Positive Psychology
By: nzervakos • Essay • 1,198 Words • November 8, 2014 • 711 Views
Positive Psychology
Positive Psychology
Assignment number u03a1, DB8010-01,
Instructor:
Introduction
People usually attach negative connotations to their understanding of psychology, and these things are categorized by DSM-IV codes for ordinary problems de jour - anxiety, depression, or stress. Then this belief is further reinforced when friends and family indicate that someone could, in theory, be in therapy forever working on ‘their issues’, as nobody is perfect. Positive psychology makes a world of sense on many levels: as a transition after years of intense Freudian work, a turn-up every five or seven years makes terrific sense and especially in a coaching environment where fine tuning senior executives helps them reach their innovative/creative button faster, allowing them be genuinely inspired in their work. A leader at the helm in this rarefied state is a remarkable sight; it is even a more powerful to work alongside one, on a regular basis. Imagine having six senior executives operating at this level, out of 10 as nobody can do it every day. Then imagine this group of officers, including the CEO, CFO, and, all reporting to a board of directors (BOD) who are all equally inspired and focused on the strengths of their people and services. Regardless of their product or geographic location, most people would agree that this company has a strong competitive advantage; would you agree with this observation. Without knowing anything about this company’s industry, we can state that they have the ability to create a competitive advantage using strong positive psychology. The caveat is: it has to be done right to have this kind of power; having this kind of powerful affect is very do-able, and indicates how deep this student’s belief is, in the definitive power of this method.
Intention alone is extremely powerful and many of us make decisions while we sleep, then wake up feeling clearer even though no action has been taken yet. Making a decision means that the intention has been made. There is a release of pressure and a knowing-ness that the matter will be resolved. Positive Psychology focuses on what is right with a person as opposed to what is wrong with them. Positive feelings evoke a myriad of desirable goodies that any sane person can easily dream about over morning coffee at their desk. One of the best feelings is termed knowledge emergence or to put it in lay terms, leaning new knowledge or knowledge creation.
With our children we look for ways to enhance this behavior of knowledge creation or emergence; we guide them, we try to encourage gently, or as Maria Montessori indicated
that individuals disciplined when they are rendered as artificially silent and obedient is more of an individual annihilated, not educated, or inspired. A child should be free to learn, without feeling constantly hampered, or dealing with unnecessary hurdles, to simply complete their task of learning. Similarly, the adult worker could not help but thrive in an environment where their knowledge creation is encouraged, respected, and guided. It is a joyful feeling to figure out an answer to a detailed problem that has held up a department or process, but it is more fulfilling to do so within a positive process, rather than in one that negates self-confidence. Ms. Montessori was fond of saying to follow the child, in other words to let them learn; also that the happiness of the learner was the most telling test of the correctness the educational procedure. |
Anyone, who has become lost in the flow of a project, understands the satisfaction of looking up and being shocked at the time when solving a problem that truly challenges one’s abilities; this is another main goal of positive psychology. If we do our best work in this state and are at our most innovative highest self, then let us learn to replicate this euphoric cheerful state so that its effects might spill over to benefit others. A research study was done in 2002 entitled Dispositional affect and job outcomes, by Ed Diner, Carol Nickerson, Richard Lucas, and Ed Sandvik; their study spanned 19 years from just prior to the freshman sparkly eyed stage to years later when significant job experience has been garnered.
This study examined the influence of cheerfulness at college entry on three outcomes, nineteen years later: current income, job satisfaction, and unemployment history. Subsequently various aspects were tested as well, such as whether the sex of the parent making most of the money make a difference later; from this survey started from the 1976 freshman entering 25 institutions and of the roughly 23,000 students participating, the greatest single factor in all three outcomes was parental income, showing significant differences at higher parental income levels (Cameron, 2012). No one can argue with the results that show the cheerful freshman w/o AP (without Affluent Parent(s)) could not make up for the opportunities enjoyed by students w/AP (with Affluent Parents) which a sad fact is considering the number of dedicated educators. This does however, speak to the importance of the emotional feeding of our humans, whether these learners are little people or grown adults creating new knowledge for their employer. The process should be lively, vital, passionate and creative in order for these human brains to fire at their optimal level and work at their most congenial level as well, after all collaboration is the language of the future.