Enhancing Patient Well-Being: Applying Positive Psychology in Nursing Practice Naila Pachani GN 10075 HU 322: Behavioral Psychology (original) (raw)

Positive psychology and its role within mental health nursing

British Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 2019

This is the second article in a series of Continuing Professional Development papers that explores the meaning of positive psychology and the importance of applying the latest research findings for the wellbeing of the mental health workforce. There will be an historical outline of positive psychology showing it is not as ' new' as we might think. It sets the context and explains key terms through the underpinning theoretical work of Martin Seligman. This is followed by a contemporary lens on the topic in mental health nursing as the growing field of research shares its finding on taking the potential to the actual in making new skills via neuroplasticity. The practical element will help us to understand what happiness means to the individual and how it can be developed with evidence based user-friendly effective exercises. Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Professor Jerome Carson for commenting on an earlier version of this manuscript. I am also indebted to all the Trainee Nurse Associates who participated in my Positive Psychology Workshops and to my nursing colleagues for all their support.

Positive psychology - The second wave

It is nearly twenty years since Martin Seligman used his 1998 American Psychological Association presidential address to inaugurate the notion of 'positive psychology.' The rationale for its creation was Seligman's contention that psychology had hitherto tended to focus mainly on what is wrong with people, on dysfunction, disorder and distress. There were of course pockets of scholarship that held a candle for human potential and excellence, like humanistic psychology. Nevertheless, on the whole, he argued that concepts such as happiness did not attract much attention or credibility in mainstream psychology. Emerging to redress this lacuna, positive psychology soon became a fertile new paradigm, encompassing research into a panoply of processes and qualities that could be deemed 'positive,' from overarching constructs such as flourishing, to more specific concepts like hope.

Positive psychology (Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology)

Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology, 2014

Positive psychology refers to a broad subset of disciplinary interests, research programs, and areas of application, all of which share a common focus on the “positive” aspects of psychology. Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000) – who are the field’s founders and main proponents – have argued as grounds for its inception that it is an important and necessary foil to what they characterize as the disproportionate focus on mental illness, dysfunction, and pathology in the history of the discipline of psychology. As remedy to this “negative” bias in the discipline, positive psychologists maintain that what is needed is a shift in research efforts towards understanding what kinds of factors contribute to well-being, happiness, and success. Some of its proponents go as far as claiming that this shift in focus – and the resulting success of positive psychology – will ultimately redefine the coordinates of the entire discipline of psychology (Seligman & Fowler, 2011).

?Positive psychology?: Some plusses and some open issues

Journal of Community Psychology, 2002

This commentary considers aspects of the recent American Psychologist Special Issue (SI) on "Positive Psychology." Strong points of this new thrust include: (a) a focal concern with insufficiencies in the current medical model in mental health; (b) a core focus on positive outcomes; and (c) the belief that such outcomes may, in the long run, be the most efficacious way of reducing psychological dysfunction.The approach's major current limitations include: (a) its relative insulation from closely related prior work in primary prevention and wellness enhancement; (b) its lack of a cohesive undergirding theoretical framework; and (c) its prime adult, cross-sectional approach, which does not sufficiently reflect key life history and developmental pathways and determinants of specific positive outcomes. The movement's wholesome future development stands to profit from careful attention to these lacunae.

Positive psychology: an overview for use in mental health nursing

British Journal of Mental Health Nursing

This article introduces the upcoming series of articles that explore the meaning of positive psychology and the importance of applying the latest research findings, in particular, for the wellbeing of the mental health workforce. It takes a personal What are positive psychology interventions? Positive psychology interventions are validated techniques developed to include wellbeing enhancing activities (Parks et al, 2015). There are a wide range available, yet for the purpose of this series, the focus Positive psychology: an overview for use in mental health nursing Downloaded from magonlinelibrary.com by 003.088.051.087 on April 23, 2021.

Positive Psychology: History in the Remaking?

Theory & Psychology, 2008

A BSTRACT . Positive psychology has figured itself as no less than a revolution-ary reorientation of psychology, one that makes individual 'flourishing' the primary object of study and intervention. There are clear comparisons to be made between this movement and earlier ...

Evaluation of Positive Psychology theory

Positive Psychology theory evaluation, 2021

The scope of Positive Psychology is wide and diverse and covers an extensive range of references including the subjective level, the individual level and the group/community level (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi, 2020). Before WWII the main focus of psychology study, practice and treatments was focused on curing mental illness and was operating within a disease model/framework (Csikszentmihalyi and Nakamura 2011). Seligman at his presidential address to the American Psychological Association (1998) highlighted the importance in concentrating on preventing psychological pathologies by focusing on improving hope, wisdom, happiness and love and creating conditions that make life worth living. Also, it was mentioned that reorientating the focus of psychology in increasing human strengths leads to wellbeing enhancements.