Comments on: Positive Psychology Pyramid

By: Dave Shearon

Dave Shearon — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:19:02 +0000

Hi, Anna. I am glad you found the article helpful. I know there is some literature out there on the use of positive psychology approaches (strengths, etc.) in psychotherapy. However, since that is not my field, I don’t know what work has been done comparing such approaches with more traditional clinical approaches.

All the best on your researc!

By: anna

anna — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:59:05 +0000

Hi Dave, I really enjoyed reading your article. It made me thing about my job differently. I my self am a aMSc student in medical psychology.
I’m doing my research on weight loss. I’m comparing the clinical Psychotherapy approach to the positive Psychotherapy approach in weight loss programs -support groups.

I have tried to find models/ research / article on the subject but unfortunately I came up with nothing.

Do you know any models/ research / article

That compares the two therapeutic approaches, or maybe research on positive psychology and diet in support group?

anna

By: Ketch Rudder

Ketch Rudder — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:59:46 +0000

Optimism has nothing to do with “future expectancies”.

Optimism means living by the belief that the actual world is the “best of all possible worlds” because God accomplishes the most good at the cost of the least evil.

Most humans know the about the doctrine because Voltaire’s “Candide” makes satire of it.

Men (the Old English word for person) do not have “values”. Rather, men have beliefs and wants. When a man acts and gains something he wants, he expressed himself and revealed that he wanted the obtained thing more than all other things in that moment.

A value is something that results from mathematical manipulation of symbols in a ratio or equation.

The Academia (Ph.D) Positive Psychology movement proves to be most comical as quackademics abuse language and push forth, falsely of course, as original, ideas that have been around since Cynics and their Cynicism and Stoics and the Stoicism.

Even the likes of Emerson and others from the 1800s through the early 1900s had a better handle on the field than today’s Ph.D quackademic.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:06:23 +0000

…leading into motivation, April’s optional PPND theme!

By: Dave Shearon

Dave Shearon — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:40:15 +0000

Wayne, I do not regularly engage in a formal practice of meditation now. I express the situation that way because I do think I have achieved more mindfulness due to resilience training, strengths focus, and relationship skills. I also practice some breath observation during exercise and when I’m relaxing before sleep. That said, using Prochaska’s stages of change, I would place myself as having moved from pre-contemplation to contemplation and entering preparation for a regular, formal meditation practice. I’m persuaded; just a matter of starting and continuing!

By: WJ

WJ — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:20:04 +0000

Dave – should have said that mindfulness is an important aspect of resilience.

You might be interested in the model I use for my ACCEPTional thinking framework – a series of interconnected triangles. See http://www.i-i.com.au/acceptional/accept_%20habits.html

So Dave do you meditate?

By: Dave Shearon

Dave Shearon — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:43:01 +0000

Aaron, I would be interested in seeing an approach based on circles. As I said, part of my motivation for sharing my thoughts and images was the hope that others would talk about different approaches. I doubt that a singe image can capture what we already know about how to help folks move forward, much less the rapidly increasing knowledge base that Todd Kashdan, Marcial Losada, George Vaillant and others who have contributed here are creating.

By: Dave Shearon

Dave Shearon — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:39:31 +0000

Wayne, I understand and share the concern about hierarchical models. That’s why I noted the interconnectedness between the layers and also suggested another image, the fruited tree growing in good soil by a stream with the sun shining. Not hierarchical, and, yet, having grown up on a farm, I know you pay attention to soil, water, and sunlight before deciding what to plant where. In the fields in which I work, ROE, Strengths, and Relationships seem like good areas of initial inquiry/work.

I know about meditation as a pathway. That’s why I used the phrase “meditation for mindfulness.” However, I wound not agree tha mindfulness is THE basis for resilience (if you’re really giving it that much emphasis in your comment). Lots of things impact resilience including genetic components, perceived social support, innate levels of energy and happiness, etc. Working with explanatory style can clearly increase resilience if someone is trapped in a mindless negative style — and yes, I think that work may well make the individual more “mindful.” That said, you and others (including Barbara Fredrickson, Todd Kashdan, Jon Haidt, and Daniel Siegel) have convinced me that meditation for mindfulness is a high-payoff approach to increased well-being and living a good life!

By: aaron jarden

aaron jarden — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:06:18 +0000

Hi Dave, i have not read any of the above commnets, but from an empirical, philosophical and theoritifal standpoint, i think your model would be better as a circle with values at the centre.

Cheers, Aaron.

By: WJ

WJ — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:23:40 +0000

Dave, I actually think hierachical models are a little miselading – they imply linearity and as we all know the world is non linear.

And meditation doesn’t equal mindfulness – its a pathway. Mindfulness is a way of thinking (awareness + acceptance) that is the basis of resilience and perhaps optimism.