Category Archives: Positive Psychology

by Jos Dielis

Although the strengths and values continue to be tested and debated, the following included in 50 Psychology Ideas You Really Need to Know may be used to give a guide for personal development.

1.  Wisdom and knowledge—creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective.

2.  Courage—bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality

3.  Humanity—love, kindness, social intelligence

4.  Justice—citizenship, fairness, leadership

5. Temperance—forgiveness and mercy, humility and modesty, prudence, self-regulation

6. Transcendence—appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

From Dr. John Schinnerer: The Four Best Predictors of More Positive Emotions, according to Ed Diener from the University of Illinois are:

• The feeling that you can count on others
• The perception that you have autonomy and are in control of your own life
• Whether you learned something new yesterday
• Whether you did what you do best yesterday

Values are an individual choice. But you can’t know your values until you write them down. Use the list of values included in Finding your Values from Sources of Insight. In this post, J.D. Meier recommends using the following to determine how real and true the values you choose for your list.

• Is it truly YOUR value?  (i.e. is it internally motivated or is it external … a “should”)
• Is it a means or an end?  If one value is simply to accomplish another, then look to the value you want to accomplish.  If you want economic security because you think it leads to freedom, then freedom is the one you value most.  This is important because there’s multiple ways to accomplish a goal and flexibility is key.  Know what you want, but be flexible in your approach.
• Do your actions show your values?  Actions speak louder than words.
• When were you happiest or most excited?  What was your proudest moment?  These highlights are a potential showcase of your values.
• What do you regret the most?  Again, this is a way to figure out what’s most important to you.

One of the books I have is 50 Psychology Ideas You Really Need to Know by Adrian Furnham. I don’t agree with all his choices but I love the book because it includes several persons that I was unfamiliar with. One of the 50 ideas was about a favorite topic of mine—positive psychology. I was equally delighted to find it one of the topics on Alltop.com.

For some background in positive psychology, I love the timeline that Furnham gives at the bottom of the page for each section. The time line he chose is: 1969—The Structure of Psychological Well Being by N.M. Bradburn. 1987;

The Psychology of Happiness by Michael Argyle; 1998—Official founding date of Positive Psychology; 1999—First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman; and Authentic Happiness by Dr. Martin Seligman, the director of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center.  An invitation to participate in positive psychology offers several current research studies.

In an excerpt from 50 Psychology Ideas, Furnham writes “ Positive psychology is the study of factors and processes that lead to positive emotions, virtuous behaviors and optimal performance in individuals and groups. Although a few, mainly “self psychologists’, were always interested in health, adjustment and peak performance, the study of happiness was thought to be unimportant, even trivial. This probably still remains true: for every 100 serious psychology books and papers there exist 99 on depression; there is only one on happiness. But we have known for 50 years that happiness is not the opposite of unhappiness they are quite unrelated to each other.”