Positive Psychology
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Positive Psychology
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Alan Carr Department of Psychology, University College Dublin Clanwilliam Institute, Dublin, Ireland
The Development of Modern Positive Psychology The modern positive psychology movement was inaugurated by Martin E.P. Seligman in his presidential address to the 107th American Psychological Association convention in Boston. He proposed to use his presidency to shift the focus of psychology from diagnosing and remediating deficits and disorders to identifying and building strengths. Over the next 3 years, Seligman worked intensively with a group of experts to develop the conceptual foundations of positive psychology, raise millions in philanthropic funding to support positive psychology research, and disseminate positive psychology. Dissemination was achieved through annual positive psychology international summits, numerous academic publications, press coverage, TV appearances, and the Internet. Seligman’s colleagues in this venture – the Positive Psychology Network – included outstanding early career scientists such as Barbara Fredrickson and Sonja Lyubomirsky (who are now leaders in the field) as well as established luminaries including Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ed Diener, the late Chris Peterson, and George Vaillant. The most important academic publications in the emerging field of positive psychology were the Handbook of Positive Psychology which is now in its third edition (Lopez and Snyder 2009; Snyder and Lopez 2002; Snyder et al. 2016), the Journal of Positive Psychology, a special millennial issue of
Definition Positive psychology is a subfield of general psychology in which the scientific method is used to research and explain positive aspects of life and in which clinical interventions that promote wellbeing are developed based on this research (Snyder et al. 2016). Positive psychology is concerned with understanding and facilitating well-being. According to Martin E. P. Seligman (2011), the founder of positive psychology, wellbeing involves (1) cultivating positive emotions such as ▶ happiness, (2) engagement in absorbing skilled activities, (3) the development of positive relationships, (4) creating meaning and purpose in life by serving social systems or institutions that contribute to the greater good, and (5) accomplishing valued tasks and reaching valued goals. These five facets of well-being are denoted by the acronym PERMA.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 F. Maggino (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2218-2
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the American Psychologist (American Psychological Association 2000), and Seligman’s series popular science books explaining his ideas on positive psychology to a general readership (Seligman 2002, 2011, 2018). In the decade following Seligman’s inaugural address, positive psychology associations were set up around the world. These include the International Positive Psychology Association, the European Network for Positive Psychology, and the national positive psychology associations o
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