Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology-a concept slowly creeping into the mainstream as more professionals learn of it, has applications in numerous fields and occupations. Research is gradually being published and the results are more positive than not. This paper will explore pieces of this research and present information about positive psychology, hopefully providing a solid understanding of the subject and a sliver of how to apply it in schools. We will define Positive Psychology and some other key ideas, present current problems students are facing, look into benefits of positive psychology, and finally drawbacks it may present.

To get a grasp on the idea of positive psychology, we need to have an understanding of what positive psychology actually means. In Positive Psychology Progress, the authors called it "...an an umbrella term for the study of positive emotions, positive character traits, and enabling institutions" (Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). A more fitting translation is a study of feeling and acting good. Later in this paper, we will talk about health and happiness, but before we do, those terms also need to be defined in context. In Positive Health, health is defined as "a state of complete positive physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity...mere absence of disease is often taken to be equivalent to health" (Seligman M. E., 2008). Seligman (2008) writes that when people think positively and not spend their time worrying, it has a direct relationship to their physical health, not only on the emotional health as some may think.

Seligman (2008) has happiness "...broke down into several more quantifiable aspects: positive emotion (the pleasant life), engagement (the engaged life), and purpose (the meaningful life)." Students in these times are bombarded with many difficult life choices and situations, countless they are not ready for but have to cope with; these problems are what the concepts of positive psychology target.

Teenage suicide, depression, and an overall apathetic outlook on life seem to be on the rise. Many school counselors are trained in guiding students in good life choices and working on getting them admitted to college, but these counselors are often not prepared when the rising population needs increasing emotional support. One study reports that, "according to recent estimates, between 4% and 6% of children suffer from depression as a disorder and 3% and 4% suffer from anxiety..." (Nicholson, Foote, & Grigerick, 2009). In the 2006-2007 school year, there were 55 million students enrolled (K-12) in U.S. schools (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). That 3%-4% of students seems small in a percentage, but after working that figure out, it amounts to 2.2 million students suffering from depression or anxiety. This is a significant number and of these students (age 10-19), over 4000 committed suicide [in 2001, but trends have followed over the years] (Teen Help).

Counselors and psychologists have used different techniques to help students and patients cope with stress and difficult life situations. These techniques are grouped in a treatment called therapy. Therapy is defined as "...a process designed to foster the acquisition of information, schemas, and behaviors that promote mental health. In other words, it's a learning process" (Sullivan, Kehle, & Bray, 2009). One of the more common practices is talk therapy. This uses vocal communication, oftentimes in a group setting, to discuss what is troubling someone or what people are struggling with. It also has been proven successful, as Nicholson et al. (2009) describes, through a number of meta-analysis studies to help treat the most causes of psychological and emotional disorders. The positive psychology approach would have this method focus on what is going well in their lives rather than everything that is wrong or could be better. This allows "...clients [to be] empowered to make positive change by a number of factors common to all reputable therapies..." (Sullivan, Kehle, & Bray, 2009). One study by Prout & Prout suggested that school counselors make use of this group technique to best reach some of the inner focused students, allowing them to express themselves and teaching that it is okay to open up to a small group (Nicholson, Foote, & Grigerick, 2009). A host of other aspects are to be taken into account when dealing with positive psychology, not simply the topic of discussion with the student.

Many teachers, counselors, and school officials expect a student to open up to them, but they are missing the most crucial aspect...a relationship. Not only will students be more willing to share their feelings and lives with you, but they also will feel empowered to do so. This relationship does not stop at the counseling level either. Teachers can make use of this positive relationship just as counselors can; "a host of studies suggest that relationships between students and educators are related to learning outcomes" (Sullivan, Kehle, & Bray, 2009). One example, as reported by Sullivan et al. (2009), comes from a school where teachers were provided with predictions (the students were selected at random and may or may not have been "smart" kids) on who the "smart" kids would be in their classes. These teachers ended up being the focus of the teachers' encouragement and by the end of the year, they had a better academic outcome than those students who were not labeled as "smart", who showed little or no improvement (Sullivan, Kehle, & Bray, 2009). This example shows a great correlation between positive thinking and positive results. These students were told, "You are the smart ones, you can do this, and I expect you to be able to meet this standard", and when asked to produce quality work, they did. Similar concepts apply to the counseling world. If a counselor asks a student to tell them everything that is wrong in their life and creates this gloomy outlook on life, this student is not going to feel very empowered or hopefully for their future. However, should this counselor take a dark situation and ask this depressed student to find the things they enjoy and that are good in their life (though it may take some work), will, more times than not, have a better outcome and a happier student.

Another large aspect is the environment that the counselor or teacher talks with their student. A student must feel welcome to come and talk, at any time (within reason), and should be able to do so without external consequences. (I am not sure of the rules with counselors and students as of yet, but certain subjects may have to be reported to parents, administration, or legal authorities.) Other than those subjects, a doctor-patient agreement should be in place, stating that anything discussed is held in confidence.

One of the great things about positive psychology is the way it works. Most of the time, it is a subconscious reaction-meaning we cannot help but feel better when we look at things in a positive light. Our mind works by way of schemas. A schema is "a pattern imposed on the complex reality or experience to assist in explaining it, mediate perception, or guide response" (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2009). They are the card catalogue of our mind. When we encounter something, we check our existing schemas and see how we have reacted to this before. Should it be a new experience, we create a new schema and "...In the context of learning, we know that pre-existing schemas and beliefs influence how we encode and store data" (Sullivan, Kehle, & Bray, 2009). A study that illustrates how much pre-existing schemas can affect our judgment is discussed in Applications of the Contextual Model in School Counseling:

"In one study of college age students, Martin et al. primed subjects in either positive or negative concepts,