The positive approach: assumptions, application to the formation of relationships, the therapy of positive psychology techniques, the classic study of Myers and Diener (1995), and evaluation.

What this dot point is asking

For the positive approach you must state its assumptions, apply it to the formation of relationships, describe its therapy (positive psychology techniques such as those of Seligman), describe the classic study of Myers and Diener (1995), and evaluate the approach. It is the newest of the five approaches, founded by Seligman, and shifts psychology from fixing problems to building strengths.

Assumptions

The approach rests on these assumptions:

• Focus on the good life, not just illness. Psychology had over-focused on disorder; the positive approach studies happiness, strengths and what allows people to thrive.
• Authentic happiness and flourishing. A good life combines positive emotion, engagement and meaning; later work (the PERMA model) adds relationships and accomplishment.
• Signature strengths and virtues. Each person has characteristic strengths (such as kindness or curiosity), and using them produces fulfilment.
• Free will and personal responsibility. Wellbeing can be deliberately increased through choices and activities, so people are active agents in their own happiness.

Application to the formation of relationships

The positive approach explains relationships through the role of positive emotion and strengths in drawing people together and keeping them close. Shared positive experiences and the expression of gratitude build closeness and satisfaction, and the broaden-and-build idea suggests positive emotions widen our thinking and build lasting social bonds. Relationships in which partners notice and use each other's signature strengths, and respond actively and constructively to good news, tend to be stronger and more satisfying. So, for this approach, relationships form and flourish where they generate and are sustained by positive emotion and mutual appreciation.

Therapy: positive psychology techniques

The "therapy" is a set of positive psychology interventions designed to increase wellbeing rather than remove symptoms. Examples include the gratitude visit and "three good things" exercise (writing down each day three things that went well and why), identifying and using signature strengths in new ways, and exercises that build optimism and savouring. Seligman's work shows that such activities can produce measurable, lasting increases in happiness and reductions in depressive symptoms.

These techniques are cheap, accessible and preventive, a real-world strength, but effects can be modest and may not suit people with severe disorders.

Classic study: Myers and Diener (1995)

The study fits the approach because it focuses on happiness and wellbeing rather than disorder. Its weaknesses are that the evidence is correlational, it relies on self-report measures of happiness that may be biased, and much of it reflects Western samples.

Evaluation

Examples in context

Example 1. The "three good things" exercise. Writing down three positive events each night, with their causes, can raise happiness for months, showing wellbeing being deliberately built (assumption to intervention).

Example 2. Money and happiness. Myers and Diener's finding that wealth predicts happiness only up to meeting basic needs challenges the idea that more money means more happiness and supports the focus on relationships and meaning.

Try this

Q1. State one assumption of the positive approach. [1 mark]

• Cue. Psychology should study wellbeing, strengths and flourishing, not only disorder; people have free will to build a good life.

Q2. Outline one positive psychology technique used to increase wellbeing. [3 marks]

• Cue. The "three good things" or gratitude exercise: each day record three things that went well and why, building positive emotion and optimism.

Q3. Explain one strength and one weakness of using Myers and Diener (1995) as evidence for the positive approach. [4 marks]

• Cue. Strength: large-scale survey evidence on the correlates of happiness. Weakness: correlational and self-report, so causes are unclear and answers may be biased.