The quest of living a good life or the shortest introduction in positive psychology

Life exacts a price for less than full participation.
Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche

Whereas traditional schools of psychology focused on the misery and conflict in human life in a very deterministic and retrospect view negating any possible concept of happiness and well-being, positive psychology focuses on researching, what makes life worth living and how humans can flourish by strengthening positive affections such as gratitude, love, or the feeling of connection.

The goal of Positive Psychology

In the past of human evolution, it served mankind well to think negatively to anticipate threats- but paranoia, depression and other forms of negativity doesn’t serve our evolution anymore in the same sense they used to.
As well as treating mental illness doesn’t necessarily promote mental health anymore.
Hence positive psychology attempt to find out and promote practices that help us flourish and achieve a state of well-being in a time of constant change and complexity.

The three pillars of positive psychology

In the quest of enabling the flourishing of humans the concept of positive psychology is concerned with:

• positive experiences
• positive individual traits
• positive institutions

Positive experiences describe the presence of affections of happiness as well as well-being in forms of hope and optimism as well as engagement and flow.
In contrast positive individual traits focuses on psychological constitutions such as interest/curiosity, wisdom, creativity, spirituality, and humor.

The pillar of positive institutions differs in research about positive organizational behavior and positive organizational scholarship. Whereas positive organizational behavior research focuses on the increased performance of organizations due to progressing well-being of individuals, positive organizational scholarship focuses on the aspects of the organizational context in form of a higher level of analysis.

The model of well-being in positive psychology

The subjective affection of well-being in form of happiness as the hedonic understanding of the concept of well-being yielded in favor of an eudemonic understanding of well-being as the fulfillment of potential as a central thought in positive psychology as a theory.
Whle Ryff defined well-being as self-acceptance, positive relations, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose, and personal growth, according to Martin Seligman well-being (regarding his PERMA framework) consists of the presence of positive emotions (P), the feeling of engagement and flow (E), strong relationships (R), meaning and purpose (M) as well as achievement and accomplishment(A).
Both definitions and understanding of well-being build the central concept of promoting holistic health through flourishing in positive psychology.

Psychological Capital

In reference to Bourdieu’s works on sociological capital, positive psychology embraced the concept of psychological capital as a force to cope better with life’s struggles and to develop one owns potential fully.
The dimensions of psychological capital include hope, optimism, resilience and self-efficiency.
All described elements are interconnected and hence mutually define each other.
The concept of psychological capital is especially prevalent in organizational behavior due to it’s quantity of practices and interventions in an organizational context.

Positive Emotions

Therefore, the thought of promoting positive emotions focuses rather on the individual. According to the broaden- and build theory by Barbara Frederickson positive emotional states lead to a broadening in thoughts, activities and relationships which therefore serves the development of personal resources like resilience but also knowledge and skills in promotion of holistic health. But the concept also works in the contrary direction in form of a narrowing aspect when negative emotions occur.
Hence one major goal of positive psychology is to increase positive emotional states.

Gratitude and Virtues

Expressing gratitude as well as living according to the six main core virtues of bravery, justice, humanity, wisdom, transcendence, and prevalence (expressed through the 24 character strengths of the Values in Action Test) are both a central thought in positive psychology.
While these concepts are developed regarding to the flourishing and growth of an individual, the concepts lack an adequate application on organizations.

If you keep living like the way you are now, you will continue to produce the same life you already have.
Jim Rohn

Resources and further reading material:

• Seligman, M. (2017) Authentic Happiness, New York, Nicolas Breadley