Positive psychology is an umbrella term describing the scientific study of what makes life most worth living.  Positive psychologists concern themselves with positive experiences (happiness, pleasure), positive traits (character strengths, interests, talents), positive relationships (friendship, family, marriage), and positive institutions (schools, workplaces, communities).  Research finding from positive psychology are intended to provide a more complete and balanced scientific understanding of the human experience.  Unlike traditional psychology which is based on a disease model of human nature and thus glimpses only part of the human condition, the new field of positive psychology calls for as much focus on strengths as on weakness, as much interest in building the best things in life as in repairing the worst, and as much concern with making the lives of normal people fulfilling as with healing pathology.

Building and maintaining a happy, healthy, and moral life is not easy.  Doing so requires hard work and a commitment to changing how one lives.  Positive psychology provides a valuable perspective on the human condition, suggesting an explicit vision of psychological health and thereby making concrete the goals of therapy.  Positive psychology also provides useful strategies for assessment, treatment, prevention, rehabilitation, and promotion.  Positive psychology expands the view of psychological health and beyond the absence of symptoms and disorders and suggests possible routes to a life that is healthy, happy, fulfilled, meaningful and productive.  Although positive psychology has made significant progress in a short time, caution is needed not to run ahead of what is known.

 

About the Presenter:

Christopher Peterson , Ph.D.

Dr. Christopher Peterson has been at the University of Michigan since 1986, where he is Professor of Psychology and Organizational Studies and former Director of Clinical Training.  He also holds an appointment as an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, in recognition of his contributions to teaching.  Peterson has been identified by ISI as among the 100 most widely-cited psychologists in the world.  He is a member of the Positive Psychology Steering Committee, a consulting editor to the Journal of Positive Psychology, Perspectives on Psychological Science, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a co-editor of Health and Well-Being, and the Positive Psychology Book Series Editor for Oxford University Press.  He is the author of A Primer in Positive Psychology, published in 2006 by Oxford University Press.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand the history of positive psychology.
2. To become familiar with the major empirical findings of this field.
3. To see the applications of positive psychology to case formulation.
4. To see the application of positive psychology to assessment.
5. To see the applications of positive psychology to therapy.
6. To be aware of the difference between positive psychology and other “positive” approaches not based in research.