What positive psychology is NOT, and a bit about savoring
Think Tank: Emotions
Marc Helgesen
What positive psychology is NOT, and a bit about savoring
Any discussion of emotion and brain science is likely to bring up the topic of“ positive psychology.” I’ d like to share a couple“ positive psychology for the ELT classroom” tasks. But before we get there, I want to clarify a couple common misconceptions about positive psychology.
Positive psychology is NOT“ the power of positive thinking.” As Seligman( 2003) points out, that is an“ armchair activity.” Positive psychology is a science, complete with replicable studies, peer-reviewed research and all the things you would expect from any branch of science.
As Ben-Shahar famously said,“ There are two kinds of people who don’ t experience painful emotions: psychopaths and the dead.”
Also, positive psychology is not about denying negative emotions and experiences. As Ben-Shahar( 2009) famously said,“ There are two kinds of people who don’ t experience painful emotions: psychopaths and the dead.” Seligman( 2003) points out that we need negative thinking, too. If you are getting on an airplane in winter and the pilot is“ deciding whether to de-ice her wings, we should all be pessimists.”
Positive psychology focuses on mental health rather than mental illness. It asks what is going on, cognitively and behaviorally, with happy, well-adjusted people. Positive psychology pioneer Christopher Peterson( 2011) defines it as“ the scientific study of what makes life worth living.”
I’ ve been working on creating a connection between positive psychology and ELT for over a dozen years. There are scores of classroom activities that couple positive psychology principles with clear grammar, language function or vocabulary sets( Helgesen, 2018). The longer I work with these ideas, the more I feel drawn to“ savoring.” Savoring means“ to attend to, appreciate, and enhance positive experiences”( Bryant & Veroff, 2007). I