Week 13 - Growth Motivation and Positive Psychology

I really enjoyed the topic this week which was growth motivation and Positive Pychology, in fact, I think it was my favourite subject.  I think I especially enjoyed it because it covered a lot of the same topics that I wrote about in my text book chapter, but it also went over subjects that I did not include which I found quite engaging as well.  Perhaps some of the other information in a future chapter could be incorporated, combination of the two would make for a very informative chapter.

Positive Psychology focuses on prevention of mental illness. In doing so, it aims to build individual’s strengths and help them to maintain a more positive outlook on life (Reeve, 2009).  As I touched on in my text book chapter and previous blogs, Martin E. P. Seligman is renowned for promoting Positive Psychology.  He has written numerous books and articles relating to the topic and I found these especially helpful when writing my text book chapter to get ideas and to decide what information I would like to include.  I have provided links in my previous blogs to some of his work. 

I myself like the idea of creating a more positive person and believe that if this type of angle is implemented into the modern world, the one of prevention rather than cure, individuals would have a more positive outlook on life and learn to deal with negative events in a more positive manner.  The teachings in positive therapy are really not that hard to incorporate into someone’s daily life, it is really just a matter of the individual changing their thinking style and inevitably living a more happy life and increasing their well-being. As James mentioned in the last lecture, by just having one person that believes in you and your ability to overcome negative events or achieve your goals, this is seen as extremely beneficial to someone’s motivation to overcome and achieve these things (Neill, 2010a).  It does not take much to create a happy person.  To live in a positive mindset is really quite simple, but it is sad that people find this so hard to achieve.

In this week’s lecture, James also mentioned the term nirvana (Neill, 2010b).  Within my text book chapter I discussed the different way that easterners view obstacles in life.  Unlike the majority of the western world, easterners see obstacles in life as a challenge.  In doing so, they attempt to solve the problem in order to seek triumph and find meaning in the negative events within their lives.  Easterners seek to live fulfilling lives in order to receive rewards in the afterlife (Snyder & Lopez, 2007).  This term ‘nirvana’ is referred to in Buddhism. Buddhists aim to reach a state of inner peace.  In order to reach this goal, Buddhists must overcome desire and obtain the virtues of love, joy and compassion.  Once desire has disappeared from an individual’s life, this is nirvana and the individual is free.  Even if someone does not believe in the after life or eastern religions, I think there are some very important lessons to be learnt for everyday living.  To live happier, care free and more fulfilling lives I think it would be beneficial to incorporate these thinking styles into everyday life (Snyder & Lopez, 2007).  By seeing obstacles as challenges, being content with what one has and being open to love and showing compassion would improve anyone’s view on the world, others and most importantly themselves.

Obviously I could continue to just keep going on and on about this topic, I really enjoyed each aspect of the chapter and lecture.  Maybe there should be a unit in the future that just focuses on Positive Psychology! If I could take anything away from the teachings of Positive Psychology in particular, it would be to believe in myself and my ability to overcome obstacles, achieve goals, be happy, content and grateful for all of the good things in my life and most of all to enjoy whatever 'good' comes my way J  I have also completed my multimedia presentation for my text book chapter, click here to view it!

References

Neill, J. (2010, November 3). [Growth Motivation and Positive Psychology Lecture].  Lecture presented at the University of Canberra, ACT. [Lecture notes]. Retrieved from http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/course/view.php?id=4208&topic=4

Neill, J. (2010, November 10). [Growth Motivation and Positive Psychology Lecture].  Lecture presented at the University of Canberra, ACT. [Lecture notes]. Retrieved from http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/course/view.php?id=4208&topic=3

Reeve, J. (2009). Understanding motivation and emotion. United States of America,  USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Snyder, C. R. & Lopez, S. J. (2007) Positive psychology the scientific and practical explorations of human strengths. London, UK: Sage.