Shavonne Devine Devine 1
Prof. Welsh
English 1A
Nov. 11, 2017
Increasing Your Well-Being There are many ways people can increase their happiness and well-being. One way to maximize individuals and community happiness and well-being is by practicing the concepts of positive psychology. Positive psychology is the study of human flourishing, and an applied approach to optimal functioning. Positive psychology focuses on understanding human strengths and virtues as well as helping people to live happier and more productive lives. Martin Seligman is a psychologist and author who designed the PERMA model with five core elements for positive psychology. The PERMA model can be applied to individual lives, societies, and corporations
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Having a purpose or being part of something bigger is important to living a fulfilling life. Having meaning or feeling of being a part of something bigger than you gives people the sense of purpose. One of the many misconceptions to happiness is making a lot money gives you purpose and will make you happy. A higher salary is nice, but it is not the type of purpose Seligman is talking about. The meaning he is talking about helps people find profound meaning in themselves and their lives to increase happiness and well-being. Having a sense of purpose gives people motivation to strive for the goals they set out in front of them. Most people want to feel needed and important. Being a part of something bigger gives that positive reinforcement to …show more content…
Seligman clearly lays out for us what we should do to increase our happiness and well-being. His model of happiness (PERMA) helps us understand exactly what we can do to maximize each element to reach a life full of happiness. In order for people to obtain and maintain well-being they have to be willing to put in the work. It is not something that is just handed out. Happiness can be obtained if you are willing to work hard for a very long time to create and produce it. True happiness is something that a person can create on their own by following the five core elements of PERMA.
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Works Cited
Hiltzik, Michael. “The Key to a Happy Society.” Los Angeles Times, 11 Mar. 2013.
Lambert, Craig. “The Science of Happiness,” Harvard Magazine, Jan/Feb 2007, harvardmagazine.com/2007/01/the-science-of-happiness.html. Lilienfeld, Scott O, and Hal Arkowitz. “Can Positive Thinking Be Negative?” Scientific American, 7 June. 2011, www.scientificamerican.com/ Article/can-positive-thinking-be-negative/
Seligman, Martin. “Flourish: Positive Psychology and Positive Interventions.” The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 7 Oct. 2010
The Pursuit of Happiness, by. David G Meyer, Harper Collins. NY,
In Martin Seligman and other’s article “A Balanced Psychology and a Full Life,” he states that the definition of happiness, “Is a condition over and above the absence of unhappiness” (Seligman et al 1379).
Using philosopher John Mills’s meaning, “Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others,"(McMahon P.11;S.1) which means that the only way one can be happy is by putting forth their attention to the happiness of others, and not themselves. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Compassion makes people contented. Giving to others could increase our prosperity more than spending money on ourselves. Giving is the key to
To understand positive psychology and trauma, one must first understand what each term means. First, positive psychology is the study and focus on the best in human behavior. It is a fairly new perspective being observed and used by psychologists from all over the world. The goal of positive psychology is to study and promote conditions that can help people achieve happy, healthy, and productive lifestyles. It is derived from research and theories from many areas of psychology and tying them together while focusing on the positive aspects of human behavior.
Wellbeing was first discussed as authentic happiness by Seligman. In the concept of authentic happiness he discussed the components of positive emotions, meaning in life and engagement. He had described these components to be very much essential in bringing in authentic happiness which he called as wellbeing. It takes the shape of subjective wellbeing, when it becomes subjective to a person’s experience alone. The concrete aspects of health and wealth may stay away from this, when a person’s subjectivity is concerned (Kammann, 1983). Over the years as we see in other studies, this concept has changed to subjective wellbeing being defined on the basis of all the areas of life, wherein the objective factors of wealth and health, and
Your Vision as a Psychology Practitioner-Scholar Introduction One of my visions as a psychology practitioner scholar is becoming a clinical counselor. My purpose in psychology is to help people understand their life in a clear distinct way. I specifically want to target children and, help them grow and be more than they have the potential to be. I want to focus on the child development of children based on their environment. I want to be able understand children react the way they do in certain situations.
...ject. To be a psychologist you have to be a good listener and know how to relate to people’s problems as well as other things. Just like every job there are drawbacks, but don’t all jobs have some sort of drawbacks? Being a surgeon you make great money but there’s so much schooling involved and bad hours but in the end you do what you enjoy and all your hard work pays off.
“Seligman (1998) noted positive psychology’s focus is to make the lives of all people rewarding and to build positive experiences”(Costello & Stone, 2012). His concern and main focus was to train and support staff, faculty, and administrators of positive psychology approaches and overall, helping their students grow as learn...
A Positive Behavior Support System (PBSS) is a school-wide approach to help establish the social culture and behavioral supports that are needed for all of the children in a school to ensure the achievement of both social and academic success. Because school principals play a pivotal role in the success of the school community it is, without a doubt, important that the principal play an important role in developing and implementing a PBSS in their school.
Utilizing a pie chart, she illustrates the crux of her research; 10% of our happiness is increased or decreased by our circumstances. 50% of our happiness is increased or decreased by genetic predisposition, 40% is within our ability to control. We have “opportunities to increase or decrease our happiness levels through what we do and how we think” (22). She provides 12 specific happiness enhancing activities. She implores us to commit time, resources and energy to this “intentional activity”. Promoting these changes in our lives to accommodate being happier, which will benefit everyone in the end.
Wong, P. T. (2011). Positive psychology 2.0: Towards a balanced interactive model of the good life. What to do about the negative?, 52(2), 69-70.
In the United States 20% of the adult population report that they are living a flourishing life (Keyes, 2002). However, a high percentage reports feeling as if they are ‘‘stuck’’ or ‘‘want more’’ and are yet not diagnosable with a mental disorder (Fredrickson, 2008). Because happiness has been found to be the source of many desirable life outcomes e.g. career success, marriage, and health, it is of importance to understand, how languishing individuals can reach this ideal state: How can well-being be enhanced and misery reduced (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005). Over the past decade, research in the field of positive psychology has emerged to provide evidence-based methods to increase an individual’s psychological well-being, through so called positive psychology interventions (PPI’s). PPI’s are treatment methods or intentional activities used to promote positive feelings or behaviour. PPI’s vary from writing gratitude letters, practicing optimistic thinking and replaying positive experiences. A meta-analysis of 51 independent PPI studies demonstrated significant results in the effectiveness of PPI’s increasing well-being (49 studies; r = .29) (Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009).
This is my about factors that can influence peoples learning and I will start by explaining the positive and negative influences of my childhood experience. I will then explain my present experience and finish this assignment with my future plans for my learning process. This assignment will also include theorists and how they influence peoples learning. It will also discuss how others can be helped to learn and how effective this can be.
The perspective of Psychological wellbeing dealt in this paper is called Eudaimonia which relates to accomplishment of human potential and finding pride and satisfaction in leading a meaningful life. It is the capability of a person to thrive and withstand the challenges which life throws in the form of having meaningful targets, growing and developing as a person with dignity and grace while at the same time establish qualitative relationship with fellow human being (Ryff 1989; Ryff and Keyes 1995; Ryff and Singer 2008). Ryff and Singer (2000; 2008), Ryff and Keyes (1995), have developed and contributed six major dimensions of this wellbeing, which are: self-acceptance, autonomy, environmental mastery, positive relations with others, purpose in
The prime study of Psychology has certainly shaped my outlook on behaviours as it is a fundamental component which surrounds me daily. Within the few months of studying Psychology, I had already acknowledged my future career aspirations in this field. Notably, the job role of a Youth Worker and Criminal Psychologist have appealed to me on a huge scale. Continuously reading upon Psychology, I have found myself intrigued with both biological and non-biological explanations to an individual’s inner functioning, particularly Psychopathology and how those deemed abnormal are able to elevate their well-being to a new level. In addition, studying Psychology for only 2 years has heightened my personal interest in studying it further, as from my own
Finding meaning in who you are and what you do is vital to having happiness. “Leading a happy life… is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a “giver””(Smith 2013). The idea of giving if often thought of one that brings happiness, but it doesn’t, it brings about meaning. Happiness is a selfish thing, and while to a point we must be selfish in out pursuit to live a happy life, we must not forget to be kind to one another and be humble. Being happy and having meaning go much together, finding a balance is what is hard. Happiness doesn’t last forever and will fluctuate with moods and situations, but meaning doesn’t. Meaning connects all of the aspects of your life, past, present, and future, together. This connection allows one to look inward and focus on who they are, and while those who report more meaning are slightly less happy in the present they tend to be happier overall (Smith