Positive Psychology: How Can You Be Really Happy?

Positive Psychology is one of the most recent currents psychology, and it is not surprising that it has aroused much interest. It is based on the study of the experiences and positive traits of individuals, as well as their strengths, virtues, motivations and capacities; how they help improve their quality of life and develop human potential.

Psychological theories generally focus on pathologies and negative behaviors. On the contrary, Positive Psychology proposes strategies to achieve and optimize people's strengths. Thus, he proposes to focus more attention on prevention than on treatment.

Next we will see in detail what are the fundamentals of Positive Psychology, how it appeared and what objectives are proposed.

• Related article: "15 essential positive psychology books"

This is how Positive Psychology appeared

The antecedents of Positive Psychology go back to the 20s and 30s in the works of Terman and Watson, in the which already mentioned some important concepts and topics such as talent in students, caring for infants and psychological factors involved in marital happiness.

Before World War II, psychologists focused on actions that contributed to making the lives of individuals more productive and fulfilling, so they identified and reinforced talents and strengths in patients to face various situations.

However, as a result of the war, the general focus of psychology was changed to focus primarily on assessing mental disorders and trying to alleviate human suffering. In opposition to this trend focused on pathology, authors such as Carl rogers Y Abraham Maslow Within the humanist current, they worked on some ideas of strengths and happiness of the human being, setting a precedent from which Positive Psychology would later emerge.

In the late 1990s, Martin Seligman, an American psychologist and educator, decided to turn the dominant approach around and first presented his Positive Psychology proposal at the ceremony in which he was appointed president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1998. From that stage, many researchers oriented their work towards the study of the psychological potentialities of the human being.

Flow, strengths and positive emotions

Another important author is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Hungarian psychologist who proposed the term flow As a positive state of mind, likewise, he has done studies of factors that contribute to the motivation, challenge, and success of individuals.

One of the fundamental components within the theory is the temperament, since it is considered as one of the most important predictors of the levels of positive experiences that a person will feel. There are also strengths of character, which are psychological traits or characteristics that occur in different situations over time and their consequences are usually positive. Some are: optimism, interpersonal skills, faith, ethical work, hope, honesty, perseverance, and the ability to flow.

Also, from Positive Psychology a categorization of positive emotions was made, depending on the time in which they are visualized: in the present there are joy, tranquility, euphoria, pleasure and the optimal experience; those of the past are satisfaction, complacency, personal fulfillment, pride and serenity; and in the future there is optimism, hope, faith and confidence.

Currently there is sufficient evidence that positive emotions favor the health, personal growth and well-being of the individual. They increase people's intellectual, physical and social resources so that they can respond in the best way when unexpected or difficult situations arise.

• You may be interested: "The 8 types of emotions (classification and description)"

The conquest of happiness, according to Seligman

On the other hand, Seligman proposed the model "The three ways to Happiness" (1999) which were:

1. Pleasant life
2. The committed life
3. Meaningful life

Several years later he changed his proposal a bit and created the PERMA model. (for its acronym in English), with the 5 components that are present in people who claim to be happy. With this he changed the object of his study, from happiness to well-being. Each element must meet 3 properties to be considered within the theory:

• That contributes to well-being.
• Let many people choose it for their own good, not just to get any of the other variables.
• That it be defined and measured independently of the rest of the variables in the model.

These are the components:

1. Positive emotions

Recognize the benefits of positive emotions in all aspects of the individual's life.

2. Commitment

Make a commitment to ourselves, focus on our strengths and seek to have optimal experiences. Generation of pleasure derived from the commitment to the effective task and the ability to experience flow experiences.

3. Positive relationships

Increase our social skills to interact with other people.

• Related article: "Top 14 Soft Skills for Success in Life"

4. Sense

Find the meaning, meaning and purpose of our life.

5. Achievement

Personal agency that allows the growth and development of human capacities.

Another of the theories of Positive Psychology is the Flow theory, proposed by Csikszentmihalyi. Flow, in simple terms, is the state in which the person indulges in an activity for pleasure, everything flows and time flies. It usually occurs when a balance is reached between the challenges that the task represents and the skills that the individual has to solve it.

Bárbara Fredrickson and the Expansion - Construction proposal

One more theory is the Expansion - Construction proposal, by Dra. Barbara Fredrickson, social psychologist. The main idea is that positive emotions cause changes in cognitive activity, expand the possibilities of action and improve physical resources. According to this model, there are 3 sequential effects of positive emotions:

• Extension: broaden tendencies of thought and action.
• Building: the construction of personal resources to face difficult or problematic situations is favored.
• Transformation: the individual becomes more creative, shows a deeper knowledge of situations, is more resistant to difficulties and better socially integrated. An upward spiral is reached that leads to the experimentation of new positive emotions.

This new experimentation based on Positive Psychology increases personal resources, which can be used in different contexts and under other emotional states. The traditional models of psychology, focused on negative emotions, deal with how they have the function of activating basic defense mechanisms for survival. Instead, this model presents positive emotions as drivers of personal growth and construction of different thoughts and actions, which can be used depending on the present situation.

• You may be interested: "Personal Development: 5 reasons for self-reflection"

Its use as a psychological intervention

The main fields of application of the proposal are the clinical, health and educational areas. In the clinic and health area, what is sought is the generation of prevention and treatment strategies for problems derived from negative emotions, mainly depression, stress and anxiety. It is proven that patients with affective and anxiety disorders have lower performance in daily tasks and it is much more difficult to solve problems. The goal is to promote positive emotions to create a barrier against psychological disorders.

Within the educational, focuses on extrinsic motivation of students, academic motivation, generation and optimization of strengths. This favors the students' reactions to situations they have to face. In addition, in those institutions that promote the achievement of goals to obtain rewards, they increase motivation and decrease the conflictive attitudes of children and young people.

At the moment it is beginning to be implemented in the organizational area; The objective is to provide tools to generate strategies to improve the work environment and consequently the efficiency in processes and greater productivity on the part of the employees.

And to learn more about Positive Psychology ...

Here are some recommendations of books in which the main theme revolves around positive psychology:

• "Flow": a psychology of happiness, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

• "The Authentic Happiness", by Martin E. P. Seligman.

• "The science of well-being: foundations of a positive psychology", by Carmelo Vázquez and Gonzalo Hervás.

• "Intelligent optimism: psychology of positive emotions", various authors.

• "Overcoming adversity: the power of resilience", by Luis Rojas Marcos.

• "Flowing in Business", by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

• "Is your bucket full? Strategies to Enhance Your Positive Emotions ”, by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton.

• "Positive Psychology: the scientific and practical explorations of human strengths", various authors.

• "The Science of Happiness", by Sonja Lyubomirsky.

• "The uselessness of suffering", by María Jesús Álava Reyes.

• "The life that flourishes", by Martin E. P. Seligman.

• "Psychologically speaking", various authors.

• "The Happiness Trap", by Russ Harris.

• "The habits of a happy brain", by Loretta Graziano.

• "Positive psychology: the consciousness of happiness", by Alan Carr.