Positive Psychotherapy: Clinical and Cross-cultural Applications of Positive Psychology

2019 ◽  
pp. 333-362
Author(s):  
Tayyab Rashid ◽  
Mohammed K. Al-Haj Baddar
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Positive Psychotherapy

Positive Psychotherapy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tayyab Rashid ◽  
Martin P. Seligman
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Positive Psychotherapy ◽  
Cultural Implications ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Core Concepts

Positive psychotherapy (PPT) is a therapeutic endeavor within positive psychology that aims to alleviate symptomatic stress by way of enhancing well-being. Traditional psychotherapy does a good job of making clients feel, for example, less depressed or less anxious, but the well-being of clients is not an explicit goal. Positive psychology studies the conditions and processes that enable individuals, communities, and institutions to flourish. PPT integrates symptoms with strengths, risks with resources, weaknesses with values, and regrets with hopes, in order to understand the inherent complexities of human experience in a balanced way. Without dismissing or minimizing the client’s concerns, the PPT clinician empathically understands and attends to pain associated with trauma and simultaneously explores the potential for growth. This clinician’s manual contains 15 PPT sessions, with core concepts, guidelines, skills, and worksheets for practicing these skills. Each session focuses on one or more practice and includes a Fit & Flexibility section that presents various ways that PPT practices can work (without losing their core elements) given clients’ specific situations. Each session includes at least one vignette as well as cross-cultural implications.

The (Un)translatability of Well-Being

2020 ◽  
pp. 377-394
Author(s):  
Tim Lomas
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Cultural Awareness ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Mainstream Psychology

Positive psychology—the scientific study of well-being—has made considerable strides in understanding its subject matter since emerging in the late 1990s. However, like mainstream psychology more broadly, it can be deemed relatively Western-centric, with its concepts and priorities influenced by ways of thinking and understanding that are prominent in Western cultures. Consequently, the field would benefit from greater cross-cultural awareness, engagement, and understanding. One such means of doing so is through the study of “untranslatable” words (i.e., those lacking an exact equivalent in another language, in this case English). This chapter reflects on the nature of untranslatable words, considers their significance to positive psychology (and psychology more broadly), and offers suggestions for why and how the field should engage with them.

Goal focused positive psychotherapy: an integration of positive psychology and psychotherapy

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-95
Author(s):  
Evelyn I. Winter Plumb ◽  
Kathryn J. Hawley ◽  
Margaret P. Boyer ◽  
Michael J. Scheel ◽  
Collie W. Conoley
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Positive Psychotherapy

scholarly journals Collect Your Happiness: A Case Study of Using Positive Psychology Principles in Technology Design (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lekai Zhang ◽  
Shouqian Sun ◽  
Kejun Zhang ◽  
Kevin Wolterink ◽  
Baixi Xing
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Multimedia Database ◽  
Technology Design ◽  
Interactive Applications ◽  
Future Technology ◽  
Human Happiness ◽  
The Difference

BACKGROUND More and more of our daily activities depend on smartphones and applications. Thus, an increasing number of studies are interested in whether interactive applications can be used to improve happiness of individuals. OBJECTIVE The study aimed to develop and test a digital application designed for happiness. METHODS This paper presents an application called Collect Your Happiness (CYH) that is based on some positive psychology principles. It can not only enhance people’s happiness by collecting their daily happy moments, but provide small tasks to improve their happiness levels. A cross-cultural measurement between the Chinese and Dutch was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention by SHS, SWLS, PGWBI, and MAAS. In addition, collected moments were coded based on Selig- man’s PERMA model to analyze the cultural differences. RESULTS Results show that CYH can help people from both countries improve their happiness. The Chinese tended to find their happiness in relationships (R) with their friends and family, however, the Dutch tended to search for meaning (M) and engagement (E) in their lives. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, we developed an application that provided recording positive things, reminders for the past happy moments and tasks for users to gain happiness. The CYH successfully enhance the happiness of the cross-cultural users for four weeks. We also explored the difference of happiness between the Dutch and the Chinese based on Seligman’s PERMA model, and established a multimedia database of happiness for future research. Despite some limitations, most users found the application helpful to improve their happiness. By directly measuring subjective and multidimensional perspectives of happiness, there is potential to more successfully promote people’s happiness. Overall, our study not only complement existing positive psychological interventions that enhance human happiness, but it also suggests novel ways of applying positive psychology principles in the future technology design.

Epilogue

2012 ◽  
pp. 201-204
Author(s):  
Jairo N. Fuertes ◽  
Arnold R. Spokane ◽  
Elizabeth Holloway
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Vocational Psychology ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Positive Psychotherapy ◽  
Helping Skills ◽  
Process And Outcome

The epilogue considers advancements of knowledge in psychology in areas such as helping skills, the process and outcome of treatment, the proper use of evidence-based professional practice, vocational psychology, multiculturalism, supervision, and consultation, as well as primary challenges for the profession, and emerging areas of research, including the movement towards positive psychology and positive psychotherapy, and cultural differences.

scholarly journals The Model for Sustainable Mental Health: Future Directions for Integrating Positive Psychology Into Mental Health Care

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Bohlmeijer ◽  
Gerben Westerhof
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Psychological Treatment ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Complete Recovery ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Personal Recovery ◽  
Positive Psychotherapy

This position paper proposes a model for systematic integration of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) in mental healthcare. On the one hand, PPIs can contribute to the decrease of dysfunctional processes underlying mental illness. This evidence is at the core of the new domains of positive clinical psychology and positive psychiatry. On the other hand, a growing number of studies demonstrate that mental health is not merely the absence of mental illness. Mental wellbeing represents a related but separate dimension of mental health. Mental wellbeing reduces the risk of future incidence of mental illness and is highly valued by people receiving psychological treatment as an important aspect of personal and complete recovery and personal growth. This makes mental wellbeing a vital outcome of mental healthcare. PPIs can directly increase mental wellbeing. The model of sustainable mental health is presented integrating the science of positive psychology and mental wellbeing into mental healthcare. This heuristic model can guide both practitioners and researchers in developing, implementing, and evaluating a more balanced, both complaint- and strength-oriented, treatment approach. The role of gratitude interventions is discussed as an example of applying the model. Also, three potential modalities for implementing PPIs as positive psychotherapy in treatment are as: positive psychotherapy as primary treatment, as combinatorial treatment, and as intervention for personal recovery of people with severe or persistent mental disorder. Finally, we argue that longitudinal studies are needed to substantiate the model and the processes involved.

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