Positive Attitudes & Behavior

The search for ways to create positive attitudes and behavior has puzzled the human race for centuries. Many philosophies and religions suggested paths to an optimistic outlook and actions. The initial findings in what is being called "positive psychology" offer hope to depressed and pessimistic people seeking more optimistic ways of thinking.

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Positive Psychology

Martin Seligman, M.D., director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, became dissatisfied with modern psychology in the 1990s. He felt that psychologists were spending all their time studying what is wrong with human beings, such as mental illness. In 1998, Seligman assembled a group of prominent psychologists and announced a new focus for psychology--which would be called "positive psychology"--to examine scientifically how people can develop more positive attitudes and behaviors.

Studies

Positive psychologists soon learned a key fact, as explained in "The How of Happiness" by Sonja Lyubomirsky, M.D. Only 10 percent of your happiness is due to your circumstances, such as money or fame. Fifty percent of your happiness appears to be determined by a genetic "set point." If your parents were positive in their outlook, you will likely inherit that view. Forty percent of your happiness is determined by your own thoughts and activities.

New Hope

Having scientific proof that 40 percent of your happiness is under your own control offered new hope to psychologists treating depressed patients.

Positive psychologists began testing a wide range of techniques that might increase positive attitudes and behaviors, using many methods that they had previously used to study negative actions. These studies were described in detail by Barbara Frederickson, M.D., in "Positivity."

Techniques that Worked

For example, it has been suggested for centuries that people who would like be more positive practice cultivating optimistic thoughts. As discussed in Lyubomirsky's book, her research team was able to validate this idea by asking people to write down several times a week what their lives might be like in 10 years if they were successful with all their plans. People who wrote several times a week about a happy future were more cheerful than a control group of people invited to simply write about their thoughts each week.

Several experiments were run in which people were encouraged to think several times a week about being grateful for their blessings. These study participants were far happier than a control group asked to write regularly about difficulties in their lives or about major weekly events in their lives.

Future

The ramifications of positive psychology's finding are profound. If people can be trained to use simple, low-cost techniques to remain positive in their attitudes and behaviors, these techniques can be applied to other settings, such as schools and workplaces, where they may produce happier group interactions and better project outcomes.

Sources:

• "Time;" The New Science of Happiness
• Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania
• "The How of Happiness;" Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D.
• "Positivity;" Barbara Frederickson, Ph.D