Positive Psychology
HP310 Individual project
Naomi chua
According to World Health Organization (WHO)’s definition, health is a state of complete physical, psychological well-being, optimal psychological functioning and social well-being. And health is “not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity” (WHO, 2000). Contrary to typical understanding of the psychology fields, positive psychology is a science of positive subjective experiences and positive traits, positive institution that promise to improve the quality of life and prevent pathologies (Csikszentmihalyi and Seligman, 2000). There are 3 levels of analysis for positive psychology; subjective level refers to the subjective experiences such as well-being, contentment, and satisfaction. The second level is individual level which refers to the positive individual traits/ human’s greatest strength such as the capacity for love, courage, forgiveness, positive coping strategies, interpersonal skills, positive attribution style, spirituality, and wisdom. Lastly, it is the group level which is about the collection of individuals (e.g. family, school and community) that enables the individual to strive and thrive. However, the focus of this paper is at the individual level, specifically one human’s greatest strength; coping. Whenever we mention about coping, we often associate coping with stress. Firstly, let me explain the complex concept of stress; there are 3 general types of stress, namely Physiological, psychological and lastly Sociocultural. Physiological stress refers to the body’s response to harmful events such as catching a flu bug or a coughing spell. Psychological stress focuses on the cognitive and emotional factors that would lead to the appraisal of threat (eg. Lazarus, 1966). Finally, sociocultural stress is primarily concerned with any disruption of the social unit, eg. a family or school. More often than not, we often relate stress to bad events such as divorce, death of a spouse or
Naomi chua
According to World Health Organization (WHO)’s definition, health is a state of complete physical, psychological well-being, optimal psychological functioning and social well-being. And health is “not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity” (WHO, 2000). Contrary to typical understanding of the psychology fields, positive psychology is a science of positive subjective experiences and positive traits, positive institution that promise to improve the quality of life and prevent pathologies (Csikszentmihalyi and Seligman, 2000). There are 3 levels of analysis for positive psychology; subjective level refers to the subjective experiences such as well-being, contentment, and satisfaction. The second level is individual level which refers to the positive individual traits/ human’s greatest strength such as the capacity for love, courage, forgiveness, positive coping strategies, interpersonal skills, positive attribution style, spirituality, and wisdom. Lastly, it is the group level which is about the collection of individuals (e.g. family, school and community) that enables the individual to strive and thrive. However, the focus of this paper is at the individual level, specifically one human’s greatest strength; coping. Whenever we mention about coping, we often associate coping with stress. Firstly, let me explain the complex concept of stress; there are 3 general types of stress, namely Physiological, psychological and lastly Sociocultural. Physiological stress refers to the body’s response to harmful events such as catching a flu bug or a coughing spell. Psychological stress focuses on the cognitive and emotional factors that would lead to the appraisal of threat (eg. Lazarus, 1966). Finally, sociocultural stress is primarily concerned with any disruption of the social unit, eg. a family or school. More often than not, we often relate stress to bad events such as divorce, death of a spouse or
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