What Are the Main Concepts of Positive Psychology? | Positive Psychology Practitioner
With so many different approaches currently prevalent in the field of psychology, from behaviorism to neurobiology, it can be overwhelming to understand the main ideas present in each of them. Though these philosophies can result in different ways of thinking and, therefore, different methods of practice, they share the same goal: to help people better understand the inner workings of their own minds.
Positive Psychology Practitioner has emerged as a popular approach that can be applied to counseling practices. If you are new to this idea, the basic concepts and practices revolve around introducing individuals or groups to their strengths, allowing them to lead meaningful and fulfilled lives. Some people are able to do this on their own, at least to some degree, but it is more likely that talking to someone, like a therapist or councilor, will help each person find out what they are good at, what gets them excited, etc. The main idea may have been best summarized by Martin Seligman, who described it as, “The scientific study of optimal human functioning (that) aims to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive.”
This field of psychology is broken down into three different levels: the subjective level, the individual level, and the group level. The subjective level encompasses anything experienced by a person and includes experiences like joy, satisfaction, optimism, etc. Rather than focusing on actions, this level is only concerned with how good an individual feel.
At the individual level, the goal of positive psychology is to understand what qualities each person understands as, well, positive. This level is characterized by human strengths like forgiveness, wisdom, courage, etc. Anything that people perceive as necessary for being a good person is included in this level of positive psychology, and councilors trained in this field are able to help people identify which of these qualities they think are important and work toward fulfilling their goal of becoming more forgiving, for example.
Finally, the group level of positive psychology places emphasis on social responsibilities, altruism, work ethic, and other ways individuals can impact groups. These characteristics are absolutely essential in order for people to develop a sense of community and belonging.
With these levels now identified, let’s get back to that quote from Seligman and see if we can break it down a bit. To paraphrase, he was essentially saying that positive psychology aims to find exactly what makes people and groups thrive, as he put it, and promote those qualities in order to help those people or groups feel more empowered, happy, and fulfilled. At its most basic, its goal is essentially to find out what people are good at and tell them they are good at it.
The School of Positive Transformation offers a positive psychology program that goes much more in depth on all of these points. You have the ability to come out of their program as a practicing positive psychologist able to help people reach their full potential.
