“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 Personal strength in the “VIA” model as a predictor of a teacher’s well-being in the professional sphere

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-388
Author(s):  
Artur Rean ◽  
◽  
Alexey Stavtsev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Personal Strengths ◽  
Multiplier Effect ◽  
Action Model ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual

This article examines the “predictive model of personal well-being of a teacher in the professional sphere” developed by the authors based on a study conducted on a wide sample of teachers in the Russian Federation (N=7946). The presented model is based on the VIA (Values in Action) model, one of the key measures in the scientific direction of positive psychology. In the course of the study, 14 personal strengths out of 24 in the original model, which have the greatest multiplier effect of usefulness for personal well-being in the professional sphere of education were identified. Personal well-being in the professional sphere is described as a set of personal factors, including, first of all, high self-efficacy of the individual and the absence of professional burnout, and secondly, the individual’s general psychological well-being represented by life satisfaction and self-esteem. The authors believe that the resulting model can become an effective tool for the practical application of the concepts of positive psychology. On the one hand, it can be applied in the field of vocational guidance of young people. On the other hand, the model can be used as a tool for the development of professional competence of teachers in the field of personal well-being in the professional sphere, for example, in the form of selecting the most effective positive psychological interventions (PPI). The authors con clude that in the future, it is possible to scale the presented concept to other professional areas.

Positive Psychology: Past, Present, and Future

2009 ◽  
pp. 6-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ed Diener
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Good Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Good Life ◽  
Human Functioning ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

This chapter briefly reviews the history of positive psychology, and the endeavor by scientists to answer the classic question posed by philosophers: What is the good life? One piece of evidence for the growth of positive psychology is the proliferation of measures to assess concepts such as happiness, well-being, and virtue. The chapter briefly reviews the importance of C. R. Snyder to the field of positive psychology. Several critiques of positive psychology are discussed. One valid critique is that there is too much emphasis within positive psychology on the individual, and too little focus on positive societies, institutions, and situations. We can profit from considering the various critiques because they will help us to improve the field. Positive psychology has important strengths, such as the number of young scholars and practitioners who are entering the field. The Handbook of Positive Psychology is an outstanding resource for all those who are working in this discipline, and also for others outside of the area, to gain broad knowledge of the important developments that are occurring in our understanding of positive human functioning.

scholarly journals Just Moments: A Letter to Dr Peter Erickson

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1104-1106
Author(s):  
Paul E. Terry
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Health System ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Self Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Improve Population Health ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Individual Self

Practicing mindfulness is usually characterized as being “in the moment” and is most often associated with an effort to manage individual illness, stress, or well-being. This editorial memorializes my dear friend Pete Erickson who was an exemplar to making every moment count. But more importantly, moments he made with others were “just moments” in service to his community, moments that made others experience their community and their health system as more just places. In defining “just moments,” I cite the paper “Collective Well-being to Improve Population Health Outcomes” where the authors argued that well-being is a function of a group and that domains such as “connectedness” and “contribution” may have as much to do with well-being as does our usual focus on individual self-care practices.

The everyday traumas of neoliberalism in women teachers’ bodies: Lived experiences of the teacher who is never good enough

2021 ◽  
pp. 175774382110116
Author(s):  
Kali Thompson ◽  
Stephanie Jones
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Women Teachers ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
New Women ◽  
Woman Teacher ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Analytical Tools

A teacher’s ability to feel successful – some might even say good – in today’s education system relies on a particular conception of academic success. We argue neoliberalism, as it operates in education, is a normalized trauma enfolded in the individual and collective bodies of women teachers producing overwhelming feelings of never being good enough while also not feeling entitled to do what is right – in the moment – for the children they teach. But this is not new; women have historically been positioned as others through whom educational directives should flow without question. Using the lived experience of the first author, teaching in the south-eastern United States, we describe some of the tolls neoliberalism has on the physical and emotional well-being of the woman teacher body in the search of being good enough. We argue it is time for teacher education to become a feminist project where women have access to the intellectual and analytical tools to make sense of what is being done to them and to give testimony and be a critical witness of these everyday traumas that are being inflicted upon them, their students and others collectively in schools.

scholarly journals Distinct patterns of thought mediate the link between brain functional connectome and psychological well-being

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deniz Vatansever ◽  
Theodoros Karapanagiotidis ◽  
Daniel S. Margulies ◽  
Elizabeth Jefferies ◽  
Jonathan Smallwood
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Brain Physiology ◽  
State Dependent ◽  
Thought Patterns ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Current Concerns ◽  
Future Plans

Ongoing thought patterns constitute important aspects of both healthy and abnormal human cognition. However, the neural mechanisms behind these daily experiences and their contribution to well-being remain a matter of debate. Here, using resting state fMRI and retrospective thought sampling in a large neurotypical cohort (n = 211) we identified two distinct patterns of thought, broadly describing the participants current concerns and future plans, that significantly explained variability in the individual functional connectomes. Consistent with the view that ongoing thoughts are an emergent property of multiple neural systems, network-based analysis highlighted the central importance of both unimodal and transmodal cortices in the generation of these experiences. Importantly, while state-dependent current concerns predicted better psychological health, mediating the effect of functional connectomes; trait-level future plans were related to better social health, yet with no mediatory influence. Collectively, we show that ongoing thoughts can influence the link between brain physiology and well-being.

Self-Control and Deliberate Ignorance

2020 ◽  
pp. 293-314
Author(s):  
Sammy Basu ◽  
James Friedrich
Keyword(s):  
Blind Spot ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Ethical Responsibility ◽  
Personal Bias ◽  
Bias Blind Spot ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter considers the relationship of individual “self-control” to epistemic behavior and ethical responsibility. The authors distinguish deliberate ignorance into two forms: partiality-preserving and impartiality-enhancing, associating the former with “epistemic diligence/negligence” and the latter with “epistemic restraint/recklessness.” As such, they argue that ethical responsibility entails three prescriptive orders of self-control. First, in the moment, the individual should reactively self-control epistemic relevance. However, research on cognitive irregularities such as the introspection illusion highlights difficulties in doing so. Second, the individual should proactively regulate information available to self and others. Here, the authors’ own studies test whether individuals will consistently guard against information contamination. They find that a personal “bias blind-spot” compromises such epistemic discretion. Given epistemic responsibility but unreliable introspection, then, the individual needs a third order of self-control. That is, in certain decision-making situations the individual is obliged to utilize institutions of epistemic justice that mandate to decision-makers information availability/restraint.

scholarly journals A Multimodal Intervention for Improving the Mental Health and Emotional Well-being of College Students

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren P. Morton ◽  
Jason Hinze ◽  
Bevan Craig ◽  
Wendi Herman ◽  
Lillian Kent ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Lifestyle Medicine ◽  
Multimodal Intervention ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression ◽  
Psychology Literature ◽  
The Individual

This study examined the effectiveness of a 10-week multimodal intervention for improving the mental health and emotional well-being of college students when included as a mandatory component of the students’ course of study. A total of 67 students (20.9 ± 5.4 years, 30 male/37 female) participated in the intervention that introduced a variety of evidence-based strategies for improving mental health and emotional well-being from the Lifestyle Medicine and Positive Psychology literature. Significant reductions were recorded in symptoms of depression (−28%, P < .05), anxiety (−31%, P < .05), and stress (−28%, P < .01), whereas significant improvements were observed in mental health (18%, P < .01), vitality (14%, P < .01) and overall life satisfaction (8%, P < .05). Effect sizes were larger than those reported by studies that have examined the individual effectiveness of the strategies incorporated into the intervention, suggesting a compounding effect. Stratified analyses indicated that participants with the lowest measures of mental health and emotional well-being at baseline experienced the greatest benefits. The findings of the study suggest that meaningful improvements in the mental health and emotional well-being of college students can be achieved, and potentially magnified, by utilizing a multidisciplinary approach involving evidence-based strategies from Lifestyle Medicine and Positive Psychology.

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.

Fast Food and Fun.

Paragrana ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
Jörg Zirfas
Keyword(s):  
Fast Food ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
The Public ◽  
Traditional Family ◽  
Emotional Dimension ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Eating Fast

Abstract The text contrasts two eating situations and the sentimental values associated with each: the paper proposes that we can relate eating fast food primarily with present happiness, namely fun, while the traditional family meal is associated with satisfaction and a sense of well-being. Well-being has a stronger emphasis on the emotional dimension of the experience of more or less extensive states and developments of happiness; the concept of satisfaction targets more the cognitive factor of happiness, and fun is defined as an emotion which expresses individual self-determination and self-compliance. The fun in fast food involves the public, the individual experience and the character of the event; the well-being at the dining table involves privacy, duration and the social experience. A modern imperative is expressed in fast-food eating: Live your life now as a happy one: Eat it, be happy and show it!

scholarly journals Positive Interventions in the Therapy of Schizophrenia Patients

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryla Sawicka ◽  
Agnieszka Żochowska
Keyword(s):  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Psychotherapy ◽  
Therapeutic Goals ◽  
Positive Experiences ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Positive psychology directs its research interests primarily to healthy people. The most important goal is to build a positive attitude towards yourself and the surrounding world. Recently, positive psychology has set a new area of research interest, which is clinical psychology. In recent years, several positive psychotherapy programs have been developed for people with schizophrenia experience. The article presents the latest trends in positive psychotherapy for people with schizophrenia. They involve taking into account the individual differences of each patient and the specificity of his / her psychopathology. As far as the therapeutic goals are concerned, there are interventions focused on strategies for enhancing positive emotions and wellbeing or the method of activating the strengths of character. Taking into account the methods of therapeutic work, they can be divided into training methods or those of the behavioral-cognitive psychotherapy as well as those that take into account the various aspects of meditation. The article presents the distribution of therapeutic programs in terms of the range of therapeutic goals in which the most important are: intensification of positive experiences, building of strengths of character and well-being. Therapeutic programs have been shown to focus not only on breaking down negative attitudes towards one’s own illness and life, but also on those that try to deal with the unsolved schizophrenia problem - negative symptoms.

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