What is Positive Psychology?

[Music] i remember once i was walking to class with my friend usually after class we'd go to the gym together but today i had therapy so i wouldn't be able to go and when i told her this she said why what's wrong with you her question reflected this common belief about therapy and mental health in general that mental health is for the mentally ill and truth be told if you look at the history of psychology that's not an unfound statement in dr ilana bonniewell's book positive psychology in a nutshell she says that before the second world war psychology had three tasks to cure mental illness to improve normal lives and to identify and nurture high talent however after the war the last two tasks somehow got lost leaving the field to concentrate predominantly on the first one given that psychology as a science depends heavily on the funding of government bodies it is not hard to assume what happened to the resources after the war understandably facing a crisis on such an enormous scale all available resources were poured into learning about and the treatment of psychological illness and psychopathology this is how psychology as a field learnt to operate within the disease model that's not to say that that was the wrong thing to do there was a very real and immediate need to help people who are suffering from mental illness it frankly would have been irresponsible not to deal with the human suffering on that scale all those gis all those refugees all those people who had lost everything in the war were left with unbelievably deep mental wounds and the resources that were put into the study and treatment of mental illness really paid off she goes on to say that the victories of the disease model which are for example that 14 previously incurable mental illnesses including depression personality disorders and anxiety attacks can now be successfully treated however the cost of adopting this disease model included the negative view of psychologists as victimologists and pathologizers we spent all this time thinking about the mentally ill we forgot about people who aren't necessarily mentally ill but aren't mentally thriving either people who feel confused or lost or apathetic people who feel that they could be better partners better friends better people how do those people thrive this is exactly what positive psychology studies it's the science of positive aspects of human life such as happiness well-being and flourishing it was founded by a psychologist and professor out of the university of pennsylvania named martin seglerman in his own words he described it as the scientific study of optimal human functioning that aims to discover and promote the factors that allow individuals and communities to thrive you don't need to have a serious weight problem to want to improve your physique you can be a normal person who just wants to look better in the same respect you don't need to be mentally ill to want to improve your mental health you can just be a normal person who just wants to mentally and emotionally thrive psychology has more often than not emphasized the shortcomings of individuals rather than their potentials this particular approach focuses on the potentials it's not targeted at fixing problems but is focused on researching things that make life worth living instead in short positive psychology is concerned not with how to transform for example minus eight to minus two but how to bring plus two to plus eight while this channel won't be exclusively from the school of thought of positive psychology it'll pull from its ideas heavily this is downright the most enlightening information i've come across i paid thousands and thousands of dollars in tuition to learn things that i'm going to be telling you for free this is extremely valuable information this science has unlocked truths that philosophers and religions have been debating for ages is it better to be pessimistic or optimistic how do you become happier how does someone flourish in their life these are big ideas that weren't their own episodes and i promise you we will get to them but right now we got the ilana bonniewell's book she talks about the starting point for figuring out who you want to become this is a very simple exercise all you need is something to write with in a piece of paper or type it on your phone step one answer the question who do you want to be in 10 to 20 years consider what sort of person you'd like to be what do you want to have accomplished what do you want your life to look like step two for every aspect of your life that you wrote down give me one practical step you could take to make that into a reality so for example in 20 years i will be 43 by then i'm going to want to have a happy family a healthy marriage and i also want to have my own therapy clinic for the happy family i could pay attention to my kids hobbies and try to learn about them for a healthy marriage i could make it a priority to have a weekly date night to keep the romance alive for the therapy clinic i could work on my psychology homework that's due tomorrow night this isn't some bs busy work exercise it's important to think about this because a lot of what's going on inside your head is very vague by asking yourself these questions you start to sort out the direction you want your life to go into and by thinking about things in practical steps you start to see the reality of situations they're not vague feelings anymore they are attainable things you can take steps to work towards positive psychology is the study of how to live a well-lived life it's about filling in the gaps between who you are now and who you'd like to be one day you can start that process with the who do you want to be in 10 to 20 years question if you want to know more about positive psychology i cannot recommend dr bonniewell's book enough it was a really well written easy to understand overview of the field it's the perfect starting point for anyone who wants to get into one of the most valuable subjects you'll ever come across join us next week when we talk about why your thoughts are so negative and one easy thing you can do to make them more positive

Channel: The Barton Blueprint for Emotional Intelligence

Views: 21,802

Keywords: Damian Barton, emotional intelligence, the barton blueprint, the barton blueprint for emotional intelligence, positive psychology, what is positive psychology, history of positive psychology, how does positive psychology work, how to be happier with yourself, how to become happy with yourself, life satisfaction psychology, martin seligman, ilona boniwell positive psychology in a nutshell, positive psychology defined, positive psychology exercises, who made positive psychology

Id: Dp2oWodKjIU

Length: 6min 40sec (400 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020