Introduction to Psychology: Positive Psychology and Related Concepts

Human goodness and excellence

The strength model emphasizes human goodness and excellence.

Humanistic psychology assumes humans are inherently good and strive for self-actualization, while positive psychology recognizes both good and bad experiences as valid without assuming inherent goodness.

1) Positive Subjective Experiences (e.g., happiness, pleasure), 2) Positive Individual Traits (e.g., kindness, courage), 3) Positive Institutions (e.g., families, schools) that support well-being.

Positive psychology relies on rigorous scientific methods to provide evidence-based findings that help people live meaningful, fulfilling lives by studying well-being and happiness.

Culture refers to shared beliefs, norms, values, and practices within a group that shape perceptions, coping, and mental health interpretations.

Culture-free views some positive traits as universal, while culturally embedded positive psychology emphasizes that traits and experiences vary and must be understood within cultural contexts.

Western cultures focus on individual achievement and personal success, while Eastern cultures emphasize social harmony, balance, and collective well-being.

Positive affectivity is the tendency to experience positive moods like joy and alertness, measured by tools like the PANAS (Positive and Negative Affect Schedule).

The hedonic treadmill describes how people adapt to pleasurable experiences, returning to a baseline emotional state, requiring new sources of pleasure to maintain happiness.

Flow is a state of deep engagement and intrinsic motivation in an activity, characterized by loss of self-awareness and a balance between skill and challenge.

Hedonism defines happiness as the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, emphasizing maximizing positive feelings.

Eudaimonia is true happiness achieved by living according to one's virtues and strengths and contributing to the greater good.

ESM uses prompts to record feelings and activities in real-time, reducing memory bias and providing contextual data on happiness.

Moderate correlations include number of friends, being married, religiousness, leisure activity, physical health, conscientiousness, extraversion, reversed neuroticism, and sense of control.

Anxiety consists of 1) Thoughts (worry), 2) Physiological arousal (e.g., increased heart rate), and 3) Behaviors (e.g., avoidance).

Avoidance provides short-term relief but reinforces fear long-term, preventing learning that feared situations are often safe, increasing future anxiety.

Exposure therapy helps individuals confront fears safely through graded or imaginal exposure, leading to habituation, extinction of fear, and increased self-efficacy.

Behavioral activation increases engagement in pleasurable and mastery activities to break the cycle of inactivity and worsening depression.

Passive neglects own needs, aggressive disregards others' needs, and assertive balances both, promoting healthy communication.

Optimism is expecting positive outcomes, linked to better health, coping, success, and lower depression and anxiety.

Optimists view negative events as temporary, specific, and external; pessimists see them as permanent, global, and internal.

Unrealistic optimism involves overly positive expectations without planning, risking failure due to lack of preparation.

A = Adversity (event), B = Beliefs (thoughts about event), C = Consequences (feelings/actions). Changing beliefs can alter consequences.

Hope is the belief that goals are achievable with strategies to reach them, leading to persistence and success.

Self-efficacy is belief in one’s ability to accomplish specific tasks, linked to better performance and coping.

Examples include all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, catastrophizing, filtering, personalization, mind reading, discounting positives, should statements, emotional reasoning, and labeling.

The upward spiral is a positive cycle where challenging negative thoughts leads to better emotions and behaviors, reinforcing continued improvement.

CBT changes thought content to reduce distress; ACT changes relationship to thoughts via acceptance and mindfulness, promoting psychological flexibility.

Mindfulness focuses on present-moment awareness and acceptance; relaxation techniques aim to reduce physical tension and stress.

The good in life is just as genuine as the bad, so both deserve attention and study.

No! It recognizes both the positive and negative aspects of life.

The difficult, painful, or challenging parts of life.

Focusing on what is going right in people's lives, not just fixing problems.

Personal growth, strengths, and the pursuit of meaning.

It focuses not only on reducing problems but also on building strengths and increasing well-being.

Both are real and deserve attention.

Focuses on the subjective experience and the importance of understanding individuals from the inside out.

Humans are aware of their goals and choices and act rationally in pursuit of self-improvement.

communities promote belonging, connection, and collective well-being. Positive institutions nurture positive individual traits, which lead to positive subjective experiences.

Group Welfare

Habituation, extinction, self efficacy, and emotional processing

in vivo exposure

interoceptive exposure

ENJOYMENT AND ACCOMPLISHMENT

physical, behavioral, emotional and cognitive cues

expecting positive outcomes in the future

Overexerting oneself trying to control situations without sufficient resources

Disputation - challenging negative beliefs

Energization- Taking positive action after disputing beliefs

Agency (motivation) and pathways (routes to goals)