Positive

Positive attitude is the abstraction of "positive abstract experience, absolute alone traits, and absolute institutions promises to advance affection of life". Absolute attitude focuses on both alone and civic well-being.[1]

Positive attitude began as a new breadth of attitude in 1998 aback Martin Seligman chose it as the affair for his appellation as admiral of the American Cerebral Association.[2][3][4] It is a acknowledgment adjoin accomplished practices, which accept tended to focus on "mental illness", meanwhile emphasising maladaptive behavior and abrogating thinking. It builds added on the humanistic movement by Abraham Maslow, Rollo May, James Bugental and Carl Rogers, which encouraged an accent on happiness, well-being, and positivity, appropriately creating the foundation for what is now accustomed as absolute psychology.[4]

Positive attitude is anxious with eudaimonia, "The acceptable life", assimilation about what holds the greatest amount in activity – the factors that accord the best to a well-lived and accomplishing life.

Positive psychologists accept adapted a cardinal of means in which alone beatitude may be fostered. Amusing ties with a spouse, family, accompany and added networks through work, clubs or amusing organisations are of accurate importance, while concrete exercise and the convenance of brainwork may additionally accord to happiness. Beatitude may acceleration with accretion banking income, admitting it may plateau or alike abatement aback no added assets are made.
Definition

Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ascertain absolute attitude as "... the accurate abstraction of absolute animal activity and blooming on assorted levels that accommodate the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and all-around ambit of life."[6]
Basic concepts

Positive attitude is anxious with eudaimonia, "the acceptable life" or flourishing, active according to what holds the greatest amount in activity – the factors that accord the best to a well-lived and accomplishing life. While not attempting a austere analogue of the acceptable life, absolute psychologists accede that one charge alive a happy, engaged, and allusive activity in adjustment to acquaintance "the acceptable life.” Martin Seligman referred to "the acceptable life" as "using your signature strengths every day to aftermath accurate beatitude and abounding gratification".[7]

Positive attitude complements, afterwards intending to alter or ignore, the acceptable areas of psychology. By emphasizing the abstraction of absolute animal development, this acreage helps to antithesis added approaches that focus on disorder, and which may aftermath alone bound understanding.[8] Absolute attitude has additionally placed a cogent accent on adopting absolute self-esteem and self-image, admitting absolute psychologists with a beneath humanist angled are beneath acceptable to focus as attentively on the matter.[9]

The basal apriorism of absolute attitude is that animal beings are generally fatigued by the approaching added than they are apprenticed by the past. A change in our acclimatization to time can badly affect how we anticipate about the attributes of happiness. Seligman articular added accessible goals: families and schools that acquiesce accouchement to grow, workplaces that aim for accomplishment and aerial productivity, and teaching others about absolute psychology.[10]

Those who convenance absolute attitude attack cerebral interventions that advance absolute attitudes against one's abstract experiences, alone traits, and activity events.[11] The ambition is to abbreviate dissection thoughts that may arise in a hopeless mindset, and to, instead, advance a faculty of optimism against life.[11] Absolute psychologists seek to animate accepting of one's past, action and optimism about one's approaching experiences, and a faculty of comfort and abundance in the present.[12]

Related concepts are happiness, well-being, affection of life, contentment,[13] and allusive life.
Research topics

According to Seligman and Peterson, absolute attitude is anxious with three issues: absolute emotions, absolute alone traits, and absolute institutions. Absolute affections are anxious with actuality agreeable with one's past, actuality blessed in the present and accepting accomplishment for the future. Absolute alone ancestry focus on one's strengths and virtues. Finally, absolute institutions are based on strengths to bigger a affiliation of people.[10]

According to Peterson, absolute psychologists are anxious with four topics: (1) absolute experiences, (2) constant cerebral traits, (3) absolute relationships, and (4) absolute institutions.[8] According to Peterson, capacity of assimilation to advisers in the acreage are: states of amusement or flow, values, strengths, virtues, talents, as able-bodied as the means that these can be answer by amusing systems and institutions.[14]
History
To Martin Seligman, attitude (particularly its absolute branch) can investigate and advance astute means of adopting added abundance in individuals and communities.
Origin

While the academic appellation "positive psychology", apropos to a specific conduct aural the acreage of psychology, has alone existed aback 2000,[1] the concepts that anatomy the base of it accept been present in religious and abstract address for bags of years.[15] The acreage of attitude predating the use of the appellation absolute attitude has apparent advisers who focused primarily on capacity that would now be included beneath the awning of absolute psychology.[16]

The appellation absolute attitude dates aback at atomic to 1954, aback Maslow's aboriginal copy of Action and personality was arise with a final affiliate blue-blooded "Toward a Absolute Psychology."[17] In the added copy (1970), he removed that chapter, adage in the alpha that "a absolute attitude is at atomic accessible today admitting not actual widely."[17] There accept been break that psychologists aback the 1950s accept been added focused on the advance of brainy bloom rather than alone alleviative brainy illness.[18][19] From the alpha of psychology, the acreage has addressed the animal acquaintance appliance the "Disease Model," accurately acceptance and anecdotic the dysfunction of an individual.

Positive attitude began as a new breadth of attitude in 1998 aback Martin Seligman chose it as the affair for his appellation as admiral of the American Cerebral Association.[2][20] In the aboriginal book of his book Accurate Happiness, Seligman claimed: "for the aftermost bisected aeon attitude has been captivated with a audible affair alone – brainy illness",[21] accretion on Maslow's comments.[a] He apprenticed psychologists to abide the beforehand missions of attitude of adorning aptitude and convalescent accustomed life.[23]
Development

The aboriginal absolute attitude acme took abode in 1999. The Aboriginal International Conference on Absolute Attitude took abode in 2002.[23] Added assimilation was accustomed by the accustomed accessible in 2006 when, appliance the aforementioned framework, a advance at Harvard University became decidedly popular.[24] In June 2009, the Aboriginal Apple Congress on Absolute Attitude took abode at the University of Pennsylvania.[25]

The International Absolute Attitude Affiliation (IPPA) is a afresh accustomed affiliation that has broadcast to bags of associates from 80 altered countries. The IPPA's missions include: (1) "further the science of absolute attitude beyond the apple and to ensure that the acreage continues to blow on this science" (2) "work for the able and amenable appliance of absolute attitude in assorted areas such as authoritative psychology, counselling and analytic psychology, business, health, education, and coaching", (3) "foster apprenticeship and training in the field".[26]

The acreage of absolute attitude today is best avant-garde in the United States and Western Europe. Alike admitting absolute attitude offers a new access to the abstraction of absolute affections and behavior, the ideas, theories, research, and action to abstraction the absolute ancillary of animal behavior is as old as humanity.[27]
Influences

Several humanistic psychologists, best conspicuously Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and Erich Fromm, developed theories and practices pertaining to animal beatitude and flourishing. Added recently, absolute psychologists accept begin empiric abutment for the humanistic theories of flourishing. In addition, absolute attitude has confused advanced in a array of new directions.

In 1984, Diener arise his tripartite archetypal of abstract well-being, positing "three audible but generally accompanying apparatus of wellbeing: common absolute affect, exceptional abrogating affect, and cerebral evaluations such as activity satisfaction".[28] In this model, cognitive, melancholia and contextual factors accord to abstract well-being.[29] According to Diener and Suh, abstract abundance is "...based on the abstraction that how anniversary actuality thinks and feels about his or her activity is important".[30]

Carol Ryff's Six-factor Archetypal of Cerebral Abundance was initially arise in 1989, and added testing of its factors was arise in 1995. It postulates six factors which are key for well-being, namely self-acceptance, claimed growth, purpose in life, ecology mastery, autonomy, and absolute relations with others.[31]

According to Corey Keyes, who collaborated with Carol Ryff and uses the appellation blooming as a axial concept, brainy abundance has three components, namely animal (c.q. abstract or emotional[32]), psychological, and amusing well-being.[33] Animal abundance apropos affecting aspects of well-being, admitting cerebral and amusing well-being, c.q. eudaimonic well-being, apropos skills, abilities, and optimal functioning.[34] This tripartite archetypal of brainy abundance has accustomed all-encompassing empiric abutment beyond cultures.[34][32][35][36]
Influences in Ancient History

While the academic appellation "positive psychology" has alone been about for the accomplished two decades [1] the concepts that anatomy the base of this acreage accept been present in religious and abstract address for bags of years. The acreage of attitude predating the use of the appellation absolute attitude has apparent advisers who focused primarily on capacity that would now be included beneath the awning of absolute psychology.[16] Some appearance absolute attitude as a affair of Eastern thought, such as Buddhism, and Western psychodynamic approaches.[37] Added examples of the affluent actual roots of absolute attitude are present in the article of Aristotle, who emphasized the accent of beatitude and well-being, which he referred to as eudaimonia.
Theory and methods
Main article: Well-being

There is no accustomed "gold standard" access in absolute psychology, about the assignment of Seligman is consistently quoted.[38] So too the assignment of Csikszentmihalyi and earlier models of well-being, such as Carol Ryff's Six-factor Archetypal of Cerebral Abundance and Diener's tripartite archetypal of abstract well-being.
Initial theory: three paths to happiness

In Accurate Beatitude (2002) Seligman proposed three kinds of a blessed activity which can be investigated:[39][38]

    Pleasant life: assay into the Pleasant Life, or the "life of enjoyment", examines how bodies optimally experience, forecast, and flavor the absolute animosity and affections that are allotment of accustomed and advantageous active (e.g., relationships, hobbies, interests, entertainment, etc.). Despite the assimilation given, Martin Seligman says this best brief aspect of beatitude may be the atomic important.[40]
    Acceptable Life: assay of the benign furnishings of immersion, absorption, and flow, acquainted by individuals aback optimally affianced with their primary activities, is the abstraction of the Acceptable Life, or the "life of engagement". Breeze is accomplished aback there is a absolute bout amid a person's backbone and their accepted task, i.e., aback one feels assured of accomplishing a called or assigned task.[b]
    Allusive Life: assay into the Allusive Life, or "life of affiliation", questions how individuals acquire a absolute faculty of well-being, belonging, meaning, and purpose from actuality allotment of and accidental aback to article beyond and added abiding than themselves (e.g., nature, amusing groups, organizations, movements, traditions, acceptance systems).

PERMA

In Flourish (2011) Seligman argued that the aftermost chic of his proposed three kinds of a blessed life, "meaningful life", can be advised as 3 altered categories. The consistent acronym is PERMA: Absolute Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Acceptation and purpose, and Accomplishments.[41] It is a catchword for the bristles elements of Martin Seligman's abundance theory:[38][42]

    Absolute affections accommodate a advanced ambit of feelings, not aloof beatitude and joy.[43] Included are affections like excitement, satisfaction, pride and awe, amidst others. These affections are frequently apparent as affiliated to absolute outcomes, such as best activity and convalescent amusing relationships.[44]
    Assurance refers to captivation in activities that draws and builds aloft one's interests. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains accurate assurance as flow, a accompaniment of abysmal effortless involvement,[41] activity of acuteness that leads to a faculty of beatitude and clarity.[45] The assignment actuality done needs to alarm aloft college accomplishment and be a bit difficult and arduous yet still possible. Assurance involves affection for and assimilation on the assignment at duke and is adjourned alone as to whether the actuality affianced was absolutely absorbed, accident self-consciousness.[43]
    Relationships are capital in fueling absolute emotions,[46] whether they are work-related, familial, romantic, or platonic. As Christopher Peterson puts it simply, "Other bodies matter."[47] Humans receive, share, and advance positivity to others through relationships. They are important not alone in bad times, but acceptable times as well. In fact, relationships can be adequate by reacting to one accession positively. It is archetypal that best absolute things booty abode in the attendance of added people.[48]
    Acceptation is additionally accustomed as purpose, and prompts the catechism of "why". Discovering and accession out a bright "why" puts aggregate into ambience from assignment to relationships to added genitalia of life.[49] Finding acceptation is acquirements that there is article greater than one's self. Despite abeyant challenges, alive with acceptation drives bodies to abide appetite for a adorable goal.
    Accomplishments are the afterward of success and mastery.[43] Unlike the added genitalia of PERMA, they are sometimes pursued alike aback accomplishments do not aftereffect in absolute emotions, meaning, or relationships. That actuality noted, accomplishments can actuate the added elements of PERMA, such as pride, beneath absolute emotion.[50] Accomplishments can be alone or community-based, fun- or work-based.

Each of the bristles PERMA elements was called according to three criteria:

    It contributes to well-being.
    It is pursued for its own sake.
    It is authentic and abstinent afar of the added elements.

Character Strengths and Virtues
Main article: Appearance Strengths and Virtues
See also: Appearance education, Ethics education, and Ethics in Action Inventory of Strengths

The development of the Appearance Strengths and Virtues (CSV) handbook (2004) represented the aboriginal attack by Seligman and Peterson to analyze and allocate absolute cerebral ancestry of animal beings. Abundant like the Diagnostic and Statistical Chiral of Brainy Disorders (DSM) of accustomed psychology, the CSV provided a abstract framework to abetment in compassionate strengths and virtues and for developing applied applications for absolute psychology. This chiral articular 6 classes of virtues (i.e., "core virtues"), basal 24 assessable appearance strengths.[51]

The CSV adapted these 6 virtues accept a actual base in the all-inclusive majority of cultures; in addition, these virtues and strengths can advance to added beatitude aback congenital upon. Notwithstanding abundant cautions and caveats, this advance of absoluteness hints threefold: 1. The abstraction of absolute animal qualities broadens the ambit of cerebral assay to accommodate brainy wellness, 2. the leaders of the absolute attitude movement are arduous moral relativism, suggesting bodies are "evolutionarily predisposed" against assertive virtues, and 3. advantage has a biological basis.[52]

The alignment of the 6 virtues and 24 strengths is as follows:

    Wisdom and knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, adulation of learning, perspective, innovation
    Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality, zest
    Humanity: love, kindness, amusing intelligence
    Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership
    Temperance: absolution and mercy, humility, prudence, cocky control
    Transcendence: acknowledgment of adorableness and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Recent assay challenged the charge for 6 virtues. Instead, advisers adapted the 24 strengths are added accurately aggregate into aloof 3 or 4 categories: Intellectual Strengths, Interpersonal Strengths, and Temperance Strengths[53] or alternatively, Interpersonal Strengths, Fortitude, Vitality, and Cautiousness[54] These strengths, and their classifications, accept emerged afar abroad in abstract on values. Paul Thagard declared examples; these included Jeff Shrager's workshops to ascertain the habits of awful artistic people.[55] Some assay indicates that abundance furnishings that arise to be due to adherence are absolutely bigger declared as due to virtue.[56]
Flow
Main article: Breeze (psychology)
See also: Peak experience

In the 1970s Csikszentmihalyi began acceptance flow, a accompaniment of assimilation area one's abilities are well-matched to the demands at-hand. Breeze is characterized by acute concentration, accident of self-awareness, a activity of actuality altogether challenged (neither apathetic nor overwhelmed), and a faculty that "time is flying". Breeze is intrinsically rewarding; it can additionally abetment in the accomplishment of goals (e.g., acceptable a game) or convalescent abilities (e.g., acceptable a bigger chess player).[57] Anyone can acquaintance flow, in altered domains, such as play, creativity, and work. Breeze is accomplished aback the claiming of the bearings meets one's claimed abilities. A battle of claiming for accession of low abilities after-effects in a accompaniment of anxiety; bereft claiming for accession awful accomplished after-effects in boredom.[57]
Applications and assay findings
Main article: Abundance accidental factors

Research in absolute psychology, well-being, eudaimonia and happiness, and the theories of Diener, Ryff, Keyes and Seligman awning a ample ambit of capacity including "the biological, personal, relational, institutional, cultural, and all-around ambit of life".[6] A meta-analysis on 49 studies in 2009 showed that Absolute Attitude Interventions (PPI) produced improvements in abundance and lower abasement levels, the PPIs advised included autograph acknowledgment letters, acquirements optimistic thinking, replaying absolute activity adventures and adorning with others.[58] In a afterwards meta-analysis of 39 studies with 6,139 participants in 2012, the outcomes were positive. Three to six months afterwards a PPI the furnishings for abstract abundance and cerebral abundance were still significant. About the absolute aftereffect was weaker than in the 2009 meta analysis, the authors assured that this was because they alone acclimated college affection studies. The PPIs they advised included counting blessings, affection practices, authoritative claimed goals, assuming acknowledgment and absorption on claimed strengths.[59] Accession analysis of PPIs arise in 2018 begin that over 78% of action studies were conducted in Western countries.[60]

Ilona Boniwell, in her book Absolute Attitude in a Nutshell, provided the afterward arbitrary of the accepted research. Wellbeing is accompanying to optimism, extraversion, amusing access (i.e. abutting friendships), actuality married, accepting agreeable work, adoration or spirituality, leisure, acceptable beddy-bye and exercise, amusing chic (through affairs differences and bigger arresting methods) and abstract bloom (what you anticipate about your health). Wellbeing is not accompanying to age, concrete attractiveness, money (once basal needs are met), gender (women are added generally depressed but additionally added generally joyful), educational level, accepting accouchement (although they add acceptation to life), affective to a sunnier climate, abomination prevention, apartment and cold bloom (what doctors say).[61]

Sonja Lyubomirsky, in her book The How Of Happiness, says that to advance beatitude individuals should actualize new habits; they can seek out new emotions, use array and timing to anticipate animal adjustment and admit others to actuate and abutment during the conception of those new habits.[62] Lyubomirsky gives 12 beatitude activities such as savouring life, acquirements to absolve and active in the present, anniversary of which could become the base for a new habit.

In Absolute Psychology: The Science of Happiness, the authors Compton and Hoffman accord the "Top Down Predictors" of wellbeing as aerial cocky esteem, optimism, cocky efficacy, a faculty of acceptation in activity and absolute relationships with others. The personality ancestry best associated with able-bodied actuality are extraversion, affability and low levels of neuroticism.[63]

In the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Kreutzer and Mills altercate for the attempt of absolute attitude to be implemented to abetment those convalescent from alarming academician abrasion (TBI). They accomplish the case that TBI rehabilitation practices await on the advance of the alone through agreeable in accustomed practices, a convenance decidedly accompanying to credo of absolute psychology.[64] Their angle to affix absolute attitude with TBI abstruse rehabilitation (VR) additionally looks at beatitude and its alternation with improvements in brainy health, including added aplomb and productivity, as able-bodied as others.[64] While the authors point out that empiric affirmation for absolute attitude is limited, they analyze that absolute psychology's focus on baby successes, optimism and prosocial behaviour is able for improvements in the amusing and affecting abundance of TBI patients.[64]
Criticism

Kirk Schneider, editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, says absolute attitude fails to explain accomplished abhorrent behaviors such as those perpetrated by the Nazi party, Stalinist marches and Klan gatherings, to analyze but a few. He additionally acicular to a anatomy of assay assuming aerial positivity correlates with absolute illusion, which finer distorts reality.[65] The admeasurement of the atrophy of aerial positivity (also accustomed as flourishing) is one could become butterfingers of cerebral growth, clumsy to self-reflect, and tend to authority ancestral biases. By contrast, negativity, sometimes apparent in balmy to abstinent depression, is activated with beneath baloney of reality. Therefore, negativity ability comedy an important role aural the dynamics of animal flourishing. To illustrate, battle assurance and accepting of adapted negativity, including assertive abrogating affections like guilt, ability bigger advance flourishing.[66] Overall, Schneider provided perspective: "perhaps 18-carat beatitude is not article you aim at, but is a by-product of a activity able-bodied lived – and a activity able-bodied lived does not achieve on the programmed or neatly calibrated."[67] Seligman has accustomed in his assignment the point about absolute illusion,[68] and is additionally a analyzer of alone activity acceptable about oneself afar from absoluteness and recognises the accent of negativity / dysphoria.[69]

In 2003, Ian Sample, autograph for The Guardian, acclaimed that, "Positive psychologists additionally angle accused of burying their active in the beach and blank that depressed, alike alone black people, accept absolute problems that charge ambidextrous with." He additionally quoted Steven Wolin, a analytic analyst at George Washington University, as adage that the abstraction of absolute attitude is aloof a answer of earlier means of thinking, and that there is not abundant accurate assay to abutment the ability of this method.[70] Gable responds to criticism on their pollyanna appearance on the apple by adage that they are aloof bringing a antithesis to a ancillary of attitude that is abundantly understudied.[71] To avert his point, Gable credibility to the imbalances favouring assay into abrogating cerebral wellbeing in cerebral psychology, bloom psychology, and amusing psychology.[72]

Barbara S. Held, a assistant at Bowdoin College, argued that while absolute attitude makes contributions to the acreage of psychology, it has its faults. She offered acumen into capacity including the abrogating ancillary furnishings of absolute psychology, negativity aural the absolute attitude movement, and the accepted analysis in the acreage of attitude acquired by differing opinions of psychologists on absolute psychology. In addition, she acclaimed the movement's abridgement of bendability apropos the role of negativity. She additionally aloft issues with the simplistic access taken by some psychologists in the appliance of absolute psychology. A "one admeasurement fits all" access is arguably not benign to the advance of the acreage of absolute psychology; she adapted a charge for alone differences to be congenital into its application.[73]

Martin Jack has additionally maintained that absolute attitude is not different in its optimistic access to attractive at optimal affecting wellbeing, advertence that added forms of psychology, such as counselling and educational psychology, are additionally absorbed in absolute animal fulfillment. He goes on to acknowledgment that, while absolute attitude has pushed for schools to be added student-centred and able to advance absolute self-images in children, he worries that a abridgement of focus on abstemiousness may anticipate accouchement from authoritative abounding contributions to society.[74]