MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY PERO SA TOTOO LANG USTO KO NA MAMATAY

Psychology is not only the study of human weakness and damage. It is also a study of strength and virtue. This course draws on scientific method to understand the
different factors and conditions that allow people, groups and institutions to function optimally and to cope with difficult times in life through positive experiences.
Guided by the values of faith, zeal for service, and communion in mission, the course equips the students with knowledge and skills on building strengths and
resilience, optimism and motivation, love and attachment among many other factors. Consequently, this course aims to provide positive impact on students’
physical health and subjective well-being by tapping their strengths as individuals. More so, this will help them realize their contributions in helping establish
functional groups and institutions by responsibly acting as members of one Christian community.
A. Lesson: Introduction To Positive Psychology (Video). Find in video:
1. What is the aim of Positive Psychology?
2. What is disease model all about?
3. How are psychologists being viewed before? Why?
4. What does PERMA Model stand for?
The New Era Of Positive Psychology By Martin Seligman (Transcript Of Video)
When I was president of the American Psychological Association, they tried to media-train me, and an encounter I had with CNN summarizes what I’m going to be
talking about today, which is the 11th reason to be optimistic. The editor of Discover told us 10 of them, I’m going to give you the 11th.
So they came to me — CNN — and they said, “Professor Seligman, would you tell us about the state of psychology today? We’d like to interview you about that.”
And I said, “Great.”
And she said, “But this is CNN, so you only get a sound bite.”
So I said, “Well, how many words do I get?”
And she said, “Well, one.”
And cameras rolled, and she said, “Professor Seligman, what is the state of psychology today?”
“Good.”
“Cut. Cut. That won’t do. We’d really better give you a longer sound bite.”
“Well, how many words do I get this time?”
“I think, well, you get two. Dr. Seligman, what is the state of psychology today?”
“Not good.”
“Look, Dr. Seligman, we can see you’re really not comfortable in this medium. We’d better give you a real sound bite. This time you can have three words. Professor
Seligman, what is the state of psychology today?”
“Not good enough.”
And that’s what I’m going to be talking about.
I want to say why psychology was good, why it was not good and how it may become, in the next 10 years, good enough. And by parallel summary, I want to
say the same thing about technology, about entertainment and design, because I think the issues are very similar.
So, Why Was Psychology Good?
Well, for more than 60 years, psychology worked within the disease model. Ten years ago, 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. Spot the
loony. And now, when I tell people what I do, they move toward me.
And what was good about psychology, about the $30 billion investment NIMH made, about working in the disease model, about what you mean by psychology, is
that, 60 years ago, none of the disorders were treatable — it was entirely smoke and mirrors. And now, 14 of the disorders are treatable, two of them actually
curable.
And the other thing that happened is that a science developed, a science of mental illness. That we found out that we could take fuzzy concepts — like depression,
alcoholism — and measure them with rigor. That we could create a classification of the mental illnesses. That we could understand the causality of the mental
illnesses. We could look across time at the same people — people, for example, who were genetically vulnerable to schizophrenia — and ask what the contribution
of mothering, of genetics are, and we could isolate third variables by doing experiments on the mental illnesses.
And best of all, we were able, in the last 50 years, to invent drug treatments and psychological treatments. And then we were able to test them rigorously, in
random assignment, placebo controlled designs, throw out the things that didn’t work, keep the things that actively did.
And the conclusion of that is that psychology and psychiatry, over the last 60 years, can actually claim that we can make miserable people less miserable. And I
think that’s terrific. I’m proud of it.
But what was not good, the consequences of that were three things.
The first was moral, that psychologists and psychiatrists became victimologists, pathologizers, that our view of human nature was that if you were in trouble, bricks
fell on you. And we forgot that people made choices and decisions. We forgot responsibility. That was the first cost.
The second cost was that we forgot about you people. We forgot about improving normal lives. We forgot about a mission to make relatively untroubled people
happier, more fulfilled, more productive. And “genius,” “high-talent,” became a dirty word. No one works on that.
And the third problem about the disease model is, in our rush to do something about people in trouble, in our rush to do something about repairing damage, it
never occurred to us to develop interventions to make people happier, positive interventions.
So that was not good. And so, that’s what led people like Nancy Etcoff, Dan Gilbert, Mike Csikszentmihalyi and myself to work in something I call positive
psychology, which has three aims. The first is that psychology should be just as concerned with human strength as it is with weakness. It should be just as
concerned with building strength as with repairing damage. It should be interested in the best things in life. And it should be just as concerned with making the
lives of normal people fulfilling, and with genius, with nurturing high talent.
So in the last 10 years and the hope for the future, we’ve seen the beginnings of a science of positive psychology, a science of what makes life worth living. It turns
out that we can measure different forms of happiness. And any of you, for free, can go to that website and take the entire panoply of tests of happiness. You can
ask, how do you stack up for positive emotion, for meaning, for flow, against literally tens of thousands of other people?
We created the opposite of the diagnostic manual of the insanities: a classification of the strengths and virtues that looks at the sex ratio, how they’re defined,
how to diagnose them, what builds them and what gets in their way. We found that we could discover the causation of the positive states, the relationship
between left hemispheric activity and right hemispheric activity as a cause of happiness.
I’ve spent my life working on extremely miserable people, and I’ve asked the question, how do extremely miserable people differ from the rest of you? And
starting about six years ago, we asked about extremely happy people.
And how do they differ from the rest of us? And it turns out there’s one way. They’re not more religious, they’re not in better shape, they don’t have more money,
they’re not better looking, they don’t have more good events and fewer bad events. The one way in which they differ: they’re extremely social. They don’t sit in
seminars on Saturday morning. They don’t spend time alone. Each of them is in a romantic relationship and each has a rich repertoire of friends.
But watch out here. This is merely correlational data, not causal, and it’s about happiness in the first Hollywood sense I’m going to talk about: happiness of
ebullience and giggling and good cheer. And I’m going to suggest to you that’s not nearly enough, in just a moment.
We found we could begin to look at interventions over the centuries, from the Buddha to Tony Robbins. About 120 interventions have been proposed that
allegedly make people happy. And we find that we’ve been able to manualize many of them, and we actually carry out random assignment efficacy and
effectiveness studies. That is, which ones actually make people lastingly happier? In a couple of minutes, I’ll tell you about some of those results.
But the upshot of this is that the mission I want psychology to have, in addition to its mission of curing the mentally ill, and in addition to its mission of making
miserable people less miserable, is can psychology actually make people happier? And to ask that question — happy is not a word I use very much — we’ve had to
break it down into what I think is askable about happy. And I believe there are three different — and I call them different because different interventions build
them, it’s possible to have one rather than the other — three different happy lives.
The first happy life is the pleasant life. This is a life in which you have as much positive emotion as you possibly can, and the skills to amplify it.
The second is a life of engagement — a life in your work, your parenting, your love, your leisure, time stops for you. That’s what Aristotle was talking about.
And third, the meaningful life. So I want to say a little bit about each of those lives and what we know about them.
The first life is the pleasant life and it’s simply, as best we can find it, it’s having as many of the pleasures as you can, as much positive emotion as you can, and
learning the skills — savoring, mindfulness — that amplify them, that stretch them over time and space.
But the pleasant life has three drawbacks, and it’s why positive psychology is not happy-ology and why it doesn’t end here.
The first drawback is that it turns out the pleasant life, your experience of positive emotion, is heritable, about 50% heritable, and, in fact, not very modifiable.
So the different tricks that Matthieu Ricard and I and others know about increasing the amount of positive emotion in your life are 15% to 20% tricks, getting
more of it.
Second is that positive emotion habituates. It habituates rapidly, indeed. It’s all like French vanilla ice cream, the first taste is a 100%; by the time you’re down to
the sixth taste, it’s gone. And, as I said, it’s not particularly malleable.
And this leads to the second life. And I have to tell you about my friend, Len, to talk about why positive psychology is more than positive emotion, more than
building pleasure. In two of the three great arenas of life, by the time Len was 30, Len was enormously successful. The first arena was work. By the time he was
20, he was an options trader. By the time he was 25, he was a multimillionaire and the head of an options trading company. Second, in play — he’s a national
champion bridge player.
But in the third great arena of life, love, Len is an abysmal failure. And the reason he was, was that Len is a cold fish.
Len is an introvert. American women said to Len, when he dated them, “You’re no fun. You don’t have positive emotion. Get lost.” And Len was wealthy enough
to be able to afford a Park Avenue psychoanalyst, who for five years tried to find the sexual trauma that had somehow locked positive emotion inside of him. But
it turned out there wasn’t any sexual trauma. It turned out that — Len grew up in Long Island and he played football and watched football, and played bridge —
Len is in the bottom 5% of what we call positive affectivities.
The question is, is Len unhappy? And I want to say not. Contrary to what psychology told us about the bottom 50% of the human race in positive affectivity, I think
Len is one of the happiest people I know. He’s not consigned to the hell of unhappiness and that’s because Len, like most of you, is enormously capable of flow.
When he walks onto the floor of the American Exchange at 9:30 in the morning, time stops for him. And it stops till the closing bell. When the first card is played,
until 10 days later, the tournament is over, time stops for Len.
And this is indeed what Mike Csikszentmihalyi has been talking about, about flow. And it’s distinct from pleasure in a very important way. Pleasure has raw feels:
you know it’s happening. It’s thought and feeling. But what Mike told you yesterday — during flow, you can’t feel anything. You’re one with the music. Time stops.
You have intense concentration. And this is indeed the characteristic of what we think of as the good life.
And we think there’s a recipe for it, and it’s knowing what your highest strengths are. And again, there’s a valid test of what your five highest strengths are. And
then re-crafting your life to use them as much as you possibly can. Re-crafting your work, your love, your play, your friendship, your parenting.
Just one example. One person I worked with was a bagger at Genuardi’s.
Hated the job. She’s working her way through college. Her highest strength was social intelligence, so she re-crafted bagging to make the encounter with her
the social highlight of every customer’s day. Now obviously she failed. But what she did was to take her highest strengths, and re-craft work to use them as
much as possible. What you get out of that is not smiley-ness. You don’t look like Debbie Reynolds. You don’t giggle a lot. What you get is more absorption. So,
that’s the second path. The first path, positive emotion. The second path is eudaimonian flow.
And the third path is meaning. This is the most venerable of the happinesses, traditionally. And meaning, in this view, consists of — very parallel to eudaimonia
— it consists of knowing what your highest strengths are, and using them to belong to and in the service of something larger than you are.
I mentioned that for all three kinds of lives, the pleasant life, the good life, the meaningful life, people are now hard at work on the question, are there things
that lastingly change those lives?
And the answer seems to be yes. And I’ll just give you some samples of it. It’s being done in a rigorous manner. It’s being done in the same way that we test drugs
to see what really works. So we do random assignment, placebo controlled, long-term studies of different interventions. And just to sample the kind of
interventions that we find have an effect, when we teach people about the pleasant life, how to have more pleasure in your life, one of your assignments is to take
the mindfulness skills, the savoring skills, and you’re assigned to design a beautiful day.
Next Saturday, set a day aside, design yourself a beautiful day, and use savoring and mindfulness to enhance those pleasures. And we can show in that way that the
pleasant life is enhanced.
Gratitude visit. I want you all to do this with me now, if you would. Close your eyes. I’d like you to remember someone who did something enormously important
that changed your life in a good direction, and who you never properly thanked. The person has to be alive.
Now, Okay, you can open your eyes. I hope all of you have such a person. Your assignment, when you’re learning the gratitude visit, is to write a 300-word
testimonial to that person, call them on the phone in Phoenix, ask if you can visit, don’t tell them why, show up at their door, you read the testimonial — everyone
weeps when this happens. And what happens is when we test people one week later, a month later, three months later, they’re both happier and less depressed.
Another example is a strength date, in which we get couples to identify their highest strengths on the strengths test, and then to design an evening in which they
both use their strengths, and we find this is a strengthener of relationships.
And fun versus philanthropy.
But it’s so heartening to be in a group like this, in which so many of you have turned your lives to philanthropy. Well, my undergraduates and the people I work
with haven’t discovered this, so we actually have people do something altruistic and do something fun, and to contrast it. And what you find is when you do
something fun, it has a square wave walk set. When you do something philanthropic to help another person, it lasts and it lasts. So those are examples of positive
interventions.
So, the next to last thing I want to say is we’re interested in how much life satisfaction people have. And this is really what you’re about. And that’s our target
variable. And we ask the question as a function of the three different lives, how much life satisfaction do you get? So we ask — and we’ve done this in 15
replications involving thousands of people — to what extent does the pursuit of pleasure, the pursuit of positive emotion, the pleasant life, the pursuit of
engagement, time stopping for you, and the pursuit of meaning contribute to life satisfaction?
And our results surprised us, but they were backward of what we thought. It turns out the pursuit of pleasure has almost no contribution to life satisfaction. The
pursuit of meaning is the strongest. The pursuit of engagement is also very strong. Where pleasure matters is if you have both engagement and you have meaning,
then pleasure’s the whipped cream and the cherry. Which is to say, the full life — the sum is greater than the parts, if you’ve got all three. Conversely, if you have
none of the three, the empty life, the sum is less than the parts.
And what we’re asking now is does the very same relationship, physical health, morbidity, how long you live and productivity, follow the same relationship? That
is, in a corporation, is productivity a function of positive emotion, engagement and meaning? Is health a function of positive engagement, of pleasure, and of
meaning in life? And there is reason to think the answer to both of those may well be yes.
So, Chris said that the last speaker had a chance to try to integrate what he heard, and so this was amazing for me. I’ve never been in a gathering like this. I’ve
never seen speakers stretch beyond themselves so much, which was one of the remarkable things.
But I found that the problems of psychology seemed to be parallel to the problems of technology, entertainment and design in the following way. We all know that
technology, entertainment and design have been and can be used for destructive purposes.
We also know that technology, entertainment and design can be used to relieve misery. And by the way, the distinction between relieving misery and building
happiness is extremely important. I thought, when I first became a therapist 30 years ago, that if I was good enough to make someone not depressed, not anxious,
not angry, that I’d make them happy. And I never found that. I found the best you could ever do was to get to zero.
But they were empty.
And it turns out the skills of happiness, the skills of the pleasant life, the skills of engagement, the skills of meaning, are different from the skills of relieving misery.
And so, the parallel thing holds with technology, entertainment and design, I believe. That is, it is possible for these three drivers of our world to increase
happiness, to increase positive emotion, and that’s typically how they’ve been used.
But once you fractionate happiness the way I do — not just positive emotion, that’s not nearly enough — there’s flow in life, and there’s meaning in life. As Laura
Lee told us, design, and, I believe, entertainment and technology, can be used to increase meaning engagement in life as well.
So in conclusion, the 11th reason for optimism, in addition to the space elevator, is that I think with technology, entertainment and design, we can actually increase
the amount of tonnage of human happiness on the planet. And if technology can, in the next decade or two, increase the pleasant life, the good life and the
meaningful life, it will be good enough. If entertainment can be diverted to also increase positive emotion, meaning, eudaimonia, it will be good enough. And if
design can increase positive emotion, eudaimonia, and flow and meaning, what we’re all doing together will become good enough.
Thank you.
B.SCOPE AND AIM OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Today our society is facing extremely tough challenges, the most recent of which is COVID 19 pandemic. Its impact has affected the world’s economy and has
brought a lot of people out of balance with many who lost their jobs and worst, their loved ones. We do not know when this will end, and we are uncertain about
what worst it can still bring us in the next few months or even years.
Yet, we still have to deal with other long-standing problems as mentioned by Boniwell and Tunariu (2019) include: global warming, natural disasters, economic
recession, unprecedented homelessness, terrorism and the draining continuation of war. What do we do with all these horrendous events? Could we, in the field
of psychology do anything so that we can help people feel any better despite the depressing conditions they are experiencing?
 Martin Seligman: “Psychology is not just the study of weakness and damage; it is also the study of strength and virtue. Treatment is not just fixing what is
broken; it is nurturing what is best within us.” The statement clearly points to the focus of this new field of Psychology.
 After World War 1 and 2, Psychologist became so focus about treating mental illness because the soldiers return with mental disorders.
 Before, Psychology focus only in treatment or fixing what is broken or damage, which had Martin Seligman to introduce the Positive psychology, to redirect
the focus of positive psychology into the human strengths to the point to conduct researches.

In the diagram above, the first three “emotional states” were the main focus of psychology for the past decade or even century. Positive psychology aims to focus
on the last three.
The pictures are telling us that Psychology now focuses on the prevention of illnesses and promotion of the well-being of ALL people. There is a paradigm shift in
the focus of Psychology.
Positive psychology
- Scientific study of ordinary human strengths and virtues (King & Sheldon, 2001)
- It asks, “What is the nature of the efficiently functioning human being, successfully applying evolved adaptations and learned skills?
- An attempt to urge psychologists to adopt a more open and appreciative perspective regarding human potentials, motives, and capacities.
- Studies what people do right and how they manage to do it.
- Includes what they do to themselves, for their families, and for their communities.
- Helps people develop those qualities that lead to greater fulfillments for themselves and for others.
- Scientific study of optimal human functioning which aims to discover and promote factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to thrive
and flourish (Sheldon, Frederickson, Rathunde, Csikszentmihalyi, and Haidt; 2000).
- Flourishing - is defined as ‘a state of positive mental health; to thrive, to prosper and to fare well in endeavors free of mental illness, filled with
emotional vitality and function positively in private and social realms’.
Dimensions of Positive Psychology:
Positive psychology concentrates on positive experiences at three time points:
1. The past, centering on wellbeing, contentment and satisfaction;
2. The present, which focuses on concepts such as happiness and flow experiences;
 3. The future, with concepts including optimism and hope.
Not only does positive psychology distinguish between wellbeing across time points but it also separates the subject area into three modes/dimensions.
Three Areas of Human Experience:
1. Subjective Level
- Looks at positive subjective states or positive emotions/experiences such as happiness, joy, satisfaction with life, relaxation, love, intimacy,
contentment, and constructive thoughts (optimism and hope).
- Also includes feelings of energy, vitality and confidence or the effects of positive emotions such as laughter. This level is about feeling good,
rather than doing good or being a good person.
2. Individual Level
- Focuses on the study of positive individual traits such as courage, persistence, honesty, or wisdom.
- Also includes study of the personal qualities that are necessary for being a ‘good person’, such as human strengths and virtues, future-
mindedness, capacity for love, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, interpersonal skills and giftedness.
3. Group or Community Level
- Focuses on the development, creation, and maintenance of positive institutions.
- Addresses the development of civic virtues, the creation of heathy families and the study of healthy work environments, and positive
communities.
- It involves the investigations that look at how institutions can work better to support and nurture all of the citizens they impact. (Ex. social
responsibilities, nurturance, altruism, civility, tolerance, work ethics)
Therefore, the focus of positive psychology is the scientific study of positive human functioning and flourishing at a number of levels, such as the biological,
personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and global (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
Scope of Positive Psychology:
List of topics that may be studied by a positive psychologist:
 Altruism and empathy
 Creativity
 The role of positive emotions in job satisfaction
 Lifespan model positive personality and development
 Styles of psychotherapy that emphasize accomplishments and positive traits
 Psychological benefits of Zen Meditation
 Building enriching communities
 Forgiveness and compassion
 The enhancement of immune system functioning
 Savoring each fleeting moment of life
 Strengthening the virtues as way to increase authentic happiness
Importance/Why Positive Psychology is Needed Today:
1. Positive emotions are important to our mental and physical health.
- Positive emotions and adaptive behaviors are important to living a satisfying and productive life
- Help to fight terrible social and personal costs of pressing social problems like criminal behavior, drug abuse, or the treatment of serious
psychological disorders like depression
- Contribute to positive outcomes in life (physically healthier, more resistant to illness, and even live longer than others.
2. Positive psychology represents another direction for psychology by focusing investigations of who we are as human beings in more positive directions.
3. Positive psychology is an attitude that people can take to research, to other people, and to
themselves. Basic Themes and Assumptions of Positive Psychology
➢ Good Life
- Refers to the factors that contribute most to a well-lived and fulfilling life
- Qualities that enrich our lives, make life worth living, and foster strong character.
- “Using your signature strengths everyday to produce authentic happiness and abundant gratification (Seligman, 2002a, p. 13).
- Three elements of Good Life:
1. Positive connections to others
2. Positive individual traits
3. Life regulation qualities
 People Are Highly Adaptive and Desire Positive Social Relationships.
 People Can Thrive And Flourish.
 Strengths And Virtues Are Central to Well-Being.
 Persons Exist in Social Context.
➢ Assumptions about Human Emotions:
- The predictors of positive emotions are unique.
- All positive emotions are not the same.
➢ Assumptions about the Role of Science in the Study of Well-Being:
- It places greater emphasis on the use of scientific methods to study well-being, adaptation, and satisfaction of the “average” person on the street
rather than on the optimal personality development such as self-actualization (Humanistic Psychology).
C.History of Positive Psychology
The Origins of Modern-Day Positive Psychology
 In 1998, Martin Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association (APA).
 August 21, 1999 during his inauguration at the 107th Annual Convention of the APA in Boston, Massachusetts that he decided to introduce his agenda to
correct the trajectory of modern day pathologically focused psychology.
  He is widely seen as the father of contemporary positive psychology (About Education, 2013).
➢ Inspiration in a Bed of Roses
- According to literature, the story of Seligman’s epiphany in his rose garden set the beginning of the movement of positive psychology.
- The story says that he has a five-year-old daughter who had been trying to get his attention. One time, Seligman responded to her by snapping
at her. Unhappy with his response, his daughter asked him whether or not he remembered how she used to whine when she was 3 and 4. His
daughter told him that when she turned 5 she decided to stop – and if she was able to stop whining, then he would stop being a grouch.
- Because of his daughter, Seligman resolved to change.
- He decided to develop what was right, rather than fixate on what was wrong ---that we should teach our children and ourselves to look at our
strengths rather than our weaknesses (Seligman M & Csikszentmihalyi M, 2000).
- His purpose in life was not to correct his daughter’s shortcomings.
- Instead, raising her to nurture the strength she displayed (social intelligence).
- Can psychological science be about identifying and nurturing strengths? This is his mission as APA president.
History of Positive Psychology (pre-1998)
➢ Three Tasks of Psychology prior to World War Two:
1. Cure mental illness
2. Enhance the lives of the normal population
3. Study geniuses
 It is mentioned that for many years, Psychology used the Disease Model. This is due to the fact that psychologists focused more on treating
psychologically impaired soldiers who were victims of two world wars. In addition, research funding was focused on the first agenda with the other two
nearly forgotten (Linley, 2009).
 With the aid of the funding though, at least 14 disorders can now be cured or can be relieved.
 Due to fixations on pathology, psychologists became victimologists and pathologizers (they forgot that people make choices and have responsibility);
 Instead of viewing humans as proactive, creative, self determined beings, psychologists viewed humans as passive individuals subjected to external
forces (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
 Hence, the main difference between post-World War Two psychology and today’s positive psychology is in the question asked: ‘ Why do these individuals
fail?’ versus ‘What makes some individuals succeed?’
Facts Surrounding the Disease Model:
 From 1972 to 2006, the ratio of depression research publications to wellbeing publications was 5:1.
 Depression was ten times higher in 2009 than it was in 1960, with the mean age for depression today being 14.5 (compared to 29.5 in 1960).
 About 2 per cent of the population is suffering from depression and 14 per cent of us will experience depression by the age of 35 (compared to 2 per cent
in the 1950s) (Keyes and Michalec, 2009).
 Depression was found to be among the top five illnesses contributing to disability in life adjusted years (the total number of years a person lives with
disabilities). Indeed, mental disorder came only second to cardiovascular disease (Global Burden of Disease Study, 1996).
 Mental illness costs the USA over $40 billion per annum and this figure continues to rise (Keyes and Michelac, 2009).
 The Philippines has one of the highest cases of depression in Southeast Asia, affecting more than three million Filipinos (by Rep. Rida Robes of San Jose
del Monte, Bulacan).
 Depression is becoming as prevalent as the common cold in the country, affecting around 3.3 million Filipinos.
 World Health Organization report that eight in every 100,000 Filipinos commit suicide. Of this figure, six are males, while two are females aged 15 to 29
years old.

History of Positive Psychology: Its Deep Roots from the Past

- One of the criticisms of positive psychology is that the ideas are not new. Even the term ‘positive psychology’ was used by Abraham Maslow, many
decades before Seligman (Maslow, 1954: 201).
- However Seligman has done a phenomenal job of bringing the thoughts and ideas of past researchers, philosophers and scientists back to our
consciousness. Four groups of individuals who were looking at ‘the good life’ before the discipline of positive psychology even existed include: Greeks,
utilitarianism, William James, Humanistic Psychology.
• Greeks
 Aristotle’s (384–322 BCE) greatest contribution to philosophy is arguably his work on morality, virtue and what it means to live a good
life
 He concluded that highest good for all humanity was indeed eudaimonia (or happiness).
 Argued that although pleasure may arise from engaging with activities that are virtuous, it is not the sole aim of humanity (Mason
and Tiberius, 2009).
 • Utilitarianism
 Is created by Jeremy Bentham and carried on by John Stuart Mill.
 It argued that the right act or policy from government is that which will cause ‘the greatest good for the greatest number of people’,
also known as the ‘greatest happiness principle’, or the principle of utility.
 It was the first sector that attempted to measure happiness, creating a tool composed of seven categories, assessing the quantity of
experienced happiness (Pawelski and Gupta, 2009).
 Utilitarianism influences some areas of positive psychology today, such as subjective wellbeing and the pleasurable life (Pawelski and
Gupta, 2009).
 Positive psychology accepts that while pleasure is a component of overall wellbeing, it is not enough, and the inclusion of
eudaimonic pursuits is necessary as a complement to utilitarian philosophy.
• William James
 The Principles of Psychology (James, 1890).
 Originally trained as a medical doctor at Harvard University, Boston, USA, before becoming interested in religion, mysticism and
epistemology (Pawelski, 2009).
 His chapter, ‘The Emotions’, is most relevant for positive psychology to acknowledge. He suggests there that emotions come after
we have physically acted out.
 He established the connection between emotions and expressions.
• Humanistic Psychology
 Emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a backlash to the predominant psychological theories of psychoanalysis, behaviorism
and conditioning.
 Introduced and solidified qualitative inquiry as an imperative paradigm to research human thought, behavior and experience, adding
a holistic dimension to psychology.
 It is the psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person.
➢ Humanistic psychologists believe that:
1. Individuals’ behavior is primarily determined by their perception of the world around them and their personal meanings;
2. Individuals are not solely the product of their environment or their genes; and
3. Individuals are internally directed and motivated to fulfil their human potential.
 The main drive of humanistic psychology was to focus on mental health, specifically positive attributes such as happiness,
contentment, ecstasy, kindness, caring, sharing and generosity.
 Humanists felt that humans had choice and responsibility for their own destiny.
 Views life as a process, with all humans beholding an innate drive for growth and fulfilment of potentials.
 The humanists even went as far as to include spiritual proprieties of the self, the world and wellbeing; an area that is controversial
even in today’s scientific societies.
Positive Psychology: The Present State
- Akumal, Mexico, from 1999 to 2002, to discuss development of the new area of positive psychology. At the same time, researchers were holding national
and international summits from Lincoln, Nebraska to Washington DC, which continued to thrive (Linley, 2009).
- There are currently hundreds of undergraduate classes in positive psychology across the world.
- There are two Masters Programs in applied positive psychology, (founded in 2005 and 2007) in University of Pennsylvania and University of East London,
UK, Italy, Portugal.
- Mexico is currently creating Masters Courses in positive psychology in their own languages.
- At present, there are several conferences offered by the European Positive.
- The First World Congress of Positive Psychology was held on 18–21 June 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Founded in 2006 is the academic, peer-reviewed journal, Journal of Positive Psychology.
- In the UK, several positive psychology resources contribute to the positive psychology research base. We work within the London Partnership for
Positive Psychology in Practice (LP4), which provides access to leaders in the field of positive psychology as well as opportunities for collaboration of
research and consultancy. Furthermore, the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology at Warwick, UK, runs online short courses on positive psychology as
well as consultancy projects.

MODULE 2: UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS

Emotion
- Peterson (2006: 73) describes emotion as a ‘psychological state defined by subjective feelings but also characteristic patterns of physiological arousal,
thought, and behaviors It focuses on a specific event or circumstance during the past, present or future. It is short lived and we are aware of them at the
time of occurrence’.
 - While Oatley et al. summarize the essential features of an emotion as follows: a conscious mental state with recognizable quality of feeling and directed
towards some object, a bodily perturbation of some kind, recognizable expressions of the face, tone of voice, and gesture, and a readiness for certain kinds
of action.
- From the two definitions, you can notice that emotion has several factors that include physical, mental, and behavioral.
Moods
- Are ‘free floating or objectless, more long-lasting and occupy the background consciousness’ (Fredrickson and Losada, 2005: 121). Moods, unlike emotions,
tend to be unfocused and enduring.
Factors of Emotion
1. Physical or biological factor - physical changes in our body that happens every time we experience an emotion; ex. increased heart rate and fast
breathing when you are afraid or angry.
2. Mental or cognitive factor - the way we interpret or appraise an event affect how we feel, ex. like feeling afraid because you think that the stranger
following you is a snatcher.
3. Behavioral factor - what we do in response to an event – Ex. like running out of fear when you see a stranger and frowning when you are worried.
4. Cultural factor – Even if expression of basic emotions like anger, disgust, fear, joy, and sadness is said to be universal , there are differences in the way
other emotions may be expressed depending on a person’s cultural background. Example is the different Filipino practices during the burial of a loved
one. In the Philippines, the burial period lasts for a week or until the ninth day (before pandemic) at least in rural areas, there is “pa-tong its”, even
singing in videoke, and overflowing food. We join the bereaved loved ones during the entire period of the burial as a way of “pakikiramay sa
namatayan”. Do we observe this in other country? No! It is only in the Philippines.
Regardless of how we express our emotions and what kind of emotions, they are important to psychologists. In fact, psychologists’ focus now is in affectivity.
Affectivity - extent to which an individual experiences positive/negative moods (Peterson, 2006: 62).
Positive Affect - is the extent to which someone experiences joy, contentment, and so on.
Negative Affect - is the extent to which someone experiences feelings such as sadness or fear.
Affective Style - is defined as ‘a broad range of individual differences in different parameters of emotional reactivity which include: threshold to respond, the
magnitude of the response, the rise time to the peak in the response, recovery function of the response, and the duration of the response (Davidson, 2003: 657–
8).
To develop positive affectivity and practice it so that we can achieve wellbeing is one of the aims of Positive Psychology. How do we develop it and what does our
brain have to do with it?
Looking to Our Brain
Two medical procedures can help us access the activities of our brain when we are expereincing positive or negative affect. These are Computed Tomography
Scan (CT-scan) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The procedures allow us to see the pathway of actions in the brain when we are engaged in activities that
produce both positive and negative affect.
Please watch the videos (Click the link)
 2-Minute Neuroscience
 Reward pathway in the brain
In the videos, you will learn about the activities of the brain whenever you are experiencing emotions. The different chemicals produced, their functions and the
different parts of the brain involved in processing information are presented.

Specific parts of the brain which are responsible for the regulation of happiness:
a. The reward system: this is responsible for inducing feelings of pleasure.
b. The pleasure system: this recognizes what the person is doing, seeing or listening to is good.
c. Dopamine: this is the key neurotransmitter involved in the pleasure center. Limited levels of dopamine can subdue levels of motivation whereas
high levels of dopamine can lead to mania (Ackerman, 2009).
d. Ventral tegmental area (VTA): in collaboration with the Substantia Nigra, the VTA is the key area of the dopamine system.
e. Nucleus accumbens: this component of the brain is a very important player in the reward system of the brain. Part of the limbic system, it is thought
to be ‘the pleasure center as it holds the highest concentration of dopamine neurotransmitters’. Addictive drugs (for example, cocaine) target this
area.
f. Orbital frontal cortex: this is the area of the brain where decisions are made (Ratey, 2001).
g. Research indicates that the other two key components in the brain in relation to the experience of positive emotions appear to be the prefrontal
cortex (PFC) and the amygdala. The prefrontal cortex is home to emotions and emotional regulation whereas increased activity in the amygdala can
predict higher levels of negative affect (Davidson, 2001). It is also the storehouse of emotional memories.
h. Prefrontal cortex (PFC)
- Is also responsible for working memory.
- Said to enable the generation of goals and pathways to achieve them (Davidson, 2003).
- It monitors daily experiences in relation to long-term goals, sometimes initiating delayed gratification.
- It is said that individuals who have low activation in the left PFC are not able to initiate goal-directed behavior or regulate impulses.
- People who have increased activation in their right PFC report difficulties in regulating emotions.
 - Researchers discovered that when we experience positive affect, PFC is activated, and vice versa when we feel anxiety or depression (Wheeler et al.,
1993; Davidson et al., 2000).
i. Our brain is divided into two systems – the approach system (positive affect) and the avoidance system (negative affect) (Davidson and Irwin,
1999). These systems are directly related to goal attainment.
j. The behavioral activation system (BAS) is more sensitive and responsive to incentives, making people more extraverted and impulsive, whereas the
behavioral inhibition system (BIS) is more sensitive and responsive to threats – arousing anxiety and neurosis.
Behavior -> Desired goal -> Positive affect
Threat -> Negative affect
Ways to help the brain develop a certain affective style:
 Scientists found that nurturing environment have significant changes to the circuitry of the PFC and amygdala (emotion and emotion regulation areas).
 Changes in PFC and amygdala do not have to happen from birth.
 Enriching environments later on in life can also have a significant impact on the circuitry of the emotion and regulation areas of the brain (Davidson et
al., 2003).
Theories of Emotions:
a. Positive emotions - Are important to our mental and physical health for several reasons.
- Positive emotions and adaptive behaviors can help us live a satisfying and productive life.
- Positive emotions can help us to fight terrible social and personal costs of pressing social problems like the anxiety and fear we are all experiencing
due to the pandemic, criminal behavior, drug abuse, or the treatment of serious psychological disorders like depression.
- Positive emotions contribute to positive outcomes in life (physically healthier, more resistant to illness, and even live longer than others.
b. Positive Psychology
- Represents another direction for psychology by focusing investigations of who we are as human beings in more positive directions.
- Is an attitude that people can take to research, to other people, and to themselves.
The Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions:

What happens when we feel positive emotions?

a. The Broadening Effect
- Our minds tend to open up – or broaden – and we are able to think ‘outside the box’.
- We get a bird’s-eye view of our situation, which can help generate alternative solutions to the tasks at hand.
- We also become more creative, with positive emotions being found to enhance verbal creativity tasks.
b. Building Effect
- We build personal resources, which we are able to dip into when needed. These include:
 Intellectual resources (problem solving, being open to learning)
 Physical resources (cardiovascular health, coordination)
 Social resources (we can maintain relationships and create new ones)
 Psychological resources (resilience, optimism, sense of identity and goal orientation)
c. Undoing Effect
- The theory states that ‘positivity can quell or undo cardiovascular after-effects of negativity’ (Fredrickson, 2009: 105).
- It is noted that when we feel anxiety or stress or any other negative emotions, experiencing positive emotions can help our bodies return
to normal physiological functioning significantly faster than any other types of emotion (Fredrickson and Levenson, 1998).
Emotions, Goals, and Discrepancy Theory:
Why are goals so important to human beings?
 When we set a goal (large or small, physical or mental) this becomes our ‘reference value’. We then engage in what is known as a discrepancy loop, trying
to minimize the distance between where we are and where we want to be (Carver and Scheier, 1990).
 If there is discrepancy between where we are and we want to be (reference value), we will adjust our behavior in hopes of getting closer to the
reference value.
 There are outside influences or impediments that stand in the way of us attaining our goals. Hence, we need to make adjustments to override
these impediments.
 The rate of progress, rather than the progress per se determines whether we experience positive or negative emotions: ‘negative emotion comes
from inadequate progress towards a goal, whereas positive affect comes from progress towards future success’ (Carver and Scheier, 1990: 27).
The Power of Positivity Ratio:
 It is said that people who experience positive emotions and have resilient tendencies are still able to feel sadness and anxiety, just as much as anyone else.
However, they are able to draw on resources to help them out much faster than those who do not experience these positive emotions (Fredrickson, 2009).
  Positive attenuation is essential in protecting against depressive symptoms.
 Resilient individuals have a unique ability to maintain and regulate positive emotions.
 Dysphoric and non-dysphoric individuals react just the same to emotions; however, it appears that there is a difference in the ability to maintain and
regulate these emotions rather than in the ability to react in the first place (McMakin et al., 2009).
 The optimal ratio is three positive emotions to one negative emotion (3:1)
 Individuals who score higher on levels of positive affect tend to report better marriages and job satisfaction, more engagement with physical activity and
better sleep patterns.
 However, it was said that we must be wary of such cross-sectional work since we are still not able to determine which comes first-– is it that people sleep
better and therefore experience more positive affect or vice versa?
Personality and Positive Emotions:
Certain personality traits have corresponding ways of expressing emotions, let’s look at some of them.
• Conscientiousness - individuals who score high on conscientiousness tend to have high levels of grit, meaning they are industrious, diligent, efficient and
reliable. Low scorers tend to be inattentive, idle, unsystematic and sometimes unreliable.
• Neuroticism - individuals who score high on neuroticism tend to experience high levels of anxiety, insecurity and can be emotionally volatile. Low scorers
tend to be more tranquil, steady, and composed.
• Openness to experience - individuals who score high on openness to experience tend to be original and artistic. Low scorers tend to be more conformist
and uncreative.
• Extraversion: individuals who score high on extraversion tend to be sociable, talkative and join in when there is something collective going on. Low
scorers tend to be classically considered as more reserved, quiet, shy, and prefer to be alone.
• Agreeableness: individuals who score high on agreeableness tend to be pleasant, compassionate and sympathetic to others’ needs. Low scorers tend to
be untrusting, suspicious, critical and slightly hard-nosed.
Smiling and Positive Emotions
• Researchers noted that the presence of a Duchene smile has been regarded as an objective measure of genuine happiness/positive emotions.
• Studies have found positive correlations between Duchene smiling and duration of grief after bereavement, less negativity, greater competence, more
positive ratings from others and greater wellbeing in later life (Harker and Keltner, 2001).
• Also, Johnson et al. (2010) found experimental evidence that when people smile genuinely (as detected through facial muscular tracking), their thought
patterns are immediately broadened.
Emotional Intelligence (EI):
• EI is the ‘ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking
and action. (Salovey and Mayer,1990: 189)
• Researchers believe that emotions have use (Davidson, 2003) and are not present for idle purpose.
• Emotions are good at sending us messages to let us know how we feel about people and situations. Emotional suppression can be detrimental to
our wellbeing, thus attempts to become more aware of emotions are important (Mayer and Salovey, 1993; Mayer et al., 2001, 2004).
• John Mayer and Peter Salovey who, in collaboration with their colleague David Caruso, developed the Mayer–Salovey–Caruso EQ Model, a 141-
item, task-based emotional intelligence test (MSCEIT) (Mayer et al., 2003).
• According to their Ability Model, EI is a set of competencies or mental skills that include four stages (Bracket et al., 2009).
Four Stages of EI:
1. Perceiving Emotions - refers to the ability to recognize emotions either in yourself or in others. Questions to ask yourself include: How do you feel? How
do others feel? By recognizing these subtle emotional cues, individuals are better equipped to deal with social circumstances.
2. Using Emotions - refers to the ability to use emotions to facilitate your mood.
Questions to help develop this include: How does your mood influence thinking? How is it affecting your decision-making?
3. Understanding Emotions – emotions are highly complex – one may experience mixed emotions at the same time and it can also change over time.
Example - When you are angry you don’t always stay angry. That anger can change into another emotion such as shame or regret.
When trying to develop this area, ask yourself: Why are you feeling this? What do these emotions mean? What has caused that for you? Where is that
going to go?’
4. Managing Emotions – refers to the ability to manage, or self-regulate, your emotions.
Tip: Identify when and where it is inappropriate to express certain emotions and wait until the appropriate time.
Example - If someone tries to be annoying during class and this angers us, it would be highly inappropriate to turn round and scream at the student.
Highly emotionally intelligent individuals would recognize that there is a time and place for certain emotions and manage them accordingly.
Mixed Model of Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman defined EI as ‘the ability to adaptively perceive, understand, regulate, and harness emotions in the self and others’ (Goleman, 1996; Schutte et
al., 2002) EI mixed models view EI as a combination of perceived emotional skills and personality. EI matters because of its ability to predict academic,
occupational and relationship success better than traditional IQ (Goleman, 1996). According to Goleman’s theory of intelligence there are five main areas within
the concept including:
1. Managing emotions, where one engages in reframing anxiety and attempting to dismiss feelings of distress.
2. Using emotion for self-motivation, where one becomes proficient in delaying gratification for future success.
3. Recognizing emotions in others, where one has the ability to exhibit empathy, which is important for social relationships.
4. Managing emotions in others, where one is able to help others with their distress or encourage motivation.
5. Emotional self-awareness, where one is able to understand and identify one’s own emotions.
MODULE 3: HAPPINESS AND SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING ACROSS NATIONS
1. Definitions of Happiness and Subjective Wellbeing:
 Hedonic (pleasure-centered) concept of happiness
- Attainment of subjective wellbeing (SWB).
• Subjective Well-being (SWB)
 - Encompasses how people evaluate their own lives in terms of both affective (how we feel) and cognitive components (what we think) of
well- being (Diener et al., 1999) and can be represented in the following way:
SWB = satisfaction with life + high positive affect + low negative affect
• Life satisfaction
- Encompasses the cognitive component of happiness when individuals rate the way their life turned out to be.
Subjective Wellbeing (SWB)
- Diener argues that life satisfaction refers to discrepancy between the present situation and what is thought to be the ideal or
deserved standard.
- There needs to be a balance between the experiencing of positive and negative affect as well as an acknowledgement of the difference in
frequency versus intensity of positive affect (Diener et al., 1991).
- Affect refers to the emotional side of wellbeing, including moods and emotions associated with experiencing momentary events (Diener et
al., 1999a).
Measuring Subjective Wellbeing
- Subjective wellbeing encompasses how people evaluate their own lives in terms of affective and cognitive explanations (Diener, 2000).
- SWB scales (SWLS, PANAS):
 Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener et al., 1985)
Example items:
In most ways, my life is close to my ideal.
I am satisfied with my life
 Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky and Lepper, 1999; Lyubomirsky, 2008)
- The two scales have very high level of validity and reliability (good internal consistency) and are sensitive to change in life circumstances. Furthermore,
the tools converge with mood reports, expert ratings, and experience sampling measures, reports of family and friends and smiling (Diener et al., 2002).
- Other methods of research into SWL and SWB include:
 Comparing in-person interviews with anonymous questionnaires in order to contain impression management (Diener, 2000).
 Experience Sampling Methods (ESM) has been employed in order to reduce memory biases.
 Finally, objective measurements (physiological markers) are used in tandem with self-reports, reducing subjective biases.
2. Major Global and National Studies
 Gallup World Poll. The most widely known global wellbeing poll, which boasts data from over 98 per cent of the world’s population.
 World Database of Happiness. This database contains information and results from nearly 30 years of scientific research on happiness across the globe.
 World Values Survey. Since 1981, this survey has collected information on changing values within 97 countries around the world.
 Eurobarometer. In Europe, the European Commission issued the Eurobarometer, which is used to measure citizens’ perceptions of quality of life.
 European Social Survey (ESS). Another European social survey, funded by the European Commission’s framework programme, is the ESS, which aims to
collect data from over 30 countries on their citizens’ beliefs, attitudes and behaviours (including wellbeing). It is currently entering its fifth data collection
period.
 LatinoBarometro. In Latin America, the LatinoBarometro surveys over 400 million Latin Americans, from 18 countries, on several topics including trust
in government and opinions (as cited in Buetnner, 2010).
Gallup World Poll
 Using Wellbeing Finder instrument concluded that there are Five Essential Elements for Wellbeing:
1. Career wellbeing - this represents where you spend most of your time during the day.
2. Social wellbeing - this represents your relationships and experiences of love.
3. Financial wellbeing - this represents how well you can manage your financial situation.
4. Physical wellbeing - this represents your ability to have good health and energy.
5. Community wellbeing - this represents your role and participation within the community you live in.
 From daily experience tracker, in their research, they concluded that a good day includes ten circumstances, which are to be ranked on a scale of 1–10:
a. feeling well rested
b. being treated with respect
c. smiling or laughing
d. learning or interested
e. enjoyment
f. physical pain
g. worry
h. sadness
i. distress
j. anger
Five Ways to Wellbeing: Foresight Report
1. Connect - when we build connections with people around us, we experience higher levels of wellbeing as well as stronger resilience in the face
of adversity.
2. Be Active - take care of your body, simply moving the body can have a massive effect on your mood and cognitive functioning.
3. Take Notice – of the things around you; savoring.
4. Keep Learning – engage your brain and challenge yourself to learn.
5. Give – random acts of kindness.
 Highest SWB-scoring

countries
Lowest SWB-scoring countries
3. What Makes Us Happy?
 Gallup World Poll research reveals that in 1301 nations, which was a representative sample of 96 per cent of the globe’s population, there were
striking disparities in health and consequences of income (Kesebir and Diener, 2008).
 Income may influence wellbeing because wealthier nations appear to have:
a. Equality
b. Human Rights
c. Longevity
d. Democracy
e. Literacy
 However, countries with higher income tend to have more competitiveness, more materialism and less time for socializing and leisure (Kesebir
and Diener, 2008).
 A review of the GDP of 132 countries indicates that individuals who live in countries with high GDP such as Norway and the USA on average score
higher on wellbeing measures than those living in countries with low GDP such as Togo and Bulgaria (Deaton, 2008).
 Bhutan, a tiny country in Asia, has rejected the concept of gross national product (GNP) as the measurement of its country’s success, and introduced
gross national happiness (GNH).
 In a survey several groups of people within several continents were asked about their rating of happiness. The results show that Forbes magazine’s
‘richest Americans’ consisting of 100 people (with net worth over $125 million) scored only slightly above (5.8) the random control group.
Furthermore,
37 per cent of the rich list scored lower on happiness levels than the average American (1985, Ed Diener et al).
 Income is correlated with happiness in men, not women (Adelmann, 1987), and low personal income is related to depression for husbands, not
wives (Ross and Huber, 1985).
 Low income is related to depression for single but not married women (Keith and Schafer, 1982) and people with high income are perceived as
more intelligent and successful but also as more unfriendly and cold (see Diener and Biswas– Diener, 2008).
Relationships and SWB
➢ Friends and Acquaintances
 Greatest predictors and facilitators of SWB is social relationships.
 Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index poll recently found that people need to spend six to seven hours per day in social settings, and up to nine
if your job is stressful, to enhance or maintain wellbeing
 Happiness is contagious, people who interact on a daily basis with happy people, in small, large, direct or indirect networks, are
happier (Fowler and Christakis, 2008)
 However, not only do friends and wider social networks influence our SWB – they can influence our likelihood of engagement with
detrimental health behaviours (such as smoking) (Fowler and Christakis, 2008 as cited in Rath and Harter, 2010).
➢ Marriage and SWB
 Longitudinal research has recently shown, that after the initial one year ‘honeymoon phase’, individuals return to their previous levels of SWB.
One caveat is that couples who cohabit tend to report less satisfaction than couples who are married.
 The relationship between children and marital satisfaction appears to be curvilinear, with high levels of life satisfaction at the marriage
ceremony, dropping significantly at the birth of the first child, followed by a continued drop throughout childhood and adolescence, where
it
hits bottom, and then returning to higher levels after the children have left.
Work/Employment and SWB
 Research has shown that how we perceive our job and our career orientation can further influence our happiness levels.
 “Calling orientation”- is when workers are immersed healthily in what they do. They do the job not for the money or the fame but because they believe
that it is worthy in its own right (Diener and Biswas-Diener, 2008).
  Career orientation - (although a little more engaged) is concerned with building a career, perceiving the job they are in as a way to progress forward,
and they are focused on the extrinsic rewards that can come with progressing in their career.
Health and SWB
➢ Three health categories:
a. The likelihood a person will contract a specific illness.
b. How long a person lives after contracting a life threatening illness.
c. How long a person’s lifespan is.
 Within the first category, longitudinal research has shown that people who experience higher levels of positive emotions are protected from
various illnesses including heart disease.
 When someone has balanced levels of positive emotions and optimism, their health can be positively influenced.
 Research shows, quite simply, that happier people live longer (Rasmussen and Pressman, 2009).
Religion and SWB
 Elements needed in order for a religion to enhance wellbeing (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008):
a. Comforting beliefs in what awaits us on the ‘other side’.
b. Social support from a community.
c. Connecting to something permanent and important that can give comfort, meaning and a sense of identity.
d. Growing up religiously, which may influence a solid upbringing with a clear set of values and morals to abide by.
e. Experience of rituals that excite, amaze and involve the congregation and its followers.
Age, gender, and education
 Contrary to popular belief, elderly individuals are as happy as their younger counterparts.
 There appears to be no significant differences between the happiness levels of men and women (Diener et al., 1999b; Nes et al., 2008).
 People who score high on wellbeing tend to have a higher educational attainment than those who score lower on the scales.
4. Theories of Subjective Wellbeing (SWB)
• Genetics and SWB
➢ Dynamic equilibrium theory
- States that personality determines baseline levels of emotional responses; events may affect us in the short term, however over time
we eventually revert to our genetic set point (Headey and Wearing, 1989).
- Furthermore, people who are happy in their home life tend to be happy at work, thus displaying consistency across
situations (work/leisure) (Diener and Larsen, 1984).
- According to Sonja Lyubomirsky, the determining factors of happiness is in these proportions: 10% caused by environment, 40%
caused by things that you do and 50% caused by genetics.
- Epigenetics is the area of biological research that looks at the causal interactions between genes and the environment (Curley
and Keverne, 2009: 347).
- Environment can have an influence on gene expression and behavior, especially in the mother–infant relationship during key
developmental phases, thereby influencing “brain development, behavior as well as risk and resilience to health and
disease.”
• Adaptation Theory
- Researchers have suggested that humans tend to have a natural happiness ‘set point’, which, following good and/or bad news/events, we tend
to revert back to after approximately 3 months.
- This evolutionary adaptation process, hedonic adaptation theory (otherwise known as the ‘hedonic treadmill’) (Lykken and Tellegen, 1996) is
linked to ‘zero-sum theory’, which posits that happy periods in our life are inevitably followed by negative periods, which cancel each other
out, and thus any attempt to increase happiness will be unsuccessful.
- Proposed antidote to this adaptation is variety, hence individuals must continually change their approach and happiness interventions in
order to counteract any adaptation mechanisms (Tkach and Lyubomirsky, 2006).
- As reflected in the hedonic adaptation prevention (HAP) model, new research has shown that an individual’s number of positive events
directly affects the number of experienced positive emotions, which helps sustain wellbeing, all moderated by surprise and variety as well
as intrinsic desire for change.
- Affective forecasting and how this affects our ability to be happy.
o With the unique ability of humans to be able to think and imagine, the future comes interesting and powerful consequences
(Wasko and Pury, 2009).
o However, the presence of Impact bias which is an evolutionary quirk distorts our perception of the hedonic impact of future
events. We may think that two outcomes, such as passing a test or failing a test, will have distinct intensity and durational
differences on us; however, this rarely turns out to be true (Wasko and Pury, 2009). Ex. Breakup and feeling as if u can’t be happy w
anyone else again baSTA overestimating the length or intensity of future feeling states.
- Death of a spouse and long-term unemployment.
o Bereavement is one of the most devastating life events and has a significant impact on individuals’ wellbeing.
o Researchers propose that it takes approximately five to seven years to return to previous levels of wellbeing.
o The damaging effects of unemployment, on the other hand, are harder to recover from.
o In the same study, Clark et al. (2008) followed over 130,000 individuals over several decades. They found that men who
were unemployed for a long period of time (more than one year) did not return to their previous levels of wellbeing.
- Humans synthesize happiness.
- Natural happiness is what we feel when we get what we want; however, synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t get what
we want.
- Synthetic happiness is just as real and beneficial as the other type of happiness.
- The reason we developed this evolutionary ability to synthesize happiness is argued to be due to the belief that we need to keep going and
get what we want, otherwise we’d give up if we knew we would be just as happy as if we didn’t.
• Discrepancy Theory
➢ Relative Standards Model
- This model tells us that subjective wellbeing is primarily a function of comparison processes (social comparison, with past self, with
internalized standards).
- With social comparison, we can compare our situation, attractiveness and wealth to others either in an upward or downward spiral.
- Our personality may influence whether we use downward or upward social comparison and how we use it.
- Social comparison is only detrimental if you use it to negatively evaluate yourself (downward) with others.
- Status anxiety and materialism have been linked to increased instances of depression and lowered SWB.
- Diener and Oishi (2000) found that placing high importance on money correlates inversely with life satisfaction (20.53)
whereas placing high value on love correlates positively with life satisfaction.
- However, an argument against the detrimental effects of materialism is that materialism is only bad if you can’t afford it.
- Thus, those who report being higher on materialism with higher incomes report higher wellbeing (Crawford et al., 2002).
- As long as one lives within her means and can afford what she likes without the financial strain, materialism isn’t as detrimental
as previously believed.
- Linked to discrepancy theory is the paradox of choice (Schwartz and Ward, 2004).
- As nations become richer and consumers become more demanding, our world is packed with choice, alternatives and variations
to most everything for sale.
- Freedom of choice has now been replaced with the ‘tyranny of freedom’, where more choice isn’t necessarily a good thing
(Schwartz, 2000; Schwartz et al., 2002).
- An abundance of choice has led to three leading problems for consumers and citizens of Western societies:
a. Information problems. We are swamped with information, which leaves us in a precarious position; how can we possibly
gather all we need to know in order to make an educated choice?
b. Error problems. If we are not able to access all information about all the possible choices, we are likely to make more errors
of judgement.
c. Psychological problems. The stress and anxiety caused by excess choice and the above issues can create lowered levels
of psychological wellbeing.
- When it comes to decision-making, Schwartz has separated individuals into two categories: satisficers versus maximizers.
a. Satisficers are individuals who are able to choose items that meet their minimum criteria and go for ‘what’s good enough’.
b. Maximizers, on the other hand, are individuals who fixate on searching for all the possible options and look for the best
possible choice. Pitfalls associated with being a maximizer including:
o Regret at not getting the best choice or anticipating regret in the future.
o Opportunity costs. Inevitably, when we choose one thing, we automatically reject the other. Each choice has a cost
in itself.
o Escalation of expectations. As the choices available to us rise, so do people’s expectations.
o Self-blame. Since we have so much choice available to us, we believe it is our own fault if things go wrong.
o Time. The hours people spend sifting through the multitude of choice takes away from the time spent on
more worthwhile pursuits.
• Goal Theory
- Commitment to a set of goals provides a sense of personal agency and a sense of structure and meaning to daily life’ (Diener et al., 1999: 284).
- Happiness is the direct result of the process of attaining valued and self-congruent goals and it is the quality of the goals one chooses to
pursue that influences wellbeing.
- AIM Approach
o Three basic components to a positive attitude and happy mindset that we need to engage:
1. Attention
- Refers to the ability of people to look at the entire picture when going through daily life – both the good and the bad.
- People who attend to only the negative will shut out the positives in life and live in what Diener and Biswas-
Diener (2008: 188) term ‘an ugly world’.
2. Interpretation
- Refers to the tendency for humans to put together a story when all the facts are not yet presented.
- Six main destructive thinking patters that individuals tend to default to when interpreting events:
a. Awfulizing. Exaggerating a negative event or person beyond what is objectively true.
b. Distress intolerance. A perception that individuals adopt that tells them that they will not be able to recover
or withstand potentially traumatic events.
c. Learned helplessness. this is when people adopt a mentality that they have no control over their
negative situations and give up.
d. Perfectionism. Individuals who use this tend to fixate on the minute details and only accept excellence.
e. Negative self-fulfilling expectancies. The phenomenon of eliciting negative responses from others via a
person’s previous communications with others.
f. Rejection goggles. This is when people identify and fixate on rejection, even when it may not exist in the
situation (Adapted from Diener and Biswas-Diener, 2008).
3. Memory
- Relates to the large body of research showing that recalling and savoring past positive events and experiences leads
to enhanced wellbeing.
 - When we attend to positive things around us using clear rather than negatively biased interpretations of events
MODULE 4: EUDAIMONIC and interactions, as well as engaging in positive reminiscence, we can set ourselves up to create a more positive
attitude and happier existence.
WELLBEING
Criticism on SWB and the Eudaimonic Paradigm
- Discussed in the previous module is the concept of subjective well-being (SWB), which is a person’s satisfaction with their life and the experience
of positive affect and low negative affect.
- However, there are criticisms as far as definition of SWB is concerned. According to Ryan and Deci (2000) in Boniwell & Tunariu (2019), SWB is simply
a definition of hedonism and that the types of activities and goals theorized to promote well-being may be misleading.
- While Ryff, 1989 argued that there was a failure to answer the question of what it actually means to be well psychologically. He further stated that what
appears to be very important for a balanced sense of well-being, the concepts of meaning and purpose are ignored (King and Napa, 1998; McGregor
and Little, 1998).
- In relation to the above criticisms of SWB, an alternative approach was offered which is the eudaimonic paradigm, where well-being is construed as an
ongoing, dynamic process (rather than a fixed state) of flourishing, personal growth, self-actualization or self-transcendence by means of engagement
in an activity which utilizes one’s resources and is subjectively meaningful.
Eudaimonia
- Eudaimonism is fulfilling or realizing one’s daimon or true nature.
- Researchers mentioned that eudaimonia occurs when people’s life activities are:
a. most congruent with their deep values
b. handled by a fully functioning person
c. self-determined
d. authentic
e. challenging and complex
f. reflecting broad goals and purpose
g. congruent with one’s true self
h. flow like experiences
- Eudaimonic wellbeing proposes that true happiness is found in the expression of virtue and doing what is worth doing.
- Realization of human potential is an ultimate goal (Aristotle). Individuals must therefore seek and pursue happiness through prudence (John Locke) and
self-discipline (Epicurus).
- Researchers within the eudaimonic framework argue that happiness and ‘the good life’ are not simply the experiences of feeling good. There has to
be more to life than just pleasure and satisfaction.
Psychological Wellbeing (PWB)
• A related concept yet empirically distinct to SWB is PWB. According to Ryff and Keyes (1995) and Ryff and Singer (2006) the concept of PWB consists
of six components:
a. Self-acceptance (positive evaluation of oneself and one’s life)
b. Personal growth
c. Purpose in life
d. Positive relations with others
e. Environmental mastery (the capacity to effectively manage one’s life and environment)
f. Autonomy
• Researchers believe that there is some empirical support for the six-factor model with moderate associations between two subscales of PWB such as
self-acceptance and environmental mastery and SWB (the other dimensions correlated weakly or inconsistently with these indicators). Vittersø
(2004) notes several findings suggesting that Ryff’s six dimensions can be accounted for by two factors corresponding to hedonic and eudaimonic
wellbeing.
a. Factor analysis of data from over 3000 respondents confirmed that SWB and PWB are two correlated but distinct factors and that they show
a different pattern of relationships to demographic and personality variables (Keyes et al., 2002)
Authentic Happiness
According to Seligman (2002) there are three routes to happiness
1. The pleasant life, which enables high levels of positive emotion and gratification.
2. The good life, which enables constant absorption, engagement and ‘flow’.
3. Meaningful life, where one uses one’s strengths in the service of something greater than oneself.
Self-Determination Theory
Self-determination theory argues, like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, that there is an evolutionary adaptive function of three basic psychological needs which must
be met to attain psychological wellbeing. These are:
1. Autonomy
- It is the tendency to self-regulate one’s behavior in accordance with personal volition (rather than external control).
- It is also the tendency to resist coercion, pressure, and control; to regulate one’s behavior in accordance with one’s own needs
(and situational affordances), which promotes better survival than organizing behavior to meet external demands.
- Thus, autonomy is the volition and the desire to freely choose actions consistent with one’s integrated sense of self; feeling that one
is voluntarily engaging in a behavior, regardless of whether the behaviour is dependent on others or not.
2. Competence
- It is the tendency to be interested and open, to seek learning/mastery opportunities (promote acquisition of new skills).
- It manifests in early motor play, manipulation of objects, and exploration of surroundings.
- It is a tendency to experience satisfaction from learning for its own sake – and the tendency to explore and seek challenges. It is also
the ability to affect the environment and attain desired outcomes.
 3. Relatedness
- It is the tendency to feel connection and caring with group members (it promotes group cohesion and mutual protection).
- It is similar to Baumeister and Leary’s ‘need to belong’ and overlaps with Bowlby’s attachment need. It can at times get in conflict with
need for autonomy but normally it is complementary.
Besides the above-mentioned needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) Ryan and Deci (2017) put forward three more candidate basic needs that must
be met for psychological well-being although they argue that there is not yet sufficient evidence for their inclusion. These three needs are meaning, self-esteem
and, security.
- Meaning, or making sense of one’s life, is the basic psychological need seen as the central concept in the SDT, yet not a need because it is
noted that meaning is viewed as an outcome of the basic needs satisfaction, rather than a basic need in its own right.
- Safety/ security appears as a basic need already in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs yet not recognized as one of the basic psychological
needs because this need only appears when a person is threatened or made to feel insecure in any other way.
- Self-esteem: it’s a safety need of the self, a need to feel worth while. It surfaces only when the sense of self is thwarted.
The latter two fall under the umbrella of eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is defined as identifying one’s unique virtues and strengths of character, developing them, and
then using them in the service of the greater good, particularly the welfare of humankind.
The important thing to note from this area of research is that people who engage in hedonic, pleasant activities experience higher levels of positive affect in the
short term however Eudaimonic pursuits may give meaning and value in the long term.
Kindly watch video of Martin Seligman ‘Flourishing – a new understanding of wellbeing’, where you will learn more about how we can achieve wellbeing through
the PERMA model.
Flow Theory
Flow
- the intense experiential involvement in moment-to-moment activity, which can be either physical or mental. It is said that person’s attention is fully
invested in the task at hand and he/she functions at her or his fullest capacity’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009: 394) when he is in flow. Ex. You get so
absorbed in an activity that you almost forget about the time that has passed.
- Flow has direct ties with consciousness and psychic energy where it is posited that when people feel psychic entropy (chaos and anxious thoughts)
they will experience depression and stress. However, the attainment of psychic negentropy or flow (exclusion of any negative thought) is ideal for
enhancing the experience’s positive effect (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009).
Conditions to facilitate the flow experience:
1. Structured activity with clear goals and immediate feedback. This means that the activity must have rules and a clear outline in order to help orient the
person doing it.
2. Balance of challenges versus skills. This means that if the challenge is too far above our current skill level, then this will produce anxiety. If it is too low,
it will produce boredom.
3. Complete concentration (merging of action and awareness). The activity must initiate a complete merger of the activity and all consciousness.
All attention is within the activity and there is no room for consciousness.
4. Sense of control. This stems from the activity’s ability to allow us to lose self-consciousness, thereby gaining a sense of control over what we are doing.
5. Transformation of time. This element is the unique experience of where time speeds up, and before you know it, you’ve been engaging in the activity
for hours when it felt like minutes.
6. Activity for the sake of activity (and a wish to repeat). This component refers to the activity’s ability to make you want to do it all over again.
7. Personality. You enjoy life and appear to be intrinsically led in your daily endeavors.
What are the activities that we can do to experience flow?
- The activities in which we are most likely to experience flow are: sports and activity, dance participation, creative arts, sex, socializing, studying,
listening to music, reading and paradoxically working. However, many other activities can produce the experience of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 2002;
Delle Fave and Massimini, 2004).
- Activities that tend to inhibit flow (and induce apathy and boredom) include housework, watching TV and being idle.
Benefits of Flow
Those who experience flow in play and leisure report increased positive emotions (after the fact). While education systems that are arranged in order to induce
flow can bring about higher grades, levels of commitment and achievement in education within their students. In occupational settings, flow helps workers to
experience greater engagement and leadership development.
Dangers of Flow
• Flow can be found in activities that are both morally good and bad (for example, gambling). Research has also demonstrated a potential to
become addicted to flow-inducting activities (for instance, rock climbing, video game playing), where the activity becomes necessary for daily
functioning (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992).
• Overall, engaging in flow-inducing activities that challenge and stretch you as a person, within reason, can have a tremendous positive affect on
your overall wellbeing.
Importance of Meaning and Purpose in Life
• Researchers argue that the search for meaning and purpose is more relevant than the search for happiness (Wong, 2009). They also maintain that not
only should we be measuring meaning in life but the structural properties of personal meaning systems, such as ‘differentiation (how diverse the
sources of meaning are), elaboration (how people construct their own links and connections between events to give life purpose) and coherence (how
well do all the features fit together) measures’ (Pöhlmann et al., 2006: 111). These measures enhance mental and physical health/wellbeing and predict
life satisfaction (Pöhlmann et al., 2006).
• Viktor Frankl’s concept of ‘will to meaning’ proposed three benefits of living a meaningful life, including: creative, experiential and attitudinal
value. Since Frankl’s contribution, researchers have identified seven major sources of meaning, found cross-culturally, including: achievement,
acceptance, relationship, intimacy, religion, self-transcendence and fairness.
• King and Napa (1998) argued that overall wellbeing was a combination of both happiness (SWB = SWL, PA, NA) and meaning (such as connectedness,
purpose and growth similar to eudaimonia)
 • McGregor and Little (1998) concluded that the concept of wellbeing should be regarded as consisting of two elements: happiness (satisfaction with
life, positive affect, negative affect) and meaning (connectedness, purpose and growth).
• Developing a purpose in life and identifying reasons to live help mediate between stress, coping and suicidal behavior (Mei-Chuan et al., 2007).
• Individuals who report enhanced levels of depression, hopelessness and suicidal thoughts are much more likely to use emotion-oriented
coping strategies.
• Avoidance coping strategies, when used in a healthy way, can be a positive approach to wellbeing, as they can channel negative thoughts into other
area of life, thereby potentially creating reason for living (Mei-Chuan et al., 2007).
Existential Psychology and Positive Psychology
• Existential psychology focuses on ‘human existence and the human drama of survival and flourishing’ (Wong, 2009: 361). Both existential and
positive psychology focus on the same fundamental questions – what is a good life and what makes life worth living? (Wong, 2009: 361)
• A new wave of existential positive psychology aims to merge the two areas while endeavoring to find the answers to life’s difficult questions
(death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness, identity and happiness).
• Existential psychology denotes that there are three types of mature happiness
1. Authentic happiness (comes from being an authentic individual)
2. Eudaimonic happiness (comes from doing virtuous deeds)
3. Chaironic happiness (a spiritual gift of happiness that is bestowed; it is independent of our abilities and circumstances especially
within suffering)
• Happiness is a process and not an end result. It is ongoing and is the result of forgoing self-interest and serving something higher than the self.
• Existential psychologists also accept that contentment can actually be a negative thing, leaving a void in a person’s life with no goals or achievements
left to strive for. Discontent has the potential for personal growth.
• Pursuing happiness may not be the aim of life; however, existential psychologists deem that by pursuing meaning and authenticity one will
eventually achieve happiness.
• Wong’s duality hypothesis states that ‘positives cannot exist apart from negatives and that authentic happiness grows from pain and suffering’
(Wong, 2009: 364).
Death and Positive Psychology
Death
• The most feared concept in human existence, yet is a potential avenue for growth and development.
• ‘Positive death’ or ‘good dying’ is proposed to have a link with the good life (Wong, 2009).
• Meaning management theory posits that death can have either a negative or positive effect on us, depending on how we view it.
• By embracing death, we can live more authentically, thereby enhancing the likelihood of self-actualization.
• Transforming death anxiety into a productive energy force is a positive viewpoint on a traditionally ‘negative’ component of the life process.
Three distinct attitudes towards death (our death attitude profile):
1. Neutral death acceptance, when one accepts that death is a part of life and attempts to live life to the fullest.
2. Approach acceptance, when one accepts that there is a an afterlife that will be pleasurable.
3. Escape acceptance, which perceives death as the preferable option to a miserable life.
Terror Management Theory (TMT)
• This theory suggests there is an innate, biological need to survive and deals with the management of the evolutionary cognitive realization of
inevitable death (Pyszczynski et al., 2002).
• The mortality salience hypothesis suggests that when people are reminded of the inevitability of death, their world view defense strengthens and
they seek to conform to the accepted beliefs and behaviors of their culture (Harmon-Jones et al., 1997).
• A traumatic and life-threatening event, paired with the lifelong reminder of a person’s close encounter with death (physical scars, deformity) creates
a mortality salient environment.
• People will have a conscious reminder of the inevitability of their own death and utilize proximal defenses and distraction to defend themselves
from death-related reminders (Pyszczynski et al., 2002).
Integrating Hedonic and Eudaimonic Wellbeing
What constitutes a good life: hedonic or eudaimonic wellbeing?
 Those who follow their eudaimonic pursuits score highly on satisfaction with life tools (Huta et al., 2003).
 Increased scores on positive affect were strongly correlated with hedonic measures as were drive fulfilment and being relaxed and away from problems.
 Eudaimonic measures tend to correlate much better with growth, development, challenges and efforts (Waterman, 1993).
Finding the Meaning in One’s Life
To find one’s meaning in life, the PURE model can be used (Wong, 2009):
P urpose and life goals
U nderstanding the demands of each situation and life as a whole
R esponsible actions and reactions consistent with your purpose and understanding
E valuation of your life in order to ensure authenticity and efficacy