Why should we care about positive psychology?

Original source — www.differenthunger.com/what-is-positive-psychology

There has long been a stigma attached to the field of psychology. I have experienced this firsthand in casual, everyday conversation after telling people that I am a psychology major.

“Oh so you’re like psychoanalyzing me right now, right?”
“Are you judging me?
“Do you think I’m crazy?”

To these comments I simply laugh them off, then proceed to tell the person how many disorders I suspect they have and what medication they should be prescribed. Kidding… I wouldn’t know anyways. These are just some of the most common questions I have heard.

I also love when sometimes people ask me, “So what am I thinking right now?” as if me being a psychology major allows me to have paranormal, psychic abilities. Just to clear things up — Yes, I CAN read your mind.

Martin Seligman, a PhD in psychology from University of Pennsylvania, is arguably the most prominent figure in the field of positive psychology. Seligman, addressed the stigma of psychology in his TedTalk on positive psychology quite excellently saying:

“When I was on an airplane and I introduced myself to my seatmate, and told them what I did, they’d move away from me. And because, quite rightly, they were saying psychology is about finding what’s wrong with you.”

He attributes this stigma to the emphasis on the disease-model of psychology, meaning that the emphasis of psychology has been placed on discovering deficits, diseases and dysfunctions in human behavior. Simply put, for decades psychology has been concerned with what is wrong with you and what deficiencies you have.

Enter positive psychology.

Seligman’s continued quote, after discussing his seatmate moving away from him is as follows:

“And now, when I tell people what I do, they move toward me.”

Why wouldn’t they? Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living. It seeks to gather a comprehensive and scientific understanding of how and why communities and individuals thrive. Positive psychology aims to fix the imbalance of traditional psychology’s disease-based model by looking at strengths and virtues that allow us to thrive. In no way does positive psychology seek to abandon or discredit the traditional methods of psychology, but instead it aims to complement it, again by focusing on the positives as much as the negatives.

The good news is that you can apply the principles of positive psychology to your everyday life in order to be happier, more productive, more creative to name a few benefits. Our perception shapes our reality. Our ability to see stress or adversity as a challenge instead of a threat is predictive of both our productivity and happiness, but also predictive of our career success.

Original source: http://www.differenthunger.com/what-is-positive-psychology/