INSIGHT

Due to adversity in my life at this time (facing homelessness) and continuing impacts of trauma from earlier life happenings - well-being for me had been about the absence of adversity. I realised that the absence of adversity was not the same as well-being as posited by positive psychology. I also began to appreciated the framing by Baumeister et al., (2001) that the 'bad is stronger then the good' (Baumeister, et al. 2001). That is, eudaimonic well-being required active attention to thrive.

Reference:

Baumeister R. F., Bratslavsky, E, Finkenauer, C., Vohs, K.D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5(4):323–370. 10.1037/1089-2680.5.4.323

Ryff, C. D. (2014). Psychological well-being revisited: Advances in the science and practice of eudaimonia. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 83(1), 10–28.

Reference:

Seligman, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction.
American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14.

REFLECTION

(Writing while a life low-point)

While great to know, my basic psychological needs and safety are prioritised. I don't appreciate why people value these so much or perhaps I don't as much as I should. It has made companies, coaches, business and consultants lots of money to teach people about their strengths (me being cynical) - but I begin to wonder if positive psychology and strengths are for those in more priveleged life positions than mine - ie, those people with with secure housing, caring parents and families, or schools that care enough to support positively children and youth in their care.

Is it something that is practical for a portion of the population only?

INSIGHT

I realised that the Basic Psychological Needs are so foundational - along with social-determinants of well-being. Despite a desire to build well-being and apply Positive Psychology to my life and work contexts or even 'virtue ethics' - ultimately, I needed to first attend to my needs and security. There was some grief in this realisation that there is no 'pill' to make things better but that real inner-work with self was required to emerge changes to affect my life contexts.

A critical exploration were the different waves of Positive Psychology. That is, the initial skewed focus on the positive, the inclusion of the negative as also producing positive growth in the second wave, and the emergence of systems and complexity informed approaches in the third wave (Positive Psychology 3.0) (Lomas et al., 2020).

INSIGHT

Change is constant and well-being appears differently for everyone and can change within the same person relative to context, time and resources. It is both personal and collective. Well-being science continues to extend knowledge and understanding.

References:

Kern, M. L., Williams, P., Spong, C., Colla, R., Sharma, K., Downie, A., Taylor, J. A., Sharp, S., Siokou, C., & Oades, L. G. (2020). Systems informed positive psychology. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 15(6), 705–715. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1639799

Lomas, T., Waters, L. E., Williams, P., Oades, L., & Kern, M. L. (2020). Third wave positive psychology: Broadening towards complexity. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(5), 660-674.

Wong, P. T. P. (2019). Second wave positive psychology’s (PP 2.0) contribution to counselling psychology. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 32(3-4), 275–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2019.1671320

Reference:

Seligman, M. (2018). PERMA and the building blocks of well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(4), 333–335. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2018.1437466

INSIGHT

In writing this assessment, the Aha moment! was realising that 'strengthening' positive affect can dissolve the 'negative' AND has physiological benefits in health recovery (Papousek et al., 2010). This was based on clinical applications of Broaden and Build Theory (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005). Previously, my health care training had separated 'well-being' as something separate from clinical treatment of health-related disease and dysfunction. I had fallen into the binary trap (despite also working with well-being practices). Rather humbling.

This assessment motivated me to re-examine my health care discipline and look at ways of re-integrating well-being practices into clinical care - for example, prescribing gentle exercise routines to build stamina, rather than treating fatigue.

Reference:

Fredrickson, B. L., & Branigan, C. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition & emotion, 19(3), 313–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930441000238

Papousek, I., Nauschnegg, K., Paechter, M., Lackner, H. K., Goswami, N., & Schulter, G. (2010). Trait and state positive affect and cardiovascular recovery from experimental academic stress. Biological psychology, 83(2), 108–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2009.11.008

A personal discussion via Zoom with Lara Mossman, originally on the topic of identifying and applying personal strengths, segued to a conversation about my current life context - which were difficult at this time. I vividly recall Lara's shocked silence and facial appearance before her incredulous reply 'but what about your self-determination?' after giving her insight into my insecure home circumstances and being stalked by an ex-housemate.

I was shaken and shocked at the depth of emotion in her reply - a realisation at how I had 'normalised' what was happening and challenged me towards seeking assistance. Concurrently, I started looking into SDT - which I had not previously heard about.

Reference:

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. The Guilford Press. https://doi.org/10.1521/978.14625/28806

At the completion of the subject and due to undertaking this last assessment, I realised I had more questions than answers relating to 'what is the soil of wellbeing'? To explore and make sense of this, I became focused on forests as a metaphor for well-being and positive psychology. That is, by focusing on the trees in a forest (the constructs of Positive Psychology) are we missing the sense of the forest? That is, where is the forest? I considered how a forest is more than tress, it is also the soil, the mycelium, moss, ferns, and air together.

INSIGHT

Through the metaphor of the forest I understood that well-being resides in the inter-relational life processes - that is, the forest is NOT the trees but rather the inter-relationships between trees, and soil, and ferns etc. Positive Psychology interventions can catalyse action attention towards nourishing the 'well-being' soil of self and/or community.

I am in a state of 'shock'! I have avoided business and organisational studies all my life and have been 'forced' to do this subject and open my mind to different lived/work experiences of others and their passion with organisations. Well, I wasn't forced, but I decided an appreciative approach is more constructive and an opportunity to strengthen my knowledge and learn about a different professional 'ecosystem'.

REFLECTION

I could have been more appreciative of the insight provided and reached out to class colleagues for their lived experiences in this space. I resisted too much - personal ideologies and biases framing my perspectives. Bah humbug... my goals didn't necessarily align to my values.

REFLECTION

This subject thoroughly frustrated me. As a health care practitioner I was used to my specific discipline and had not appreciated how much of my work and thinking was no longer active but immersed and implicit in just 'doing' something. I did not feel competent and so despite having motivation, my goals were not aligning to my values.

INSIGHT

This subject was humbling, highlighting my hubris in thinking that I could 'take' the Positive Psychology constructs and apply them - but not doing the real work to dig deep into the construct and understand the specific domains and alignment with outcomes. For example, the importance of goals having a person's values if these goals are to sustain a person overtime (after the SDT sub-theory Goals Context Theory).

Relief in exploring more about 3 Good Things in my assessment. A relatively easy intervention for enhancing well-being is explored for my assessment. I learned that even simple Positive Psychology Interventions such as gratitude journals can boost emotional resilience and reduce burnout for up to 12 months, with just a two week intervention. That is, it strengthens the positive.

INSIGHT

The relief is that i feel competent in applying this - where as some of the other Positive Psychology Interventions are complex with respect to all the sub-theories involved. I find this doubly difficult when the intervention is posited as part of a 'program' - for example, building resilience (and its various domains) and needing to juggle and align each element to various measures and activities (reflecting my perceived competence and hence motivation.)

REFLECTION:

This resonated for me - knowing that my well-being has changed overtime based on contextual factors and also cultural contexts. Critically, knowing that contexts of a person's life intersect and abduct - there are not clean boundaries between 'work' you and 'non-work' you and that factors intersect and pattern in ways unexpected to influence well-being.

Reference:

Lomas, T., Waters, L., Williams, P., Oades, L. G., & Kern, M. L. (2020). Third wave positive psychology: broadening towards complexity. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(5), 660–674. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1805501

Discussed was the system informed approaches to Positive Psychology and how contextual factors and social determinants influence Positive Psychology Intervention outcomes and well-being. that is well-being looks different to each person and to the same person across different contexts and time.

References:

Headey, B., & Wearing, A. (1991). Subjective well-being: A stocks and flows framework. In F. Strack, M. Argyle, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), Subjective well-being: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 49–73). Pergamon Press.

I realised I was increasingly feeling isolated and lonely in life (and after finally moving home, finding security and reclaiming 'me' in life). This was not good for neither health nor well-being. I started to dig deeper into the 'why'' and returned to Baumeister & Leary's article on belonging (2000). It resonated that fundamental need to connect and to maintain connections and that it also motivates us.

Again, the two sub-theories of SDT that resonated for me were 'Goals Context Theory' and 'Cognitive Evaluation Theory'

INSIGHT

Despite the need to connect I was having difficulty in doing so - was it just me, despite trying to reach out to family and people I knew? The more I explored I realised it wasn't just me - there is a pandemic of loneliness in society. Why was this happening? Yes - i needed to approach my attempt at engaging with others more appreciatively, but wondered further on how loneliness is not an individual happening but a 'collective disease' that needed addressing at the societal level in order to effect individuals - systems approach.

Reference:

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (2000). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. In E. T. Higgins & A. W. Kruglanski (Eds.), Motivational science: Social and personality perspectives (pp. 24–49). Psychology Press.

Reference:

S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, & R. E. Quinn (Eds), Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 48-65).Berrett-Koehler.

INSIGHT

The insight was how critical it is to emerge values in goals (again). This re-learning was prompted when a class-mate noted his experience of working with youth and setting goals.

He said (paraphrased)... 'my goals for youth are so much better than the goals they can think for themselves, but despite youth thinking of goals that i think could be strengthened - the youth meet their goals because they valued them'.

This was a critical AHa Moment! when reflecting on self and my current life. While my basic needs (security, housing etc.) are now being partially met, I realised I had no life goals. This was exemplified when another class-mate noted: 'My goal is to establish a research and education centre focusing on relationships'. I was amazed at his life goal but horrified when I realised I had none. All my 'goals' had been towards 'safety' not about life flourishing. The further insight was I had been 'reading the map' of Positive Psychology but not actually walking the terrain and experiencing it for myself.

I enjoyed Aaron's discussion on ethics. First it was familiar as i also work ethics and so I felt competent (so my approach motivational behaviours were in high gear). Second, I was amazed at the 'energy' and 'vibrancy' in the Positive Psychology movement for people to be thinking about longer-term goals.

REFLECTION

Positive Psychology was not just methods - but also the way the person brings attention and secondary care for the unknown into their practice with others.

INSIGHT

This helped understand how my intrinsic motivation was being facilitated or compromised through external events I was experiencing at this time in my life, further to how I was interpreting these events.

For example, 'life is difficult' and that 'people cause harm' were mental models amplified through impending homelessness and being exposed to violent behaviours from others. My response was to remove myself from others to avoid being harmed – in effect, isolating and severing connections through my avoidance and amotivational behaviours. The consequences were to further impact my well-being (the absence of social support and connecting with others), resulting from self-limiting my life goals towards being left alone to avoid being further harmed. In effect, my competence in living a life worth living was compromised.

INSIGHT

Ultimately, context is everything when it comes to Positive Psychology Interventions - the need to align the construct to needs, and the person to goals and emerge their values. The Dadirri video by Miriam Rose Ungunmerr encapsulates this beautifully through context - and the importance of acknowledging the various aspects of a person's culture/s and the need to connect (to people, culture and place) as intrinsic to their well-being.

Looking forward to learning more about research and programs of applications.

However, i have fears that I may not pull it all together - I have been frustrated by my inability to 'get' the inter-play between the domains in some theories and frameworks - terrible at aligning Positive Psychology theory to an intervention and outcome measure according to tutor feedback and commentary on assessments. I am intrinsically motivated but the 'external rewards' (or non-rewards for effort) begin to take a toll. Worried about returning to familiar academic ways of thinking (fitting Positive Psychology into my disciplinary framings rather than engaging authentically within Positive Psychology framing.

Must re-orientate my goals and reignite that internal motivational spark...

Stay tuned... hope remains... optimistically stated :)