Positive Psychology and the legitimation of individualism

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar Cabanas
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
Narrow Sense ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Worldwide Phenomenon ◽  
Social Uncertainty

Positive Psychology (PP) has been firmly institutionalized as a worldwide phenomenon, especially in the last decade. Its promise of well-being has captured many people’s longings for solutions in times of significant social uncertainty, instability, and insecurity. The field, nevertheless, has been severely criticized on multiple fronts. This article argues that positive psychology is characterized by a narrow sense of the social as well as by a strong individualistic bias that reflects the core beliefs of neoliberal ideology. In this regard, the present paper aims to illustrate the extent to which individualism is essential to understanding the theoretical and empirical foundations of PP’s conceptualization of happiness. Additionally, the paper questions whether positive psychology and its individualist conception of human well-being are not themselves contributing to sustain and create some of the dissatisfaction to which they promise a solution.

scholarly journals Forefront of Human Rights Issues

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neely Mahapatra ◽  
Monica Faulkner ◽  
Mona Schatz
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Content ◽  
The Social ◽  
Worldwide Phenomenon ◽  
Social Work Programs ◽  
Global And Local ◽  
Rights Issues

Curriculum content including learning strategies about human trafficking can be integrated into social work programs through the core content courses, enabling future practitioners to competently serve and advocate for victims as well as examine human trafficking policies at national and global levels. However, teaching about human trafficking is difficult due to the lack of evidence-based information. Using existing information, students can gain an understanding of an insidious worldwide phenomenon, which targets the most vulnerable populations including children, women, and youth for mere economic gains. This paper describes strategies for incorporating the topic of human trafficking as a social justice issue into core social work courses. This curricular area offers a topic of global and local significance that should be of paramount concern to the social work profession and its educators.

scholarly journals What’s the right thing to do? Increasing pro-sociality with simple moral nudges

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerio Capraro ◽  
Glorianna Jagfeld ◽  
Rana Klein ◽  
Mathijs Mul ◽  
Iris van de Pol
Keyword(s):  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Economic Games ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right ◽  
Over Time

The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our time, as, for example, the reduction of air pollution and the redistribution of scarce resources. For the well-being of our societies, it is thus crucial to find mechanisms to promote pro-social choices over egoistic ones. Particularly important, because cheap and easy to implement, are those mechanisms that can change people’s behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, the so-called “nudges”. Previous research has found that moral nudges (e.g., making social norms salient) can promote pro-social behaviour. However, little is known about whether their effect persists over time and spills across context. This question is key in light of research showing that prosocial actions are often followed by selfish actions, thus suggesting that some moral manipulations may backfire. Here we present a class of simple moral nudges that have a great positive impact on pro-sociality. In Studies 1-4, we use economic games to demonstrate that asking subjects to tell “what they think is the morally right thing to do” does not only increase pro-sociality in the choice immediately after, but also in subsequent choices, and even when the social context changes. In Study 5, we demonstrate that moral nudges increase charity donations by about 44 percent.

scholarly journals The time is now for public health to lead the way on addressing financial strain in Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 111 (6) ◽  
pp. 984-987
Author(s):  
Nicole M. Glenn ◽  
Candace I. J. Nykiforuk
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Financial Strain ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
The Core ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Public Health Professionals ◽  
The Social ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Underserved Groups

AbstractFinancial strain was an issue for many Canadians long before the arrival of the global novel coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. However, it has worsened in recent months in relation to the pandemic and public health measures put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Members of underserved groups and people who experience poverty are particularly vulnerable to financial strain and its negative health impacts. As public health professionals, we should be concerned. In this commentary, we discuss the concept of financial strain and its health consequences and highlight how existing research in the area is falling short and why. We suggest next steps to guide research and practice related to financial strain such that it reflects the core values of public health, including equity, life course approaches, and the social determinants of health. This commentary is a call to action for public health researchers and practitioners in Canada to take a more prominent role in shaping the agenda on financial strain to support financial well-being for all.

Reverie on Working with the Aged

1969 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 291-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Soyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Core Beliefs ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Social

Serving elderly clients gives caseworkers an opportunity to test, temper, and affirm one of the core beliefs of the social work profession

Stopping the “Madness”: Positive Psychology and Deconstructing the Illness Ideology and the DSM

2009 ◽  
pp. 60-70
Author(s):  
James E. Maddux
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Interpersonal Skills ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Worth Living ◽  
Life Worth Living ◽  
Statistical Manual ◽  
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽  
The Social

This chapter describes the traditional view of clinical psychology as a discipline and profession that is steeped in an “illness ideology.” This illness ideology has roots in clinical psychology's early connections with psychiatry and medicine and limits clinical psychology to the study of what is worst and weakest about people rather than what is best and bravest about people. The historical, cultural, and professional causes of this ideology are discussed, with an emphasis on the social construction and deconstruction of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as the manifestation of the illness ideology that has the greatest detrimental influence on clinical psychology. The chapter also proposes that the illness ideology be replaced with a positive psychology ideology that emphasizes well-being, satisfaction, happiness, interpersonal skills, perseverance, talent, wisdom, personal responsibility, and what makes life worth living.

The concept of “love” in the early works of Zhang Ailing (张爱玲 1920–1995)

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-67
Author(s):  
Irina A. Moshchenko ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Chinese Literature ◽  
Romantic Love ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Value ◽  
The Core ◽  
Zhang Ailing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Binary Oppositions

This article presents a study designed to analyse the concept of love in the early work of chinese writer Zhang Ailing. The research reveals conceptual binary oppositions which are formed arround the core of the concept of love that is: ai (爱), qing (情) and lian (恋). The oppositions are the following: absurdity — conciseness; frivolous / pretense — serious / sincerity; material — spiritual / sacred; isolation — openness; selfishness — generosity; cowardice — courage; overseas — traditional. This ambiguity of the concept is the key to understanding how early works of Zhang Ailing differs from the previous literature tradition, which understands love as а supreme good. The research shows the transformation of the concept of love in the early work of Zhang Ailing. The writer confronts the tradition, she tries to destroy the romantic-sentimental attitude to love that was formed in Chinese literature in the first decades of the twentieth century. Breaking with the conventional image of “love above all” (恋爱之上), Zhang Ailing begins to build up her own world of love. She starts from the denying of romantic love and attachment, and only then tries to fit love into the social structure, to turn ordinary love into a social value equal to success in work, financial well-being, etc.

“How to be happy” according to Cosmopolitan: The metaphors of happiness at the service of positive psychology and neoliberalism ideology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Gomez Vicente
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Women's Press ◽  
Neoliberal Ideology ◽  
Thought Patterns ◽  
Women's Magazine ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Self

The metaphorical representation of happiness in the women’s magazine industry appears to be of particular interest at the moment. Indeed, different political, social and economic actors have made happiness become one of the main objectives of Western societies, both at the individual (self-fulfillment, satisfaction, happiness) and at the collective (workplace wellness, well-being of society) level. However, beneath these laudable ideals, and despite their altruistic, apolitical and ideology-free appearance, there lies a discourse that pursues very clear objectives of benefit only to certain interest groups [Illouz & Cabanas 2018]. The women’s press represents a privileged source in the understanding of the expectations faced by women [Blandin 2018] and, perhaps in a more general way, by individuals in a particular culture. Finally, the metaphors used enable us to analyze certain thought patterns specific to some discourses [Charteris-Black 2004]. The aim of this paper is thus to understand how happiness is represented metaphorically in Cosmopolitan magazine and to determine whether this representation corresponds to an ideological agenda. A corpus-based analysis of the metaphors of happiness used in the Cosmopolitan magazine has been conducted. The results show that most of these metaphors can be categorized according to six conceptual patterns related to the notions of ‘strength’ and ‘limit’. The metaphors of happiness found in this corpus are shown to be ideologically charged and strongly related to positive psychology and neoliberal ideology.

scholarly journals Political Philosophies and Positive Political Psychology: Inter-Disciplinary Framework for the Common Good

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masaya Kobayashi
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interdisciplinary Framework ◽  
The Common ◽  
Liberal Perfectionism ◽  
The Relationship

This manuscript explores the relationship between positive psychology and political philosophy, revealing an inter-disciplinary approach that speaks to the concerns of the common good. Since positive psychology has been expanding its reach into social and political spheres, its relationship to philosophical arguments has been worthy of exploration. Positive psychology is associated with utilitarianism, and aspects of hedonic psychology. However, an alternative concept of eudaimonic well-being has enabled this psychology to have links to other political philosophies. Therefore, this manuscript provides an overview of contemporary political philosophies: first, it discusses the debate between liberalism and communitarianism, and secondly, it summarizes the subsequent developments of liberal perfectionism, capability approach, and deliberative democracy. Then, the configuration of these political philosophies is indicated by the figure of two axes of “individual/collective” and “ethical/non-ethical.” The following section compiles the inter-relationships between the conceptions of citizenship, justice, and well-being, regarding the main political philosophies: egoism, utilitarianism, libertarianism, liberalism, communitarianism, and conservatism. Utilitarianism is associated with happiness, while liberalism and libertarianism rely on the concept of rights, which is almost equal to the idea of justice. Accordingly, utilitarianism is a philosophy of well-being, while liberalism and libertarianism are philosophies of justice. However, there is little connection between well-being and justice in these philosophies because the two kinds of philosophies are incompatible. The latter kind criticizes the former because the maximization of happiness can infringe on people’s rights. Moreover, these philosophies do not particularly value citizenship. In contrast, communitarianism is intrinsically the political philosophy of citizenship most attuned to increasing well-being, and it can connect an idea of justice with well-being. The final part offers a framework to develop an inter-disciplinary collaboration. Positive psychology can provide the empirical basis of the two axes above concerning political philosophies. On the other hand, the correspondence makes the character of political philosophies clearer. While libertarianism and liberalism correspond to psychology as usual, utilitarianism and communitarianism correspond to positive psychology, and the latter can be regarded as positive political philosophies. This recognition leads to the interdisciplinary framework, enabling multi-disciplinary collaboration, including work with the social sciences, which could benefit the common good.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document