Positive Psychology: Happiness and Well-being- ARICLE GATE

    Positive Psychology is a branch of happiness studies advocated by Martin Seligman (1942-). Positive Psychology got its due in 2000 when Seligman was elected president of the American Psychological Association and took the position of leading the field. Unlike previous happiness researchers, Seligman believed that each individual has the ability to improve their overall emotional well-being. His earlier groundbreaking work on learned helplessness contributed to the development of cognitive behavioral treatments for depression. In conclusion, Seligman brought a psychotherapist's perspective to the study of positive emotions, asking how psychologists can help people feel better.  

             Although Seligman has tested its techniques on patients with depression, positive psychology differs from traditional psychotherapy in its emphasis on happiness and well-being rather than the relief of suffering and mental illness. However, Seligman is not the first to consider the human potential for happiness and acknowledges the influences of previous authors such as Carla Rogers, Abraham Maslow, and Erik Erikson.

The Three Aspects of Happiness and Pleasant Life

        Seligman actually opposes the use of the word "happiness" on the grounds that it is too vague and unscientific. Instead, he divides happiness, the "good life," into three elements: positive emotion (enjoyable life), striving (busy life), and meaning (meaningful life).

            The blissful life refers to our high-level positive emotional experiences of our present, transition, and future. Positive emotions about our past include feelings of contentment, satisfaction, satisfaction, serenity, and pride. Positive emotions about our future are self-confidence, optimism, hope, belief and confidence. Positive emotions associated with the present are also the ability to enjoy our immediate experiences. This also includes the ability to participate in momentary experiences and not be distracted by worries about the past or the future. Interestingly, this aspect of the "good life" is apparently least important as it is least associated with one's ratings of life satisfaction.

Six Virtues

           Assuming there are three elements to happiness (enjoyable, busy, and meaningful lives as noted above), Seligman and colleagues believe it is important to identify personality traits that support these positive aspects of life. As a result, they identified six very important virtues that they claim to be culturally universal. These virtues are: wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity (includes compassion and concern for others), justice, temperance (the ability to self-control), and transcendence (the ability to connect with a larger universe).

      Seligman and colleagues have conducted research to understand how universal these concepts are and how they relate to life satisfaction. In a study conducted in forty countries, people were asked to rate how well they could identify with each of the twenty-four character strengths. The rankings of character strengths were remarkably similar across countries. Kindness, fairness, authenticity, gratitude, and open-mindedness were the traits most commonly found appropriate. Less suitable strengths included prudence, humility, and self-regulation. The authors also noted that strengths specific to emotional traits (pleasure, gratitude, hope, love) matched intellectual traits (curiosity, love).

Criticisms of Positive Psychology

           At the beginning of the criticism brought to positive psychology is that the positive aspects of the human being are emphasized and the negative ones are ignored. Richard Lazarus argued that positive psychology would not develop much, it would become a fad and would soon be forgotten. This trend has also been criticized for not evaluating the impact of the social environment and culture in which the concepts are located. 

           Another criticism expressed about positive psychology is its perspective on emotions. Positive psychology evaluates emotions as positive and negative, but emotions are mixed. Some positive psychologists, such as Seligman, suggest that "we have to think positively, develop positive emotions and attitudes, and use our strengths to be happy, healthy, wise". 

   

Conclusion

       Positive psychology studies do not only make people aware of their skills in the field they are capable of. We all have some common skills, such as being able to withstand a certain level of stress, combating certain diseases, adapting to a new environment, and coping with sadness over time. Although we all have these types of life skills, everyone's reactions and endurance to these situations are different from each other. According to positive psychology, making the individual feel valued rather than directly intervening to strengthen his weak side will help him cope with stress and anxiety.

           This field is a field that shows that there are developments, contrary to those who say that psychology is a science that always works to strengthen people's weaknesses and heal their illnesses.