Discuss about the Positive Psychology for Transformational Development.
In the world today, positivity has been known to be a powerful source and force for both personal and transformational development. Positive Psychology can be described as a movement aimed at correcting the imbalance of what people perceive Psychology to be, ‘… a tendency to focus on the study of what is wrong with people and how to fix them.’ (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). In brief, Positive Psychology studies the mental health of individuals as opposed to studying their mental illness. Being the case, a basic assumption is followed in the study of human excellence and goodness are study worthy compared to distress, disorders, and diseases. In this essay, I reflect on my psychological strengths, and how I could further develop them among my other possible strengths.
Taking into consideration my day to day interactions and activities, I find my personal psychological strength s to be widely distributed. For instance, I would describe myself as a resilient, emotionally intelligent, and an optimistic individual depending on the way I view and perceive most of life’s situations. Also, the way I interact with people and the way they have described some of my attributes after an encounter with them just ascertains the psychological strengths I have identified.
Most of the literature on resilience has concentrated on more on young people and children, and particularly on the effects of living in environments that are negatively chronic such as poverty or abuse. Also, research has concentrated on children who have lived through serious issues and emerged unscathed, fully emotionally and functioning adults who are resilient.
There are numerous psychological strengths of resilience. To begin with, a resilient person can reasonably maintain a good functioning level regardless of experiencing trauma. Secondly, due to the positivity that resilient people have, they recover quickly, worry less, and react to only those circumstances present as opposed to what may happen. Thirdly, individuals with resilient personalities are both open and positive as opposed to others. It is because of the openness that comes as a result of positivity that they can see the bigger picture, and as such finding the good even in bad situations.
Narrative is a method used in the identification of resilience. Numerous practitioners have used narrative to help assess both communities’ and individual strengths (Pattoni, 2012). The practitioners using narrative work under the assumption of a hidden story of resilience and strength in any problem. As such, it frequently requires a situation to be re-framed to identify any cases of strength into a resilience story.
Practicing narrative is based on the principle of living their lives by stories they have created through their experiences that later shapes their added experience in life. An important aspect of the approach is knowing that some people may take up a problem as an essential part of their character (Epston and White, 1992).
Another method that is used in identifying or assessing resilience is the cognitive transformation process that is characterized by change, the discovery of others, and the discovery of oneself. People become both aware and create opportunities emerging from transformation. As a result, self-esteem and self-efficacy are successfully enhanced by becoming stronger and coping with the situation. Therefore, it appears that ability to learn from every situation is essential to resilience, which enhances recovery and adaptation (Pat-Horenczyk & Brom, 2007).
As a result of resilience in my life, I have been able always to keep going despite the challenges that often come my way. For instance, in cases where I might be under a lot of pressure that may cause stress in the midst of adversity, I keep going until I have achieved what I had set my mind to achieve. I believe that resilience has been developing within me ever since I could remember. I have always thought it wise to respond to situations as opposed to reacting towards them. By responding, I ensure the practice of thought awareness, change the way I think towards people or situations, and set goals I know can be achieved.
Emotional intelligence as defined by Psychology Today is the ability of an individual to both manage and identify one’s emotions as well as others. Also, it entails three skills; the ability to both harness and apply emotions to tasks like problem-solving and thinking; the capability of managing emotions that involve changing one’s emotions to calm or cheer other people; and emotional awareness (“Emotional Intelligence,” 2017).
There are numerous psychological strengths of an emotionally intelligent individual. Firstly, it means better social relations for both children and adults given that results to less use if interpersonal strategies that are destructive and a self-perception of competence socially that is greater (Brackett et al., 2006; Lopes et al., 2004). Secondly, people who are emotionally intelligent are perceived by others as being more positive (Brackett et al., 2006; Lopes et al., 2004; Lopes, Salovey, Cote, & Beers, 2005). Thirdly, it results in intimate relationships and better families as reported by others and oneself (Brackett, Warner, Bosco, 2005; Carton, Kessler, & Pape, 1999). Fourthly and lastly, emotional intelligence leads to better social relationships during negotiations and work performance, results to better academic achievements, and a healthier psychological well-being.
‘Emotional Quotient’ as a term was coined by Bar-On (2010) aimed to mirror the emotional intelligence’ trait potential. His model differentiates between the five domains embodying the 15 significant abilities of emotional intelligence.
According to Emmerling & Goleman (2003, p. 13), the approach is described as a psychological adaptation and well-being model. The Bar-On EQI (emotional quotient inventory) is a developed measure of self-report assessing emotional intelligence that entails of 133 items in total.
I would consider myself to be emotionally intelligent given that I connect with others very well. As such, no matter the pressure I may be under, I will communicate or interact with my friends, family, or even colleagues in a well-composed manner while keeping the conversation rational as opposed to letting my anger or any other feeling cloud my judgment or interfere with someone I am relating to and with. Being a third child among my siblings, I believe that emotional intelligence was an important attribute that I developed along the way. As such, I was able to read situations that would put my childish selfishness away to cheer up or calm down my parents, brothers, and sisters. Ina major way, this made me become more mature emotionally knowing how to always pull myself together for the sake of another.
According to Maier & Seligman (1976), the explanatory style of the study of optimism came into existence as a result of an anti-thesis to learned helplessness. However, Seligman (2011) diverted his research towards the study learned optimism.
The different levels of optimism are measured using the ASQ (Attributional Style Questionnaire), whereby there are both negative and positive hypothetical events presented, as well as several perceived causes that are chosen by the respondents and later rated according to stability, internality, or globality. The results of the explanatory style research are more firm in terms of clarifying bad events. When explaining negative experiences, pessimists often relate the causes to global, stable, or internal factors equating to personal failure.
Another method used in assessing or identifying optimism is LOT (Life Orientation Test) that was developed to measure dispositional optimism (Scheier and Carver, 1985). The LOT is a short test of self-report entailing the items that are either disagreed or agreed upon by the respondents. It is measured to have strong properties of psychometrics that have high reliability and validity of tests.
There is also LOT-R (LOT-Revised), which is more advanced given that is a more advanced version of the LOT with regards to reliability due to developed psychometric properties. Using both the LOT-R and LOT is measuring dispositional optimism, there is a better prediction of how well an individual can cope with different stressors (Carver & Scheier, 2002).
I believe that my other personality attributes go hand in hand with optimism. I have always believed in a light at the end of every tunnel, which has, for the most part, contributed to where I am today. Deep inside, I have ensured that despite the challenges I may be going through, something good will most definitely happen. Therefore, I have come to be a firm believer challenges being ways that can only make me stronger and wiser. Optimism developed in me ever since I changed the way I view people and situations. By getting rid of negative thoughts and always being aware of myself as well as the company I keep, optimism has continued to grow thus affecting all the areas of my life.
References
Bar-On, R. (2010). Emotional intelligence: an integral part of positive psychology. South African Journal of Psychology, 40(1), 54-62.
Brackett, M. A., Warner, R. M., & Bosco, J. S. (2005). Emotional intelligence and relationship quality among couples. Personal relationships, 12(2), 197-212.
Brackett, M. A., Rivers, S. E., Shiffman, S., Lerner, N., & Salovey, P. (2006). Relating emotional abilities to social functioning: a comparison of self-report and performance measures of emotional intelligence. Journal of personality and social psychology, 91(4), 780.
Carton, J. S., Kessler, E. A., & Pape, C. L. (1999). Nonverbal decoding skills and relationship well-being in adults. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 23(1), 91-100.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2002). The hopeful optimist. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 288-290.
Emmerling, R. J., & Goleman, D. (2003). Emotional intelligence: Issues and common misunderstandings. Issues in Emotional Intelligence, 1(1), 1-32.
Emotional Intelligence. (2017). Psychology Today. Retrieved 14 April 2017, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/emotional-intelligence
Epston, D., & White, M. (1992). Experience, Contradiction, Narrative & Imagination: Selected papers of David Epston & Michael White, 1989-1991. Dulwich Centre Publications.
Lopes, P. N., Brackett, M. A., Nezlek, J. B., Schütz, A., Sellin, I., & Salovey, P. (2004). Emotional intelligence and social interaction. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 30(8), 1018-1034.
Lopes, P. N., Salovey, P., Côté, S., Beers, M., & Petty, R. E. (2005). Emotion regulation abilities and the quality of social interaction. Emotion, 5(1), 113.
Maier, S. F., & Seligman, M. E. (1976). Learned helplessness: Theory and evidence. Journal of experimental psychology: general, 105(1), 3.
Pat?Horenczyk, R., & Brom, D. (2007). The Multiple Faces of Post?Traumatic Growth. Applied Psychology, 56(3), 379-385.
Pattoni, L. (2012). Strengths-based approaches for working with individuals. Iriss. Retrieved 14 April 2017, from https://www.iriss.org.uk/resources/insights/strengths-based-approaches-working-individuals
Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1985). The Self?Consciousness Scale: A Revised Version for Use with General Populations1. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 15(8), 687-699.
Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Positive psychology: An introduction (pp. 279-298). Springer Netherlands.
Seligman, M. E. (2011). Learned optimism: How to change your mind and your life. Vintage.
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