthier and live longer.30,31 In a longitudinal study with a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older US adults, a study found that volunteerism predicted a lower risk of hypertension 4 years later.31 That is, those who had volunteered at least 200 hours in the previous 12 months were less likely to develop hypertension risk compared to those who did not volunteer. However, lower levels of volunteering did not decrease the health risk of hypertension. It seems that dosage and intentions of volunteering matters for its health benefits. In another study, people who regularly volunteered for self-oriented motives did not exhibit lower risk for mortality 4 years later, while those who regularly and frequently volunteered for other-oriented motives showed lower risk of subsequent mortality.32 In conclusion, it is good to be good!

One of the well-studied health-related positive psychology topics is optimism. Optimism is sometimes seen as pollyannaism, a naively rosy view of the world coupled with a "don't worry, be happy" attitude. However, optimism the way researchers study it is a disposition to an expectation that the future will entail more positive events than negative ones.40 Optimists are neither in denial nor naive about challenges and difficulties in life. They simply attend to and acknowledge the positive.

Empirical research shows that optimism-usually assessed with self-report surveys-relates to good health and a long life. According to research, among asymptomatic men with HIV, optimism slowed the onset of AIDS over an 18-month follow-up.41,42 Over an 8-year follow-up, optimism predicted better pulmonary function among older men, even when smoking was controlled.43 In a longitudinal study of older men and women, optimism predicted not only better health but also lower levels of pain.44 Our own research group recently reported a study of a large nationally representative sample of older adults (aged >50 years) in the United States showing that over a 2-year period, optimism predicted a lower likelihood of stroke, even after controlling for chronic illnesses, self-rated health, and relevant sociodemographic, biological, and psychological factors.45

In addition, the importance of social support and positive relationships on good health and well-being has long been documented. Supportive social relationships were associated with longevity, less cognitive decline with aging, greater resistance to infectious disease, and better management of chronic illnesses.33-35

Enough well-designed studies exist in support of the premise that health assets predict good health to warrant further investigation. Research so far provides compelling evidence that positive psychological health assets predict or are associated with various health outcomes and longevity among healthy populations. However, what is relatively unknown are the effects of positive health assets for recovery and long-term health outcomes among those with serious health problems such as cancer.

Furthermore, before we consider interventions that deliberately encourage these assets in order to reduce morbidity and mortality and to increase physical well-being, there are issues that need to be addressed.46

First, assuming that health assets do play a causal role, what are the mechanisms? Research to date has often been stark, usually demonstrating an association over time but not clarifying how it happens. We assume the pathways are multiple, from biological to emotional to cognitive to behavioral to social. For example, in the case of optimism, biologically, it has been linked to better immune system functioning, and behaviorally, people who are optimistic engage in healthier behaviors. They eat healthy, exercise, do not smoke or drink, and seek medical care when they need. Socially, optimists have better and more frequent social contacts. All of these are associated with health benefits.

It is unknown which pathway bears the most traffic or whether the mechanisms vary as a function of the specific health outcome (eg, cardiovascular disease vs the common cold) or as a function of the individual's age, gender, or lifestyle. Again, the best a researcher can do is to identify plausible mechanisms in a given study and explicitly investigate their role as mediators.

Second, are health assets a cause of good health or merely a correlated marker of its real causes? Indeed, the array of positive health assets is challenging for researchers, who cannot study or control all possible assets in the same investigation. No single study relying on correlational data can be definitive, so it is the overall body of research investigating health assets that must be examined to draw causal conclusions.17

Third, do the apparent benefits of health assets generalize to all kinds of health outcomes? Much of the relevant research has ascertained general health and all-cause mortality, and some of this work has relied only on self-reported information about health status. When researchers look at specific health outcomes assessed in more objective ways, psychological health assets seem to be more predictive of cardiovascular health than they are of freedom from cancer. So the benefits of health assets may be disease specific. A wider variety of diseases needs to be investigated from the positive health perspective. Moreover, research is not clear about the relative contribution of health assets to disease onset, to disease progression, and/or to recovery.

Positive Psychology Interventions for Physical Health

Researchers and practitioners have begun to develop intervention strategies based on positive psychology to increase positive psychological assets such as positive emotions or life satisfaction to bolster physical health. Whether increasing positive psychological assets will turn to better health outcomes is inconclusive. These intervention efforts targeting health assets in order to lead to better health not only have practical significance but also theoretical importance because appropriately done intervention studies would strengthen the claim that health assets actually cause good health.

We refer to interventions informed by positive psychology as positive psychology interventions. Sometimes positive psychology interventions entail a specific technique, like counting one's blessings at the end of the day or using one's signature strengths of character in novels ways.47 At other times, the intervention uses a more-elaborated therapy package that combines different techniques, such as "Well-Being Therapy,"48 and Quality of Life Therapy,49 among others.

Intervention studies allow us to conclude that interventions informed by positive psychology can indeed change positive psychological states and traits, sometimes in lasting ways.47,48 An important qualification is that long-term benefits do not result from one-shot interventions unless these lead to a change in how someone habitually lives.18 Perhaps, what is required is a sustained lifestyle change.

On the face of it, intervening to increase a health asset should also have benefits for physical health, given the association between health assets and health outcomes. However, this argument does not embody a syllogism. Health assets may not be direct causes of good health, and even if they are, changing them may not result in better health. Said another way, we do not yet know if the health benefits of deliberately cultivated happiness or optimism or life meaning have the same benefits as their naturally occurring counterparts.50

Needed is intervention research that incudes physical health as an explicitly measured outcome. While it is interesting and important to show that a positive psychology intervention increases the psychological well-being of medial patients, the more exciting issue is whether the intervention also affects their physical health. If so, how quickly would health benefits be evident? And what is the mechanism by which the intervention has an effect?

In studying the mechanisms by which a positive psychology intervention influences physical health, the role played by mundane behavior should not be neglected.46 There are well-documented "healthy" ways of behaving,51 including sleeping 8 hours a night, eating balanced meals, not smoking, not drinking to excess, and exercising regularly.

We suspect that positive psychology interventions, when successful, lead people not only to think and feel in more positive ways but also to behave in more healthy ways.40,46 For example, optimistic people are more actively engaged with the world and are better problem solvers than their pessimistic counterparts. They have more frequent and higher quality social contacts as well as more social support. All of these factors may lead to healthier behaviors and habits and eventually to better health.

Positive psychology intervention studies for better health outcomes are in their infancy. So far, nearly all positive psychology interventions primarily targeted changing health-related behaviors such as physical activity, not the health outcome directly. Researchers have shown that positive psychology interventions influence some of the biological and behavioral processes implicated in good health. For example, inducing positive emotions speeds cardiovascular recovery following a stressful event.52 Training in mindfulness meditation can boost immune function.53 Psychosocial resilience training targeting positive emotions, cognitive flexibility, social support, life meaning, and active coping reduces total cholesterol among middle-aged adults.54 Researchers have begun to investigate how positive affect and affirmation influence physical activity and medication adherence among patients with coronary artery disease,55 asthma,56 and hypertension.57 The next step in each case is to show that such interventions also increase good health as opposed to its possible precursors.

Using a randomized controlled clinical trial, a group of researchers recently developed an intervention strategy that enhances positive affect and self-affirmation (PA/SA) and applied it to 3 different high-risk clinical populations (eg, hypertension, asthma, coronary artery disease) to change their health-related behaviors.55-57

In each clinical trial, patients were randomly assigned to either the patient education (PE) control group or the positive-affect/self-affirmation (PA/SA) intervention group. For the control group, each patient received an educational workbook, a pedometer, and a behavior contract for a physical activity goal. For the intervention group, each received PE control components and additionally, a PA/SA workbook chapter, bimonthly induction of PA/SA by telephone, and small mailed gifts. Patients in the PA intervention group were taught how to self-induce positive affect and self-affirmation using a workbook chapter, received bimonthly inducement of PA/SA by telephone, and unexpected small gifts (PA) mailed bimonthly several weeks before follow-up calls. During PA/SA induction phone calls, patients were told to "think about things that make you feel good" and take a moment each day to enjoy positive thoughts (PA), and to think about "proud moments" in their personal lives if they have a difficult time exercising (SA). For both groups, data were collected through a standardized bimonthly telephone follow-up for 12 months.

Using this research design, researchers conducted 3 parallel studies. In study 1,55 patients were recruited right after percutaneous coronary intervention to increase physical activity among people with coronary artery disease. Compared to the control group, patients in the intervention group engaged in significantly more physical activities. In study 2,56 physical activity among asthma patients who participated in the study was improved without differences between control and intervention groups. There was no significant effectiveness of intervention. In study 3,57 the intervention effect on enhancing medication adherence among hypertensive African Americans was examined. Patients in both control and intervention groups received a culturally appropriate hypertension self-management workbook, a behavioral contract, and bimonthly telephone calls to help them better handle barriers to medication adherence. In addition, patients in the PA/SA intervention group received small gifts and bimonthly telephone calls to help them utilize positive thoughts into their daily routine and foster self-affirmation. At the 12-month follow-up, the intervention group showed a significantly higher level of medication adherence compared to the control group (42% vs 36%). The reduction of blood pressure was found among participants without significant differences across groups.

Mixed results from these intervention studies leave questions that need to be clarified with more studies to better understand the effectiveness of a positive psychology intervention on the different health outcomes before they are implemented in health practices.

Another line of positive psychology intervention research that attracted significant attention in recent years is applications of mindfulness meditation. It is assumed that meditations induce positive affect and lead to good health. A study led by a neuroscientist, Richard Davidson, demonstrated that mindfulness meditation produces changes in brain and immune function in a positive way.53 In this study, 25 healthy employees at a work site received an 8-week intensive clinical training in mindfulness meditation. A weekly training class met for about 3 hours, and a silent 7-hour retreat was held during week 6 of the training. In addition, participants were instructed to perform home meditation practices for 1 hour each day, 6 days a week with the guided audiotapes. Brain electrical activity was measured at the baseline, the end of training, and 4 months after training. Also at the end of training, participants were vaccinated with influenza vaccine. Results from the meditation group were compared to those of the wait-list control group. Among the meditation group, brain activity in the left-sided anterior, associated with positive affect, was significantly increased. They also found significant increases in antibody concentrations to influenza vaccine in the meditation group. Interestingly, the size of increase in left-sided activation predicted the size of antibody concentration rise to the vaccine.

In sum, the effects of positive psychology interventions on health outcomes are inconclusive. As stated before, positive psychology interventions seem to be more effective on reducing health risks among healthy individuals in the short term. However, its long-term health effects, especially, on a population with different health problems, is not clear.

Conclusions

Positive psychology is a perspective that urges scientific attention to strengths and assets that contribute to health and a flourishing life. We have described what positive psychologists have learned about the relationships between positive psychological assets and physical health in the past decade.

To date, the application of positive psychology to health is promising, although much work remains to be done. On the positive side, research shows that what we call positive psychological health assets (eg, positive emotions, life satisfaction, optimism, positive relationships, life purpose) are prospectively associated with good health measured in a variety of ways. Also on the positive side, interventions have been developed that increase these assets; lasting effects require a lifestyle change.

Not yet known is whether positive psychology interventions improve physical health, reducing morbidity and mortality, speeding recovery from illness, and so on. Investigators are beginning to study the health effects of such interventions. Studies to date suggest that positive psychology interventions reduce some of the biological and behavioral processes that affect health, but the next step is to study good health per se.

We urge an open mind about the eventual success of such interventions. It is important not to get too far ahead of the data. Perhaps these interventions will work as intended, perhaps not. For example, the lesson from studies of psychological interventions targeting negative states and traits such as anger and depression in the hope of reducing cardiovascular disease, with which they are associated, is instructive. The success of these interventions is checkered at best.46 Whether the deliberate cultivation of positive health assets such as positive emotions or life purpose will be more successful in promoting good health than the reduction of psychological risk factors is not known, but is a question worth addressing.

In conclusion, growing evidence suggests that positive psychological assets are linked to health and longevity. However, more studies are necessary to learn more about when, why, how, and for whom positive psychological assets plays a role in good health and whether interventions that enhance these assets will yield health benefits. We urge a skeptical yet fair-minded attitude on the part of researchers and practitioners and that they pay particular attention to underlying mechanisms. Meanwhile, freedom from disease and longevity are not the only goals of life. Quality of life matters in addition to quantity of life. It is clear from research that experiencing frequent positive emotions, having sense of life purpose, paying attention to what is positive in life, and living a more socially integrated life is linked to one's quality of life across the lifespan. Thus, helping people cultivate positive psychological and social assets in life has potential for leading to happier, more meaningful, and healthier lives.

Acknowledgments

Christopher Peterson unexpectedly died on October 9, 2012, during the revision of this article. We are deeply indebted to his scholarly contributions and mentorship not only to this work but also to the foundation of positive psychology and its applications to various fields. His intellectual and personal contributions will continue to inspire and guide the positive psychology and positive health community.

Support for the preparation of this article was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio, which supports innovative ideas that may lead to breakthroughs in the future of health and health care. The Pioneer Portfolio funding was administered through a Positive Health grant to the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Martin Seligman, Director.

References

1. World Health Organization. Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946 Official Records of the World Health Organization. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 1946. [ Google Scholar]

2. Peterson C. A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2006. [ Google Scholar]

5. Park N, Peterson C, Brunwasser SM. Positive psychology and therapy. In: Kazantzis N, Reinecke MA, Freeman A, eds. Cognitive and Behavioral Theories in Clinical Practice. New York, NY: Guilford; 2009:278-306. [ Google Scholar]

34. Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS Med. 2010;7(7):e1000316. [[ PubMed] PMC free article] [ Google Scholar]

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Articles from American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine are provided here courtesy of SAGE Publications

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Positive Psychology and Physical Health: Research and Applications

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Research and Applications Nansook Park, PhD, Christopher Peterson, PhD, † Daniel Szvarca, BS, Randy J. Vander Molen, BA, Eric S. Kim, MS, and Kevin Collon, BA Positive psychology is the scientific study of a healthy and flourishing life. The goal of positive psychology is to complement and extend the traditional problem-focused psychology that has proliferated in recent decades.

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Positive psychology investigates the coping mechanisms individuals employ in order to conquer obstacles and dilemmas. Ultimately, building a stronger character.

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https://positivepsychology.com/happiness/

“Money can only buy happiness up to $75,000 after that it has no significant effect on our emotional well-being”

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The Science of Happiness in Positive Psychology 101

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This extensive article discusses how the human pursuit of happiness can be measured, studied, and applied to increase world happiness.

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Positivity influences an increase in creativity -Michael Natal

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Positive psychology is an extension of current traditional psychology that aims to understand the correlation between physical and mental health. - Ryan

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https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-happiness-doctor/201703/6-surprising-facts-about-happiness

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After 20 years of research in positive psychology, what have we learned? We've learned that our social relationships, both friendships and romances, are critical contributors to our happiness. And although there are many individual differences in what makes us happy, social relationships are about as close as we get to a universal key. In fact, it is almost impossible to find someone who is happy that does not have meaningful friendships and/or romantic relationships.

But, really, didn't we already know this? Is the research on happiness simply an exercise in confirming the obvious? Clearly not. There are many other findings in positive psychology that are truly surprising.

Here are a select few:
1. Oscar winners are happy.
This does not seem like such a surprise, but consider this: Research shows that actors who win at the Academy Awards live longer than actors who are only nominated but do not win. Additionally, actors who win Oscars live longer than their co-stars from the movie for which they were nominated but who were not nominated themselves.
2. Imaginary friends make us happy.
It is clear that children who have quality friendships are happier than those who don't. What is surprising is the extent to which even kids' imaginary friends contribute to their measures of happiness.
3. Happiness seekers are not so happy.
People who consciously make the search for, and attainment of, happiness a pivotal goal in their lives are actually less happy than others.
4. Marriage makes us happy (but not everywhere).
Married people consistently display higher levels of happiness than people who have never been married, and this is true in almost every country in which the effect has been studied. A surprising exception is Ireland, where married people report being less happy on average than their never-married fellow citizens.
5. Great optimism is not always so great.
Optimism is linked to many advantages, including greater happiness, better health, and higher self-esteem, as well as lower levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and stress. What's surprising is that when it comes to optimism, you can have too much of a good thing. Extremely optimistic people - those in the top fraction of a percent on measures of optimism - have some disadvantages. For example, they are less likely to quit smoking, more likely to have an unwanted pregnancy, and more likely to die at an early age.
6. Baseball players are happy (if they smile).
Did you ever collect baseball cards? Researchers who examined the widths of the players' smiles in their baseball card photographs-taken when the players were young men-found that the extent of the smiles predicted how long the players lived. Major-league players with the largest smiles lived an average of seven years longer than those who did not smile at all in their baseball card photos. In other words, the span of the smile displayed in baseball photos of young men predicted the span of the player's life decades later.
The research literature of positive psychology is filled with examples of surprising findings, underscoring the fundamental importance of research. Exclusively relying on "common sense" to understand happiness, or to be able to thrive and flourish, is not enough. We are more likely and able to promote our well-being by being informed through the science of happiness.

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After 20 years of research in positive psychology, what have we learned? We've learned that our social relationships, both friendships and romances, are critical contributors to our happiness. And although there are many individual differences in what makes us happy, social relationships are about as close as we get to a universal key.

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positive psych helps improve the overall satisfaction of life and helps ones mentality and opening their mind to positive change and perspective

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Interesting fact: Positive emotions can lead to overall better health and a longer life.

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There is power in positive thinking. Positive emotions are linked with better health, longer life, and greater well-being. On the other hand, chronic anger, worry, and hostility increase the risk of developing heart disease.

For some people, being happy comes naturally and easily. Others need to work at it. How does one go about becoming happier? That's where positive psychology comes in. This relatively new field of research has been exploring how people and institutions can support the quest for increased satisfaction and meaning. It has uncovered several routes to happiness:

Feeling good: seeking pleasurable emotions and sensations

Engaging fully: pursuing goals and activities that engage you fully

Doing good: searching for meaning outside yourself

Gratitude: expressing appreciation for what you have in your life

Savoring pleasure: placing your attention on pleasure as it occurs and consciously enjoying the experience as it unfolds

Being mindful: focusing your attention on what is happening at the moment and accepting it without judgment

Self-compassion: consoling yourself as needed, taking the time to nurture yourself, and building the motivation to try again.

Want to make a change but wondering how to stay motivated? Dr. Srini Pillay talks about the things that can impact personal motivation and the power of a sense of meaning to help you stick with your goals.

If you find yourself in a slump, Dr. Beth Frates shares what may be draining you and offers tips for getting more energy.

A report from the Million Woman Study indicates that risk of dying over a 10-year period is essentially the same for happy and unhappy women.

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There is power in positive thinking. Positive emotions are linked with better health, longer life, and greater well-being. On the other hand, chronic anger, worry, and hostility increase the risk of developing heart disease. For some people, being happy comes naturally and easily. Others need to work at it.

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Definition of Positive Psychology: Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living. It also looks at the positivity of people and how they can improve it.

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If you've been hearing the term "positive psychology" thrown around a lot, but you're not quite sure what it is, you've come to the right place!

There are some common misconceptions about positive psychology, both about what it is and what it is not.

To clear up some of these misunderstandings and provide a brief but comprehensive overview of the field, we've put together this piece focused on defining and describing the positive psychology movement.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free. These science-based exercises will explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology including strengths, values and self-compassion and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students or employees.

What is Positive Psychology: A 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).

What Positive Psychology Focuses on in a Nutshell

Positive psychology focuses on the positive events and influences in life, including:

1. Positive experiences (like happiness, joy, inspiration, and love).

2. Positive states and traits (like gratitude, resilience, and compassion).

3. Positive institutions (applying positive principles within entire organizations and institutions).

As a field, positive psychology spends much of its time thinking about topics like character strengths, optimism, life satisfaction, happiness, wellbeing, gratitude, compassion (as well as self-compassion), self-esteem and self-confidence, hope, and elevation.

These topics are studied in order to learn how to help people flourish and live their best lives.

On the Founder: Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman is a researcher with a broad range of experience in psychology.

If you had never heard of the positive psychology movement until now, you still might have heard his name at some point. Seligman's research in the 1960s and 70s laid the foundation for the well-known psychological theory of " learned helplessness."

This theory, which has been backed by decades of research, explains how humans and animals can learn to become helpless and feel they have lost control over what happens to them.

Seligman connected this phenomenon with depression, noting that many people suffering from depression feel helpless as well. His work on the subject provided inspiration, ideas, and evidence to back up many treatments for depressive symptoms, as well as strategies for preventing depression.

While this is impressive enough on its own, Seligman knew that he had more to offer the psychology community and the world at large-in particular, more work on the positive, the uplifting, and the inspiring. After making a name for himself with learned helplessness, he turned his attention to other traits, characteristics, and perspectives that could be learned.

He found what he was looking for in resilience and learned optimism, findings that became the groundwork for his widely administered resilience programs for children and members of the military, among others.

Seligman grew frustrated with psychology's overly narrow focus on the negative; so much attention was paid to mental illness, abnormal psychology, trauma, suffering, and pain, and relatively little attention was dedicated to happiness, wellbeing, exceptionalism, strengths, and flourishing.

When he was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, he jumped at the opportunity to alter the direction of the field from such an influential position. He proposed a new subfield of psychology with a focus on what is life-giving rather than life-depleting. The foundational paper of this new field, positive psychology, was published in 2000 by Seligman and the "founding father" of flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Since 2000, Seligman's call for a greater focus on the positive in life has been answered by thousands of researchers around the world, provoking tens of thousands of studies on positive phenomena and establishing a base for the application of positive principles to coaching, teaching, relationships, the workplace, and every other life domain.

17 Benefits of Positive Psychology

Since you're reading this, you probably already know that Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi's endeavor was wildly successful.

The plethora of projects and papers on positive topics has provided an enormous repository of knowledge on how to encourage ourselves and those around us to live the best lives possible.

It would be impossible to list all of the benefits of positive psychology, but we'll try to give a comprehensive overview of some of the most impactful and influential outcomes of practicing positive psychology.

In general, the greatest potential benefit of positive psychology is that it teaches us the power of shifting one's perspective.

This is the focus of many techniques, exercises, and even entire programs based on positive psychology because a relatively small change in one's perspective can lead to astounding shifts in wellbeing and quality of life. Injecting a bit more optimism and gratitude into your life is a simple action that can give you a radically more positive outlook on life.

Of course, no respected positive psychologist would tell you to think about, act out, and focus on ONLY the positive in life-balance is important. Positive psychology was not established to replace traditional psychology, but to complement it with a positive bias that's just as strong as psychology's negative bias over the last several decades.

Studies and Research

Positive psychology teaches how to harness the power of shifting one's perspective to maximize the potential for happiness in many of our everyday behaviors. For example, each of these findings gives us a concrete idea for improving our own quality of life:

1. People overestimate the impact of money on their happiness by quite a lot. It does have some influence, but not nearly as much as we might think, so focusing less on attaining wealth will likely make you happier (Aknin, Norton, & Dunn, 2009);

2. Spending money on experiences provides a bigger boost to happiness than spending money on material possessions (Howell & Hill, 2009);

3. Gratitude is a big contributor to happiness in life, suggesting that the more we cultivate gratitude, the happier we will be (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005);

4. Oxytocin may provoke greater trust, empathy, and morality in humans, meaning that giving hugs or other shows of physical affection may give you a big boost to your overall wellbeing (and the wellbeing of others; Barraza & Zak, 2009);

5. Those who intentionally cultivate a positive mood to match the outward emotion they need to display (i.e., in emotional labor) benefit by more genuinely experiencing the positive mood. In other words, "putting on a happy face" won't necessarily make you feel happier, but putting in a little bit of effort likely will (Scott & Barnes, 2011);

6. Happiness is contagious; those with happy friends and significant others are more likely to be happy in the future (Fowler & Christakis, 2008);

7. People who perform acts of kindness towards others not only get a boost in wellbeing, they are also more accepted by their peers (Layous, Nelson, Oberle, Schonert-Reichl, & Lyubomirsky, 2012);

8. Volunteering time to a cause you believe in improves your wellbeing and life satisfaction and may even reduce symptoms of depression (Jenkinson et al., 2013);

9. Spending money on other people results in greater happiness for the giver (Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2008).

Positive psychology also lends itself to improvements in the workplace; studies from the field have found that:

1. Positive emotions boost our job performance;

2. Positive emotions in the workplace are contagious, which means one positive person or team can have a ripple effect that extends through the entire organization;

3. Small, simple actions can have a big impact on our happiness, meaning that it doesn't take much to encourage your workplace to become a happier and more positive place (Kjerulf, 2016).

One of the benefits of practicing a positive psychological outlook is, to put it broadly, success! Not only does success make us happier, feeling happy and experiencing positive emotions actually increases our chances of success (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005).

However, don't assume that refusing to brook any encroachment of negative emotions or outlooks will help you reach success. An important finding from positive psychology research is that forcing people who are not naturally optimists to "just think positively" can do more harm than good; unrealistic optimism is detrimental, along with intense pessimism (del Valle & Mateos, 2008; Dillard, Midboe, & Klein, 2009).

Another broad benefit of the positive psychology movement is a more well-defined idea of what "the good life" is.

Renowned positive psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and colleagues took on the challenge of determining what makes a good life, and they found some interesting findings that you can apply to your own life (2013). Their research showed that happiness and a sense of meaning in life do not necessarily go hand-in-hand, indicating that focusing on positive emotions alone will not bring the fulfilling and satisfying life you crave.

Some of their more specific findings included the following:

1. The satisfaction of one's wants and needs boost happiness, but have virtually no impact on meaningfulness; this indicates that focusing on obtaining what you want will increase your happiness, but you may have to supplement to get a deeper sense of meaning.

2. Happiness is present-oriented, rooted in the moment, while meaningfulness is more focused on the past and future and how they link to the present; this finding suggests that you can focus on the present to increase your happiness, but you might consider thinking more about your past and future to find meaning.

3. "Givers" experience more meaning, while "takers" experience more happiness; if you find yourself lacking in meaning, try giving back to others, but if you are lacking in happiness, try being accepting of others' generosity to give yourself a boost.

4. Worry, stress, and anxiety are more likely to be felt by those whose lives are high in meaningfulness and low in happiness; this indicates that you shouldn't get too down about experiencing negative emotions if you have a strong sense of meaning-a little negative emotion can actually be a good thing!

5. An intention to express your authentic self and a sense of strong personal identity are linked to meaning, but not to happiness; if you are searching for meaning, try working on your practice of authenticity.

Findings such as these have given rise to, and are driven by, a number of interesting theories that pepper the positive psychology literature.

Theory and Concepts

The most important thing to understand about positive psychology is that it is indeed science-it is a subfield of psychology, and although it is sometimes derided as a "soft science" or a "pseudoscience," it is still based on the scientific method of evaluating theories based on the evidence.

As University of Michigan professor and positive psychology legend Christopher Peterson put it:

"...positive psychology is not to be confused with untested self-help, footless affirmation, or secular religion-no matter how good these may make us feel. Positive psychology is neither a recycled version of the power of positive thinking nor a sequel to The Secret." (2008)

Peterson goes on to outline the theories and concepts that have resulted from research so far (up to 2008, anyway):

For the most part, most people are happy;

Happiness is one of the causes of the good things in life, and also promotes more happiness;

Most people are pretty resilient;

Happiness, character strengths, and good social relationships act as buffers against disappointments and setbacks;

Crises reveal character;

Other people matter (in terms of what makes life worth living);

Religion matters (and/or spirituality);

Work also matters in terms of making life worth living, as long as we are engaged and draw meaning and purpose from it;

Money has diminishing returns on our happiness after a certain point, but we can buy some happiness by spending money on other people;

Eudaimonia (wellbeing, deeper form of satisfaction than happiness) is more important than hedonism (sole focus on pleasure and positive emotions) for living the good life;

The "heart" matters more than the "head," meaning that things like empathy and compassion are just as important as critical thinking;

Nearly all good days have three things in common: a sense of autonomy, competence, and connection to others;

The good life can be taught.

For an overview of some of the most salient theories and concepts in positive psychology, the website positivepsychology.org.uk offers a great "mind map" of the field here. We'll also cover a couple of the biggest topics later in this piece.

Goals of Positive Psychology (in Coaching)

Applying positive psychology to coaching can be a tricky business, but it is undertaken with the best of intentions and care for others.

In general, the goals of positive psychology in coaching are as follows:

To positively impact the client's life-this goal is above all others, and all others feed indirectly into this goal. The main goal of coaching is to improve the client's life. Positive psychology coaching is no different;

Increase the client's experience of positive emotions;

Help clients identify and develop their strengths and unique talents;

Enhance the client's goal-setting and goal-striving abilities;

Build a sense of hope into the client's perspective;

Cultivate the client's sense of happiness and wellbeing;

Nurture a sense of gratitude in the client;

Help the client build and maintain healthy, positive relationships with others;

Encourage the client to maintain an optimistic outlook;

Help the client learn to savor every positive moment (Mentor Coach, n.d.; Peppercorn, 2014).

You can probably easily see why the first goal is the biggest, and basically subsumes all the other goals. Each of Goals 2 through 10 can be considered milestones on the way to Goal 1-effective techniques and objectives that help the client and coach work their way towards the client's biggest life goals.

An Introduction to the PERMA Model

The PERMA model is a widely recognized and influential model in positive psychology. Seligman proposed this model to help explain and define wellbeing in greater depth.

"PERMA" is an acronym for the five facets of wellbeing according to Seligman:

P - Positive Emotions: Even though seeking positive emotions alone is not a very effective way to boost your wellbeing, experiencing positive emotion is still an important factor. Part of wellbeing is enjoying yourself in the moment, i.e., experiencing positive emotions;

E - Engagement: Having a sense of engagement, in which we may lose track of time and become completely absorbed in something we enjoy and excel at, is an important piece of wellbeing. It's hard to have a developed sense of wellbeing if you are not truly engaged in anything you do;

R - (Positive) Relationships: Humans are social creatures, and we rely on connections with others to truly flourish. Having deep, meaningful relationships with others is vital to our wellbeing;

M - Meaning: Even someone who is deliriously happy most of the time may not have a developed sense of wellbeing if they do not find meaning in their life. When we dedicate ourselves to a cause or recognize something bigger than ourselves, we experience a sense of meaning that there is simply no replacement for;

A - Accomplishment / Achievement: We all thrive when we are succeeding, achieving our goals, and bettering ourselves. Without a drive to accomplish and achieve, we are missing one of the puzzle pieces of authentic wellbeing (Seligman, 2011).

This model gives us a comprehensive framework for understanding wellbeing as well as a foundation for improving wellbeing. If you're looking to enhance your own sense of authentic happiness and wellbeing, all you need to do is focus on:

Experiencing more positive emotions; do more of the things that make you happy, and bring enjoyment into your daily routine;

Working on upping your engagement; pursue hobbies that interest you, develop your skills, and look for a job more suited to your passions, if necessary;

Improve the quality (and/or quantity) of your relationships with others; work on building more positive and supportive relationships with your friends, family, and significant other(s);

Seek out meaning; if you don't find it through your work, look for it in volunteering opportunities, personal hobbies or leisure activities, or acting as a mentor for others;

Keep your focus on achieving your goals-but don't focus too hard; try to keep your ambition in balance with all of the other important things in life (Seligman, 2011).

These five aspects of the PERMA model are measurable, and also vital for an overall sense of wellbeing. This model pushes past the older model of authentic happiness in its consideration of more than just happiness or positive emotions. Of course, positive emotions are important-they're part of the PERMA model itself, after all-but focusing just on positive emotions will not help you to develop a comprehensive sense of wellbeing, including engagement, meaning, success, and positive relationships with others.

Happiness alone will likely not propel you towards flourishing, but wellbeing will.

Meaning of Topics Like Flow and Flourishing

Speaking of flourishing, it's a concept we've touched on in this piece already, but have not yet defined. We've also mentioned the topic of flow, though indirectly, which is an important concept in positive psychology as well.

Understanding these concepts is vital for understanding the field of positive psychology. Read on to learn more about them.

Flourishing

Flourishing is one of the most significant concepts in positive psychology, as it encompasses and extends to so many other positive concepts.

In short, "flourishing" refers to the state we are in when we pay attention to each aspect of the PERMA model and build up a solid sense of wellbeing. We flourish when we cultivate our talents and strengths, develop deep and meaningful relationships, feel pleasure and enjoyment, and make a meaningful contribution to the world.

We flourish when we find fulfillment in life along with achieving more traditional objectives related to success when we are truly living the "good life" (Seligman, 2011).

Positive psychologist and professor Dr. Lynn Soots (n.d.) describes flourishing as the following:

"Flourishing is the product of the pursuit and engagement of an authentic life that brings inner joy and happiness through meeting goals, being connected with life passions, and relishing in accomplishments through the peaks and valleys of life."

Further, Soots emphasizes that flourishing is not a trait, a characteristic, or something you "either have or don't have;" rather, flourishing is a process that requires action. While it might be disappointing that it doesn't come easy, it's encouraging to know that, truly, anyone can flourish!

Flow

Another well-known topic in positive psychology is that of flow.

The concept of flow was first scientifically explored and defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (our second "founding father" of positive psychology).

In the last few decades of the 1900s, Csikszentmihalyi noticed that many artists fell into a particular state while they were working; this state was characterized by a particularly intense focus and great concentration on the task at hand, to the point of losing track of time for hours at a time.

He continued pursuing this topic and noticed it in others as well. Professional athletes, musicians, writers, and people from all sorts of artistic and creative trades frequently reported losing themselves into their work in a similar way. As he gathered more descriptions of this phenomenon, he observed six factors that characterize a flow experience:

1. Intense and focused concentration on the present moment;

2. The merging of action and awareness, or being fully present in your actions;

3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness (lack of attention to the self);

4. A sense of personal control or agency in the situation;

5. A distorted sense of time passing;

6. Experiencing the activity or situation as intrinsically rewarding (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975).

Those who enter into a state of flow are totally immersed in what they're doing. This immersion arises when the challenges of the activity in front of us are significant and roughly equal to our skill at this activity.

When we have high skill and low challenge, we are bored. When we have a high challenge and low skill, we are overwhelmed. When we have "low skill and low challenge," we are apathetic. It is only when both our skill and our challenges are high that we enter into a flow state.

Entering into flow is intrinsically rewarding and often an enjoyable experience; flow also seems to link to greater happiness and wellbeing, more academic (and, subsequently, career) success, and more positive and healthy relationships (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988).

To learn more about flow, Csikszentmihalyi gave an outstanding TED Talk on the subject.

If the video only piqued your interest, you may want to consider buying Csikszentmihalyi's books on flow:

Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (1998)

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (2008)

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (2013)

Examples of Positive Psychology in Practice (+PDF)

Now, on to what the practitioners and application-minded people are really here for-how to put positive psychology into practice!

Positive psychology principles and exercises can be applied in several different settings, including therapy, the classroom, the workplace, and in your own home.

Some of the techniques that have proven most useful include:

The use of the experience sampling method (or ESM), also referred to as a daily diary method.

Before the days of smartphones, you would be given a beeper or pager that goes off at random points during the day, alerting you to pause, notice what you were thinking, feeling, and doing at that moment, and writing it all down. This is often used in positive interventions to help people realize how much of their day is actually quite positive.

The practice of keeping a gratitude journal.

A gratitude journal offers individuals a method of identifying and reflecting on all of the good things in their lives-all the things they have to be grateful for. Interventions often involve prompting people to write down three things they are grateful for each day, with the only stipulation being that they need to be different each day. Within a week, many people experience a boost in wellbeing along with an increase in gratitude.

Making a gratitude visit.

A gratitude visit (or letter) is an exercise in which an individual identifies a person to whom he or she is grateful and why; once they have these in mind, they can write a letter to this person expressing and explaining their gratitude.

If the person lives close enough to visit, they are encouraged to drop off the letter in person and visit with them; if not, a phone call, video chat, or simply dropping the letter in the mail can work as well. This exercise provides a significant boost to both gratitude and wellbeing.

Focusing on building personal strengths instead of weaknesses.

One of the most significant differences between many other forms of coaching and counseling and one based in positive psychology is the focus on strengths instead of weaknesses.

Positive psychology is based on the idea that building on our strengths is often a more effective path to success than trying to force excellence in areas we are simply not suited for. In practice, this technique involves identifying one's strengths and working to provide yourself with more opportunities to use them.

Wellbeing therapy.

This holistic approach to therapy is similar to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) but focuses on both promoting the positive and alleviating the negative in the client's life.

It is founded on Carol Ryff's model of wellbeing, which recognizes six facets or factors of wellbeing: mastery of the environment, personal growth, purpose in life, autonomy, self-acceptance, and positive relationships (Harvard Health Publishing, 2008).

Positive psychotherapy.

Positive psychotherapy is similar to wellbeing therapy, but generally packages several techniques and exercises into one treatment. Its focus is on building positive emotions, character strengths, and a sense of meaning in life. Twelve exercises are generally practiced in this form of therapy, including exercises on using your signature strengths, keeping a gratitude journal, making a gratitude visit (Harvard Health Publishing, 2008).

To read more about the power of putting positive psychological principles into practice, check out the aptly titled book, Positive Psychology in Practice, by positive psychologists P. Alex Linley and Stephen Joseph at this link. This book will walk you through the major facets of applying the relevant findings from the positive psychology literature, including:

The applied positive psychology perspective;

Historical and philosophical foundations;

Values and choices in pursuit of the good life;

Lifestyle practices for health and wellbeing;

Methods and processes for teaching and learning;

and positive psychology at work.

For more tools, exercises and techniques of positive psychology, click here for the free eBook with 3 positive exercises.

Criticism of the Movement in Perspective

Although positive psychology has been embraced by much of the psychology community (not to mention much of society at large), there are some common critiques of the movement-many of which have some valid points.

At the 2015 World Conference of Positive Psychology, some of the biggest names in positive psychology discussed a few of these criticisms. Below, we'll outline some of the major criticisms and an evaluation of their merit in today's field.

Research findings are often invalid, overstated, and misleading.

Like any other scientific field, mistakes are sometimes made. This often seems to be due to excitement over the potential of findings in positive psychology; it can be hard to maintain objectivity when you feel a finding has both broad and deep applicability to the real world.

However, this is no excuse for a lack of scientific rigor. While there is a bit more leeway in crossing your "t"s and dotting your "i"s in applied research, positive psychologists must be careful to keep their claims within reason and think critically about the limitations of their methods-there is always a limitation!

Today, positive psychology has overcome some of the initial obstacles and growing pains inherent to a new field. More critical attention is being paid to the research, which gives us all more confidence in the findings.

There is too much emphasis on self-report and cross-sectional survey data.

This is certainly a valid point; much of the positive psychology literature is built on survey data. However, this emphasis on survey data is not exclusive to positive psychology, and positive psychology does not exclusively use surveys. Receiving feedback from those close to an individual is increasingly being utilized to corroborate or compare self-report data to, which increases confidence in data.

Although positive psychology is not alone in this limitation, it is one that positive psychologists should continue to consider when planning, implementing and reviewing research.

Positive psychology has a cultural and ethnocentric bias.

It's true that much of the research in positive psychology has been published by Western scholars, editors, reviewers, and journals. It is also true that positive psychology generally embraces a white, middle-class audience, in which injustice, poverty, and inequality are swept under the rug.

However, this bias seems to have been much over-hyped. Recently, more research from experts in non-Western countries and from a diverse range of backgrounds is being conducted (and published). The recent establishment of the International Positive Psychology Association is one sign of this attempt at broadening the perspective of positive psychology.

The field is too individualistic.

Another valid point is that positive psychology focuses too much on the individual-on personal experiences, individual traits and characteristics, and intrapersonal processes and phenomena. Positive psychology does indeed seem to have an overly narrow focus on the individual and a lack of attention paid to relationships, teams, groups, organizations, and communities.

Some have argued that this focus on individuals leads positive psychology to victim-blame (e.g., "If you can't figure out how to be happy, it's your fault") and excuse those who are contributing to systemic issues (e.g., "It's too hard to make corporations act ethically, so we'll just help you make the best of it.").

Positive psychology is just a promotion of a "Pollyanna" personality type, not an authentic exploration of the good life.

Of the major critiques of positive psychology, this may be one of those with the least merit. Although there is a good deal of research on " Pollyanna " types (happy, bubbly, cheerful, extroverted), that research is by no means representative of the entire field.

As cited earlier, there are studies on the dark side of happiness and optimism and the benefits of thinking pessimistically. There are also myriad studies on people from all across the spectrum of personality, from quiet and successful introverts to boisterous and struggling extroverts, and on the lack of fulfillment and meaning in the lives of some of the most "bubbly" individuals.

On the surface, it may seem that positive psychology is the study of the perpetually happy, but anything more than a cursory look will show you that the field is a rich exploration of all that which makes life good (and a bit of what makes it difficult as well).

Some of the criticisms of the field make excellent points.

Rather than struggling against these points, we should be open to considering them, thinking critically about the health of our field, and coming up with solutions for any big problems.

No field is immune from criticism, nor should it be; a healthy debate and a robust peer review process is what will keep positive psychology theory from lapsing into nothing more than an edict to "be positive" and positive psychology interventions from devolving into self-help material that is based on nothing but opinions or wishful thinking.

7 Other Definitions

Watch this video to find out what Positive Psychology means to The Positive Psychology People ( website) and some of the most influential researchers in the field:

Definition 1:

"Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions."

Source: Gable, Shelly L., Haidt, Jonathan, What (and Why) Is Positive Psychology? (PDF), MichaelGeorge.com

Definition 2:

"Positive psychology is the branch of psychology that uses scientific understanding and effective intervention to aid in the achievement of a satisfactory life, rather than merely treating mental illness."

Source: Wikipedia

Definition 3:

"Positive psychology studies what makes life most worth living."

Source: Peterson, Christopher, What is positive psychology and what is it not?

Definition 4:

"Positive Psychology is the scientific study of human flourishing, and an applied approach to optimal functioning. It has also been defined as the study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals, communities, and organisations to thrive."

Source: Positive Psychology Institute.

Definition 5:

"Positive psychology cannot be confined to any dogmas carved in stone, because it is always subject to influences by new creative ideas, pressing human needs, and changing circumstances."

According to Paul Wong, the underlying theme of positive psychology is that life can be made better for all people if certain conditions are met.

Source: Wong, Paul T. P., Wong, Lilian C. J., McDonald, Marvin J., Klaassen, Derrick W., 2012, The Positive Psychology of Meaning and Spirituality

Definition 6:

"Positive psychology is the scientific study of human strengths and virtues."

According to Martin Seligman-who is seen as the founding father of positive psychology-the positive psychology movement can be described as:

"The study of what constitutes the pleasant life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life."

Source: Batthyany, Alexander, Russo-Netzer, Pninit, Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology

Definition 7:

"Positive psychology is the scientific and applied approach to uncovering people's strengths and promoting their positive functioning" (Hugo Alberts).

Or:

"Positive psychology studies what is going right with the human mind and behaviour and how to foster these types of wellbeing on both the macro-, group-, and individual-level" (Seph Fontane Pennock).

Source: PositivePsychology.com

What is Positive Psychology and How Did it Come into Being?

The question "what is wrong with people" has guided the thinking of many researchers and dominated countless scientific studies during the 20th century. It is hard to deny that this entails an important question.

In our attempts to answer the question, we have gained more understanding of many illnesses and have developed effective treatments for a wide range of problems.

However, as an inevitable consequence of our focus on the negative aspects of wellbeing and health, such as distress and disease, we developed an almost exclusive attention to pathology.

We believe that science has focused disproportionately on pathology and repair, and devoted relatively little attention to factors that "make life worth living."

As the 21st century unfolds, however, we are beginning to ask a different question: "What is right about people?"

This question is at the heart of positive psychology, which is the scientific and applied approach to uncovering people's strengths and promoting their positive functioning.

During the past 14 years, the number of scientific studies on positive psychology has increased tremendously. In addition, countless interventions have been developed to increase people's wellbeing.

A Take-Home Message

We hope this article has given you a good understanding of positive psychology-what it is, what it isn't, where it's been, and where it's going.

Positive psychology is a field with a huge potential for improving the lives of people around the world, and many impactful findings have already been discovered.

The bottom line is this: if you want to keep up in the world of coaching, teaching, counseling, therapy, and a dozen other domains, make sure to keep an eye out for what's new in positive psychology!

What are your thoughts on the state of the field? Do you think there are bigger criticisms that are being ignored? Do you think the field is doing a good job at solving the problems it set out to solve? What do you think is the "next big thing" in positive psychology? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Thanks for reading!

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free.

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What Is Positive Psychology & Why Is It Important?

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What is positive psychology? This article outlines its importance, definitions, goals, examples, and key concepts of the field. Enjoy!

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Positive psych is a form of Psychology that focuses on positive influences and a person's physical, mental, and overall personal wellbeing.

In a study conducted by the University of British Colombia in 2012, elementary school students who performed kind acts experiences higher increases in being well liked among their peers. They gained popularity and positive interactions through being kind to others.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051380

Also - I found this cool site that lists University studies on Positive Psych that will probably be helpful to everyone in the future! Here's the link :)

https://www.becomingminimalist.com/happier/

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Positive psychology emphasizes the patient’s wellbeing, focuses on the positive aspects of the patient’s life, and encourages the patient to reframe possible negative thoughts/experiences in a more constructive light that would better serve the individual

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positive psychology is it's a systematic and scientific way to become more self aware and understand the self more.

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Love and happiness may not actually originate in the heart, but they are good for it. For example, a found that happiness predicts lower heart rate and blood pressure. In the study, participants rated their happiness over 30 times in one day and then again three years later. The initially happiest participants had a lower heart rate on follow-up (about six beats slower per minute), and the happiest participants during the follow-up had better blood pressure.

Research has also uncovered a link between happiness and another measure of heart health: heart rate variability, which refers to the time interval between heartbeats and is associated with risk for various diseases. In a 2008 study, researchers monitored 76 patients suspected to have coronary artery disease. Was happiness linked to healthier hearts even among people who might have heart problems? It seemed so: The participants who rated themselves as happiest on the day their hearts were tested had a healthier pattern of heart rate variability on that day.

Over time, these effects can add up to serious differences in heart health. In a 2010 study, researchers invited nearly 2,000 Canadians into the lab to talk about their anger and stress at work. Observers rated them on a scale of one to five for the extent to which they expressed positive emotions like joy, happiness, excitement, enthusiasm, and contentment. Ten years later, the researchers checked in with the participants to see how they were doing-and it turned out that the happier ones were less likely to have developed coronary heart disease. In fact, for each one-point increase in positive emotions they had expressed, their heart disease risk was 22 percent lower.

2. HAPPINESS STRENGTHENS YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

Do you know a grumpy person who always seems to be getting sick? That may be no coincidence: Research is now finding a link between happiness and a stronger immune system.

In a 2003 experiment, 350 adults volunteered to get exposed to the common cold (don't worry, they were well-compensated). Before exposure, researchers called them six times in two weeks and asked how much they had experienced nine positive emotions-such as feeling energetic, pleased, and calm-that day. After five days in quarantine, the participants with the most positive emotions were less likely to have developed a cold.

Some of the same researchers wanted to investigate why happier people might be less susceptible to sickness, so in a 2006 study they gave 81 graduate students the hepatitis B vaccine. After receiving the first two doses, participants rated themselves on those same nine positive emotions. The ones who were high in positive emotion were nearly twice as likely to have a high antibody response to the vaccine-a sign of a robust immune system. Instead of merely affecting symptoms, happiness seemed to be literally working on a cellular level.

A much earlier experiment found that immune system activity in the same individual goes up and down depending on their happiness. For two months, 30 male dental students took pills containing a harmless blood protein from rabbits, which causes an immune response in humans. They also rated whether they had experienced various positive moods that day. On days when they were happier, participants had a better immune response, as measured by the presence of an antibody in their saliva that defends against foreign substances.

3. HAPPINESS COMBATS STRESS

Stress is not only upsetting on a psychological level but also triggers biological changes in our hormones and blood pressure. Happiness seems to temper these effects, or at least help us recover more quickly.

In the study mentioned above, where participants rated their happiness more than 30 times in a day, researchers also found associations between happiness and stress. The happiest participants had 23 percent lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol than the least happy, and another indicator of stress-the level of a blood-clotting protein that increases after stress-was 12 times lower.

Happiness also seems to carry benefits even when stress is inevitable. In a 2009 study, some diabolically cruel researchers decided to stress out psychology students and see how they reacted. The students were led to a soundproof chamber, where they first answered questions indicating whether they generally felt 10 feelings like enthusiasm or pride. Then came their worst nightmare: They had to answer an exceedingly difficult statistics question while being videotaped, and they were told that their professor would evaluate their response. Throughout the process, their heart was measured with an electrocardiogram (EKG) machine and a blood pressure monitor. In the wake of such stress, the hearts of the happiest students recovered most quickly.

4. HAPPY PEOPLE HAVE FEWER ACHES AND PAINS

A asked participants to rate their recent experience of positive emotions, then (five weeks later) how much they had experienced negative symptoms like muscle strain, dizziness, and heartburn since the study began. People who reported the highest levels of positive emotion at the beginning actually became healthier over the course of the study, and ended up healthier than their unhappy counterparts. The fact that their health improved over five weeks (and the health of the unhappiest participants declined) suggests that the results aren't merely evidence of people in a good mood giving rosier ratings of their health than people in a bad mood. 2005 study suggests that positive emotion also mitigates pain in the context of disease. Women with arthritis and chronic pain rated themselves weekly on positive emotions like interest, enthusiasm, and inspiration for about three months. Over the course of the study, those with higher ratings overall were less likely to experience increases in pain.

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5. HAPPINESS COMBATS DISEASE AND DISABILITY

Happiness is associated with improvements in more severe, long-term conditions as well, not just shorter-term aches and pains.

In a 2008 study of nearly 10,000 Australians, participants who reported being happy and satisfied with life most or all of the time were about 1.5 times less likely to have long-term health conditions (like chronic pain and serious vision problems) two years later. Another study in the same year found that women with breast cancer recalled being less happy and optimistic before their diagnosis than women without breast cancer, suggesting that happiness and optimism may be protective against the disease.

As adults become elderly, another condition that often afflicts them is frailty, which is characterized by impaired strength, endurance, and balance and puts them at risk of disability and death. In a 2004 study, over 1,550 Mexican Americans ages 65 and older rated how much self-esteem, hope, happiness, and enjoyment they felt over the past week. After seven years, the participants with more positive emotion ratings were less likely to be frail. Some of the same researchers also found that happier elderly people (by the same measure of positive emotion) were less likely to have a stroke in the subsequent six years; this was particularly true for men.

6. HAPPINESS LENGTHENS OUR LIVES

In the end, the ultimate health indicator might be longevity - and here, especially, happiness comes into play. In perhaps the of happiness and longevity, the life expectancy of Catholic nuns was linked to the amount of positive emotion they expressed in an autobiographical essay they wrote upon entering their convent decades earlier, typically in their 20s. Researchers combed through these writing samples for expressions of feelings like amusement, contentment, gratitude, and love. In the end, the happiest-seeming nuns lived a whopping 7-10 years longer than the least happy. most famous study

You don't have to be a nun to experience the life-extending benefits of happiness, though. In a 2011 study, almost 4,000 English adults ages 52-79 reported how happy, excited, and content they were multiple times in a single day. Here, happier people were 35 percent less likely to die over the course of about five years than their unhappier counterparts.

These two studies both measured specific positive emotions, but overall satisfaction with one's life-another major indicator of happiness-is also linked to longevity. A 2010 study followed almost 7,000 people from California's Alameda County for nearly three decades, finding that the people who were more satisfied with life at the beginning were less likely to die during the course of the study.

As the science of happiness and health matures, researchers are trying to determine what role, if any, happiness actually plays in causing health benefits. They're also trying to distinguish the effects of different forms of happiness (including positive emotions and life satisfaction), the effects of "extreme" happiness, and other factors. For example, a suggests that we should look not just at life satisfaction levels but life satisfaction variability : Researchers found that low life satisfaction with lots of fluctuations-i.e., an unstable level of happiness-was linked to even earlier death than low life satisfaction alone.

All that said, the study of the health benefits of happiness is still young. It will take time to figure out the exact mechanisms by which happiness influences health, and how factors like social relationships and exercise fit in. But in the meantime, it seems safe to imagine that a happier you will be healthier, too.

The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.

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6 Scientific Facts That Link Happiness with Good Health - Goodnet

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Love and happiness may not actually originate in the heart, but they are good for it. For example, a found that happiness predicts lower heart rate and blood pressure. In the study, participants rated their happiness over 30 times in one day and then again three years later.

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Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that allow individuals to have a positive and successful life. It focuses on positive experiences like Happiness, Hope, and love. Positive psychology focus on topics like life satisfaction, happiness, and personal well-being.

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Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play.

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Positive psychology is the study of wellness, happiness, the different kinds of happiness, and how people achieve them.

One of these kinds is a good life- where they live a life of engagement, where they work and enjoy their tasks and experience ‘flow,’ which is becoming so into your task, you lose track of time.

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Positive psychology is the reason people live for. Positive psychology is important because once we understand what people live for, this can help us develop ways to deal with mental illness.

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"Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be," said Abraham Lincoln. As it turns out, the president wasn't too far off from what scientists would themselves conclude a century and a half later. Indeed, in recent years, we've learned that happiness is far more than something which all men have an equal right to pursue. Happiness is a human function. Below are 30 fascinating facts about happiness, according to science.

Doing a good deed triggers a high in the brain.

If you want to be happy, spend time with other happy people.

Sleep contributes greatly to our happiness.

The world's happiest people feel a sense of community.

Your politics could be to blame for your unhappiness.

Happiness keeps the doctor away.

Listening to music can boost your mood.

Want to feel happier? Turn the radio on! According to a 2013 research study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, listening to "happy" (i.e. positive, upbeat) music can effectively boost our moods. A similar study done the same year and published in Science further explained why this is. When we hear a song we especially like, or when we hear a new song and decide we like it, the brain's reward system kicks into gear.

A happy baseball player lives longer.

Fortunately, you don't have to play baseball to enjoy a longer life.

Being happy can lead to better heart health.

Laughter really is the best medicine.

Being outdoors can increase our happiness.

Happy people are more likely to have happy children.

'Stop and smell the roses' is actually really good advice.

Those who are paid by the hour are usually happier.

Marriage makes us happier - well, most of us.

Money isn't everything.

The science behind happiness is full of surprises, and this is one of them. According to a study found in the Journal of Socio-Economics and highlighted in Fast Company magazine, people would overwhelmingly choose to have relationships (either friendships or romances) in lieu of $100,000, if their happiness depended upon their choice.

Dress for the way you want to feel.

Happiness is a natural stress reliever.

Want to be happier? Get off Facebook.

Certain foods incite happy feelings.

Deciding to be happy is a big part of overall happiness.

Petting dogs makes us happy, but is that really so surprising?

Some jobs are happier than others.

Your general happiness is tied to your sex life.

Puberty ruins everything, including happiness.

Hearing another person laugh may trick us into feeling happy.

Carpe diem - you won't regret it.

Disciplining your children is doing them a major favor.

Fake it 'til you make it.

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30 Facts About Happiness, According to Science - Online Psychology Degree Guide

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"Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be," said Abraham Lincoln. As it turns out, the president wasn't too far off from what scientists would themselves conclude a century and a half later. Indeed, in recent years, we've learned that happiness is far more than something which all men [...]

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Positive psychology is the study in which people can practice ways of making life worth it. Science helps to figure out what is a positive lifestyle and what positive traits do people obtain.

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Positive psychology is the mental alignment of self positivism to engage in a healthier/happier life style- Michael Natal

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Molly Wean

Positive Psychology focuses on the positive influences and experiences in someone's life.

A fun fact is that Mindfulness meditation can reduce feelings of pain. - Zoe Overton

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Positive Psychology is the scientific study of a thriving life.

"One of the triggers for the introduction of positive psychology was the realization that since World War II, psychology as a field had devoted much of its effort to identifying, treating, and—occasionally—preventing problems such as anxiety and depression. The yield of these problem-focused efforts has been impressive, but a myopic view of the human condition has resulted."

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Research and Applications

Nansook Park, PhD, Christopher Peterson, PhD, † Daniel Szvarca, BS, Randy J. Vander Molen, BA, Eric S. Kim, MS, and Kevin Collon, BA

Abstract

Positive psychology is the scientific study of a healthy and flourishing life. The goal of positive psychology is to complement and extend the traditional problem-focused psychology that has proliferated in recent decades. Positive psychology is concerned with positive psychological states (eg, happiness), positive psychological traits (eg, talents, interests, strengths of character), positive relationships, and positive institutions. We describe evidences of how topics of positive psychology apply to physical health. Research has shown that psychological health assets (eg, positive emotions, life satisfaction, optimism, life purpose, social support) are prospectively associated with good health measured in a variety of ways. Not yet known is whether positive psychology interventions improve physical health. Future directions for the application of positive psychology to health are discussed. We conclude that the application of positive psychology to health is promising, although much work remains to be done.

Keywords: positive psychology, health psychology, health, well-being, positive interventions

'. . . a happy, engaged, and fulfilling psychological and social life is not just a consequence of good health, it is what leads people to live a healthy and long life.'

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

-World Health Organization1

Most would agree with this statement, but over the years, it has been largely a slogan. More recently, theory, research, and applications from the perspective of positive psychology have helped articulate the meaning of health and well-being. Positive psychology is an umbrella term for the scientific study of the various contributors to a healthy and thriving life for the self and others (eg, positive emotions, life meaning, engaging work, and close relationships).2 It is the study of strengths, assets, and positive attributes. The topics of concern to positive psychology are broad indicators of psychological, social, and societal well-being.

Research has shown that not only are physical, mental, and social well-beings important components for complete health, but they are also interconnected. Evidence is accumulating that a happy, engaged, and fulfilling psychological and social life is not just a consequence of good health, it is what leads people to live a healthy and long life.

This article provides a brief overview of what positive psychology is and addresses how theories, findings, and especially applications from positive psychology might pertain to physical health.

What Is Positive Psychology?

Positive psychology is a perspective within psychology that studies optimal experience, people being and doing their best.2-4 It challenges the assumptions of the disease model. Positive psychology assumes that life entails more than avoiding or undoing problems and that explanations of the good life must do more than reverse accounts of problems. Someone without symptoms or disorders may or may not be living well. Positive psychology urges attention to what is taking place on the other side of the zero point of being problem-free. It calls for as much focus on strength as on weakness, as much interest in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst, and as much attention to fulfilling the lives of healthy people as to healing the wounds of the distressed. Research findings from positive psychology are intended to contribute to a more complete and balanced scientific understanding of human experiences and ways to foster thriving in individuals, communities, and societies.

One of the triggers for the introduction of positive psychology was the realization that since World War II, psychology as a field had devoted much of its effort to identifying, treating, and-occasionally-preventing problems such as anxiety and depression.3 The yield of these problem-focused efforts has been impressive, but a myopic view of the human condition has resulted. It is as if psychology has viewed people as only fragile and flawed.

The goal of positive psychology is to complement and extend the problem-focused psychology, and an important idea from positive psychology is that one way to solve problems is by identifying and leveraging individual and societal strengths and assets.5

The topics of concern to positive psychology can be divided into 4 related topics2,3:

Positive subjective experiences (happiness, gratification, fulfillment, flow)

Positive individual traits (strengths of character, talents, interests, values)

Positive interpersonal relationships (friendship, marriage, colleagueship)

Positive institutions (families, schools, businesses, communities)

The value of positive psychology is to use the scientific method to sort through various claims and hypotheses about what it means to live well or poorly and to identify the relevant circumstances in each case.

Positive Psychology and Health

Can physical health be clarified by a positive perspective in the same way that psychological well-being has been clarified? To return to the definition of health by the World Health Organization with which this article began,1 a positive perspective urges us to look beyond the mere absence of disease and infirmity to define what it means to be healthy in positive terms.6-8 Positive health can be characterized not only as a long and disease-free life but additionally in terms of

Less frequent and briefer ailments

Greater recuperative ability

More physiological reserves

Chronic but nondebilitating diseases

Familiar within the field of epidemiology are the population-level concepts of DALYs (disability adjusted life years), HALYs (health-adjusted life years), and QALYs (quality-adjusted life years), which combine measures of morbidity and mortality into the same index.9 Along these lines, HLEs (happiness-adjusted life expectancies) measure the quality of life in a nation by forming the product of the average life expectancy and the average happiness (aka subjective well-being, life satisfaction) in that nation.10 Positive health concerns itself with the individual-level analogues of these constructs.

The field of positive health as we envision it overlaps with allied approaches concerned with disease prevention, health promotion, and wellness. The value of positive health as an approach in its own right is that it makes explicit the need to consider good health as opposed to the absence of poor health. Studies of "wellness" often end up being studies of illness, much as studies of mental "health" are often studies of mental illness.

Concern with positive health leads to an examination of health assets, individual-level factors that produce positive health in one or more of the ways that it might be defined, over-and-above the frequently studied risk factors for poor health, like high cholesterol, obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and a sedentary lifestyle.8 Among the psychosocial risk factors frequently examined with respect to poor health are anger, anxiety, depression, and social isolation. By the logic of a positive perspective, the mere absence of these negative states and traits is not all that matters for physical health. Important as well are positive states and traits, and the contribution of these in their own right needs to be studied, controlling for negative states and traits as well as other usual-suspect risk factors.

There have been extensive studies on negative psychological factors such as stress, depression, hostility, and their effects on increased risk of various health problems.11 However, less known is whether certain positive psychological factors play a protective role against health risks. Research has shown that positive and negative emotions are not opposite and are only modestly correlated.12,13 Experiencing each of those emotions is also involved in the activation of different brain regions.14

For the past several years, researchers have examined the contributions of health assets, especially psychological ones, to good health, while they have controlled for established risk factors. Researchers need to examine both risk factors and health assets to understand relationships between both positive and negative psychological factors as they together contribute to health outcomes.

Carefully conducted research shows that positive health assets indeed predict good health assessed in a variety of ways.15 Among the positive psychology health assets foreshadowing good health are

Life meaning and purpose26-29

Helping others and volunteering30-32

Good social relationships33-35

Spirituality and religiosity36,37

There has been growing evidence that positive psychological characteristics affect health and longevity using various research methods including longitudinal prospective and experimental designs.

Perhaps, among the most well-known long-term studies that showed the possible link between positive psychological assets and health outcomes is The Nun Study.38 A group of American nuns who were members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame wrote autobiographical essays in their early 20s when they joined the Sisterhood. Six decades later, researchers who had accessed the convent archive scored the emotional content of 180 essays in terms of positivity, and investigated whether they were related to the mortality of nuns. Indeed, positive emotional content was significantly related to longevity. The nuns who expressed more positive emotions (those in the upper 25%) in their essays, strikingly, lived on average 10 years longer than those expressing fewer positive emotions (those in the bottom 25%). In other words, happier nuns lived longer than less happy (but not depressed) nuns. Putting this in context, unhealthy behavior like smoking costs on average 7 years of one's life.2

In another experimental study, Cohen and his colleagues examined the relationships between positive emotions and the vulnerability of catching the common cold.39 With 334 healthy adult volunteers in the community, they first measured both positive emotional experience, such as happy, pleased, lively, and relaxed, and negative emotional experiences, such as depressed, anxious, and hostile, over a few weeks using self-reports. Afterward, participants were invited to the study lab and exposed to rhinoviruses through nasal drops and monitored in quarantine for the development of the common cold. The researchers found that higher positive emotional experiences were related to lower risk of developing a cold and fewer reports of symptoms, while negative emotional experiences were not significantly related to catching a cold, but associated with reports of more symptoms. In short, this study showed that experiencing positive emotions was linked to greater resistance to developing the common cold.

The health benefits of positive psychological assets have been documented in different cultural settings as well. For instance, in Japanese culture, the most commonly used indicator of subjective well-being is the sense of "life worth living" ( ikigai).29 In a population-based prospective cohort study with 43, 391 adults in Ohsaki, Japan, lack of the sense of "life worth living" ( ikigai) was significantly associated with higher risk of all-cause mortality over time. Those who reported having an ikigai in their life in a survey were more likely to be alive at a 7-year follow-up compared to their counterparts who did not find a sense of ikigai. Interestingly, the increase in mortality risk was due to an increase in mortality from cardiovascular disease and external causes such as suicide, but not to morality from cancer. Having a sense of "life worth living" ( ikigai) often means having a purpose in life and realizing the value of being alive which could serve as a motivation for living.

In our own study with US adults, having life purpose played a protective role for heart health.27 At a 2-year follow-up, the higher level of life purpose was prospectively related to lower risks of incidence of myocardial infarction among people with coronary heart disease at the baseline.

One of the ways to achieve a sense of life meaning and purpose is through helping others and doing regular volunteer work in communities. Research has shown that among elders, people who volunteer regularly are healthier and live longer.30,31 In a longitudinal study with a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older US adults, a study found that volunteerism predicted a lower risk of hypertension 4 years later.31 That is, those who had volunteered at least 200 hours in the previous 12 months were less likely to develop hypertension risk compared to those who did not volunteer. However, lower levels of volunteering did not decrease the health risk of hypertension. It seems that dosage and intentions of volunteering matters for its health benefits. In another study, people who regularly volunteered for self-oriented motives did not exhibit lower risk for mortality 4 years later, while those who regularly and frequently volunteered for other-oriented motives showed lower risk of subsequent mortality.32 In conclusion, it is good to be good!

One of the well-studied health-related positive psychology topics is optimism. Optimism is sometimes seen as pollyannaism, a naively rosy view of the world coupled with a "don't worry, be happy" attitude. However, optimism the way researchers study it is a disposition to an expectation that the future will entail more positive events than negative ones.40 Optimists are neither in denial nor naive about challenges and difficulties in life. They simply attend to and acknowledge the positive.

Empirical research shows that optimism-usually assessed with self-report surveys-relates to good health and a long life. According to research, among asymptomatic men with HIV, optimism slowed the onset of AIDS over an 18-month follow-up.41,42 Over an 8-year follow-up, optimism predicted better pulmonary function among older men, even when smoking was controlled.43 In a longitudinal study of older men and women, optimism predicted not only better health but also lower levels of pain.44 Our own research group recently reported a study of a large nationally representative sample of older adults (aged >50 years) in the United States showing that over a 2-year period, optimism predicted a lower likelihood of stroke, even after controlling for chronic illnesses, self-rated health, and relevant sociodemographic, biological, and psychological factors.45

In addition, the importance of social support and positive relationships on good health and well-being has long been documented. Supportive social relationships were associated with longevity, less cognitive decline with aging, greater resistance to infectious disease, and better management of chronic illnesses.33-35

Enough well-designed studies exist in support of the premise that health assets predict good health to warrant further investigation. Research so far provides compelling evidence that positive psychological health assets predict or are associated with various health outcomes and longevity among healthy populations. However, what is relatively unknown are the effects of positive health assets for recovery and long-term health outcomes among those with serious health problems such as cancer.

Furthermore, before we consider interventions that deliberately encourage these assets in order to reduce morbidity and mortality and to increase physical well-being, there are issues that need to be addressed.46

First, assuming that health assets do play a causal role, what are the mechanisms? Research to date has often been stark, usually demonstrating an association over time but not clarifying how it happens. We assume the pathways are multiple, from biological to emotional to cognitive to behavioral to social. For example, in the case of optimism, biologically, it has been linked to better immune system functioning, and behaviorally, people who are optimistic engage in healthier behaviors. They eat healthy, exercise, do not smoke or drink, and seek medical care when they need. Socially, optimists have better and more frequent social contacts. All of these are associated with health benefits.

It is unknown which pathway bears the most traffic or whether the mechanisms vary as a function of the specific health outcome (eg, cardiovascular disease vs the common cold) or as a function of the individual's age, gender, or lifestyle. Again, the best a researcher can do is to identify plausible mechanisms in a given study and explicitly investigate their role as mediators.

Second, are health assets a cause of good health or merely a correlated marker of its real causes? Indeed, the array of positive health assets is challenging for researchers, who cannot study or control all possible assets in the same investigation. No single study relying on correlational data can be definitive, so it is the overall body of research investigating health assets that must be examined to draw causal conclusions.17

Third, do the apparent benefits of health assets generalize to all kinds of health outcomes? Much of the relevant research has ascertained general health and all-cause mortality, and some of this work has relied only on self-reported information about health status. When researchers look at specific health outcomes assessed in more objective ways, psychological health assets seem to be more predictive of cardiovascular health than they are of freedom from cancer. So the benefits of health assets may be disease specific. A wider variety of diseases needs to be investigated from the positive health perspective. Moreover, research is not clear about the relative contribution of health assets to disease onset, to disease progression, and/or to recovery.

Positive Psychology Interventions for Physical Health

Researchers and practitioners have begun to develop intervention strategies based on positive psychology to increase positive psychological assets such as positive emotions or life satisfaction to bolster physical health. Whether increasing positive psychological assets will turn to better health outcomes is inconclusive. These intervention efforts targeting health assets in order to lead to better health not only have practical significance but also theoretical importance because appropriately done intervention studies would strengthen the claim that health assets actually cause good health.

We refer to interventions informed by positive psychology as positive psychology interventions. Sometimes positive psychology interventions entail a specific technique, like counting one's blessings at the end of the day or using one's signature strengths of character in novels ways.47 At other times, the intervention uses a more-elaborated therapy package that combines different techniques, such as "Well-Being Therapy,"48 and Quality of Life Therapy,49 among others.

Intervention studies allow us to conclude that interventions informed by positive psychology can indeed change positive psychological states and traits, sometimes in lasting ways.47,48 An important qualification is that long-term benefits do not result from one-shot interventions unless these lead to a change in how someone habitually lives.18 Perhaps, what is required is a sustained lifestyle change.

On the face of it, intervening to increase a health asset should also have benefits for physical health, given the association between health assets and health outcomes. However, this argument does not embody a syllogism. Health assets may not be direct causes of good health, and even if they are, changing them may not result in better health. Said another way, we do not yet know if the health benefits of deliberately cultivated happiness or optimism or life meaning have the same benefits as their naturally occurring counterparts.50

Needed is intervention research that incudes physical health as an explicitly measured outcome. While it is interesting and important to show that a positive psychology intervention increases the psychological well-being of medial patients, the more exciting issue is whether the intervention also affects their physical health. If so, how quickly would health benefits be evident? And what is the mechanism by which the intervention has an effect?

In studying the mechanisms by which a positive psychology intervention influences physical health, the role played by mundane behavior should not be neglected.46 There are well-documented "healthy" ways of behaving,51 including sleeping 8 hours a night, eating balanced meals, not smoking, not drinking to excess, and exercising regularly.

We suspect that positive psychology interventions, when successful, lead people not only to think and feel in more positive ways but also to behave in more healthy ways.40,46 For example, optimistic people are more actively engaged with the world and are better problem solvers than their pessimistic counterparts. They have more frequent and higher quality social contacts as well as more social support. All of these factors may lead to healthier behaviors and habits and eventually to better health.

Positive psychology intervention studies for better health outcomes are in their infancy. So far, nearly all positive psychology interventions primarily targeted changing health-related behaviors such as physical activity, not the health outcome directly. Researchers have shown that positive psychology interventions influence some of the biological and behavioral processes implicated in good health. For example, inducing positive emotions speeds cardiovascular recovery following a stressful event.52 Training in mindfulness meditation can boost immune function.53 Psychosocial resilience training targeting positive emotions, cognitive flexibility, social support, life meaning, and active coping reduces total cholesterol among middle-aged adults.54 Researchers have begun to investigate how positive affect and affirmation influence physical activity and medication adherence among patients with coronary artery disease,55 asthma,56 and hypertension.57 The next step in each case is to show that such interventions also increase good health as opposed to its possible precursors.

Using a randomized controlled clinical trial, a group of researchers recently developed an intervention strategy that enhances positive affect and self-affirmation (PA/SA) and applied it to 3 different high-risk clinical populations (eg, hypertension, asthma, coronary artery disease) to change their health-related behaviors.55-57

In each clinical trial, patients were randomly assigned to either the patient education (PE) control group or the positive-affect/self-affirmation (PA/SA) intervention group. For the control group, each patient received an educational workbook, a pedometer, and a behavior contract for a physical activity goal. For the intervention group, each received PE control components and additionally, a PA/SA workbook chapter, bimonthly induction of PA/SA by telephone, and small mailed gifts. Patients in the PA intervention group were taught how to self-induce positive affect and self-affirmation using a workbook chapter, received bimonthly inducement of PA/SA by telephone, and unexpected small gifts (PA) mailed bimonthly several weeks before follow-up calls. During PA/SA induction phone calls, patients were told to "think about things that make you feel good" and take a moment each day to enjoy positive thoughts (PA), and to think about "proud moments" in their personal lives if they have a difficult time exercising (SA). For both groups, data were collected through a standardized bimonthly telephone follow-up for 12 months.

Using this research design, researchers conducted 3 parallel studies. In study 1,55 patients were recruited right after percutaneous coronary intervention to increase physical activity among people with coronary artery disease. Compared to the control group, patients in the intervention group engaged in significantly more physical activities. In study 2,56 physical activity among asthma patients who participated in the study was improved without differences between control and intervention groups. There was no significant effectiveness of intervention. In study 3,57 the intervention effect on enhancing medication adherence among hypertensive African Americans was examined. Patients in both control and intervention groups received a culturally appropriate hypertension self-management workbook, a behavioral contract, and bimonthly telephone calls to help them better handle barriers to medication adherence. In addition, patients in the PA/SA intervention group received small gifts and bimonthly telephone calls to help them utilize positive thoughts into their daily routine and foster self-affirmation. At the 12-month follow-up, the intervention group showed a significantly higher level of medication adherence compared to the control group (42% vs 36%). The reduction of blood pressure was found among participants without significant differences across groups.

Mixed results from these intervention studies leave questions that need to be clarified with more studies to better understand the effectiveness of a positive psychology intervention on the different health outcomes before they are implemented in health practices.

Another line of positive psychology intervention research that attracted significant attention in recent years is applications of mindfulness meditation. It is assumed that meditations induce positive affect and lead to good health. A study led by a neuroscientist, Richard Davidson, demonstrated that mindfulness meditation produces changes in brain and immune function in a positive way.53 In this study, 25 healthy employees at a work site received an 8-week intensive clinical training in mindfulness meditation. A weekly training class met for about 3 hours, and a silent 7-hour retreat was held during week 6 of the training. In addition, participants were instructed to perform home meditation practices for 1 hour each day, 6 days a week with the guided audiotapes. Brain electrical activity was measured at the baseline, the end of training, and 4 months after training. Also at the end of training, participants were vaccinated with influenza vaccine. Results from the meditation group were compared to those of the wait-list control group. Among the meditation group, brain activity in the left-sided anterior, associated with positive affect, was significantly increased. They also found significant increases in antibody concentrations to influenza vaccine in the meditation group. Interestingly, the size of increase in left-sided activation predicted the size of antibody concentration rise to the vaccine.

In sum, the effects of positive psychology interventions on health outcomes are inconclusive. As stated before, positive psychology interventions seem to be more effective on reducing health risks among healthy individuals in the short term. However, its long-term health effects, especially, on a population with different health problems, is not clear.

Conclusions

Positive psychology is a perspective that urges scientific attention to strengths and assets that contribute to health and a flourishing life. We have described what positive psychologists have learned about the relationships between positive psychological assets and physical health in the past decade.

To date, the application of positive psychology to health is promising, although much work remains to be done. On the positive side, research shows that what we call positive psychological health assets (eg, positive emotions, life satisfaction, optimism, positive relationships, life purpose) are prospectively associated with good health measured in a variety of ways. Also on the positive side, interventions have been developed that increase these assets; lasting effects require a lifestyle change.

Not yet known is whether positive psychology interventions improve physical health, reducing morbidity and mortality, speeding recovery from illness, and so on. Investigators are beginning to study the health effects of such interventions. Studies to date suggest that positive psychology interventions reduce some of the biological and behavioral processes that affect health, but the next step is to study good health per se.

We urge an open mind about the eventual success of such interventions. It is important not to get too far ahead of the data. Perhaps these interventions will work as intended, perhaps not. For example, the lesson from studies of psychological interventions targeting negative states and traits such as anger and depression in the hope of reducing cardiovascular disease, with which they are associated, is instructive. The success of these interventions is checkered at best.46 Whether the deliberate cultivation of positive health assets such as positive emotions or life purpose will be more successful in promoting good health than the reduction of psychological risk factors is not known, but is a question worth addressing.

In conclusion, growing evidence suggests that positive psychological assets are linked to health and longevity. However, more studies are necessary to learn more about when, why, how, and for whom positive psychological assets plays a role in good health and whether interventions that enhance these assets will yield health benefits. We urge a skeptical yet fair-minded attitude on the part of researchers and practitioners and that they pay particular attention to underlying mechanisms. Meanwhile, freedom from disease and longevity are not the only goals of life. Quality of life matters in addition to quantity of life. It is clear from research that experiencing frequent positive emotions, having sense of life purpose, paying attention to what is positive in life, and living a more socially integrated life is linked to one's quality of life across the lifespan. Thus, helping people cultivate positive psychological and social assets in life has potential for leading to happier, more meaningful, and healthier lives.

Acknowledgments

Christopher Peterson unexpectedly died on October 9, 2012, during the revision of this article. We are deeply indebted to his scholarly contributions and mentorship not only to this work but also to the foundation of positive psychology and its applications to various fields. His intellectual and personal contributions will continue to inspire and guide the positive psychology and positive health community.

Support for the preparation of this article was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneer Portfolio, which supports innovative ideas that may lead to breakthroughs in the future of health and health care. The Pioneer Portfolio funding was administered through a Positive Health grant to the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, Martin Seligman, Director.

References

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2. Peterson C. A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2006. [ Google Scholar]

5. Park N, Peterson C, Brunwasser SM. Positive psychology and therapy. In: Kazantzis N, Reinecke MA, Freeman A, eds. Cognitive and Behavioral Theories in Clinical Practice. New York, NY: Guilford; 2009:278-306. [ Google Scholar]

34. Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social relationships and mortality risk: a meta-analytic review. PLoS Med. 2010;7(7):e1000316. [[ PubMed] PMC free article] [ Google Scholar]

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Articles from American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine are provided here courtesy of SAGE Publications

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Positive Psychology and Physical Health: Research and Applications

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Research and Applications Nansook Park, PhD, Christopher Peterson, PhD, † Daniel Szvarca, BS, Randy J. Vander Molen, BA, Eric S. Kim, MS, and Kevin Collon, BA Positive psychology is the scientific study of a healthy and flourishing life. The goal of positive psychology is to complement and extend the traditional problem-focused psychology that has proliferated in recent decades.

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Positive Psychology is about the positive influences in a persons life, "scientific study of human flourishing"

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Positive Psychology is the psychology of happiness and a more happier lifestyle. -Jeffrey Cruz

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Positive psychology is the study of what is most important in life and what makes it worth living.

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"Their research showed that happiness and a sense of meaning in life do not necessarily go hand-in-hand, indicating that focusing on positive emotions alone will not bring the fulfilling and satisfying life you crave."

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If you've been hearing the term "positive psychology" thrown around a lot, but you're not quite sure what it is, you've come to the right place!

There are some common misconceptions about positive psychology, both about what it is and what it is not.

To clear up some of these misunderstandings and provide a brief but comprehensive overview of the field, we've put together this piece focused on defining and describing the positive psychology movement.

Before you read on, we thought you might like to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free. These science-based exercises will explore fundamental aspects of positive psychology including strengths, values and self-compassion and will give you the tools to enhance the wellbeing of your clients, students or employees.

What is Positive Psychology: A 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).

What Positive Psychology Focuses on in a Nutshell

Positive psychology focuses on the positive events and influences in life, including:

1. Positive experiences (like happiness, joy, inspiration, and love).

2. Positive states and traits (like gratitude, resilience, and compassion).

3. Positive institutions (applying positive principles within entire organizations and institutions).

As a field, positive psychology spends much of its time thinking about topics like character strengths, optimism, life satisfaction, happiness, wellbeing, gratitude, compassion (as well as self-compassion), self-esteem and self-confidence, hope, and elevation.

These topics are studied in order to learn how to help people flourish and live their best lives.

On the Founder: Martin Seligman

Martin Seligman is a researcher with a broad range of experience in psychology.

If you had never heard of the positive psychology movement until now, you still might have heard his name at some point. Seligman's research in the 1960s and 70s laid the foundation for the well-known psychological theory of " learned helplessness."

This theory, which has been backed by decades of research, explains how humans and animals can learn to become helpless and feel they have lost control over what happens to them.

Seligman connected this phenomenon with depression, noting that many people suffering from depression feel helpless as well. His work on the subject provided inspiration, ideas, and evidence to back up many treatments for depressive symptoms, as well as strategies for preventing depression.

While this is impressive enough on its own, Seligman knew that he had more to offer the psychology community and the world at large-in particular, more work on the positive, the uplifting, and the inspiring. After making a name for himself with learned helplessness, he turned his attention to other traits, characteristics, and perspectives that could be learned.

He found what he was looking for in resilience and learned optimism, findings that became the groundwork for his widely administered resilience programs for children and members of the military, among others.

Seligman grew frustrated with psychology's overly narrow focus on the negative; so much attention was paid to mental illness, abnormal psychology, trauma, suffering, and pain, and relatively little attention was dedicated to happiness, wellbeing, exceptionalism, strengths, and flourishing.

When he was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, he jumped at the opportunity to alter the direction of the field from such an influential position. He proposed a new subfield of psychology with a focus on what is life-giving rather than life-depleting. The foundational paper of this new field, positive psychology, was published in 2000 by Seligman and the "founding father" of flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Since 2000, Seligman's call for a greater focus on the positive in life has been answered by thousands of researchers around the world, provoking tens of thousands of studies on positive phenomena and establishing a base for the application of positive principles to coaching, teaching, relationships, the workplace, and every other life domain.

17 Benefits of Positive Psychology

Since you're reading this, you probably already know that Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi's endeavor was wildly successful.

The plethora of projects and papers on positive topics has provided an enormous repository of knowledge on how to encourage ourselves and those around us to live the best lives possible.

It would be impossible to list all of the benefits of positive psychology, but we'll try to give a comprehensive overview of some of the most impactful and influential outcomes of practicing positive psychology.

In general, the greatest potential benefit of positive psychology is that it teaches us the power of shifting one's perspective.

This is the focus of many techniques, exercises, and even entire programs based on positive psychology because a relatively small change in one's perspective can lead to astounding shifts in wellbeing and quality of life. Injecting a bit more optimism and gratitude into your life is a simple action that can give you a radically more positive outlook on life.

Of course, no respected positive psychologist would tell you to think about, act out, and focus on ONLY the positive in life-balance is important. Positive psychology was not established to replace traditional psychology, but to complement it with a positive bias that's just as strong as psychology's negative bias over the last several decades.

Studies and Research

Positive psychology teaches how to harness the power of shifting one's perspective to maximize the potential for happiness in many of our everyday behaviors. For example, each of these findings gives us a concrete idea for improving our own quality of life:

1. People overestimate the impact of money on their happiness by quite a lot. It does have some influence, but not nearly as much as we might think, so focusing less on attaining wealth will likely make you happier (Aknin, Norton, & Dunn, 2009);

2. Spending money on experiences provides a bigger boost to happiness than spending money on material possessions (Howell & Hill, 2009);

3. Gratitude is a big contributor to happiness in life, suggesting that the more we cultivate gratitude, the happier we will be (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005);

4. Oxytocin may provoke greater trust, empathy, and morality in humans, meaning that giving hugs or other shows of physical affection may give you a big boost to your overall wellbeing (and the wellbeing of others; Barraza & Zak, 2009);

5. Those who intentionally cultivate a positive mood to match the outward emotion they need to display (i.e., in emotional labor) benefit by more genuinely experiencing the positive mood. In other words, "putting on a happy face" won't necessarily make you feel happier, but putting in a little bit of effort likely will (Scott & Barnes, 2011);

6. Happiness is contagious; those with happy friends and significant others are more likely to be happy in the future (Fowler & Christakis, 2008);

7. People who perform acts of kindness towards others not only get a boost in wellbeing, they are also more accepted by their peers (Layous, Nelson, Oberle, Schonert-Reichl, & Lyubomirsky, 2012);

8. Volunteering time to a cause you believe in improves your wellbeing and life satisfaction and may even reduce symptoms of depression (Jenkinson et al., 2013);

9. Spending money on other people results in greater happiness for the giver (Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2008).

Positive psychology also lends itself to improvements in the workplace; studies from the field have found that:

1. Positive emotions boost our job performance;

2. Positive emotions in the workplace are contagious, which means one positive person or team can have a ripple effect that extends through the entire organization;

3. Small, simple actions can have a big impact on our happiness, meaning that it doesn't take much to encourage your workplace to become a happier and more positive place (Kjerulf, 2016).

One of the benefits of practicing a positive psychological outlook is, to put it broadly, success! Not only does success make us happier, feeling happy and experiencing positive emotions actually increases our chances of success (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005).

However, don't assume that refusing to brook any encroachment of negative emotions or outlooks will help you reach success. An important finding from positive psychology research is that forcing people who are not naturally optimists to "just think positively" can do more harm than good; unrealistic optimism is detrimental, along with intense pessimism (del Valle & Mateos, 2008; Dillard, Midboe, & Klein, 2009).

Another broad benefit of the positive psychology movement is a more well-defined idea of what "the good life" is.

Renowned positive psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and colleagues took on the challenge of determining what makes a good life, and they found some interesting findings that you can apply to your own life (2013). Their research showed that happiness and a sense of meaning in life do not necessarily go hand-in-hand, indicating that focusing on positive emotions alone will not bring the fulfilling and satisfying life you crave.

Some of their more specific findings included the following:

1. The satisfaction of one's wants and needs boost happiness, but have virtually no impact on meaningfulness; this indicates that focusing on obtaining what you want will increase your happiness, but you may have to supplement to get a deeper sense of meaning.

2. Happiness is present-oriented, rooted in the moment, while meaningfulness is more focused on the past and future and how they link to the present; this finding suggests that you can focus on the present to increase your happiness, but you might consider thinking more about your past and future to find meaning.

3. "Givers" experience more meaning, while "takers" experience more happiness; if you find yourself lacking in meaning, try giving back to others, but if you are lacking in happiness, try being accepting of others' generosity to give yourself a boost.

4. Worry, stress, and anxiety are more likely to be felt by those whose lives are high in meaningfulness and low in happiness; this indicates that you shouldn't get too down about experiencing negative emotions if you have a strong sense of meaning-a little negative emotion can actually be a good thing!

5. An intention to express your authentic self and a sense of strong personal identity are linked to meaning, but not to happiness; if you are searching for meaning, try working on your practice of authenticity.

Findings such as these have given rise to, and are driven by, a number of interesting theories that pepper the positive psychology literature.

Theory and Concepts

The most important thing to understand about positive psychology is that it is indeed science-it is a subfield of psychology, and although it is sometimes derided as a "soft science" or a "pseudoscience," it is still based on the scientific method of evaluating theories based on the evidence.

As University of Michigan professor and positive psychology legend Christopher Peterson put it:

"...positive psychology is not to be confused with untested self-help, footless affirmation, or secular religion-no matter how good these may make us feel. Positive psychology is neither a recycled version of the power of positive thinking nor a sequel to The Secret." (2008)

Peterson goes on to outline the theories and concepts that have resulted from research so far (up to 2008, anyway):

For the most part, most people are happy;

Happiness is one of the causes of the good things in life, and also promotes more happiness;

Most people are pretty resilient;

Happiness, character strengths, and good social relationships act as buffers against disappointments and setbacks;

Crises reveal character;

Other people matter (in terms of what makes life worth living);

Religion matters (and/or spirituality);

Work also matters in terms of making life worth living, as long as we are engaged and draw meaning and purpose from it;

Money has diminishing returns on our happiness after a certain point, but we can buy some happiness by spending money on other people;

Eudaimonia (wellbeing, deeper form of satisfaction than happiness) is more important than hedonism (sole focus on pleasure and positive emotions) for living the good life;

The "heart" matters more than the "head," meaning that things like empathy and compassion are just as important as critical thinking;

Nearly all good days have three things in common: a sense of autonomy, competence, and connection to others;

The good life can be taught.

For an overview of some of the most salient theories and concepts in positive psychology, the website positivepsychology.org.uk offers a great "mind map" of the field here. We'll also cover a couple of the biggest topics later in this piece.

Goals of Positive Psychology (in Coaching)

Applying positive psychology to coaching can be a tricky business, but it is undertaken with the best of intentions and care for others.

In general, the goals of positive psychology in coaching are as follows:

To positively impact the client's life-this goal is above all others, and all others feed indirectly into this goal. The main goal of coaching is to improve the client's life. Positive psychology coaching is no different;

Increase the client's experience of positive emotions;

Help clients identify and develop their strengths and unique talents;

Enhance the client's goal-setting and goal-striving abilities;

Build a sense of hope into the client's perspective;

Cultivate the client's sense of happiness and wellbeing;

Nurture a sense of gratitude in the client;

Help the client build and maintain healthy, positive relationships with others;

Encourage the client to maintain an optimistic outlook;

Help the client learn to savor every positive moment (Mentor Coach, n.d.; Peppercorn, 2014).

You can probably easily see why the first goal is the biggest, and basically subsumes all the other goals. Each of Goals 2 through 10 can be considered milestones on the way to Goal 1-effective techniques and objectives that help the client and coach work their way towards the client's biggest life goals.

An Introduction to the PERMA Model

The PERMA model is a widely recognized and influential model in positive psychology. Seligman proposed this model to help explain and define wellbeing in greater depth.

"PERMA" is an acronym for the five facets of wellbeing according to Seligman:

P - Positive Emotions: Even though seeking positive emotions alone is not a very effective way to boost your wellbeing, experiencing positive emotion is still an important factor. Part of wellbeing is enjoying yourself in the moment, i.e., experiencing positive emotions;

E - Engagement: Having a sense of engagement, in which we may lose track of time and become completely absorbed in something we enjoy and excel at, is an important piece of wellbeing. It's hard to have a developed sense of wellbeing if you are not truly engaged in anything you do;

R - (Positive) Relationships: Humans are social creatures, and we rely on connections with others to truly flourish. Having deep, meaningful relationships with others is vital to our wellbeing;

M - Meaning: Even someone who is deliriously happy most of the time may not have a developed sense of wellbeing if they do not find meaning in their life. When we dedicate ourselves to a cause or recognize something bigger than ourselves, we experience a sense of meaning that there is simply no replacement for;

A - Accomplishment / Achievement: We all thrive when we are succeeding, achieving our goals, and bettering ourselves. Without a drive to accomplish and achieve, we are missing one of the puzzle pieces of authentic wellbeing (Seligman, 2011).

This model gives us a comprehensive framework for understanding wellbeing as well as a foundation for improving wellbeing. If you're looking to enhance your own sense of authentic happiness and wellbeing, all you need to do is focus on:

Experiencing more positive emotions; do more of the things that make you happy, and bring enjoyment into your daily routine;

Working on upping your engagement; pursue hobbies that interest you, develop your skills, and look for a job more suited to your passions, if necessary;

Improve the quality (and/or quantity) of your relationships with others; work on building more positive and supportive relationships with your friends, family, and significant other(s);

Seek out meaning; if you don't find it through your work, look for it in volunteering opportunities, personal hobbies or leisure activities, or acting as a mentor for others;

Keep your focus on achieving your goals-but don't focus too hard; try to keep your ambition in balance with all of the other important things in life (Seligman, 2011).

These five aspects of the PERMA model are measurable, and also vital for an overall sense of wellbeing. This model pushes past the older model of authentic happiness in its consideration of more than just happiness or positive emotions. Of course, positive emotions are important-they're part of the PERMA model itself, after all-but focusing just on positive emotions will not help you to develop a comprehensive sense of wellbeing, including engagement, meaning, success, and positive relationships with others.

Happiness alone will likely not propel you towards flourishing, but wellbeing will.

Meaning of Topics Like Flow and Flourishing

Speaking of flourishing, it's a concept we've touched on in this piece already, but have not yet defined. We've also mentioned the topic of flow, though indirectly, which is an important concept in positive psychology as well.

Understanding these concepts is vital for understanding the field of positive psychology. Read on to learn more about them.

Flourishing

Flourishing is one of the most significant concepts in positive psychology, as it encompasses and extends to so many other positive concepts.

In short, "flourishing" refers to the state we are in when we pay attention to each aspect of the PERMA model and build up a solid sense of wellbeing. We flourish when we cultivate our talents and strengths, develop deep and meaningful relationships, feel pleasure and enjoyment, and make a meaningful contribution to the world.

We flourish when we find fulfillment in life along with achieving more traditional objectives related to success when we are truly living the "good life" (Seligman, 2011).

Positive psychologist and professor Dr. Lynn Soots (n.d.) describes flourishing as the following:

"Flourishing is the product of the pursuit and engagement of an authentic life that brings inner joy and happiness through meeting goals, being connected with life passions, and relishing in accomplishments through the peaks and valleys of life."

Further, Soots emphasizes that flourishing is not a trait, a characteristic, or something you "either have or don't have;" rather, flourishing is a process that requires action. While it might be disappointing that it doesn't come easy, it's encouraging to know that, truly, anyone can flourish!

Flow

Another well-known topic in positive psychology is that of flow.

The concept of flow was first scientifically explored and defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (our second "founding father" of positive psychology).

In the last few decades of the 1900s, Csikszentmihalyi noticed that many artists fell into a particular state while they were working; this state was characterized by a particularly intense focus and great concentration on the task at hand, to the point of losing track of time for hours at a time.

He continued pursuing this topic and noticed it in others as well. Professional athletes, musicians, writers, and people from all sorts of artistic and creative trades frequently reported losing themselves into their work in a similar way. As he gathered more descriptions of this phenomenon, he observed six factors that characterize a flow experience:

1. Intense and focused concentration on the present moment;

2. The merging of action and awareness, or being fully present in your actions;

3. A loss of reflective self-consciousness (lack of attention to the self);

4. A sense of personal control or agency in the situation;

5. A distorted sense of time passing;

6. Experiencing the activity or situation as intrinsically rewarding (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975).

Those who enter into a state of flow are totally immersed in what they're doing. This immersion arises when the challenges of the activity in front of us are significant and roughly equal to our skill at this activity.

When we have high skill and low challenge, we are bored. When we have a high challenge and low skill, we are overwhelmed. When we have "low skill and low challenge," we are apathetic. It is only when both our skill and our challenges are high that we enter into a flow state.

Entering into flow is intrinsically rewarding and often an enjoyable experience; flow also seems to link to greater happiness and wellbeing, more academic (and, subsequently, career) success, and more positive and healthy relationships (Csikszentmihalyi & Csikszentmihalyi, 1988).

To learn more about flow, Csikszentmihalyi gave an outstanding TED Talk on the subject.

If the video only piqued your interest, you may want to consider buying Csikszentmihalyi's books on flow:

Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (1998)

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (2008)

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (2013)

Examples of Positive Psychology in Practice (+PDF)

Now, on to what the practitioners and application-minded people are really here for-how to put positive psychology into practice!

Positive psychology principles and exercises can be applied in several different settings, including therapy, the classroom, the workplace, and in your own home.

Some of the techniques that have proven most useful include:

The use of the experience sampling method (or ESM), also referred to as a daily diary method.

Before the days of smartphones, you would be given a beeper or pager that goes off at random points during the day, alerting you to pause, notice what you were thinking, feeling, and doing at that moment, and writing it all down. This is often used in positive interventions to help people realize how much of their day is actually quite positive.

The practice of keeping a gratitude journal.

A gratitude journal offers individuals a method of identifying and reflecting on all of the good things in their lives-all the things they have to be grateful for. Interventions often involve prompting people to write down three things they are grateful for each day, with the only stipulation being that they need to be different each day. Within a week, many people experience a boost in wellbeing along with an increase in gratitude.

Making a gratitude visit.

A gratitude visit (or letter) is an exercise in which an individual identifies a person to whom he or she is grateful and why; once they have these in mind, they can write a letter to this person expressing and explaining their gratitude.

If the person lives close enough to visit, they are encouraged to drop off the letter in person and visit with them; if not, a phone call, video chat, or simply dropping the letter in the mail can work as well. This exercise provides a significant boost to both gratitude and wellbeing.

Focusing on building personal strengths instead of weaknesses.

One of the most significant differences between many other forms of coaching and counseling and one based in positive psychology is the focus on strengths instead of weaknesses.

Positive psychology is based on the idea that building on our strengths is often a more effective path to success than trying to force excellence in areas we are simply not suited for. In practice, this technique involves identifying one's strengths and working to provide yourself with more opportunities to use them.

Wellbeing therapy.

This holistic approach to therapy is similar to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) but focuses on both promoting the positive and alleviating the negative in the client's life.

It is founded on Carol Ryff's model of wellbeing, which recognizes six facets or factors of wellbeing: mastery of the environment, personal growth, purpose in life, autonomy, self-acceptance, and positive relationships (Harvard Health Publishing, 2008).

Positive psychotherapy.

Positive psychotherapy is similar to wellbeing therapy, but generally packages several techniques and exercises into one treatment. Its focus is on building positive emotions, character strengths, and a sense of meaning in life. Twelve exercises are generally practiced in this form of therapy, including exercises on using your signature strengths, keeping a gratitude journal, making a gratitude visit (Harvard Health Publishing, 2008).

To read more about the power of putting positive psychological principles into practice, check out the aptly titled book, Positive Psychology in Practice, by positive psychologists P. Alex Linley and Stephen Joseph at this link. This book will walk you through the major facets of applying the relevant findings from the positive psychology literature, including:

The applied positive psychology perspective;

Historical and philosophical foundations;

Values and choices in pursuit of the good life;

Lifestyle practices for health and wellbeing;

Methods and processes for teaching and learning;

and positive psychology at work.

For more tools, exercises and techniques of positive psychology, click here for the free eBook with 3 positive exercises.

Criticism of the Movement in Perspective

Although positive psychology has been embraced by much of the psychology community (not to mention much of society at large), there are some common critiques of the movement-many of which have some valid points.

At the 2015 World Conference of Positive Psychology, some of the biggest names in positive psychology discussed a few of these criticisms. Below, we'll outline some of the major criticisms and an evaluation of their merit in today's field.

Research findings are often invalid, overstated, and misleading.

Like any other scientific field, mistakes are sometimes made. This often seems to be due to excitement over the potential of findings in positive psychology; it can be hard to maintain objectivity when you feel a finding has both broad and deep applicability to the real world.

However, this is no excuse for a lack of scientific rigor. While there is a bit more leeway in crossing your "t"s and dotting your "i"s in applied research, positive psychologists must be careful to keep their claims within reason and think critically about the limitations of their methods-there is always a limitation!

Today, positive psychology has overcome some of the initial obstacles and growing pains inherent to a new field. More critical attention is being paid to the research, which gives us all more confidence in the findings.

There is too much emphasis on self-report and cross-sectional survey data.

This is certainly a valid point; much of the positive psychology literature is built on survey data. However, this emphasis on survey data is not exclusive to positive psychology, and positive psychology does not exclusively use surveys. Receiving feedback from those close to an individual is increasingly being utilized to corroborate or compare self-report data to, which increases confidence in data.

Although positive psychology is not alone in this limitation, it is one that positive psychologists should continue to consider when planning, implementing and reviewing research.

Positive psychology has a cultural and ethnocentric bias.

It's true that much of the research in positive psychology has been published by Western scholars, editors, reviewers, and journals. It is also true that positive psychology generally embraces a white, middle-class audience, in which injustice, poverty, and inequality are swept under the rug.

However, this bias seems to have been much over-hyped. Recently, more research from experts in non-Western countries and from a diverse range of backgrounds is being conducted (and published). The recent establishment of the International Positive Psychology Association is one sign of this attempt at broadening the perspective of positive psychology.

The field is too individualistic.

Another valid point is that positive psychology focuses too much on the individual-on personal experiences, individual traits and characteristics, and intrapersonal processes and phenomena. Positive psychology does indeed seem to have an overly narrow focus on the individual and a lack of attention paid to relationships, teams, groups, organizations, and communities.

Some have argued that this focus on individuals leads positive psychology to victim-blame (e.g., "If you can't figure out how to be happy, it's your fault") and excuse those who are contributing to systemic issues (e.g., "It's too hard to make corporations act ethically, so we'll just help you make the best of it.").

Positive psychology is just a promotion of a "Pollyanna" personality type, not an authentic exploration of the good life.

Of the major critiques of positive psychology, this may be one of those with the least merit. Although there is a good deal of research on " Pollyanna " types (happy, bubbly, cheerful, extroverted), that research is by no means representative of the entire field.

As cited earlier, there are studies on the dark side of happiness and optimism and the benefits of thinking pessimistically. There are also myriad studies on people from all across the spectrum of personality, from quiet and successful introverts to boisterous and struggling extroverts, and on the lack of fulfillment and meaning in the lives of some of the most "bubbly" individuals.

On the surface, it may seem that positive psychology is the study of the perpetually happy, but anything more than a cursory look will show you that the field is a rich exploration of all that which makes life good (and a bit of what makes it difficult as well).

Some of the criticisms of the field make excellent points.

Rather than struggling against these points, we should be open to considering them, thinking critically about the health of our field, and coming up with solutions for any big problems.

No field is immune from criticism, nor should it be; a healthy debate and a robust peer review process is what will keep positive psychology theory from lapsing into nothing more than an edict to "be positive" and positive psychology interventions from devolving into self-help material that is based on nothing but opinions or wishful thinking.

7 Other Definitions

Watch this video to find out what Positive Psychology means to The Positive Psychology People ( website) and some of the most influential researchers in the field:

Definition 1:

"Positive psychology is the study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions."

Source: Gable, Shelly L., Haidt, Jonathan, What (and Why) Is Positive Psychology? (PDF), MichaelGeorge.com

Definition 2:

"Positive psychology is the branch of psychology that uses scientific understanding and effective intervention to aid in the achievement of a satisfactory life, rather than merely treating mental illness."

Source: Wikipedia

Definition 3:

"Positive psychology studies what makes life most worth living."

Source: Peterson, Christopher, What is positive psychology and what is it not?

Definition 4:

"Positive Psychology is the scientific study of human flourishing, and an applied approach to optimal functioning. It has also been defined as the study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals, communities, and organisations to thrive."

Source: Positive Psychology Institute.

Definition 5:

"Positive psychology cannot be confined to any dogmas carved in stone, because it is always subject to influences by new creative ideas, pressing human needs, and changing circumstances."

According to Paul Wong, the underlying theme of positive psychology is that life can be made better for all people if certain conditions are met.

Source: Wong, Paul T. P., Wong, Lilian C. J., McDonald, Marvin J., Klaassen, Derrick W., 2012, The Positive Psychology of Meaning and Spirituality

Definition 6:

"Positive psychology is the scientific study of human strengths and virtues."

According to Martin Seligman-who is seen as the founding father of positive psychology-the positive psychology movement can be described as:

"The study of what constitutes the pleasant life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life."

Source: Batthyany, Alexander, Russo-Netzer, Pninit, Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology

Definition 7:

"Positive psychology is the scientific and applied approach to uncovering people's strengths and promoting their positive functioning" (Hugo Alberts).

Or:

"Positive psychology studies what is going right with the human mind and behaviour and how to foster these types of wellbeing on both the macro-, group-, and individual-level" (Seph Fontane Pennock).

Source: PositivePsychology.com

What is Positive Psychology and How Did it Come into Being?

The question "what is wrong with people" has guided the thinking of many researchers and dominated countless scientific studies during the 20th century. It is hard to deny that this entails an important question.

In our attempts to answer the question, we have gained more understanding of many illnesses and have developed effective treatments for a wide range of problems.

However, as an inevitable consequence of our focus on the negative aspects of wellbeing and health, such as distress and disease, we developed an almost exclusive attention to pathology.

We believe that science has focused disproportionately on pathology and repair, and devoted relatively little attention to factors that "make life worth living."

As the 21st century unfolds, however, we are beginning to ask a different question: "What is right about people?"

This question is at the heart of positive psychology, which is the scientific and applied approach to uncovering people's strengths and promoting their positive functioning.

During the past 14 years, the number of scientific studies on positive psychology has increased tremendously. In addition, countless interventions have been developed to increase people's wellbeing.

A Take-Home Message

We hope this article has given you a good understanding of positive psychology-what it is, what it isn't, where it's been, and where it's going.

Positive psychology is a field with a huge potential for improving the lives of people around the world, and many impactful findings have already been discovered.

The bottom line is this: if you want to keep up in the world of coaching, teaching, counseling, therapy, and a dozen other domains, make sure to keep an eye out for what's new in positive psychology!

What are your thoughts on the state of the field? Do you think there are bigger criticisms that are being ignored? Do you think the field is doing a good job at solving the problems it set out to solve? What do you think is the "next big thing" in positive psychology? Please let us know in the comments section below.

Thanks for reading!

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don't forget to download our three Positive Psychology Exercises for free.

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What Is Positive Psychology & Why Is It Important?

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What is positive psychology? This article outlines its importance, definitions, goals, examples, and key concepts of the field. Enjoy!

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Interesting fact: Grateful people are more likely to be healthy, helpful, and have a greater sense of well-being.

https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/understanding/the-role-of-positive-psychology.aspx

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Most people seek therapy to get help with a problem. But what if the research and techniques in the field of psychology could be used to build upon existing strengths and personality traits to help people become happier and more engaged in their lives?

This is the primary question behind the work of researchers and psychologists in the field of positive psychology, which goes beyond positive thinking to a deeper understanding of what makes people happy.

"You can do things to make yourself happy," says Debbie Swick, MBA, associate executive director of the International Positive Psychology Association and associate director of education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Positive Psychology: Areas of Focus
Positive psychology is focused on three basic areas of study and practice:

Positive emotions, consisting of contentment with the past, current happiness, hope for the future.

Positive traits, such as courage, resilience, curiosity, self-knowledge, integrity, compassion, and creativity.

Positive institutions, such as community institutions, which can benefit from focusing on the tools developed in positive psychology research.

The research that has contributed to the field of positive psychology has been going on for decades, says Swick. Positive psychology, as a specialty, arose about a decade ago and is now applied in a variety of settings, from clinics to corporations.
Positive Psychology: How It Differs From Positive Thinking
Positive psychology can be easily confused with the idea of positive thinking. However, there are several important differences, including:

Positive thinking emphasizes positivity in all situations, whereas positive psychology offers a variety of tools for success.

Positive psychology draws from the knowledge of experts who have studied depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders.

Positive psychology is evidence-based, meaning it is based on research.

Positive thinking could be loosely termed as optimism, which has been shown to be very helpful for people in a variety of situations. However, experts in positive psychology also believe that there are times when a realistic or even negative view of a situation could be more helpful.

"There is a ratio of positive to negative that is a healthy ratio - it's three to one," says Swick. "[But] there are times when it is just not appropriate to plaster a smile on your face."
Positive Psychology: The Evidence on Happiness
Here are some research results that contribute to the field of positive psychology:

Activities bring more happiness than possessions. A survey of 150 young adults showed that when asked to rate the happiness value of purchases they hoped would be pleasurable, experience-type purchases, such as trips or meals, outranked objects.

Being wealthy does not make you more likely to be happy than other people, as long as everyone's income is above the poverty level.

Grateful people are more likely to be healthy, helpful, and have a greater sense of well-being.

Seeing other people do good things makes us want to do good too.

An optimistic outlook reduces the risk of physical and emotional health problems.

Positive Psychology: How to Nurture Happiness
Here are some exercises to help you nurture your own happiness:

Practice gratitude

Allow yourself to enjoy what you enjoy - whatever it is, savor it!

Practice optimism - find the positive spin

Argue with yourself about negative beliefs about the past

Swick recommends trying this exercise for a taste of positive psychology's approach: at the end of the day, write down three good things that happened during the day and why they were good.

"Eventually you start to notice the positive things. It changes you," she says.

People who are interested in learning more about positive psychology may want to read the books The How of Happiness (Penguin Press, 2007), Positivity (Crown, 2009), and Authentic Happiness (Free Press, 2004).

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The Power of Positive Psychology - Emotional Health Center - Everyday Health

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Most people seek therapy to get help with a problem. But what if the research and techniques in the field of psychology could be used to build upon existing strengths and personality traits to help people become happier and more engaged in their lives?

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Positive psychology is "the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive."

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Positive psychology is about shifting the perspective away from negativity - new outlook. It provides tools for conflict/resolution.

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Positive psychology is the study of how people can live with the most happiness, meaning, and a positive mindset -Gianna G.

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Positive psychology is the study of how people can live with the most happiness, meaning, and a positive mindset -Gianna G.

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Positive Psychology actually has the ability to foster post-traumatic growth, meaning it can make injury sufferers over-all happier (even more so than they were before).

http://brunswicksouthps.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/PP-27-Facts-2015.pdf

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Martin E. P. Seligman

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Abstract

A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless, The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses. The 15 articles in this millennial issue of the American Psychologist discuss such issues as what enables happiness, the effects of autonomy and self-regulation, how optimism and hope affect health, what constitutes wisdom, and how talent and creativity come to fruition. The authors outline a framework for a science of positive psychology, point to gaps in our knowledge, and predict that the next century will see a science and profession that will come to understand and build the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.

Keywords

Mental Illness Positive Emotion Positive Psychology Positive Trait Exceptional Performance

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Editor's note. Martin E. P. Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi served as guest editors for this special issue. Copyright © 2000 by the American Psychological Association. Republished with permission from the American Psychologist, vol. 55, no 1, pp. 5-14.

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References

1. Benjamin, L. T. Jr. (Ed.), (1992). The history of American psychology [Special issue]. American Psychologist, 47(2).

2. Hall, G. S. (1922). Senescence: The last half of life. New York: Appleton.

3. Salovey, P., Rothman, A. J., Detweiler, J. B., Steward, W. T. (2000). Emotional states and physical health. American Psychologist, 55, 110121.

4. Seligman, M., Schulman, P., DeRubeis, R., & Hollon, S. (1999). The prevention of depression and anxiety. Prevent Treat 2(Article 8). Retrieved from World Wide Web: http://joumals.apa.org/prevention/volume2/pre0020008a.html

5. Terman, L. M. (1939). The gifted student and his academic environment. School Society, 49, 65-73.

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Martin E. P. Seligman Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless, The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human being lacking the positive features that make life worth living.