User:Beckie19/Positive psychology

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Positive psychology is the study of conditions that contribute to happiness, contentment, and quality of life. Within the past five years, positive psychology has increased in popularity amongst psychologists. This rising popularity of this field of study is due to an interest in what makes life worth living and the desire to improve quality of life. Positive psychology evolved from the post-World War II psychologists' mission to: cure mental illness, help people lead more content and fulfilling lives, and to nurture high talent. In 1997, Martin E. P. Seligman addressed the American Psychological Association (APA ) and in this address he wanted to shift psychology from finding a cure from illness to a more positive psychology view.

Following this address by Seligman, several psychologists met to organize studies and research dedicated to positive psychology. In 2006, The Journal of Positive Psychology began to be published and within those 10 years from 1997-2006, many books and articles on positive psychology were published. Through the use of early reinforcement, positive psychology research was able to quickly become established and new students were successfully trained and equipped to study positive psychology.

The gap that positive psychology looked to fill was in the component of bridging an individual's mental health with a w holistic and quality life. Post-World War II, psychology was made for healing based on a model of illness and neglected the individual's w holistic life: their happiness, community, and strength. Positive psychology focuses on past, present, and future feelings, goals, thoughts, perceptions and is subjective to each individual. Positive psychology is focused on not only healing but also prevention of things such as violence due to neglect, or alcoholism in young adults who are more vulnerable to such illnesses.

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Negatives

''' In positive psychology there can be several misunderstandings on what clinicians and individuals define as positive. In certain instances, it can be said that positive qualities, such as optimism, can be detrimental to health, and therefore appear as a negative quality '''. ''' Alternatively, negative processes, such as anxiety, can be conducive to health and stability and thus would appear as a positive quality.   Due to this short-coming from the initial wave of positive psychology, there has since been a second wave that has further identified and characterized "positive" and "negative" complexes through the use of critical and dialectical thinking '''.  Researchers in 2016 chose to identify these characteristics via two complexes: post-traumatic growth and love as well as optimism vs pessimism .