6. The Positive Psychology Movement Flashcards
The Positive Psychology movement was founded by
Professor Martin Seligman
Positive Psychology is concerned with
the scientific exploration of how people expand their potential and thrive through cultivating positive emotions, strengths, and virtues, positive relationships and meaning.
The underlying belief of positive psychology is that people want
to live an engaged and meaningful life
Seligman believes that incorporating positive psychology in education can
diminish depression and build resilience in younger people
Positive education is an umbrella term, used to describe
empirically validated interventions and programs from positive psychology that have an impact on student well-being
Some of the benefits of positive education, that are supported by empirical evidence, include
Promotes individual growth
Promotes well-being
Decreases depression
Happy students make high achievers
Makes teachers’ lives easier
Promotes individual growth
Clonan and colleagues (2004) found that that the integration of positive psychology in learning environments helped to promote personality strengths. Positive education also showed to have a more lifelong impact and alteration on student behaviour.
Promotes well-being
In some schools that have adopted a positive education approach, young boys and girls aged 14 to 15 completed a 40-minute timetabled lesson on wellbeing skills every 2 weeks for 2 years. Evaluations of these lessons found that students were able to gain a full understanding of what factors helped them to thrive, flourish, as well as teach them some practical skills for everyday use (Green, 2015).
Decreases depression
Positive psychology interventions that are used in positive education include identifying and developing strengths, cultivating gratitude, and visualising best possible selves (Seligman et al., 2005; Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006).
Happy students make high achievers
Compared to unhappy students, happier students pay better attention, are more creative, and have greater levels of public involvement (Fisher, 2015). The emphasis on positive psychology interventions in education increases commitment, creates more interested students, and helps develop and overall love of knowledge (Fisher, 2015).
Makes teachers’ lives easier
Positive education benefits both teacher and learner, too. It is easier to engage with students and persist with the work they need to do to master academic material (Fisher, 2015). It creates a school culture that is caring, trusting, and it prevents troublesome behaviour.
A central tenet of 21st-century schooling is the need for education to develop the ‘
whole student
The Penn Resiliency Program
The PRP was intended to increase students’ ability to handle day-to-day stressors and common issues experienced by most students in adolescence
The Strath Haven Positive Psychology Curriculum
Year 9 students who received the Positive Psychology Curriculum were reported to show improvements in strengths associated with learning and engagement in school (curiosity, love of learning and creativity) and social skills (empathy, cooperation, assertiveness, self-control
Using signature strengths in a new way
Taking advantage of the personal character strengths that students possess in abundance (such as kindness, courage, wisdom, etc.), and using them in new situations, such as in hobbies, with friends and family
