Psychology often looked at people’s weaknesses. Clinical psychology diagnoses people with all kinds of problems and the associated disadvantages. Positive psychology looks at people’s strengths. How can you stimulate and develop the strengths of yourself and others? That is the goal that the positive psychology movement wants to achieve and ultimately: more happiness.
Relatives of Positive Psychology
Positive psychology therefore focuses on people’s strengths instead of their complaints. There are a number of components that the movement focuses on, namely Optimism, Hope, Confidence in one’s own effectiveness, Self-respect and Positive emotions. There are also Resilience, Happiness, Gratitude and Flow. Unfortunately, the same amount of research has not yet been done on everything.
Optimism
Churchill once said: The pessimist sees the difficulty in every possibility. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty (Bannick, 2011, p. 23). There is a difference in perception: the pessimist thinks that nothing will work out, while the optimist takes up the challenge. Expectation plays a major role in this. If you expect to be able to complete something, you are more likely to do so than if you expect not to be able to complete it. Optimists often also view events as local, temporary and changeable, thereby influencing outcomes. As a result, they respond actively instead of passively.
Heap
Hope provides a (desired) vision of the future. As a result, hope is a process; it makes you want to live for something and make an effort to achieve it. Moreover, hope gives you the idea of taking steps towards your goal.
Confidence in one’s own effectiveness (self-efficacy)
Self-efficacy expectation is the extent to which you think you can successfully perform certain behavior. If the behavior is carried out successfully, this will boost self-efficacy expectations. It is even very important to start performing behavior: after all, why would you do something that you don’t think you can do?
Self-esteem
Self-respect is also called self-esteem (I am of value). It is important what you think and believe about yourself and how you feel about it. You consider yourself kind and good, which means you can act empathetically, but also, for example, are more likely to collaborate.
Positive emotions
For every positive emotions we have three to four for negative emotions. This indicates how focused society is on negative emotions, while positive emotions provide a broader behavioral repertoire. Under this heading can be thought of interest, satisfaction, joy, happiness, pride, relief, affection and love. In addition to providing a broader behavioral repertoire, it can be used as an antidote to negative emotions; they ensure that negative emotions decrease.
Resilience
What doesn’t kill me makes me strong, see Nietsche. That is what resilience is: the ability to function well and even grow after/under difficult circumstances (Bannick, 2011, p. 55). It’s about how you deal with difficult events or circumstances. Attention to the positive is already a big step.
Luck
Everyone thinks differently about what happiness looks like. But there are three basic things that are needed, namely autonomy (being able to make my own choices), involvement (connectedness with others) and competence (I am good at what I do). However, happiness is hard work; it doesn’t come naturally.
Gratitude
Maslow concluded from his research that expressing gratitude was essential for emotional health. When you express gratitude, you are also aware of the (everyday) positive events around you and you are happy about them. Two aspects play a role in this: gratitude is aimed at someone else and that person has an eye for the good he receives (Bannink, 2011, p. 76).
Flow
You experience flow when you are completely absorbed in your work. It is about the activity itself and not so much about the result, but what is going well. You will then be challenged to the full capacity of your skills, but not overextended. The perfect challenge!
Connectedness
People are social animals and want to feel connected. This can be with people or animals, but also with something bigger, such as God or Allah.
Apply Positive Psychology
Applying positive psychology means increasing positive emotions. This can be done during a coaching session by using solution-focused coaching. Also questions like What are you hoping for? steer towards a desired vision of the future. But how do you do this for yourself or your immediate environment?
Assignment: Turn on your positive button
Take a moment to look at the positive things around you. What is going well in your life? What am I grateful for? What can I see as a gift that I am happy with? (Bannink, 2011, p. 48). Share these stories/ideas with someone else and both enjoy the positive atmosphere it brings!
Command: Thank you
Write or name the things you are grateful for. Mention this to the people it concerns. It ensures that your well-being increases (someone does something nice for you), it makes you want to do things for someone else (motivator) and it works as a reward (which increases the chance that someone will do something nice for you again). will do). So thank you!
Assignment: Goodbye negative thoughts!
Write down on a card some negative thoughts that you often have (for example, I never succeed). Then shuffle the cards and draw one. Challenge this thought (out loud and with conviction): Is what you think actually correct? Does this thought help you further? What would be a positive thought?
Assignment: What is going well?
Write in your diary three events that went well today. What made that go well? What was your contribution? How can you do more of that?
Finally: Positive Psychology
Positive psychology was not created to replace clinical psychology. This current wants to supplement where possible and, above all, to bring about positive emotions. However, sometimes it is not possible to get rid of a problem, even with positive emotions (e.g. pain). We must then look at how to accept the problem, but even then we can still look at positive moments in life!
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