Positive Psychology Introduction - Research, Theory, & Criticisms (The Science of Human Well-Being)

we spend most of our lives trying to feel more meaning and happiness we strive to discover and live what many psychologists and philosophers call the good life could it be possible though through science and understanding we can figure out what the good life consists of and teach that to everyone that in a nutshell is what positive psychology hopes to do positive psychology is a sub-branch of study within psychology and is defined as the scientific study of what makes life most worth living in this video i'll go over what positive psychology is and where it came from some of its findings and teachings and some of the controversies surrounding it and my thoughts about this subject positive psychology began as a formal discipline in psychology in 1998 when its founder martin seligman chose it as a theme for his term as president of the american psychological association seligman echoed the work of humanistic psychologist abraham maslow when he stated that psychology had focused too much on what's wrong with people and not enough on what's right psychology had moved too far away from its original roots which were to make the lives of all people more fulfilling and productive he said and too much toward the important but not all important area of curing mental illness see as a response to freud and psychology in general maslow and other humanistic psychologists wrote about how curing mental illness and neuroses isn't enough to give patients a good quality of life one may have their depression and neurosis cured but live life like a statue feeling no positive feelings so positive psychologists believe we should study and discover what it is that gives humans positive emotions like happiness meaning and fulfillment to have a better quality of life despite being a recent branch of study positive psychology has exploded in popularity and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant money in just a short amount of time so i'll go over some of the findings from the research in positive psychology so you can see what it hopes to accomplish and then i'll cover some of the theory that's being taught by some of the core influencers research of positive psychology has covered many areas including happiness set point levels or the theory that once happiness on average is genetically determined or partially genetically determined personality marriage parenting intelligence age and more one major theme discovered is that shifting one's perspective can help increase and even maximize the potential for happiness in many of our everyday lives for example a 2005 study showed that practicing gratitude is a big contributor to happiness in life another study found that spending time with people who are naturally happy increases your overall levels of happiness studies have also found what doesn't influence happiness too for instance a 2009 study showed that people overestimate the impact of money on their happiness money does have some influence but attaining high levels of wealth will not drastically impact one's happiness levels research has indicated that happiness and well-being are not just present oriented but then have a past and future element too for instance research by roy baumeister found that what we call happiness is present oriented rooted in the moment while what we've referred to as meaningfulness is more focused on the past and future and how they link to the present this differentiation has led to some interesting findings for instance givers experience more meaning while takers experience more happiness in life now these are just a small sample of what research and positive psychology has found as you can see a lot of these findings suggest that there's some behavior or action that we can take that will in most cases improve our quality of life that leads to the question is there any core theory that has evolved within positive psychology well there's no one accepted theory at the moment on what well-being and living the good life specifically is and how to come about it still the theory of seligman and co-founder of positive psychology mahali czech sent me high e are heavily quoted and used in his book authentic happiness selgman has theorized that what constitutes being happy and living the good life can be grouped into three different theories of life these are number one the pleasant life or the life of enjoyment which examines how people experience and savor positive feelings and emotions primarily in the present the good life or the life of engagement which examines the beneficial effects of immersion absorption and flow a concept written in length by chick sent me high which is an experience of a loss of time when there is a positive match between a person's strength and their current task number three the meaningful life or life of affiliation which examines how individuals derive a positive sense of well-being and purpose from life this includes examining how people derive well-being from aspects larger than themselves like movement social groups and belief systems seligman further investigated the meaningful life and what precisely well-being is in his 2011 book flourish where he devised what's called the perma model perma is an acronym now recognized within positive psychology to help define and explain human well-being in greater depth it includes five core features including positive emotions part of having high well-being involves experiencing positive emotions and enjoying yourself in the present engagement if you're not fully engaged in something it's hard to have a sense of well-being when we're engaged in something we'd like to do we lose sense of time and become absorbed in that activity this has to do with flow relationships humans appear hardwired for relationships and without deep relationships our well-being can suffer meaning just experiencing positive emotions in the present isn't enough to significantly improve well-being alone humans also need a sense of meaning and purpose greater than ourselves accomplishment or achievement when we have goals and accomplish them we have higher states of well-being to enhance well-being than then he furthers one needs to investigate ways to incorporate these five key points into one's life now there's far more to the theory and research behind positive psychology which i can get into if you want but let's take a look at some of the main criticisms of the movement as well there are many but three main ones seem to stick out to me the most at least number one positive psychology isn't a real science now this is a criticism of psychology in general positive psychology relies too much on subjective reports from individuals as no one can truly empirically measure another person's states of conscious experience those uh that research positive psychology acknowledged this and seemed dedicated to continue looking for more objective ways and more scientific ways to investigate well-being number two increased commercialization positive psychology is rapidly growing in popularity which has ushered in many people attempting to capitalize off of its success this has led to criticism that this branch of psychology is turning into something equivalent to an mlms selling system in which speakers coaches and authors water down research used in positive psychology and use its brand to sell false promises of blissful happiness in exchange for monetary gain increased numbers of coaching systems courses for sale and bestseller books are rapidly popping up in fact right on the website positivepsychology.com note i don't think this site is affiliated with seligman or positive psychology center you can see courses that promise happiness if taken in exchange for in some cases thousands of dollars for a branch of rigorous scientific study this is obviously not normal significant ties to religious organizations the templeton foundation originally established to promote evangelical christianity and is still pursuing goals related to religious understanding has recently helped establish the positive psychology center at university of pennsylvania where seligman taught it appears to be positive psychology's biggest private sponsor which raises concerns in the scientific community one institute affiliated with religion attempt to influence studies and findings that skew the results and well-being toward adopting religious christian principles philosophers including mike martin of chapman university say that positive psychology has already left science and has entered the realm of ethics he points to some of seligman's latest work in which he claims now one needs to adopt certain moral virtues and ethical theories similar to what could be found in the christian tradition in order to have well-being in life now however despite the criticism i think positive psychology and more so evidence-based studies into human well-being can do some good the century i think there's evidence that what constitutes the good life for most people can be learned about taught and used to increase people's well-being at least to some degree we'll know more for sure how much happiness and well-being can be improved once more research comes out which in itself is a very good thing the increasing commercialization inside of positive psychology is concerning though and hopefully some of the main founders and influencers within the movement will take action in order to separate some of the research and findings from the coaching consulting and happiness gurus before positive psychology in general is just branded as fake pseudoscience then we'll have to wait another several decades before serious research into humanistic studies and human well-being are taken seriously again so overall if you want to hear more about positive psychology just let me know below or anything else you want to hear videos about and also make sure to like this video if it was beneficial in any way and subscribe for 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Channel: Thinking Deeply with Ben

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Keywords: positive psychology introduction, introduction to positive psychology, what is positive psychology, positive psychology, positive psychology explained, positive psychology criticism, positive psychology martin seligman, positive psychology lecture, positive psycology, positive psychology crash course, what exactly is positive psychology, introduction to positive psychology book, what is positive psychology video, positive psychology happiness

Id: aL9VhmO7T_c

Length: 9min 19sec (559 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021