How you can benefit from
positive psychology
Happiness doesn’t just feel good. Its benefits extend to all domains of our life. Happy people tend to live longer, make more money, have better relationships, and contribute more productively to society.
In the Zone Positive lesson series, we explore the findings and applications that have emerged from the cutting-edge field of positive psychology. These lessons come together to present a comprehensive roadmap to a life well lived. For each topic, we discuss the science behind the findings, and offer practical steps you can take to actualize your potential, increase your productivity, and enhance your overall sense of meaning and fulfillment in life.
As an overview, positive psychology is organized around five core ingredients or pathways to a life-well lived: character strengths, positive emotions, engagement, meaning & purpose, and positive relationships.
These five core theories serve as the cornerstone of the science of a life well lived. However, they constitute only a segment of the research on well-being that has emerged from the field of positive psychology. In the Zone Positive series, we will be delving deeper into the findings of what makes people flourish in life. For example, in one lesson, we will be exploring the surprising power of a practice of gratitude in life. Another lesson will be dedicated to investigating the process of positive change. In it, you will learn how best to let go of those chronically unproductive habits and replace them with more effective ones in engendering the changes you desire. We also explore the science behind self-motivation and self-efficacy. You will be shown the most proven psychological tools for developing the will, self-reliance, and discipline to shape the world according to your vision. Another lesson will discuss how to become more resilient in the face of those obstacles that inevitably will show up in your path. And remember…this is beyond folk wisdom or time-honored common sense. The findings in these lessons are all supported by sound, empirical research.
At Zone Positive, we ultimately aim to provide you with an in-depth voyage into the mindset of the successful and happy individual. Whether you are a coach interested in adding a powerful arsenal of tools to your practice, an employer looking to create a more harmonious and productive workplace or just someone who wants more out of life or who is looking to feel better…you will gain a deep understanding of the psychological factors that most directly contribute to a flourishing individual or organization. And you will be introduced to the most effective, groundbreaking applications that you can utilize to create more meaning, fulfillment, and joy in your life
Positive Psychology and Coaching
Positive psychology is the empirical study of what works well in life, how people and organizations flourish, and how they deal resiliently with downturns and hardships. This emerging science is based on evidence from lab results, longitudinal studies and analyses of massive data collections. Positive psychology forms a natural evidence base for coaching, a profession based on the assumption that the client is creative, resourceful and whole. Similar to coaching, the science is grounded around inner strengths and positivity, both of which constitute a powerful force for an individual’s (or an organization’s) transformation. The use of positive psychology principles in coaching is one of the most exciting new advances in the field to harness the best in people and to inspire them to live out their potential.
Carol Kaufman, a coach and psychologist at Harvard’s medical school distinguishes between “first and second generation coaching”. The first generation of coaches was made up of the visionary and courageous individuals who helped to establish their services as a viable enterprise. Now, says Kaufman, we are on the brink of the second generation of coaching, in which the discipline needs to grow through the development of explicitly defined theories of human development and research on coaching effectiveness. Coaching is ready for sophisticated theories and exciting new interventions. In their book, Positive Psychology Coaching, Biswas-Diener and Dean point out that those [coaches] on the cutting edge of science will have additional tools in their professional toolboxes. They go on to say that the dynamic new field of positive psychology is a branch of science that shows tremendous potential as a natural interface with the profession of coaches. As an applied science, positive psychology offers theories, interventions and assessments that form a valuable addition to current coaching tools.
Zone Positive aims to bring the science of positive psychology to coaching practices of all kinds with courses offered. We fuse evidence-based positive psychology practices with the latest advances in personal development to improve your life as a coach and your ability to help your clients flourish. Zone Positive offers you exciting ways to develop both personally and professionally. Learn about the burgeoning science of positive psychology and how the positivity approach can be used to help you and your clients move forward in life. Our courses will help you discover:
Creating more positive emotions in one’s life as a means to build resiliency—helping to buffer the person against everyday challenges. Positive emotions also reduce stress levels and enable one to be more curious, creative and better able to problem-solve.
Building one’s life around their natural talents and performance strengths instead of obsessing on weaknesses. When we are able to use our strengths, we are satisfying our natural urges. We feel good about ourselves—we thrive and we feel invigorated. We perform better. We are more productive. We have greater contentment and satisfaction. There is a sense of accomplishment and meaning in our work and personal life. By contrast, a continual focus on trying to fix weaknesses leaves us frustrated—suppressing our natural tendencies. This can lead to anger and becoming psychologically and physically drained. Overtime, these negative emotions can lead to depression.
Surrounding oneself with positive relationships, which can have significant impact on one’s physical wellness and longevity. Research has shown that socially integrated people—those who have a close loving relationship, have close family and friends, belong to social and religious groups, and participate widely in these networks—recover more quickly from disease and live longer. Our immune functioning is actually strengthened by our positive relationships and their effect on our day-to-day moods. The more we socialize, the less susceptible we become to colds and illness
Maintaining a sense of meaning and purpose in one’s life can act as a stabilizing factor during times of change and transition. It can serve as an anchor to keep us level during life’s inevitable ups and downs. Research indicates that a sense of meaning has been positively related to a number of measures of healthy psychological functioning, including work enjoyment, life satisfaction, hope, and happiness. By comparison, a lack of meaning in life has been associated in studies with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
Positive Psychology and Education
The goals of positive psychology mirror the goals of educators. Most professionals enter the field of teaching in order to make a difference in the lives of students. What motivates teachers to continue is the reinforcement of seeing students thrive and perform at optimal levels. Positive psychology seeks to do the same, promoting general well-being and life satisfaction across the broader spectrum of individuals and institutions.
Positive psychology has application in all aspects of teaching and learning, from pre-school level to post graduate, for faculty and students alike. The concept of positive education seeks both higher academic achievement, increased character strengths, self awareness and emotional control, self efficacy (not self-esteem), resilience, flexible and accurate thinking skills, strategies for positive relationships and learned optimism. Researchers from top universities around the world have shown that students with these positive core qualities are academically more motivated, well-rounded and successful- both in and outside of the classroom. Importantly, all of these positive core qualities are malleable and can be fostered. They can be taught and learned through tested, proven approaches being published in the scientific literature. Incorporating the theories of positive psychology in the school curriculum provides an opportunity to expose students to the science of individual achievement and fulfillment, giving them insight into their own lives and making the actual lessons taught more meaningful.
Important Findings
A number of powerful positive psychology theories and techniques can be used to enhance the learning experience for both students and teachers. Successful education today requires:
Strengths
Focusing on character strengths offers an important step toward greater engagement, greater achievement, and greater well‐being. Just naming the strengths of a teacher or a student is an uplifting experience.
When we are able to use our strengths, we are satisfying our natural urges. We feel good about ourselves—we thrive and we feel invigorated. We perform better. We are more productive. We have greater contentment and satisfaction. There is a sense of accomplishment and meaning in our work and personal life. By contrast, a continual focus on trying to fix weaknesses leaves us frustrated—suppressing our natural tendencies. This can lead to anger and becoming psychologically and physically drained. Overtime, these negative emotions can lead to depression.
Positive emotion
A positive school climate predicts teacher and student satisfaction, lower stress levels and better school results. Rational thinking is inhibited when emotions are negative and go unchecked. Conversely, when we are emotionally calm and thinking positively in a safe environment, we are more likely to be curious, creative and better able to problem solve. Seminal work by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson of The University of North Carolina identifies a number of positive emotions, all of which can be promoted in our schools with beneficial results: joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love.
Engagement and Intrinsic Motivation
Research has shown that people pursue an activity if they enjoy doing it and that people tend to enjoy what they can do well. In a 1987 study conducted by B. Eugene Griessman among leading artists, scientists and other accomplished individuals, there was a consensus that “enjoyment of work” is the characteristic most responsible for their success—more important than 32 other traits including creativity, competence, and breadth of knowledge. The implication for schools is whether our educators enjoy teaching and whether our students enjoy learning. It’s the difference between swimming with the current or struggling to swim upstream.
Relationships:
Relationships between constituencies are a critical factor in the positive school environment. The role of teachers in the development of elementary students is of particular importance. Secure childhood relationships provide a safe haven from which children can feel comfortable venturing out into an unknown world. As a result, these children are more likely to explore their surroundings, acquiring greater knowledge and psychological resources along the way. Research demonstrates that these resources end up building a foundation of confidence, trust, and self-efficacy that will serve children over the course of a lifetime. In school, additional studies show that children who feel higher levels of relatedness to parents and teachers tend to perform better academically. Children with secure relationships tend to grow up to be more compassionate, altruistic, and attuned to the needs of others.
Resilience:
More than just the ability to bounce back from adversity, resilience is also the capacity to bounce forward in the presence of opportunity. Research has shown that students need more than good grades, high college entrance exam scores, or even a college education to succeed. They need core qualities of positivity.
Positive Psychology and Human Resources
Positive psychology is increasingly being used in workplace environments to enhance human potential and to improve organizational effectiveness in areas such as:
- Maximizing person–job–organization fit and optimal functioning
- Building optimal team performance
- Developing organizational leaders
- Providing effective mentoring and coaching
- Supporting career development and planning
- Fostering and capitalize on diversity and cross-cultural relationships
- Optimizing work and family balance
- Creating healthful work environments through comprehensive wellness programs
- Promoting organizational learning and continuous improvement
- Inspiring and facilitating positive organization development and strategic change
Research conducted over the past 40 years suggests that employees will experience high levels of engagement with their job when their responsibilities provide opportunities for recognition, meaningful work, input, close relationships, psychological growth, and professional development. In other words, employees will become more engaged when their jobs include the motivator factors.
Positive Psychology and Health Care
Positive psychology offers an exciting opportunity within the healthcare environment. Nurses, physicians, therapists and other practitioners will see increased motivation, productivity, enhanced employee satisfaction and significantly improved self confidence when the practical tenets of positive psychology are put into place. It is an approach that can help people improve their performance and to enhance their personal fulfillment and well-being.
Having a personal level of happiness is a vital key to how effective you are as a nurse, clinician, counselor or leader in the healthcare field. Incorporating positive interventions in your daily work life has the potential to improve not only your physical and emotional health but the health of your patients as well.
Positive psychology is the scientific study of optimal human functioning. First introduced in 1988 by Dr. Martin Seligman who was then president of the American Psychology Association, it has entered the mainstream of social science research as a complement to traditional approaches. In the past, much of our care focused on deficits, what is wrong and how to make it right. While this model still works, positive psychology studies the positive aspects of our life– the effects of joy, resiliency, strengths and other positive emotions that generally fall under the umbrella of “happiness”. It has broadened the scope of psychological research and practice to include the benefits of:
Creating more positive emotions in your life as a means to build resiliency—helping to buffer the person against everyday challenges. Positive emotions also reduce stress levels and enable you to be more curious, creative and better able to problem solve.
Building your life around your natural talents and performance strengths instead of obsessing on weaknesses. When we are able to use our strengths, we are satisfying our natural urges. We feel good about ourselves—we thrive and we feel invigorated. We perform better. We are more productive. We have greater contentment and satisfaction. There is a sense of accomplishment and meaning in our work and personal life. By contrast, a continual focus on trying to fix weaknesses leaves us frustrated—suppressing our natural tendencies. This can lead to anger and becoming psychologically and physically drained. Overtime, these negative emotions can lead to depression.
Surrounding yourself with positive relationships, which can have significant impact on your physical wellness and longevity. Research has shown that socially integrated people—those who are married, have close family and friends, belong to social and religious groups, and participate widely in these networks—recover more quickly from disease and live longer.” Our immune functioning is actually strengthened by our positive relationships and their effect on our day-to-day moods. The more we socialize, the less susceptible we become to colds and illness
Maintaining a sense of meaning and purpose in your life which can act as a stabilizing factor during times of change and transition. It can serve as an anchor to keep us level during life’s inevitable ups and downs. Research indicates that a sense of meaning has been positively related to a number of measures of healthy psychological functioning, including work enjoyment, life satisfaction, hope, and happiness. By comparison, a lack of meaning in life has been associated in studies with depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
In an article written on positive health for the International Positive Psychology Association, Dr. Seligman synthesizes some of the important research findings of the past decade with implications in the field of healthcare. For example:
Brief raising of positive mood enhances creative thinking and makes positive physicians more accurate and faster to come up with the proper liver diagnosis (Fredrickson, 2001; Isen, 2005).
Some newer findings on optimism predict cardiovascular disease and mortality; these studies bear directly on the likelihood that a state of positive health will increase longevity and improve prognosis
In looking at more severe physiological events, positive affect and positive explanatory styles have been found to be protective against stroke, rapid progression of HIV and general mortality rates in the elderly
Dr. Seligman points to an overriding theme that has emerge from a decade of positive psychology research. Mental health (consisting of positive emotion, engagement, purpose, positive relationships, and positive accomplishments) is something over and above the absence of mental illness, and it is quantifiable and predictive. It predicts lack of depression, higher achievement, and—intriguingly—better positive physical health. The most important theme that runs through the tantalizing positive physical health outcomes is a link between positive psychology and positive health: Subjective well-being, as measured by optimism and other positive emotions, protects one from physical illness.