Positive Psychology : Happiness Paper

Watch “Positive Psychology” from in the

• Canadian Broadcasting Corp.(2008). Positive Psychology (03:59) [Video file] in How to Be Happy! Positive Psychology in Action, Films on Demand.
• Journeyman Pictures (2008). Introducing Tourism (01:30) [Video file], Films on Demand.
• Mary Ann Watson (2013). The Pursuit of Happiness in Ethiopia and the U.S.: Intercultural Connections (19:18) [Video file], Films on Demand.

Write a 350- 400 word paper describing your reaction to the video with respect to the Bhutanese views on happiness.

Include the following:

• Explain the Bhutanese views on happiness.
• Provide specific examples from the video that you found interesting or meaningful. Why?
• Contrast the “good life” as reflected in Bhutanese and American culture.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Happiness and Positive Psychology

Positive Psychology’s primary focus is on what people do right to obtain and maintain optimum happiness (Compton, 2005), by striving to understand and help people develop qualities that lead to greater personal fulfilment. The premise of positive psychology is to promote factors that allow individuals to thrive and flourish by encouraging a change of focus in psychology from a preoccupation with repairing the worst things to a greater emphasis on discovering and building upon positive qualities.

Understanding Positive Psychology

As a science, positive psychology is the scientific study of positive experiences and positive individual traits. It is a field concerned with wellbeing and optimal functioning, and aims to broaden the focus of clinical psychology beyond suffering. Positive psychology denotes that troubled people want more satisfaction, contentment and joy not just less sadness and worry. The belief is that those who suffer want to build the strengths and not just correct their weaknesses (Duckworth, Steen & Seligman, 2005). The term Positive Psychology was coined by Martin Seligman, a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA), in 1998.

Positive Psychology is focused on the following:

It takes interest in subjective experiences such as subjective wellbeing/happiness, flow, joy, optimism and hope.
It has an interest in the thriving individual, paying particular attention to character strengths and virtues such as courage, perseverance, open-mindedness and wisdom.
It aims to identify, study and enhance those qualities that improve on the positive subjective experiences and adaptive personality traits of individuals (Robbins, 2008).

Positive psychology is firmly based on humanistic theory. The premise of this discipline, like the humanistic approach, focuses on enhancing human potential. Positive psychology recognises that people can and do adapt and adjust to life in highly creative ways allowing them to feel good about life. In this context positive psychology has a keen interest in finding out what works and what is right with individuals and the way they choose to live their life, work and relate (Joseph & Linley, 2006).

At the individual level, positive psychology is about positive individual traits: the capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skills, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent and wisdom. At the group level it is about virtues and the institutions that move individuals towards better citizenship, responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance and work ethic (Joseph & Linley, 2006).

Assumptions of Positive Psychology

The most basic assumption of positive psychology is that human goodness and excellence are as authentic as disorders and distress and therefore deserve equal attention from mental health practitioners. The discipline of positive psychology is primarily focused on the promotion of the good life. The good life refers to those factors that contribute most predominately to a well lived life. Qualities that define the good life are those that enrich our lives, make life worth living and foster strong character (Compton, 2005).

Seligman (2002) defines good life as a combination of three elements: Positive connection to others or positive subjective experience; Positive individual traits and; Life regulation qualities.

Positive connection refers to aspects of our behaviour that contribute to positive connectedness to others. It is the positive subjective experiences that includes the ability to love, forgive, and the presence of spiritual connections, happiness and life satisfaction that combine to help and create a sense of deeper meaning and purpose in life. Positive individual traits may include such things as a sense of integrity, the ability to be creative, and the presence of virtues such as courage and humility.

Life regulation qualities are those qualities that allow us to regulate our day to day behaviour in such a way that we can accomplish our goals. Some of these qualities include a sense of individuality or autonomy, a high degree of a healthy self-control and wisdom to guide behaviour. According to positive psychology, the good life must also include the relationship with other people and the society as a whole (Park & Peterson, 2008; Duckworth, Steen & Seligman, 2005)…

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ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

 

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: 
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.