scholarly journals Fostering Positive Communities: A Scoping Review of Community-Level Positive Psychology Interventions

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corentin Montiel ◽  
Stephanie Radziszewski ◽  
Isaac Prilleltensky ◽  
Janie Houle
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Positive Psychology Interventions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Target Populations ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Group Outcomes

Historically, positive psychology research and practice have focused on studying and promoting well-being among individuals. While positive psychology interventions focusing on the well-being of communities and marginalized groups have recently been developed, studies reporting on their nature and characteristics are lacking. The aim of this paper is to examine the nature of community-level positive psychology interventions. It reviews the target populations, intervention modalities, objectives, and desired effects of 25 community-level positive psychology interventions found in 31 studies. This scoping review shows that community-level programs based on positive psychology vary greatly in all these aspects. However, most interventions are aimed at individual-level changes to achieve target group outcomes. Contextual issues such as social conditions, values, and fairness affecting well-being are rarely considered. Discrepancies between community-level positive psychology interventions and community psychology in terms of values and social change are discussed.

scholarly journals Task-Layer Multiplicity as a Measure of Community Level Health

Complexity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
P. Fraundorf
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Behavioral Measure ◽  
Policy Changes ◽  
Web Searches ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Broken Symmetries ◽  
Attention Focus ◽  
The Impact

The insights of many disciplines, and of commonsense, about individual-level well-being might be strengthened by a shift in focus to community-level well-being in a way that respects belief systems as well as the power of each individual. We start with the jargon of complex systems and the possibility that a small number of broken symmetries, marked by the edges of a hierarchical series of physical subsystem types, underlie the delicate correlation-based complexity of life on our planet’s surface. We show that an information-theory-inspired model of attention-focus on correlation layers, which looks in/out from the boundaries of skin, family, and culture, predicts that behaviorally diverse communities may tend toward a characteristic task-layer multiplicity per individual of only e29/20≅ 4.26 of the six correlation layers that comprise that community. This behavioral measure of opportunity may help us to (i) go beyond GDP in quantifying the impact of policy changes and disasters, (ii) manage electronic idea-streams in ways that strengthen community networks, and (iii) leverage our paleolithic shortcomings toward the enhancement of community-level task-layer diversity. Empirical methods for acquiring task-layer multiplicity data are in their infancy, although for human communities a great deal of potential lies in the analysis of web searches and asynchronous experience sampling similar to that used by “flu near you.”

scholarly journals Impact of a School-Based Multicomponent Positive Psychology Intervention on Adolescents’ Time Attitudes: A Latent Transition Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Tejada-Gallardo ◽  
Ana Blasco-Belled ◽  
Carles Alsinet
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Latent Transition Analysis ◽  
Transition Analysis ◽  
Positive Psychology Interventions ◽  
School Based ◽  
Positive Psychology Intervention ◽  
Time Attitudes ◽  
Latent Transition

AbstractTime attitudes, which refer to positive and negative feelings towards the past, present, and future, are a salient phenomenon in the developmental stage of adolescence and have been related to better well-being. Positive feelings towards time can be promoted in the school setting through empirically validated positive psychology interventions. However, the extent to which these interventions impact the time attitudes of adolescents remains unknown. The current study investigated the influence of a multicomponent positive psychology intervention on adolescents’ transitions between time attitude profiles and how these transitions are related to their emotional, social, and psychological well-being. Participants consisted of 220 (M = 14.98; 47.3% female) adolescents from two Spanish high schools who participated in the six-week Get to Know Me+ program. Adolescents’ time attitudes and well-being were measured via the Adolescents and Adult Time Inventory–Time Attitudes and the Mental Health Continuum–Short Form, respectively, at pre- and postintervention. Participants were clustered in different profiles through a latent profile analysis, and the transitions were analyzed using a latent transition analysis. Five profiles were identified (negative, present/future negative, past negative, optimistic, and positive), and results indicated that adolescents who participated in the intervention were more likely to transition to positive profiles (optimistic and positive) and generally reported higher well-being, especially those in the negative, present/future negative, and optimistic profiles. Preliminary evidence showed that school-based multicomponent positive psychology interventions can have a positive impact on adolescents’ feelings towards time and well-being.

scholarly journals Psychological well-being as part of the public health debate? Insight into dimensions, interventions, and policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Trudel-Fitzgerald ◽  
Rachel A. Millstein ◽  
Christiana von Hippel ◽  
Chanelle J. Howe ◽  
Linda Powers Tomasso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Community

Abstract Background Increasing evidence suggests that psychological well-being (PWB) is associated with lower disease and mortality risk, and may be enhanced with relatively low-cost interventions. Yet, dissemination of these interventions remains limited, in part because insufficient attention has been paid to distinct PWB dimensions, which may impact physical health outcomes differently. Methods This essay first reviews the empirical evidence regarding differential relationships between all-cause mortality and multiple dimensions of PWB (e.g., life purpose, mastery, positive affect, life satisfaction, optimism). Then, individual-level positive psychology interventions aimed at increasing PWB and tested in randomized-controlled trials are reviewed as these allow for easy implementation and potentially broad outreach to improve population well-being, in concert with efforts targeting other established social determinants of health. Results Several PWB dimensions relate to mortality, with varying strength of evidence. Many of positive psychology trials indicate small-to-moderate improvements in PWB; rigorous institution-level interventions are comparatively few, but preliminary results suggest benefits as well. Examples of existing health policies geared towards the improvement of population well-being are also presented. Future avenues of well-being epidemiological and intervention research, as well as policy implications, are discussed. Conclusions Although research in the fields of behavioral and psychosomatic medicine, as well as health psychology have substantially contributed to the science of PWB, this body of work has been somewhat overlooked by the public health community. Yet, the growing interest in documenting well-being, in addition to examining its determinants and consequences at a population level may provoke a shift in perspective. To cultivate optimal well-being—mental, physical, social, and spiritual—consideration of a broader set of well-being measures, rigorous studies, and interventions that can be disseminated is critically needed.

Positive Psychology

2019 ◽  
pp. 271-374
Author(s):  
Seema Mehrotra ◽  
Ravikesh Tripathi
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Psychology Research ◽  
Indian Thought ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Recent Addition ◽  
Research Questions

The field of positive psychology is a relatively recent addition to the research agenda of Indian psychologists. This chapter comprehensively examines the themes pursued in this field. It begins with an overview of the Indigenous Indian thought in terms of the insights it offers for positive psychology. Research studies on meanings and sources of happiness and interventions for the promotion of well-being are analysed. Key challenges to the growth of positive psychology are identified and a general framework for research is offered. In particular, attention is drawn towards the nature of research questions, scope for cultural contributions, nuances of research designs and expansion of the methodological repertoire. As the thoughts and intentions are coloured with the hues of emotions and get reflected in language, psychologists have to be sensitive to the linguistic diversity and nuances of verbal expressions across different regions of India.

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