Positive Psychology

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: A Primer in Positive Psychology

Competency: self-development

Who benefits: any individual

Consultant Usage: important background material for all HRD consultants

What’s it about? I woke up grumpy this morning.  Didn’t sleep well.  Blah, blah, blah.  So am I going be Captain Grumps for 16 hours and take it out on those I come in contact throughout the day?  Or do I have a choice about how my day goes. 

I confessed to you a few months ago that I didn’t know much about the trends in Positive Psychology (PP).  This week I began to educate myself about PP.  A “Primer” sounded like what I needed, so I gave this book a try.

The author’s definition is a great place to start: “Positive Psychology is the scientific study of what goes right in life, from birth to death and at all stops in between.”

Well, I started to think of some of those stops in between and I had my first smile of the day.  The author went on to say the study of “PP” is the study of what we are doing when we are not frittering life away. 

I like to fritter a lot, so I am a little nervous as I proceed into the book.  But I am relieved to know that the essence of this field is the study of what can go right with people.  It is a call to study people’s strengths, not just their weaknesses.  It is about building on what is already good.  It is about human potential.  Maybe today won’t be so bad after all. 

The PP people don’t deny the existence of problems or the need to treat them.  They, at least the good ones, seek to bring a more balanced view to psychology.  They are clear that the absence of problems or trauma isn’t the same thing as being happy.  (If you are an old-timer like me, this brings back the memory of trying to teach Herzberg – what demotivates people isn’t the opposite of what motivates them.)

I found the history of PP interesting.  Its name is only 10 years old.  But the field evolved from familiar names like Rogers and Maslow and familiar genres like humanistic and existential.

I applaud the notion that human goodness and excellence is just as authentic as “disease, disorder, and distress”.  And I believe that too much “victim mentality” has crept into our thinking process as individuals and as a culture.  If it is the goal of PP is to restore balance to that kind of thinking, bring it on!

I am also excited to know that happy people almost always come out on top of unhappy people in success measurements at work, in relationships, at school… and they live longer.  Hmmm, I guess grumpy isn’t good.  I better put on a happy face!

Oh, by the way, I discovered that someone named Harvey Bell invented the happy face.  Okay, the PP people aren’t very happy with that symbol, it’s too superficial, but doggone it, something about that bright yellow face makes me smile.

I have decided not to be grumpy today (notice that it is a conscience decision), and instead, to go out and do something worthwhile…like writing this posting! 

So if you are unfamiliar with the topic and have an interest in psychology, this would be a great book to get you up-to-speed.  I recommend it.

Catch you later.

 

[tags]positive psychology, humanistic, existential, happy face, harvey bell, human potential, optimism, pessimism, grumpy, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.