Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Contemporary Debate: Relevance of Positive Psychology in Today's…
Contemporary Debate: Relevance of Positive Psychology in Today's Society
Is Relevant
Education
Seligman et al (2009) proposed a Pos Psych Curriculum (PPC) can:
1- Promote skills & Strengths that are valued by most
2- Produce improvements in students' well being & behaviour
3- Facilitate students' engagement in learning & achievement
The Penn Resiliency Programme (PRP) provides support for Seligman's claims
Students on this programme showed reduced symptoms of depression compared to a control group (Gillham et al 1995)
At 24 months after intervention only 22% of the PRP group showed symptoms compared to 44% of the control
Seligman et al (2009):
Randomly assigned 347 ninth grade students to a PPC/Non-PPC gorup
Parents & Teachers completed standard questionnaires
Found PPC were more co-operative & had better social skills
Military
The Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Programme (CSF) was established in August 2008 to address the challenges being faced due to multiple deployments required by persistent conflicts in Iraq & Afghanistan
It aims to provide preventative measures to the soldiers & their familied to make them stronger & more able to cope with the demands of deployment
Is relevant as it can improve the quality of life fore soldiers & their families
Leisure, Lifestyle & Health
Csikszentmihalyi & LeFevre (1989) encourage people to increase their happiness by being more active in their use of leisure time
Action for Happiness (AfH): claim that they are a movement for social change, provide a support for those struggling with problems such as depression as well as promoting positivity such as '10 keys to happier living'/'12 actions for happiness'
It can be applied in various projects to increase people happiness & positivity
Kubzansky & Thurston (2007) found people with enthusiasm, hopefulness & engagement in life had a reduced risk of CHD
Can improve physical health as well as mental health
Is Not Relevant
Education
Lack of empirical evidence or most psychology programmes:
Spence & Shortt (2007) argue that the research that does exist rends to be based on small-scale/short term interventions -> the widespread dissemination of pos psych in schools should not be take without further more long term research
Seligman et al (2009) have also admitted that further research needs to be conducted in order to ensure that such programme's are 'effective with students from a variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds'
Adding pos psyc into the curriculum is likelt to mean other courses have to be dropped:
schools have limited bugets and have many curricular demands
Pos Psyc techniques cannot be added without other subjects being subtracted
Society may end up paying more for students to leave school with fewer academic achievements
Military
The CSF programme has been criticised due to a lack of scientific evidence to support its effectiveness -> the development of the CSF programme has also been criticised, since the Penn Resiliency Programme (PRP) that is based upon was originally designed for adolescents & little has been done to adapt the programme to meet the needs of a military pop.
The lack of adaption leads to critics arguing that the CSF programme may not be relevant in todays military system
Leisure, Lifestyle & Health
Little scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of movements like AfH, making the application of pos psych irrelevant
Difficult to prove a cause and affect relationship between happiness & health
People are happy due to health/happy because they are healthy?
Therefore lack of causation may be the reason why pos psych is not taken seriously
Ethical, Social & Economic Implications
Social
Applying principle of pos. psych may improve mental health, surely this makes it worth while in todays society (especially as mental health issues are becoming increasingly common)
Ethical
Projects that embedded pos. psych into their principles tend to target wealthier people as some require money/resources
Raises ethical issues as it implies that achieving happiness may not be accessible to everyone fairly
Economic
Improving happiness & wellbeing can save business' money that they would lose in staff sickness due to stress -> estimated that sickness & high staff turnover costs the UK economy £26 billion per year
Oswald et al (2009) found happy workers were 12% more productive -> more productivity has a pos effect on the economy
Pos psych principles of promoting happiness can save the NHS money as physical health can be improved with a pos. outlook
Conclusion
Positive psych re-focused psych on research 7 advice that will help people improve their lives and they society in which they live in rather than being concerned with the negatives -> this focus has led to some interesting lines of research & new programmes in schools, work & leisure
However , such programmes may only be a small part of a person's life/only available to a small no. of people & therefore have little impact
The positive approach is relatively new & may take time before its impact is felt