Positive Psychology for Challenging Times

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Psychology can be critiqued for focusing too much on “the negative.” After all, the goal of psychology is often to help fix “problems.” Enter positive psychology.

What about the good stuff?

Martin Seligman is credited with developing positive psychology in the late 1990s. This branch of psychology says, “Hey, what about the good stuff? How do we get more of that?”

As a primary prevention person, wanting to create conditions so healthy they do not allow problems to take root, this approach has a pull. Let’s build up the good to prevent the bad, yeah? But even I have to acknowledge that we cannot survive, we cannot thrive, on prevention alone.

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Leveraging positive psychology

Unfortunately, we know all too well that bad things do happen. There’s a reason we need treatment efforts along with prevention efforts. No one wants to suffer and no one should suffer. But even in particularly trying times, how can we leverage positive psychology?

Positive psychology studies five especially helpful psychosocial strengths that have been linked with longevity. Simply put, these are variables that help us live longer, more satisfying lives. Developing these strengths can do us a world of good.

Well-being

Psychology is a science, and it’s a science that studies variables that can be very hard to define. We want operational definitions, meaning we define the factors we’re studying as specifically as possible so we can measure them. Well-being, in my opinion, is perhaps one of the hardest variables to define. In general, definitions agree that well-being is more than the absence of illness and includes elements like accomplishment, positive emotions, engagement, relationships, and meaning.

No matter how we define it, it is clear that when people have a sense of well-being, they feel better and do better in life. That’s intuitive. And well-being can vary in different areas of life. We may feel a sense of well-being emotionally but struggle spiritually, for instance.

Wisdom

Wisdom is another variable that can be hard to define, but many theorists have done so. And not all of the definitions match. Some focus on wisdom as the value of lived experience whereas others focus on wisdom in a more intellectual sense. Again, no matter our definition, those who live longer, more satisfying lives are often reported to have this strength.

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Happiness

Researchers and theorists have been defining and studying happiness for a significant amount of time, and yet again, we don’t have one common definition. Some point out that happiness is specific to the person. Others study types of happiness, like hedonia (simple pleasure) and eudaimonia (purpose and meaning).

You could look up factors correlated with happiness and find conflicting answers. For example, does money make people happy? Some research will say yes, some will say no, and some will say it depends. The thing to remember about happiness research is that it identifies correlations, and often relies on self-report. Researchers are studying the relationship between certain factors, like income, and reported happiness. That’s not easy.

Happiness experts also discuss “the hedonic treadmill.” Essentially, our baseline shifts as we continually pursue happiness. “If I could just get that job, I’d be happy.” Well, once I get that job, my happiness baseline shifts upward, and now I need to look toward something else to feel happy: “If I could just…”

Gratitude

In today’s wellness world, chances are most of us have heard that gratitude is good for us. Write a gratitude journal, write thank-you letters, and meditate on your gratitude. Even if we look only at things like lowered heart rate and blood pressure, the evidence of its power is there.

One of my favorite resources for practicing gratitude and many other helpful tools is the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Their Greater Good Action Center has many activities for gratitude and beyond. What I love most about it is that every activity they offer comes with a research study sharing evidence of why it works.

Friendship

Social support has repeatedly been shown to be the best coping mechanism for stress. It follows, therefore, that friendship has immeasurable benefits to our mental and physical health.

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The most important thing about friendship, I tell my students, is that the benefits of friendship are about quality, not quantity. Similarly, being alone does not equal being lonely.

Psychological distress comes into play only when we do not have the quality or quantity of relationships we desire. So, if we have two close friends and we’re okay with that, we’re not lonely. This is especially important to remember when studies of longevity find that social relationships are key. No, you’re not going to die early, I tell my worried students, just because you don’t have a lot of friends. “What are those relationships like?” I ask. That’s what matters.

Happiness Essential Reads

The Beauty of Being Average

How to Move Beyond Your Happiness Set Point

Climbing out of the quicksand

We need positivity without positive pressure or toxic positivity. We must acknowledge and experience all of our emotions—the whole range—for any semblance of mental health. That being said, positive psychology offers tools to grow, to climb out of the quicksand. We don’t need to avoid it, but we can certainly become strong enough to walk through it.